Technician Fry

Hey Ross - loved this video. I'm glad you're passionate about the topic and I think the political spin adds flavor & depth to the game review format. I can relate, since a lot of my favorite games have fallen victim to server rot. Battlefield 2 and SWAT 4's multiplayer mode come to mind as particularly disheartening. Because of my personal attachment and associated memories, I agree with the emotional comparison to a beloved pet passing away. That being said, I thought I'd chime in since I'm not seeing many counterpoints - I don't see any reason to characterize this practice as malevolent. Corporations routinely pull the plug on products or services, and it's not because they're supervillains who thrive on depriving people of happiness. It's because whatever they're discontinuing is no longer profitable. It's sad and unfortunate for affected consumers, but there's no logical reason why the plug shouldn't get pulled at that point. Many of the arguments I've seen follow the pattern of "company X should burn money maintaining a deprecated service so that I can have fun" - that line of thinking is self-centered. I would be outraged if Vanilla Coke were discontinued, but I'm not entitled to Vanilla Coke. I'd have no grounds to demand that they restore it, and I certainly couldn't call for legal or political action with any seriousness. I liked your list of a publisher's 4 options when a game is no longer maintainable. I'm in favor of #2 ("Patch the game so that people can play it on private servers"); I think you had a good argument for why it's financially workable and saves stress to all parties. As a software developer for a company who is fiercely protective of IP, I nearly did a spit take at #3 ("Release the relevant source code for non-commercial use") - but Quake & Doom eventually got there, so who knows. As for #4 - and this is really my point - I think a much more accurate characterization than "Go f*** yourself" would something like "Not my problem". It's cold, but it's not evil. Great video, and looking forward to the next.