STOP Killing Games is FLAWED!
210There are plenty of detractors of stop killing games, surprisingly, but then again, there are plenty of detractors in all sorts of issues, even the ones that should've been more widely accepted.
"This entire initiative (Stop Killing Games) was flawed from the start. We don't buy games. We buy licenses."
And you are okay with that? Because I'm not okay with that. I want the software that I buy whether it be games or apps to be something that I own forever. If I only want to own it temporarily, it has to be made very clear that it is a subscription service rather than a permanent license.
"It is beyond ridiculous to demand that a developer have a playable portion of the game after the servers go down."
It's really not. Classic Counter Strike including up to Source is still playable to this day. Black Ops 2 and older COD games are still playable even on multiplayer using Plutonium. Hitman World of Assassination can still be played using a local server called Peacock. Classic Doom can still be played multiplayer with all sorts of community-made mods. There are ways to make games playable after the servers go down and the developers don't support them anymore. Just give the community the tools.
"Cost would shoot through the roof in many case, or developers (even small devs) would just abandon certain types of games because they'd be obligated to provide a local playable version."
Oh, yes. Please abolish games that are only playable online and multiplayer so that game companies don't screw you over later. It's not exactly an unreasonable request to demand game companies to not take games away from you after you bought them.
"How would that impact expansions?"
Expansions have nothing to do with anything. I'm not sure why you bring that up.
"What if the playable portion is just an empty room?"
That's precisely what we're trying to prevent from this movement. It's so that you don't have an empty server room and can have either bots or other human beings to play against.
"What if the server runs critical code that can't easily run locally?"
What makes these "critical codes" unable to run locally? Are there some proprietary technologies restricting them? Is it a security issue or a licensing one? Either way, you're just making excuses of games being unplayable after release, and it's intolerable.
But hey, if you insist that it's not going to work, I'll just recommend people to buy games that they'll actually own in services that let them own those games. That or sail the seas.