4 ms·

We need legislation/conventions/culture of opensourcing server software if a game/service is abandoned, to easily self-host or if a third party platform wants t

We need legislation/conventions/culture of opensourcing server software if a game/service is abandoned, to easily self-host or if a third party platform wants to take over stewardship of hosting a specific service. Just update a url in your game config to point to the new provider/server.

klntsky 4y ago
> legislation It's not even an option in most of the developed world, it's equivalent to property expropriation.
- Double_a_92 4y ago
  Just add a requirement to declare for how long the online part of the game will continue to work. With the loophole of it being "infinite" if you allow community servers.
- gpderetta 4y ago
  Requiring open protocols and guaranteed interop are feasible though.
  - moonchild 4y ago
    Distributing implementations of closed protocols is speech. I don't see why such restrictions would be desirable. If you don't want to play games that use closed protocols, you're under no obligation to do so.
    - LadyCailin 4y ago
      This is an absurd stretch. The definition is already stretched too far without additional stretching.
- asddubs 4y ago
  you could probably require it to be included on sale, though.
ThatPlayer 4y ago
That probably will never happen because the a lot of developers don't even own 100% of the server software. The original Doom's open source release stripped out the audio library they used and removed calls to it in the source code. Software has gotten a lot more complicated since then. Like Half-Life 1 is based on idTech, so they would need id/Bethesda/Microsoft's permission. Maybe they could release it under GPL, because idTech grants that license, but that would required everything else in the game would have to be released under GPL too. That would be pretty hard if they used anyone else's proprietary libraries. Moving onto Half-Life 2, it uses Havok IIRC. A license for that starts at 5 figures.
- giancarlostoro 4y ago
  Thats true of the client code, but the backend servers? I think its far less likely to not be as open, and honestly even if they release a version of the backend servers that's just close sourced, I dont think anyone would care. It doesnt stop people from enjoying Counter-Strike or G-Mod in 2022.
  - trynewideas 4y ago
    Source docs: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Networking_Entities https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Networking_Entities > The server, as central authority, processes player input and updates the world according to the game and physics rules. https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_Networking https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_... > The server simulates the game in discrete time steps called ticks. By default, the timestep is 15ms, so 66.666... ticks per second are simulated, but mods can specify their own tickrate. During each tick, the server processes incoming user commands, runs a physical simulation step, checks the game rules, and updates all object states. Havok made the legacy engine used in Source 1 free of license fees in 2021. Before that it was $25,000 per title. Source 2 uses in-house Rubikon to dodge those fees: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Havok https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Havok
dawnerd 4y ago
100%, even at the very least they should release some docs on how one might re-implement a backend. I get it might not be possible to release the server code especially if there's other services involved but that could be up to the community preserving the game if they want to re-implement everything.

klntsky 4y ago

> legislation It's not even an option in most of the developed world, it's equivalent to property expropriation.

Double_a_92 4y ago
Just add a requirement to declare for how long the online part of the game will continue to work. With the loophole of it being "infinite" if you allow community servers.
gpderetta 4y ago
Requiring open protocols and guaranteed interop are feasible though.
- moonchild 4y ago
  Distributing implementations of closed protocols is speech. I don't see why such restrictions would be desirable. If you don't want to play games that use closed protocols, you're under no obligation to do so.
  - LadyCailin 4y ago
    This is an absurd stretch. The definition is already stretched too far without additional stretching.
asddubs 4y ago
you could probably require it to be included on sale, though.

ThatPlayer 4y ago

That probably will never happen because the a lot of developers don't even own 100% of the server software. The original Doom's open source release stripped out the audio library they used and removed calls to it in the source code. Software has gotten a lot more complicated since then. Like Half-Life 1 is based on idTech, so they would need id/Bethesda/Microsoft's permission. Maybe they could release it under GPL, because idTech grants that license, but that would required everything else in the game would have to be released under GPL too. That would be pretty hard if they used anyone else's proprietary libraries. Moving onto Half-Life 2, it uses Havok IIRC. A license for that starts at 5 figures.

giancarlostoro 4y ago
Thats true of the client code, but the backend servers? I think its far less likely to not be as open, and honestly even if they release a version of the backend servers that's just close sourced, I dont think anyone would care. It doesnt stop people from enjoying Counter-Strike or G-Mod in 2022.
- trynewideas 4y ago
  Source docs: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Networking_Entities https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Networking_Entities > The server, as central authority, processes player input and updates the world according to the game and physics rules. https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_Networking https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Source_Multiplayer_... > The server simulates the game in discrete time steps called ticks. By default, the timestep is 15ms, so 66.666... ticks per second are simulated, but mods can specify their own tickrate. During each tick, the server processes incoming user commands, runs a physical simulation step, checks the game rules, and updates all object states. Havok made the legacy engine used in Source 1 free of license fees in 2021. Before that it was $25,000 per title. Source 2 uses in-house Rubikon to dodge those fees: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Havok https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Havok

dawnerd 4y ago

100%, even at the very least they should release some docs on how one might re-implement a backend. I get it might not be possible to release the server code especially if there's other services involved but that could be up to the community preserving the game if they want to re-implement everything.