Is there a community list of VG company not to buy from?
After reading today EA's takes on AI and strategies about boosting user monetization promoting and exploitation of user's gambling addiction, I asked myself "How can someone defend those company agains boycotting and piracy?".
So here I am: is there somewhere a curated list of VG companies to absolutely avoid giving money too? If not, do you thing we should do it?
It would be nice to have a list with arguments and sources in order to make more publicly relevant the ethical and strateical reasons behind piracy.
p.s.I think it's ok if you pirate things even without a moral stand behind, especially if you can't afford games and other media at all, but the arguments still apply
I’m already not much of a Ubisoft fan, but wasn’t this just a response to a question about what would need to happen for subscriptions to take off? What should have been said? In context, it’s more of a hypothetical than an imperative.
Context is that Ubisoft is pivoting their entire business model to subscriptions, so this isn't merely "a response to a question", but their actual expectations of their users for their business model to succeed.
Are you saying that Ubisoft doesn't actually believe that people shouldn't own their games and that this was a hypothetical discussion that was taken out of context? Because my impression was that this was sort of a response to people complaining about subscription-based games and DRM content that makes the concept of owning games blurry.
Because if this position doesn't really represent Ubisoft, then what should have been said is whatever does represent Ubisoft. Ideally they should agree that people have the right own the games they purchase.
In my opinion someone should generally own what they buy. That's why I like GOG, which distributes DRM free games, and part of why I often pirate games especially from large companies. In my opinion the take that people should only have a license representing permission to use a product that is actually owned by a company is delusional if not dystopian, and Ubisoft should be made fun of for having that position, and their games should be pirated.
This, publicly trading means your company is now the product, games are just a way to make the stock price go up, so they need to sell gazillions and have the broadest possible audience.
This inevitably leads to flavour of the month design by committee garbage gameplay, enshittified business models like "live service", and writing catering to "global audiences" with cookie cutter quips and insufferable millennial "humour".
All that or whatever the fuck cod writers are mainlining alongside taurine and the tortured soul of Chris Benoit.
Google 'Geohot ps3'. Then google 'Sony rootkit CDs'.
George Hotz was the first person who jail broke a ps3. and taught others how to do it, until Sony sued him. Then anonymous fucked Sony, hard. like really hard.
I'm not a fan of any corporation, so they can get fucked too I won't buy sony hardware but if they port a game to steam I want I'll get in on sale.
I support valve with purchases on steam as it supports linux.
There was also the fact that sony took the linux install option away from the ps2 (or was it ps3) .
This is what I've tried to remind myself of when I'm debating purchases. Usually I'll wait to buy something on a steep sale or second hand. Or I'll pirate it if I think the company is doing something shitty. But at the end of the day someone, somewhere down the line is getting screwed over. It all floats up to the top. There's no trickle down
I have a bunch, but off the top of my head: Ubisoft, EA, Microsoft, Tencent, anything that's Epic exclusive. I should really have Take-Two on there as well but realistically I'm never not going to play Civilization so my principles fail me there.
Unless it's a structured, concentrated effort, I'm afraid that individuals boycotting won't do much except saving you a few bucks. I don't see that happening, considering the track record of gamers.
If you live in Europe/Australia and bought tne Crew, there's something going on about creating a precedent that would forbid games as a service getting killed by Ross Scott.
That would be a pretty long list and also highly subjective. I'm a big fan of Paradox Interactive but can see how many feel their business model of multiple paid dlc, for what are often core features, to be highly predatory. The obvious ones being EA, Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard spring to mind though.
Do you really need a list to tell you what to buy and not buy?
I mean it really doesn't take that much effort to avoid those companies you don't like.
Keeping a community list seems stupid, everyone has different things they like and don't like, and the gaming community isn't a personal army, despite what others might think.
I think the point I was more getting at is that the bullshit that companies do is extremely subjective, and everyone has their own different things that they feel are important issues. But you're not wrong. There is a lot of BS to keep track of.
And I'm thinking that if it's related to something you do actually care about, you should be digging into it. Plenty of people are trying to mislead people all the time, and it's so easy to get swept up in fake outrage if you don't actually stop to question things.
That's why a bunch of people are angry at a consulting firm for a bunch of different game studios right now. Because somebody literally just made a list of things for people to be mad at.