"dedicated servers". This is a broad term. Even a home computer could host a 18 person CS party.. Without problems. The game is mostly run on the local machine of players and only some non graphical data is interchanged with the server, like your coordinate.
The server calculates everything together and is not rendering graphics....
So yes I do think anybody could host a server for Rivals if the game was set up the same way as the Half Life/CS method.
The age of a game doesn't change a thing. Not only the games have gotten "heavier" if that is what you mean, but also the Home Computers and internet. With SimCity we are totally relying on at least some internet connection.. So developers are not scared anymore for online requirements.
Explain me why Half life 2 can be hosted at home, and not Rivals. What has changed so Rivals could not be hosted on my home computer.
And after that about Home computers... You still have the Dedicated servers as in servers which are located in a datacenter. I think you also mean those... And again, why should this not be possible with Rivals. Other games which have the CS method just hosted there own servers at launch. Maybe only 4 ore 5... After the community got hold of the game and where willing to start there own servers... The official servers slowly shrinked. People hosted more and more games of there own... And dedicated servers in Datacenters where also growing. I wouldn't mind renting a server for 10$ a month and host my own game to play with friends or host publicly.. And we al know there was a huge business in this hosting of game servers.
So this system worked.. Gamers got involved. Even today this system is working... After the 13 years you mention.
I would love to see a huge online community with Rivals in about 13 years...
Ow, and I am not sure... but is Rivals not essentialy hosted on a players machine? We just don't have a interface to choose and create servers....
