I don't want to start off by saying, "Back in my day we didn't have online games, and we liked it." That's stupid. All that is is an attempt for the author to express how their generation is soooo much better than the current one. Every generation does this to the next, it's nothing new. In fact, I'm pretty sure it could be considered a form of narcissism, claiming that everything old is gold and everything new is shit. Again, that's stupid. No, what I'm talking about here isn't a broad generalization, but a specific complaint that could easily be fixed.
You see, there are a number of games that require the user to log onto a server in order to play (sometimes even if you're playing a single player game). On the outside, the reason for this is so you can have access to your friends list while playing. In reality, though, it's mostly about preventing piracy by constantly confirming you have an authentic copy of the game (even though most pirates can find a way around it, but that's neither here nor there). The problem that really arises is when a game company can no longer afford to run the servers. When that happens, poof, that game that you purchased can no longer be played. It doesn't matter how much you payed for it, it doesn't matter how many add on packs or downloadable content you bought, that's it. Finito. Done. Game over, man. Game over.
I can understand a company not wanting to put anymore time and effort into a game if they're ready to move on, but the fact that they don't seem to care about the gamers once their part is through in it, is a little troubling. It all seems to go back to this mentality that a lot companies (mainly tech) seemly have, where consumers don't actually own the products that they've bought. Just look it, customization of a product is frowned upon, with a number businesses trying to ensure a uniformity in there product line even after it's purchased. Same with games. A number of the publishers and developers treat video games like a long term rental service, and once their done, you're done.
What makes it worse is that there could still be ways for some of these games to live on after their official servers are gone. So publishers and developers, I've got a question for you: Why not give the game's source code to the community and allow them to set up their own servers? Hell, you could even sell discounted digital copies to run off of these fan servers. Sure, you probably wouldn't make that much of a profit, but it would still be something. Why allow these games to just die? Why not give them over to their fan community? You know retro gaming is a big thing right now, so don't you think it's entirely possible that folks may want to play your game ten years down the road?
Perhaps it's silly, but maybe more of an effort will be made to try and preserve some of these games rather than just pull the plug and be done with it.
Till Next Time, Space Monkeys!
