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sighinggoldfishHNSource author
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Online games that aren't sold as services (like WoW with a subscription) wouldn't need to work …

Online games that aren't sold as services (like WoW with a subscription) wouldn't need to work online or with servers. The bare minimum this asks for is some state of playable which could include just the ability to run around on the map on a local machine... Ross Scott has talked about this a lot. We would love more, but we are asking for bare minimum. I'm really skeptical of modern online infra. I've worked on two MMOs as a Tech Artist and the way artists, designers, etc worked on the game was with a local only build! One of these companies actually barred WAN access from our dev machines so LAN only also worked for internal playtests! Trends to make dev builds online only are quite awful for developers in the trenches and are more about exec control than any usefulness added by such requirements. Complex server infrastructure that you mention is also not needed if you ask me, at least not to the point to make it too hard to widely ship. I'd be fine if someone still had to stand up a centralized matchmaking server still, just allow any player to do it. …

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usrbinbashHN

Someone please define "reasonable playable state". Because, for something like an MMORPG, "playable" means being able to run a server. So, what does "playable" entail? Source and internal sysops documentation? That isn't "playable" for the vast majority of people. Working binary? Now you may be required to develop these specifically for consumer hardware, and/or in different versions. Example: MOBAs with ladders and matchmaking algorithms. You will likely need a separate server architecture that works independently of the userlist and matchmaking system. Bear in mind these systems are usually not made to be modular, they are custom-built to work in a given environment. Not saying that it cannot be done, I am also supporting the idea, but there should be a VERY CLEAR definition of what counts as "reasonable playable state".

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maccardHN

> I've worked on two MMOs as a Tech Artist and the way artists, designers, etc worked on the game was with a local only build! One of these companies actually barred WAN access from our dev machines so LAN only also worked for internal playtests! Trends to make dev builds online only are quite awful for developers in the trenches and are more about exec control than any usefulness added by such requirements. I'm an online dev for multiplayer games, and I disagree with your take. In my experience the sheer number of bugs we've seen from "I tested it in the local only build mode so it's fine" and the impact that has on the project makes it worth _not_ supporting an offline mode. I'm not an exec, but practicing good habits during development (there's a phase where it's not worth it sure, but by the time you're on a live project...) makes actually building a game easier. > As an example, com…

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usrbinbashHN

> Online games that aren't sold as services (like WoW with a subscription) wouldn't need to work online or with servers. Absolutely agree, but fact is, games which rely on a centralized server architecture for the actual purposes of playing them do exist, and are thus a factor that needs to be considered.

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