4 ms·

Back in the day one could host one's own games and servers. What happened with that?

by zwaps 6y ago

dijit 6y ago
I answered that here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23124383 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23124383
- SiempreViernes 6y ago
  Wrong link? The comment you linked doesn't really address the disappearance of self hosting servers. My guess is it was a combination of cost-savings related to the extra polish needed for making a distributable server, but mainly as an anti-piracy measure.
  - dijit 6y ago
    hrm, I thought it did, sorry. I can be more comprehensive though, because there's more to it than the comment I linked. Back in the time of dedicated servers that you mention, there were a few caveats: 1) No console players, 2) You had directory listings of publicly accessible instances, 3) it was the Wild West, connecting to some servers was at best, confusing with weird rules, or at worst actually dangerous to your computer. (if there's client bugs). So, that's the first thing, the UX is atrocious and there can be a lot of abuse. Secondly, when it comes to crafting a "global experience" as in, one with global state which improves over time, you can do the "WoW" style and let people reverse engineer your servers so they can have Private instances. Or you can do the Diablo style where you have shared persistent state, no server package. Other session based games that have no state are relatively easy to release server packages for, because there's no expectation that you'll build a character for 200hours. You spin up a counter strike server and you're playing as if it was an official server or not. But with The Division or Destiny, there is "precious loot" and the whole game is built on the idea of a world in which you can encounter other people; it loses all charm if you can control who can come in or grant yourself whatever gun you want to go kill the last boss in the game.

Back in the day one could host one's own games and servers. What happened with that?

by zwaps 6y ago

Back in the day one could host one's own games and servers. What happened with that?

dijit 6y ago

I answered that here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23124383 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23124383

SiempreViernes 6y ago
Wrong link? The comment you linked doesn't really address the disappearance of self hosting servers. My guess is it was a combination of cost-savings related to the extra polish needed for making a distributable server, but mainly as an anti-piracy measure.
- dijit 6y ago
  hrm, I thought it did, sorry. I can be more comprehensive though, because there's more to it than the comment I linked. Back in the time of dedicated servers that you mention, there were a few caveats: 1) No console players, 2) You had directory listings of publicly accessible instances, 3) it was the Wild West, connecting to some servers was at best, confusing with weird rules, or at worst actually dangerous to your computer. (if there's client bugs). So, that's the first thing, the UX is atrocious and there can be a lot of abuse. Secondly, when it comes to crafting a "global experience" as in, one with global state which improves over time, you can do the "WoW" style and let people reverse engineer your servers so they can have Private instances. Or you can do the Diablo style where you have shared persistent state, no server package. Other session based games that have no state are relatively easy to release server packages for, because there's no expectation that you'll build a character for 200hours. You spin up a counter strike server and you're playing as if it was an official server or not. But with The Division or Destiny, there is "precious loot" and the whole game is built on the idea of a world in which you can encounter other people; it loses all charm if you can control who can come in or grant yourself whatever gun you want to go kill the last boss in the game.