Stop Killing Games (EU edition) - Moldman vs. Publishers

[The Tall Man]

Ross Scott, YouTuber known for Freeman's Mind and his Game Dungeon series, is on a mission to stop the deliberate destruction of video games.
To achieve this, he has launched an EU Citizens' Initiative and has one year to collect 1 million signatures from EU citizens.

If you are an EU citizen, simply visit https://www.stopkillinggames.com/eci click on your countries flag and follow the instructions.

What the initiative would do:

1. Require video games sold to customers to be in a reasonably working state at the time of shutdown / end of support
2. Prohibit any requirements for video games sold to customers to connect to the publisher or affiliated parties after support ends
3. Require the above also apply to video games that sell game assets or features (microtransactions) to customers

What the initiative would not do:

1. Require publishers to give up intellectual property rights
2. Require publishers to give up source code
3. Require endless support
4. Require publishers to host servers
5. Require publishers to assume liability for customer actions
6. Interfere with business practices in any way while a game is still being supported

If you are not an EU citizen, consider spreading the message and bullying any EU citizen to sign your petition.


After some confusion caused by twitch streamer Jason Thor Hall (who has his own thread) and his acolytes, Ross decided to release a large FAQ video to address many of the concerns and misunderstandings.

There is more than one operation going on with StopKillingGames; it's a multipronged approach.
If you care about the preservation of video games, especially if you own "The Crew," then go check it out.

[Update]
The UK government petition to stop publishers destroying games is now open! Here's a video with more details on it. Sign the petition if you're a UK citizen or resident!

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074

[Update]
Thanks to everyone getting together in their hate for Jason Hall

The goal for the UK petition has been reached. However, if you are a UK citizen or resident who hasn’t signed it yet, please do so.
Some signatures may be discarded if they are found to be invalid, so having a strong safety margin is important.

[Update]

With the power of hate Gamers have risen up and reached the One Million goal!
If you are an EU citizen who hasn’t signed it yet, please do sign the EU petition.
Some signatures may be discarded if they are found to be invalid, so having a strong safety margin is important.

 

[Daddy's Angry Juice]

Ha, Europe thinks they have rights, lmao

 

[BirdUp]

Ha, Europe thinks they have rights, lmao

more rights than the US at least
you're also a fag

 

[Raging Capybara]

All of those problems have already been solved with piracy.

 

[Lifeguard Hermit]

All of those problems have already been solved with piracy.

Shut the fuck up.

Go pirate a server emulator if that's true.

What a dumb asshole you are.

 

[BirdUp]

All of those problems have already been solved with piracy.

have fun with your pirated online-only game that doesnt fucking work

 

[The Tall Man]

All of those problems have already been solved with piracy.

If a crucial part of the game you own is exclusively located on a server, and the game only functions when connected to that server, then it becomes very difficult to pirate that game.

It's not impossible, and if the player base is big and dedicated enough, they might reverse-engineer the code stored on the server. If they are lucky some dev might even leak it.

If the publishers want to, they can make it nearly impossible to crack what is on the server.

However, often these games simply die and can never be played again.

 

[Raging Capybara]

Shut the fuck up.

Go pirate a server emulator if that's true.

What a dumb asshole you are.

You can play Quake on dreamcast to this day, you gorilla nigger

 

[BirdUp]

You can play Quake on dreamcast to this day, you gorilla nigger

id software didnt flip a kill switch that made it useless when support ended

 

[The Tall Man]

You can play Quake on dreamcast to this day, you gorilla nigger

And that is what this initiative is aiming for other games to adopt. It costs the devs nothing to make it possible that an online game can be played after supports ends if the players provide the needed support, like hosting a server.
For single player games it's even more evil to hide part of the code on a server and not give it to the player base once support for the game ends.

There is already a big list of games you can't play anymore and this is only getting worse.

You might not care for any of these modern games that will go to the chopping block right now, but maybe one will come along you really like and it only gets supported for one year and you will never be able to revisit it.

 

[10TH Kiwi]

"I will do my part! "
I find this initiative to be a long overdue idea. Regardless it means good in one of the steps to preserving online app games. I've heard from friends about the issues of overseas online application games eventually shutting down their international hosted servers permanently. Hopefully at least giving people an archive that can be playable rather than a bigfat nothing or a depressing gallery mode as compensation since all of those games have microtransactions. Don't get me wrong if people spend their money on these games then they should just expect to be bled for it, but on the other hand I sort of want these companies that make glorified gambling games not to make it out with the bag entirely.

 

[Spud]

1. Require video games sold to customers to be in a reasonably working state at the time of shutdown / end of support
2. Prohibit any requirements for video games sold to customers to connect to the publisher or affiliated parties after support ends
3. Require the above also apply to video games that sell game assets or features (microtransactions) to customers

That would be negated by them signing the EULA's these games come with. As an example this is Payday 2's EULA

The Software Product is licensed, not sold, to you by Starbreeze for use only under the terms of this EULA. The Software Product is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. The rights granted herein are limited to Starbreeze' and its licensors' intellectual property rights in the Software Product and do not include any other patents or intellectual property rights. The terms of this EULA, together with the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, will govern any software upgrades provided by Starbreeze that replace and/or supplement the original Software Product, unless such upgrade is accompanied by a separate license in which case the terms of that license will govern.

They specifically go out of their way to say what your purchasing is a license to access the game and that this license/access can be taken away at anytime they feel like it, I fully support the idea behind this and hope that this ends that bullshit but we'd have to see in a court how it'd hold up.

 

[Übertroon]

What happens if the game changes to a significant degree while still supported? Like to such a degree that it's difficult to even call it the same game

 

[The Tall Man]

That would be negated by them signing the EULA's these games come with. As an example this is Payday 2's EULA

They specifically go out of their way to say what your purchasing is a license to access the game and that this license/access can be taken away at anytime they feel like it, I fully support the idea behind this and hope that this ends that bullshit but we'd have to see in a court how it'd hold up.

Eula's mean nothing in the EU, but they are binding in the US.

If publishers have to provide an end of life plan for their games, it doesn't matter which market requires it, they will just adopt it globally.

Similar how Australia suing Valve, because they didn't allow customers to return games lead to Valve's global return policy.

What happens if the game changes to a significant degree while still supported? Like to such a degree that it's difficult to even call it the same game

This does not address that issue. This initiative is very narrow in scope.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

while I respect the intent and sentiment behind this, I doubt it will ever gain enough traction, as there are many edge cases that make it simply unreasonable. most live service games are built from the ground up with the assumption of constant interaction with a publisher's game server. imagine a game like Apex Legends reaching end of service under this law - what constitutes a "reasonably working state" for this game? removing all network features makes the game effectively unplayable even if they allow you to start it and load into a map without connecting to their servers.

are they to implement LAN or client-side hosting to restore the game's network functionality? release a public server application to allow users to host their own games? implement a server browser or some kind of matchmaking protocol that works independently of the game's originally intended infrastructure? that's how developers used to do it - which is why games like Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory are still around despite their creators scattering to the winds and/or being eaten by the chinese - but that's not how they do it now.

now, online games like this exist in a perpetually locked-down state with draconian account management to ostensibly fight cheaters, but more realistically to enable a microtransaction system to milk more money out of the game. reverting it to the older style requires additional development effort and funding that publishers have already widely signaled they're simply not willing to put forth. it's far more likely that a law like this would cause a bunch of loophole-seeking behavior, like publishers simply emptying out and closing down the studio in whatever way avoids the assumption of legal liability for the end-of-life development.

it's true that a small handful of games, such as Wayfinder and Mega Man X Dive, have fully realized the separation of online services, but those were entirely at the grace of the developers, and they will forever be exceptions rather than examples.

 

[Kiwi & Cow]

0 reddit spacing award

Thanks for editing the post retard.

 

[I'm Retarded?]

0 reddit spacing award
View attachment 6258975

don't read it then, fag. my condolences for your difficulty with reading words in a text-based medium. I'll make sure to include more pictures and wojak memes next time.

 

[Grub]

On one hand I like the idea behind this, on the other hand I feel like people have gotten what they deserve by supporting that shit to begin with. People continue to pay money for those kinds of games even knowing it's a temporary time limited thing that will eventually stop. That shit wouldn't even exist if people had refused to buy games with that shit baked in. Even after years of controversies and big titles reaching end of life, people still buy that shit and supporting companies like that.

 

[Wood]

This is dumb. No amount of EU regulation will protect the niggercattle from themselves and it will just make the barrier of entry into the gaming market even higher.

 

[The Bovinian Derivative]

On one hand I like the idea behind this, on the other hand I feel like people have gotten what they deserve by supporting that shit to begin with. People continue to pay money for those kinds of games even knowing it's a temporary time limited thing that will eventually stop. That shit wouldn't even exist if people had refused to buy games with that shit baked in. Even after years of controversies and big titles reaching end of life, people still buy that shit and supporting companies like that.

The issue is that younger/new gaming people don't know anything else. ~10 years ago we gave Deus Ex: Mankind Divided shit for it's dogshit preorder schemes now when Diablo 4 did the exact same shit nobody even mentioned it (for some reason I remember this specific example because both games made a big deal about playing the game a few days earlier if you bought the most expensive pre-order), and it's the same with all the other shitty practices.