[voussoir]

> If you want to preserve a game, you have to decide what parts are important to preserve [...] you might be able to do it but you then don’t get the real game experience

The author of this website is aware of that. Everyone will come away from a game with a different favorite part, of course, but for him it's mainly about preserving the worlds and art assets, even if some of the more fancy functionality is lost.

With games as a service, your game client already has the vast majority of the assets it needs locally. The world, models, physics engine, and the ability to move through the world are already handled by the client. But they remove that online authentication lynchpin, and you're left with tens of gigabytes of assets that you can't even open to view.

In his words:

> The comparison is between a less functional game versus nothing. It's the difference between putting grandpa in a wheelchair or taking him out back and shooting him in the head.

> Battleforge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmvcJuBOaQE&t=1168s

Plus, most of the "it's too hard" would be obviated if the publishers would plan for this eventuality from the beginning. Providing a bare-minimum experience that lets you navigate the world in singleplayer should not be "too hard".