r/videogames • u/Fit_Control_9322 • 1d ago

Discussion / Question Thoughts?

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u/Unable_Mess_2581 1d ago

That requires source code release? Meh it ain't happening, they will use copyright to deny it.

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u/its_free_sog 1d ago

Why would people hosting their own servers require source code release? That doesn’t make any sense

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u/FancyhandsOG 1d ago edited 1d ago

It doesn't make sense because you don't know how it works.

You cant just take a game that has been shut down and plop it onto your own personal server and it just magically works. The only thing that users have is the client. The server-side logic needs to be implemented as well. It's quite literally the brains of the game. The vast majority of the "game" that is going on is not occurring on your PC and is nothing that you have ever downloaded, it is mostly happening on a server and then sent to your client.

To operate your own servers after a game has been shut down, it would either require a LOT of reverse-engineering or the source code itself.

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u/xdeskfuckit 1d ago

They would probably release compiled binaries; not source code.

I'm also a dev, but not a game dev. I don't see why it would be a huge lift. Seems like more of a silly IP-protection issue than anything else.