6 ms·

Hm, wonder if the Stop Killing Games campaign (https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ https://www.stopkillinggames.com/) will be able to make use of this, like they'

Hm, wonder if the Stop Killing Games campaign (https://www.stopkillinggames.com/ https://www.stopkillinggames.com/) will be able to make use of this, like they're trying to make use of consumer protection law in France...

boltzmann-brain 2y ago
SKG organizer here. Something like this CA legislation was our "worst case scenario, everything else failed, at least we could do this much, we've compromised on everything" goal. That is to say, now opponents can't push us to compromise to that level and our worst case scenario in case we pass anything at all is looking better. We're really happy this is happening because it changes the Overton window for us and makes our case stronger and easier to argue for, as you say. A lot of change has been happening in the past few months and even weeks with regards to the market and legislative situation around the problematic of SKG and while you can't ever fully attribute something, we hope that it's thanks to our actions. Ubisoft promising end of life offline modes for The Crew 2 and the third game in the series called Motorfest. Capcom bringing back Windows 7 era games that were lost to G4WL. The "Ubisoft scandal" mentioned in the headline - specifically the unforced shutdown and resulting removal of functioning state from The Crew - is something that SKG have no doubt popularized. Now that we're at 350 000 signatures of a goal of 1 000 000 in our direct democracy initiative, companies and lawmakers are starting to take things seriously. And this is with a $0 budget. We're still in need of more signatures over the next 10 months to reach the goal, so if you're an EU citizen, go click the link Sniffnoy posted above and sign. Worth doing even if you're not a gamer, just to claw back some ownership rights from corporations worth billions of dollars, spreading out to all corners of technology, not just games. If you want a very short exposition of what Stop Killing Games is, here's a ~1 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHGfqef-IqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHGfqef-IqQ If you want a good, exhaustive intro to what SKG is about, this interview between a game developer and two SKG organizers is worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnpFqPGrgDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnpFqPGrgDk Ross Scott is best known for his youtube series "Freeman's Mind" where he plays Half-Life and narrates what Gordon Freeman must be thinking, with a lot of deeply philosophical considerations. It's a staple of YouTube. He's also been running a series called "Dead Game News" and that's how Stop Killing Games was born. The other organizer, Damian, is a real-deal neckbeard dev and has pretty much done it all from BASIC on 8-bit micros to theorem provers and from video games to cryptography audits. Here's the original intro to Stop Killing Games by Ross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE And here's a subsequent FAQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEVBiN5SKuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEVBiN5SKuA If anyone has questions about SKG, I'll be checking the replies now and then.
- squigz 2y ago
  Thanks for the work you and others at SKG are doing o7
  - boltzmann-brain 2y ago
    you're welcome - if you want to thank us, convince one EU citizen to sign the initiative!
    - squigz 2y ago
      I will do that while making sad Canadian sounds :P Also, might I recommend adding embed information to the website so linking it on i.e., Discord shows some information?
      - boltzmann-brain 2y ago
        Thank you! Regarding embed information, that's a great idea and I'll pass it on.
- Negitivefrags 2y ago
  I can’t view a video at the moment, so I apologise if this has been answered in that. If the server software a game uses requires a licence to a third party library, what is the developer expected to do about that?
  - boltzmann-brain 2y ago
    If the EU decides to build any legislation around SKG, they will give developers ample warning before things go into effect. Apple had years to prepare for USB C. This is still years out. So the answer is: negotiate compatible terms, or don't use the third party library. This is merely an issue to begin with for companies that are absolutely massive, like Sony or Activision. Smaller developers just don't do stuff like that in general: you download the game and then you have the game. Since the ask is for a reasonably working game, maybe as a developer in that position you can just cut out the functionality that depends on the library or replace the library with something similar or mock it out or use a static cache of request vs response for all possible requests. The technological possibilities are endless. It's not like as developers we're these helpless infants who have never solved a problem in our lives. It's a tech problem, tech a solution to it, that's why you're a professional and not bush league. Ultimately if someone can't figure out how to do their business without scamming people out of ownership then that's a skill issue. If they're not creative enough to figure it out, the business is doomed to begin with. Legislation often has the additional positive effect of ridding the market of people who shouldn't be there to begin with, like food trucks infested with cockroaches and pizza places that use fake cheese.
tifik 2y ago
Wow, signing that petition was shockingky smooth with my national e-ID. I thought it was just a random petition site, but its an official EU system that verifies your identity. And it just worked with the ID app I have installed. Nice.
- boltzmann-brain 2y ago
  thank you for supporting it!
- tvshtr 2y ago
  It was the first time I've used e-id to sign and it felt like sci-fi.

boltzmann-brain 2y ago

SKG organizer here. Something like this CA legislation was our "worst case scenario, everything else failed, at least we could do this much, we've compromised on everything" goal. That is to say, now opponents can't push us to compromise to that level and our worst case scenario in case we pass anything at all is looking better. We're really happy this is happening because it changes the Overton window for us and makes our case stronger and easier to argue for, as you say. A lot of change has been happening in the past few months and even weeks with regards to the market and legislative situation around the problematic of SKG and while you can't ever fully attribute something, we hope that it's thanks to our actions. Ubisoft promising end of life offline modes for The Crew 2 and the third game in the series called Motorfest. Capcom bringing back Windows 7 era games that were lost to G4WL. The "Ubisoft scandal" mentioned in the headline - specifically the unforced shutdown and resulting removal of functioning state from The Crew - is something that SKG have no doubt popularized. Now that we're at 350 000 signatures of a goal of 1 000 000 in our direct democracy initiative, companies and lawmakers are starting to take things seriously. And this is with a $0 budget. We're still in need of more signatures over the next 10 months to reach the goal, so if you're an EU citizen, go click the link Sniffnoy posted above and sign. Worth doing even if you're not a gamer, just to claw back some ownership rights from corporations worth billions of dollars, spreading out to all corners of technology, not just games. If you want a very short exposition of what Stop Killing Games is, here's a ~1 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHGfqef-IqQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHGfqef-IqQ If you want a good, exhaustive intro to what SKG is about, this interview between a game developer and two SKG organizers is worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnpFqPGrgDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnpFqPGrgDk Ross Scott is best known for his youtube series "Freeman's Mind" where he plays Half-Life and narrates what Gordon Freeman must be thinking, with a lot of deeply philosophical considerations. It's a staple of YouTube. He's also been running a series called "Dead Game News" and that's how Stop Killing Games was born. The other organizer, Damian, is a real-deal neckbeard dev and has pretty much done it all from BASIC on 8-bit micros to theorem provers and from video games to cryptography audits. Here's the original intro to Stop Killing Games by Ross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70Xc9CStoE And here's a subsequent FAQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEVBiN5SKuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEVBiN5SKuA If anyone has questions about SKG, I'll be checking the replies now and then.

squigz 2y ago
Thanks for the work you and others at SKG are doing o7
- boltzmann-brain 2y ago
  you're welcome - if you want to thank us, convince one EU citizen to sign the initiative!
  - squigz 2y ago
    I will do that while making sad Canadian sounds :P Also, might I recommend adding embed information to the website so linking it on i.e., Discord shows some information?
    - boltzmann-brain 2y ago
      Thank you! Regarding embed information, that's a great idea and I'll pass it on.
Negitivefrags 2y ago
I can’t view a video at the moment, so I apologise if this has been answered in that. If the server software a game uses requires a licence to a third party library, what is the developer expected to do about that?
- boltzmann-brain 2y ago
  If the EU decides to build any legislation around SKG, they will give developers ample warning before things go into effect. Apple had years to prepare for USB C. This is still years out. So the answer is: negotiate compatible terms, or don't use the third party library. This is merely an issue to begin with for companies that are absolutely massive, like Sony or Activision. Smaller developers just don't do stuff like that in general: you download the game and then you have the game. Since the ask is for a reasonably working game, maybe as a developer in that position you can just cut out the functionality that depends on the library or replace the library with something similar or mock it out or use a static cache of request vs response for all possible requests. The technological possibilities are endless. It's not like as developers we're these helpless infants who have never solved a problem in our lives. It's a tech problem, tech a solution to it, that's why you're a professional and not bush league. Ultimately if someone can't figure out how to do their business without scamming people out of ownership then that's a skill issue. If they're not creative enough to figure it out, the business is doomed to begin with. Legislation often has the additional positive effect of ridding the market of people who shouldn't be there to begin with, like food trucks infested with cockroaches and pizza places that use fake cheese.

tifik 2y ago

Wow, signing that petition was shockingky smooth with my national e-ID. I thought it was just a random petition site, but its an official EU system that verifies your identity. And it just worked with the ID app I have installed. Nice.

boltzmann-brain 2y ago
thank you for supporting it!
tvshtr 2y ago
It was the first time I've used e-id to sign and it felt like sci-fi.