Talk:Game Updates/@comment-33104098-20191027074001

If you plan to keep playing beyond 2019, here are some thoughts about the "rumor" of DragonVale being on "automation" / "self-run", or "running by a bot", however you'd like to call it. "The servers will be running indefinitely until further notice": It is very nice that Hasbro will keep the server running. But of course we know it's not going to be forever. So, how long could it last?

- I don't know who manages the servers, whether it's owned by Hasbro/BFS or it's a paid service. (Several years ago when players had problem logging in, I remember seeing something about the game's running on Amazon's service.) But either way there would be some cost, just more or less. Then it is reasonable that Hasbro may shut the game down when it's "not worth it".

I can't help that the number of active players is going to go down over time. But, while a lot of us are saying we won't pay any more real money on the game, I am still going to watch the in-game ads as much as time allows as my contribution.

- Another factor is the operating system. Every time there is a new iOS released, app Devs need to check and maybe tweak their apps to make sure they still run properly with the new iOS. So without any maintenance going forward, I think at some point the app would no longer certify and could be taken off the shelf not necessarily by Hasbro but by Apple. When that happens, you could still play if you have already installed it, you just cannot download it to a new device. Also, if you update iOS on your device with DV, you could risk breaking it and no longer be able to play. (Our ipads have some very old apps that, if we try to open it, give the message that the app must be upgraded by Dev to the iOS level. If it won't even launch, I suppose it doesn't really matter if the company kept the servers running.)

(I don't have much experience with android but I'd imagine it's similar.)

To hopefully be able to play DV for longer, I am planning to make sure our apple devices are all up-to-date on iOS some time before the end of year, and after that, delay updating at least some if not all the devices to new iOS.

-- I am no mobile developer, and these are just my own reasoning that may or may not make sense. If anyone has other comments, please share.