This is definitely one of the most talked-about topics in the community, and has already been slightly touched by suggestion 5 in chapter two. With the increasing trend of making games completely dependent on an internet connection to run, even for single player content, we can’t help but worry about the long-term availability of the games we buy.
The previous suggestion already covers a small part of this, but we need to add more: not all servers are forever, and with time, many games (even multiplayer ones) end up having their servers shut down for good.
Suggestion 1: what is SINGLE PLAYER, stays single player.
Simple. Clear. Obvious. If a game is single player, it should not need an internet connection to run after it’s installed or downloaded. Not at launch. Not five years later. NEVER. If there are “optional” online modes, they should actually be that: optional. They should not even be needed for any achievement, blocking players from obtaining 100%, let alone required for the game to run.
This includes additional launchers and/or accounts needed to play the game. If a game requires opening another launcher and/or another account to run, it breaks the “not online” part.
Suggestion 2: about multiplayer games
For multiplayer games, we can’t expect official servers to stay online forever. We know that, and we don’t ask for the servers to be kept running for all eternity. It’s okay for devs and publishers to close support to online servers if a game is not profitable anymore - but we, the players, should not suffer from this decision.
Wanna take down the server? Make public announcements about that a couple months before, and give us a way to keep playing the game on our own terms.
Offline modes, p2p hosting, private servers, dedicated toolkits - anything that allows us to keep playing the game is a step in the right direction. The best option for the players would be for the publishers to release the netcode and allow the community to host the servers themselves, but we know that’s not always possible.
What we demand is a guarantee that something serious will be done about that - and that you’ll work with communities to find the best solution possible.