“It’s a weird, challenging problem, though, because I think that at the same time, if we’re going to have any games that are sincere live services, it seems mutually exclusive to have something that’s going to be a living thing that can’t be allowed to die. I don’t know how to get around that.”
Dedicated servers. Let people host their own servers. How is this so fucking hard to understand? When the company is ready to move on and retire their official servers they can do so without invoking ire from the playerbase.
The problem (for them) with that is that the server is what keeps the live service shit locked down so you have to pay for it. If you control the servers, you also control the unlockable items. They don’t want that. They want to nickel and dime you with skins.
I know what you mean, but they’re going to abandon it eventually, right? What matters is how they abandon it; what they leave behind. Currently, they leave nothing for the playerbase.
If they need to retire the live service to move forward, so be it. But if I wanna boot up a server for a night of gameplay with friends on some retired game I should be able to do so.
Allowing dedicated servers after said live service retirement is the fix.
Or keep the live service model, but label things correctly:
You’re getting a subscription to the service that’s guaranteed to last at least until [planned minimum end date]. Make it illegal to label anything using “buy” that doesn’t grant a permanent, non-expiring license to the software or digital good.
There’s nothing wrong with charging for a subscription. If that’s their product, and the only way they can offer the product, then clearly market it that way and there’s no legal problem under the proposed rules.
Granted, that still sucks for videogame preservation, but at least it’s honest. And I’m not sure how many people will be willing to shell out $80+ for a “minimum 24 month subscription” to a new game, or pay $9.99 for a "micro"transaction they’re guaranteed to keep access to for
8 7 65 months.How would someone host their own version of a live service game?
Way I see it is it just stops being a live service game, and stays at the latest version, which is the one you can then host.
Exactly this. It would obviously be disappointing to lose leaderboards or any other massively multiplayer elements like that, but just being able to fire up the game and have fun with friends after the live service has shut down is basically all that needs to happen.
Rent a server and run the software, like any other game server? People used to run their own “illegal” World of Warcraft servers. There is not reason any other live service game couldn’t be run on a private server, game developers just decided to hold their server software hostage.
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CEOs Continue to Ponder Why People Keep Sharing the Phrase “Eat the rich”
But I just don’t think I’m that tasty
“CEO veers off-topic into existential crisis.” Cool but what about some promise of people actually owning their games, Randy?
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Memes. The DNA of the soul.
greasy randy
And all things end
All that we intend
is scrawled in sand
It slips right through our hand
And just knowing
That everything will end
Should not change our plan
Whеn we begin againIs this an existential crisis 🦋
Maybe Randy isnt somebody you want on your side in a legal battle or frankly anything else.
