4 ms·

Reliance on servers controlled entirely by the developer is the biggest enemy of video game conservation by far. Digital games can be pirated. DRM that runs on

by bakugo 4y ago

Reliance on servers controlled entirely by the developer is the biggest enemy of video game conservation by far. Digital games can be pirated. DRM that runs on the client can be fooled or bypassed with enough effort. Storage is becoming cheaper as time goes by. Time is generally not critical for any of these. Unlike all of these things, reliance on servers has no real solution and is a guaranteed ticking timebomb. Many games released today (manly "live service" games) have no offline mode and simply cannot fully function offline even if they're reverse-engineered and modified to do so, because a significant part of the game logic code and data is simply not present on the client. Often the only real hope is attempting to reverse-engineer the server logic and capture relevant data via packet sniffing so custom server software can be developed that emulates the behavior of the official servers accurately enough to allow the game to be played, but games nowadays are becoming so complex and game logic is becoming so intertwined with the servers that this is simply not a feasible task unless you have direct access to the server data somehow. Unfortunately, this is a problem that has largely not manifested yet, so most people don't yet realize it's a problem. Live service games only started becoming the norm in the last decade, and the vast majority of the popular ones are still in operation. In a decade or two, most live service games people love today will no longer be playable due to the servers being shut down, and developers have no financial incentive to allow them to be playable after that. Will a solution be found before then? Probably not. I'm not looking forward to it.

Gigachad 4y ago
For a lot of games, it won’t really matter anyway. The game is the multi player experience. If the users are gone, a core part of the game is missing regardless of if it’s possible to run anymore.
- LocalH 4y ago
  However, if the game is possible to run, that creates the opportunity for there to be new fans of the game. If you can't run the game at all, there's zero chance that can ever happen. Preserving the games themselves, including server components or emulators, is key to this. As it stands, it already requires there be someone with the personal interest in a specific game, and the technical ability to crack it. Without that, such a game won't be preserved no matter what. Requiring publishers to make such things available at some point can only help. It removes or mitigates that later requirement.
EMIRELADERO 4y ago
A good solution would be to legislate. Mandate by law that after a certain period of time (starting from the point on which the servers get shut down) the developer has to supply the corresponding server source code.
- LocalH 4y ago
  Why would that even make it anywhere, to be honest? The relevant lobbyists have a vested interest in having those games go away - they only like retrogaming insofar as they can make money from it. They'd much rather people be playing versions of games that they have remastered or rereleased, than the original copies that exist (and that they make no money from if one acquires them secondhand). Many major studio heads have spoken, openly, about their disdain for the secondhand market's mere existence. No, the actual way forward for large scale preservation requires donning a pirate's hat. The people really doing legitimate preservation work are largely doing it outside of the purview of the copyright holders (and often in direct opposition to the rightsholders' desires). This has always been the case and will continue to be the case as long as copyright remains in force in the current form.

by bakugo 4y ago

Gigachad 4y ago

For a lot of games, it won’t really matter anyway. The game is the multi player experience. If the users are gone, a core part of the game is missing regardless of if it’s possible to run anymore.

LocalH 4y ago
However, if the game is possible to run, that creates the opportunity for there to be new fans of the game. If you can't run the game at all, there's zero chance that can ever happen. Preserving the games themselves, including server components or emulators, is key to this. As it stands, it already requires there be someone with the personal interest in a specific game, and the technical ability to crack it. Without that, such a game won't be preserved no matter what. Requiring publishers to make such things available at some point can only help. It removes or mitigates that later requirement.

EMIRELADERO 4y ago

A good solution would be to legislate. Mandate by law that after a certain period of time (starting from the point on which the servers get shut down) the developer has to supply the corresponding server source code.

LocalH 4y ago
Why would that even make it anywhere, to be honest? The relevant lobbyists have a vested interest in having those games go away - they only like retrogaming insofar as they can make money from it. They'd much rather people be playing versions of games that they have remastered or rereleased, than the original copies that exist (and that they make no money from if one acquires them secondhand). Many major studio heads have spoken, openly, about their disdain for the secondhand market's mere existence. No, the actual way forward for large scale preservation requires donning a pirate's hat. The people really doing legitimate preservation work are largely doing it outside of the purview of the copyright holders (and often in direct opposition to the rightsholders' desires). This has always been the case and will continue to be the case as long as copyright remains in force in the current form.