Moody Gamer

A company named Stardock, who are behind a game called Sins of a Solar Empire, have made a list that contains what they consider “The Gamer’s Bill of Rights”. Which I have listed here:

1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund. (Barely any store store around here in Oman does that, though you can exchange with something else)
2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state. (This one is much needed since half baked games are the norm these days with lots and sometimes no patches. Must be enforced)
3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release. (Yep, no patching something that SHOULD have been working from the start)
4. Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game. (Yep, though such programs are being forced on us and I hope they stop it)
5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer. (Another true statement, lots of games minimum requirements are really not minimum since they will run the game in a sort of crippled mode)
6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent. (No Starforce or root kits please)
7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time. (Logical and makes sense)
8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers. (Yeah, as in potential pirates I guess)
9. Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play. (Half-Life 2 and Bioshock anyone!)
10. Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play. (Hence will stop many from using Cracks and Mini-Images. It really is annoying to swap CDs/DVDs when someone plays different games)

The list is quite comprehensive and includes a lot of stuff many gamers lack in terms of such rights.

Tags: gamers, Rights, Stardock

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 7th, 2008 at 8:34 pm and is filed under Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.