Hell yeah! We can do this!

I watched critical’s update on him and my fucking god is piratesoftware such an arrogant twat

Thor reminds me a lot of chatgpt. Subjects that I am not an expert in, he sounds intelligent and like he is providing good advice. The second he provides advice in an area where I am a subject matter expect, it makes me realize how full of shit he is.

I mean, big YouTubers like Charlie and others covering Thor’s bullshit is what drove this huge spike in signatures so maybe we should be thanking Thor lol

Unless someone corrects me, I think his argument boils down to, "we shouldn't allow the release of server binaries for online-enabled games because it's too hard for the developers".

Well, if that's the case, then Thor, that's a "you" (the company) problem. Not a "me" (the consumer) problem. And if you're not going to release a server binary but we're "buying" the game, purchasers have legitimate moral and legal grounds to demand that they be informed that they are buying a license, or renting, the game; they are not owning a functional copy of the game outright.

Addendum, for clarity:

My beef isn't even with a games-as-a-service premise at all. It's the corporatist trend in arguing that single-player experiences need perpetual online connectivity, or that releasing self-hosted PvP server functionality is prima fascia "unrealistic in every scenario".

Some games, like WoW, no way. I understand the depth of the server stack for MMOs. Other games that are PvP-competitive could easily be self-hosted.

The irony is that these companies could still make a boatload of money off of these old competitive online games with more maps and skins, even though they've deprecated their own server stack and cloud-back-end. Essentially, they'd pass the burden of hosting to the players, but still sell content sporadically.

"Stop Killing Games" needs more refined language about what it's asking for, no doubt. There are many scenarios where blanket statements about demanding source code are just not feasible.

I'm turning 42 this summer. I've been a software developer for 15 years now. I'd like to even say that a few of those years I even came across like I knew what I was talking about. But this basic issue is not about software development. This is about consumer advocacy, and it was a huge turn off to watch him perform the mental gymnastics on ~~why people should be screwed over~~ why false/deceptive advertising by the industry is acceptable.

I suspect they would've brushed it off regardless, they didn't want to deal with it. There's another 100k UK petition (The one linked to at the bottom of the OP text) that would force them to re-look at it with more depth which is also ending quite soon.

Still better reading comprehension than PirateSoftware.

Yes! They'll also be plugging it on their main channel soon.

I think it's been very hard for us to spread awareness into countries where a majority don't also speak English, as the organizer and much of the coverage is only in English.

If you know of any big Italian gaming YouTubers or streamers that might be receptive to helping or talking about the campaign, could you reach out to them about it with a comment?

Glad to help out, and thank you for letting me use your well written words! :D

Helping spread the word is still an option, and would be greatly appreciated! :D

Thank you for your help! :D

Not an issue! Just try signing in again and it won't add it if you already signed

As an American who can't bear to play most online games because they might go down or disallow Linux users, please please please please check. EU laws are our only hope of having usable fucking technology.

The thought of being able to mod and host my own GTA 5 online server when it goes down, without some weird custom server mod that also uses Windows-exclusive anti-cheat on most servers, sounds like a damn dream. I miss that game... but fuck Windows, nothing is worth installing Windows. I just realized I've been ranting about the lack of Linux compatibility of GTA 5 Online in reply to someone's comment about how this petition has gone on for a while. I swear I wasn't hijacking your comment, I just have strong feelings about Linux gaming and got carried away.

By that logic I might assume your new title for the movement is to stop any games with destruction! Make only wholesome games!

Edit: Also “destroying” a game is very subjective. Your suggestion is definitely a downgrade.

He actively misrepresented the campaign and spread misinformation about its goals. I don't know if he genuinely didn't understand or if he was too embarrassed to admit to a mistake but he did a lot of damage to the momentum and perception of the whole thing.

It sucks these big creators only now pick up the mantle but it's better than nothing. There's still some time left.

Just to clarify, this isn't a normal toothless petition, this is an official EU mechanism that allows citizens to bring problems to the attention of the European Commission, and force them to pass judgement on it legally. You can read more about it here.

It's good to be skeptical of anything asking for that personal info, but I'd suggest researching into it to confirm that it is indeed legit.

Thank you for signing the UK one :)