alt Hacker NewsCentral servers are useful for more than just NAT hole-punching. They’re also great as a centralized database of records and statistics as well as a host for anti-cheating services and community standards enforcement.
Peer to Peer games with no central authority would be so rife with cheating that you’d only ever want to play with friends, not strangers. That sucks!
Replies
patmorgan23 • 01/03/2026
Cool. You decided you don't care about that, but what if I do?
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> Peer to Peer games with no central authority would be so rife with cheating that you’d only ever want to play with friends, not strangers. That sucks!
Back in the the day RtCW had a server anyone could run and you could give out the address:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Castle_Wolfenstein
There was a server that a ISP / cable company in the southern US ran that I participate in and it was a great community with many regulars.
P2P can be awesome with the right peers.