Critically Endangered

Always Online Games

Video games that are required to be continuously online. Gameplay is referenced here particularly as means of participation, along with social media and in-game interaction between players. This can include Massively Multiplayer Online games and single player games with always-on DRM.

Gaming

Examples

Fortnite, World of Warcraft, Neverwinter, League of Legends

Imminence

3/5
Action is recommended within three years, detailed assessment within one year.

Effort

4/5
Loss seems likely. By the time tools or techniques have been developed, the material will likely have been lost.

Hazards

Lack of skills, commitment or policy from corporate owners; uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works; controversies around IPR; lack of offline backup; changing business model of providers; limited recognition of value of game play; limited recognition of value of game preservation; over dependence on goodwill of ad-hoc community; lack of preservation know-how at service providers; dependency on bespoke hardware or interfaces; increased reliance on always-on DRM for single player games

Organisational Change

Mitigations

Well documented code; IPR supportive of preservation; large and committed user community; removal of always-on DRM for single player games

Bit List History

Added to list: 2019
2024: Towards greater risk.
2023: Towards greater risk.

Last Review

2023 Review

This entry was added in 2019 as a subset of the 2017 entry for ‘gaming’. The 2020 and 2021 Juries noted a trend towards greater risk, due to the increased significance of these games during the COVID Pandemic as well as the evolving nature of MMOs, to the extent that the 2021 Jury changed the risk classification from Endangered to Critically Endangered.

The 2023 Council agreed with the 2022 Taskforce suggestion to consider the naming and scope of the entry, rescoping this entry to ‘Always Online Games’ covering all games that have to always be online, whether that is due to being MMOs, server-based games or single-player games with Always-Online DRM. Games that have online components but are not required to always be online fit into the new ‘Games with Online Play Components’ entry.

2024 Interim Review

The 2024 Council identified a trend towards even greater risk based on shifts in business models and increased litigation over the last year, resulting in more shutdowns which impact preservation efforts. It also raises time sensitivity for action; if there are no efforts to preserve and those existing are further shutdown, this raises the likelihood of loss.

Additional Information

Preservation for Always Online games in a playable state requires preservation or re-creation of the servers that are used to run these games. Even then, for MMOs or multiplayer games, it would be impossible to recreate these games at their various peaks. This nicely encapsulates why video recordings of (online) gameplay are important. They will never have the same configuration of subscribers, to say nothing of the innumerable changes made to the software over the years, which have significantly altered how the game works and looks. Loss is inevitable, and it has already happened. The social and cultural aspects of play are incredibly important, and on-screen recording is the most robust way to capture that.

Whilst it is expected that MMOs and always multiplayer games (such as Fortnite) would always require an internet connection due to their reliance on servers, single player games, or those where the primary gameplay is single player, being always online due to DRM provides an added risk to preservation. If the server shuts down, then even the single player components might not be playable, thus loss happens faster than a single player game that does not have a reliance on servers. For more details, see the ‘Shut Down or Discontinued Video Games’ entry.

Case Studies & Examples

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