How Microsoft Ending Internet Explorer Impacts WEO - Will there be a version still running in the future?

[webearthonline]

From Microsoft:
Internet Explorer 11 is the last major version of Internet Explorer. The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will go out of support for certain operating systems starting June 15, 2022.
This date includes Windows 10 computers.

Apple's MAC Safari and Windows' Internet Explorer are the last browsers to provide support for Java Applets which is the browser technology for running a Web Earth Online client.

Because of this drop in support from Microsoft, as of Oct 1st, we will stop offering the purchase of advanced game animals to play.
And next year around February when our software certificate which allows users to run Java Applets, comes up for renewal, we will not renew it.
At that time the active game worlds will become inactive.

The WEO forum has been recently upgraded, as was the WEO platform, and will it continue on, in support of the just released book entitled, "Web Earth".

Perhaps the new book will lead to a rebirth of a new Web Earth Online.

WEO

For information on the Web Earth book see this forum topic,
viewforum.php?f=14

[actualScarikas]

Late response to this from me, I was locked out of my account for a while. If I am interpreting this correctly, does this mean the game is officially shutting down? Servers will go down, applet will not run and no one will be able to play anymore?

Assuming this is the case, I want you to know how much this game has meant to me and other members of the community for years. I consider it an important part of my history and I have so many pleasant memories of spending summers and weekends here, returning every now and then even recently whenever I needed a reminder of better times and the people I cared about. This game and community has been one of the most gentle and kindest places on the internet I've ever been a part of for the last 11 years.

Upon informing the discord a lot of people were sad to hear the news. I've been using the discord to keep people up to date on the status of the game and give them direct help getting it to run, and I will say the forums do not do enough justice illustrating just how many people there are paying attention to this game, wanting to play it, enjoying it and enjoying talking about it.

Thank you for keeping the game up and running as long as you have, players new and old have gotten to enjoy it in recent years despite the drop in activity and we're all very grateful for that. We're hopeful for a possible resurgence but until then we'll remember this game warmly.

[webearthonline]

Thanks for the feedback.

The site will be kept running for some time to support the new book entitled "Web Earth".
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FTGH4DB
The book features Web Earth animals, like the Condor, Blue Bird, Goat, Hawk, and Cardinal.
The story shifts back and forth between perspectives from that of animals to that of people.
Book II and III will feature more animals and relationships between people and animals will change as the story progresses.
If you want to help, read the book, leave positive feedback on Amazon if you like it, and discuss and share on social media.

There have been other players who were interested and wanted to help find a way to keep the game going, or help it progress forward. World 1 will be left running as long as the site is up. If players can find a way to get an older browser, it might still work for them (for example you can download older versions of Firefox that once supported it, and also older versions of Java). If anyone succeeds, leave a help post here in the forum on how you did it. My preference would be to have a new game that includes humans, more animals, more worlds, such as the Serengeti plains, craters (Ngorogoro), deserts, frozen regions, reefs, etc ...

After giving it some thought, it would be possible for a software writer such as myself to port the game client (the part that runs in a browser) over to a standalone application which would run independent of the browser. Even if the game reaches major success through some different incarnation, I might still bring the original game back to life someday. If the game were to become successful in some different form, original players of WEO would be given a special place of honor, perhaps as "Web Masters". You will have to read the book for that one.

Again, If you want to help, read the book, leave positive feedback on Amazon if you like it, and discuss and share on social media.

WEO

[webearthonline]

Update 2/19/2022 - the software developer certificate for Web Earth's browser app has expired as of Feb 8th, 2022. In the past this would block you from running the browser app, but today it worked and I am not sure why because we are past the expiration date. Note when starting the game, the browser did throw a warning message. Others might want to post here if things work for them, or don't.

As a result of this, World 1 will be left running. I have updated the game so that all the animals including the advanced animals can be played for free. This is for those of you determined enough to find your way into the game as Microsoft starts shutting off Internet Explorer in the near future..

[actualScarikas]

Update 2/19/2022 - the software developer certificate for Web Earth's browser app has expired as of Feb 8th, 2022. In the past this would block you from running the browser app, but today it worked and I am not sure why because we are past the expiration date. Note when starting the game, the browser did throw a warning message. Others might want to post here if things work for them, or don't.

As a result of this, World 1 will be left running. I have updated the game so that all the animals including the advanced animals can be played for free. This is for those of you determined enough to find your way into the game as Microsoft starts shutting off Internet Explorer in the near future..

Members of the discord aren't able to play Advanced Game, they are getting an error that states they have to purchase it.

[webearthonline]

Fixed. World 1 needed to be restarted to pick up the changes. Original points requirements are still in place to play progressively higher animals.

I saw this warning when I launched Internet Explorer 11 today.

IE11_Warning.jpg (31.82 KiB) Viewed 12792 times

This is a Feb 22nd, 2022 (02/22/22) update from Microsoft as to what this means,
After the Internet Explorer desktop application is retired on June 15, 2022, it will be out of support. Additionally, the IE11 desktop application will be disabled through a future Windows 10 cumulative monthly update and will redirect to Microsoft Edge if a user tries to access it.

[actualScarikas]

Fixed. World 1 needed to be restarted to pick up the changes. Original points requirements are still in place to play progressively higher animals.

I saw this warning when I launched Internet Explorer 11 today.
IE11_Warning.jpg


This is a Feb 22nd, 2022 (02/22/22) update from Microsoft as to what this means,
After the Internet Explorer desktop application is retired on June 15, 2022, it will be out of support. Additionally, the IE11 desktop application will be disabled through a future Windows 10 cumulative monthly update and will redirect to Microsoft Edge if a user tries to access it.

Thank you for the quick response & fix!

Members of the discord have had decent luck getting the game to run with the Pale Moon browser I've heard.

[Sino]

I wanted to pop in and give a heartfelt thank you to you for leaving the server/world online. As a very long time player ('07) I had been grieving the game's seemingly impending doom since I saw your original post a few months ago. I almost contacted you in regards to finding a way to keep things alive in some form, fortunately it seems I wasn't the only one with some interest. I acknowledge that at this point keeping the server online is entirely a labor of love, so again, thank you.

When I began playing the game I was a young child with a passion for animals and nature and became totally hooked. I scoured the website and forum and read just about every piece of educational writing you posted, as well as viewed the critter cams. Now as an adult I have a deep love and appreciation for WEO that isn't going anywhere.
I have made significant efforts in the past to futureproof online games that meant something to me in my childhood. It's my personal belief that strides should be taken to preserve all digital programs/games/media/etc. such as WEO for the sake of internet and human history. Especially with online games it is so easy for them to fall to the wayside and become completely abandoned because the networking component makes it more difficult (and expensive) to keep them functional in some way that is reminiscent of how it was intended to be played. Cooperation from the developer I find is the ultimate deciding factor in whether that will be very easy, very difficult, or virtually impossible.

I mostly mention all this just to throw out there that we may be a small (and quiet) community, but there are people who care about the future of WEO, and would potentially be interested in volunteering to help you if that was something you'd be interested in.

As far as how people are accessing the game, you mentioned sharing results. I am currently playing the game through the most recent version of Pale Moon, with Java 8 64 bit installed on my system. The game will not work if Java is not detected in the browser even if it's previously been installed on the system. It seems that reinstalling or updating Java can get the browser to recognize the addon (personally I had it pre-installed and then reinstalled over it with a Java 8 64x download). You can also force the browser to recognize it by building a library through terminal commands, but I think it's fair to say that's too tech-savvy for the average user lol. So far this works flawlessly, we will see if that changes in the future. A standalone client would be greatly appreciated by everyone I'd think, and would be just about the best way to ensure the original WEO's survival, as long as you're interested in maintaining a server. If there ever came a time that you weren't, there are options too, but that's a different long conversation I think.

Anyway, thank you again for everything.

[xXDruidXx]

To anyone reading, I found that by using Pale Moon browser I could play WEO again!

I had been searching for this game for a very long time, after finding it some years ago, it was pretty difficult to find again. I bet with even a small boost in advertising (just making it easier to find) it could become as big, if not bigger than it once was!
I imagine that would also draw so much more deserved attention to the book, which I have bought and am a big fan of so far. Players love to read lore and such linked to their favourite games and so a book and game go hand-in-hand.

I'd love to see a revamp of this game, if possible, to make it more accessible to new and returning players. Or even an expansion, continuation, WEO 2 etc. It still holds such a place that I have yet to find in any other game. I would love for this inspiring game to continue on for years to come, there is nothing that can replace it and I'm sure many would agree.

It seems there is a lot more support for this game than is shown on these forums and I'd love for there to be more ways to support the game, books, etc (including financially) in future. I can imagine there are many players who would love to help where they can if WEO is continued.

[webearthonline]

In the support area of the forum, I started a new topic about using the Pale Moon browser.
If anyone could put together some help on how to do this with some screen shots, that might help.

See the link below:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2283

[webearthonline]

I have confirmed that Microsoft is fully removing Internet Explorer from Windows 10 through normal updates.
After it makes these changes, if you click on Internet Explorer it takes you to the Microsoft Edge browser.