Not really, it would simply push safer practice and encourage use of open source materials. It would also encourage a push for code standard development and higher quality legislation. If you’re going to reveal it, why even use proprietary code? The copywrite still applies in the cases of unauthorized use. Proprietary net code is just to obfuscate data mining and the extent to which security is breached. There’s too much profit in multiplayer games for companies to simply give up because they have to work data mining in from another vector.
Comment on The "Stop Killing Games" Australian Petition is Live
GlitterInfection@lemmy.world 6 months ago
This petition is worded in such a way that it almost feels like lying.
Most games that shut down aren’t doing so because they had an arbitrary ping home that breaks them, it’s because hosting servers is fundamentally part of the game’s multiplayer-oriented experience.
You’re trying to use the former to backdoor in a way to force the latter to give you all of its server code.
Assuming this law were to go forward with even the most rigorous knowledge of the problem-space, and an intentional push to require multiplayer or server-based games to give you their server code after the game is shut down, all that will do is increase the risk involved in creating any multiplayer games.
Most likely this will reduce the quality and variety of games that get created going forward, which would ironically make preservation much easier.
untorquer@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 6 months ago
This specific petition was broadened to involve all software rather than just games which is why it mentions pinging home instead of focusing on multiplayer servers.
The general idea of the campaign as a whole is to force publishers to create software with a specific end-of-life plan that would include one of the few possible options:
Any of those options would come into effect only when the official support for the game were to end.
How exactly would that increase the risk of creating multiplayer games? Private server hosting was a thing for years and the only reason we’re here now is because publishers decided they should be the only ones allowed to do it.
GlitterInfection@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Your petition doesn’t allow for the second option, fyi, but let’s ignore it for the moment.
Let’s take a not uncommon case that causes games to shutdown: a company that ran out of money.
How do you do any of these things legally without paying your now jobless employees?
You need to either release the servers at the same time as the game, which has cost associated with it, or you need to hold funds up front to handle paying for the costs on the backend (i.e you need to pay an insurance premium).
Essence_of_Meh@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Just so we’re clear, this is not my petition. It’s related to the Stop Killing Games campaign mentioned in the post description, though it was slightly modified by the author (one of the volunteers helping with the campaign).
I’m not sure I follow your example.
First things first - companies don’t poof out of existence suddenly. Secondly, the whole reason behind the end-of-life proposal is for devs/publishers to have a ready and easy to execute plan in case of ending the official support (whether it’s closing the developer run servers or closure of the company). The whole ideas is that something like that would be planned and prepared for during the development.
GlitterInfection@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I have literally worked at a game company startup that ran out of money and shut down abruptly.
And have you not been paying attention to the news lately? Game companies are shutting down weekly.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I think your last paragraph highlights exactly how I figured it would work. If you couldn’t provide the servers when you ran out of money, it would show you weren’t complying with the law when you built it. Remember, online multiplayer games existed for a long time without requiring the use of company servers. The Game Awards’ multiplayer game of the year last year is playable via direct IP connection and LAN. Nightingale requires a connection to official servers and was slammed in reviews for not offering the ability for customers to run them themselves like most of Nightingale’s competitors do.
GlitterInfection@lemmy.world 6 months ago
So those things are added risks and costs that will have to be factored into deciding which games to fund and which to not.
So it will reduce the number of multiplayer games that get made.
I am a single player gamer so I selfishly am Ok with that, but less Ok with it being handled in a way that could have other unintended consequences.
As an aside, I don’t know how these petitions work, but would it be helpful to give concrete examples of software that has had this happen and what your perceived solution to it could be?