Great point here.

Yeah this is just a defence of deep-rooted anti-consumer practices thats generalizing the issue.

There are multiple types of online-dependent games, so i will do the world a favor and categorize them here, along with viable solutions to prevent their current inevitable unplayability(sticking to PC games for simplicity):

1. Single player games (no continuous server dependence, but launching the game has online-only DRM).

-The dev baked in this online requirement solely to prevent piracy. There is no necessary data being exchanged with a server in order for the game to continuously operate, other than the anti-piracy measures. This means that all a developer needs to do is patch the launcher/game files to not require the online connection, and the game will work fine. Some examples of this anti-piracy software are Denuvo, or Games for Windows Live. In the case of GFWL, anyone who owned a game that required that software to play, can no longer do so as the service has shut down. When denuvo shuts down their servers, those games will be unplayable also.

The solution so far has been to pirate. The community has made their own patches, simple or not, to continue to play games without unnecessary server dependence. This effort should be on the developers.

-Examples -DRM: —GTA V -rockstar game launcher —Diablo 2 Resurrected -Blizzard launcher —Resident Evil 4 Remake -Denuvo —Gears of War(2009 PC) -GFWL (now unplayable without modifying software) —Chronicles of Riddick, AoDA -TAGES (now unplayable without modifying software)

2. Multiplayer games with dedicated servers.

-Most of these games have no option to host a local server, and playing matches alone, split screen or with a friend on your network requires connection to an online server. This has been an intentional design choice for the passed decade or so. Multiplayer games used to come with local or private server hosting baked in, which required no dev-hosted online server connection to continue playing indefinitely.

The solution is more locally/privately host-able servers for multiplayer games. This needs to become the norm again, and has to be implemented as a choice by developers. These games dont need to be redesigned from the ground up for this to work usually either

-Examples -server type: —Halo CE -private/lan servers 👍 —Halo MCC -Dedicated servers, lan requires online connection 👎 —Battlefield 3,4,1,5,2042 -dedicated servers, bf3 was just sunset 👎 —Battlefield 2/1942/Vietnam -Lan AND bots in servers offline 👍 —Call of Duty’s -up until MW2019 they all had robust offline modes that allowed offline lan play, many had bots and zombies modes too 👍 but MW2019 and after have such egregious Blizzard DRM and the game content is an absolute mess, even pirates have a hard time cracking them 👎 —Quake 1-3, CS 1.6/Source, Unreal Tournaments - the quintessential multiplayer format with private lan servers, these came out in the golden era of multiplayer games 👍

3. Server dependent games. (Service games usually)

-This category clumps in MMO, Service, PvP and PvE games together. Data must be passed between players and servers in order for the game to operate properly. Again, this is merely a design choice and not the only way that game could ever be developed in many scenarios, but there are games whose data/processing cannot be hosted locally because of their complexity, such as some MMO’s. This server dependence is prevalent in Service games today because the servers tell the account/game what items they have purchased with real money, all of that is tracked and regulated by the developers in order to, you guessed it, continue to make more money.

There are 2 solutions here… Either design the game so it can also be played without server dependence from the beginning(which in many cases is entirely feasable, but devs prefer you to be always connected to their store to be able to buy more microtransactions)… Or when the game is not financially viable to justify server upkeep, a version of the game or server is released to the public. Yes yes devs dont want to give out their source code and this option requires the most development time, but it prevents people who paid for/into a game from loosing access to it forever.

-Examples -Fixes: —Shatterline -singleplayer version released on steam after online service was sunset 👍 (not free) —Spellbreak -devs released files so players could run their own server once their servers were closed 👍 (free) —World of Warcraft -they would have to do the same as spellbreak, if this game ever shuts down —Anthem -sunset happening in a month or so, no plan to make playable offline/without EA servers, needs dev time👎 —Battleborn -servers taken offline after 4.5 years and i have missed it ever since, needed dev time to work offline 👎 —The Crew -sparked the Stop Killing Games movement with its end, Ubisoft has no plans for an offline patch 👎 (although they do with The Crew 2 👍)

It is important to remember that most(almost all) PC games today bought via Steam, Epic, Microsoft, Ubisoft, Rockstar or EA stores all require an online account to be able to play the games youve bought there, whether or not the games are then playable offline after purchase. Those games are dependent on those online stores in order to access those games if you alter your hardware or software and need to redownload those games, you will need to go through those launcher’s DRM. Some of those launchers won’t let games launch offline ever, as i mentioned in section 1.

GOG and a few DRM free Steam games are some of the only ways to purchase games that have no online dependence once downloaded.

The takeaway here is that many online-only requirements function at best as a means to preserve a distributor’s bottom line and at worst as a form of planned obsolescence that eventually takes away a good you paid for, leaving you with the option of buying the remake, sequel, or another game entirely(like the devs/publishers want).

Here’s to hoping the EU is going to take consumer interests seriously and impose some new rules around game preservation on these money focused companies.

I guess herein lies the potential fallacy of my statement. Decreased desire is a Subjective observation.

One cannot draw a direct correlation, but there is data to conclude that not having a piracy option will boost sales of data initially, at least when it comes to games. (Hence why publishers continue to use Denuvo)

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/10/the-true-cost-of-game-piracy-20-percent-of-revenue-according-to-a-new-study/

Disclosure: I have been sailing the seas for years, but…

This logic does no justice to the objective financial harm being done to the creators/owners of valuable data/content/media.

The original creator/owner is at a loss when data is copied. The intent of that data is to be copied for profit. Now that the data has been copied against the creator/owners will, they do not receive the profit from that copy.

Yes yes the argument is made that the pirate would not have bought the copy anyways, but having free copies of the content available on the internet decreases the desire for people to obtain paid copies of the data. At the very least it gives people an option not to pay for the data, which is not what the creator wanted in creating it. They are entitled to fair compensation to their work.

It is true that pirating is not directly theft, but it does definitely take away from the creator’s/distributor’s profit.

1. Yes, in order to download your “Game Keycard” games, you must get the game data from nintendo online services. This is why banning online services is considered effectively bricking the console, at least for all 3rd party games on keycards.

2. If an account is banned, another one can be made for free and the user can keep utilizing their online services… Nintendo obviously looks at that like a burden, and wants to financially punish that user, making them have to buy another switch. This in turn benefits them.

Not that this is what youre looking for, but Olauncher has done a great job of keeping me from being too distracted by my phone. All apps are in a text list, no colorful icons or red dots to grab your attention when they shouldnt.

Its surprisingly intuitive to use too.

It matters if you value it less as a collectible and more as a preserved, playable copy.

Theyre way behind the power curve with this one. GOG has had better multi-store integration for a while. I am surprised that steam is even lacking on this.

Microsoft needs to make it so i never need to go into the steam app or the GOG app, and so i never want to, to play all my games. Thats the way to win and become number 1.

Really if Play anywhere expands retroactively like 360 backwards compatibility did… They will have another great PR boom that brings users like myself back to their storefronts.

I have to stop holding my breath for the xbox console library to gain cross compatibility though. Theres no way the Play anywhere program comes close to compensating for all of the classics locked to their consoles. If cross compatibility never happens i will feel slighted as a previous xbox user with a huge library of games.

I know i want to buy/play this so bad… But denuvo.

Offline play with bots, not server dependent… Its a multiplayer game with mtx. Its not an Online-Only service game.

You could consider it a service game of sorts, but it isnt the toxic sludge that Destiny 2 and Marathon are/could have been.

Agreed. I would love it if they took all the assets and the engine and made a great campaign actually grounded in the marathon universe. Thats what i would pay for.

Tbh, its probably too late for bungie. All that company is, is a name.

What they need is to make a completely different game.

Destiny was successful because it was the first real fps service game, it didnt push mtx, and had competent pve, pvp and a story(debatably). Bungie cant chase that dragon anymore. Its been done a million times now.

Players know all service games want is to milk them with mtx. No player wants to get into a new service game especially when its nothing unique.

Just make a good single and multiplayer shooter with a somewhat interesting story, then people will buy and play it.

It seems so easy, but AAA pubs and devs cant pull their heads out of their own asses to see what players want. They just see what investors want.

There, dead horse kicked again.

Fair, with steam i think most people got into it years ago before “ownership” was even a concern, back before online games were so frequently shutdown soon after release. Its a good thing GOG and Sailing the 7 Seas are an option for preservation, not that it helps with online only games.

Now i still invest in steam because of its convenience. As soon as it becomes more cumbersome to use, i am done. Tbh if 3rd party app stores/secondary drm become more common on the store i will probably stop investing in steam. Its already a big issue that stops me from buying games…(Think denuvo)

Consoles are already to the point where its near impossible to own your game. Xbox overpriced their consoles so we dont buy them and just invest in gamepass. Not to mention their consoles dont work without online accnt. Playstation requires online activation for a disc drive to work with their new consoles. Nintendo doesnt even put 3rd party switch 2 games on the cartridge anymore.

I feel you, but steam is definitely the lesser of the evils here letting you use it on almost any hardware you want, even if you cant avoid the drm(for most games)

This is a problem that Steam Family Share exists to solve.

Well in my free time this evening, reinstalling windows on a new boot drive in a friends 8yo PC, i think thats the issue with it.

Security wise i might upgrade my plex server(running on a windows 10 hp laptop) to windows 11 hopefully to make it more secure. Ever since i opened port 32400 for plex streaming i have gotten daily notifications saying they blocked another known malicious IP…

Ive read mixed reviews on how much reliance i should put on plex to keep my network secure with that open port. Also, my windows admin account on that pc doesnt have a password to login…

If i am being wreckless and you have security recommendations with justification/reasoning… Please feel free to comment.

So this is where minecraft having 2 pc versions (java and bedrock) gets complex.

It is very easy to find a custom or cracked launcher for java minecraft, and play it without also having to purchase minecraft on PC. You just have to source the game files for the version(i.e. 1.21) you want and play it with a cracked launcher.

When it comes to multiplayer… Java edition can operate its own server on Lan or the internet, and you can also setup a dedicated server on another machine that will let you and your friends play. This will work with purchased or cracked versions of mc java, assuming the game and server game version numbers match.

The whole reason Mojang/Microsoft made Bedrock was to allow them control over the community, and to make money. This means they charge for skins, resource packs and servers(now known as Realms). As far as i know, you cannot hose a Realm for free or with a crack.

There are programs that can convert bedrock saves to java saves, and vice versa… But the last time i used one it didnt work well.

The best option is to start a Java server, and use mods that allow bedrock players to join. That can be a pain too if they are on console.

This is why there is alot of disdain for the Bedrock version of mc…

A good bot system would salvage this game for the few fans it has… If only.

Dock, usb hub, usb SSD, wireless controller and a 65in tv.

One almost mandatory software accessory for me is KDE Connect. Allows me to use my phone as a mouse and keyboard in desktop mode, as well as transfer files between devices easily. Honestly this is a must have.

The Deck is a home console for me mainly, although i do use it while travelling sometimes which feels like an added bonus.

It is the most capable console/computer i have ever owned.

Long live valve. Im scared of what will happen to our beloved Steam once GabeN passes the torch though.

Oh sorry for misunderstanding. Its difficult to fathom watching scheduled programs anymore, but old habits do die hard. Best of luck to you.

With my android tv I put the main menu in “Apps Only” mode to cut down on the ads… There is still the main screen ad you cannot avoid but thats it.

Then i sideloaded SmartTube, which is youtube but it skips the ads for you.

I also have a Plex server i stream from.and update by torrenting shows to the server separately when theyre interesting enough. This takes more time and effort but is definitely worth it to have control over your media.