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Remember the days when the server component was included with the base game? Anyone could launch a server and play with friends and strangers online. I miss tho

Remember the days when the server component was included with the base game? Anyone could launch a server and play with friends and strangers online. I miss those days. Now we get a company deciding it is not worth maintaining the infrastructure and an entire part of a game is gone forever.

georgeecollins 4y ago
Yeah, I made multiplayer games in those days. Very few people played relative today and you had so much lag. You really had to build your game to accept 0.5 sec lag. There is a lot to be said for today.
pndy 4y ago
I miss days where gaming magazines had CDs filled with demos which you could test before the purchase - tho it was more possible that friend of friend had pirated full version you could borrow.
danuker 4y ago
It seems DRM is not the issue, and my comment was irrelevant. ~~You can only buy from DRM-free suppliers, like GOG.com.~~
- suumcuique 4y ago
  Some of the games being shut down were/are also being sold on GOG: https://www.gog.com/en/game/unreal_tournament_2004_ece https://www.gog.com/en/game/unreal_tournament_2004_ece
  - danuker 4y ago
    Wow. I did not expect this. I apologize for my unresearched opinion.
    - nix23 4y ago
      The dedicated server is included in the game...
izacus 4y ago
Some games from that are are on the list (e.g. UT) so I'm wondering what's going on there.
- doikor 4y ago
  For those the service used for searching/listing the servers is being taken down. If you know the ip address of a server you can still play.
  - dark-star 4y ago
    No need to remember IP addresses, we have DNS now ;-)
  - RobotToaster 4y ago
    You have to wonder just how little hosting a lobby server must cost a company the size of epic. Collating a list of server IPs and names seems fairly trivial.
    - ohyes 4y ago
      It probably has more to do with paying someone to keep it patched and running happily.
- suumcuique 4y ago
  You can host your own game server in UT but you're still depending on Epic services for the server listings and license (CD key) validation.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
theclansman 4y ago
Private servers were so much better than matchmaking in my opinion, there was a sense of community to the game and you would make friends. Now playing with randoms (all of them in their own private discord parties) feels like playing with NPCs.
- tpxl 4y ago
  whynotboth.jpeg Team Fortress matchmaking will match you to their official servers, and sometimes even on third party servers. TF also has a server browser where you can select which third or first party servers to join. You can also join directly via IP, if the matchmaking service ever goes offline.
  - knome 4y ago
    TF2 hasn't matched to 3rd party servers or allowed directly connecting to Valve servers in 6 years, since the introduction of a matchmaking service. They did, however, let a bot flood on official servers get so bad for so a few years that community servers took off and became popular again. It's only been this year that they finally started to effectively fight back against the bots, making casual usable again.
    - tpxl 4y ago
      I have recently joined a modded server using matchmaking in the MvM mode, so either Valve allows that, or they run modded servers. As far as botting goes, it's still not fixed. There was an obvious aimbotter named 'Vinesauce' that went about for 2 weeks getting kicked out of every match (and sometimes rejoining). I can't fathom having this little moderation/development on a game that still must be making millions per year.
      - knome 4y ago
        Ah, fair enough, I generally don't play the MvM mode. Strange that they allow community servers for the matchmaking service on that after pulling it from the standard mode. In my experience with Valve's servers in the eastern north american region, while the bots aren't completely gone, there are far fewer of them. Online discussion has indicated this isn't necessarily the case for non-NA regions. I saw the vinesauce bots. It's my understanding that Valve bans any account kicked from an official server from rejoining that server for half an hour or so. Game harassers run small fleets of their bots. It's likely just another same-named bot joining rather than the same one rejoining, no?
samstr 4y ago
xnorswap 4y ago
I remember, but I also remember the downside - that as the game got older joining a server became a shit-show. By the end there was literally one CS server I trusted to be friendly and busy and not running "rpg-mod" or "zombie-mod" or a thousand other adjustments I didn't like, such as "no-awp", "price adjusted" etc. Just finding a vanilla experience became difficult, doubly so if you wanted more than "dust/dust2 only". Add in the fact that these servers could send your computer files (in theory just maps, sounds and decals, but difficult to secure of course), and you can see why companies shy away, not just to have greater control of the experience.
- mt_ 4y ago
  You can still have official and community servers by packaging the server alongside the client.
- snemvalts 4y ago
  Not to mention malware, there have been quite a few exploits for CSGO regarding this.
- rajamaka 4y ago
  Brings back memories of being an admin on a CS 1.6 server and having the ability to send a command that would open a person's CD Drive
  - KptMarchewa 4y ago
    We had "local build servers" at one of my previous jobs. Those servers - normal towers, not racks - would communicate they are working on some job by opening CD Drives.
    - xwkd 4y ago
      Brilliant. I love this. Thank you for sharing.
  - candiddevmike 4y ago
    CS 1.6 private servers were great. roll the dice, starwars maps, iceworld...
lynx23 4y ago
If it were only games. I remember an assistive technology product, roughly 6 years ago, which was a barcode reader plus online DB. Until the company went bust, and the device magically transformed into a brick.
- donkeyd 4y ago
  This may be the one of the few true benefits of Web3/decentralization. As long as people see value in the network, it will stay online. Even if it's just a few people.
  - xnorswap 4y ago
    That's just as true as pre-web internet 1.0 though, what benefit does putting it on a blockchain add?
    - lynx23 4y ago
      I am guessing they imply that blockchain hosted IoT infrastructure wouldn't simply go away, because, you know, its part of the blockchain.
      - deadbunny 4y ago
        Micro transactions to turn my lights on and off? Not thanks. https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertarian-police-department https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertari...
        gpderetta 4y ago
        It also reminds me of the coin operated door in Ubik: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1615 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1615
        deadbunny 4y ago
smcl 4y ago
They still are sometimes - I was fiddling around with Steam and in my "Library" I accidentally clicked a dropdown which displayed "GAMES" and "TOOLS" as options - clicking "TOOLS" filtered on a bunch of interesting SDKs and Dedicated Servers (DayZ, Arma 3, Half-Life, Just Cause 2, and such - loads of which I don't even own or play). It's not perfect and it's far from comprehensive, but there are some games which offer this still
- dividuum 4y ago
  There's also the SteamCMD tool that makes running dedicated server easier: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
esskay 4y ago
Yep I remember having to run a fleet of Windows XP servers to host Joint Operations servers. Fun times!
winReInstall 4y ago
Worser still, some actively patch_destroy their own older games that have a more active community (due to superior game balance, less monetization etc.) to drive growth towards the new game.
rekoil 4y ago
I think they should be legally required to provide it honestly. The support period for games is getting shorter every year. I mean Unreal Tournament is from 1999, so 23 years old, hats off they were still running servers for it, that's honestly very good. But take Overwatch for example instead, people paid what, $50 for it? That's a game that's online only and is no longer possible to play since Overwatch 2 was released. It was only 6 years old and I'm sure many people prefer it over Overwatch 2, but they can't play it even though they paid for it. I honestly think it's kinda fucked up that this is legal. It shouldn't be.
- t-sauer 4y ago
  This wouldn't work with games nowadays. Or let's rephrase is: it would discourage game developers to develop these type of games. If Blizzard would make private servers for Overwatch available, that would mean people wouldn't care about buying cosmetics from Blizzard. Same goes for games like League of Legends, Fortnite and even Call of Duty nowadays. If you can have your own private servers, you just unlock everything. I see that as a consumer you would want that to be a thing, but from a developers point of view other ventures get more attractive and we wouldn't have those games anymore.
  - sbarre 4y ago
    I think this is a fallacy. Maybe the big developers wouldn't have incentive to develop billion-dollar cosmetic-powered games anymore, but someone would make it work financially. You'd still have hugely popular multiplayer games, and maybe they would be somewhat less ambitious in scope and features (i.e. dev cost), but they would still be fun, and have strong communities built around them. Maybe they sell DLC map packs (which would not have the "community fragmentation" problem from today's centralized matchmaking if private servers exist), or figure out other ways to generate incremental revenue. Or maybe they don't, and just sell the base game, and are still successful because it's not a 5,000 person team and a nine-figure budget. Today's games don't exist because of the business model, it's the other way around.
  - ohyes 4y ago
    It’s interesting to me that entire genres of games were created because private dedicated servers were available and bored teenagers could create a TC and play with their friends. Also the technology was such that assets and game scripting were accessible Team fortress, counter strike, Dota, plenty of examples. You bought half-life so you could download and play the mods. I guess that niche is filled by Roblox now? Or maybe Minecraft?
RGamma 4y ago
These days aren't gone for good though. Look on Steam how many games offer LAN support or dedicated servers for instance (server browsers are a different topic unfortunately) It's just that gamers in the past have voted too weakly against the managed MP infrastructure in some subgenres and triple A moats... Don't know whether anyone is still protesting this or whether newer generations don't even know what's happened here.
- ajnin 4y ago
  I don't really buy that "vote with your wallet" argument. It's not like you really have a choice. People can't decide to buy their favorite game with our without an open infrastructure. For example of you want to play StarCraft 2 on LAN with your friends or even only a similar game you just can't. It does not exist. If there is only one candidate then it's not really a vote, is it?
  - RGamma 4y ago
    Well, more generally you want to hold the (usually big) devs/publishers accountable to the shit they pull to select against bad stewards of the art form. One way is withholding purchases. Unfortunately a big chunk of unopinionated consumers will eat what they're served (FIFA, BF lol) and this encourages publishers to push P2W, gambling or fast iteration, which splits communities. And long-lived community-owned MP infrastructure is not particularly profitable either... That said, a more major driver of not offering dedicated servers may simply be the lack of necessity because using cloud infrastructure is pretty sophisticated nowadays and controlling it yourself simplifies development and deployment. Luckily the market is diverse, so overall I'm not too worried. I trust that organic discovery and good stewards keep MP gaming (and modded gaming) as I have known it alive.
RektBoy 4y ago
That's why I play games, which are running on private servers for years. Like ultima online.
philippejara 4y ago
Honestly the saddest part is how you could have both the private servers and matchmaking almost seamlessly, have official servers flagged for matchmaking and allow for a server browser like csgo, team fortress 2, etc, and yet so many act as if it was exclusively one or the other. As a big titanfall2 fan this is just infuriating since the game has been unplayable pretty much due to years long dos attacks on the servers that the company doesn't give a shit to fix, nor releases some form of dedicated servers for players to host themselves. The game is even in a modified source engine iirc.
- bakugo 4y ago
  > Honestly the saddest part is how you could have both the private servers and matchmaking almost seamlessly Not true, having to pick a server to join by yourself out of a list was an essential part of the classic online experience and the existence of any kind of matchmaking system harms it. Team Fortress 2 is a prime example of this, originally it only had a server browser and the community felt most "alive" during this time. Then they added a basic matchmaking system that could place you on community servers, but only if they ran stock maps and settings, which heavily discouraged running any kind of modded or customized server, and significantly harmed any servers with a strong sense of community since you had random players, often fresh F2P installs that were barely distinguishable from bots, joining servers with no intention of ever playing on them more than once. Then they replaced that with the full official-only matchmaking we have today, which killed most of the remaining servers and associated communities.
  - philippejara 4y ago
    I don't disagree that dedicated servers only would be better, much to the contrary, but sadly matchmaking is here to stay and there's nothing we can do about it. You can have parallel dedicated servers that have no impact at all on the matchmaking experience, that's my point, not that matchmaking would put you into community servers, seamlessly was probably the wrong word for it. I wouldn't dislike official dedicated servers being accessible by both the browser and matchmaking however.
faeriechangling 4y ago
I find the concept of "esports" without dedicated servers to be a farce. The "sport" dies as soon as the profit incentive dies.
tablespoon 4y ago
> Remember the days when the server component was included with the base game? Anyone could launch a server and play with friends and strangers online. I miss those days. I hear you, but several of the games in this particular announcement seem like they're from that era: * Unreal Gold * Unreal II: The Awakening * Unreal Tournament 2003 * Unreal Tournament 2004 * Unreal Tournament 3 * Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition IIRC, back then the games usually shipped with the server component and all servers were run by players, and the publisher only ran a simple directory server. Since those directory servers were so simple, I think I seen cases where someone cloned them, then batched the binary to just to go a different address for the directory.
Sxubas 4y ago
I think battlefield 4 (pc) has the best of both worlds: official servers and community hosted ones. It had its drawbacks, however: community servers often spoofed player count and you would end up joining almost empty lobbies when you thought it was a full server. Also, when the playerbase was declining, it felt harder to find servers that you enjoyed to play on. Overall I felt it was a great experience. I hope more games take this approach in the future.
TheRealPomax 4y ago
"A" company? Surely you mean "every" company.
neogodless 4y ago
I still (mostly) limit my multiplayer gaming to games with that available via Steam. ARK, Valheim, etc. If games come out and I have to rely on their server or rent one, it's a pass for me, especially if I can't play privately with my group of friends. I've been using Battle.net though... for about 15 years, I'd only do LAN, or LAN over VPN (Hamachi), but the ease of use was, of course, much better on Battle.net.
Pr0ject217 4y ago
I hope that we see a comeback.
modshatereality 4y ago
>gone forever yeah, lazy devs or they're just herding everyone to their own servers where they can mine data for more profits? Either way, looks like a prime business opportunity to test out a recent addition to DMCA exemptions to allow supporting "abandoned" servers. If the users are there and willing to pay.

georgeecollins 4y ago

Yeah, I made multiplayer games in those days. Very few people played relative today and you had so much lag. You really had to build your game to accept 0.5 sec lag. There is a lot to be said for today.

pndy 4y ago

I miss days where gaming magazines had CDs filled with demos which you could test before the purchase - tho it was more possible that friend of friend had pirated full version you could borrow.

danuker 4y ago

It seems DRM is not the issue, and my comment was irrelevant. ~~You can only buy from DRM-free suppliers, like GOG.com.~~

suumcuique 4y ago
Some of the games being shut down were/are also being sold on GOG: https://www.gog.com/en/game/unreal_tournament_2004_ece https://www.gog.com/en/game/unreal_tournament_2004_ece
- danuker 4y ago
  Wow. I did not expect this. I apologize for my unresearched opinion.
  - nix23 4y ago
    The dedicated server is included in the game...

izacus 4y ago

Some games from that are are on the list (e.g. UT) so I'm wondering what's going on there.

doikor 4y ago
For those the service used for searching/listing the servers is being taken down. If you know the ip address of a server you can still play.
- dark-star 4y ago
  No need to remember IP addresses, we have DNS now ;-)
- RobotToaster 4y ago
  You have to wonder just how little hosting a lobby server must cost a company the size of epic. Collating a list of server IPs and names seems fairly trivial.
  - ohyes 4y ago
    It probably has more to do with paying someone to keep it patched and running happily.
suumcuique 4y ago
You can host your own game server in UT but you're still depending on Epic services for the server listings and license (CD key) validation.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

theclansman 4y ago

Private servers were so much better than matchmaking in my opinion, there was a sense of community to the game and you would make friends. Now playing with randoms (all of them in their own private discord parties) feels like playing with NPCs.

tpxl 4y ago
whynotboth.jpeg Team Fortress matchmaking will match you to their official servers, and sometimes even on third party servers. TF also has a server browser where you can select which third or first party servers to join. You can also join directly via IP, if the matchmaking service ever goes offline.
- knome 4y ago
  TF2 hasn't matched to 3rd party servers or allowed directly connecting to Valve servers in 6 years, since the introduction of a matchmaking service. They did, however, let a bot flood on official servers get so bad for so a few years that community servers took off and became popular again. It's only been this year that they finally started to effectively fight back against the bots, making casual usable again.
  - tpxl 4y ago
    I have recently joined a modded server using matchmaking in the MvM mode, so either Valve allows that, or they run modded servers. As far as botting goes, it's still not fixed. There was an obvious aimbotter named 'Vinesauce' that went about for 2 weeks getting kicked out of every match (and sometimes rejoining). I can't fathom having this little moderation/development on a game that still must be making millions per year.
    - knome 4y ago
      Ah, fair enough, I generally don't play the MvM mode. Strange that they allow community servers for the matchmaking service on that after pulling it from the standard mode. In my experience with Valve's servers in the eastern north american region, while the bots aren't completely gone, there are far fewer of them. Online discussion has indicated this isn't necessarily the case for non-NA regions. I saw the vinesauce bots. It's my understanding that Valve bans any account kicked from an official server from rejoining that server for half an hour or so. Game harassers run small fleets of their bots. It's likely just another same-named bot joining rather than the same one rejoining, no?

samstr 4y ago

xnorswap 4y ago

I remember, but I also remember the downside - that as the game got older joining a server became a shit-show. By the end there was literally one CS server I trusted to be friendly and busy and not running "rpg-mod" or "zombie-mod" or a thousand other adjustments I didn't like, such as "no-awp", "price adjusted" etc. Just finding a vanilla experience became difficult, doubly so if you wanted more than "dust/dust2 only". Add in the fact that these servers could send your computer files (in theory just maps, sounds and decals, but difficult to secure of course), and you can see why companies shy away, not just to have greater control of the experience.

mt_ 4y ago
You can still have official and community servers by packaging the server alongside the client.
snemvalts 4y ago
Not to mention malware, there have been quite a few exploits for CSGO regarding this.
rajamaka 4y ago
Brings back memories of being an admin on a CS 1.6 server and having the ability to send a command that would open a person's CD Drive
- KptMarchewa 4y ago
  We had "local build servers" at one of my previous jobs. Those servers - normal towers, not racks - would communicate they are working on some job by opening CD Drives.
  - xwkd 4y ago
    Brilliant. I love this. Thank you for sharing.
- candiddevmike 4y ago
  CS 1.6 private servers were great. roll the dice, starwars maps, iceworld...

lynx23 4y ago

If it were only games. I remember an assistive technology product, roughly 6 years ago, which was a barcode reader plus online DB. Until the company went bust, and the device magically transformed into a brick.

donkeyd 4y ago
This may be the one of the few true benefits of Web3/decentralization. As long as people see value in the network, it will stay online. Even if it's just a few people.
- xnorswap 4y ago
  That's just as true as pre-web internet 1.0 though, what benefit does putting it on a blockchain add?
  - lynx23 4y ago
    I am guessing they imply that blockchain hosted IoT infrastructure wouldn't simply go away, because, you know, its part of the blockchain.
    - deadbunny 4y ago
      Micro transactions to turn my lights on and off? Not thanks. https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertarian-police-department https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/l-p-d-libertari...
      - gpderetta 4y ago
        It also reminds me of the coin operated door in Ubik: http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1615 http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1615
        deadbunny 4y ago

smcl 4y ago

They still are sometimes - I was fiddling around with Steam and in my "Library" I accidentally clicked a dropdown which displayed "GAMES" and "TOOLS" as options - clicking "TOOLS" filtered on a bunch of interesting SDKs and Dedicated Servers (DayZ, Arma 3, Half-Life, Just Cause 2, and such - loads of which I don't even own or play). It's not perfect and it's far from comprehensive, but there are some games which offer this still

dividuum 4y ago
There's also the SteamCMD tool that makes running dedicated server easier: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

esskay 4y ago

Yep I remember having to run a fleet of Windows XP servers to host Joint Operations servers. Fun times!

winReInstall 4y ago

Worser still, some actively patch_destroy their own older games that have a more active community (due to superior game balance, less monetization etc.) to drive growth towards the new game.

rekoil 4y ago

I think they should be legally required to provide it honestly. The support period for games is getting shorter every year. I mean Unreal Tournament is from 1999, so 23 years old, hats off they were still running servers for it, that's honestly very good. But take Overwatch for example instead, people paid what, $50 for it? That's a game that's online only and is no longer possible to play since Overwatch 2 was released. It was only 6 years old and I'm sure many people prefer it over Overwatch 2, but they can't play it even though they paid for it. I honestly think it's kinda fucked up that this is legal. It shouldn't be.

t-sauer 4y ago
This wouldn't work with games nowadays. Or let's rephrase is: it would discourage game developers to develop these type of games. If Blizzard would make private servers for Overwatch available, that would mean people wouldn't care about buying cosmetics from Blizzard. Same goes for games like League of Legends, Fortnite and even Call of Duty nowadays. If you can have your own private servers, you just unlock everything. I see that as a consumer you would want that to be a thing, but from a developers point of view other ventures get more attractive and we wouldn't have those games anymore.
- sbarre 4y ago
  I think this is a fallacy. Maybe the big developers wouldn't have incentive to develop billion-dollar cosmetic-powered games anymore, but someone would make it work financially. You'd still have hugely popular multiplayer games, and maybe they would be somewhat less ambitious in scope and features (i.e. dev cost), but they would still be fun, and have strong communities built around them. Maybe they sell DLC map packs (which would not have the "community fragmentation" problem from today's centralized matchmaking if private servers exist), or figure out other ways to generate incremental revenue. Or maybe they don't, and just sell the base game, and are still successful because it's not a 5,000 person team and a nine-figure budget. Today's games don't exist because of the business model, it's the other way around.
- ohyes 4y ago
  It’s interesting to me that entire genres of games were created because private dedicated servers were available and bored teenagers could create a TC and play with their friends. Also the technology was such that assets and game scripting were accessible Team fortress, counter strike, Dota, plenty of examples. You bought half-life so you could download and play the mods. I guess that niche is filled by Roblox now? Or maybe Minecraft?

RGamma 4y ago

These days aren't gone for good though. Look on Steam how many games offer LAN support or dedicated servers for instance (server browsers are a different topic unfortunately) It's just that gamers in the past have voted too weakly against the managed MP infrastructure in some subgenres and triple A moats... Don't know whether anyone is still protesting this or whether newer generations don't even know what's happened here.

ajnin 4y ago
I don't really buy that "vote with your wallet" argument. It's not like you really have a choice. People can't decide to buy their favorite game with our without an open infrastructure. For example of you want to play StarCraft 2 on LAN with your friends or even only a similar game you just can't. It does not exist. If there is only one candidate then it's not really a vote, is it?
- RGamma 4y ago
  Well, more generally you want to hold the (usually big) devs/publishers accountable to the shit they pull to select against bad stewards of the art form. One way is withholding purchases. Unfortunately a big chunk of unopinionated consumers will eat what they're served (FIFA, BF lol) and this encourages publishers to push P2W, gambling or fast iteration, which splits communities. And long-lived community-owned MP infrastructure is not particularly profitable either... That said, a more major driver of not offering dedicated servers may simply be the lack of necessity because using cloud infrastructure is pretty sophisticated nowadays and controlling it yourself simplifies development and deployment. Luckily the market is diverse, so overall I'm not too worried. I trust that organic discovery and good stewards keep MP gaming (and modded gaming) as I have known it alive.

RektBoy 4y ago

That's why I play games, which are running on private servers for years. Like ultima online.

philippejara 4y ago

Honestly the saddest part is how you could have both the private servers and matchmaking almost seamlessly, have official servers flagged for matchmaking and allow for a server browser like csgo, team fortress 2, etc, and yet so many act as if it was exclusively one or the other. As a big titanfall2 fan this is just infuriating since the game has been unplayable pretty much due to years long dos attacks on the servers that the company doesn't give a shit to fix, nor releases some form of dedicated servers for players to host themselves. The game is even in a modified source engine iirc.

bakugo 4y ago
> Honestly the saddest part is how you could have both the private servers and matchmaking almost seamlessly Not true, having to pick a server to join by yourself out of a list was an essential part of the classic online experience and the existence of any kind of matchmaking system harms it. Team Fortress 2 is a prime example of this, originally it only had a server browser and the community felt most "alive" during this time. Then they added a basic matchmaking system that could place you on community servers, but only if they ran stock maps and settings, which heavily discouraged running any kind of modded or customized server, and significantly harmed any servers with a strong sense of community since you had random players, often fresh F2P installs that were barely distinguishable from bots, joining servers with no intention of ever playing on them more than once. Then they replaced that with the full official-only matchmaking we have today, which killed most of the remaining servers and associated communities.
- philippejara 4y ago
  I don't disagree that dedicated servers only would be better, much to the contrary, but sadly matchmaking is here to stay and there's nothing we can do about it. You can have parallel dedicated servers that have no impact at all on the matchmaking experience, that's my point, not that matchmaking would put you into community servers, seamlessly was probably the wrong word for it. I wouldn't dislike official dedicated servers being accessible by both the browser and matchmaking however.

faeriechangling 4y ago

I find the concept of "esports" without dedicated servers to be a farce. The "sport" dies as soon as the profit incentive dies.

tablespoon 4y ago

> Remember the days when the server component was included with the base game? Anyone could launch a server and play with friends and strangers online. I miss those days. I hear you, but several of the games in this particular announcement seem like they're from that era: * Unreal Gold * Unreal II: The Awakening * Unreal Tournament 2003 * Unreal Tournament 2004 * Unreal Tournament 3 * Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition IIRC, back then the games usually shipped with the server component and all servers were run by players, and the publisher only ran a simple directory server. Since those directory servers were so simple, I think I seen cases where someone cloned them, then batched the binary to just to go a different address for the directory.

Sxubas 4y ago

I think battlefield 4 (pc) has the best of both worlds: official servers and community hosted ones. It had its drawbacks, however: community servers often spoofed player count and you would end up joining almost empty lobbies when you thought it was a full server. Also, when the playerbase was declining, it felt harder to find servers that you enjoyed to play on. Overall I felt it was a great experience. I hope more games take this approach in the future.

TheRealPomax 4y ago

"A" company? Surely you mean "every" company.

neogodless 4y ago

I still (mostly) limit my multiplayer gaming to games with that available via Steam. ARK, Valheim, etc. If games come out and I have to rely on their server or rent one, it's a pass for me, especially if I can't play privately with my group of friends. I've been using Battle.net though... for about 15 years, I'd only do LAN, or LAN over VPN (Hamachi), but the ease of use was, of course, much better on Battle.net.

Pr0ject217 4y ago

I hope that we see a comeback.

modshatereality 4y ago

>gone forever yeah, lazy devs or they're just herding everyone to their own servers where they can mine data for more profits? Either way, looks like a prime business opportunity to test out a recent addition to DMCA exemptions to allow supporting "abandoned" servers. If the users are there and willing to pay.