There's a lot of very misinformed people who are celebrating this because they think this would have mandated perpetual support from game companies for online games. No it didn't. It was asking for end of life plans so that consumers could still use their property after official support had ended. That could have been many ways from an offline mode to allow partial functionality, to the establishment of private community servers like what Valve does with Counter-Strike and TF2. The core of the issue here wasn't "entitled gamers" it was property rights, as the real problem with these business models is that they don't respect first sale doctrine and in turn, do not respect consumer property rights.
That said, I have no delusions that if the EU gave it an honest chance, we would have had awful legislation that made the problem worse. The real long term solution to this problem is the destruction of IP law, as that is the mechanism companies like Ubisoft are abusing to get away with this behavior in the first place. Revoke their state enforced monopoly on their code, and suddenly they'll start respecting property rights again because if they don't, people would pirate and bootleg their products in perpetuity and there would be nothing they could do to stop it outside of maybe a strongly worded letter. As it stands, they can stop bootlegging pretty efficiently thanks to the state, and piracy is limited because of how many normies are out there that refuse to learn what torrenting is.
The real sad thing for me, at least, is that the lolberts will celebrate this as well because "government bad!", not realizing that this was the state giving bad actors the go ahead to go even further with violating our property rights. Yes, the government is bad, but this still required some kind of solution, and now we're at a point where the only real solution is civil disobedience, which isn't ideal. I guess the Agorists will have a lot of fun with Ubisoft moving forward.
'Stop Killing Games' has failed to secure new EU legislation despite having 1.3 million signatures
The EU says it “cannot propose a legal obligation” requiring publishers to keep games playable after they stop being sold commercially
If they're allowed to violate first sale doctrine, then they're violating property rights and we have an obligation to punish them for that. If the law won't do its job, then civil disobedience becomes duty. Anyone who's serious about protecting their right to own property, I will see you on the high seas.
@Dexerto Well, I guess the only solution now is civil disobedience. Let us pirate the games industry into another crash, because these weasels deserve it.
I get where you're coming from; destroying IP law would have been the better long term solution. The problem here is that companies aren't respecting first sale doctrine and in turn are violating property rights. Just saying "good, government sucks!" in this context, while true, is ultimately reductive and makes you look delusional. It's like telling a heroine addict to stop taking drugs: technically correct, but you're not helping matters.
Universal Suffrage. These people got into power because retards with zero stake in the game kept voting for free shit. Voting should be a privilege that you need to earn by satisfying specified requirements. We can debate on the exact requirements but the bare minimum should be:
1. The person must be a native born US citizen.
2. The person must not be on public welfare.
3. The person must satisfy at least one of the three following additional requirements:
- Be a land owner
- Be a net tax payer
- Be military personnel (Active duty, reserves, or veteran with an honorable discharge)
Anything less than this is guaranteeing the continuation of the crap we're dealing with now. At least with these requirements, we would have an honest chance of actually fixing things.
@ScottPrevett@ShamashAran I'll give you an upvote simply because your idiocy actually managed to make me laugh. If you're black, then call me Uncle Ruckus.
Normally I wouldn't pay you any further mind because you Marxists love to pretend that you don't understand what other people are talking about, but you've caught me at a time where I'm bored so I'll at least explain for the people in the back.
Equity fallacy: assuming discrimination or malicious intent for unequal outcomes while ignoring other potential causes for said inequality. Here, you're assuming malice from the business owner when in reality, the worker is being paid fair market price for time and skills that they are voluntarily providing to the business owner. The worker at any time can go work for someone else or start their own business if they don't like the arrangement. They can also learn more valuable skills that would allow them to negotiate a higher pay rate.
As for economics, you're assuming that the 50 bucks in profit is only going towards the business owner, which while possible doesn't on its own mean there's anything wrong as there is nothing inherently wrong with profit. In fact, profit is a great incentive for people to innovate and make the process cheaper, faster, and more efficient. That profit could very well be getting set aside for the business owner to invest further in their business with better equipment, more workers, expansion, all sorts of things. Money gets put where incentives align, and further investment is a good, low time preference choice that prior to the Dodge v Ford Motors suit, was made all the time and in the case of companies like Valve, still gets made.
So again, I lay down the gauntlet, learn basic economics and then try to make the same flawed argument in good faith. I dare you.
@Thedukeistheman@ReviewsPossum Your entire argument is just the equity fallacy combined with having no idea how economics actually works. Go read an econ 101 textbook then come back and try to make the same argument. I fucking dare you.
You cannot collectively own something, only individuals can actually own things. The worker does not own the means of production, but they are selling their time and skill to perform a service that the owner doesn't want to spend time doing. What they get paid is the fair market value of those skills. If the worker doesn't like that arrangement, they can go work for someone else or start their own business. Marx's argument here is just the collectivists fallacy in its worst, most disingenuous form, with a touch of the equity fallacy as the cherry on top of the entire shit Sunday.
Guy's just protecting himself. The current dating landscape actively incentivizes women to be gold diggers and punishes men for being committed. Demanding the women get half of what the man owns in divorce because "she's a woman" isn't equality, it's gender socialism. She should shut up and be happy that she found someone that successful who's willing to commit at all, because under the current system they usually just avoid commitment entirely in favor of being pump-and-dump playboys, not because they like it, but because it's the safer strategy.
@AntiWokeMemes Killing ourselves for work, getting drafted for war, constantly getting called every nasty thing under the sun, isolation, loneliness, self-esteem issues born from feeling like a failure, ED, and having to deal with these entitled cunts as the cherry on top of it all.
Steam's monopoly is less the result of their actions and more the result of IP law. Get rid of IP law, and most people would just choose the launcher and storefront of their choice. As it is, people use Steam because it's the most developed and consumer friendly of all the digital storefronts.
And as a response to the disingenuous bastards who are already coming out of the wood work to declare rightful criticism of this "maga retard misogynists" and justify this as "modern graphics", here's the character for RWS's Flesh & Wire. While I still wouldn't call her beautiful, she looks WAY better than this goblin, and this is from what is essentially an indie studio using a stock tool kit.
I'm tired, man. I just want to see beauty again.
@Fenrirtheicewo1 Basically, take the gate keeper's pledge. I won't be spending my money on propaganda, and neither should you. They like to pretend that making a female character ugly is "artistic", but we all know the real reason: they hate beauty and want to villainize it as much as possible.
The only people who celebrated this were Adobe and a handful of bootlickers and fun killers, everyone else recognized the tragedy this was. If they had simply said that flash was no longer supported and that it should be used at the end users risk, that would be fine, but instead they sent a kill switch in an attempt to murder everything. The preservation efforts are a silver lining in something that never should have happened in the first place.
@TimSweeneyEpic Instead of bitching and lobbying the government, how about you pull up your big girl panties and learn how to actually compete in a free market. You are not entitled to people's money. You want it so damn badly? EARN IT.
@DPandiano@woofknight Exactly, plus if the player has enough money for 5 tons of cannon balls, they're probably playing a higher level campaign, so the extra firepower might actually be needed.
@WallStreetApes Yeah, this is why when you make a query, you need to specify one: that it ignores all mainstream news sources, and that two: it cites its sources with links.