Tendo City

Full Version: Yes, you DO own your games.
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This is long, and not exactly exciting, but it is important if you care at all about where the game industry is going right now.  And for those trying to defend what giant companies are doing at the expense of the public, why?  Why are you on their side?  You're never going to be them, ever.  You aren't.  Look at me, look at me.  You aren't.  You're going to die poor like the rest of us.  Now, knowing that, who's side are you on?
I watched the whole thing, and yeah, that was a very well put together video. The main reason to care about this issue is for preservation -- wanting things to continue to be available in some form in the future, so people then can experience them and such, but the law won't mandate preservation, so you need another argument to try to get game companies to make games available in the future. This is a good approach for getting that. It may or may not happen, but it needs to and he lays out the whole problem and decent possible solutions.

I will say, though -- really, as far as I see it, the main reason companies don't do what he suggests isn't really because of cracking servers for games that are running, or because it'd be a minor programming effort or anything. It's because they want you to buy their newer games. People continuing to play and not spend money on some old game aren't making you any profits, after all! You need to try to force them into your current software ecosystem. So, shut down old games once they become unprofitable, and do not release anything to the communities of fans of shut down online games because you want to try to make those people play your newer, still profitable games. He doesn't really directly take on this explanation for corporate behavior, but the solution to it is the one in the video, the law. Otherwise they will definitely continue to do what they are now, nothing.

And the problem will get a lot worse in the future, too, with streaming tech getting to the point of actual consumer use with exclusive games...
Preservation is a good reason, but for me the main reason is simply personal ownership rights. I want to own the stuff I own.