"Games as a service" is fraud.

[Gauche]

The most comprehensive video on "games as a service" and why it's fraud that you're likely to see. WARNING: This is more boring than my usual videos.

This was created as the beginning of an effort to get law authorities to examine this practice. Feel free to contact me about this topic. Contents below:

2:45 Definition
8:09 Goods and Services
9:52 Legal argument: Games are goods
17:08 Legal argument: Ownership of goods
24:24 Legal argument: Programmed Obsolescence
31:21 Intermission
31:51 Conceptual Argument on games being services
42:23 Preservation Argument on games being services
47:31 Counterarguments & Concerns
1:10:00 Ending + Plan of what to do

Link to download information + links in video:

MEGA

MEGA provides free cloud storage with convenient and powerful always-on privacy. Claim your free 20GB now

mega.nz

Homepage:

Accursed Farms

Official website of Accursed Farms, videos created by Ross Scott. Includes Freeman's Mind episodes, Civil Protection, Ross's Game Dungeon, and more.

accursedfarms.com

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A well researched video. Hope something comes of it.

 

[bluegate]

Why is that guy wearing pubes on his face?

 

[Arnox]

Does he mention MMOs? Because those are a legit service.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

I've been saying this for years. Ever since the Steam DRM came out.
I knew this was what "they" (or the trends) would end up as. Maximum profits and control for no risk.
If consumers are educated, and still buy into this, then they have only themselves to blame.
The problem is the amount of softening up and PR that has made this into a very real possibility.

Online Verifications.
Market Platforms with "incentives" (achievements, etc).
Pre-orders.
Excessive Hype.
Pre-orders.
Episodic content.
Regular DLC.
And more..

Does he mention MMOs? Because those are a legit service.

They are..though they could also be said to act as a "gateway" into turning previously single-player or session/dedicated own server multiplayer into always online games. See Diablo 3. Or any of the modern shooters.

Though I hate "gateway" anything as a description, since most tend to be fallacies of one kind or another, they sometimes apply.
Very much the same similarity to slippery slope fallacies..

Annnyway.. MMO's are good as they are, if it is marketed as MMO from the beginning, and are either new or sequel to a previous MMO..Or even an offshoot (Not sequel/"canon?") from a non-MMO game.

 

[Gauche]

Does he mention MMOs? Because those are a legit service.

As long as it has a subscription fee, making it a subscription license, it passes as a service.

 

[gaijinkaiju]

That's what I miss about the ps2 era, and to a degree, the ps3 era too. I miss being able to buy a game and just play it. Now you've got to install, update and in the case of online games, hope the servers are stable. Sucks that sooner or later some good games will be completely unplayable. Compare that to earlier eras, and everyone of those games is still playable.

It's also the fact that almost every game that launches has day one patches. If your game has a day one patch, imo you're shipping an unfinished product (look at Anthem and fallout 76). Sure its great that devs can fix stuff post launch but you shouldn't need to, you should be selling a completed product, not a half finished product with the idea of "sell now, Fix later". And don't get me started about carving games up for dlc and pre-orders.
Wow, I'm going off on a tangent now, going to stop while I'm ahead before I start ranting

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Wow, I'm going off on a tangent now, going to stop while I'm ahead before I start ranting

Don't worry. I feel the same way, and would probably be right there with you..Ranting.
Possibly even Raving!

These shady practices all seem to go together, and have really reached a culmination.
Before the inevitable "streaming" platforms (Renting) begins it's slow takeover.

 

[Monoochrom]

I'm not a fan of Subscription Models. I also kind of think it's weird when a company tries to expand a games life span like that. Popularity comes and goes and it seems to me that while something like a MMO can make good Money, it also seems to hurt the franchise at large.

But, I'm also not interested in MMOs and find that they Games themselves are weaker for the mass multiplayer to work, I'd personally prefer finer crafted worlds and mechanics with a smaller multiplayer aspect. I don't like the idea of having so many players within a narrative that the players themselves can only play insignificant or entirely negligible roles. If it were something like Skyrim, with a small amount of players (I don't know, 20? You shouldn't be tripping over other players outside of towns), all of whom can have a significant effect on the world and therefore me game...now that would be awesome.

Also, I didn't watch the Video. That long of a Video is a hard sale to me even for YouTubers I like, a unknown quantity has no chance. If you can't get your point down in 30 mins, make it a multi-part series, otherwise I won't bother.

 

[Gauche]

A solid response by a keen mind.
TL;DW: Not fraud in the US. Solution: 1. Make the copyright term 20 years 2. Limit extensions to 10 years with the requirement of submitting all info to the Library on Congress. Guy is gonna catch a bullet.

 

[Arnox]

A solid response by a keen mind.
TL;DW: Not fraud in the US. Solution: 1. Make the copyright term 20 years 2. Limit extensions to 10 years with the requirement of submitting all info to the Library on Congress. Guy is gonna catch a bullet.

I do like how he suggested my exact suggested copyright term in a much older post of mine. <3

How long should intellectual copyright last?

If you could change the time corporations/individuals held an exclusive copyright until it fell into public domain, how long would you make it? Me personally, I would make it 20 years.

intosanctuary.com