Fifteen minutes ago I opened my browser and went to visit Sarien.net, a really awesome site that allowed you to play old Sierra classics in your browser. It even had a simple multiplayer feature, where players could all enter the same game and chat as they played. I hadn't known about the site for long, but I was blown away when I first tried it out. This morning, however, I discover that all the games have been taken down. I read Sarien's forums for a little while and discover Activision forced the games to be taken down. I don't want to get into my opinion on whether or not classic games should become free or public domain once they have well and truly had their day in the sun, but I think this is kind of scummy. Sarien.net was an awesome little site for fans of adventure games from fifteen or twenty years ago. A place where the fans could get together, play the games and chat with one another. I wonder how much revenue this site could really have been costing Activision. Surely something could have been worked out. Activision advertising before you could enter the games on the site, or something like that. But instead it's gone, and you can get all these games from abandonware sites in about fifteen seconds anyway. Oh well, it's the way of the modern corporate gaming industry I guess. No point fighting it.
Friday, January 28, 2011
A damn shame...
Fifteen minutes ago I opened my browser and went to visit Sarien.net, a really awesome site that allowed you to play old Sierra classics in your browser. It even had a simple multiplayer feature, where players could all enter the same game and chat as they played. I hadn't known about the site for long, but I was blown away when I first tried it out. This morning, however, I discover that all the games have been taken down. I read Sarien's forums for a little while and discover Activision forced the games to be taken down. I don't want to get into my opinion on whether or not classic games should become free or public domain once they have well and truly had their day in the sun, but I think this is kind of scummy. Sarien.net was an awesome little site for fans of adventure games from fifteen or twenty years ago. A place where the fans could get together, play the games and chat with one another. I wonder how much revenue this site could really have been costing Activision. Surely something could have been worked out. Activision advertising before you could enter the games on the site, or something like that. But instead it's gone, and you can get all these games from abandonware sites in about fifteen seconds anyway. Oh well, it's the way of the modern corporate gaming industry I guess. No point fighting it.
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I don't understand why Activision owns a series of franchises they have no interest in developing.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting for Gabriel Knight 4 for an eternity!
There definitely needs to be a public domain thing for software, like there is for films and literature.
You're 100% right, BM. Companies see classic games as cheap, easy ways to knickle and dime gamers. Instead these games should be made public domain, free for new generations to discover. Not likely though.
ReplyDeleteApparently Activision has agreed to allow them to reopen the site with a limited library as long as they alert would-be customers where to buy and download the games legally, such as Steam.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, they demanded that the iPad compatible website be disabled. Hopefully that indicates their interest in transitioning some of these old games to the iOS.
Here is a link:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-01-31-activision-offers-sierra-fan-site-reprieve