Piracy for Preserving Digital-Only Games

[lisalover1]

I know that this conversation has come up a lot in passing before, but I think it might be a good idea to tackle the issue head-on. What should be done when the servers for digitally-downloaded games are taken offline? What can be done to ensure that they will be rightfully preserved? If history serves, we certainly can't trust the platform holder companies to take any steps towards preservation. The closest thing we have in that regard is GOG's necessarily DRM-free nature and a promise from Valve that they would allow games to be accessed offline should they ever fall. Still, those are few and far between, and the latter promise is just taking them on their word for now.

So, the question is: Do you feel that piracy is necessary for preserving digital-only games, or is there still some hope left in convincing platform holders to allow for preservation? Up until now, hackers have been instrumental in retrieving things such as Satellaview and Sega Channel roms, but is it possible that this will not be necessary in the future? It's an optimistic view, but not entirely impossible. Thoughts?

[ZeroAX]

If piracy didn't exist 3/4ths of the ancient statues in museums wouldn't exist.

[isiolia]

So, the question is: Do you feel that piracy is necessary for preserving digital-only games, or is there still some hope left in convincing platform holders to allow for preservation? Up until now, hackers have been instrumental in retrieving things such as Satellaview and Sega Channel roms, but is it possible that this will not be necessary in the future? It's an optimistic view, but not entirely impossible. Thoughts?

I think for most cases, it won't really be necessary. The bigger problem is likely to be expired licenses keeping titles unavailable. We've seen publishers go under and their games stay available as the IPs shifted to new owners. I think if the day came that Steam died, someone else would step in and negotiate to pick up most of the library (if Valve didn't spin that part of the business off prior to that anyway).
Older stuff probably suffered a lot more by not being as widely stored and copied.

If it winds up being something like, say, Microsoft getting out of consoles period and thus XBL going away, then that might be different.

I'd say that the bigger issue with regard to preserving modern games is online multiplayer. It's a "you had to be there" to probably a greater level than the arcade scene was. Even if you can get a private server going, the user base and motivation won't be the same. Especially if the game needs hundreds of players or more for things to work by design, such as the economy in an MMO.

[J T]

Direct2Drive was pretty cool once.

[MrPopo]

I'd say that the bigger issue with regard to preserving modern games is online multiplayer. It's a "you had to be there" to probably a greater level than the arcade scene was. Even if you can get a private server going, the user base and motivation won't be the same. Especially if the game needs hundreds of players or more for things to work by design, such as the economy in an MMO.

You can already see something like this with old PC FPS's like Doom and Quake. There are still private servers going, but at this point they're sort of a private club; it's not that newbies aren't welcome, it's that newbies will get splatted over and over again because they haven't lived and breathed the game for the past 20 years.

[lisalover1]

So, the question is: Do you feel that piracy is necessary for preserving digital-only games, or is there still some hope left in convincing platform holders to allow for preservation? Up until now, hackers have been instrumental in retrieving things such as Satellaview and Sega Channel roms, but is it possible that this will not be necessary in the future? It's an optimistic view, but not entirely impossible. Thoughts?

I think for most cases, it won't really be necessary. The bigger problem is likely to be expired licenses keeping titles unavailable. We've seen publishers go under and their games stay available as the IPs shifted to new owners. I think if the day came that Steam died, someone else would step in and negotiate to pick up most of the library (if Valve didn't spin that part of the business off prior to that anyway).
Older stuff probably suffered a lot more by not being as widely stored and copied.

If it winds up being something like, say, Microsoft getting out of consoles period and thus XBL going away, then that might be different.

I'd say that the bigger issue with regard to preserving modern games is online multiplayer. It's a "you had to be there" to probably a greater level than the arcade scene was. Even if you can get a private server going, the user base and motivation won't be the same. Especially if the game needs hundreds of players or more for things to work by design, such as the economy in an MMO.

That's a very good point, especially about the nigh-impossible task of resurrecting an MMO. Many games that are now offline were designed with online play in mind as the primary mode of play.

I wish it would become standard practice in the industry to open-source a game's server code when it goes offline. Then anyone could make private servers if they wanted to.

I'd say that the bigger issue with regard to preserving modern games is online multiplayer. It's a "you had to be there" to probably a greater level than the arcade scene was. Even if you can get a private server going, the user base and motivation won't be the same. Especially if the game needs hundreds of players or more for things to work by design, such as the economy in an MMO.

You can already see something like this with old PC FPS's like Doom and Quake. There are still private servers going, but at this point they're sort of a private club; it's not that newbies aren't welcome, it's that newbies will get splatted over and over again because they haven't lived and breathed the game for the past 20 years.

Yeah, it sort of becomes a club for the very elite. Anyone who goes to play PSO online via private servers these days knows that only max-level characters do so regularly.

[Damm64]

So, the question is: Do you feel that piracy is necessary for preserving digital-only games, or is there still some hope left in convincing platform holders to allow for preservation? Up until now, hackers have been instrumental in retrieving things such as Satellaview and Sega Channel roms, but is it possible that this will not be necessary in the future? It's an optimistic view, but not entirely impossible. Thoughts?

Yes, i highly doubt companies will let go their property just like that in the name of preservation. Right now that's the only way to get some games and their DLC. TMNT re shelled is no longer on sale and capcom loose the rights of the MvC series so the DLC for marvel vs capcom 3 is lost.

Underground gamer was a nice place until they got shut down for games that are not for sale anymore like FIFA 98.

[AmishSamurai]

So, the question is: Do you feel that piracy is necessary for preserving digital-only games, or is there still some hope left in convincing platform holders to allow for preservation? Up until now, hackers have been instrumental in retrieving things such as Satellaview and Sega Channel roms, but is it possible that this will not be necessary in the future? It's an optimistic view, but not entirely impossible. Thoughts?

I think for most cases, it won't really be necessary. The bigger problem is likely to be expired licenses keeping titles unavailable. We've seen publishers go under and their games stay available as the IPs shifted to new owners. I think if the day came that Steam died, someone else would step in and negotiate to pick up most of the library (if Valve didn't spin that part of the business off prior to that anyway).
Older stuff probably suffered a lot more by not being as widely stored and copied.

If it winds up being something like, say, Microsoft getting out of consoles period and thus XBL going away, then that might be different.

I'd say that the bigger issue with regard to preserving modern games is online multiplayer. It's a "you had to be there" to probably a greater level than the arcade scene was. Even if you can get a private server going, the user base and motivation won't be the same. Especially if the game needs hundreds of players or more for things to work by design, such as the economy in an MMO.

That's a very good point, especially about the nigh-impossible task of resurrecting an MMO. Many games that are now offline were designed with online play in mind as the primary mode of play.

I wish it would become standard practice in the industry to open-source a game's server code when it goes offline. Then anyone could make private servers if they wanted to.

Of course reviving old MMOs does happen. There's projects going on to bring back Star Wars Galaxies, and that Dragonball MMO that existed for some reason. But I do agree when a game with multiplayer finally goes down they should release the code for dedicated servers for anyone who purchased a legit copy.