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Every game released whose developers have chosen to complicate its design with a client-server architecture. It's not like this is going to hurt the little thre
by fluoridation 5mo ago
Every game released whose developers have chosen to complicate its design with a client-server architecture. It's not like this is going to hurt the little three-man teams making games on shoe-string budgets. Yeah, it's going to make big budget games a little more expensive, just like how cars with seatbelts are a little more expensive to build, and like how it's a little more expensive to do proper waste management instead of dumping sludge into a river.
- hparadiz 5mo agoWhat? This a mandate in law that requires a company to do work in order to comply. Studios will spin out LLCs for a game so that if it fails it doesn't end up as a liability. Unintended consequence: more dead games.
- fluoridation 5mo agoIt's impossible for the law to cause more games to die, because already the default fate of online games is for them to die. If, with the law, a studio chooses to use an LLC to create the game to conditionally release sources once it shuts down, that was a game that without the law would have died anyway because the studio wouldn't have chosen of its own volition to release sources.
- hparadiz 5mo agoIf a studio on it's last legs is required to service a failing product instead of working on a new one the studio will simply close and not comply. That's what tends to happen with forced regulations like this.
- fluoridation 5mo agoAnd it's what would have happened anyway without the law. How is this difficult to understand? It's not like it's only a few games that shut down without recourse for the players. Ross Scott already did the research on this. Something like 95% of all online games that shut down do so without providing any way for the players to continue playing in some way or without issuing refunds.
- Defletter 5mo agoDifferent person here, it's probably because they defensively reject anything that forces anyone to do anything, or would increase prices outside of market forces. Every argument that's used against this kind of legislation was also used against putting airbrakes on trains. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
- ryandrake 5mo agoSeriously. If you ever want to see a discussion thread that demonstrates the difference between “reasons” and “excuses” (by being full of the latter), just propose a law forcing game companies to do literally anything and watch the replies.
- account42 5mo agoYes, gamers can be very tribal and quickly become defensive when you are critical of the companies they have formed a parasocial relationship with.
- chadgpt3 5mo agoIf they're closing they have nothing to lose by putting the source code up on the internet and saying sue us if you want. It's continuing businesses who are scared of liability.
- thayne 5mo agoReally the parent company should be held accountable for that. But that is a more general problem with LLCs that is already causing significant harm.
- RobotToaster 5mo agoIf they're spun out as an LLC then there's also zero legal risk to to the parent company to dumping the server code to GitHub as open source.
- account42 5mo agoTechnically in both cases the risk is nonzero as a wholly owned subsidiary LLC doesn't just let you avoid all risk while still keeping the profits.
- furyofantares 5mo ago> Every game released whose developers have chosen to complicate its design with a client-server architecture. Huh? Client-server architecture does make things more complicated to implement but it's not THAT bad. And you (usually[1]) do it in service of multiplayer, not because you're big budget or just want to complicate things. Among Us was literally a three-person team. [1] I find there are some major benefits to it, especially in post-LLM-world, and have been strongly considering it for some of my solo-dev single-player projects.
- Folcon 5mo agoAgreed, I'm pretty much doing the same thing for my indie game It's now a lot more tractable to build a multiplayer game, on the other hand balancing it is a whole other kettle of fish
- fluoridation 5mo agoA lot of games have tacked-on online features to excuse the existence of the server to enable DRM, and a lot of multiplayer games arbitrarily don't offer a way for clients to double as local servers like in the heyday of arena shooters.
- furyofantares 5mo agoSure, but the existence of such annoying things does not mean that's the only reason to use a client-server architecture and that it would only affect those games.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- fluoridation 5mo agoIt's not the only reason, but that does cover the vast majority of online-required games.
- account42 5mo agoIt's the main reason for keeping the server part away from players though.