The politics of games.

[Navaros]

I strongly disagree with the original post.

If Publishers are going to put malware-like DRM/'copy protection'/pay-full-price-to-rent-this-game-via-limited-installs on the discs that games ship on and/or in the legal downloads of their games, then that goes hand in hand with the game itself. The game and the malware-like DRM/'copy protection'/pay-full-price-to-rent-this-game-via-limited-installs are inseparably linked, and therefore it is reasonable that so should be the discussions.

Consumers and innocent gamers who might not know this, have a right to know this. It is very helpful to them to be alerted by other more informed gamers via reading threads in the main Arena forum so that they do not get ripped off by inadvertently purchasing games with malware-like DRM/'copy protection'/pay-full-price-to-rent-this-game-via-limited-installs. Discussions like this should not be hidden or shuffled off to a backroom sub-forum. I know many posters were glad when I warned them about Starforce & Securom infestations on various games in the Arena and thus they avoided getting ripped off directly as a result of having seen those warnings posted in the Arena.

The Arena forum is already ideal as is. A free and open discussion about games the malware-like DRM/'copy protection'/pay-full-price-to-rent-this-game-via-limited-installs that is inseparably linked with them. Censoring the forum via restricting this discussion of the truth, and/or shipping the ugly truth of these things off into sub-forums would be counter-productive; and also that would be taking power away from gamers and doing exactly what the perpetuators of malware-like DRM/'copy protection'/pay-full-price-to-rent-this-game-via-limited-installs want --- minimize consumer awareness of their shady, immoral, probably illegal, 'business tactics.'

Best thing to do is leave the Arena exactly as it is now.

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Consumers and innocent gamers who might not know this, have a right to know this. It is very helpful to them to be alerted by other more informed gamers via reading threads in the main Arena forum so that they do not get ripped off by inadvertently purchasing games with malware-like DRM/'copy protection'/pay-full-price-to-rent-this-game-via-limited-installs. Discussions like this should not be hidden or shuffled off to a backroom sub-forum.

Thanks for pointing out this most important side of the affair, which I have neglected to think about.
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