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As is stated in the article, but is not clear just from the headline, this was not an unexpected outcome from the initiative. The Commission did not seek discus
by hodgehog11 4mo ago
As is stated in the article, but is not clear just from the headline, this was not an unexpected outcome from the initiative. The Commission did not seek discussions with SKG, and spent virtually all of their time with the gaming industry lobby groups.
SKG was prepared for this, and their intention has been to join up with the group putting together the new Digital Fairness Act, since the objective there is very similar, but much broader in scope, and most of the groundwork is already there. Much of the earlier recorded Q&A sessions in Parliament had representatives commenting on this already, so it's the natural approach. This way, legislation will almost certainly be put forward and voted on, and the lobby groups will likely have a harder time trying to wrestle with a larger movement and a parliament that seems sympathetic to the cause.
Basically, this is a battle lost that never really mattered. The climax of this war is yet to come.
- HDBaseT 4mo ago[flagged]
- TylerE 4mo agoThis is not surprising. The movement has been all about gamer vibes and not technical reality from day one. It should have been rejected, and I'm glad it was.
- spaqin 4mo agoNot sure about the technical reality here - until 2010s, singleplayer games didn't require an Internet connection, and for multiplayer ones you could download a dedicated server application, host it yourself. Only recently it became locked down for the corporate profit; the only party making it hard are the game developers themselves.
- x______________ 4mo agoBecause telemetry and advertising revenues did not plague the online landscape during those times. It has all been standardized since: "click OK to share data with our 13,285 partners", "always-online needed to prove your identity", "we need to force an upgrade of your software so we can ensure you get what's best for you, when we decide" ..oh and all of that after a 159 page legally binding and enforceable agreement that you can't negotiate or reject. Are you sure we don't need all of this? Seems like we'd be going back to the dark ages of information technology if we did.. (/s)
- optionalsquid 4mo agoHalf-Life 2, released back in 2004, required an Internet connection to play. It was a major point of contention, in part due to how unreliable Steam was at the time
- hatefulheart 4mo agoWhat does telling your customers you plan to make a game unplayable if it doesn’t perform exactly as you expect financially have to do with technical reality, pray tell?
- xingped 4mo ago(Not parent) It doesn't. It's just uninformed or bad faith commenting, astroturfing, and arm chair developers who've never written a line of code for a game in their lives. Always has been. (Or maybe Jason Hall is going by "Tyler" now. XD )
- gundamdoubleO 4mo agoPlease actually read the proposed initiative.
- Ritewut 4mo agoWhat SKG is asking for is not only technical reality but easy to do if you plan for it from the start.
- skotobaza 4mo ago> This sounds like cope You can listen to Ross' explanation in his recent video [1], it starts at 12:12 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgoODQFrPgw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgoODQFrPgw
- p0w3n3d 4mo agoI'd say this shows how corrupted elites are. If the "democratic" entity spends all the time with lobbyists, and not the initiative which started the discussion, this speaks volumes.
- one33seven 4mo agowhat can you do? they have billions and we have signatures.
- p0w3n3d 4mo agoI perceive democracy as a company, where people are bosses because they choose their workers. If you're the boss, and your employee uses your money to buy themselves a car instead of representing your interest, you make them pay for this and fire them
- trinix912 4mo agoYou can vote for someone else the next time. Sadly the EU parliament elections turnout is still relatively low in many member states.
- one33seven 4mo agookay so how do we convince enough people to vote correctly? And what is the correct choice?
- inigyou 4mo agoPiracy, so they don't have billions any more?
- one33seven 4mo agoI like your mode of thinking
- dspillett 4mo agoThat is just restarting the problem: democracy breaks when money easily overrides the needs/desires of the people. We also have votes, but unfortunately getting people to consider this sort of issue while casting their ballot¹ is rather difficult. Getting people to vote for the bigger picture for their benefit and that of us all doesn't work well as they are far more likely to vote on a single issue that has been in the news recently and whoever they vote for will u-turn on once in control anyway… -------- [1] or even getting them to care at all, in the case of European elections [not that this is directly relevant here because of spit brexit].
- danieltanfh95 4mo agowrong, the commission did discuss with SKG, but the entire group had their head in the sand when reasonable people asked SKG to respect technical reality and resubmit a better, reality-focused proposal as SKG 2.0. They ban anyone not in their echo chamber.
- Farbklex 4mo agoThe technical reality is: - that singel player games don't need a persistent online connection - that it is not that complicated if you develop your game with offline playability in mind from the beginning - multiplayer games can very well have an offline playable LAN mode (Age of Empires 2 is currently sold as "Definitive Edition" which does not work offline in LAN unless you connect to Xbox online services first) The gaming industry did way too much stupid shit in the last few years and just needs to take it a notch back.
- hobofan 4mo ago> multiplayer games can very well have an offline playable LAN mode _some_ multiplayer games can, many can't, as they are using a cloud-based multiplayer backend that isn't easily replaceable (see other discussions in this thread). SKG makes no effort to address those differences.
- roblabla 4mo agoI don't understand your argument. SKG specifically excludes: - Existing games (they only aim to have regulation for newer game, as existing games may be locked into technical choices like a cloud based multiplayer backend that can't be replaced) - Non live-service games (ergo games where you have a monthly subscription of some kind, which makes it obvious you're "renting" the game for a limited time). Within these confines, it seems _very obvious_ to me that you can design just about any multiplayer game in a way that's compatible with SKG's desired regulations. In the vast majority of multiplayer games, you can: - Provide a LAN multiplayer mode (most match-based FPS/strategy games can do that. Too many examples to cite.) - Provide server binaries for self-hosted servers (Many survival games, or games with a persistent world, can do that. See v-rising for a recent example.) - Provide a local multiplayer mode (split screen/couch coop style) And if you don't want to go through any of that for [insert reason here], you can just make your game into a service requiring a monthly payment like WoW and you're no longer subject to the regulation! Now, please give me an example of a game that doesn't fit within that framework if you want to continue this argument.
- BoredPositron 4mo ago[flagged]
- Frieren 4mo ago> spent virtually all of their time with the gaming industry lobby groups. The industry should only be allowed to comment after the laws have been written and fulfill the goals of European citizens. To ask the fox to guard the hen house is killing democracy.
- l23k4 4mo agoThis is idiotic. "The industry" are also European citizens. It's about balancing the interests of people who pay their rent and feed their children by selling games, and the interests of people who merely enjoy games. Consulting only the group which enjoys games would be absurd to the point of being actively malicious.
- roblabla 4mo agoIt's a much smaller set of European citizens, and yet they have a much larger access to lawmakers. So no, it's not idiotic.
- okeuro49 4mo ago> The Commission ... spent virtually all of their time with ... industry lobby groups. This is how the European Union works.
- rookderby 4mo agoDigital fairness act for those that want to check it out. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Fairness_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Fairness_Act