Game & Forum Discussion => Game Discussion => Topic started by: zweihander on January 08, 2025, 05:10:27 pm
Title: can we even revive the game?
Post by: zweihander on January 08, 2025, 05:10:27 pm
ive been thinking alot the past few days, im now wondering if this game could even bounce back. there are alot of better games that kids nowadays are more keen on, like all of those animal roleplay games on roblox,,
i feel like newer players 80% of the time are put off by feralhearts old graphics (which i dont want to change at all. its charming) and the fact that the game is dead... what are your guys opinions on it? i do my best to stay optimistic with this game but i also sometimes think about if its even possible for feralheart to bounce back after all its been through. this is such a niche little corner of the internet, with a mostly inactive community and staff team.
pessimism aside, ive recently come back to the community after a break and although the numbers have dropped again since i last played i really hope theyll increase again <3 its always lovely to be back here on feralheart
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Ame88 on January 10, 2025, 08:20:38 am
I believe this game can be revived. Considering all the things it's been through, the game in it's current state is blessed beyond comprehension to have the amount of community members it does at this moment.
As it stands right now, the game doesn't have anything pulling in any real interest from new or old players. Past nostalgia and an interesting deep dive into "old games", it really has nothing. It's an odd reality to know that this game is one year away from reaching the criteria to qualify as "retro". In order for this game to get outside of being nothing but a nostalgia trip, it needs real enrichment...much more than any simple "facelift" to it's graphics or mechanics could do.
It's a slow process, but, the game does have a very small development team behind it. Our plans for the game extend past general hot fixes and quality of life updates. In regards to what exactly those plans are, we unfortunately cannot say. Raz wishes to keep our plans quiet, so despite staff's disagreements with it we kinda have to adhere to the request since he's the head guy of all this. Regardless of how frustrating it is, we're happy with it because at least we can be chipping away at something in the background instead of waiting for a green light to do anything or a miracle activity/interest spike in the game.
It's unfortunate that there isn't really anything we can do for the game in the meantime without help from Raz (who is a headache to get a hold of most times), such as resetting downed maps or updating items on our website; i.e. our staff page or general forum updates.
All in all, as long as there is some sort of driving force for this game, there is always a chance for it to revive, be it ever slim.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Trigger on January 10, 2025, 05:55:38 pm
I really want this to happen, I remember there were more than a hundred people being online at once :'( When I started playing I was pretty young and didn't had any time to play, now I have time, but very few people plays it
I don't think the game graphics are bad, people at this time has higher expectations of games for sure but this game has it's own charm, I think some people would like it If they knew such game existed
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Pebbles on January 11, 2025, 04:05:11 am
We can't control what is to happen or what is to be done in the future; however, we can focus on the now and what us, member and staff, have in front of us. We know the issue lack of activity from not only the forums, but the game as well. I think what most failed to realize, is that this isn't 2011 and time has changed drastically. In other words, steam, pc, ps5, etc etc, has involved and taken over the gaming world. Communication wise, discord is also another factor of this.
People in communities rather form there than on forums, which leaves the forum to rot a great deal. So, whether you look at it, there's nothing much that can be done. Perhaps the game develops, aka the staff, can transfer the forum into an official discord and make everything "easier'. I say this with quotations because not everything will be easier - it will just trend nicely with today's society.
Lack of game updates is to blame, which leads to the main elephant in the room. While I am sure people are patient, people are tired of waiting for false narratives. I believe the staff try their best, but again, there's little things that can be done. One thing for sure, we do know the game is being developed/in progress, however, another activity in community is lacking: the staff.
My unpopular opinion: While staff have lives, I also think they are/should responsible to keep things afloat, such as: MoTS awards, Seasonal holidays party, bringing the community together. With having power to work on the game and being representative, they should be leaders. Again, validating everyone has their own lives; but if leaders can't help run, then start finding another way. What way is that, I don't know. If there's no other way, I'd say close the game.
Many will disagree, but some good memories need to have an ending point, especially if all parties are not seeing a progressive change
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Pebbles on January 11, 2025, 04:12:52 am
Has an idea for new activities been implemented? It seems like Holiday parties and MotS is the constant trend. Is there any way preset contest or any other than *2* community activities being on repeat. I'm sure there is a discord somewhat, but start finding ways what we can do now rather than waiting for the future, as it seems undefined at the moment
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Harleen on January 11, 2025, 11:43:13 am
I absolutely believe the game can be revived. The people who have hope in FeralHeart (including me) are the ones who are patient. Remember; the game has a fairly small team, and updates take long. And especially if you have to be extremely careful. The game code is very old, and the possibility of something going wrong that can break the entire game is always there.
Staff are really doing anything they can to bring FH back to life. And I'm sure they will easily success in that. FH would not need to be closed either, people just have to be patient. ^
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Oddonelynx on January 11, 2025, 03:16:22 pm
Perhaps the game develops, aka the staff, can transfer the forum into an official discord and make everything "easier'. I say this with quotations because not everything will be easier - it will just trend nicely with today's society.
I strongly disagree, Discord is less customizable and less fun, not to mention locked off. Everyone can visit this forum and lurk regardless of whether they have an account or not, they can find the information they're looking for no problem, but with Discord it requires a join and then maybe verification... If everything was moved to Discord, all this information would be lost and instead locked away. Discord is not very ideal for activation purposes anyway.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Ame88 on January 12, 2025, 07:28:25 pm
We can't control what is to happen or what is to be done in the future; however, we can focus on the now and what us, member and staff, have in front of us. We know the issue lack of activity from not only the forums, but the game as well. I think what most failed to realize, is that this isn't 2011 and time has changed drastically. In other words, steam, pc, ps5, etc etc, has involved and taken over the gaming world. Communication wise, discord is also another factor of this.
I don't believe that people fail to realize it is no longer 2011. I think it's quite the opposite; that people are acutely aware that it is no longer 2011 and rather much, much later than. In fact, a very common topic is that "times have changed", and that "things need to move with the times". The unfortunate reality is that the game hasn't been able to adhere to those realities due to one thing or another. FH's developmental issues is a whole can of worms that really just amounts to finger pointing.
People in communities rather form there than on forums, which leaves the forum to rot a great deal. So, whether you look at it, there's nothing much that can be done. Perhaps the game develops, aka the staff, can transfer the forum into an official discord and make everything "easier'. I say this with quotations because not everything will be easier - it will just trend nicely with today's society.
Moving the entirety of the forum to a discord server would be a nightmare. You're essentially looking at 14+ years worth of history and archives being meticulously brought over to a platform that could, within seconds, be taken down due to a number of things. Not only this, but the forum has many advantages over a discord server. A forum can be customized pretty much however we need it to be(with the awesome option of it being able to look how we want), while with discord we would have to conform to a set format. A forum's database can be linked to a game's server, to which in this case our forum currently is and has been linked to the game from the beginning, allowing for seamless account symmetry and ease of moderation for staff. If we were to use a discord, we would have many more issues with verifying account ownership, account recovery, bans, and a number of other things. It's not about "trending nicely with today's society" or making things "easier", the drive to stay with a forum is about keeping your information and accounts secure. Having the ability to aid our community members is much more important than keeping with today's trends.
Discord may work perfectly for some game communities, especially those just starting out, but unless discord comes up with a way to allow community leaders to have truly custom servers where they are in charge without having to worry about discord's staff, then discord will never be a feasible option that's on par to a forum or website where you are in control of the information the forum/site receives/holds. I would hate to have to live with a reality where if discord wanted to, they could remove everything. Even though it's highly unlikely they ever would, if they wanted to, they could for little to no reason whatsoever. I can at least be 100% certain that if this place goes down, all player information will be deleted and not held by anyone.
Lack of game updates is to blame, which leads to the main elephant in the room. While I am sure people are patient, people are tired of waiting for false narratives. I believe the staff try their best, but again, there's little things that can be done. One thing for sure, we do know the game is being developed/in progress, however, another activity in community is lacking: the staff.
The unfortunate reality is that despite us currently working on an update, we cannot talk about it. Let me quote an earlier post of mine as I've already explained it:
It's a slow process, but, the game does have a very small development team behind it. Our plans for the game extend past general hot fixes and quality of life updates. In regards to what exactly those plans are, we unfortunately cannot say. Raz wishes to keep our plans quiet, so despite staff's disagreements with it we kinda have to adhere to the request since he's the head guy of all this. Regardless of how frustrating it is, we're happy with it because at least we can be chipping away at something in the background instead of waiting for a green light to do anything or a miracle activity/interest spike in the game.
It's just very unfortunate that we can't show anything we've done thus-far, let alone show any kind of roadmap. It's very disheartening for many, and some don't even believe we're working on anything due to past issues with updating the game; going from "we're working on updates", to then one thing leading to another and we're suddenly not working on anything anymore, or an update has been canceled due to Raz or anything in between. It's really frustrating on our end having to keep so secret about this update process. It's just something we're going to have to work with until Raz says otherwise.
My unpopular opinion: While staff have lives, I also think they are/should responsible to keep things afloat, such as: MoTS awards, Seasonal holidays party, bringing the community together. With having power to work on the game and being representative, they should be leaders. Again, validating everyone has their own lives; but if leaders can't help run, then start finding another way. What way is that, I don't know. If there's no other way, I'd say close the game.
I agree that staff need to be an active part in the community. Yes, everyone has their own lives, but if they are going to be staff, they need to do more than just simply hold that title.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Pebbles on January 15, 2025, 03:36:05 am
I have misspoke and not explained myself well.
Majority of the gaming communities I've been in, everything has been hosted on discords. I have not seen a MMORPG community on sites for a few years, since discord was released. So since the big Feralheart vs Feral Unleased, I can newer generation games are using discord for community purposes. I am not saying FeralHeart should move to discord whatsoever, as I think the forum is fine for where it is now. In conclusion, I agree moving FeralHeart to discord is not a great idea
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Moonzone1 on January 25, 2025, 03:42:10 pm
I'll forever have faith in this lovely game and community, I always find myself coming back to this cosy corner of the internet <3
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: FakeSugar on February 03, 2025, 12:41:10 am
Not sure if this counts for much, but I'm on the younger side and just a week ago discovered FeralHeart through Unleashed trailers. The map making is what hooked me, so much so that before I learned anything else I was scrounging for tutorials on height maps and masks. Modern games (or the games I play) don't really have this process, everything is very intuitive and in the game itself. It is an interesting change of pace! The avatar customization seems interesting too but I have yet to delve into it.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: RpgLover!01 on February 04, 2025, 06:39:43 am
I agree with Pebbles that Feral Heart going to discord isn't a good idea. A good number of people have good memories of Feral Heart. I think a revive is a good idea. I still try to roleplay with 1 or 2 of my friends still when they have time to.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Morqque on February 08, 2025, 09:08:14 am
This game still has a chokehold on me. Y'all are my childhood
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Gargantor on February 08, 2025, 02:46:52 pm
Ooof... It has been a hot minute since I have played this game. Just found a trailer and I was reminded of this game. This game had such an impact on my childhood and I spent so much time on it that even long, long, looong years after I last visited I still remember my login from heart. Thank you for the amazing years!
Anyway, back then I left due to the lack of updates. It was always the same. The game was always the same. We begged for more models/species, maybe more customization. For months, years even. But we never got anything. Well, this is what happens when you dont listen to the community, I guess.
I am honestly unsure if this particular game can be revived or not. It would be extremely difficult. Probably would take a huge update with like 5 more species, updated customization, updated better animations, more official maps for roleplaying, etc. But even then you got to reach your old community and lure in new ones. This means advertising the heck out of your new update, even get content creators in on it to spread the news. Though, with the emergence of that other team now... With all the models they got... Yeah. It might not be enough anymore. Someone else was faster. Unless you do something bigger...
I guess you can always try to get back the oldies, who would return out of nostalgia. I for one might try the other existing versions but the official FH is where my fond memories are at.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Oddonelynx on February 08, 2025, 05:48:57 pm
....We begged for more models/species, maybe more customization. For months, years even. But we never got anything.
Limitation breeds creativity, they say. Remember, over the years, people have created pinnipeds, cetaceans, dragons. mustelids, ursine, fish, reptiles, horses, and pigs just to name a few just with these 2 models! ;) Well, we did get at least more customization in the 1.17 update, yes?
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Gargantor on February 08, 2025, 06:40:17 pm
I remember that. But more models mean even more possibilities and creativity. But models weren't the only thing we requested. All I know is that the above things were the reason the people around me left. And then I left too.
Oh, and the maps. Some of my friends left due to the changes to the maps and they were not the only ones. There were discussions of displeasure about it playerbase-wide. The older maps were familiar and we knew where to find rp groups. It would have been nice if the new maps were addons through portals instead of entire replacements. Our already fragmented groups just didn't have the patience to learn an entirely new set of maps, while lamenting the loss of everything familiar, bathed in fond memories. The replacement kind of marked the end of an era. It showed too. The playerbase began shrinking from that point on. The game was kind of held together by veteran roleplayers, who knew the maps, the best places, had the most skill and creativity, the best ideas, which then lured in and kept new players around, flocking around oldies. Once they left... the game went downhill.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: acid_bear_boy on February 09, 2025, 06:35:40 pm
I'd play it again if it was somehow revived, but none of my friends are ever on anymore. And the few people that are usually active in the servers are either afk or whispering to each other. I don't personally know what it would take for the game to be revived, I feel like the newest generation of kids are just not into games like this anymore. FH is a time capsule in a way, and I don't mean this in a bad way.
This game will always have a special place in my heart, I remember playing it pretty much all day everyday. Those were the days. I think I was like 15 or something, and I'm almost 28 now. Time sure flies.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: WolfQueen on March 03, 2025, 02:30:40 am
i dont think so. :( mostly because the internet and gaming has changed so much over these last two decades. roblox took the place of online 3d animal chatrooms as a whole
i check back for a nostalgia trip every once in a while though
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Oddonelynx on March 04, 2025, 12:03:34 am
i dont think so. :( mostly because the internet and gaming has changed so much over these last two decades. roblox took the place of online 3d animal chatrooms as a whole
A shame really. You know, ROBLOX released around the same time IT did, yet only one game stood the test of time. :-\ ...Then again, modern ROBLOX is full of issues. :P
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Ame88 on March 12, 2025, 09:38:55 am
Well, this is what happens when you dont listen to the community, I guess.
The entire issue with that is the staff did listen. Painstakingly staff would pester Raz into doing anything, but he is the soul reason nothing truly happened beyond some small (or big depending on how you look at it) things here and there. Yes, we did get some updates, like fresh new maps with more content within them...but the presentation of such maps was extremely poor and way too fast. I too still miss the old maps, and I believe there was a better way to go about the whole map issue. Despite this, I do agree with some reasons behind their removal, such as server strain, the maps themselves having little to no meshes, and little to no continuity between them in regards to a realistic world (as real as you can get with talking animals, anyway). Not to point blame, but the truth of the matter is the entire reason nothing was done was Raz. In all fairness, Raz had his reasons behind not allowing much of anything to happen update-wise, and I believe he was completely valid in not wanting to move things too far forward.
We have to remember that at the time, despite Kovu offering the game's source over back in 2013 (me thinks), the offer was not taken, therefore Kovu remained the owner of FeralHeart, and in all technicality if we were to make changes to the game without his permission, legal action could be taken if he so wished. I don't blame him for wanting to avoid it and it's issues, but also because it's just not right. Even to this day he remains the owner of this game as he hasn't given it to anyone.
Now, before you say anything, yes I am well aware that FU/FBO claims to have gotten the permission from Kovu himself to continue on with their project. If I remember correctly, they even claim to still be in contact with the guy past the initial interaction that xSpirit claimed he had. Personally, I'm convinced this supposed "Real Kovu" is just xSpirit or a friend of his who's hiding behind an email, especially since the "evidence" they had was obtained and provided by xSpirit himself, who's proven to be an absolutely terrible person on multiple accounts. Now, I have a number of reasons on top of this as to why I do not believe that's the real Kovu, and I'm still not convinced after a handful of years that it's actually him. The only way I would be convinced is if this guy who claims to be Kovu proves to Raz he's actually him, since Raz is the only one still around who's directly worked with him (to my knowledge). I'm very much a believer that after FeralHeart and his short-lived Facebook game Feral Tales, Kovu just did not care and moved on with his life and projects. To be quite frank, I'm happy for him if that's the case. Now before I move on from this, I want to make it clear that I have no ill will towards FU/FBO or any branch of game from that pool of people. They love this game just as much as we do, and if they want to make a spiritual successor, they have that right. I just don't agree with how the project originally came into fruition. It came from a place of frustration, anger and hate. Greed can be listed too if you want to loop what xSpirit did in the end when he "moved on" from the project.
---
I agree that this game is still on a decline, if there is even anymore sinking it can do. But, in all truth, as long as there is even just one person who will try to keep this game alive, there's a chance that it can come back.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: RawSyndicate on March 12, 2025, 02:15:37 pm
Well, this is what happens when you dont listen to the community, I guess.
The entire issue with that is the staff did listen. Painstakingly staff would pester Raz into doing anything, but he is the soul reason nothing truly happened beyond some small (or big depending on how you look at it) things here and there. Yes, we did get some updates, like fresh new maps with more content within them...but the presentation of such maps was extremely poor and way too fast. I too still miss the old maps, and I believe there was a better way to go about the whole map issue. Despite this, I do agree with some reasons behind their removal, such as server strain, the maps themselves having little to no meshes, and little to no continuity between them in regards to a realistic world (as real as you can get with talking animals, anyway). Not to point blame, but the truth of the matter is the entire reason nothing was done was Raz. In all fairness, Raz had his reasons behind not allowing much of anything to happen update-wise, and I believe he was completely valid in not wanting to move things too far forward.
We have to remember that at the time, despite Kovu offering the game's source over back in 2013 (me thinks), the offer was not taken, therefore Kovu remained the owner of FeralHeart, and in all technicality if we were to make changes to the game without his permission, legal action could be taken if he so wished. I don't blame him for wanting to avoid it and it's issues, but also because it's just not right. Even to this day he remains the owner of this game as he hasn't given it to anyone.
Now, before you say anything, yes I am well aware that FU/FBO claims to have gotten the permission from Kovu himself to continue on with their project. If I remember correctly, they even claim to still be in contact with the guy past the initial interaction that xSpirit claimed he had. Personally, I'm convinced this supposed "Real Kovu" is just xSpirit or a friend of his who's hiding behind an email, especially since the "evidence" they had was obtained and provided by xSpirit himself, who's proven to be an absolutely terrible person on multiple accounts. Now, I have a number of reasons on top of this as to why I do not believe that's the real Kovu, and I'm still not convinced after a handful of years that it's actually him. The only way I would be convinced is if this guy who claims to be Kovu proves to Raz he's actually him, since Raz is the only one still around who's directly worked with him (to my knowledge). I'm very much a believer that after FeralHeart and his short-lived Facebook game Feral Tales, Kovu just did not care and moved on with his life and projects. To be quite frank, I'm happy for him if that's the case. Now before I move on from this, I want to make it clear that I have no ill will towards FU/FBO or any branch of game from that pool of people. They love this game just as much as we do, and if they want to make a spiritual successor, they have that right. I just don't agree with how the project originally came into fruition. It came from a place of frustration, anger and hate. Greed can be listed too if you want to loop what xSpirit did in the end when he "moved on" from the project.
---
I agree that this game is still on a decline, if there is even anymore sinking it can do. But, in all truth, as long as there is even just one person who will try to keep this game alive, there's a chance that it can come back.
I recall being one of the few that was able to actually get contact with Kovu personally on Skype back then(2013), in an attempt to get any information about the game's future. I think its important to note that Kovu didnt offer the game to anyone on the FH staff team at that time, that WAS actually the major issue on why nothing could be updated; only new maps could be added. We tried very hard, we loved the community so much. They were basically radio silent. There was little contact there, nearly no way to gain it and frankly Kovu was disinterested in talking about the subject for long mostly because it just wasnt an interest for them. Not in a negative way but because they never planned on it getting that big, and is true that their intentions were to move onto different things. From what I gathered they were open to passing the "key" over to anyone who was willing to take it in a promising direction, or simply if they liked you enough--thats if you could find them. They dropped the game and then put it in their past, it mightve been different if it was revenue orientated but it was more like a college project. I dont know whether the claims by xspirit were true going forward. After the conversation I had with Kovu it honestly felt very "out of the blue". The code has now been distributed past anyone's control or copyright capability(I see feral meshes in other games). At this point its about how much effort people are willing to put into it, and if those very people have the resources/coding capabilities to match. Enter FHU/FBO.
Hoping for a brighter feral future. I still have hope. Im playing today.
Title: Re: can we even revive the game?
Post by: Ame88 on March 13, 2025, 09:12:18 pm
Well, this is what happens when you dont listen to the community, I guess.
The entire issue with that is the staff did listen. Painstakingly staff would pester Raz into doing anything, but he is the soul reason nothing truly happened beyond some small (or big depending on how you look at it) things here and there. Yes, we did get some updates, like fresh new maps with more content within them...but the presentation of such maps was extremely poor and way too fast. I too still miss the old maps, and I believe there was a better way to go about the whole map issue. Despite this, I do agree with some reasons behind their removal, such as server strain, the maps themselves having little to no meshes, and little to no continuity between them in regards to a realistic world (as real as you can get with talking animals, anyway). Not to point blame, but the truth of the matter is the entire reason nothing was done was Raz. In all fairness, Raz had his reasons behind not allowing much of anything to happen update-wise, and I believe he was completely valid in not wanting to move things too far forward.
We have to remember that at the time, despite Kovu offering the game's source over back in 2013 (me thinks), the offer was not taken, therefore Kovu remained the owner of FeralHeart, and in all technicality if we were to make changes to the game without his permission, legal action could be taken if he so wished. I don't blame him for wanting to avoid it and it's issues, but also because it's just not right. Even to this day he remains the owner of this game as he hasn't given it to anyone.
Now, before you say anything, yes I am well aware that FU/FBO claims to have gotten the permission from Kovu himself to continue on with their project. If I remember correctly, they even claim to still be in contact with the guy past the initial interaction that xSpirit claimed he had. Personally, I'm convinced this supposed "Real Kovu" is just xSpirit or a friend of his who's hiding behind an email, especially since the "evidence" they had was obtained and provided by xSpirit himself, who's proven to be an absolutely terrible person on multiple accounts. Now, I have a number of reasons on top of this as to why I do not believe that's the real Kovu, and I'm still not convinced after a handful of years that it's actually him. The only way I would be convinced is if this guy who claims to be Kovu proves to Raz he's actually him, since Raz is the only one still around who's directly worked with him (to my knowledge). I'm very much a believer that after FeralHeart and his short-lived Facebook game Feral Tales, Kovu just did not care and moved on with his life and projects. To be quite frank, I'm happy for him if that's the case. Now before I move on from this, I want to make it clear that I have no ill will towards FU/FBO or any branch of game from that pool of people. They love this game just as much as we do, and if they want to make a spiritual successor, they have that right. I just don't agree with how the project originally came into fruition. It came from a place of frustration, anger and hate. Greed can be listed too if you want to loop what xSpirit did in the end when he "moved on" from the project.
---
I agree that this game is still on a decline, if there is even anymore sinking it can do. But, in all truth, as long as there is even just one person who will try to keep this game alive, there's a chance that it can come back.
I recall being one of the few that was able to actually get contact with Kovu personally on Skype back then(2013), in an attempt to get any information about the game's future. I think its important to note that Kovu didnt offer the game to anyone on the FH staff team at that time, that WAS actually the major issue on why nothing could be updated; only new maps could be added. We tried very hard, we loved the community so much. They were basically radio silent. There was little contact there, nearly no way to gain it and frankly Kovu was disinterested in talking about the subject for long mostly because it just wasnt an interest for them. Not in a negative way but because they never planned on it getting that big, and is true that their intentions were to move onto different things. From what I gathered they were open to passing the "key" over to anyone who was willing to take it in a promising direction, or simply if they liked you enough--thats if you could find them. They dropped the game and then put it in their past, it mightve been different if it was revenue orientated but it was more like a college project. I dont know whether the claims by xspirit were true going forward. After the conversation I had with Kovu it honestly felt very "out of the blue". The code has now been distributed past anyone's control or copyright capability(I see feral meshes in other games). At this point its about how much effort people are willing to put into it, and if those very people have the resources/coding capabilities to match. Enter FHU/FBO.
Hoping for a brighter feral future. I still have hope. Im playing today.
Very neat you were able to speak with him back then. I wish I was around at that time but I know I was but a very awkward teen and I could never catch registration lol
Redlinelies was offered the code for his keeping back in the day, as explained by Raz in an older post of his. I'll quote it real quick:
Also I'd like to take this chance to apologise for a few things. I do have a few....
Firstly I'm sorry that we didn't have the source when LKD left. He actually offered it for Reds keeping back in the day. I told Red that if we take it now LKD will have passed it on and that would be the end of the updates. I didn't anticipate that he would just leave regardless.
To be fair I don't know exactly when he first obtained it, so exactly when we would have been able to develop further varies. I won't argue that I don't know too much before when I officially joined this game, and I don't know who all was in charge over where the game went past Kovu or where those staff members stood as I never interacted with them. All I have to go off of is accessible threads and what people say. Regardless, I do know that Raz had been sat on a copy of of source for a good while now. I don't know when he obtained it, but I do know that none of the staff even knew he had it. I'll quote what he said about it for you as well:
Moving on I feel you should be aware that getting a copy of the source code is not a new thing. In fact I have been sat on a copy of the source for years now even the rest of the staff were not aware I had it. It probably would have remained that way if I didn't feel that the servers needed certain security updates that could only be achieved with alterations to the client also.
Speaking in context of the staff I knew, i.e. Sura, Morg, Kiki, Nyx, etc. I know they wanted to update this game, but Raz was always that barrier.
On a side note, this is another reason why I don't believe xSpirit obtained the code through legitimate means. While working on an update for us, he had access to the code for developmental purposes of course, and I have no doubt that he took a copy for himself. This, or he just obtained a copy from someone else. This is besides the point but I wanted to express that.
It is unfortunate (imo) that the code has been so spread out as much as it has, but I agree to an extent that it does come down to how much work people are willing to put into it.
I know that all I want for this game is to keep it going for those who never gave up on it. This game is very special to so many, myself included, and I really want to see it shine once again.