cricket chirps said:
-__- has anyone even looked at the petition?
It's people trying to get microsoft to add those things back to make their console fail. Seriously, go read what people are saying on/about the petition. They are almost all saying they just want to see microsoft screw up again by adding those terrible ideas back.
The thing is, not every gamer bothers to keep on the up-and-up about his or her rights. A lot of supposedly hardcore types are frighteningly casual, when you dig into their awareness of the corporate sides of the culture. You find a complete lack of it in most cases; as though MS, Sony et al. were nothing but merchants of hopes and peddlers of dreams and guilt-free fun times. The people who actually support the petition aren't the same who've bothered to try and figure out just what the Hell DRM means - these are the people who are angry that a few very superficial convenient aspects got taken away.
Dig around, and you'll find the usual cries of "BUT MY GAME SHARING! I WANT MY GAME SHARING BACK BECAUSE IT WAS NEW!", in complete ignorance of the 30-day policy between friends or of the fact that this effectively enforced and supported the Xbone as an always-online device. There's also the usual droves of fairly entitled idiots who have trouble understanding that not everyone has access to a top-tier broadband connection, simply because they and their close circle of friends and relatives all do own an ADSL or cable connection.
What *we* know is that sometimes, it's better to be a bit on the retrograde side of things. There's one heck of a difference between fearing change and fearing that your rights as a consumer are going to be trampled in the name of some vapid and frilly features - as well as the corporate wallets out there.
Saltyk said:
Not gonna lie, I was upset about the 180. Not because I liked the ideas, but because they are so bad that they need to be seen as salting the Earth. I wanted the Xbox One to launch with those features, crash and burn. To be so bad that all future console developers would realize that a console with those same features would be doomed to failure. So that no one else will try to implement online requirements and DRM.
Now, I fear, they will only think that we weren't "ready for the future" of gaming. And maybe next time, no one will care. And considering what we've seen, I'm not hopeful.
I can share the sentiment, but I doubt it would've turned out like this. A big share of gamers don't even come to sites like this one and, like I said, a lot don't bother to stay abreast of the development process or legal aspects of a game's early lifespan. All they care about is more of their favourite franchise. They'll gladly let their rights be trampled, they'd come in big enough numbers to vindicate Microsoft in its choices - and they wouldn't voice the slightest complaint.
Why? They just don't give a shit. All they want is more Halo, more CoD, more whatever. They would've had it, even with the Xbone's pre-reversal incarnation.
Considering, I'm glad the policy reversal happened. It's more or less the lesser of two evils, and it might educate those careless gamers out there on the necessity to keep an eye out for crotchety practices.
As an aside, I know a guy who very honestly loves The War Z. He's not a hacker or a troll or anything like that - the game just fit his standards and his wallet. It's a shame, but this is why I said we need to educate the rest of us.
Gaming isn't just a wee hobby anymore. I think it requires its own form of consumer advocacy.
