Why would they make it that way?

SSL is a protocol used on the internet to transfer encrypted data. In short, the certificates are a way of guaranteeing the authenticity of a website, preventing several attacks such as Man in the Middle.

They all have expiration dates and I suppose that when the game was released in 2003, 10 years were probably seen as good enough.
Microsoft could renew the certificate but I don't think it will happen...
-invent00r

So... this enables us to do some stuf right? besides from playing on eso again

Thanks invent00r for pointing this out.

oh and Hi

@:Elrich
Anytime. .

Btw, I might need your help to test a few things, do you still have AoM installed and have some free time?
-invent00r

Interesting, so the servers are still up. What reason does Microsoft have for not revalidating this certificate? Would it be difficult to petition them to do it?

Well typically you'd have to pay for a Certificate Authority to issue a certificate. Since Microsoft is also a Certificate Authority it should present no extra costs for them, other than the fact that they have to handle the case and sadly the official support for this game has expired.

-invent00r

How is you private server idea going?

Why would Microsoft give keep the servers plugged in if they don't do anything?

Just because official support is gone doesn't mean you can't petition this. Hey if you start one I'd sign it and spread the word. I'd make a petition but I know nothing about servers, certificates, etc. so I'd basically be rambling about stuff I have no understanding of.

Dude this is awesome!

Props to invent00r I don't know what we'd do without him.

Is there a way this can somehow be massed exposed to the public? ie. petitions were a good idea, how about a free download? Is that legally possible? Or is it free in the first place I don't know...

If it is we need to post it in the downloads section ASAP, and advertise. This could seriously get eso back up and running as far as people go. If people had to figure out to download that wiproxy for the rating fix and did so in large numbers, why not this? If we can get the word out as much as possible I could see eso coming back.

I'd definitely play multiplayer again if ESO was back up. Off servers just aren't the same.

Oh my god, was that AlienSexRanger? THE AlienSexRanger? He wasn't using caps or yelling garbage? It is a miracle. I would be all aboard the ESO train. Voobly isn't fun and the people aren't the same. I miss recruiting for my clan, DRP, rather than having to teach 5 noobs per lobby. I am all aboard this!

Voobly blows. Yes it's me, and I never yell garbage. I provide flawless arguments to educate my enemies when I'm particularly interested in a subject or just plain bored. I still don't see what's wrong with caps, I think they look pretty.

I don't think that after 4 months the community would return to ESO. Downloading the WIPROXY thing, it was easy to spread the word because it could spread by word of mouth on ESO.

At it's 'end' ESO had low player numbers, for me it was uncommon to see over 25 and it was certainly a different community with far fewer scenarios.

To be honest I mainly blame the "voobly scare" where players from voobly were constantly spamming on ESO that the server was going to be shut down in x period of time, usually in a month or so. They did this for like 2 years while telling people to come to voobly. Sadly most people I played with on ESO did...

Maybe I'm being optimistic but if people see ESO is back from the dead it might reinvigorate the community into coming back. It's worth trying for me since Age of Mythology is one of like four strategy games I actually like. Plus 99% of new games suck so bad I can't even have fun playing them.

It'd actually be more fun to run around on the net telling people to sign the petition for this plan than to play Bioshock, Farcry, StarCraft II, or Skyrim. Man those games suck.

@:Thangbrand Aesirear
I think asking everyone to install fiddler2 and have it running everytime someone wants to play AoM at ESO is a bit too much...

I believe in making a new server that we, the community, can control. I don't know much about the Voobly or GR communities because I haven't played this in years. Maybe the best solution would be to "upgrade" Voobly\GR so it also has a native-looking ESO.
-invent00r

Hey man start a petition. Have the title say something like "tell Microsoft to bring back the Age of Mythology ESO servers" then in the specifics tell them about how the only thing needed is for Microsoft to revalidate the SSL certificate and that the servers are still up and running, just not accessible. If you want I can do it, but I'm going to run whatever I say by you first so I get it right.

http://www.change.org/

Awesome idea. I'm with alien.

Let's do this.

The hell, I'm thinking about just calling Microsoft and seeing if I can be directed to someone who can change this simple thing. Although last time I was on the phone with micro I was on for 5 hours. No joke.

He's not responding but I might just make the petition anyway. It'll have to wait until Tuesday probably because I have a paper to write. Wrote like 7 pages today and still have more to do.

ok im calling microsoft as i speak.

So after calling Microsoft this is what I've understood:

Es and Microsoft were affiliated with eachother as we know, however since es broke up, the access to renew the certificate was abandoned as well. Microsoft does not have that ability. It would have to be done by the creators, ES, in other words. Now, since some people from es congregated over to robot entertainment, I'm gonna take a stab at contacting robot entertainment and see what i can get as a reply.

Nice.

btw when i glanced over your comment, i read it like this:

He's not responding but I might just make the petition anyway. It'll have to wait until Tuesday probably because I have a paper to write. Wrote like 7 pages today and still have more to do.

Haha 7 page petition. I guess I'll wait until you contact those other guys or whatever. Then if they say no or you can't find anything I'll just direct it at them.

[This message has been edited by AlienSexRanger (edited 07-23-2013 @ 02:04 AM).]

I was so surprised to see recent posts on this forum! When ESO went down, I was sure the community went to Voobly. I tried voobly, but it never worked for me, so I just gave up trying. I have been playing this game until the very day the server went offline. I was never a fervently active player, but I always enjoyed logging in and playing with a few people for a few hours every so often.

It should go without saying, then, that I would be all supportive to go to a privately hosted server or to even run this Fiddler2 program. I honestly don't think it's "too much" to ask of player. If they really want to play this game online, with other players, they will do what has to be done.

I will certainly be checking back here frequently to see what is to come. I'm not sure where I could be much help, but I am more than happy to provide help wherever I can.

Thank you everyone here for keeping such a great community alive and strong for such a long time! you've revived my spirit for this game!

-pomnabo

It's been a day or two. RE has still not gotten back to me. Besides, I'm impatient, so I'm gonna create an account on the RE website and post a thread in which a RE staff should respond to.

http://www.robotentertainment.com/forum/topic/Eso-Age-Mythology-down-And-has-been-down-almost-year

I'll still let you guys know if I get a reply back from contacting them. For now, check back at that thread.

I went over a few threads and it appears it can take quite a while for them to respond via forum. What's the other way you contacted them, Email?

http://www.robotentertainment.com/contact

@aom: you are the Erin Brockovich of Aom.