Games Thirst – Amazing Life
There’s something that we never really notice about us humans, and it’s that we’re extremely patient. No, it’s true, we are! We are patient with governments who, for decades and sometimes even centuries, abuse human rights, steal from their people and rule with iron fists. Just look around the world and you’ll see what I’m talking about. We often times let political leaders lie incessantly to us, force laws we didn’t ask for down our throats, fail to do the work of the people yet still, at the end of the day, their paychecks are bigger than most. Yes, we tolerate a lot – but there comes a time when we rise and say enough is enough. We have been trampled on for too long. There comes are time when, as a people, we must take action.
Ironically we face the same situation in the games industry today, we being “the people” and Microsoft being “the government”. For years the gargantuan company has abused the system by charging gamers to play games online, putting services like Netflix that you’ve already paid for behind the Xbox live paywall, and nickel and dime their way to billions. It has been accepted for years, but with Xbox One, Microsoft has overstepped its boundaries by one mile too many, and it’s time gamers rise and say enough is enough. How do gamers accomplish this? By not buying Xbox One.
In this current generation of gaming, the seventh, you can buy a game, loan it to a friend, and resell it at any retailer who has a used game program (most of them do). You can also play your offline games infinitely without an internet connection and never miss a beat. You can, in this generation, buy a game and keep it until you’re old and grey, pass it to your children, and they can even pass it onto their children, pending they have a console said game still works on. The last point deals with game ownership, and not having to”loan” an Xbox One game from Microsoft upon purchase.
But all our rights of this current generation will be a thing of the past if we choose to buy Xbox One. If I buy an Xbox One game, I cannot loan it to a friend upon release (Microsoft said it’s working on changing that… Whatever). And if I’m indeed “allowed” to loan a game to my friend, it’s only one friend, and said friend must be on my friends list for the past 30 days. There may be other restrictions where that is concerned, but Microsoft hasn’t clarified. Xbox One won’t work if I do not have an internet connection for just 24 hrs. That means I can’t go on a weekend drive to a place without internet connection to even play my offline games on Xbox One. It also means, because of Microsoft cloud use for games now, that my Xbox One collection is a lie, smoke and mirrors, a collection Microsoft can yank away in straight seconds because it decided to turn off some servers. By the way, the “cloud” is just a glorified word for servers. That’s all it is.
It used to be that when you purchased a game you owned it, now Xbox One only loans you the titles you bought for over $60. It means we own nothing as gamers after we’ve paid so much money for them. It means Microsoft is trying to adopt the Apple/iTunes philosophy in an industry that’s inherently different than the music’s. The firm’s considerations doesn’t even recognize the gamer, or in this case the customer, and its rights are a consumer. No, gamers are trampled upon for sheer greed, profits and self/company interest. Microsoft has swooped into the games industry and is trying to rig change to please its investors. Investors who most times don’t care about gaming, and wouldn’t care if the industry collapsed.
When will we agree as a gaming community, millions of us, that enough is enough? When will we stop gobbling every single thing these giant companies violent shove down our throats and say we’re not having it? We can scream all we want on internet forums, but the real test comes when the cable box console arrives on store shelves this holiday season with attractive exclusives like Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall. The test comes when you remember the good ole days of Xbox 360 and feel a mighty rush to run out and pickup an Xbox One but remember that you’ve made a decision not to buy it. Because not buying the console is the only way we can win this war, and believe me it’s a war.
It’s a war for the very soul and survival of the games industry as we know it. It’s a war these massive firms are constantly waging against consumers in the name of profits. It’s a war for our rights as consumers, and it’s a war that can only be won IF we truly take a stand and leave Xbox One where it belongs: gathering dust on store shelves the world over.
I do not hate Microsoft, but they’ve gone too far with this. And while only a few thousand of you will see this story, you can share the word with friends and family, and have them do the same. Be sure to explain to them that the console isn’t consumer friendly at all, and they’d be better off buying the competition’s machine…. Speaking of which….
If Sony chooses to go the same route Microsoft has chosen, every line in this article will also be directed at them, and we should boycott PS4, too. Because again, it’s not about the company, it’s about our rights as first consumers, and as gamers.
Similar Articles:
Microsoft kills game ownership and expects us to smile - Eurogamer
When Will Gamers Say Enough Is Enough? - Kotaku
Xbox One: It’s For Publishers, Not For You - NowGamer
