670
submitted 1 year ago by kolorafa@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world

This should be illegal, companies should be forced to open-source games (or at least provide the code to people who bought it) if they decide to discontinue it, so people can preserve it on their own.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] fkn@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Edit2: Jesus people, please engage with the actual argument... not some strawman argument I didn't make.

I must be missing something here.

  1. Company buys land, designs and builds theme park
  2. Company operates theme park.
  3. Theme park isn't profitable.
  4. Company closes theme park
  5. ???
  6. Company must give away designs and schematics to theme park rides for free so people can build theme park themselves that might be in direct competition with new theme park company is trying to build???

Edit: I do think that abandonware should be opensourced at some point... but I don't understand this level of entitlement.

[-] provomeister@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

Good analogy. The battle shouldn't be about forcing abandonware to be opensource. We should focus on DRM, it makes games almost impossible to play when servers shut down.

OP should have compared it to other medias such as movies. When you buy a box copy, you expect it to work long after the authors/studios/etc. are gone.

The issue is about the lack of legal ways to play older games as time moves on. It will only grow bigger in the next few years with even more games relying on DRM and online servers.

[-] fkn@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is a good distinction.

Online only play models are difficult for the consumer. I personally don't play that many online only games for partly this reason... and partly because I don't play many online games at all.

load more comments (20 replies)
this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
670 points (92.2% liked)

Games

31818 readers
2016 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Weekly Threads:

What Are You Playing?

The Weekly Discussion Topic

Rules:

  1. Submissions have to be related to games

  2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

  3. No excessive self-promotion

  4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

  5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

  6. No linking to piracy

More information about the community rules can be found here.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS