Seriously, as long as you keep buying from them, do you think they give a shit about your "gamers bill of rights"? Here is how EA looks at rights: "We've got a right to your money, you've got a right to give us your money and STFU." And as long as you keep playing that game, they're going to keep screwing you.

Why should they care if the game actually works? They got your money and they know that no matter how much you bitch, you'll be standing right there in line for the next one--begging to be butt-raped by EA *yet again*.

Oh, and my favorite quote from the article:

Yeah, fight the power. Such a powerful and organized movement must be giving EA nightmares, while they sleep on a big pile of your money.

You have the right not to buy horrible shitty games. Is that so hard?

We had the forced online and similarly unplayable launch of Diablo III.

We? We had no such thing. We had the option to not purchase the game. Many of us took that option.

You can only complain if such requirements aren't publicized. In most cases, these requirements were made clear not only prior to sale, but prior to the game's release. If you didn't want it, why did you buy it?

It is called the Right to Refuse to Buy, coupled with the Right to Obtain Decent Reviews Before Purchase.

Stop spending your money on this garbage.

There are plenty of great indie/homebrew games out there. I know it's a long shot that these titles will ever be "mainstream," but the biggest problem is that although I hear gamers whine and bitch about DRM and the like, none of them have the self-control to stop buying these titles. Stop. It. I know it's hard, for example, for a Final Fantasy fan to NOT buy the latest FF title, but realize that as long as you do so, you will keep this going forever.

No.

If you feel they're giving you the short stick, don't buy their product. There are plenty of games and devs out there who do not enforce this kind of stupid crap, and the quality of indy games coming out these days is huge. The case for buying AAA titles, which are the only ones that try to pull this kind of crap, is quite weak.

The reason they try this shit is that people will still buy the product if they do. If they do it, and nobody buys it, then the issue will solve itself.

Harsch but true. I guess there are a few questions to be answered:

• 1. Is the actions of EA hurting enlightened gamers, who chose to give their money to better companies?
• 2. Is it likely that EA will release a game that "pro gamers" want to play? A game that is not a glorified FarmVille.
• 3. Is the industry in large damaged by the actions of EA?

If the answer to these questions are all "no", then it does not matter much what EA does, except the usual moral issues about parting a fool from his money.

The idea of a Bill of Rights for gamers seems to me ridiculous (and also very US-centric). How about a Bill of Rights to clean laundry? I mean, there would be new Bills of Rights being written every five minutes if this was a reasonable solution. What you may need is stronger consumer protection laws. I think I read the other day that people in England are entitled to a refund on game purchases, which turned out to be useful in the wake of the recent Sim City fiasco.

I disagree. Having a requirement to connect to their servers does not and should not imply that those servers will be unavailable for extended lengths of time. You might argue caveat emptor, but the fact of the matter is that there is no legal recourse in many places when a game is unplayable. If I take the shrink wrap off a game and through no fault of my own the game is unplayable, I should be entitled to a refund. It doesn't matter if the cause of that is undocumented requirements, an unstable game, or lack of server capacity.

What about the right to no bait-and-switch in the form of "updates" after purchase?

This is true, but there's no way to tell a company that they haven't got your money for a specific reason. A game flops when people don't buy DRM stuff(or more accurately the informed audience doesn't and the game does slightly worse than average), and EA just says "oh, no one wants complex city-builders anymore, let's just put that money back into the sports and shovelware departments."

There needs to be some way of specifically telling companies: We don't want to be abused.

A consumer protection law for software is what you want. Too bad we all agree to waive any expectations of warranty once we've agreed to the license agreement which few people actually read.

The right to get a refund on digital media, particularly media that is DRM enabled should be introduced however. If the company is using DRM to protect their intellectual property by enforcing per seat licensing then consumers should have the same right to return this software within some time frame established by law - ie. 15 days. The company selling the software can remotely disable the DRM function in the case of games that require an account, the only concern I see companies having is with people cracking the DRM after they've already downloaded it, then requesting a refund.

However, calling it a "Bill of Rights" makes you look like some entitled idiot who believes this is on the same level of some US Constitutional amendment.

I bought the latest Simcity and I like the game. It has its flaws, but this is the PC gaming industry - I expect nothing short of bullshit from new releases. I could spend a lifetime just compiling a list of bugs in newly released software ...

I have a problem with this guideline. I really do. There should, in all cases of multiplayer networked capability, be a direct connection ability and/or a server program that you can download and install. This was pretty standard not too long ago, where you could set up a private server if you wanted to. It should be standard again. If you buy something, the product should not have a lifespan the ends with no usability. It should end with no further support, where the user can install and tweak and run in 20+ years.

Skyrim uses Steam, pretty sure you can play it offline, but what if you couldn't? Would you still buy it? I would. They get away with this type of DRM because they understand gamers better than some understand themselves. A must have title is just that must have, bugs and drm are secondary. That and piracy... piracy has hit the gaming industry hard, and now we're left with less video games and less producers again leading back to bolder DRM attempts and even computer infringement.

That has left the door wide open for EA, who has pretty consistent revenue from it's sports titles to step in and definite how big corporate America should run the gaming industry. Now we're pretty much fucked.

It doesn't matter. Companies won't hear that. If their numbers don't suck, abusing the customers is vindicated. If the numbers do suck, they'll trot out their usual bogeymen and blame piracy, with healthy manure-carts full of (synthesized) market evidence.

I wouldn't predicate any action of mine on the expectation of some desirable outcome from another, especially any other which has proven to be so amoral and abusive. Instead, for your own sanity and self-satisfaction, just break it off and let them sink or swim in their own sewage. Find a game publisher that isn't abusing you--maybe a good indy, for instance--and make them a success.

In regards to #3: EA damages the industry by buying up smaller studios and diverting their profits into non-innovative game designs and rehashed sequels. They consume talented developers who could be working on titles that are more friendly to enlightened gamers—and, as Synerg1y said, they make other publishers want to copy them, further reducing the amount of money and talent invested into friendly games.

In regards to #2: Spore is a prominent example of a game that had many people excited when it was first announced. It was (almost?) entirely because of EA's DRM and business practices that it fell flat.

In regards to #1: EA may choose to buy out those companies or inspire them to lose interest in serving enlightened gamers. (See above.)

So very true. I thank the heavens every day for the crack scene - I have original games from the mid-1980s which would be unplayable if it weren't for THG, RAZOR 1911, and others like them. I probably spend at least $100 on games per month, but I won't put my money into any title until a crack is available. EA, Blizzard, and other companies have lost thousands - perhaps even tens of thousands - of dollars of my money because of their godawful DRM, and the problem is only getting worse. Starcraft II, Diablo 3, and now SimCity, for instance - all are games I would have loved to play, but only when they're unencumbered.

And don't get me started on steam or battle.net, either. I don't rent games!

Amazon pulled SimCity from its store due to poor customer reception. That means zero sales from one of the largest online stores worldwide. Call me crazy, but I think their numbers might go down because of that.