1110
Signatures skyrocket for Stop Killing Games campaign after big youtubers take up the cause, resulting in 100k signatures in 48 hours. (Details on how to help in text body of post) (slrpnk.net)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) by ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net to c/games@lemmy.world
77 comments fedilink hide all child comments

(Text below written by @treasure@feddit.org. Hope you don't mind me yoinking it for here!)

The European Citizens' Initiative 'Stop Destroying Videogames' is nearing its deadline on July 31st and is still missing quite a lot of signatures. To be precise, at the time of writing this post, only 560.000 of the required 1.000.000 signatures have been reached.

Another requirement has already been fulfilled: The minimum signature threshold has been reached in 10 countries, 7 were required.

If this is the first time of you hearing about this initiative, here's a short TL;DR for you (more detailed information can be found here):

  • Publishers that sell or license videogames should have to leave their videogames in a functional (playable) state.
  • This means: Remote disabling of video games (such as live service titles) without providing means of keeping the game functional without the involvement of the publisher should be illegal.
  • This does NOT mean that publishers should support their games forever, but rather that they provide tools (such as server binaries) to enable others to keep the game playable.

The initiative is slowly picking up speed again recently after its creator published a video explaining some of the background and why he doesn't want to continue after the initiative is over. The video has been well-received by the community and some big influencers have reported on the topic.

If you are an EU citizen and have not signed yet, THIS IS THE TIME! The month until the deadline is met will pass quickly. Use two minutes of your time to influence something that may improve your life forever!

CLICK HERE TO SIGN. (or click here for a guide on how to sign in your language)

Also, if you are a UK citizen, you can sign a UK specific legal petition that also carries legal weight (forces parliament to investigate the issue). You can sign that here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074/

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] NeilBru@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

I'm an American citizen living in the Netherlands; I have a renewed 5-year residency permit. Am I allowed to sign? I'm guessing no, but maybe there's an allowance for EU residents, not just citizens?

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 hour ago

Pretty sure it's just EU citizens. If you can't vote in elections there, you probably can't sign this.

[-] NeilBru@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

The Dutch allow me to vote for the Water Management Board of my town. Other than that, no, I can't vote in the other elections. 😢

[-] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 19 points 9 hours ago

looks like GamersNexus is covering it on their consumer advocacy channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ahH6HrtTc&pp=0gcJCc4JAYcqIYzv

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 4 points 9 hours ago

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

[-] Lucky_777@lemmy.world 20 points 10 hours ago

Fuck, I would sign but I'm a piece of shit American.

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 14 points 10 hours ago

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

[-] orenishii@feddit.nl 9 points 10 hours ago

Done!

[-] iamdefinitelyoverthirteen@lemmy.world 41 points 15 hours ago

Fuck Thor.

[-] NeilBru@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

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.

I'm turning 42 this. 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 super huge turn off to watch him perform the mental gymnastics on why people should be screwed over.

[-] Phegan@lemmy.world 16 points 12 hours ago

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.

[-] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 15 points 14 hours ago

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

[-] iamdefinitelyoverthirteen@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago

"Fuck you, Thor, but also thanks. But definitely fuck you, Thor."

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 11 points 13 hours ago

"And by thanks I actually means fuck you"

[-] rustyfish@lemmy.world 26 points 15 hours ago

Fuck that. I’m sending this to everyone I know. Gamer or not. Common sense alone demands a signature.

[-] insaneinthemembrane@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

Exactly. Some of my best friends are gamers.

[-] rottenmummy@lemmy.ml 13 points 15 hours ago

Let's keep going https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home

[-] Aielman15@lemmy.world 28 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

It saddens me that my country (Italy) has such a low percentage of signatures. Most of us are either ignorant of anything happening outside of our borders, or straight up doomers who don't believe anything can ever change for the better.

Big congrats to my fellow northern cousins. I was expecting Poland, who has a healthy videogame industry, to gather a good enough number of signatures, but 160% is wild! It's refreshing seeing so many people joining the petition - It's not even about videogames: this initiative will have huge repercussions on the lifespan of other, unrelated products and, in general terms, planned obsolescence.

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 6 points 14 hours ago

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?

[-] Aielman15@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Unfortunately, that's not my area of expertise. I don't follow streamers or YouTubers (Italian or international), nor do I have a close enough relationship with any of them that I'd be able to talk to them and convince them to mention this petition to their fans.

The one and only time some friends and I attempted to interact with a few local content creators (to publicize our free fan games we poured hundreds of hours into and NEVER attempted to monetize in any way), we either got ignored, insulted, or received vague answers that went nowhere. It soured me towards Italian content creators and vowed to never interact with them again.

[-] Vittelius@feddit.org 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 6 minutes ago)

One thing you can do: In person organising. It's something the campaign has been really bad at. Have some flyers printed up and start handing them out. I don't know the Italian school schedule, but if universities are still in session they might be good targets.

I did it last year, first at Gamescom and then at a local uni and I think it helped spread the word.

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 3 points 12 hours ago

Sorry to hear that they were so nasty. :(

[-] insaneinthemembrane@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago

Where do you see signatures by country?

[-] pipes@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 hours ago

Here are the up-to-date numbers, the threshold percentages are now better than shown the image in the post but there's still a long way to reach the total of 1 million

[-] Shotgun_Alice@lemmy.world 67 points 21 hours ago

Signing it now just to spite piratesoftware.

[-] Nythos@sh.itjust.works 34 points 17 hours ago

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

[-] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 15 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

I’ve been served PirateSoftware’s shorts long before all this controversy and it always bugged me how confidently wrong he was about systems and network things. He seems to be under the impression that he understands these things on an advanced level due to his experience as a checks notes QA tester for Blizzard, and a… indie software developer lol.

All this backlash against him is so vindicating.

[-] Lightsong@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

ELI5 this controversy? I'm out of the loop.

[-] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

https://youtu.be/GuTp4Am51i0

There’s a group with a petition to “Stop Killing Games” which seeks to legally remedy the issue of game developers making games that are later turned off and left unplayable even in the case of them being single player.

Thor of PirateSoftware owns a development outfit that makes indie games and he also does a lot of streams. He’s against Stop Killing Games, but doesn’t seem to even understand it, and has publicly spoke out against it, going so far as to spread misinformation about it.

[-] turmacar@lemmy.world 5 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Have also been out of the loop too but went through the know your meme page.

Pirate Software made a video a year ago criticizing the initiative on a very surface level and has continued to do so in streams. Guy who created/sponsored/however-that-works the initiative posted a counter-argument video talking about what the initiative would actually do. Pirate Software did the ol' Internet Doubledown and in general was kind of an ass and kind of revealed some ignorance. Cue Youtube Drama.

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 17 points 18 hours ago

Everyone was calling it "stop killing games" instead of "stop destroying games" and I literally thought it was a petition to stop games with murder and violence lol never even got farther than seeing the title.

Definitely a good idea to switch over to stop destroying games if that wasn't the official title already...

[-] MacAttak8@lemmy.world 16 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

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.

[-] seralth@lemmy.world 20 points 18 hours ago

Damn great example of why it's stupid to only read headlines.

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 6 points 16 hours ago

I'm not going to read something if the title doesn't interest me. It's also a great example of write headlines that are accurate and informative.

[-] Nelots@lemmy.zip 2 points 12 hours ago

I would love to know where the people who downvoted you are getting the time and energy to read every single article they see a headline for.

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

And every book they don't like the title/cover for

[-] DominatorX1@thelemmy.club 1 points 9 hours ago

Ya me too.

But everybody loves mass murder.

[-] in_the_dark_forest@lemm.ee 43 points 21 hours ago

[-] Magnus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 22 hours ago

Signed the UK parliament one, sadly drowning in those Brexit benefits when it comes to the other.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 17 points 21 hours ago

Signed.

[-] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 46 points 1 day ago

Drama drives these things. I totally understand Ross not wanting to engage in it 10 months ago but look at what it can do.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] echodot@feddit.uk 35 points 1 day ago

I hope the wording of the petition is very clear. The last time this was brought up in the UK the government of the time basically just brushed it off by intentionally misunderstanding the petition. You can't give them any leeway to do that this time.

[-] ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

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.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
1110 points (100.0% liked)

Games

40037 readers
1156 users here now

Welcome to the largest gaming community on Lemmy! Discussion for all kinds of games. Video games, tabletop games, card games etc.

Rules

1. Submissions have to be related to games

Video games, tabletop, or otherwise. Posts not related to games will be deleted.

This community is focused on games, of all kinds. Any news item or discussion should be related to gaming in some way.

2. No bigotry or harassment, be civil

No bigotry, hardline stance. Try not to get too heated when entering into a discussion or debate.

We are here to talk and discuss about one of our passions, not fight or be exposed to hate. Posts or responses that are hateful will be deleted to keep the atmosphere good. If repeatedly violated, not only will the comment be deleted but a ban will be handed out as well. We judge each case individually.

3. No excessive self-promotion

Try to keep it to 10% self-promotion / 90% other stuff in your post history.

This is to prevent people from posting for the sole purpose of promoting their own website or social media account.

4. Stay on-topic; no memes, funny videos, giveaways, reposts, or low-effort posts

This community is mostly for discussion and news. Remember to search for the thing you're submitting before posting to see if it's already been posted.

We want to keep the quality of posts high. Therefore, memes, funny videos, low-effort posts and reposts are not allowed. We prohibit giveaways because we cannot be sure that the person holding the giveaway will actually do what they promise.

5. Mark Spoilers and NSFW

Make sure to mark your stuff or it may be removed.

No one wants to be spoiled. Therefore, always mark spoilers. Similarly mark NSFW, in case anyone is browsing in a public space or at work.

6. No linking to piracy

Don't share it here, there are other places to find it. Discussion of piracy is fine.

We don't want us moderators or the admins of lemmy.world to get in trouble for linking to piracy. Therefore, any link to piracy will be removed. Discussion of it is of course allowed.

Authorized Regular Threads

Related communities

PM a mod to add your own

Video games

Generic

Help and suggestions

By platform

By type

By games

Language specific

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Dremor@lemmy.world
JonsJava@lemmy.world
fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Dremor@jlai.lu
modfxomt@lemmy.world