It is common knowledge among gamers that, no matter how useful support spells or healing come in hand to decide the outcome of a battle, it all goes to waste if you can't cause enough damage.
So, as I read through this incredibly insightful blog
here, all I could think of was the final section, where he urges you to actually think: how much damage can this cause to me? In the end, it is what it is and we gamers are no different from the other apolitical types out there. We don't really care about things unless they directly affect us. And sometimes, even when they do, we're too numbed or fearful to act in reprise or do something about it.
Now, some of you may argue: Petitions! We have them! The Left 4 Dead 2 was one petition you could sign on. It didn't work, among other reasons, because it was made for the wrong reasons, but at least it should some gamer momentum, ready to defend our interests. Regardless of the results, it should be a testaments to what organized internet wankery can do. Or is it?
So tell me, then, why is it that Activision can up the price of Modern Warfare 2 by 10 dollars, to a whopping 59,99 to the PC, even after stripping Dedicated Servers from it? Why can Ubisoft install absurd DRM on all of it's games from now on? Why can EA do the same? Why can they shut down multiplayer servers from games they've sold last year? Why?
walkyourpath said on his blog that the road to hell is paved with good exceptions. I beg to differ, the road to hell, in our case, is paved with inaction and acceptance of "things you can't help". You would think that an industry that moves billions of dollars yearly and is prone to so much controversy as videogames should have some kind of regulation over it, like, customer protection for example? Is it so absurd to have someone looking after your interests? Someone to make sure that they can't throw shit like "3 install discs" like in Assault on Dark Athena, or stupid DRM that boots you from your game? Shouldn't there be MINIMUM standards. There are minimum prices to pay for games, why can't you have minimum rights to them?
If you say this out loud, Glenn Beck will call you a hell-bent progressivist and a socialist maniac, who will lead your country to fascism and Stalinism at the same time. Apply his logic(?) for a second and think like this: if you keep letting people with money shove shit in your direction and you not only accept it, but eat it, you are paving the way for being screwed forever and without return. Just like it happened to so many people's jobs in the 70s and in this new recession. Make sure you do something about it.
Oh, and watch the video. It's fun times.
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Good point about apathy though. We Canadians are pretty good at apathy, but luckily so are our politicians, so there aren't often drastic changes. There is power in the internet though. When enough voices complain about something, it's duly noted by someone somewhere. When the voices start to speak not just through blogs and forums, but also with their wallet - that's when the changes usually happen.