Most likely you know Rossa Scott (Ross Scott) as the author of the Machine Mind of Freeman, but in recent months he has been engaged in completely different things – Scott Trying to sell his own initiative to preserve games. The day before, the activist moved to the decisive stage: launching a full -scale campaign.
What issue are we talking about?
Key problem Scott formulates as follows:
More and more video games are sold as goods, but designed in such a way as to become completely inoperative for everyone as soon as support is over. The legality of such practice in the whole world has not been verified, and many governments have no clear laws regarding such actions. Our goal is to force the authorities to study this behavior and, we hope, stop it, as it is an attack on consumer rights and preservation of media.
Stopkillinggames.Com
As he says Scott In our campaign video, we can safely play games from the 1970s, many multiplayer games of the 1990s allow you to play on the network thanks to private servers, but modern releases are often tightly attached to the servers of their publishers and die completely as soon as these servers are turned off.
At the same time, publishers do not warn users that the game will cease to exist after some time-sometimes in a few years (the first Overwatch), sometimes in just a year (Lawbreakers). It turns out that users give companies their money, companies in response give the game, and then select the game and leave money for themselves. Scott He calls it theft.
What the publishers should do?
Scott forms its requirements as follows:
When the support ends, the game must remain in the working state. It is not necessary that she works absolutely the same as before, if only in a satisfactory form.
When the support ends, the https://bola228casino.co.uk/ game should not remain any connections with the publisher or other companies that are necessary for the work of the game. That is, it should either work offline or have tools to create private servers. This also applies to DRM and games with microtransactions.
According to Scott, These are quite reasonable requirements, since they do not interfere with business – while the game is officially supported, companies can manage it as they please. Besides, Scott does not force anyone to part with intellectual property – subject to the rules after disconnecting the servers, the right to play the game still remains with the company.
What Scott did?
Scott “Cook” in the topic for a long time: he talked with lawyers, looked for clues, spoke with potential participants in collective lawsuits and so on.
Among the problems that I encountered Scott In their investigations, the bodies in some countries do not even know which side to approach such a problem, since it had no analogues in the past and, accordingly, does not exist a clear legislative or judicial base to protect users in this area.
Means, Scott I needed a suitable reason to launch your campaign. March 31 Ubisoft disconnected the servers of the first The Crew . Scott He believes that this is the perfect moment to start pressure on the publishers.
What is convenient The Crew:
How to influence publishers?
According to Scott, Victory even in one country can lead to the fact that the practice of preserving games will become global – if the publisher is forced to introduce special measures for sales in one country, then it will be easier to do all around the world.
In addition to actions specifically by The Crew Scott and his comrades are engaged in another way of pressure – petitions for states. This refers not to ordinary online forms with signatures, but statements with real political force that should be considered if there are enough participants.
True, a hitch came out with them: the petitions began to be formalized very in advance so that they became available by the time the campaign is launched, but so far no petition has yet passed the corresponding bureaucratic checks.
Scott also recalls the original plans Microsoft on Xbox One: it turned out that the console would become completely useless at the moment when the corporation would stop support.
Stop killing.Com
Their current developments team Scott gathered on a special website Stopkillinggames.Com. There is a brief description of the campaign, and a more detailed FAQ, and – most importantly – instructions for users from different countries.
For example, absolutely all owners The Crew, Wherever they are, they can contact DGCCRF – the state body for the protection of consumer rights in France. The only nuance – first you need to get an answer from support Ubisoft, that she refuses to help you in preservation The Crew (or not get an answer within two weeks). Look for detailed instructions here (there are translations into different languages, including Russian and Ukrainian).
And those who live in France, Scott He jokingly calls the "cosmessions of this operation" – they have especially many levers of influence on Ubisoft. For example, in addition to writing in DGCCRF, they can apply for a complaint to the local legal department Ubisoft – the refusal for such an application should have a more significant judicial force in the future.
All actions are distributed in priority: the higher the priority – the more effective and important this action is within the framework of the general struggle.
If you completely simplify, call Scott It sounds like this:
At the end Scott He called to tell everyone about this campaign – the more people are involved in it, the more chances of success. All information can be found on StopkillingGames.Com.