This is the kind of shit that makes Stop Killing Games’ mission so important. If a random company can just revoke your access to games you purchased and downloaded in a situation like this, then any game storefront can do it too.
1000% if they tried even slightly they could have passed the server to the community to support legacy gamers, but are choosing to just shut it down instead because crypto bros are always psychopaths
Yeah, the irony is that I’m sure you could do some sort of blockchain-based DRM that didn’t need a centralized server. Does such a thing exist? Patent pending…
The problem is that game sellers would need to be able to add games to the blockchain so that they can be traded. But how do you implement a trusted entity in a trustless decentralized system?
I was thinking of something like LBRY for the backend and like x402 for payment using stablecoins. This could all be neatly managed and allow to skip expensive transferal costs where a piece of content could even cost like less than a penny
It looks like you don’t need to add a game to the chain, just build a chain of trust and check the signature of something like that. But maybe that has downsides and with an unpopular blockchain it may as well be centralised
I was thinking more of NFTs, where a single ID corresponds to a specific copy of a game - allowing you to freely trade the game to someone elses wallet.
It would be possible, I considered implementing such a proof of concept years ago for fun (when blockchain was not exclusively cryptocurrencies). But then I remembered I don’t like DRM so I never released anything about it.
Am I misundersnding somethings here? It’s the ownership/license that is decentralized. So a user could do whatever they wanted with that license (keep it, resell it, give it away). But at the end of the day there always needs to be a way to use that license to download the game files. That’s the bit that is shutting down.
This distinction likely doesn’t matter to the people losing access to the game, but most of the comments here seem to fundamentally misunderstand the setup here.
Tbf this is the first time I’ve heard of it so have no deeper knowledge than what’s presented here, but it does state a platform shutdown so I assumed the whole lot is being disabled.
Ya for sure in this case the platform that hosts the downloads is going down, but that was never the promise of distributed platforms like this. It’s more like owning a CD that still requires an internet connection to download the updates.
You’re free to give that CD to anyone you want, but if the publisher shuts down the server you’re shit out of luck.
In theory someone else could come along, leverage that some blockchain and let people get access to their games again (this isn’t actually going to happen)
Now I know I’m making a lot of assumptions on how this platform actually implemented blockchain and such, but that is how the technology under the hood works. The part that I assume breaks this is that i bet that the company actually maintained private keys on behalf of the users, and if users didn’t actually have their private key then there was actually no benefit to the blockchain and it was just a marketing ploy.
I don’t know anything about this platform in particular, but I will say that early adoption and support for new web services, platforms, and software that try to break conventional molds or even just exist as competition in the current landscape is an important way to combat enshittification. I mean we are all on lemmy which is an example of this, as are a lot of newer OS and privacy tools/apps. It’s always risky, but new things can’t start unless some people are willing to take that risk early. Especially things that aren’t backed by endless dollars.
But in this case super shitty everyone lost everything they purchased
On the flipside, when we had the Discord age verification thing a few days ago, I saw a lot of Slop “alternatives” being promoted. All with bold claims and shiny at a first glance. But the chance of them going anywhere is slim to none. And the quality of the ones I checked was crap. So I kind of empathize with the argument. Like half of the new stuff is a trap, and you really need to pay attention.
I guess the question becomes if people mass migrated to those platforms would they grow and improve or remain shitty, which is always hard to tell. But small projects without many people are always going to be…at best janky right out the gate. Which discord alternatives did you feel were a trap, so I can avoid those ones?
Sorry, I didn’t keep bookmarks. I got them from various random places. And some of the posts (in the Threadiverse) got removed. Warning signs are, all files got touched in the last few days. No or little stars, issue reports… A single contributor who programmed a mere 4 days at super-human speed… And if you’re familiar with the programming language, you can spot more. Weird project layout, remnants from previous agent runs and the user figuring out how to prompt. Overly verbose comments or none at all…
I’d question if these projects take off after a while. I mostly wasted time with what I tried anyway. Either it works. But it’s not even close to the feature set it claims to have and what’s available with real Free Software projects. Or you’ll find out after a while, the install instructions were made up and none of it runs in the first place. I didn’t spot anything in between, that mostly works but is just a bit shitty.
The biggest one I saw was https://fluxer.app/ it has all the right marketing and investing, but also it had a single dev dumping assloads of code per day, but somehow it wasnt ai coded at all. I’m still watching it, because it got a lot of funding in the last push to see if it failss or if it actually goes well.
That’s a great question! But before we get into that, there are opportunities that only a such a keen investor such as yourself will be able to take advantage of; let’s talk about my web 3.5 startup venture that’s virtually guaranteed to pay out a minimum of 30% annually to early adopters. It’s called dongchain; an innovative NFT platform for your dong pics, enhanced with our proprietary AI algorithms. It’s fully decentralized and completely reliant on our company existing in order to function.
Doesn’t say great things about their marketing that the first time I (a chronically online gaming nerd) am hearing about this company is their notice of shutting down.
They advertised everywhere like at all the crypto conferences, all the mobile microtransactions conferences, and all the conferences for business execs who demand movies/TV based on video games to focus on “the non-gamer”.
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This is the kind of shit that makes Stop Killing Games’ mission so important. If a random company can just revoke your access to games you purchased and downloaded in a situation like this, then any game storefront can do it too.
Oh no who could have predicted this.
“Yay Blockchain! But we control all of it, can shut it down whenever we want and you get to keep nothing. Yay!”
1000% if they tried even slightly they could have passed the server to the community to support legacy gamers, but are choosing to just shut it down instead because crypto bros are always psychopaths
Funny how a “decentralized” platform can be shut down just like that. Does the word even mean anything at all?
Sounds pretty centralised to me if it can just be turned off that easily.
That’s pretty much all blockchain stuff tbh, it’s all centralized to the extreme around 1 or a few major services.
Yeah, the irony is that I’m sure you could do some sort of blockchain-based DRM that didn’t need a centralized server. Does such a thing exist? Patent pending…
The problem is that game sellers would need to be able to add games to the blockchain so that they can be traded. But how do you implement a trusted entity in a trustless decentralized system?
I was thinking of something like LBRY for the backend and like x402 for payment using stablecoins. This could all be neatly managed and allow to skip expensive transferal costs where a piece of content could even cost like less than a penny
It looks like you don’t need to add a game to the chain, just build a chain of trust and check the signature of something like that. But maybe that has downsides and with an unpopular blockchain it may as well be centralised
I was thinking more of NFTs, where a single ID corresponds to a specific copy of a game - allowing you to freely trade the game to someone elses wallet.
Maybe I’m thick but that seems like the answer is the same as it is for anyone selling something on a website without blockchain.
It would be possible, I considered implementing such a proof of concept years ago for fun (when blockchain was not exclusively cryptocurrencies). But then I remembered I don’t like DRM so I never released anything about it.
Am I misundersnding somethings here? It’s the ownership/license that is decentralized. So a user could do whatever they wanted with that license (keep it, resell it, give it away). But at the end of the day there always needs to be a way to use that license to download the game files. That’s the bit that is shutting down.
This distinction likely doesn’t matter to the people losing access to the game, but most of the comments here seem to fundamentally misunderstand the setup here.
Tbf this is the first time I’ve heard of it so have no deeper knowledge than what’s presented here, but it does state a platform shutdown so I assumed the whole lot is being disabled.
Ya for sure in this case the platform that hosts the downloads is going down, but that was never the promise of distributed platforms like this. It’s more like owning a CD that still requires an internet connection to download the updates.
You’re free to give that CD to anyone you want, but if the publisher shuts down the server you’re shit out of luck.
In theory someone else could come along, leverage that some blockchain and let people get access to their games again (this isn’t actually going to happen)
Now I know I’m making a lot of assumptions on how this platform actually implemented blockchain and such, but that is how the technology under the hood works. The part that I assume breaks this is that i bet that the company actually maintained private keys on behalf of the users, and if users didn’t actually have their private key then there was actually no benefit to the blockchain and it was just a marketing ploy.
We made it so decentralized that you can’t play games that are already on your computer without phoning home for authorization!
So many crypto bros think 99% decentralized is good enough.
51% *
Ha ha ha ha
Pretty much everything ‘new’ is a scam these days.
Unless you’re really involved, it’s best to wait awhile and jump onboard only after the guinea pigs have proven its worth.
I don’t know anything about this platform in particular, but I will say that early adoption and support for new web services, platforms, and software that try to break conventional molds or even just exist as competition in the current landscape is an important way to combat enshittification. I mean we are all on lemmy which is an example of this, as are a lot of newer OS and privacy tools/apps. It’s always risky, but new things can’t start unless some people are willing to take that risk early. Especially things that aren’t backed by endless dollars.
But in this case super shitty everyone lost everything they purchased
On the flipside, when we had the Discord age verification thing a few days ago, I saw a lot of Slop “alternatives” being promoted. All with bold claims and shiny at a first glance. But the chance of them going anywhere is slim to none. And the quality of the ones I checked was crap. So I kind of empathize with the argument. Like half of the new stuff is a trap, and you really need to pay attention.
I guess the question becomes if people mass migrated to those platforms would they grow and improve or remain shitty, which is always hard to tell. But small projects without many people are always going to be…at best janky right out the gate. Which discord alternatives did you feel were a trap, so I can avoid those ones?
Sorry, I didn’t keep bookmarks. I got them from various random places. And some of the posts (in the Threadiverse) got removed. Warning signs are, all files got touched in the last few days. No or little stars, issue reports… A single contributor who programmed a mere 4 days at super-human speed… And if you’re familiar with the programming language, you can spot more. Weird project layout, remnants from previous agent runs and the user figuring out how to prompt. Overly verbose comments or none at all…
I’d question if these projects take off after a while. I mostly wasted time with what I tried anyway. Either it works. But it’s not even close to the feature set it claims to have and what’s available with real Free Software projects. Or you’ll find out after a while, the install instructions were made up and none of it runs in the first place. I didn’t spot anything in between, that mostly works but is just a bit shitty.
The biggest one I saw was https://fluxer.app/ it has all the right marketing and investing, but also it had a single dev dumping assloads of code per day, but somehow it wasnt ai coded at all. I’m still watching it, because it got a lot of funding in the last push to see if it failss or if it actually goes well.
I wouldn’t trust anything important on it though.
Is it a scam or just a filed business?
How can you tell the difference?
That’s a great question! But before we get into that, there are opportunities that only a such a keen investor such as yourself will be able to take advantage of; let’s talk about my web 3.5 startup venture that’s virtually guaranteed to pay out a minimum of 30% annually to early adopters. It’s called dongchain; an innovative NFT platform for your dong pics, enhanced with our proprietary AI algorithms. It’s fully decentralized and completely reliant on our company existing in order to function.
I’m not an investor. Sorry.
So how do you tell the difference between a scam and a failed buisness?
You’ll figure it out after you give me your money
Sounds great! Can I invest now, but pay in 4 easy rates?
The answer here is Blockchain. Anyone who’s bought into Blockchain has been scammed and is just perpetuating it or an outright grifter.
Good
deleted by creator
TL;DR:
Welp, we’ve made all the money out of you suckers that we can. Fuck y’all.
lol, is P2P not good enough?
Doesn’t say great things about their marketing that the first time I (a chronically online gaming nerd) am hearing about this company is their notice of shutting down.
They advertised everywhere like at all the crypto conferences, all the mobile microtransactions conferences, and all the conferences for business execs who demand movies/TV based on video games to focus on “the non-gamer”.
Makes sense, no need to let gamers know about your novelty gaming store
What do you mean? That’s pretty much the golden standard of new multibillion dollar projects
This is why DRM is a scourge.