GOG Galaxy only handles lobbies, matchmaking and relaying connections to the host. So even if they provide a way to self host it, if the game uses dedicated servers to host sessions it still wouldn’t work if the game devs don’t provide the server runtime binaries. Only games that can host a session on the client would work without the server runtime.
Comment on GOG is Getting Acquired By Its Original Co- Founder: What It Means For You
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day agoThe most benefit-of-the-doubt read on this that I’ve got is that, as a publicly traded company, the small margins GOG operates in might not be worth CDPR’s time when they can get higher margins for the same investment elsewhere. Adding some of my own hopium and conjecture, based on the “Why is Michał Kiciński doing this?” section of the FAQ, I hope this means a semi-near future of closing up the last few gaps in GOG’s DRM-free promise.
One of my biggest pet peeves with GOG is how it handles multiplayer. Some games add a warning when multiplayer is only available via LAN and direct IP connections. I need a warning when the opposite is true, because if it relies on GOG Galaxy or some other server, it’s just DRM by another name. To their credit, this warning is usually there, but I’ve come across a few games’ store pages that left it to the imagination, and I’d have to go to the forums link to find someone complaining about it to be sure. Other games, like Doom 2016, just omit multiplayer from the GOG version entirely, because they can’t even fathom how to make multiplayer work in a self-hosted way.
What I’d like to see (I’m a programmer, but I’m not deep in the world of gaming software engineering) is for GOG to provide a drop-in multiplayer server that can serve as a self-hosted version of GOG Galaxy’s multiplayer functionality, so that even if the developer doesn’t see it as financially viable to ensure their game’s multiplayer lives on, GOG can do that for them and make any online game LAN-able. If that’s possible. In my head, it sure seems possible.
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
If they’re using GOG matchmaking to find dedicated servers, then those binaries are in our hands already, as far as I know. Feel free to provide a counter example if you know of one. The whole point of using the store’s infrastructure is that the developer doesn’t have to pay for it, and I’ve never heard of a store that offers hosting for bespoke dedicated servers for different games.
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Matchmaking is nothing more than a user database query. That database sits on GOG’s servers and the only thing GOG does is put users into a lobby and then send that data back to the clients so the game can show it to the user. And then when the game starts GOG connects the clients to the host. So developers don’t have to setup their own lobby and relay server. That host can be another client, then the developers don’t have to pay for anything, or a dedicated server which the devs have to pay for themselves. And in case of a dedicated server clients do not have the server binaries.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I know how it works. Do you know of a game on GOG with dedicated servers that the company is paying for that also uses GOG’s matchmaking to find those dedicated servers? Because at that point, they may as well run the matchmaking themselves and open up the possibility for cross play, and I can’t imagine what value they’d get from GOG’s services.
ITeeTechMonkey@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The idea sounds like GameSpy back in the day for multiplayer games.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I feel like a lot of understanding behind the financial decisions around online games could happen if we explained to the kids what GameSpy was. Online was never “free”. Before microtransactions and Steam footing the bill, there were ads. But we had self-hosting as a backup plan back then.
dandi8@fedia.io 1 day ago
I really want them to bring back self-hosting. Multiplayer games don't need to have a limited lifespan.
Tower@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
I’d love to see legislation that if a game requires servers to play any portion of it, and those servers get taken offline, the source code must be released. Like, they’re already demonstrating that the game doesn’t hold enough value for them by shutting down the servers, so let the community take over.
Goretantath@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It was free for the consumer, Nintendo just footed the bill.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 day ago
And that likely stopped making financial sense once online multiplayer operated at larger scales. On PC, GameSpy servers came with ads. Even downloading patches for games meant going to an ad-supported third party web site.
FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 1 day ago
Remember Mplayer aka Mplague?