Given the latest Jimquisition, I'm wondering which companies people actually are engaging in a personal boycott for. Sometimes you can get other people to join in, but it's usually just that - personal.
So for me.
Activision - this shouldn't come as a surprise, it mainly has to do with Bobby Kotick openly saying that he figures gamers can be milked for cash. Realistically most CEOs are thinking about it, but if Bobby talks about it, carries through and continues to be successful, then other companies take note and follow, and we all get screwed.
Blizzard - initially it was due to being associated with Activision, I refuse to pay a monthly fee for a game, but I was actually considering Diablo 3 because a friend of mine was a big fan of Diablo, but would have skipped buying it because they were associated with Activision. Now I've got a reason to not buy Diablo 3 independent of that, I just won't buy any specific game that comes with online only DRM, and in particular I'm not a fan of Blizzard doing it for the exact reason Tim Willits is a fan - it sets a bad precedent for the industry.
That takes me to
id Software - kinda moot, I wasn't interested in any of their games since Unreal came out, but he's kinda like Bobby Kotick, talking about milking consumers.
Bethesda - their litigous behaviour just rubs me the wrong way, they're suing Mojang over Scrolls, which is pretty absurd, and their attempt to squash Interplay over the Fallout MMO is pretty crappy as well. I'd rather companies focus on making good games, rather than suing other people who may (or may not) make good games.
That's 2 counts of companies I boycott because they're tied to another company I boycott.
Ubisoft isn't on that list - they're inconsistent with their crappy DRM, so it's something I can get around just like not paying a subscription fee for an MMO - I'll spend my money elsewhere. They've also seemed to go back on it. Guess we'll see how it goes, but TrackMania 2 won't have it, so I'm happy. I also don't blame them for trying to make DRM work - I'd want DRM to either not screw consumers or actually prevent piracy, with preference to the former, but I could have at least respected the always on DRM if it prevented piracy, and at least according to their financials it has helped, so if it actually got people who otherwise wouldn't have paid to actually pay... I'll give that to them, even though they set a really bad trend for the industry.
Sony - I actually really used to like them, and quite strongly supported them. Then they decided to do a complete 180 on everything I liked them for. Since the PS1 they've supported homebrew devs in various ways, and did an even better job with the PS3 by including support at launch. Then they reversed it, and sued the people who tried to bring it back, and got a little too fascist for my liking by getting some stupid German judge to order the police to raid an individual's home over it. Bye Sony, was nice knowing ya!
Apple - roughly the same reason as Sony, except they've been crappy ever since Steve Jobs came back, and having Jason Chen's house raided over the iPhone 4 leak is also too fascist for my liking.
Haven't been successful getting anyone to stop playing Activision games, everyone has moved on to EA Skate or Rock Band already, and in the case of CoD, well the people who agree with me don't play it. Blizzard, I've got one friend to decide not to buy Diablo 3.
id Software - I haven't met anyone in years who's played one of their games, nothing to do there. Bethesda, well Skyrim was on my buy list, and I had a friend who was thinking about it, they're no longer doing so.
Sony - biggest success there since they exist in so many fields, I've got a couple people to stop buying albums put out by Sony, Bluray movies or players, as royalties go to Sony, one of my friends was actually considering a Sony laptop (I recommended against them even when I liked Sony, so that was the easiest one). So biggest success there. Not buying Little Big Planet 2 though really stings, and is probably the biggest sacrifice. Instead of Diablo 3 there's Torchlight 2, which I expect to be a better game anyway, and I expect Guild Wars 2 to overall be a better experience than Skyrim (I know, one's single player and the other's an MMORPG, but they both deliver the same stuff that I want). There's nothing to replace Little Big Planet.
Apple - I've long argued against buying Macs, and have had some pretty good success there. iOS devices, much less success, but suggesting people buy an iPod touch if they really need the apps and to get a better smartphone for the phone bit seems to work. Weakening their hold on people is better than nothing.
Nintendo's possibly going to end up on my list as well. Need to look into the negative implications the 3DS tracking user data and uploading it has with kids. I don't actually have one to play around with to see what the default security settings are, but if it turns out that it puts kids more at risk of kidnapping, they'll shoot to the top of my list.
Valve's also going to end up there, I already don't like Steam, but they seemed to balance things out with support for free mods if you own a source game. That balance is getting strongly shifted against them.
So for me.
Activision - this shouldn't come as a surprise, it mainly has to do with Bobby Kotick openly saying that he figures gamers can be milked for cash. Realistically most CEOs are thinking about it, but if Bobby talks about it, carries through and continues to be successful, then other companies take note and follow, and we all get screwed.
Blizzard - initially it was due to being associated with Activision, I refuse to pay a monthly fee for a game, but I was actually considering Diablo 3 because a friend of mine was a big fan of Diablo, but would have skipped buying it because they were associated with Activision. Now I've got a reason to not buy Diablo 3 independent of that, I just won't buy any specific game that comes with online only DRM, and in particular I'm not a fan of Blizzard doing it for the exact reason Tim Willits is a fan - it sets a bad precedent for the industry.
That takes me to
id Software - kinda moot, I wasn't interested in any of their games since Unreal came out, but he's kinda like Bobby Kotick, talking about milking consumers.
Bethesda - their litigous behaviour just rubs me the wrong way, they're suing Mojang over Scrolls, which is pretty absurd, and their attempt to squash Interplay over the Fallout MMO is pretty crappy as well. I'd rather companies focus on making good games, rather than suing other people who may (or may not) make good games.
That's 2 counts of companies I boycott because they're tied to another company I boycott.
Ubisoft isn't on that list - they're inconsistent with their crappy DRM, so it's something I can get around just like not paying a subscription fee for an MMO - I'll spend my money elsewhere. They've also seemed to go back on it. Guess we'll see how it goes, but TrackMania 2 won't have it, so I'm happy. I also don't blame them for trying to make DRM work - I'd want DRM to either not screw consumers or actually prevent piracy, with preference to the former, but I could have at least respected the always on DRM if it prevented piracy, and at least according to their financials it has helped, so if it actually got people who otherwise wouldn't have paid to actually pay... I'll give that to them, even though they set a really bad trend for the industry.
Sony - I actually really used to like them, and quite strongly supported them. Then they decided to do a complete 180 on everything I liked them for. Since the PS1 they've supported homebrew devs in various ways, and did an even better job with the PS3 by including support at launch. Then they reversed it, and sued the people who tried to bring it back, and got a little too fascist for my liking by getting some stupid German judge to order the police to raid an individual's home over it. Bye Sony, was nice knowing ya!
Apple - roughly the same reason as Sony, except they've been crappy ever since Steve Jobs came back, and having Jason Chen's house raided over the iPhone 4 leak is also too fascist for my liking.
Haven't been successful getting anyone to stop playing Activision games, everyone has moved on to EA Skate or Rock Band already, and in the case of CoD, well the people who agree with me don't play it. Blizzard, I've got one friend to decide not to buy Diablo 3.
id Software - I haven't met anyone in years who's played one of their games, nothing to do there. Bethesda, well Skyrim was on my buy list, and I had a friend who was thinking about it, they're no longer doing so.
Sony - biggest success there since they exist in so many fields, I've got a couple people to stop buying albums put out by Sony, Bluray movies or players, as royalties go to Sony, one of my friends was actually considering a Sony laptop (I recommended against them even when I liked Sony, so that was the easiest one). So biggest success there. Not buying Little Big Planet 2 though really stings, and is probably the biggest sacrifice. Instead of Diablo 3 there's Torchlight 2, which I expect to be a better game anyway, and I expect Guild Wars 2 to overall be a better experience than Skyrim (I know, one's single player and the other's an MMORPG, but they both deliver the same stuff that I want). There's nothing to replace Little Big Planet.
Apple - I've long argued against buying Macs, and have had some pretty good success there. iOS devices, much less success, but suggesting people buy an iPod touch if they really need the apps and to get a better smartphone for the phone bit seems to work. Weakening their hold on people is better than nothing.
Nintendo's possibly going to end up on my list as well. Need to look into the negative implications the 3DS tracking user data and uploading it has with kids. I don't actually have one to play around with to see what the default security settings are, but if it turns out that it puts kids more at risk of kidnapping, they'll shoot to the top of my list.
Valve's also going to end up there, I already don't like Steam, but they seemed to balance things out with support for free mods if you own a source game. That balance is getting strongly shifted against them.