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Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

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Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#101

Post by solardev »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #47
jerjerjer wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Games with single-player mode must be playable in a fully offline mode. Would solve your (very valid) issue for a large chunk of games.

There is a petition that would require publishers to leave games in a playable state at end-of-life ( https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home ), but it doesn't look like it will reach the threshold that would require the parliament to respond. It is one of the bigger petitions though, so it might still trigger some action.

Wait, in the EU you can just petition the government and they have to respond after some threshold?

Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#102

Post by LM358 »

solardev wrote: post #101
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a petition that would require publishers to leave games in a playable state at end-of-life ( https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home ), but it doesn't look like it will reach the threshold that would require the parliament to respond. It is one of the bigger petitions though, so it might still trigger some action.

Wait, in the EU you can just petition the government and they have to respond after some threshold?

Yes, both at the EU level and also in many countries (EU and non-EU), see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Citizens%27_Initiativ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_initiative

Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#104

Post by reverendsteveii »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #3

With physical games, you're tied to how long your console and cartridge physically last. With digital games, you're tied to how long the console's e-store lasts, which is guaranteed to be sunset. Eventually I couldn't justify buying the console version of a game that I was willing to play on Steam.

Back when I was active in the modding scene I was able to get non-console interfaces for xbox memory cards and gba carts. With physical games you're tied to how long the physical medium lasts but not necessarily the console.

Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#105

Post by goosedragons »

xmodem wrote: post #91
jbm wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange, my copy of fitbox died after about 2-3 years of occasional use without any abuse. To be fair, this was the case for my Joycons too (Calling it drift is branding, they are effectively unusable) I like Nintendo's games but their QC has always been a little off. I got bad joypads even in the 80s when we got a NES. (Not having the internet and being a dumb kid I thought I was only limited to moving up and left o…

I have an Xbox 360 wired controller that I purchased circa 2008. I use it at least 1-2 times a week - these days for gaming on PC mostly, although I still pull the 360 out of the closet from time to time. The thumbstick rubber is definitely starting to get a little worse for wear at this point, but the controller still functions perfectly. I cannot understand how we used to engineer controllers that last, and now we…

Dead zones. Older controllers had bigger dead zones so the wear didn't matter as much. Switch joycons are physically smaller sticks so this makes the problem worse. There's even less tolerance to wear.

Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#106

Post by mpalmer »

dtagames wrote: post #14
Y_Y wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't it be nice if the Library of Congress or the Bodleian or some other prestigous clouty institution could demand that these published artworks be given to them as an unencumbered copy? I know that such a thing might have to include server code and some agreements on runtime environment, but I don't see that as insuperable. This is culture and it's part of our patrimony. The privilege of getting to publish thin…

The problem is the cost and knowledge base required to keep servers running. A game server is a big proprietary ball of spaghetti with hundreds of API endpoints and only the people who built it really know how it works[0]. It's expensive to keep those folks around and expensive to pay for the cloud services and SaaS tools they need to do their jobs. All software has a "lifecycle" and has to be turned off at some poin…

...therefore it shouldn't be preserved at all? This doesn't follow.

No one mentioned running the code, just persisting it for the future public good

Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#107

Post by znpy »

> "You would hope that a company that big, that has such a storied history, would take preservation a little more seriously.”

Why would one hope that? Nintendo has never ever shown any kind of sign of even remote interest in anybody not-Nintendo doing any kind of preservation.

Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#108

Post by terribleperson »

xmodem wrote: post #91
jbm wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strange, my copy of fitbox died after about 2-3 years of occasional use without any abuse. To be fair, this was the case for my Joycons too (Calling it drift is branding, they are effectively unusable) I like Nintendo's games but their QC has always been a little off. I got bad joypads even in the 80s when we got a NES. (Not having the internet and being a dumb kid I thought I was only limited to moving up and left o…

I have an Xbox 360 wired controller that I purchased circa 2008. I use it at least 1-2 times a week - these days for gaming on PC mostly, although I still pull the 360 out of the closet from time to time. The thumbstick rubber is definitely starting to get a little worse for wear at this point, but the controller still functions perfectly. I cannot understand how we used to engineer controllers that last, and now we…

I think it's literally cost-cutting. Parts that used to be built well enough that they last years are now built just well enough to not fail in testing.

Luckily, you can now buy third-party controllers that use hall effect sensors.

Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#109

Post by Nullabillity »

dtagames wrote: post #56
ldng wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What your saying is true BUT. Your are talking about keeping servers (plural ?) running but, for conservancy, you should not need a full fledge cloud. It not about keeping it running for millions of customers. It's about being able to run for research to study games in the long run. One server that can handle a couple or two clients should be enough for conservancy.

People are the harder problem. A game server is not a box you turn on and it just runs. The platforms themselves change under you all the time as do all the SaaS tools you rely on. Clients change all the time, too, and one missed update can make your game unrunnable. Folks don't want to train or pay the humans needed to keep server-based games alive.

Easy; if you don't want to pay for keeping up with SaaS, don't use SaaS! This is an entirely self-inflicted problem, and it's on you (as in, the gamedev) to fix it.

Re: Game preservationists say Switch2 GameKey Cards are disheartening but inevitable

#110

Post by j1elo »

It's not fun how the trend is to force everybody to have internet, as if it was an essential service like electricity or water. Some argue it is, but I'd say we're generally far from there. I wanted a console to play when I go to my out of town apartment where we don't need nor want to contract an internet line. And now it means I cannot even bring some cartridges with me and swap them as I please, because they are always requiring internet connectivity for everything.

What hasn't failed me is to hack my devices and use pirated versions of my content. Ironic that this method works much better. All games I want, locally, in a pack of SD cards I bring in my backpack, ready to install and play 100% offline at any moment in a train, a flight, a boat.

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