Gamespy shutting down in may

Lots of games will be affected. Any thoughts?

A great portion of their services shut down last year. When one of my favorite PS2 games to play online went dead at that time, that was it for me.

I forgot, are the old PlanetWhatevergame still belonging to Gamespy or were they sold out to somebody else?

Those memories with medal of honor allied assault and frontline on servers with freezing/melting function and one hit kill rifles

I think the planetwhatever sites are still property of them. I still play many of the games that use gamespy, I'm worried about this. Most of these games are not going to get Steam for online support, and I dont want to use Steam to play my favorite games online.

Gez said:

I forgot, are the old PlanetWhatevergame still belonging to Gamespy or were they sold out to somebody else?

The Planet network was sold to IGN some time ago. As expected, they've now pulled the plug. Many of the hosted sites have been mirrored, though. Edit: The last statement may actually be incorrect. Fileplanet is being archived before the final shutdown, and there are mirrors of the hosted sites on PQ, but not sure about the other games.

negke said:

The Planet network was sold to IGN some time ago. As expected, they've now pulled the plug. Many of the hosted sites have been mirrored, though.

What would IGN need Planet Network for?

I suppose they didn't buy it specifically but acquired it along with the whole Gamespy network. They obviously don't need it, that's why it got shut down.

I think in 1999 or somewhere around there, I was lucky enough to have a giant site that gamespy wanted to host. Once I was in, I abused the shit out of the server. Storing mp3s and other stuff that I could listen to on the road. It was unlimited storage unlimited bandwidth. It was nice. Eventually they found the abuse and rather than deleting everything, they just locked it. I couldn't upload or delete. I could still log in.

Anyway, its mismanagement that allowed me to abuse them for a decade that I wonder why they didn't go under a long time ago.

Ah yes, the days of PS2 Battlefront will be missed. At least I have both games for PC, which probably won't affect much. Even though a number of PC games asked for a gamespy account to play, I believe with a number, if not most or all for them, had get arounds or the ability to simply not create an account to play with. A Deer Hunting game comes to mind (Though why it even had multiplayer is beyond me, as everyone is just shooting willy-nilly scaring all the prey into running around the map for eternity. Maybe that was supposed to be the challenge).

I thought it completely shutdown last year.

Hasn't it already shut down a while ago?!? I'm confused.
I hope I'll still be able to enjoy Heretic II deathmatches next month, since it came with it's own independent built-in GameSpy thingy.
If not then I'll just play with bots and occasionally connect with human players through appointments arranged via email messages.

Technician said:

I thought it completely shutdown last year.

Yeah, same. I didn't read completely into it, just knowing that some of the games I play online can no longer be played online was enough of a downer. From this thread, I see that GS has still been up to some capacity.

That sucks! They were to multiplayer, what Steam is to downloadable games today. First File Planet, now GameSpy. File Planet had abunch of nice patches that couldn't even be found elsewhere. What are they going to do with all that old stuff?

So what happens if Doomworld shuts down?

Holering said:

So what happens if Doomworld shuts down?

We would have one less outlet for practicing and developing our debating skills.

And speaking of Steam, I honestly wish that that thing shuts down instead of GameSpy, because I miss the good old days when you could buy a PC game inside a box and put it underneath a Christmas tree for someone.
*sigh*

I didn't even know the service still existed. The last and only time I ever used it was for some Quake 2 instagib matches back in '02 or '03.

Clonehunter said:

Ah yes, the days of PS2 Battlefront will be missed. At least I have both games for PC, which probably won't affect much. Even though a number of PC games asked for a gamespy account to play, I believe with a number, if not most or all for them, had get arounds or the ability to simply not create an account to play with. A Deer Hunting game comes to mind (Though why it even had multiplayer is beyond me, as everyone is just shooting willy-nilly scaring all the prey into running around the map for eternity. Maybe that was supposed to be the challenge).

I remember this hunting game, I think it was called Deer Hunt 2004? Anyways I never really had the patience of using decoys and calls hoping that a dear would arrive, so I always just sprinted until I was about 3 feet away from the animal and just killed them like that.

Those must be some dumbass deer.

Huh, I thought they already mentioned shutting down a while back.

Deer Hunter was fun. Quake 2 was really fun, and poker was pretty cool too.

I was playing the 2005 Season, so there may have been a 2004. I more or less enjoyed customizing guns, the number of custom maps available, and looking at the Deer in the trophy room and looking at the bullet marks on their bodies. Also, enabling bullet time for accurate shots at least let me know when I did manage to hit something, seeing that otherwise you may not always know. Gunning down two bucks one after another and actually being able to tell I hit them was a great feeling. Then I think I shot some endangered bird and forfeited the trophies.

188DarkRevived said:

And speaking of Steam, I honestly wish that that thing shuts down instead of GameSpy, because I miss the good old days when you could buy a PC game inside a box and put it underneath a Christmas tree for someone.
*sigh*

I think baby soiled diaper.

I remember when WON went down. I'm sure the worthwhile games will survive this.

188DarkRevived said:

And speaking of Steam, I honestly wish that that thing shuts down instead of GameSpy, because I miss the good old days when you could buy a PC game inside a box and put it underneath a Christmas tree for someone.
*sigh*

Many are still sold in boxes, even though it immediately just goes to Steam. You could buy the box version and attempt to use a crack. That way, you still legitimately bought it, but you don't have to get tied to the Steam service.

Frankly, I'm glad physical media is becoming a thing of the past. What exists should be preserved best as possible for history's sake, but the only thing that really matters is the software inside. I prefer to simply have data, since I don't want to have to worry about keeping a physical thing in good shape (if you're not careful, even the cardboard can get dinged up). Leave it to the museums to deal with that, I just want to play my games.

188DarkRevived said:

We would have one less outlet for practicing and developing our debating skills.

And speaking of Steam, I honestly wish that that thing shuts down instead of GameSpy, because I miss the good old days when you could buy a PC game inside a box and put it underneath a Christmas tree for someone.
*sigh*

Why not just make your own box with an IOU card in it or something?

Make a box and put a card with the Steam key in it.

I hate physical media. I always lose or break it. I get why people hate the idea of having no recourse if something happens to Steam, or hate having to play by Steam's rules, but I still find it so much more reliable than my pile of CDs.

Sodaholic said:

Frankly, I'm glad physical media is becoming a thing of the past.

I wish slow internet would be a thing of the past also but that's not likely to ever happen for such a long time, I honestly don't see why you're glad its being reduced, it has no impact on you whichever way. :P

Steam has already destroyed the whole point in box copies since you still need it and the internet to play, wish they could've just made a light version of the client without the need to constantly update but only for single player games.

More like...Gayspy.

buttspit said:

A great portion of their services shut down last year. When one of my favorite PS2 games to play online went dead at that time, that was it for me.

Which was that game?

Technician said:

I thought it completely shutdown last year.

Last year the gamespy game news site shut down, not the servers powered by gamespy. I'm really worried, since it was the last service from the old era of games where you just clicked on MP, selected which server you wanted from the populated list and clicked on it to play, no registration BS required. I hate steam becoming the only place to play games online and offline, and I dread it becoming it.

188DarkRevived said:

Hasn't it already shut down a while ago?!? I'm confused.
I hope I'll still be able to enjoy Heretic II deathmatches next month, since it came with it's own independent built-in GameSpy thingy.
If not then I'll just play with bots and occasionally connect with human players through appointments arranged via email messages.

last time i tried heretic II online, there were no players around.