What companies do you actually refuse to buy from?

migo

New member
Jun 27, 2010
2,698
0
0
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.
 

Stalydan

New member
Mar 18, 2011
510
0
0
I just really try to not buy crappy games. I tend not to buy a lot of Activision products because a lot of crappy games and their business ethics make a bit uneasy.
 

DJDarque

Words
Aug 24, 2009
1,776
0
0
No offense, but you sound like you'd be insufferable to be around when it comes to buying anything. If you don't like something don't buy it, but you don't have to spread your hatred to other people.

I don't refuse to buy anything based solely off of who makes it. That's just stupid.
 

viranimus

Thread killer
Nov 20, 2009
4,952
0
0
I dont buy from ubisoft, I dont buy from activision, I wont buy rage and a few other specific titles. I am also on the fence about abandoning Sony with their nonsense this year.

Also, I will not buy any game tied in with disney.

I tend to back up what I claim, but Jim is right, people talk a lot of bullshit.
 

Nouw

New member
Mar 18, 2009
15,615
0
0
I never 'refuse' to buy from a company for a reason smaller than 'it doesn't interest or appeal to me.' What the company thinks doesn't intertwine with my buying decision, as long as I'm not greatly affected. Boycotting it isn't going to do anything except rid me of a great product. Especially for a petty reason.
DJDarque said:
I don't refuse to buy anything based solely off of who makes it. That's just stupid.
This has to go down as one of the great Escapist quotes.
 

BanicRhys

New member
May 31, 2011
1,006
0
0
No, because I don't discount games based solely on who makes them because that's moronic.
 

somonels

New member
Oct 12, 2010
1,209
0
0
Valve/Steam.
I don't buy from the rest, since they aren't the ones selling me and they don't really have anything I'd like. I do, however, refuse - meaning there is some desire - to buy from Valve/Steam.
 

ilspooner

New member
Apr 13, 2010
655
0
0
I don't refuse to buy games from any company. If a company makes a game I want, I go ahead and buy it. To me, the company who makes it doesn't matter.
 

migo

New member
Jun 27, 2010
2,698
0
0
DJDarque said:
No offense, but you sound like you'd be insufferable to be around when it comes to buying anything. If you don't like something don't buy it, but you don't have to spread your hatred to other people.

I don't refuse to buy anything based solely off of who makes it. That's just stupid.
Continuing to support companies with anti-consumer practices is stupid.
 

mjc0961

YOU'RE a pie chart.
Nov 30, 2009
3,847
0
0
migo said:
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.
...What the hell are you talking about?! 3DS uploading user data and putting kids at risk of kidnapping? I don't mean to be rude but you sound like a crazy person right now. 3DS has a profile section that lets you put in a name, a birthday (month and day only, no year), country, and for the US, state. Some, possibly all, of that completely harmless information (no year so no age, and no specific enough location) may be shared via StreetPass. StreetPass only works in a small radius around the 3DS over a local wireless signal from the 3DS itself. It does not go over the internet, and if anyone is at risk of kidnapping, it's not because of info they got off of a 3DS. It's because hey there's a kidnapper and he sees some kid. 3DS isn't going to do anything to help the kidnapper. And yes it has parental controls, but like all devices, they have to be enabled.

DJDarque said:
No offense, but you sound like you'd be insufferable to be around when it comes to buying anything. If you don't like something don't buy it, but you don't have to spread your hatred to other people.
I can't agree more with this.
 

Perryman93

New member
Mar 27, 2009
281
0
0
Bungie, im sick of them reproducing slightly updated copies of the same dead franchise.

Nintendo because i have pretty much hated everything they have done since the WII/DS, MAKE SOME NEW GAMES!!!!!
 

DJDarque

Words
Aug 24, 2009
1,776
0
0
migo said:
DJDarque said:
No offense, but you sound like you'd be insufferable to be around when it comes to buying anything. If you don't like something don't buy it, but you don't have to spread your hatred to other people.

I don't refuse to buy anything based solely off of who makes it. That's just stupid.
Continuing to support companies with anti-consumer practices is stupid.
Pretty much every company ever has some kind of anti-consumer practices. If you want to boycott buying anything ever again go right ahead. I won't stop you.
 

crotchdot

New member
Jun 11, 2010
60
0
0
So if you don't buy Sony, or Apple, and Nintendo's about to end up on your list, then I take it you only game on Linux?

Cause Microsoft have a long sordid history, arguably more so than those other companies you listed. Try looking up "embrace, extend, extinguish" if you're not familiar with what I'm talking about. And to reiterate: I said "arguably", I'm just sore cause I was a Java developer and Microsoft tried to kill off my job because they perceived the technology as a threat, but who's actually the bigger douchebag is all relative when we're talking giant corporations.

Point is, almost every company is always doing something that f**ks over the consumer or their competition. You're going to have a very hard time looking for saints in the corporate world, it's generally not how they operate cause it doesn't make them as much money.
 

migo

New member
Jun 27, 2010
2,698
0
0
DJDarque said:
migo said:
DJDarque said:
No offense, but you sound like you'd be insufferable to be around when it comes to buying anything. If you don't like something don't buy it, but you don't have to spread your hatred to other people.

I don't refuse to buy anything based solely off of who makes it. That's just stupid.
Continuing to support companies with anti-consumer practices is stupid.
Pretty much every company ever has some kind of anti-consumer practices. If you want to boycott buying anything ever again go right ahead. I won't stop you.
Please tell me what anti-consumer practices Stardock, GamersGate and Good Old Games have? What about Mojang? Ambrosia SW?
 

migo

New member
Jun 27, 2010
2,698
0
0
crotchdot said:
Cause Microsoft have a long sordid history, arguably more so than those other companies you listed. Try looking up "embrace, extend, extinguish" if you're not familiar with what I'm talking about. And to reiterate: I said "arguably", I'm just sore cause I was a Java developer and Microsoft tried to kill off my job because they perceived the technology as a threat, but who's actually the bigger douchebag is all relative when we're talking giant corporations.
Java sucks. I hate it, I don't mind that Microsoft tried to kill it because in the end it dying is good. Just like Apple trying to kill Flash. I hate flash, and it's great that they took the charge even if I otherwise dislike them. Microsoft certainly has a history, yes, but they got hit with antitrust violations and that's given them a kick in the ass to improve. When it comes to software piracy, their response on the 360 is to ban anyone from xbox live if they have a modded console. That's fair enough, someone has the right to do what they want to the hardware they buy, but MS has the right to ban people as well. They gave NGOs in Russia and a few other countries carte blanche licenses to use Windows and Office after their offices were getting raided under the pretense of searching for pirated MS software. They support software they put out for a very long time, and ensure backwards compatibility so existing customers have as little of a chance of getting screwed as possible.

Point is, almost every company is always doing something that f**ks over the consumer or their competition. You're going to have a very hard time looking for saints in the corporate world, it's generally not how they operate cause it doesn't make them as much money.
And some smarten up. EA has improved quite a bit, they've evidently been feeling the sting of the negative opinion people have of them, and some people still boycotting them (see? it works!). It's not about one extreme or the other. It's about who's really bad. I already touched on that with Ubisoft. They're playing with it, but then changing their mind, so to a degree they're still listening to consumers and are trying to find a good balance between software protection and consumer friendliness. That counts for something.
 

migo

New member
Jun 27, 2010
2,698
0
0
poiumty said:
I don't believe in gating myself out of a potentially good game just because I have something against the company who makes or distributes it. In the end, I'm screwing myself more than I'm screwing the company.
Most of the time, there's a perfectly good alternative (or even a better one). Occasionally there's something unique that might really sting to not play, but more likely than not it's easy to find a substitute.
 

The Wykydtron

"Emotions are very important!"
Sep 23, 2010
5,458
0
0
None, it's stupid to put a blanket boycott on one company without still considering the game's own merits

I mean i don't like Nintendo's franchise milking but if i'd decided to boycott all their products i never would have found the Phoenix Wright series, my all time 2nd favorite game(s).