All this fuss about the 3ds and wii u nintendo network getting shut down has made me wonder if there is a permanent way to allow people to play these games when the servers go down.
A kind of " forever online" update that instead has the console use peer to peer connections instead of connecting to a server could allow for people to play online for as long as they want (despite the drawbacks PvP has)
I'm not very knowledgeable about this kind of thing, but it can't be that hard for the developers to create that kind of update for their games, right?
@Tanookduke I don't know much about it either. Are security/hacking threats part of the problem with keeping online gameplay servers running indefinitely?(or for for another 5-10 years) If they are, I assume that means console OS and online servers have to monitored and periodically updated.
I can’t speak to gaming but I know I would be ready to quit if I had to manage 10 year old servers (and I have a few older ones in my stack) that get a decent amount of traffic. Or be expected to maintain those with no end date. Perhaps not so much if those were not on prem but even with that issues with migration would be a nightmare and an opex bleed. Even more so when dealing with compliance and being a security target the way gaming companies are.
Taiko is good for the soul, Hoisa!
Japanese NNID:RyuNiiyamajp
Team Cupcake! 11/15/14
Team Spree! 4/17/19
I'm a Dream Fighter. Perfume is Love, Perfume is Life.
3DS Friend Code: 3737-9849-8413 | Nintendo Network ID: RyuNiiyama
This would be difficult to implement. Without a central server all devices connect to, how are devices supposed to find each other? I can think of two ways:
1. Devices broadcast their availability to play with another device over the network. While this could work, it would flood the network with these broadcasts and send useless data everywhere, which could slow down networks, not to mention that you can’t guarantee that another console is going to pick up on these requests since you aren’t sending to them directly.
2. Devices could download a list of known consoles that play a specific game and ask each console if they are looking for a lobby for that game. This avoids the network flooding issue since you are sending to a console directly, but this doesn’t sound manageable since you will have to send messages to thousands of consoles repeatedly, with most not giving a response due to being turned off (this could also slow down individual networks where the consoles are present). Plus, ip addresses for these consoles can change and make the list obsolete.
Call me old fashion, but I play PC games in addition to Nintendo. While it's a feature not present on consoles, many older PC games actually have an option in them called Direct IP, or Direct Connect.
A good example of this is the old game Quake III Arena, released in 1999, and it's still played online to this day. Part of this is due to the game allowing players to host an online game on their own PCs. Then other players could join via server browser, however, there's an option marked "specify." By clicking this, you type in the IP address of the host, and you join the game.
Similarly, I was playing the original Unreal Tournament 99 with a friend a few months ago, a game where Epic shut down the master server to find other game servers. If you go to UT99's server browser, no servers will appear at all. I was able to host a game, and using the in-game's "Open Location" menu, my friend was able to join.
Cool part is, these were all features of the games. It's sad that it's no longer in games, as this allows games to pretty much be online forever.
If only Nintendo, or other console manufacturers did this with their games, online shut downs wouldn't be a worry as players could always host a game, and players can join by entering the host's IP address. It's old fashioned, but it's something that's proven to work with plenty of older PC games.
The resident Trolls superfan! Saw Trolls Band Together via early access and absolutely loved it!
Quake is an interesting situation because the developers released the source code to the public, allowing other people to code their own versions of the game.
This has allowed people to keep it playable, regardless of all the changes in hardware and operating systems that have happened on PCs in the meantime, as well as porting it to other systems. You just need a copy of the original game for the data files, which are still protected by trademark and copyright.
It'd be nice if more developers could do the same. Sadly, it's not possible in a lot of cases because, even if they were amenable to doing so, they're often reliant upon third-party components from other developers who wouldn't allow them to.
@Matt_Barber For some clarification, I just launched Quake 3 vanilla (without a source port), and the IP connection option is there. Same with UT, even though that didn't have a source port release.
Medal of Honor Allied Assault's master server was shut down back in 2014 because it used GameSpy, and I can still join servers using the in-game IP address feature, that game doesn't have a source port. No mods or anything, just choose "connect to IP address." Also helps it uses the Quake 3 engine.
Apologies for not clarifying that. Yes, engine source code releases have kept a lot of the id Software stuff alive. Some PC games do have direct IP options out of the box without the use of a source port.
Forums
Topic: Being able to play games online permanently
Posts 1 to 10 of 10
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic