Game servers should NEVER be closed down

Started by Legend, Jan 11, 2018, 03:24 AM

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Legend

I'm assuming it's not just me, but isn't it kinda crazy that this has become a standard practice? It made some sense in the past but nowadays it doesn't imo with the power of the cloud. Plus more and more games have online components so this is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.

Old games should be grouped together and run off the same servers as a shared online system. Per game you might have just a handful of people per week but the overall system would have regular traffic. Think of it like how a website can have millions of unique pages all hosted on a single server. Adding additional games (web pages) to this system would be essentially free.

the-pi-guy

That's what I was hoping that this generation would bring.  

We are paying for PS plus and Xbox Live, why isn't that going towards the cloud and having most/all games run off that big cloud.  Or if companies want to shut down old games, Sony and MS should take over the online segment.  

I was even thinking about this a few weeks ago.  

I'm assuming companies don't want to keep paying for the space, but why can't the consumer's subscription replace their paying for it?  

That's my take. :P

Legend

That's what I was hoping that this generation would bring.  

We are paying for PS plus and Xbox Live, why isn't that going towards the cloud and having most/all games run off that big cloud.  Or if companies want to shut down old games, Sony and MS should take over the online segment.  

I was even thinking about this a few weeks ago.  

I'm assuming companies don't want to keep paying for the space, but why can't the consumer's subscription replace their paying for it?  

That's my take. :P
Unity essentially has this built into their engine. If you use their network APIs, it's free under 20 users and has a per gb cost beyond that. I think we'll see this sort of thing catch on from smaller devs that never have large player numbers. Big AAA will only catch on once it saves money while the game is still uber popular.

PSN also has something similar to Unity but again I don't think very many large games use it, especially since they're multiplat.

BananaKing

Well if literally nobody is playing them, what's the harm?

ethomaz

They should because nobody can run a server forever.

What games can't do is rely on online servers for features that can be done just offline.

darkknightkryta

I've always been of the mind of using free P2P servers, that way they last forever as long as PSN or Xbox Live is running.  Then use PS+ servers as an option, for those who want less lag.  When those servers shut down, no one cares since the slower p2p servers are running.

the-pi-guy

They should because nobody can run a server forever.
Well if you are talking about dedicated servers for a specific game, yes.  

But Legend isn't talking about using dedicated servers, but rather general servers for any game that wants to use those resources.  

ethomaz

Well if you are talking about dedicated servers for a specific game, yes. 

But Legend isn't talking about using dedicated servers, but rather general servers for any game that wants to use those resources. 

Hummm... both are the same.

The difference is what you are doing on server... for a general server you possible only does authentication and mp user list while in a dedicated you do almost everything... both are a hardware in some place talking resources and they should be shout down after a time or lower usage.

the-pi-guy

Hummm... both are the same.

The difference is what you are doing on server... for a general server you possible only does authentication and mp user list while in a dedicated you do almost everything... both are a hardware in some place talking resources and they should be shout down after a time or lower usage.
That's how it works in practice, but the thing is general servers could be utilized for multiple games.

If no one is playing a game, instead of it getting shut down, those resources get used by a different game.  And someone comes back to play that game, it utilizes some open space of the server.  

Similar to how a regular PC works for everyone else in the world.  You don't have to restart your PC if you are done using Google chrome and want to play a game.  The computer simply turns off the instance of Google chrome, and  starts an instance of the game.