2mo ago

What are your thoughts about video game preservation?

I think its unnecessarily convoluted, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) are morons and need to get a life.

Including their cousins like the MPA and RIAA.

I am currently doing research around this topic for my University work and have created a google form for people to respond, but I need to make sure it is clean and respects everyone's privacy.

You can request my signal group through direct messages if you would like to fill it out once it releases, I have other plans to have a talk as a (focus) group.

13 comments

It makes sense, unfortunately.
They don't want to compete with older games. For a time, new games would innovate technologically and qualitatively, but that isn't always the case anymore.
There are so many amazing games to play. If you wanted to, you could cut off all future content from this day on, and still have more than enough to remain entertained for the rest of your life.
Some studios are still pushing the envelope, but others have stuck with one "as a service" game for almost a decade now. Others still are making stuff that is objectvly unworthy of being played compared to earlier games.
If you can't make each game better than the last, people will just go back to the last game. But if you take away the last game, they'll go to the new game simply because the same game but worse is still better than nothing.
And that's true overrall, too. If you like games, but can't play your favorite game anymore, you'll probably end up trying to find something new.
- There are so many amazing games to play. If you wanted to, you could cut off all future content from this day on, and still have more than enough to remain entertained for the rest of your life.
  If you can’t make each game better than the last, people will just go back to the last game. But if you take away the last game, they’ll go to the new game simply because the same game but worse is still better than nothing.
  Isn't this true for every form of media though? Books, TV shows, movies, music; there are multiple lifetimes worth of content for anyone that wants to look for it. What makes video games so special?
  
  Video games as a medium, is still new. And that state of so much you could drown in it, is also new.
  Just a couple decades ago you could conceivably play every game ever made, and then be left thirsting for something new.
  And games are plateauing technologically, if not mechanically. New games are no longer better, just because they're newer, with nicer graphics, bigger worlds and smoother gameplay. That stuff has been figured out.
  Now you have to make games better, by making them better.

History will see the video game preservers as the good guys.

fpr MP games the server code ¹ should be released to the community when finally taking the servers offline
¹ (or at least binaries with minimum standards for support/documentation)
- Hell yeah. If they can't afford to host the servers they should give up those tools.
  They had their time in the sun.

It should be protected
Jagex for example are currently cracking down on runescape preservation projects, a LOT of cease & desist letters have recently been sent out because project zanaris apparently supersedes preservation projects

Fitgirl Repacks are performing a public service by not only repacking games better, but also distilling online content caches into offline game assets to ensure the game can still run years later.
Our pirates are the best custodians we have.
- I would say MagiPacks might be an even better example primarily because they deal with older games. They also operate along the GOG logic of ensuring games run on modern operating systems but they do it by bundling in commonly used fan patches.
  
  Good shout!

For profit corporations are to never be trusted.

It's just a sad state of affairs. Digital video games are 1's and 0's that you can copy for basically free (with the only cost being hard drive space which is dirt cheap), so preservation shouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, we live in a world where logic sometimes has to take the backseat in order to maintain the current ideology, and video game preservation is one of those sacrifices.

I think it's going to get more and more challenging due to how many games are focused on online play. If co-op or multiplayer servers are shutdown a lot of the time it comes down to fans to recreate them.
I'd highly recommend checking out this PCGamingWiki page about GameSpy server replacements if you are into that kind of thing.
Even with these mods you still run into the issue of needing either players or bots and whether or not to archive all game altering updates.

13 comments