That’s one of the methods that SKG has suggested - just publishing the server API and leaving the actual (re)implementation of the server program to the community. That still leaves a lot of work for the community but at least it’s tractable, much more than reverse engineering raw network packets from scratch.
Why not just make the companies open source the server code when they feel the game is no longer profitable? The game can remain closed source.
The servers may include third-party licensed code that the developers don’t have the rights to release
Then release the spec and protocols so someone else can redevelop/ reengineer it. If they need third party, they can license or reverse engineer.
That’s one of the methods that SKG has suggested - just publishing the server API and leaving the actual (re)implementation of the server program to the community. That still leaves a lot of work for the community but at least it’s tractable, much more than reverse engineering raw network packets from scratch.