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The root problem was them shutting it down because the game client hit their servers and they were shutting them down. Running servers is costly. But game dev
by drawkbox 13y ago
The root problem was them shutting it down because the game client hit their servers and they were shutting them down. Running servers is costly. But game developers should do an update or at least provide a way to turn off multiplayer or allow others to run servers when the game is finished. There isn't really a system for this yet but there needs to be, multiplayer support ends for most games eventually. The good ones allow it to live on in communities if they so desire. And killing single player missions for DRM sake highlights the problem. Good networking middleware and cloud services for this could solve the problem rather than every game company remaking this over and over and having to deal with this.
- tokenizerrr 13y agoThere's a pretty decent system. Self hosted game servers, and a patch to disable the DRM once the official servers go belly under. Unfortunately few developers care enough about their users to do such.
- GrinningFool 13y agoIt's not so simple as "few developers care enough". Do you seriously think that there are a signficant number of game developers who just turn around and say "fuck them, they're only our customers anyway"? It generally comes down to restrictions placed by the publisher. Due to agreements with the publisher[1], the developing company can't just release a patch to disable DRM whenever they want - they are contractually obligated to not release anything without publisher approval. And publishers are very, very reluctant to approve disabling DRM. [1] Source: contacts and contract work in the industry, and got to deal with the second-hand effects of publisher restrictions myself.