So what? If people cheat they cheat. The people who want to keep playing either don't care or figure out their own anti-cheat detection methods. Nobody is claiming you should be able to play every MMO exactly as it was on launch forever. This is mostly about games with a large single player component, and at least being able to launch multiplayer games and still have some access to the product you bought. (possibly with end-user hacking and support needed to be really usable)
It would be like if John Deere - kings of tractors-as-a-service - sold new self-driving models that were all networked together to coordinate and tend your crops as efficiently as possible, and then after a few years they said "Our AI tractor program had a good run but we've decided to end support. All purchased tractors will cease functioning. We will be sending top men to your farms to destroy the equipment to make sure you don't try to keep using them." Naturally some of the farmers who thought they were buying a product will try to get the corporation to make their tractors drivable offline. But inexplicably uninvolved random lurkers chime in with "C'mon man how can you expect The John Deere Corporation to support you greedy farmers forever? These robo-tractors were specifically designed around satellite network connections. You expect them to loan you a satellite? What about all the proprietary IP that powers the AI on a central server and wasn't licensed for public release? Without that server connection someone could drive their tractor into a crowd of people!"
(I point out the latter not to single out you specifically, but because such comments are constantly brought up by anons when this topic is raised. As if we need to consider the publisher's feelings, or they're afraid action here could put game dev in danger despite us having multiplayer games for decades before GaaS.)
So what? If people cheat they cheat. The people who want to keep playing either don't care or figure out their own anti-cheat detection methods. Nobody is claiming you should be able to play every MMO exactly as it was on launch forever. This is mostly about games with a large single player component, and at least being able to launch multiplayer games and still have some access to the product you bought. (possibly with end-user hacking and support needed to be really usable)
It would be like if John Deere - kings of tractors-as-a-service - sold new self-driving models that were all networked together to coordinate and tend your crops as efficiently as possible, and then after a few years they said "Our AI tractor program had a good run but we've decided to end support. All purchased tractors will cease functioning. We will be sending top men to your farms to destroy the equipment to make sure you don't try to keep using them." Naturally some of the farmers who thought they were buying a product will try to get the corporation to make their tractors drivable offline. But inexplicably uninvolved random lurkers chime in with "C'mon man how can you expect The John Deere Corporation to support you greedy farmers forever? These robo-tractors were specifically designed around satellite network connections. You expect them to loan you a satellite? What about all the proprietary IP that powers the AI on a central server and wasn't licensed for public release? Without that server connection someone could drive their tractor into a crowd of people!"
(I point out the latter not to single out you specifically, but because such comments are constantly brought up by anons when this topic is raised. As if we need to consider the publisher's feelings, or they're afraid action here could put game dev in danger despite us having multiplayer games for decades before GaaS.)