Gaming

Normally I do not read a lot of blogs myself. I tend to find the scope of most blogs a bit too narrow to keep me interested. However, a month ago I tried searching online for a release date of an upcoming game I was looking forward to. Although no specific date came up, my search did introduce me to an article talking about a rumour of one such release date. The article went on to describe the rumour, but what interested me was the link to the blog where the article had its roots.

Now I am a daily subscriber to the news posted on this blog, simply because the writer has a fascinating way of researching and commenting on the games industry. The author's views on production for greed resembles my own quite a lot, and recently a post was made about unethical game design. In this post the author went on to comment on how the industry manipulated consumers and tried to prepare them for the upcoming world of in-game marketing. Soon you will see billboards for soda in the background of your gaming environment.

This is all just to show a little bit about how the blog caught my eye. It has more of a social perspective to it than just commenting on these products we enjoy as players, which is obviously why it appeals to me.

Now to the point. This morning the blog was updated with a post about how the author was hoping for the Stop Online Piracy Act bill to be passed. I will leave you to read up on SOPA and the points made on the blog about this bill.

It may just be sarcasm, but even if it is it shows how negligent the entertainment industry is towards its own consumers. The grand argument is that if everyone were to pirate every produced piece of entertainment available, no entertainers would make a living doing what they do and we would cease to be able to live in this wonderful amusement park we see around us today. We are bombarded with amusement every hour of every day. Some of it we are responsible for seeking out ourselves, some of it we are deliberately forced to endure, for instance while riding the train, as I am now, where billboard after billboard is passing us by telling us that our lives would improve immensely if we were to put money in the pocket of some socially degenerative industry.

How would you feel if your country was trying to enact a bill, giving the industry a red button they can push whenever they feel your favourite sites on the internet might be linking directly to copy righted material?

I hope you would feel like this guy.