News
I Miss Yslandia
Cordova, TN; March 8, in the year of our Lord 2014--Family
Friendly Gaming, the industry leader in covering the family
friendly video games is openly admitting that we miss Yslandia.
The loss of Yslandia exposes a real major flaw in the download
only video games. It also shows the biggest problem with online
only video games. Yslandia was a fun top down perspective role
playing game where players walked around, fought monsters, did
quests, and leveled up. Dungeons were interesting albeit a bit
difficult. Monsters dropped resources that were used to make
items, and/or useful in fulfilling quests for the villagers.
Yslandia was also the first MMORPG on the iOS platform.
So why can't we play Yslandia anymore? The developer decided to
shut down the servers. They decided to focus their resources on
other games. Since they had complete control of the game players
were thrown out. All of those hours leveling up were wasted. All
of those hours enjoying the game became a memory. No new
memories of the game were allowed. Why can't players have
control? Especially after paying for the game. Players are
consumers who are granted no rights in this whatsoever.
The lack of a stand alone version is what denies players any
rights. Companies want money for their product, and can then
shut it down whenever they feel like it. Which is not the case
when we buy a cartridge or disc. We can play the game for as
many years as we like. Retro gamers enjoy all kinds of older
games on discs and cartridges. Which a safer way to play since
they know no one can take away their favorite video game
experience. Without a physical copy of Yslandia running offline
only we are never going to be able to enjoy this fun little app
ever again. Which is really sad.
I still have the Yslandia icon on my iPhone. It won't play the
game anymore. I miss Yslandia though, and I refuse to delete it
from my device. It is a constant reminder to me why I choose
physical hard copy games over digital downloads whenever I am
given the choice. It reminds me that consumers rights are being
trampled upon. It reminds me the control needs to be in the
hands of the players not company suits. It reminds me we decide
which games win and which games lose. It reminds me the shaky
sand that online games are built upon.
God bless,
Paul Bury
Family Friendly Gaming