Two years ago today, TERA PC was officially closed worldwide. One year ago, I posted a similar retrospective look back on the whole thing.
When I popped back into RageZone in November 2023, I also learned about the just released EME 71.03 version of the official server binaries/datasheets (this one was an accidental release which required the removal of a lot of the protective DRM (given that it was a production release which tied it to specific publisher hardware and an operational date period).
Spending a small amount of time in that older version, I also played around a bit more with the old prologue and getting the original Island of Dawn pegasus cut scene to work again along with verifying that the entire guild sky castle customization system worked.
I also tried for a short bit to get the old 2013 style character lobby screen operational again, but after running into issues with getting those assets to load, gave it a rest. The last thing I want to do is spend way too much time on this where it turns into burn out. This is much truer now that I have moved away from gaming. With ArcheAge having closed recently, these offline setup(s) of TERA are now my last connection to that old gaming hobby.
As I did last year, I ran my offline setups to run around Arborea again for a short time, and then logged out/shutdown the virtual machines. Even two years later, the official PC sunset hasn’t reached that point where nostalgia hits hard (part of that has to also do with having these official server binaries). Which is why I want to be careful with spending too much time with this since I want to be able to experience those moments when I do get the desire to visit the game world again (like how it was on this 2nd year since the game came to that official end for PC).
