This would provide a direct counter to the Phoenix and Uthgard freeshards, and hopefully welcome back a large portion of the player base longing for the classic experience. In recognition of the wishes of the player community, Broadsword has announced a new server with the DAoC classic ruleset. Shutting down classic freeshards may thus not necessarily increase the population on the live servers. Furthermore, given that Phoenix and Uthgard both use the classic DAoC ruleset, there is arguably a difference in the players that prefer the "old school" DAoC experience to those who prefer the new and up-to-date one. Freeshards also deliberately do not charge subscription fees to avoid some of these legal tangles. Many freeshards are hosted outside the United States where copyright laws and enforcement can be a tricky-or at least costly-issue. However, legal action against freeshards is a challenging endeavor, even for a large company such as EA who owns the DAoC franchise. If the population drops too far and subscription revenue decreases, Broadsword will obviously have to shut down the service. The freeshards are undoubtedly competing for the same player base as the live servers, and as with any old MMO, population is a continuous concern. To players on the official DAoC servers, Broadsword's failure to pursue and shut down freeshards such as Phoenix is baffling. Snow scene from Gripklosa Mountains in Midgard, the Viking realm in DAoC. Since its introduction, Phoenix has risen in popularity, often boasting more than a thousand online players during primetime. And most recently, the Phoenix freeshard server, introduced in 2018, has become a haven for many players longing for the classic DAoC experience unchanged by the game's many expansions. Alteri provides specialized Group vs Group PvP at a high level aimed at hardcore players. Storm D2 is a total game conversion adding a Diablo 2 ruleset to the DAoC game engine. A progression of such freeshards has followed Uthgard is perhaps the most famous one, providing a DAoC Classic experience taking players back to the beginnings of the game. Since 2003, the Dawn of Light open source project provides a server emulator that allows for people to put up their own DAoC freeshards. The venerable MMO Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC), whose servers have been running since 2001, first by creators Mythic Entertainment, and since 2014 by Broadsword Online Games, is part of the latter category.
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