The software to run a server for a game is different from the client software. I have to buy Minecraft to be able to download and use the client, but the server is freely available for anyone to host their own server.

Developers almost always release their server software for free if they offer it. The user is providing a service to the developer by offering another server for the community to use without the developer having to pay for it. There’s no reason to charge for it.

You can even password protect your server and put it behind a patreon or other exclusive membership, but it’s hard to compete with free servers. You have to offer some kind of special experience.

Everything you’re complaining about has been common practice in the PC space for decades.

It’s the wind turbines knocking the water out of the sky!

.localhost is already reserved for the loopback, per RFC 2606, but I agree with you in general. A small network shouldn’t have to have a $10-15/year fee to be compliant if they don’t want to use a domain outside their network.

As other posters have mentioned, .lan .home .corp and such are so widely used that ICANN can’t even sell them without causing a technical nightmare.

Yes, you’re right, RFC 6762 proposes reserving .local for mDNS. I was not aware of this until you brought it up, hence the dangers of using using TLDs not specifically designated for internal use.

Very few as this ruling would reserve .internal for local DNS only and forbid it at the global level. This is ICANN’s solution to people picking random .lan .local .internal for internal uses. You’ll be able to safely use .internal and it will never resolve to an address outside your network.

I’m glad I’m not the only person to immediately think of the Joywire from RimWorld.

It’s funny, because two male electrical plugs will still pass electricity fine if you put them together.

There’s only two videos of it on the company website and they’re both rendered. Doesn’t really inspire confidence that their product is actually ready to market.