First of all, I don’t play on any of them (nor do I have an account created). The only time I was on one (with a burner mail account) was during the earlier v100.02 days when one of those servers was doing extremely custom/modified work utilizing the TERA Battle Arena assets (which highlighted how some of the “abandoned in place” assets could be used in this type of proof-of-concept style of work).
It’s for this exact sort of reason(s) why I don’t do this. At the end of the day, these private servers are run by individuals who may not possess all of the technical/security background. Additionally for some other reason(s), a few of these private servers (not speaking solely of the TERA ones) are run by folks who tend to have “power trips”. I mean the irony is often times humorous when you see a “big production” angle behind the site (like what publishers with their bigger budgets try to also do).
I often times see tag lines like “operated by those who were fans and loved the game” (again, not just TERA PC). I’m the guy who is a realist. Just because I love the game, doesn’t mean I would go out and run one of these just because of that. I’m human and also just one person who has opinions on how to run things. If a larger entity (that had to operate more impartially based on the contract with the actual developer/license holder) couldn’t run it successfully, what makes anyone think a bunch of fans without all of those resources, could do it any better (besides that initial honeymoon phase)?
Regular publishers while not completely free of internal drama/corruption, generally have to operate without that kind of human drama element. Why? Because as part of the larger gaming industry (where the “six degrees of separation” can often times be much smaller than that), personal reputation does matter at those lower levels. With these private servers, you have small groups of individuals who can do what they want to do (playing the role of the all-mighty king of the kingdom) including favoritism and overall corrupt behavior.
But I digress. I could only gleam what I could gleam from the TERA sub-Reddit (I am not a regular user of that site and I usually take much of what is posted there with a grain of salt). I also didn’t want to spend too much time on it (just writing this post is taking time I cannot get back). I occasionally post (once every few months at most) but similarly, I don’t expect anyone to take what I write with any sense of importance as well (I’m not there to try to gain whatever individuals try to garner there; to each is own).
The short version is someone or group, has been hacking various TERA private server sites and dumping some of that user data online. The TERA Classic private server had garnered recent attention since one of the bigger MMO streamers on Twitch, started playing/streaming it. That resulted in some renewed coverage with YouTube content creators (which naturally attracted further attention to this private server). Potentially some of the background behind these attacks might have been due to the un-ethical behavior of the server owner. I really don’t care at this point (IMHO, one should ALWAYS be wary of any private server and know that it could be rug pulled even faster than what regular publishers constantly do).
Now the source of the files for these private servers are publicly available knowledge (well, actually mainly to those who keep up with some of it). It’s the release of the v31.04 server files earlier this year. With all of these officially signed server binary releases, one part of the system had to be filled in by others. That part, the TERA API (which provides a lot of the glue for things like account management, launcher services, patching, front/backend integration) was written from scratch by someone in the RZ community. His abilities are solid (he’s also the one who patched out all of the DRM checks in specific binaries) and he open sources the API code. Thus anyone can inspect that on top of having a good knowledge of how the entire official backend server/services works (and can thus end up learning where the attack vectors are for exploiting things).
While the passwords in the database are hashed, that isn’t the primary issue (as it is to everything else when it comes to personal information including anything related to donations). It’s easy to say none of that actual personal information was part of the breach (“like trust me bro… I’m running this pserver and taking donations to run it without any proper authority/licensing from the original IP holders” <- more on this later). Anyone who takes these private server releases and tries to operate a public facing private server without having the proper understanding in online security (and not further hardening the base account management system provided as well as the server environment), is going to be a target (especially if that server becomes a higher profile one as what happened with it gaining some attention in the streaming and content creation realm).
Guess what? Most of these player facing private servers take this freely available work performed by others to try and make some money off of it, but are run by individuals unqualified to handle every part of what industry publishers normally have to take care of/consider. I do understand some enjoy having their ego stroked when being the private server owner, but in this case, whatever was happening seemed to have gone awry all over the place.
As it was with official TERA PC when it was still alive, some folks have gone on to make meme videos about this situation. Drama begets drama unfortunately. I dislike drama (gaming ones are the worst so I try not to spend too much time on that). I used to get a laugh out of some of them but usually found many annoying. I’m just going to link this one since it captured a bunch of game chat and Discord messages about how the game issues have been handled. I of course cannot vouch for the authenticity of all those messages BUT parts of it looked like how the official game was (in-game chat toxicity, forum post toxicity, other site toxicity). There is also some highly racist BS which is also the NORM for many of these MMORPG’s including TERA PC (when it was alive officially). In short, it looks all believable (nothing surprising which kind of highlights the lengths some will go through when they think they are really that much smarter than everyone else, only to have their reputation handed to them on a golden platter). I guess it is “classic” TERA in many ways (freakin idiocy filled DRAMA). And this one is taking place in a private server setting… how appropriate.
The wildest part in that was the portion about reaching out to KRAFTON for some kind of licensing deal (to redo things in UE4/UE5 or the in-game shop cosmetics). Seriously? I was kind of joking noting that earlier. So you have a couple of $million US laying around and want to negotiate some form of licensing agreement to use the TERA intellectual property? I mean after the original onslaught of mobile gaming developers working out licensing deals (of which they are all dead now), not one PC game publisher has come to this “brilliant” realization that there might be money to be made from a portion of the intellectual property (because guess what, the game would still be ALIVE today with Krafton’s Bluehole Studio subsidiary; the one in charge of MMORPG’s, would still be developing the damn thing). I remind about Krafton’s Challenges again. I seriously don’t know what goes through some of these peoples minds at time (oh yeah, they know how to roleplay king).
Is there a lesson to be learned in all of this? Of course. Games like this DIE for a reason. I now look at it as equal share with the developers, the publishers, and the player base all contributing to this (and todays greed infested gaming industry really makes everything far worse). Private servers are no different. Be very wary of any private server (or at least, be careful with your personal information). It’s one of the reasons why shortly after it was announced that TERA PC (Krafton) was officially ending development/closing, I began noting to others about the ability to grab the retail files (that had been released at that time which was v92.03 and v100.02) and having the option of running it themselves. The target was mainly those who really just wanted the means to experience their characters and the game world in some fashion (or maybe the ability to play with their friends). And I did manage to hit some folks (but that knowledge continues being buried as each year goes by).
Finally, I’ve long had this blog set to reduce its visibility to search engines but I’ve made a conscious decision to unset that at least temporarily such that maybe some searches will eventually see some of those postings (regarding the game preservation angle and these TERA PC server binary releases plus my TERA Offline postings).
The few videos I have on my YouTube are never going to end up in the algorithm, plus you need to use the right search terms for them to show up near the top of the (relevancy) results. I know that RZ shows high up with the proper search terms in the main search engines (something like “tera private server” will tend to show some of the actual private servers first but “tera private server files” will put RZ at the top).
However, I believe it’s a bit overwhelming for the average reader (especially if they aren’t technical) on where to start on the forum once they click into it. Regardless, the main hope is that more are able to learn they can run and setup something themselves if they are not interested in the multiplayer aspect with others/guilds (like what I do).
