Stop Killing Games Canadian Petition - Now Open For Signature

knitwitt, 12 days ago

I’m not comfortable with the idea of the government dictating what developers must do with their games. There are legitimate legal, financial, and artistic reasons they may not want to be forced to distribute in that way.

I think that it’s the responsibility of consumers to make sure they have the level of ownership over the games they like. I personally don’t really like to invest into live service games for this reason, but I do enjoy playing them on occasion and appreciate that they’re free to play and receive constant updates. Forcing the Deves to open source their code at the end of the game’s life cycle would jeopardize their vision and our ability to play games like them.

cmeow, 13 days ago

Thank you, OP. Only took a couple mins to fill it out and verify my email. Easiest civic work I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing.

blindsight, 12 days ago

It was very quick, aside from waiting a bit for the email to arrive.

Mammothmothman, 14 days ago

Its just a video game. I will never sign anything like this and hope the government ignores this.

Rentlar, 14 days ago

Ok. You do you.

Be ready when companies try to pull this off with “ah, this product you bought is now unsupported. Can’t do anything with it because it HAS to be connected to our servers over the internet. Teehee, thanks for your money!”. If they can get away with it in video games, they may eventually get away with it in other industries.

Mammothmothman, 14 days ago

Slippery slope fallacy.

Rentlar, 13 days ago

Car companies offering embedded upgrades as softlocked addons or subscriptions is also down that route. It’s where the money’s at so it will transcend industry boundaries. They will try to hide behind “digital” everything to try to escape legislation as long as possible.

Again, I can’t nor do I want to force you to sign this.

villasv, 14 days ago

Pass legislation requiring publishers that sell or license video games or that sell related features and assets for said games to do the following once they end support for said games: leave their games in a functional state, and remove any mandatory connections to the publisher or affiliated parties necessary for said games to function;

How enforceable is this legislation in face of games that simply cannot function without multiplayer? The developers of a game similar to Among Us would be forced to update the game with bots to be compliant?

I signed the petition but can’t say I’m hopeful the Parliament will write good legislation on this…

AceFuzzLord, 14 days ago

I imagine it being basically impossible for MMORPG games. How do you keep an MMORPG alive without removing the MMO part?

chonglibloodsport, 14 days ago

There are player-run servers for MMORPGs such as Ultima Online and EverQuest. If the developers released the server software the fans wouldn’t have to implement their own (which they did for those two games). If the company is no longer running their own servers they are no longer making money from subscriptions so they won’t lose money to competition from player-run servers.

villasv, 13 days ago

fans wouldn’t have to implement their own (which they did for those two games)

Wow, TIL. People are amazing.

brenticus, 14 days ago

I feel the same way regarding whether this legislation would be enforceable or good, but there are a lot of ways developers could make this work that they currently don’t. That includes bot players, local multiplayer functionality, dedicated server tools, IP-based connections, etc. Many DRM and anti-cheat implementations also cause problems and would need to be either removed or only used in certain contexts.

Right now in a lot of games if you aren’t playing multiplayer on official servers through official matchmaking functions with invasive kernel-level anti-cheat there’s no other way to play, but that hasn’t always been the case nor does it need to be the case.

Rentlar, 14 days ago (edited 14 days ago)

You pose a good question. There are many ways that it can be implemented and of course it depends on the game. Have a solo/offline mode, replace online multiplayer with local multiplayer or direct connect (for games like Among Us), release a dedicated server (so groups of people can start their own.

At a minimum, it needs to be better than “Could not reach game server, please check your connection and try again.” The standard we could hold companies to would be through each province’s consumer rights agency, but would have the legislation properly behind their efforts.

dubyakay, 14 days ago

Publish the source. Look at id and Quake/Quakeworld. The game is still alive and well after Romero released all source codes to let people iterate their own clients and servers.

ILikeBoobies, 14 days ago

Open sourcing it is the solution but there is no enforcement possible

Studios can just shut down unless they are required to hand the source over to enter the market

knitwitt, 12 days ago

This would be an issue if the servers use any proprietary code, libraries, or services the developer is not at liberty to distribute.

A studio may also to reuse their networking code for a sequel, and it would suck being forced to release that just because an older title got discontinued - could lead to exploits, or just competitors profiting off of your hard work with no compensation in exchange.

ILikeBoobies, 12 days ago (edited 12 days ago)

They could just keep the game running to avoid that

But if the source isn’t available then the game will eventually be lost

m0darn, 14 days ago

The developers of a game similar to Among Us would be forced to update the game with bots to be compliant?

I’m not a programmer or IT specialist or anything but I think the ask would be more like,

when discontinuing multiplayer service they must roll out an update to allow gamers to specify private server addresses

They don’t need to program bots, they need to open the code enough for fans to keep the game functional. Like when I was a kid I could play multi player games with my friends by typing their phone number into the game. Our computers would connect through the phone lines and we could battle for the fate of Azeroth. I still remember the phone number of the friend I did that with.

villasv, 13 days ago

they need to open the code enough for fans to keep the game functional

That makes sense. Another commenter pointed out that even for defunct MMORPGs people were able to spin up their own servers to keep the game alive. If companies are forced to provide something to help that, it’s already a win.

I’m not hopeful Canada would be able to pass legislation forcing companies to open source things, though. Maybe if this was the EU lol our track record of fighting tech companies hasn’t been pretty.

m0darn, 13 days ago

It would probably just result in games not being for sale in Canada.

Maybe a progressive tax, not a ban, eg if your game grosses say $1M sales in Canada you pay a higher tax rate if you don’t attest that you’ve set aside enough cash to do this when you sunset the game. Then if you said you’d do it but don’t, the CRA can come after you. Revenue from this tax could be earmarked for computer education or indie studio grants or something.

knitwitt, 12 days ago

That sounds like a nightmare! I don’t think game developers (or any other artist) would want the CRA breathing down their neck, telling them what they can or can’t do with their work. I certainly wouldn’t program under those conditions.

m0darn, 12 days ago

… then just pay the higher tax rate? You already grossed a million dollars in sales.

WraithGear, 15 days ago

I can’t sign for Canada, but i can up vote this post to get more visibility, maybe.

Rentlar, 14 days ago

Your moral support is appreciated. I’m glad my original post is getting around. If you have any Aussie or British friends please get them to these petitions too!

TSG_Asmodeus, 15 days ago

Signed, here’s hoping it goes through!

recursive_recursion, 15 days ago

Please consider signing the petition as this might be our real chance at stopping publishers from permanently killing online games✊

AFallingAnvil, 15 days ago

Signed it!