This is your somewhat regularly scheduled Stop Killing Games update.

Stop Killing Games is an European Citizens Initiative aiming to keep games playable even after their developers and publishers have stopped supporting it.

Germany has hit the threshold sometime yesterday evening. France has also started to catch up. They are still below 50% but there growth over the last couple of days has been the biggest. Netherlands and Denmark are still in the low 90s.

The milestone comes on the eve of this years Gamescom in Cologne, Germany which is set to kick off today. SKG is not going to have an official presence there. (I’ve checked with the organisers) But if you are attending and want to help spread the word I’m happy to share official marketing material, either in the form of flyers or the files for flyers, so you can print your own. They come in both German and English. If you want some, send me a DM.

Relevant links:

  • Wrufieotnak
    66·
    3 months ago

    If you are an EU citizen and agree with the initiative: GO VOTE!

    It still needs to reach 1 million votes in total, not only the 7 country thresholds.

    • VitteliusOP
      23·
      3 months ago

      There is a UK petition in the works. It’s not quite ready yet, because thanks to your recent election the team behind the initiative had to redo all of their work. (Your government requires everybody to resubmit petitions if a new parliament is elected)

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    3 months ago

    I remember when Mega Man X DIVE ended, and then turned around and released an Offline version with all the non-PVP content and none of the microtransactions. That was beautiful. Wish I could play a version of Marvel Heroes that was like that.

  • dino@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    3·
    3 months ago

    I don’t understand this bullshit, if developers/publishers drop their games, just stop investing time into their games or buying from them. How could you force private companies to invest into something which gives zero return?

    • B0rax
      10·
      3 months ago

      The point is not to force them to invest into it, but to open them up if they don’t want to support them anymore.

        • B0rax
          16·
          3 months ago

          No. Remove the need for a server that the company provides for example.

        • Spectrism@discuss.tchncs.de
          11·
          3 months ago

          Why is that ridiculous? Seems like a totally fine solution to me. Probably not possible in most cases due to licencing issues, but if not this is the best thing a developer could do. And making games and/or their servers open source isn’t even the only option. In most cases it will suffice to just provide server binaries and patch the game to make it work with self-hosted servers, or just patch it to make it playable offline. It’s that simple. Developing games with that in mind from the beginning makes this even easier.

        • Zagorath@aussie.zoneEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          They’ve got options.

          • never build in forced server components to begin with
          • patch out the need for the server as part of the last update before support ends
          • give buyers access to run their own servers with an officially-provided executable and set the client to connect to that executable
          • open source the whole thing

          And maybe others. It’s about making sure that a product you have paid for actually works as it was sold to you. It’s honestly a really basic consumer protection concept. You sell me a television and it stops working within a reasonable lifetime due to your own failure, and you’re obligated to repair or replace it. The same should be true of software.

          • dino@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
            2·
            3 months ago

            Lol, yea exactly. Thats why electornic devices stop working after their guarantee runs out 80% of the time… ;)

  • overflowingmemory@links.hackliberty.orgEnglish
    1·
    3 months ago

    If a game has a mode that works in singleplayer without itnernet connection is it covered by this initiative? Since that would not require further support by the developer?

    • VitteliusOP
      1·
      3 months ago

      As far as the initative is concerned such a game would not be covered.

      However there is a chance that shutting down the servers and therefore robbing players of part of the product they bought is already illegal under EU law. And if that’s the case then it will ultimately up to whatever consumer protection agency takes on the case. (The initiative has been trying to get either the French or German organisation on the case for months)

      • overflowingmemory@links.hackliberty.orgEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        I agree that shutting down a games servers while leaving a singplayer mode still can be a bad move and will give team fortress 2 as an example.

        • people can buy cosmetics in the game, but some may only buy them for their appearance on the multiplayer servers to other players
        • 90% of the games depth with strategy comes from competing with other humans
        • the bots in the singleplayer mode of the game are quite stupid, especially if you play as a spy