PirateSoftwareYTComment

Context: --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3jMKeg9S-s
-------------------------------------------------------------

It does make sense in the real world to allow people to make/have their own servers for the game after the devs have killed their own servers. Even though it isn't the same kind of situation, take a look at older call of duty games where people have their own dedicated servers to play on even though they are a p2p game. It works and makes sense. Let people make and have their own servers.

As for the "Keep games in a functional/playable state". it's expected to be done when the game eventually loses service/support and gets killed off. Some people still want to play the game regardless of how small or niche the community is), having SOMETHING to do in the game to play with while offline, by yourself, or locally is better than killing the game and revoking people's ability (that they paid for) to even open the game and play it.

People still paid to have access and the games are not marketed as a service just a game, you pay 1 time and go from there. There is no subscription based model for the live service game telling people it may be killed off at some point. You paid money one time to play the game, it feels like you have been scammed out of your money and given a middle finger when you can no longer play what you have paid to have access to/play.

I think it is fine for someone to take the server binaries for a game you don't care about anymore, a game that was thrown in the garbage, and/or killed off, etc...and then monetize it, I think it's fine. YOU aren't supporting it anymore, YOU abandoned it for whatever the reason may be (good or bad), it is not on you anymore it is now their own server they are hosting with their hardware or whatever service...not yours. They can do whatever they want because it's their own server. YOU just allow the community (however big or small or niche) access to the binaries, that's it.


In terms of there being less live service games as it makes devs not want to make them, I defer to older games like Minecraft xbox360 edition by 4jstudios. The game still got updated, and updates sent out after the game was launched. You don't NEED to have a live service game where it's always online to be able to push updates, etc. Or like older COD games, sure it was a p2p system, but now there are servers hosted by the community that you can play on if you have a PC and you can play those games still. And those games were also not a live service (from my understanding and what I remember) and they also got updates overtime, etc. The point I am making is that a game doesn't NEED to be a live service and always online just to be able to push updates and be successful. If devs don't want to make a game like that then so be it. Some devs will and others won't, and that's okay. But you don't NEED to have the game be live service.


No one is wanting to preserve the game in the bad state when the game is EOS/EOL (end of service/end of life), people and myself want the games preserved for the story, lore, worlds, art, nostalgia, etc. And who knows, maybe someone and their friend group(s) can get together and play by themselves on that "dead game" sometime. You don't need many many many many random strangers that you'd never interact with anyways to play the game when most of the game is AI characters, shop keepers, illusions of population, etc. Never allowing people to experience the lore and worlds of the game because a dev somewhere doesn't want to or is lazy...sucks.


In regards to some quotes;
"It opens a route for abuse of the devs so it isn't a solution". For you. It's not a solution for you. The game is already EOL, abandoned, has no service, or not supported anymore. They (the people with binaries) are hosting it on their own servers, etc. it's out of your hands now. If your entire studio gets crippled by bots...then that's kinda on you and the devs. It shouldn't have been allowed to begin with and ways to limit how many bots exist should have been worked on before closing shop. What happened with tf2 was the devs not working on the game where they needed to be working on and letting it get VERY bad. So bad that the entire community protested.

"it's not making sense" FOR YOU. Once again..it's not making sense FOR YOU. Just because you can't see how it makes sense, doesn't mean it doesn't make sense somehow.

Finally;
I do agree with some things like games needing to specify that you are buying a license for the service, and having you pay a sub to have access instead of a 1 time payment a large TOS on top of everything else that is made in a way that a normal person can't understand and won't read. But I still don't agree with you on a lot. As i'm sure you can tell..

Anyways, have fun at DefCon and enjoy your vacation!