"Games as a service" is fraud

[pokeplayer984]

Okay, here's a YouTube video that talks about "Games as a service" and how it's fraud.  Strap in!  It's 75 minutes long.


https://youtu.be/tUAX0gnZ3Nw

I think he has some good points here.

To the mods: If you feel this topic should be moved to After Midnight, please do so for me.  If it does belong there, I'm not sure where.  For now, this is as good as I know.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

I'll check this out later. Does he mention Google Stadia? Because everything is gonna get worse if Stadia becomes mainstream. Imagine losing access to your entire library because you got your YouTube or Gmail account banned for something stupid

[Mumbling]

I haven't had the time to watch the video, but I hope he makes a distinction between games streaming services, such as Google Stadia, Apple Arcade and PlayStation Now, and actual Games as a Service. In other words, games that are continually supported and updated throughout their life, and only die off once it reaches too few players.

If it's the latter, I agree for the most part. These are usually games that have online servers, that can be shut down easily if some higher-ups decide it is time. On top of that, you could lose your account if they detect you break their terms of service (whether you actually did so or not is beside the point). The chance of retrieving the time, effort and money you put into the game is pretty close to zero at that point. For the most part, I avoid online games that follow this strategy. I've played games of which the server has shut down, which brought me sorrow, and I've played games where I was unfairly banned from playing, which was an even harder pill to swallow. The only game I still play in that area right now is Pokémon GO, and I still fear for losing my account and all the progress I've made.

[pokeplayer984]

So, looks like one of the lawyers on YouTube I love has a rebuttal.  Here he is, "Leonard French: Your Favorite Copyright Attorney".


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpgT_EdtAW0

So far his argument is "It's only fraud if it's intentional".  He'll do a deeper dive tomorrow.

I'll post more by Thursday.  See ya then!

[DarkHououmon]

I'll check this out later. Does he mention Google Stadia? Because everything is gonna get worse if Stadia becomes mainstream. Imagine losing access to your entire library because you got your YouTube or Gmail account banned for something stupid

I'm actually looking forward to Google Stadia. It would give my Chromebook a bit more purpose.

[aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)]

I'll check this out later. Does he mention Google Stadia? Because everything is gonna get worse if Stadia becomes mainstream. Imagine losing access to your entire library because you got your YouTube or Gmail account banned for something stupid

I'm actually looking forward to Google Stadia. It would give my Chromebook a bit more purpose.

I agree, Google stadia will be amazing in every way except user proprietary

[pokeplayer984]

Sorry I'm late, but I didn't have time to watch Leonard French's deeper dive until now.

Anyways, the deeper dive had Leonard talking with Ross, who is the uploader of the original video.  Basically, Leonard and his team explained to him how "Games as a service" is not really fraud.  The bottom line is that it's not really fraud.  However, "Games as a service" does have the potential to break some Consumer Protection laws.

It all has to do with those long "End of User Agreements" that none of us read.  In them, you will likely find that they are allowed to shut down the service whenever they please and not be held liable for it.  However, there are laws as to the procedure of shutting them down.  Depending on the country, if you don't do things right when shutting them down, you could have quite some heavy charges.

Right now, the best we can do is "vote with our wallet".  After all, if these things aren't profitable, they won't pursue them.  Aside from that, we can try to push for stricter laws for these things, but not much else.

So yeah, not fraud, but we can change that.