I really wanted somebody to tell me what videocard to upgrade to, and when I saw that GamersNexus was following me on the Tweetzorz I shuddered with delight. Steve got back to me "weirdly fast" and since then we bother each other on occasion. He starts shit when shit needs to get started, which I appreciate. I asked him if he had anything he wanted to discuss, and luckily a bee was already firmly lodged in his bonnet. Thanks, dude.
The Block Market, or
Bail Me Out: I've Committed a Felony
Every block looks the same to the people voting on video game laws.
Joining custom Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy servers was how I first started learning about computers, mostly after encountering vexing “.zip” and “.ini” files and mod managers. Unrelated: Whoever downloaded all of those zipped custom skin and map packs also taught me about malware. A remotely hosted game server and Ventrilo server cost about $20 a month back then -- or, if you had a blazing fast “T1” line at 1.544Mbps, you could DIY one with an old computer.
Back then, hosting your own server felt more common; although, that might just be because the people in the scene tended to still be at the front edge of technology. As long as you weren’t getting huge amounts of web traffic, like some people were, you might have had reason to host a webserver from the garage.
What’s old is new again, because today, DIY servers are trendy. Soon, hopefully, they’ll become commonplace as people realize that it’s easier than ever to take ownership of media, host media collections on Jellyfin or Plex or whatever other open source branch pops-up next, and use network-attached storage to get “off the cloud.”
But not in that list of easier-than-ever-to-DIY servers is one vector for illegal criminal pirate enterprises from hell’s black market of doom: Video game servers.
These seedy underbellies of illicit substances -- known as fun and community, sometimes accompanied by the hard stuff (known as escapism) -- are something the Entertainment Software Association says are illegal. Not only are they illegal, but they’re unsafe, straying from the crushingly protective embrace of Microsoft and the all-seeing Eye of PlayStation.
The ESA recently opposed the Protect Our Games Act in California, explaining to a committee formed of people who have definitely heard video games that privately-operated servers are Notorious Markets of intellectual property theft. “Notorious Markets,” as in, the US Trade Representative has been told that private game servers rise to the level of organized IP crime.
As is ever the case with these types of bills, the goal posts moved mid-argument. The tools to create private game servers, after all, are literally provisioned by Microsoft (for Minecraft) and many other companies. So instead, the ESA moved to argue on grounds of safety.
The ESA, which I imagine to be paneled by Penny Arcade caricatures of Cthulhu, the devil, and maybe GLaDOS, says that Microsoft keeps us safe. After all, private Minecraft community servers don’t benefit from the safety standards that Microsoft upholds for children.
You know, the same standards they
