Imagine receiving a cherished toy as a kid, a source of joy that becomes an inseparable part of your world is the thing you cannot live without. Now, picture the heartbreak as it's abruptly taken away, leaving you with nothing but memories; no place for bargain, no compromise, the toy is taken away on someone’s whim. This situation is unfortunately mirrored in the world of digital gaming.
There is a constant threat that looms over any game, character, save, or progress. We all know that everything we’ve created, achieved, and the reputation we’ve built is just one decision away from being shut down and taken away from us. The ephemeral nature of digital gaming means that what we invest our time and emotions in can vanish at any moment.
Part One: Gaming Held Hostage
Gamers often find it controversial that the games they adore are rarely, if ever, truly theirs. What we can do today as gamers is to rent the right to play the game from corporate giants, capable of pulling the plug on servers at their discretion, and that’s where the differences begin to grow.
The subjective nature of gaming - and any other form of art and entertainment, means what's exceptional for one person may not be so enjoyable for another, or may even stand in stark contrast to being enjoyable. However, for producers, the ultimate metric of success is not how many players enjoy the game, but how profitable the game is over time. If a game ceases to be lucrative, it's often discontinued without any regard for the community that has been built over months and years, not mentioning all the achievements and reputation of solo players.
The trend is set and it seems it’s here to stay and before we’ll try to find the answer as to whether we can do something about it, let’s explore some games that are set to vanish in 2024.
Games Leaving the Stage
One of the best examples of community driven games are "The Crew" and "Gran Turismo Sport," both beloved by fans exploring and racing through virtual landscapes side by side with friends. However, this couldn’t last forever as the games began to lose interest among the gaming community, and those who stayed within the game and created their own small communities can’t do anything about game servers being shut down. On March 31, 2024 “The Crew” servers will be shut down, and “Gran Turismo Sport” has already shut down on January 31.
But losing your devoted community is not everything…
“Gran Turismo Sport” has been filled with microtransactions from the very beginning of the game, and everyone who wanted to unlock new cars and upgrades was forced to buy them as progression to free unlock was set to be too long to stand for most players. Having said that, as “Gran Turismo Sport” servers shut down, everything players ever purchased within the game has been lost. Every car, every upgrade, every achievement.
The list goes on and on with more gaming being added to it every month. To prove the point we will add a couple more games that are on their way to gaming cemetery as maybe you still play some of them without even knowing the end is near.
"Friday the 13th", "Second Extinction," "Vampire the Masquerade Bloodhunt," "Dread Hunger," "The Day Before," and "Rocket Arena” are among those that will soon cease to exist and every one of those games will be mourned by at least some niche group.
While the death of a single game can be dramatic to many, how can we comprehend the death of the entire digital store? Can you imagine your gaming life if Steam had left this world?
The Case of Nintendo's eShop
Even the giants like Nintendo are not immune to decay in the community's interest. Nintendo's eShop for the 3DS and Wii U, while once popular, faces forced shut down due to a lack of global profitability and decaying interest. As the 3DS eShop closes, not only will new purchases be made impossible, but all the games you’ve bought will vanish as well, wiping out all the digital libraries people have created over the years. This shows how powerless is the community against corporate decisions that can kill the retro gaming niche in an instant.
For those of you that use Nintendo Switch and are afraid about their Nintendo eShop, you can rest assured nothing’s going to affect your library and digital shop as Switch and 3DS eShops are separate projects, but have the same name that may spark confusion.
The Urgent Need for Community Empowerment
Online gaming communities become virtual homes, where players forge connections, share experiences, and collectively contribute to the growth of the digital realm. As players, we invest time, emotions, and sometimes even money into these virtual worlds, only to witness them dissipate when they no longer serve the corporate agenda. That is why in this era of technological advancements and decentralized solutions, there exists an urgent need to shift the balance of power. The gaming community must be empowered with the tools to not only sustain their digital worlds but also to revive and reshape them. It's a call to arms for a more inclusive and collaborative gaming environment—one where the community actively participates in decision-making, ensuring the longevity of their favorite titles.
Part Two: The Turning Point
Elympics emerges as a beacon of hope for smaller, devoted gaming communities facing the imminent demise of their beloved titles. Offering essential tools, Elympics becomes a lifeline for games teetering on the brink of extinction and their faithful communities. Let’s now dive deep and discover the ways in which Elympics can truly revolutionize the landscape of not only web3 gaming, but also traditional gaming by empowering communities with tools to bring back to life games they all cherish.
Game Build Storage: Safeguarding Digital Realms
Elympics introduces a revolutionary Game Build Storage, securely preserving server-side game builds in the Elympics cloud, that is ready to serve the players needs. This ensures that even if a game's original producers abandons the project, the community can maintain and operate their favorite digital realms independently.
Cross-Platform Support: Uniting Gamers Worldwide
Elympics also extends its support to cross-platform gaming by connecting players across various platforms and networking infrastructures, a feature that is so needed in today’s gaming world. This inclusivity fosters a sense of unity among players, allowing the community to grow strong despite technological differences and constraints set by game producers.
Geo-Based Allocation: Enhancing Gaming Experience
The platform built by Elympics incorporates geo-based allocation, ensuring low-latency gameplay by automatically connecting players to nearby game servers. This optimization creates an immersive and seamless gaming experience that is key not only for a community-driven gaming environment, but also is the core feature of competitive games and tournaments where latency can influence the final result.
Auto-Scaling and Instant Provisioning: Adapting to Demand
Elympics facilitates auto-scaling and instant provisioning, effortlessly responding to the growing number of active players and maintaining gameplay quality despite the number of players. This automated system ensures that server resources are dynamically adjusted based on player demand, eliminating manual intervention and maintaining optimal performance even during peak gaming periods.
Version Control and DDoS Protection: Ensuring Stability
With Elympics, managing multiple game versions is simplified through version control making it a lot easier for the community to manage the game after community overtake. Even more, the platform also incorporates advanced DDoS protection, shielding games against malicious attacks and ensuring the stability of the gaming environment so that a community that is not well-versed in technicalities can feel safe and secure about their newly resurrected game.
Final Words: A Community-Centric Future
In the landscape of ever-growing and ever-changing web3 gaming, empowering the community becomes the vital part of many games' survival. However, as we see it now, not only web3 gaming faces issues stemming from an ever-changing landscape of trends and community interest. That is why the only path forward is equipping the community with tools that can breathe new life into their favorite games if they fail to maintain long-term interest from the broader gaming community.
Community overtake - a widely known phenomenon in the digital space, can rejuvenate the game and its ecosystem, preventing both from withering away and giving them a second chance. This is the future of web3 gaming, and Elympics stands at the forefront, committed to reshaping the gaming narrative and giving communities the power to dictate their gaming destiny. As we move forward, let's embrace this transformative approach and ensure that no digital world is left behind.
