Gamers Bill of Rights

Default Gamer's Bill Of Rights
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread....90#post2825190

Just like humanity in general, PC gamers are entitled to basic liberties: freedom to return computer games that don't work (for a full refund); minimum requirements that are actually accurate; to not be treated as a criminal by game companies, and so forth.

To uphold these rights, Stardock and Gas Powered Games decided to put together the Gamer's Bill of Rights, which we present before you today. These are the key elements that publishers need to adhere to in their games; they're all pretty common sense, but they're things that the game industry is increasingly straying from. We admit that many developers are at the mercy of their publishers, but our goal, if we get enough industry support on this, is to create a consortium that upholds the following basic standards for PC games:

The Gamer’s Bill of Rights are as follows:

1.Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
2.Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
3.Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
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.
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.
6.Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
7.Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
8.Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
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.
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.

Discuss

TH

That is a frigging awesome idea. However there is much room for loopholes.

I.E: "Finished" and "Adequate" are points of view. But otherwise i think that is great.

Especially the last one is almost never applied.Most games,unless you download a NO CD crack from a crackers site,need the DVD to play.And although everyone uses these cracks and the gaming companies know about it, they stubornly implement their games with sometimes potentialy resource draining secure ROM software.Some types of this security software creates controller overhead draging the read/right speed on our main hard drive controller down with it, impacting greatly on general performance.
What is the use of this?
Legitimate gamers get the short end of the stick for a game they have paid,while others who have pirated the software and paid nill have an absolutely smooth running,no DVD required game.
There is no logic,or any point to this,just policy that they did their best to tie down their software,ultimately impacting their legitimate customers in a negative way.

Its numbers 1 and 10 that never seem to be upheld, any shop you go into (or on the internet) and say that the game wouldn't run generally tell you tough luck and if you are lucky will only offer a trade in at a much reduced price. Mostly seems like a good idea, but I doubt we'll ever see all game publishers upholding these.