From a game media preservation perspective, I think it's important for games to be preserved in a way similar to the way that the Library of Congress preserves books, so that future generations...
From a game media preservation perspective, I think it's important for games to be preserved in a way similar to the way that the Library of Congress preserves books, so that future generations can see what was made and refer back to it.
From a consumer rights perspective, I think it's important that we don't surrender ownership as a concept to companies who will never have our best interests at heart. If we've exchanged money for a game, it should be ours in perpetuity. (The question of asking a company to host and allow downloads of a game in perpetuity is a different topic, though.)
From a personal perspective, I don't really care? I don't go back and re-play games, and so if everything older than two years was purged from my collection I would care in some abstract way, but I don't think I'd personally have lost anything but the potential to replay things that I was never going to touch anyway.
It's funny how different gamers can be. I almost exclusively play old games, and am more likely to replay a GBA Pokemon game than I am to buy a new release. But from a personal perspective, it...
It's funny how different gamers can be. I almost exclusively play old games, and am more likely to replay a GBA Pokemon game than I am to buy a new release.
But from a personal perspective, it also doesn't affect me very much, since if I want to play a GBA, SNES, etc game, I can just... take it. Game preservation is pretty sorted for those old titles, as the ROMs are everywhere. It's mostly a problem for GaaS titles, which don't generally interest me.
It may be a generational and culture thing. When I was a wee lad, my ONLY option was to replay games. My parents didn’t have much money, so they’d only buy me one game per year. Oddly enough they...
It may be a generational and culture thing. When I was a wee lad, my ONLY option was to replay games. My parents didn’t have much money, so they’d only buy me one game per year. Oddly enough they also had a weird rule of only letting me rent out a game at BlockBuster only once, because they thought it was a waste of money to rerent. Eventually when I was older I started buying myself games, but I’d still replay them out of habit and appreciation. In today’s world people can’t get through games quickly enough. They have ever growing list of unplayed games. The value just isn’t there anymore. Bored of them game you are playing? You don’t have to finish it because you have 50 more waiting.
I myself and having a hard time with that, as I get older and have less time for games, there are so many I want to replay, but so many new ones left to play.
See, I have the same problem, which I why I rarely play new games. I have so little time already, and don't want to spend my free hour a day learning how to play something, when I could just boot...
See, I have the same problem, which I why I rarely play new games. I have so little time already, and don't want to spend my free hour a day learning how to play something, when I could just boot up FFT and see what interesting jobs I can give Ramza and Agrias this time.
I just got a Pokemon romhack that (very lovingly and painstakingly) adds cut beta Pokemon to Fire Red, and this is going to me my main game for the next couple of weeks probably. In theory, I should be interested in, I dunno, the Witcher 3. But then I see the size of the world and how much content there is and I'm like, no thanks!
Ironically the Witcher 3 is what burned me out on games for a while and also led to me ask myself “Do I really want to keep playing games where I spend the day decapitating people”? And as a...
Ironically the Witcher 3 is what burned me out on games for a while and also led to me ask myself “Do I really want to keep playing games where I spend the day decapitating people”? And as a cherry on top, I also just got into rom hacks. I am playing Pokemon Unbound in my iPhone.
Slightly different culture but similar story. The year we got a Play Station, it was already modded to accept burned games, and my cool gamer uncle who bought it for us included a folder full...
Slightly different culture but similar story. The year we got a Play Station, it was already modded to accept burned games, and my cool gamer uncle who bought it for us included a folder full of...what....100 CDs? So I had a seemingly endless number of games and played the heck out of them. All of them. Over and over again, even the ones that are incomprehensible because none of us read Japanese, or the ones so whacky and weird that borders on off-putting, or genres I have zero interest in such as Street Fighter / combat etc.
But on the flip side we would never BUY more games or rent them at the video store: we have games at home. I believe the only additional game we bought was Dance Dance Revolution with a soft mat.
We didn't have money for other home or handheld consoles either. Probably wasn't until I was old enough to make my own money to buy a PS2, before I got a slew of new games.
Yeah, for me, games are mostly about carving new resource optimization routines into my brain. Once I've found a routine that is reasonably optimal, then the rest of the game is just doing that...
Yeah, for me, games are mostly about carving new resource optimization routines into my brain. Once I've found a routine that is reasonably optimal, then the rest of the game is just doing that optimal pattern several thousand times, and that bores me deeply. It's lovely that gaming as a hobby is so broad as to welcome so many people and give them such varied satisfactions.
A lot of old classics have been preserved, but there are definitely plenty of old games that have been lost to time as well. It's just that the mechanism is very different than for GaaS.
A lot of old classics have been preserved, but there are definitely plenty of old games that have been lost to time as well. It's just that the mechanism is very different than for GaaS.
I believe you. Me personally, there's never been an old game I wanted that I haven't been able to get. The closest is versions of games that have never been translated, like the definitive version...
I believe you. Me personally, there's never been an old game I wanted that I haven't been able to get. The closest is versions of games that have never been translated, like the definitive version of Tales of Phantasia. I'm sure there's exception, though I suspect it won't be very many (proportionally compared to modern games).
But just trying to get, I dunno, Anthem after the servers go down is going to be far sight harder than Radiant Historia for the 3DS.
Oh yeah it's not necessarily hard to find the old games you want -- but there's some selection bias there. Old games lost naturally tend to be mostly forgotten, and they often weren't particularly...
Oh yeah it's not necessarily hard to find the old games you want -- but there's some selection bias there. Old games lost naturally tend to be mostly forgotten, and they often weren't particularly beloved in their time. Modern GaaS that get shut down are naturally more likely to have people remember their existence and be pissed about them having been shut down.
I'm kind of out of the loop but I thought PSX, which has the fan English translation, is essentially the same as PSP Fully Voiced, without the additional audio? And then there's Narikiri which...
I'm kind of out of the loop but I thought PSX, which has the fan English translation, is essentially the same as PSP Fully Voiced, without the additional audio? And then there's Narikiri which also doesn't have any English......
Yeah, so the PSX version has multiple fan translations, and is the usual recommendation. You then have full voice. But then the definitive version now is Cross Edition, which comes with Narikiri....
Yeah, so the PSX version has multiple fan translations, and is the usual recommendation. You then have full voice. But then the definitive version now is Cross Edition, which comes with Narikiri. Cross Edition has a new playable character, and all the upgrades from Full Voice.
Haha, no worries, I was pretty sure it still didn't have a translation, so I'm not too disappointed!
Well, I'd probably be able to play it sooner, with with a bit of Japanese knowledge + modern translation help, than any official translation :) I'll count it towards my language education.....
Well, I'd probably be able to play it sooner, with with a bit of Japanese knowledge + modern translation help, than any official translation :) I'll count it towards my language education.....
I actually did try playing it with the script at hand. Got as far as the Gnome battle, I think. But it was just too frustrating. But I think some rudimentary Japanese would be enough, it's a...
I actually did try playing it with the script at hand. Got as far as the Gnome battle, I think. But it was just too frustrating.
But I think some rudimentary Japanese would be enough, it's a really simple script.
That's quite far in! These days, I would use a phone camera over the screen and read the machine translation. Usually fairly decent. Then again, muddling through a JP game without understanding of...
That's quite far in! These days, I would use a phone camera over the screen and read the machine translation. Usually fairly decent. Then again, muddling through a JP game without understanding of any of the story seems to be a rite of passage unto itself
Yeah, I just kinda wanted to at least use Rody for a bit. I was using Retroarch's machine translation thing at first, which was fine, if slow. Then having the script next to me, but I found it...
Yeah, I just kinda wanted to at least use Rody for a bit. I was using Retroarch's machine translation thing at first, which was fine, if slow. Then having the script next to me, but I found it just took me out of the game too much.
I'm just really really hoping they port it one day, or that a fan translation team picks it up. It's not even the translation, that part's finished. It's integrating it into the game.
These service games can’t really be meaningfully preserved though. They require servers, a stream of new content, and a large player base. Even if you could get the game and the servers running...
These service games can’t really be meaningfully preserved though. They require servers, a stream of new content, and a large player base.
Even if you could get the game and the servers running yourself, it’ll never be the same as if you were playing it in the moment with everyone.
I think it wouldn't be the same with a smaller audience, but servers and balance patches/updates are things that can still be done by other people. If you retain a few thousand passionate people,...
I think it wouldn't be the same with a smaller audience, but servers and balance patches/updates are things that can still be done by other people. If you retain a few thousand passionate people, that's plenty to pay to have one or two people maintain and update a fan server.
Yeah, different people are different. I sometimes feel a pulse of nostalgia for how I felt when playing an older game, but if I reinstall it, my immediate feelings are those of boredom and...
Yeah, different people are different. I sometimes feel a pulse of nostalgia for how I felt when playing an older game, but if I reinstall it, my immediate feelings are those of boredom and frustration. I know what hoops I'm going to have to jump through and the story beats that lie ahead. Why would I redo that work when it's not going to match the initial experience?
That's what kids are for, maybe. Have them sit through the slog (for a game that is of interest to them) and then just look over their shoulders to share the highlights and bask in nostalgia via...
That's what kids are for, maybe. Have them sit through the slog (for a game that is of interest to them) and then just look over their shoulders to share the highlights and bask in nostalgia via second hand gaming.
This is one areas where NFTs could actually be useful (though I would prefer being managed by a NGO rather than crypto). Your purchase of a digital good would be more of a cryptographically...
(The question of asking a company to host and allow downloads of a game in perpetuity is a different topic, though.)
This is one areas where NFTs could actually be useful (though I would prefer being managed by a NGO rather than crypto). Your purchase of a digital good would be more of a cryptographically verified receipt that says "I purchased the rights to play this game." and thus can be transferred between any launcher/storefront that is willing to host the content.
Media companies hate this idea because it would be the literal death of non-transferability of copyright licensing. It could bring back the used market for games, music, tv, and books in a digital world.
I think the proposal would go something like this: the NGO is funded by donations or the UN or whoever, and their job is just to hold the receipts. That mostly solves their monetary priorities,...
I think the proposal would go something like this: the NGO is funded by donations or the UN or whoever, and their job is just to hold the receipts. That mostly solves their monetary priorities, and keeps them independent of any particular storefront.
Anyone who wants to get into the business of selling games can do so, and they can have a launcher and various ancillary features, and they can choose whether to allow you to show your receipts you purchased elsewhere and thus download the software from their servers. Some stores/launchers may not honor receipts from other publishers, like Ubisoft and Blizzard launchers are just for their own games, but anyone who wants to truly compete will try to offer something special that keeps gamers using their platform, because that's what determines where they'll most often spend money. Much like Steam accepts game keys purchased elsewhere, the storage and bandwidth costs of honoring game keys no matter their source is worth it to have Steam be your launcher of choice.
But with this proposal, people wouldn't be locked in to Steam just because they bought their games there. If it truly goes to shit when Gabe dies and this proposal has been implemented, then anyone can take their receipts and be on some other platform instead.
So with the primary register and the launcher being separate organizations you let launchers freely compete while making sure that people retain the right to access the software they purchased. The fact that it's based on NFTs isn't crucial, but it does mean there's an open system for communicating these receipts that anyone can check to prove ownership. Rather than proprietary systems for communication, you get one public standard.
In the case of media, it would also provide total indemnification of pirating as an alternative to format shifting. The biggest downside being that piracy enforcement would actually be much...
In the case of media, it would also provide total indemnification of pirating as an alternative to format shifting.
The biggest downside being that piracy enforcement would actually be much easier. But the upside would be a (almost certainly) thriving used and rental market which would drive down the price of things over time.
I envision the copyright holder cutting the original keys, which are then signed ala a SSL cert by the central authority. This would prove initial authenticity of the key. Then each time the key changes hands, it is signed by the seller and purchaser, which would confer that total transfer of ownership rights.
"I have a license to play Breath of the Wild, so fuck off Nintendo and let me play it however I want."
Thats why if possible I always buy games from gog. It frustrates me to no end when game disappears from internet, or video become delisted, or music disappears from saved playlist (obligatory...
Thats why if possible I always buy games from gog. It frustrates me to no end when game disappears from internet, or video become delisted, or music disappears from saved playlist (obligatory f$uck you, youtube, for hiding the name (or even count) of videos removed from playlist).
I agree with the main point of what I read, but we are already past the point of no return. Unless you are buying physical copies, when you buy a game on platforms like Steam, Game Pass, and PSN,...
I agree with the main point of what I read, but we are already past the point of no return. Unless you are buying physical copies, when you buy a game on platforms like Steam, Game Pass, and PSN, I'm pretty sure you are buying a license to install the content, not the game itself. I have conflicting feelings on physical copies themselves, because I know its the only way to preserve a lot of media that gets lost in time, but I also do not want more plastic just hanging around my house and the world in general. SO, I don't know what should/could be done, but this trains already rolling.
Even when you buy a physical copy, it's still a license. This has applied since at least DVD (movies) production, and likely even before that. Additionally, most games are not even complete when...
Even when you buy a physical copy, it's still a license. This has applied since at least DVD (movies) production, and likely even before that.
Additionally, most games are not even complete when you buy a physical copy. You have the absurd route, which is a plastic case with an online store code inside. Sometimes they'll give you a minimum amount of files, and you still download the bulk of the game. You also have actual games but they require day 1 patch downloads that are often massive in size.
In theory it was a licensed, but in practice, they had very little control. I could burn or rip DVDs at will, or dump old GBA games and emulate them. But you're right today, in that new games are...
In theory it was a licensed, but in practice, they had very little control. I could burn or rip DVDs at will, or dump old GBA games and emulate them.
But you're right today, in that new games are sold as incomplete packages and ripping it won't help.
Physical media also deteriorates over time. In 50 years, physical version of many PS1 games are probably not going to work. Digital backups that can be propagated are probably the best format for...
Physical media also deteriorates over time. In 50 years, physical version of many PS1 games are probably not going to work. Digital backups that can be propagated are probably the best format for preservation but the legalities and complications of online-only games throw wrenches into the works.
The thing about digital licenses is that despite the fear of access being pulled at any time, it has only happened once. And it was earlier this year with the online-only game The Crew. It's not like it's the first online-only game to be effectively dead with its servers being shut down, but this is the first time a purchased license has been pulled from accounts. I believe there are already legal challenges happening over this, and it has been another PR nightmare for Ubisoft.
Incidentally, this same article is linked in this Medium article but it attributes it to EA for some reason. And it's an aside when it should be highlighted as a highly exceptional, and unacceptable situation. For all the flak EA gets, I don't think they've ever been as blatantly anti-consumer as Ubisoft repeatedly has been. I don't think the gas should be let up on giving Ubisoft flak for this decision, lest we accidentally accept and normalize this outcome like we did with microtransactions.
This isn't true. From your own link: And from the 87% link, it says: I'm pretty sure there was (among others) a 2009 singleplayer game that got the The Crew treatment, it's not a new concept. And...
The thing about digital licenses is that despite the fear of access being pulled at any time, it has only happened once.
This isn't true. From your own link:
Regardless of the reason, it's an ever-looming reminder of how fragile digital ownership can be. A study by the Video Game History Foundation last year found that around 87% of games are unplayable without diving into some kind of piracy or fan-created archive, and that number could even worsen as physical discs slowly die out. But preservation is becoming a bigger topic, one that's now being taken more seriously as a means of conserving the medium.
And from the 87% link, it says:
The debate around preservation hits close to home for most gamers. Just in this past month, I've written about both Wildstar and A Realm Online, the former you can't play anymore, and the latter had the dial completely reset on a bunch of quality-of-life improvements due to IP holder stonewalling.
Even one of my favourite MMOs, City of Heroes, was completely inaccessible until a private server finally became public in 2019. Finally putting together how dire the situation is in concrete numbers is one step closer to making sure no game gets left behind.
I'm pretty sure there was (among others) a 2009 singleplayer game that got the The Crew treatment, it's not a new concept. And that's ignoring e.g. multiplayer games hardcoded to depend on Gamespy or DRM whose servers were shut down without unlocking the games first.
If this seems like a lazy and insufficiently researched post, you're not wrong - I've got to go to bed though.
Those aren't the same issue? In that statement, I'm talking about the situation of getting a digital license you paid for revoked, not having to require some level of piracy in order to play many...
Those aren't the same issue? In that statement, I'm talking about the situation of getting a digital license you paid for revoked, not having to require some level of piracy in order to play many older titles because they are inaccessible for one reason or another.
Online-only games being inaccessible because of their online features is one thing but nobody was getting their license revoked to prevent them from trying to play the game, like with what happened to the Crew.
I'd be curious what that other game is. I thought the Crew was the first instance of this. Prey (2006) maybe? I am literally playing that game right now. But I didn't think licenses were revoked for it.
I still have my Earth 2140 CD as well as I still have Fallout 1 and 2 CDs. I also have Mafia, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate 1&2 and many many others. I buy games on GOG, but I also do that on Steam....
I still have my Earth 2140 CD as well as I still have Fallout 1 and 2 CDs. I also have Mafia, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate 1&2 and many many others. I buy games on GOG, but I also do that on Steam. One is for preserving them (by downloading them using a script) and the other is for convenience - I can play almost anything on Linux using Steam (buying the game there gets me all the needed settings out of the box).
I hate not being able to own thing I pay for. I still consider Steam the most valid though. While my game library will die with me (or Steam), I still get feeling that if I don't buy games burdened by another licence (read: EA games, and probably other's studios as well) on Steam, I won't get fucked over.
I loved how Forza Horizon 4 got update where developers/distributors said how the game support is going to end and when. Basically you had the chance to get online/server dependant achievements for another 2 months or something like that and you can get the game for almost half a year still. And you will be able to play it even after that. This is how you kinda end the game's lifecycle if you have to (for example due to licencing of the cars) in my eyes.
Yet still - I don't have the CD/DVD/Blu ray in my hand, nor do I have installer file to be used in the future when Steam might cease to exist. Too bad this time is already behind us. I miss it.
Ultimately, I feel people gave up that ownership. Because most people don't value preserving content and would give that up for a cheaper, a la carte rental. You still can buy some blu rays of TV...
The subscription service model has taken music, film, and more from us. Let’s keep our video games.
Ultimately, I feel people gave up that ownership. Because most people don't value preserving content and would give that up for a cheaper, a la carte rental. You still can buy some blu rays of TV seasons and movies, but few people seem interested in paying $10-30 on that vs subcribing to netflix and watching multiple movies/shows temporarily.
It feels like with Gamepass that the same sentiment will win over video games as well. PC has already long given up physical media, mobile has never really had the option, and consoles have been dabbling with in-betweens for a decade now.
I resonate with the reasoning, but I feel it's only a matter of time. People simply don't value media to that extent unless it's the only option.
Also:
Meanwhile, in 2024, the video game industry will turn a staggering $282 billion in revenue. Video games worldwide make more than twice the money of all film and all music combined.
This may sadly work against the author's point when you look at the breakdown.
more specifically, this chart in the article. Mobile has long eclipsed console gaming and stands toe to toe with console and PC gaming combined. A medium ruled by a free-to-play model which usually isn't friendly towards preservation. Then you see the costs of microtransactions in those games and you wonder if it's even worth funding games wholesale.
From a game media preservation perspective, I think it's important for games to be preserved in a way similar to the way that the Library of Congress preserves books, so that future generations can see what was made and refer back to it.
From a consumer rights perspective, I think it's important that we don't surrender ownership as a concept to companies who will never have our best interests at heart. If we've exchanged money for a game, it should be ours in perpetuity. (The question of asking a company to host and allow downloads of a game in perpetuity is a different topic, though.)
From a personal perspective, I don't really care? I don't go back and re-play games, and so if everything older than two years was purged from my collection I would care in some abstract way, but I don't think I'd personally have lost anything but the potential to replay things that I was never going to touch anyway.
It's funny how different gamers can be. I almost exclusively play old games, and am more likely to replay a GBA Pokemon game than I am to buy a new release.
But from a personal perspective, it also doesn't affect me very much, since if I want to play a GBA, SNES, etc game, I can just... take it. Game preservation is pretty sorted for those old titles, as the ROMs are everywhere. It's mostly a problem for GaaS titles, which don't generally interest me.
It may be a generational and culture thing. When I was a wee lad, my ONLY option was to replay games. My parents didn’t have much money, so they’d only buy me one game per year. Oddly enough they also had a weird rule of only letting me rent out a game at BlockBuster only once, because they thought it was a waste of money to rerent. Eventually when I was older I started buying myself games, but I’d still replay them out of habit and appreciation. In today’s world people can’t get through games quickly enough. They have ever growing list of unplayed games. The value just isn’t there anymore. Bored of them game you are playing? You don’t have to finish it because you have 50 more waiting.
I myself and having a hard time with that, as I get older and have less time for games, there are so many I want to replay, but so many new ones left to play.
See, I have the same problem, which I why I rarely play new games. I have so little time already, and don't want to spend my free hour a day learning how to play something, when I could just boot up FFT and see what interesting jobs I can give Ramza and Agrias this time.
I just got a Pokemon romhack that (very lovingly and painstakingly) adds cut beta Pokemon to Fire Red, and this is going to me my main game for the next couple of weeks probably. In theory, I should be interested in, I dunno, the Witcher 3. But then I see the size of the world and how much content there is and I'm like, no thanks!
Ironically the Witcher 3 is what burned me out on games for a while and also led to me ask myself “Do I really want to keep playing games where I spend the day decapitating people”? And as a cherry on top, I also just got into rom hacks. I am playing Pokemon Unbound in my iPhone.
Ooh, that's one of the more famous ones. How are you finding it so far?
I’m enjoying the LOQ improvements so far. I’m not that far in, and only have 2 gum badges, but I’m enjoying it.
Slightly different culture but similar story. The year we got a Play Station, it was already modded to accept burned games, and my cool gamer uncle who bought it for us included a folder full of...what....100 CDs? So I had a seemingly endless number of games and played the heck out of them. All of them. Over and over again, even the ones that are incomprehensible because none of us read Japanese, or the ones so whacky and weird that borders on off-putting, or genres I have zero interest in such as Street Fighter / combat etc.
But on the flip side we would never BUY more games or rent them at the video store: we have games at home. I believe the only additional game we bought was Dance Dance Revolution with a soft mat.
We didn't have money for other home or handheld consoles either. Probably wasn't until I was old enough to make my own money to buy a PS2, before I got a slew of new games.
Yeah, for me, games are mostly about carving new resource optimization routines into my brain. Once I've found a routine that is reasonably optimal, then the rest of the game is just doing that optimal pattern several thousand times, and that bores me deeply. It's lovely that gaming as a hobby is so broad as to welcome so many people and give them such varied satisfactions.
A lot of old classics have been preserved, but there are definitely plenty of old games that have been lost to time as well. It's just that the mechanism is very different than for GaaS.
I believe you. Me personally, there's never been an old game I wanted that I haven't been able to get. The closest is versions of games that have never been translated, like the definitive version of Tales of Phantasia. I'm sure there's exception, though I suspect it won't be very many (proportionally compared to modern games).
But just trying to get, I dunno, Anthem after the servers go down is going to be far sight harder than Radiant Historia for the 3DS.
Oh yeah it's not necessarily hard to find the old games you want -- but there's some selection bias there. Old games lost naturally tend to be mostly forgotten, and they often weren't particularly beloved in their time. Modern GaaS that get shut down are naturally more likely to have people remember their existence and be pissed about them having been shut down.
!! No definitive official translation but you have played the fan translation of Phantasia though right?
For Cross Edition? As far as I know, that hasn't been done yet.
I'm kind of out of the loop but I thought PSX, which has the fan English translation, is essentially the same as PSP Fully Voiced, without the additional audio? And then there's Narikiri which also doesn't have any English......
Sorry if I got your hopes up :p
Yeah, so the PSX version has multiple fan translations, and is the usual recommendation. You then have full voice. But then the definitive version now is Cross Edition, which comes with Narikiri. Cross Edition has a new playable character, and all the upgrades from Full Voice.
Haha, no worries, I was pretty sure it still didn't have a translation, so I'm not too disappointed!
Well, I'd probably be able to play it sooner, with with a bit of Japanese knowledge + modern translation help, than any official translation :) I'll count it towards my language education.....
I actually did try playing it with the script at hand. Got as far as the Gnome battle, I think. But it was just too frustrating.
But I think some rudimentary Japanese would be enough, it's a really simple script.
That's quite far in! These days, I would use a phone camera over the screen and read the machine translation. Usually fairly decent. Then again, muddling through a JP game without understanding of any of the story seems to be a rite of passage unto itself
Yeah, I just kinda wanted to at least use Rody for a bit. I was using Retroarch's machine translation thing at first, which was fine, if slow. Then having the script next to me, but I found it just took me out of the game too much.
I'm just really really hoping they port it one day, or that a fan translation team picks it up. It's not even the translation, that part's finished. It's integrating it into the game.
These service games can’t really be meaningfully preserved though. They require servers, a stream of new content, and a large player base.
Even if you could get the game and the servers running yourself, it’ll never be the same as if you were playing it in the moment with everyone.
I think it wouldn't be the same with a smaller audience, but servers and balance patches/updates are things that can still be done by other people. If you retain a few thousand passionate people, that's plenty to pay to have one or two people maintain and update a fan server.
What, 2 years. I'd be losing all the monster Hunter games, most of the Souls series, that's a ridiculously short age of a game
Yeah, different people are different. I sometimes feel a pulse of nostalgia for how I felt when playing an older game, but if I reinstall it, my immediate feelings are those of boredom and frustration. I know what hoops I'm going to have to jump through and the story beats that lie ahead. Why would I redo that work when it's not going to match the initial experience?
That's what kids are for, maybe. Have them sit through the slog (for a game that is of interest to them) and then just look over their shoulders to share the highlights and bask in nostalgia via second hand gaming.
No kids, but I do watch people play video games online for the same purpose.
Hmm, good point. Must be also why so many people watch the sports.
This is one areas where NFTs could actually be useful (though I would prefer being managed by a NGO rather than crypto). Your purchase of a digital good would be more of a cryptographically verified receipt that says "I purchased the rights to play this game." and thus can be transferred between any launcher/storefront that is willing to host the content.
Media companies hate this idea because it would be the literal death of non-transferability of copyright licensing. It could bring back the used market for games, music, tv, and books in a digital world.
But that has the same problems as other uses of NFTs. You're still relying on them continuing to host the content (and honor your receipt).
I think the proposal would go something like this: the NGO is funded by donations or the UN or whoever, and their job is just to hold the receipts. That mostly solves their monetary priorities, and keeps them independent of any particular storefront.
Anyone who wants to get into the business of selling games can do so, and they can have a launcher and various ancillary features, and they can choose whether to allow you to show your receipts you purchased elsewhere and thus download the software from their servers. Some stores/launchers may not honor receipts from other publishers, like Ubisoft and Blizzard launchers are just for their own games, but anyone who wants to truly compete will try to offer something special that keeps gamers using their platform, because that's what determines where they'll most often spend money. Much like Steam accepts game keys purchased elsewhere, the storage and bandwidth costs of honoring game keys no matter their source is worth it to have Steam be your launcher of choice.
But with this proposal, people wouldn't be locked in to Steam just because they bought their games there. If it truly goes to shit when Gabe dies and this proposal has been implemented, then anyone can take their receipts and be on some other platform instead.
So with the primary register and the launcher being separate organizations you let launchers freely compete while making sure that people retain the right to access the software they purchased. The fact that it's based on NFTs isn't crucial, but it does mean there's an open system for communicating these receipts that anyone can check to prove ownership. Rather than proprietary systems for communication, you get one public standard.
In the case of media, it would also provide total indemnification of pirating as an alternative to format shifting.
The biggest downside being that piracy enforcement would actually be much easier. But the upside would be a (almost certainly) thriving used and rental market which would drive down the price of things over time.
I envision the copyright holder cutting the original keys, which are then signed ala a SSL cert by the central authority. This would prove initial authenticity of the key. Then each time the key changes hands, it is signed by the seller and purchaser, which would confer that total transfer of ownership rights.
"I have a license to play Breath of the Wild, so fuck off Nintendo and let me play it however I want."
Thats why if possible I always buy games from gog. It frustrates me to no end when game disappears from internet, or video become delisted, or music disappears from saved playlist (obligatory f$uck you, youtube, for hiding the name (or even count) of videos removed from playlist).
I admire Gog, and I wish they cared more about Linux support, like Steam has. You should own your operating system, too, in addition to your games.
I agree with the main point of what I read, but we are already past the point of no return. Unless you are buying physical copies, when you buy a game on platforms like Steam, Game Pass, and PSN, I'm pretty sure you are buying a license to install the content, not the game itself. I have conflicting feelings on physical copies themselves, because I know its the only way to preserve a lot of media that gets lost in time, but I also do not want more plastic just hanging around my house and the world in general. SO, I don't know what should/could be done, but this trains already rolling.
Even when you buy a physical copy, it's still a license. This has applied since at least DVD (movies) production, and likely even before that.
Additionally, most games are not even complete when you buy a physical copy. You have the absurd route, which is a plastic case with an online store code inside. Sometimes they'll give you a minimum amount of files, and you still download the bulk of the game. You also have actual games but they require day 1 patch downloads that are often massive in size.
So, yeah, we're well past the point of no return.
In theory it was a licensed, but in practice, they had very little control. I could burn or rip DVDs at will, or dump old GBA games and emulate them.
But you're right today, in that new games are sold as incomplete packages and ripping it won't help.
Physical media also deteriorates over time. In 50 years, physical version of many PS1 games are probably not going to work. Digital backups that can be propagated are probably the best format for preservation but the legalities and complications of online-only games throw wrenches into the works.
The thing about digital licenses is that despite the fear of access being pulled at any time, it has only happened once. And it was earlier this year with the online-only game The Crew. It's not like it's the first online-only game to be effectively dead with its servers being shut down, but this is the first time a purchased license has been pulled from accounts. I believe there are already legal challenges happening over this, and it has been another PR nightmare for Ubisoft.
Incidentally, this same article is linked in this Medium article but it attributes it to EA for some reason. And it's an aside when it should be highlighted as a highly exceptional, and unacceptable situation. For all the flak EA gets, I don't think they've ever been as blatantly anti-consumer as Ubisoft repeatedly has been. I don't think the gas should be let up on giving Ubisoft flak for this decision, lest we accidentally accept and normalize this outcome like we did with microtransactions.
This isn't true. From your own link:
And from the 87% link, it says:
I'm pretty sure there was (among others) a 2009 singleplayer game that got the The Crew treatment, it's not a new concept. And that's ignoring e.g. multiplayer games hardcoded to depend on Gamespy or DRM whose servers were shut down without unlocking the games first.
If this seems like a lazy and insufficiently researched post, you're not wrong - I've got to go to bed though.
Those aren't the same issue? In that statement, I'm talking about the situation of getting a digital license you paid for revoked, not having to require some level of piracy in order to play many older titles because they are inaccessible for one reason or another.
Online-only games being inaccessible because of their online features is one thing but nobody was getting their license revoked to prevent them from trying to play the game, like with what happened to the Crew.
I'd be curious what that other game is. I thought the Crew was the first instance of this. Prey (2006) maybe? I am literally playing that game right now. But I didn't think licenses were revoked for it.
I still have my Earth 2140 CD as well as I still have Fallout 1 and 2 CDs. I also have Mafia, Morrowind, Baldur's Gate 1&2 and many many others. I buy games on GOG, but I also do that on Steam. One is for preserving them (by downloading them using a script) and the other is for convenience - I can play almost anything on Linux using Steam (buying the game there gets me all the needed settings out of the box).
I hate not being able to own thing I pay for. I still consider Steam the most valid though. While my game library will die with me (or Steam), I still get feeling that if I don't buy games burdened by another licence (read: EA games, and probably other's studios as well) on Steam, I won't get fucked over.
I loved how Forza Horizon 4 got update where developers/distributors said how the game support is going to end and when. Basically you had the chance to get online/server dependant achievements for another 2 months or something like that and you can get the game for almost half a year still. And you will be able to play it even after that. This is how you kinda end the game's lifecycle if you have to (for example due to licencing of the cars) in my eyes.
Yet still - I don't have the CD/DVD/Blu ray in my hand, nor do I have installer file to be used in the future when Steam might cease to exist. Too bad this time is already behind us. I miss it.
Ultimately, I feel people gave up that ownership. Because most people don't value preserving content and would give that up for a cheaper, a la carte rental. You still can buy some blu rays of TV seasons and movies, but few people seem interested in paying $10-30 on that vs subcribing to netflix and watching multiple movies/shows temporarily.
It feels like with Gamepass that the same sentiment will win over video games as well. PC has already long given up physical media, mobile has never really had the option, and consoles have been dabbling with in-betweens for a decade now.
I resonate with the reasoning, but I feel it's only a matter of time. People simply don't value media to that extent unless it's the only option.
Also:
This may sadly work against the author's point when you look at the breakdown.
https://newzoo.com/resources/blog/global-games-market-revenue-estimates-and-forecasts-in-2024
more specifically, this chart in the article. Mobile has long eclipsed console gaming and stands toe to toe with console and PC gaming combined. A medium ruled by a free-to-play model which usually isn't friendly towards preservation. Then you see the costs of microtransactions in those games and you wonder if it's even worth funding games wholesale.