Revival of Motor City Online (MCO)

To: Electronic Arts
Revival of Motor City Online (MCO)

To Electronic Arts,

We are the fans of the now retired online racing game Motor City Online (collectively referred to in this document as MCO). We were all shocked and saddened to find out in early 03 that our game was going to be cancelled in favor of other EA products. Many people believed and still believe that it was a very fun and entertaining game and still have desire to play. Much of this sentiment can be found in online message boards such as MCO Anonymous. Even stronger, a project named MCO mod is online and available for MCO fans to mod EAs F1 Challenge 99-02 into resembling MCO. These examples cite how much people loved MCO and continue to think about it, despite the game shutting its doors 1 year ago.

We feel that, we all made an investment in MCO, from the roughly $40 purchase price of the game, to the $10 monthly fee. There are quite a few people who subscribed from release to end. There are a handful of us that were beta testers as well, I was one of them. So we saw MCO grow before our eyes and we became attached to it. Many people formed clubs and made friends with other racers in the game and since the game closed they are unable to associate with some of those friends. What we would like to see is MCO revived in one of a couple different possibilities.

Possibility 1: You, Electronic Arts, revive MCO by bringing the servers back online and allowing us to connect and play. Pricing would be at EAs discretion, but we would request it be no more than what it used to be when the game was active. We understand MCO may not be as popular as other EA online titles such as The Sims, but we as MCO fans are willing to pay if necessary to play our game again.

Possibility 2: I hereby propose a system where EA would release the server backend software, source code, and any related tools necessary for an individual or group of individuals to setup and run an MCO server of their own. The system will consist of a group of admins (to be selected in the future) who will bring the servers online for others to connect to. The servers would be setup similar to the original regional EA shards for small groups to connect to and to keep things manageable. In this system the source code would be given to the admins only unless EA would allow the code to be available to everyone. There would be no fees associated with our service and would be totally not for profit, but for enjoyment.

The system would/could include:

- Group of selected admins to run and maintain game code/software
- All hardware would be provided by us
- We would support the game best we could, EA would not have to support
- Removal of all EA logos/branding (if necessary)
- All original game content, tracks, cars, etc
- The ability for us to expand the game

Additionally, assuming we would be allowed to partake in this project, the source code/server backend could be delivered to me and I would disperse of it as I see fit. This would free up resources from EA and EA would not have to host it or use bandwidth for it. I/We will comply in whatever way Electronic Arts requests for us to complete our mission of bringing back Motor City Online.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

On behalf of all Motor City Online fans,
Sincerely, Kenneth Janeczko