Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Tormy]

http://forums.galciv2.com/322523

Stardock announced today the Gamer’s Bill of Rights: a statement of principles that it hopes will encourage the PC game industry to adopt standards that are more supportive of PC gamers. The document contains 10 specific “rights” that video game enthusiasts can expect from Stardock as an independent developer and publisher that it hopes that other publishers will embrace. The Bill of Rights is featured on Stardock’s website (www.stardock.com) and is on prominent display in Stardock’s booth (1142) at the Penny Arcade Expo.

“As an industry, we need to begin setting some basic, common sense standards that reward PC gamers for purchasing our games,” stated Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock Corporation. “The console market effectively already has something like this in that its games have to go through the platform maker such as Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony. But on the PC, publishers can release games that are scarcely completed, poorly supported, and full of intrusive copy protection and then be stuck on it.”

Chris Taylor, CEO and founder of Gas Powered Games stated, “This is an awesome framework for the industry to aspire to, and ultimately so that we can provide our customers with the gaming experience that they have wanted for years, and really deserve.”

As an example of The Gamer’s Bill of Rights in action, Stardock instituted a policy of allowing users to return copies of The Political Machine purchased at retail to Stardock for a full refund if they found that their PC wasn’t sufficient to run the game adequately.

“The PC market loses out on a lot of sales because a significant percentage of our market has PCs that may or may not be adequate to run our games. Without the ability to return games to the publisher for a refund, many potential buyers simply pass on games they might otherwise have bought due to the risk of not being certain a game will work on their PC. The average consumer doesn’t know what ‘pixel shader 2.0 support’ means, for instance,” said Wardell.

According to Stardock, the objective of the Gamer’s Bill of Rights is to increase the confidence of consumers of the quality of PC games which in turn will lead to more sales and a better gaming experience.

The Gamer’s Bill of Rights:

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


Hats off, Stardock! 

[Okenido]

Stardock FTW!

[Idiom]

I'm buying some Stardock games now because of this.

[PTTG??]

I've always liked stardock for this very reason. I can see that they have something in particular against Valve and Steam. I love it.

[Helmaroc]

Hooray! I particularly like:

Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.

and

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.

I lose discs easily, and my computers have a mind of their own...even if the specs are right, they manage to find some way to hinder the playability.

[Tormy]

I am just so happy, that Stardock is making the upcoming Master of Magic clone. 
That game is surely is the right hands!

[Nilocy]

Stardock are awesome. They have a great service, and they're very reliable. I love this rights movement for gamers, its such a simple idea but no-ones had the balls to make one. I just hope that other companies, particularly Steam/Valve, follow this. I'm sick of having games on my steam account that don't work anymore that I paid for...

[shadow_archmagi]

Stardock are awesome. They have a great service, and they're very reliable. I love this rights movement for gamers, its such a simple idea but no-ones had the balls to make one. I just hope that other companies, particularly Steam/Valve, follow this. I'm sick of having games on my steam account that don't work anymore that I paid for...

Wait, what? Steam has always been great about this; constantly providing patches and adding new weapons and releasing videos for TF2 and allowing me to uninstall and reinstall whenever I like with no CD needed.

When I saw this I thought "Gee, sure is nice to see a second company following Steam's example."

[Makrond]

Wow... I gotta say, that's pretty awesome... and if it ever becomes some kind of law, or even just a set of precedents, it opens the way for a shitload of court cases.

And, a hell of a lot of games will not start until an updater has run; not just Valve games.

[penguinofhonor]

Wow... I gotta say, that's pretty awesome... and if it ever becomes some kind of law, or even just a set of precedents, it opens the way for a shitload of court cases.

This will never become law. It would be stupid if it became law. It would be like a law saying that sandwich shops have to make good sandwiches. It should just be common sense.

[Okenido]

This will never become law. It would be stupid if it became law. It would be like a law saying that sandwich shops have to make good sandwiches. It should just be common sense.

If you think about it, there are laws that force this to a degree.

[Nilocy]

Stardock are awesome. They have a great service, and they're very reliable. I love this rights movement for gamers, its such a simple idea but no-ones had the balls to make one. I just hope that other companies, particularly Steam/Valve, follow this. I'm sick of having games on my steam account that don't work anymore that I paid for...

Wait, what? Steam has always been great about this; constantly providing patches and adding new weapons and releasing videos for TF2 and allowing me to uninstall and reinstall whenever I like with no CD needed.

When I saw this I thought "Gee, sure is nice to see a second company following Steam's example."

Ok, well what i was getting at was the single player issues and the refunding.

[umiman]

This gamer's bill of rights... It would certainly need to be revised if ever applicable in any practical situation beyond the political.

I'm sure you can see the obvious pandering towards the people who wrote the bill. Things like "Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time" are also too vague. What about expansion packs? Evidently, by this logic, gamers are expected to receive all expansion pack content for free then, with no incentive to actually make an expansion pack in the first place.

This would clearly be totally against Stardock's latest microtransaction policy. I mean, if gamers can expect "latest versions of games they own" and by that statement, I expect it to mean for free or it would be completely redundant, then why are they charging $10 for a little bit of new content in the form of maybe 3 new buildings for every race and some miscellaneous stuff?

Sure, it sounds good on paper. But this bill of rights is quite juvenile and naive. Remember that if developers have no incentive or too much pressure to produce only the very, very best, no one will make anything. Or it would take TOO LONG to make anything. There would also be no incentive to make anything creative or take risks with development. Even Dwarf Fortress would be forbidden from being distributed as it breaks oh... five of those constitutes right there. Heck, that first rule? Not being allowed to get refunds on PC games exists for a reason. Even Stardock doesn't allow you to refund any copy of their multiplayer games. Care to guess why?

There's no need for the gamer's bill of rights. This is the Elitist's bill of rights. Gamer's rights are all clearly demonstrated already by the power of purchasing. You like it, you buy. Don't like it, don't buy. Doesn't get any better than that. The fastest way to voice out your opinion is through sales figures. That's how we understand that Japanese gamers are dominated by brain-dead cowards too afraid to try new things that isn't sex.

Of course, this is all free viral advertising anyway as no one will follow this bill of rights. Not even Stardock. No matter how holistic they seem, following these set of rules is clearly unprofitable for any party, gamer or developer, other than Jack Thompson in this current form.

[Okenido]

http://forums.galciv2.com/322523
The Gamer’s Bill of Rights:

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

Those are the 2 problems that I have with it.

[shadow_archmagi]

. Even Dwarf Fortress would be forbidden from being distributed as it breaks oh... five of those constitutes right there.

Wait, what?
Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.

-Check. We CAN get every dime paid for dwarf fortress.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
-Fail. It isn't finished.

Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
-Check. We can definitely expect more DF.

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.
-Check. Dwarf fortress does not have any sort of auto-updater.

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.
-Check.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
-Check.
Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
-Check.
Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
-Check.
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.
-Check.
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.
-Check.


I count ONE rule broken by DF.