First of all, I'd like to ask that if anyone comments, don't post links to any private ones. No need to get in trouble here.
Now then, there's been a lot of controversy over the years about the legality and such of servers that are run on private computers using other company's code, characters, and ideas. My comment isn't about the legally; I'm more interested in finding out if people consider it to be helpful in spreading the word about a game and allowing people to play it free of charge. Or if it's hurtful to the game's existence by pulling customers away.
On the one hand, it helps others to find out about a game that they would not normally be able to play for whatever financial reasons. In this respect, they're nice to let people try a game out. The problem is that if people like the game, they don't switch to an official pay to play server. They don't seem to understand that without the money, the company won't be able to create updates for the game and their own private servers will not be able to keep people interested.
The majority of private owners don't do a vast amount to update a game on their own. Sure some do, but most only change some graphics, add a few items, and don't generally do much at all to add new things that cannot be created by modifications. Any thoughts?
