Steam LAN Portal (Hamachi or Tunngle)

[Dev]

To be honest it seems silly that this isn't an option. There are these programs like Hamachi and Tunngle that allow online play for games through a LAN portal yet Steam doesn't. I think this would be a brilliant option/alternative. Valve could come up with a cool name like Steam Pipeline or something and then market online play for games that support LAN. There could be something similar to the controller support icon for games that support Steam Pipeline so people could use that as a deciding factor to purchase games.

There are a ton of games these days that no longer have server support for online play or that people simply have issues setting up multiplayer for. This could fix a lot of those issues. What do you think guys? Can we build up enough hipe to get Valve on board? Is it even a good idea?

Questions, comments, suggestions?

[ChrisW]

They don't allow this because it is the number one way pirates play their pirated copies of games online.

[ReBoot]

Out of curiosity, what is that good for? If all players haven an Internet connection, you can just play online. The only use for that stuff I ever found was playing games where the master Server went offline but that's not the case with Steam.
So what is it good for?

[Dev]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Out of curiosity, what is that good for? If all players haven an Internet connection, you can just play online. The only use for that stuff I ever found was playing games where the master Server went offline but that's not the case with Steam.
So what is it good for?

There are quite a few games that have online play through a dedicated server. When those servers shut down there is no longer a way for people to play online. Steam has it's own servers but most games do not run through the Steam Servers when played online.

Hamachi and Tunngle allow you to connect to other players online through a games LAN (Local Area Network) connection. LAN would normally be used to play multiplayer on computers in the same household and does not usually connect to the internet. For those of us who love older games that no longer support online play it would be an awesome option.

[Dev]

Originally posted by ChrisW:

They don't allow this because it is the number one way pirates play their pirated copies of games online.

Firstly, they don't allow it because Steam does not have this as an integrated tool. Secondly, they could easily make it only allowed for games that you own on Steam. Thus negating any piracy issues.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by Devil Man X:

There are quite a few games that have online play through a dedicated server.

You mean a master Server, a dedicated server could be hosted by yourself for your friend to play on.
Anyway, what game on Steam requires but doesn't have the master server anymore? I'd like to know what to avoid.

[Dev]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Originally posted by Devil Man X:

There are quite a few games that have online play through a dedicated server.

You mean a master Server, a dedicated server could be hosted by yourself for your friend to play on.
Anyway, what game on Steam requires but doesn't have the master server anymore? I'd like to know what to avoid.

I think you know what I meant by dedicated server. I was using lay terms so that just about anyone could understand what I meant. The term "Master Server" or what you meant by that term was primary server. No developer uses a single server for a game. They use multiple servers. A primary server would be the main server players would be funneled to.

There are quite a few games on steam that use servers to play online and some that have had their servers shut down. Either because the games are no longer supported or because the companies went out of business. A game like Sacred 2 was pulled from Steam because the company went under. A new company has brought it back to Steam but the servers have been shut down. Now there is no online play for the PC version. Hamachi, Tunngle and other similar programs allow people to play online using a games LAN connection. That is why I suggested that Steam create it's own LAN tunnel program.

[ReBoot]

Ah, ok, now we're talking facts, thanks for the info. A particular example is way better than "some games".
Anyway, I know that there's hardly any a single master server. Still, you have to know the difference between a dedicated server (hosted on some PC, maybe on yours) and a master server (the main lobby/server browser system).

[Tito Shivan]

The problem i see is that by implementing such a feature, Steam may be violating their own Subscriber agreement.

you are not entitled to:
(ii) host or provide matchmaking services for the Software or emulate or redirect the communication protocols used by Valve in any network feature of the Software,

Officially adding the feature could be seen as a 'You can't do that but' kind of statement.

[Gus the Crocodile]

How? If Valve officially added the feature, then its protocols just become part of the ones being referred to there. Which only prevents people "emulating or redirecting" them, or "hosting or providing matchmaking services" for them. None of which you'd need to do to use it.

[Dev]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

The problem i see is that by implementing such a feature, Steam may be violating their own Subscriber agreement.

you are not entitled to:
(ii) host or provide matchmaking services for the Software or emulate or redirect the communication protocols used by Valve in any network feature of the Software,

Officially adding the feature could be seen as a 'You can't do that but' kind of statement.

Out of context it's hard to see how this applies. I don't know in which part of the user agreement this is found but it seems to be referring to the Steam software itself. In which case it would not affect any sort of LAN portal.

[toejam316]

This would be an incredibly cool feature if it was supported ONLY for games PURCHASED THROUGH STEAM. It'd eliminate the piracy thing, and it'd still allow you to play with Steam gamers in games with otherwise dead multiplayer.

[maplesyrupghost]

Originally posted by WuTangle A.Y.B.A.B.T.U:

This would be an incredibly cool feature if it was supported ONLY for games PURCHASED THROUGH STEAM. It'd eliminate the piracy thing, and it'd still allow you to play with Steam gamers in games with otherwise dead multiplayer.

What if someone wrote a program to be used on Steam and sold that program on Steam and it provided the ability to tunnel any LAN game? Seems like a good business idea.