PieFed.zipEuropean game publisher group responds to Stop Killing Games, claims 'These proposals would curtail developer choice"
Sunshine (she/her)www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/european-game-p…
4 Comments
Comments from other communities
curtail developer choice
Yeah no shit. When developers choose to be anti-consumer, that must be curtailed. That’s precisely what regulations are for.
Wtf
"Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create."
What the f kind of statement is that?
Software in this way is provided with a licensen, and the very first thing it will say is 'provided on an "as is" basis and no libility is taken regarding its function or purpose'
If a private server runs a gitlab instance and someone has the brilliant idea to upload Something illegal on it; gitlab is not liable because that would be insane.
The entire statement reeks of copy paste slob and minor legal jargon but is full of holes.
'Not financially viable' is the only truth here, if we asse there is work required to make.it available.
You already MADE the software, which is most of the work. Just let us revere engineer it
protections we put in place...
Surely these are part of the server application that they're being asked to open-source. If they're trying to weasel out of releasing the security related parts of the application, it's probably because they have other games using the same security code, and they don't want that made public. And this implies that they're relying on security-through-obscurity, in other words no security at all. So basically we're forcing them to adopt proper security procedures, and they dont like it.
In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create.
Why even bother asking industry outlets about this? Clearly they will just keep on trying to paint the picture that they're people with rights and desires and not just replaceable entities serving at the behest of consumers, i.e. actual people.
Unfortunately, even if the Stop Killing Games movement eventually succeeds in creating some sort of policy changes, they will only apply in the EU (and potentially the UK, as well), so publishers and developers may still be able to permanently shut down games in other parts of the world.
Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. The whole world automatically benefits from regional legislation affecting global actors like international publishers. Just like the whole world benefitted from Europe enforcing GDPR compliance: Every reddit and Facebook user, not just Europeans, being able to download a data dump of their site activities isn't something that came about randomly.
TomassciOh, I wouldn't worry about that. The whole world automatically benefits from regional legislation affecting global actors like international publishers. Just like the whole world benefitted from Europe enforcing GDPR compliance: Every reddit and Facebook user, not just Europeans, being able to download a data dump of their site activities isn't something that came about randomly.
I also think they're making a bad point. Like, if you want to spend money to shit down your games except Europe, then do so, if you want. We ain't gonna stop you, just seems stupid to invest money into this thing that isn't going to get a high return either way.
100%! Every single developer I've ever met has been adamant about wanting to watch their work, hours of their life, be killed off on a financial basis! They told me so personally!
Edit: speaking seriously now, I don't get what their fucking problem is... Nobody's asking them to keep the servers running indefinitely. I mean, the far, far smarter choice would be to implement LAN play. Hell, not even that, give us the source code and we'll do it on our own! The community has been aces at keeping old multiplayer games alive and kicking, just look at Battlefield 2142, custom WoW servers, custom, like... whatever servers. There are so, so many people willing to keep these games alive without any help from the publisher or anyone else.
And they especially don't want end users to be informed about the game's life expectancy before they pay for it!
Well, that would spoil the fun, wouldn't it! I mean, that soul-whittling existential anxiety I get whenever I pick up an online-only game is 90% of the reason why I play them in the first place!
Nobody's asking them to keep the servers running indefinitely.
Also, why not just release a docker image of your server plus a docker-compose/kubernetes deployment definition? You're usually using cloud hosting and automated deployment anyways, so you probably already have one laying around anyways...
toothbrushYeah, the choice to fuck over customers would be heavily curtailed, think of the lost profits!!
Yes, it will restrict developer... well, really, mostly publisher choice, in 99% of the scenarios this will actually affect, if you go by amount of money involved.
Specifically their choice to Thanos snap all of your MTX purchased items out of existence, their choice to EoL a game without having some kind of at least mostly functional final patch and/or release of a stripped down dedi server binary.
Yep.
They're right.
It would restrict those choices.
Like how we have lemon laws that restrict the choice of a car dealer/mfg to sell you a catastrophically broken piece of crap.
Coolkat"We understand that it can be disappointing for players but, when it does happen, the industry ensures that players are given fair notice of the prospective changes in compliance with local consumer protection laws."
LOL
🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮Its cool, guys. They are gonna tell us in advance "fuck you, suckers!" instead of just pulling the rug out from under you.
Developer choice? What? What bullshit. People have the right to own their games and play games that are old.
O GaldoThe choices of developers or the corporations that enslave developers? It's not the same.
I mean, it's true. Killing game services in a way which ensures people have absolutely no way to use the games they bought is... a choice.
And now a million Europeans have just officially expressed that they don't agree with "developers" (really, publisher higher-ups) being free to choose that.
Yeah, “I don’t like this proposed change to the law because it has an effect” is not the compelling narrative they seem to think it is.
ScrubblesSo tone deaf, and clearly they're just trying to steer the narrative.
They call out that it's never taken lightly and it has to happen. We know. Stop killing games just says you have to do something when you turn off the servers. Either release the server source code so it can be engineered by the community, release a self hostage server alternative, even just documents or guides on how to get started.
But they're going to try to make it about the mean old gamers want them to go broke
w3dd1eThis entire argument is nonsense. With enough advance notification, all future games can be built with these rules in mind. If you are developing it in that way to begin with it’s not going to require any extra work.
I hate that they tried to blame the developers here. I feel like they are just as exploited as the consumers. Many times have I tried to be passionate about my own work only to have it crushed and expunged by greedy upper management. I'd hate to be them working years on a passion project only to have it degraded by corporate grifters sending it into microtransaction hell
Green Wizard
Oh no, I feel so bad that it would remove their choice to steal from their customers. Moving on.
In other news, thieves hate regulation against theft.
Yes, reducing choice is what the laws are made for. This is not necessarily a bad thing.
Looks like corpo is going to lie as much as possible to keep destroying your games for extra profit.