As a team that still builds tools and mods for a 22-year-old game, we strongly believe games should be allowed to live on. Players deserve to revisit the titles they love, even decades later. Because of that, we feel obligated to spread the word on the Stop Killing Games initiative.
So what is Stop Killing Games? We think the official website put it perfectly:
"Stop Killing Games" is a consumer movement started to challenge the legality of publishers destroying video games they have sold to customers. An increasing number of video games are sold effectively as goods - with no stated expiration date - but designed to be completely unplayable as soon as support from the publisher ends. This practice is a form of planned obsolescence and is not only detrimental to customers, but makes preservation effectively impossible.
How can I help?
Citizens of the European Union
If you're a citizen of any country that is currently a member of the European Union, you are able to sign the European Citizens' Initiative. Here are some important links:
- https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/ (the actual initiative)
- https://www.stopkillinggames.com/eci (additional info and guides on the SKG website)
Citizens of the United Kingdom
If you're a citizen of the United Kingdom, you can instead sign the UK government petition. You can find instructions on how to do so here: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/countries/united_kingdom
Everywhere else
If you're not part of the European Union or the United Kingdom, there's one thing you can do: Spread the word.
Awareness matters, and sharing the message helps push the industry in the right direction.
Didn't Donut Team recently kill SHAR MP?
That's true, we did just take down the legacy SHAR MP server that we provided for several years. You can find reasons for that outlined in our previous blog post. However, as we stated then, that was not the end of SHAR MP.
In fact, back in February, months before we announced the shutdown, we began development on a new, self-hostable version of SHAR MP. Our goal has always been to make it possible for the community to continue playing together without relying on us or our infrastructure. If we, a small team of indie developers, can commit to preserving our multiplayer mod this way, then the major studios with far more time, resources and money certainly can, and should, do the same.
As a show of good faith, we want to give you a sneak peak to the brand new SHAR MP Self-Hostable Server.
Some key features include:
- Fully self-hostable architecture. Simply launch, press start and your players are ready to connect.
- A new Integrated chat, so players can talk in-game without needing to alt-tab to talk to their friend.
- No Donut Team account requirement, just launch and play. You'll be able to play, even if we disappear off the face of the earth (which isn't happening any time soon)
The self-hostable SHAR MP server is still in development and not quite ready for widespread use just yet. But we assure you, that SHAR MP is far from killed.
In the meantime, we encourage you to support the Stop Killing Games initiative and stand up for the right to preserve the games you love. Every voice matters in making sure this issue gets the attention it deserves. Preserving games isn’t just possible, it is a necessity. Let's make sure we hold publishers to that standard.
- Donut Team