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"Video Games Europe, an industry lobby group, is now lobbying against the Stop Killing Games movement. I think we're stirring up the hive."
I (usually) watch these things, but I don't usually post them here, but this time, I just wanted to make a comment in response to something he showed in the video. He's talking, here, about all the "complexities" of making an online-only game that simply are not needed anymore once the game has reached the end of its life and has been (in an ideal world) simply released into the wild, rather than removed and destroyed forever, and there's a big list of "Examples of microservices NOT NEEDED for an end-of-life copy of a game." I'm just going to transcribe that list here. (pre-post EDIT) And boy did that take far longer than I was anticipating going into it, whew. (/pre-post EDIT)
Examples of microservices NOT NEEDED for an end-of-life copy of a game
- Security / Integrity
- Anti-Cheat Systems (e.g., Easy Anti-Cheat, BattlEye)
- DRM Validation Services (e.g., Denuvo, online license checks)
- Account Ban Enforcement Services
- Server-Side Behavior Monitoring
- GeoIP Restrictions and Compliance
- VPN / Proxy Detection
- Client Integrity Verification
- Monetization
- Payment Processing Gateways (e.g., Stripe, PayPal, in-game stores)
- Ad Services (AdTech Integrations)
- Subscription Management
- In-App Purchase Validation
- Currency Conversion / Virtual Currency Balancing
- Regional Pricing Support
- Tax/VAT Compliance Support
- Refund Handling APIs
- Loyalty / VIP Systems
- Promo Code / Coupon Redemption Systems
- Loot Box Compliance Tools (e.g., odds disclosure, timers)
- Online Account Services
- Account Creation and Management
- Social Graph / Friend List Systems
- OAuth / Third-Party Login Services (Google, Facebook, Steam, etc.)
- Username / Profile Customization APIs
- Linked Accounts / Cross-Platform Linking
- 2 Factor Authentication
- Account Merge / Migration Services
- Live Operations / Game Services
- Live Events Management
- Real-Time Matchmaking
- Ranking / Leaderboards
- Server Discovery / Session Browser
- Live Moderation Tools / Reporting Systems
- Analytics / Telemetry Ingestion
- Dynamic Game Configuration (e.g., live tuning of game parameters)
- Live Patch Notes / Changelog Delivery
- Dynamic Queue Management (e.g., load balancing players across servers)
- Match Rejoin / Resume Services
- Community and Social Features
- News / Live Feed Services
- Community Forums / Integration
- Voice Chat Services (e.g., Vivox, Discord Integrations)
- Player Messaging Services
- Automated Player Message Moderation / Filtering
- Event-Based Messaging (e.g., end-of-match highlights, birthday messages)
- Streamer Mode / Privacy Features
- Twitch Extension Support (overlays, Twitch Drops)
- Player Endorsement / Kudos Systems
- In-Game Polling / Voting Tools
- Community Challenges / Shared Progress Goals
- Content Management
- Live DLC Delivery Systems
- Dynamic Asset Downloading (e.g., CDN-hosted live content)
- Cloud Save Systems
- Patch /Update Distribution via Launcher (if using platform-specific methods instead)
- UGC / Mod Delivery Systems
- Progression and Monetization Services
- Battle Pass Systems
- Daily Missions / Timed Challenges
- Reward Distribution Services
- Live Storefront Item Rotation Services
- Dynamic XP / Currency Rate Adjustments (e.g., double XP weekends)
- Progress Rollback / Restore Tools (for support teams)
- First-Time User Experience (FTUE) Flow Control
- Cloud and Platform Services
- Cloud Match Replay Storage
- Cross-Save / Cloud Profile Sync
- Cloud-Based Save Validation
- Platform Trophies / Achievements Sync
- Streaming Integrations (e.g./ Twitch Drops)
- Monitoring and Maintenance
- A/B Testing Systems
- Crash and Error Reporting (e.g., Sentry, Bugsnag)
- Real-Time Performance Monitoring
- Support Ticket / Helpdesk Integrations
- Surveys and Player Feedback Collection Tools
- Live Ops Dashboards (admin/operator panels)
- Automated Incident Response (e.g., server auto-healing, escalation tools)
- Log Aggregation / Search Tools (e.g., ELK stack)
- Player Session History Viewer (for support/debugging)
- AI / ML Systems
- Live Difficulty Balancing via Machine Learning
- AI Personalization (matchmaking, behavior prediction)
- Toxicity Detection Services + Live Voice Chat Moderation using AI (e.g., detecting threats/toxicity)
- Match Outcome Prediction / Wagering Systems
- Churn Prediction / Player Retention Forecasting
- Adaptive Tutorial or Onboarding Systems
- Infrastructure & Resilience
- Auto-Scaling Services
- Disaster Recovery / Backup Systems
- Multi-Region Server Failover
- Cloud Cost Optimization Tools
- Traffic Shaping / Throttling
- Streaming / Creator Support
- Streaming API Hooks (e.g., showing events on stream)
- Twitch Extension Support (overlays, Twitch Drops)
- Spectator / Castor Mode Integration
- Live Event Telemetry Broadcasting (for esports)
- Developer & Production Tooling
- Admin Control Panel / Live Ops Console
- Feature flag toggles
- Force kick / temp ban / teleport tools
- Player lookup & session trace
- Build Version Management
- Per-platform build version tracking
- Data Export APIs (for BI / external dashboards)
- Forced update enforcement
- Staging / Canary Environments
- A/B tests by region or user segment
- Replay / Telemetry Visualization Tools
- For gameplay debugging, QA, and support
- Player Support Tools
- Self-Serve Account Recovery / Password Reset
- Transaction History Viewer
- Live Chat Support Integration (e.g., Zendesk, Intercom)
- Behavior Dispute Submission System
- Auto-Unban Appeal Review Queues
- Edge Network & CDN Optimizations
- Smart Asset Pre-Fetching
- Predict and preload upcoming assets (skins, levels)
- Regional Asset Caching
- CDNs with intelligent eviction/prioritization rules
- Progressive Asset Loading Frameworks
- e.g., background downloading based on bandwidth availability
- Alternate Game Modes / Meta Layers
- Companion App APIs
- Secondary-device login, chat, loadout editing, minigames
- Idle Systems Integration
- Server-side processing of idle rewards, time-based mechanics
- Seasonal Meta Progression Services
- Independent of main progression, like live-meta events
- Marketplace / Economy Systems
- Item Provenance Tracking
- Track Item History (origin, trades, dupes)
- Marketplace Tax / Fees Systems
- Inventory Overflow Handling
- Systems of overcapacity (e.g., inbox overflow, lost & found)
- Enterprise Integrations
- SAP/ERP Integration (For large publishers managing financials)
- Salesforce / CRM Sync (For handling whales, VIPs, escalations)
- Marketing Automation Hook-ins
- Email campaigns, player win-back efforts
- Player Psychology & Retention Systems
- Frustratin Detection
- Monitor behavior (quit after loss streaks, UI spam) to infer frustration
- Retention Heat Systems
- Real-time systems to trigger offers, events, or breaks when risk spikes
- "Last Chance" Save Hooks
- Smart triggers for comeback mechanics (e.g., revive tokens, pity timers)
- Esports and Competitive Integrity
- Tournament Bracket Management Systems
- Match Verification / Result Arbitration Tools
- Some other bullet point that I couldn't see because it finally cut back to the previous thing, but I don't give a shit anyway because it was just another asinine e-sports-related thing
That's probably not even close to everything on the full list. That's just what was scrolled on the screen in this video. (Also, my only real concern was making sure I didn't fuck up the formatting/nesting/look of the list [which I did a couple times and had to fix during the creation of this post], so if there were any typos made during the process of transcribing the actual list items that weren't in the list as shown in the Youtube video, then that is my fault, and I'll fix it if I notice it, but I don't really give much of a fuck anymore, either way.)
My comment is simply this: I don't need any of that shit at all, ever in any video game I play (or if that shit is in games I play or have played in the past [e.g. No Man's Sky, Minecraft, Star Trek Online, The Secret World, etc.], it doesn't directly affect me, because I ignore/don't use any of it as best as I am able, and if I must use/interact with such shit, I do so only extremely grudgingly). I don't care if the game is at "end-of-life" or if it's a newly bought game that only just released today (not that I buy games on release day anymore, of course). That is a big, huge, colossal part of why I don't play online-only games at all, to begin with. I simply don't play games that have that shit in them and avoid like the plague games that do have that shit in them (and I know about it). That is all. Simple as that.
So if, as Video Games Europe claims, "[the proposals put forward by Stop Killing Games] would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create" by, presumably, not having all that stupid, worthless horseshit in them (or by having to turn off/remove all that stupid, worthless horseshit when such a game reaches "end-of-life"), even if that was true, which it almost assuredly is not (as Ross himself states), then my only response is this:
no subject
Date: 2025-07-08 02:38 am (UTC)From:This is the big irony of the "Stop Killing Games" movement, and I feel a huge factor in why there's so much developer backlash against it. I reckon a lot of people who are involved are the same, in that they're perfectly fine with the initiative actually killing off games — entire gaming models — just so long as the games they actually paid for and want to keep aren't among the death toll.
I guess "Stop Killing Games Except The Ones We Hate" didn't roll off the tongue quite as well. Harder to form a grassroots initiative around that.
no subject
Date: 2025-07-08 09:17 pm (UTC)From:The fact that I, personally, wouldn't lose a wink of sleep and, in fact, would almost assuredly celebrate, if all these live service, online-only games went the way of the dinosaur and the dodo bird, and wish that, indeed, such games were not being made at all and had never existed in the first place, is entirely irrelevant. And if anyone is taking how I, or anyone like me, personally feel and using that as an excuse to shit on "Stop Killing Games" itself, then they have my full permission to fuck right off.
Honestly, I actually feel less sympathy to the people who bought these live service, online-only bullshit games than most, because as far as I'm concerned, they should have seen this coming from the very start (i.e. the fact that such games were inevitably going to disappear [and, to his credit, Ross Scott did see this coming, or, rather, saw it already happening]), rather than being surprised and shocked about it. At the same time, though, and probably more strongly, I also feel that if "Stop Killing Games" actually somehow succeeds and, as a result, the industry is forced to change such that this (i.e. games inevitably disappearing forever) no longer happens anymore, then all the better.