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Comment by Gamemaster1379 | Hacker News Reader

I actually enjoy reversing APIs. A game I really liked to play announced EOS last year. I ended up capturing a bunch of mitm traffic and built my own API instead and now head up a private server for it.

I don't dare monetize that project, but I wish I could use my skills to make some extra money at reversing APIs. Wouldn't know where to begin though.

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I have the same wish, and wish that for you, but tangentially I wanted to offer that if you were to publish the game server you built, to the very best of my knowledge alternative implementations are protected by US law (assuming that applies to you, of course) and then everyone in a similar boat could sponsor your project, straight up donate to you, or at very least you'll have made the world a better place for the players in a similar situation as you were

The game is Gundam Evolution, so Bandai Namco is the owner. They are known to be very litigious and protective of Gundam IP.

The game was a multiplayer FPS and involved cosmetic micro transactions.

Due to mismanagement they shut down in one year. It launched in late 2022 and EOSed late 2024.

I'm in the US, yes. The company is Japanese though and they may not care as much about US law when choosing to pursue. Even if they ultimately don't have a case, there's still enough gray area to torment-by-lawyer.

For that reason I chose not to take any cash for the project. I also don't distribute any game files. Trying to minimize risk as much as possible.

But yeah! It was a good community building project. We're about to hit 10,000 members I hope it leads to some connections that are profit rearing.

You're a hero. I couldn't care less what laws say, companies that go after people like you deserve to be boycotted mercilessly. I haven't bought a single EA game since they C&D'd the people reverse engineering Battlefield 2 and 2142 network protocols. They just wanted to keep some beloved games alive. I will never forgive them for it.

Whatever you're doing, I hope you get away with it.

I appreciate it. So far so good. We've been hosting lobbies for about about 6 months now.

Also, I made a typo. They shit down in late 2023, not 2024. So between November 2023 and March 2024, there was no public place to play the game we've brought it back since though.

Hope Bamco lets us be in our little corner for now!

I feel the same way about monetizing my api reverse engineering skills. I taught myself to program by reverse engineering api's, and it's what led me to pursue computer science. I'm pretty good at it, but I can't seem to find a role to flex my skills.

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