I've read so much about GOG, but never bought a game there. DOOM, DRM-free and with discount is an amazing offer. Just lately, seeing how some people lost games due to them only being "licensed"...
I've read so much about GOG, but never bought a game there. DOOM, DRM-free and with discount is an amazing offer.
Just lately, seeing how some people lost games due to them only being "licensed" on Steam or other platforms, I've started looking into GOG and itch.
But I wonder: What can we do about games which require you to be online? Games which require a server on which you can play online because it is an online game only?
Over the years, I've lost a few games I liked because they were shut down. For one, someone hosted a private server to keep it going, but what is the legal background with such?
Ross Scott of the YouTube channel Accursed Farms has talked about this issue extensively, and actually has spearheaded a campaign to deal with it. TL;DR: It depends on what you mean by...
Ross Scott of the YouTube channel Accursed Farms has talked about this issue extensively, and actually has spearheaded a campaign to deal with it.
TL;DR:
It depends on what you mean by "online-only". Online-only games fall into two broad categories:
"True" online-only games, where most of the game logic is executed on a server. MMOs are the most salient example here. These games can theoretically be reverse-engineered, but it's extremely difficult, and only a select few have large/dedicated enough fanbases to make it happen (and, TBH, I feel like the golden age of this kind of reverse-engineering is over---years-long industry-dominating phenomena like WoW just don't happen anymore). Short of that, there's not much to be done.
"Fake" online-only games, where the online-only requirement is essentially just DRM, or at the very least there's a perfectly functional single-player mode that's gated behind a server connection. "The Crew" is a pretty well-known example of this sort of game, and it did get shut down. With these sorts of games, there's nothing "real" that makes them unplayable after the servers shut down; it's just corporate greed or apathy.
The goal of "Stop Killing Games" is to get legislation passed to force companies to leave games from the second category in some sort of minimally-viable state after the servers shut down.
Short of legislation, the only possible solutions that I can think of are:
Boycotts/Pressure/PR campaigns to make companies to do the same sort of thing that "Stop Killing Games" legislation would force them to do.
Cracking the games to get rid of the online-only requirement.
I feel this. Hard. Years ago, like, in 2000 I think, EA released a game called Motor City Online. It's original working title was Need for Speed - Motor City. Like the rest of the franchise, it...
I feel this. Hard.
Years ago, like, in 2000 I think, EA released a game called Motor City Online. It's original working title was Need for Speed - Motor City. Like the rest of the franchise, it was a sim weighted arcade racer, but this chapter focused on American muscle cars and hot rods. It was also incredibly unique in that it used a database of actual parts and performance figures from Dyno 2000 - a program used by mechanics to blueprint actual engines - as its parts catalog for your in game car. Hot Rod Magazine actually built a car in game to the same specs as one of their project cars, and the digital version performed within 1/10 of a second of the real world counterpart on the dragstrip. It was THAT good.
It ran for three glorious years until they decided to pull the plug, at which point all of us that still loved the game were left with a giant hole where it used to be. The code for the game... All of it... Was on the cd that we all bought. Tracks, cars, the database. All of it. The only part that needed a server was the multiplayer racing part. It was originally designed as a single player game, and could easily exist as one. To this day, there is a small community of fans that would love for it to be unlocked, and several people have been able to get it to work offline in some form here and there, showing it's possible.
Still, EA refuses to allow any of it, and actively searches out the hackers responsible for the offline patches and uses their well funded legal team to ruin them. It's disgusting.
Well, I can still play Unreal Tournament online despite the publisher removing every trace of the game and closing the master server. The actual game was run on private servers from day one and...
Well, I can still play Unreal Tournament online despite the publisher removing every trace of the game and closing the master server. The actual game was run on private servers from day one and doesn't strictly need a master server (which is only used for announcements). A master server has been implemented as open source software since, and using a community maintained instance of it on the client is just a matter of a configuration change.
In the interest of continuity, I would favor games like that, with a decentralized online play model. That comes with its own bunch of caveats, though. Moderation, getting rid of cheaters etc. becomes a local problem that every server owner has to deal with. As a player, getting kicked out for entirely arbitrary reasons at the whims of the server owners, too.
Personally I'm more inclined to accept most online games as something likely ephemeral that will die with the community if not the service. Still, there are some games that have shown enough of a lasting appeal to keep a decent player base for decades.
Going back to the topic of Doom, I played a lot of Doom II online during the pandemic using Odamex. The Dooms and the Quakes have had a sort of ultimate boon to "preservation" by eventually becoming GPL licensed software that anyone can build on. The original Doom multiplayer ran synchronously on IPX, modem-to-modem or null cable IIRC and now 30 years later I can run it online with client side prediction+interpolated rollback, smooth as butter. I imagine that licensed engines and middleware are so prevalent in commercial games now that this may not be not feasible for most modern games.
80% off right now too:
https://www.gog.com/en/game/doom_2016
Felt almost bad for grabbing it for less cost than a cup of coffee.
I've read so much about GOG, but never bought a game there. DOOM, DRM-free and with discount is an amazing offer.
Just lately, seeing how some people lost games due to them only being "licensed" on Steam or other platforms, I've started looking into GOG and itch.
But I wonder: What can we do about games which require you to be online? Games which require a server on which you can play online because it is an online game only?
Over the years, I've lost a few games I liked because they were shut down. For one, someone hosted a private server to keep it going, but what is the legal background with such?
Ross Scott of the YouTube channel Accursed Farms has talked about this issue extensively, and actually has spearheaded a campaign to deal with it.
TL;DR:
It depends on what you mean by "online-only". Online-only games fall into two broad categories:
The goal of "Stop Killing Games" is to get legislation passed to force companies to leave games from the second category in some sort of minimally-viable state after the servers shut down.
Short of legislation, the only possible solutions that I can think of are:
I feel this. Hard.
Years ago, like, in 2000 I think, EA released a game called Motor City Online. It's original working title was Need for Speed - Motor City. Like the rest of the franchise, it was a sim weighted arcade racer, but this chapter focused on American muscle cars and hot rods. It was also incredibly unique in that it used a database of actual parts and performance figures from Dyno 2000 - a program used by mechanics to blueprint actual engines - as its parts catalog for your in game car. Hot Rod Magazine actually built a car in game to the same specs as one of their project cars, and the digital version performed within 1/10 of a second of the real world counterpart on the dragstrip. It was THAT good.
It ran for three glorious years until they decided to pull the plug, at which point all of us that still loved the game were left with a giant hole where it used to be. The code for the game... All of it... Was on the cd that we all bought. Tracks, cars, the database. All of it. The only part that needed a server was the multiplayer racing part. It was originally designed as a single player game, and could easily exist as one. To this day, there is a small community of fans that would love for it to be unlocked, and several people have been able to get it to work offline in some form here and there, showing it's possible.
Still, EA refuses to allow any of it, and actively searches out the hackers responsible for the offline patches and uses their well funded legal team to ruin them. It's disgusting.
Weird timing. I was actually thinking about MCO just yesterday and often do.
There really was nothing like it and hasn't been anything since.
Well, I can still play Unreal Tournament online despite the publisher removing every trace of the game and closing the master server. The actual game was run on private servers from day one and doesn't strictly need a master server (which is only used for announcements). A master server has been implemented as open source software since, and using a community maintained instance of it on the client is just a matter of a configuration change.
In the interest of continuity, I would favor games like that, with a decentralized online play model. That comes with its own bunch of caveats, though. Moderation, getting rid of cheaters etc. becomes a local problem that every server owner has to deal with. As a player, getting kicked out for entirely arbitrary reasons at the whims of the server owners, too.
Personally I'm more inclined to accept most online games as something likely ephemeral that will die with the community if not the service. Still, there are some games that have shown enough of a lasting appeal to keep a decent player base for decades.
Going back to the topic of Doom, I played a lot of Doom II online during the pandemic using Odamex. The Dooms and the Quakes have had a sort of ultimate boon to "preservation" by eventually becoming GPL licensed software that anyone can build on. The original Doom multiplayer ran synchronously on IPX, modem-to-modem or null cable IIRC and now 30 years later I can run it online with client side prediction+interpolated rollback, smooth as butter. I imagine that licensed engines and middleware are so prevalent in commercial games now that this may not be not feasible for most modern games.