geteilt von: https://feddit.org/post/2071604
This is your somewhat regularly scheduled Stop Killing Games update.
Stop Killing Games is an European Citizens Initiative aiming to keep games playable even after their developers and publishers have stopped supporting it.
Germany has hit the threshold sometime yesterday evening. France has also started to catch up. They are still below 50% but there growth over the last couple of days has been the biggest. Netherlands and Denmark are still in the low 90s.
The milestone comes on the eve of this years Gamescom in Cologne, Germany which is set to kick off today. SKG is not going to have an official presence there. (I’ve checked with the organisers) But if you are attending and want to help spread the word I’m happy to share official marketing material, either in the form of flyers or the files for flyers, so you can print your own. They come in both German and English. If you want some, send me a DM.
Relevant links:
The software to run a server for a game is different from the client software. I have to buy Minecraft to be able to download and use the client, but the server is freely available for anyone to host their own server.
Developers almost always release their server software for free if they offer it. The user is providing a service to the developer by offering another server for the community to use without the developer having to pay for it. There’s no reason to charge for it.
You can even password protect your server and put it behind a patreon or other exclusive membership, but it’s hard to compete with free servers. You have to offer some kind of special experience.
Everything you’re complaining about has been common practice in the PC space for decades.
Everything you’re complaining about has been common practice in the PC space for decades.
So why the law change?
Because the old “common” practice is being tossed for a greedy new type of “owning” where you don’t own the things you bought. This was not as much of an issue before but has now become an epidemic. This initiative is asking for laws to be put in place that allow people to host a game if the company stops supporting it, something that most would say is very reasonable. If the company does not want anyone else hosting their game, they just need to keep that server running. If they don’t think its worth keeping the server running, then why should they have the ability to keep anyone from using the thing they bought? If anything this is basic market economics at play, if they can not make enough money to “keep the lights on” then why not let someone else have a go at it?
You ether stop this sort of greed now or learn to live with never owning anything digital again.
Oh and the reason this is getting more traction is that this initiative has a plan of action where general wealth inequality is not really a thing you can just fix with enough signatures. Would also like to remind people that having a thing happen does not really mean another thing can not happen, this is activism whataboutism (what a time we live in).
This was not as much of an issue before but has now become an epidemic.
Which games are you talking about?
Because some of my favourite games died this way. City of Heroes was closed by its owner but is being kept alive by its community and is a great example of what Stop Killing Games is advocating for, while Firefall is completely dead and never coming back. This problem will only get worse if we don’t stop it now.
Firefall was shutdown in 2017. Has the problem gotten worse in the 7 years since it has been shutdown?
