[game_preservation] Videogame servers shutting down

[Andrew Armstrong]

Obviously, many have shut down in the past (WON shutting down was a big 
one for Counterstrike for instance), now Sierra is shutting down some 
for older games: 
http://www.igda.org/preservation/archives/2008/10/sierra_game_ser.html 
(no doubt Vivendi are trying to cut down Sierra as much as possible). I 
noted the game years - some are pretty recent (Caesar IV), and some are 
older. Some I was unsure of, Mobygames nor Wikipedia gave definite 
information.

Rather a shame - I don't know the details of each of them, but I hope 
that direct IP connections can work for all of them, and they can 
interface with 3rd party game finders (Xfire etc.).

For Homeworld, Relic is looking to sort something (maybe) - 
http://relicnews.com/archives/2008/10/homeworld-homeworldcataclysm-servers-shutting-down-nov-1/ 
. At least some developers know how important their classics are.

Yet another irreplacable thing, something that hinges so much on a good 
publisher - there's no way they're release any code so end users could 
create their own service to replace the matchmaking, or patch the game 
to work with it.

I know EA did this a bit of a time ago (to much comment) for a lot of 
sports games servers, admittedly looking like an attempt to boost sales 
in more recent "Year Here" sport titles more then for cost benefits.

I wonder how long people expect such a service from the publisher, and 
how publishers might alter the time as they see fit on a whim sometimes too.

Andrew