Ez2on Service will shutdown - Page 2

RESG · 09-17-2009, 09:25 AM

I hardly believe something like a private server is possible (with all due respect to the people at vavay.com) but maybe something like EZ2Mania or something is possible. It could be a bit complex, but hey, don't underestimate fans.
Ditto on the offline mode though.

grovestr · 09-17-2009, 12:09 PM

what we play when this game die? what options we have?

krazy rain.... popstage.... (hard registration.. but possible? ) an emulator of ez2on... and anyone knows other games?

thanks...

.Falk · 09-17-2009, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baldfalk

Kinda ironic people will go NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO in one line regarding music games shutting down, yet ask if there's an emulator in the next. :V

Well, just so you guys know how I feel about this when I made this comment, I've seen both sides of the picture, and I really, really can relate, believe it or not, despite how diametrically opposite the views are. On one hand, piracy of O2Jam back in early 2007 put me out of a job. Not to say I'm not enjoying what I'm doing now, but meh, I miss working on/with music games.

On the other hand, I never really agreed with the entire F2P system while paying for premium content/unlocks, anyway. What these systems really do is clog up all your resources/bandwidth with freeloaders, a significant fraction you don't even want in your community in the first place. The people who really get shortchanged when the dam bursts and the system can't support is own weight anymore really is:

1) The people who paid for stuff legitimately, and can't access said content anymore just because the server plug has to be pulled
2) The people who worked behind the scenes on making content - especially the composers involved. Unless you're a multi-platform franchise, those contents aren't officially accessible anymore - forever. Sure, maybe people come up with pirate/offline play on their own, but it just isn't the same without the... official sanctioning and promise of future content, I guess. Sometimes it really gets to me that when I tell people about how XYZ chart from O2Jam was amazing, the only way I can ask them to play it is "get an emulator".

So yeah, in that direct analysis - The ones who get the short end of the stick are hardcore, legitimate customers who would gladly support music games in general, and then the composers themselves, who ask 'why bother, really'. These are the very people that the genre (AS A WHOLE, not just the online/f2p variety) requires to survive financially.. Every iteration of some new project that fails just makes it harder and harder to stake your faith in the next one that comes by.

Are there alternatives now? I don't know what to say. By the same token I steered well clear of Ez2ON as much as I wanted to experience some of the charts glimpsed via youtube, I abstained. I'm sure as heck not touching (or at least financially supporting) any F2P online games of any kind with a 10-foot pole.

I'd really recommend looking into Trilogy if you haven't already. Despite who/when/where/what/why leaving Pentavision, or if they never make another PC title, the game's fully playable as it is, and you get to experience the content as long as you want, at the price you pay up front, in the way the developers intended for that content to be experienced (e.g. not the close approximation of an emulator)

mairgun · 09-17-2009, 04:23 PM

By the way, Ez2on uses a file system similar to Djmax online, in which you have the .dat (.pak in djmax) file with the sounds and bga in it, and another .ez (.pt) file with the note charts in it, and the .ez file is downloaded every time you play a song.
So if anyone is thinking about ez2on offline in the future, they better get the .ez files before the service shuts down.

Hypr · 09-17-2009, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mairgun

By the way, Ez2on uses a file system similar to Djmax online, in which you have the .dat (.pak in djmax) file with the sounds and bga in it, and another .ez (.pt) file with the note charts in it, and the .ez file is downloaded every time you play a song.
So if anyone is thinking about ez2on offline in the future, they better get the .ez files before the service shuts down.

^ This.

Start downloading all the .EZ files now.

.Falk · 09-18-2009, 03:05 AM

You can bet your ass the chinese already have done it :/

Iori Kazama · 09-18-2009, 11:58 PM

Just waiting for a new Solista or a o2mania similar

...

lalz~

ca25nada · 09-19-2009, 10:34 AM

an another signal that the end is near

i think this kind of image spamming happened twice since open beta

Alesix · 09-20-2009, 01:49 AM

I was kinda hoping that in the latest patch, they would unlock all songs for all users and make them x99 since they're closing down. It turns out that they just removed all cash items from the in-game shop.

Koko Ban · 09-20-2009, 03:08 AM

it seems that the admins are quick to respond to those NSFW images. there are spam images still though.

and i'm also seeing something about o2jam and audition mp3's. lol

slayerr2314 · 09-20-2009, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mairgun

By the way, Ez2on uses a file system similar to Djmax online, in which you have the .dat (.pak in djmax) file with the sounds and bga in it, and another .ez (.pt) file with the note charts in it, and the .ez file is downloaded every time you play a song.
So if anyone is thinking about ez2on offline in the future, they better get the .ez files before the service shuts down.

I hope somebody is already on top of this. I'm not sure how to do it myself though. D:

Hypr · 09-22-2009, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slayerr2314

I hope somebody is already on top of this. I'm not sure how to do it myself though. D:

I'm certain (if Mairgun is right) that all you have to do is select each song and difficulty to play. After the song loads, quit, and choose another difficulty for that same song.

Do this until you have loaded each chart.

By the way, I am not able to register and log on to Ez2on at all. If it were up to me, I would do this myself, and not shovel all this dirty work to other people :\

Troni · 09-23-2009, 12:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hypr

I'm certain (if Mairgun is right) that all you have to do is select each song and difficulty to play. After the song loads, quit, and choose another difficulty for that same song.

Do this until you have loaded each chart.

By the way, I am not able to register and log on to Ez2on at all. If it were up to me, I would do this myself, and not shovel all this dirty work to other people :\

I don't play Ez2on, but if what Mairgun said is true and the system is like Djmax, I remember with Djmax online some chinese created a tool called ptcatcher, that saves the .pt when you play a song.

slayerr2314 · 09-23-2009, 01:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Troni

The thing about the note chart file is definitely true, that's why you can play a song in a battle room without having the .dat file but there is no sound.
The file is only present somewhere on your computer while you are playing the song and is deleted later, you need to use a monitoring software on the game but Xtrap doesn't allow.
I remember with Djmax online some chinese created a tool called ptcatcher, that saves the .pt when you play a song.

I figured they were deleted right after, so I wonder if it's even possible for someone to get them all. :/

The thing about emulators is, I think it is a great thing after the service terminates like EZ2ON is. It really would be a shame to see all the hard work they put into the game to go to waste, and with an emulator the work can be appreciated later.
If it happened during a service and hurt business then that is another story.

.Falk · 09-23-2009, 03:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slayerr2314

The thing about emulators is, I think it is a great thing after the service terminates like EZ2ON is. It really would be a shame to see all the hard work they put into the game to go to waste, and with an emulator the work can be appreciated later.
If it happened during a service and hurt business then that is another story.

Honestly, you hit the nail on the head. Fuck the online music game business. People paid for stuff, tying their access to the existence of a server is complete and utter bullshit.

O2Jam died, DJMAX Online died, why do developers keep thinking now will be any different? That the freeloading community will be a little more generous this time around? But instead of common sense prevailing we have Band Master (yuck), Popstage, Krazy Rain just to name a few. (All of which I don't even expect to survive past 2012, being really generous. But hey, maybe that's just me being bitter)

IIDX and Bemani have survived on retail releases for ~a decade now. Pentavision have begun to adopt a similar retail release model alongside arcade machines. Why can't people learn from that? What is it about Korea and f2p models? Why do the proverbial dogs keep going back to their own vomit?

A publisher holding composers/artists/paying customers by the balls just to 'ensure their own survival' has to be one of the greatest sins of the early 21st century. This isn't an RPG. There's absolutely no reason that music games have to follow the online game model.

edit: And before people mention "BUT FALK ONLINE MUSIC GAMES ALLOW YOU TO HAVE RANKINGS AND MULTIPLAYER AND ADVANCE YOUR CHARACTER AND STUFF" that's another load of bullshit. Arcade machines themselves have online ranking nowadays. Unlocks have existed for music games forever and don't require a central server to store data. Trilogy allows multiplayer (when the server is up ugh) and doesn't have the quandary of "oh fuck, no one wants to pay for a premium song, guess we play the freeloader songs everyone has been sick of for the past few months".

In a decade when I'm feeling nostalgic I'll be able to pop in Happy Sky CS or Trilogy or DJMAX Black Square and enjoy it the exact same way I am now. Ez2ON or O2Jam? Probably not. There's just something emulators don't capture. Also fuck private servers.