The politics of games.

[frogbeastegg]

Mob of quotes first:

There were some discussions already about topics such as copyprotection and controversial steps in the industry. Those were in different TW gameforums. I think the Arena had or could have such as well, but ask frogbeastegg about that.

Yes, we have had such discussions before. There was that huge secuROM topic in the citadel when Kingdoms came out, for one. We've had multiple starforce threads in the arena, all sorts.

If that happens, I would greatly ecourage a loosening of the rules on piracy discussion in that forum. Piracy, copyright, and DRM are the major topics that this forum would cover

As I have understood it (as the nutcase behind said tight arena rules) we cannot further open up discussion of matters like piracy, no CD cracks etc without leaving the org itself vulnerable to claims that we support it. That could leave us with no org. In the time I have been here we have had a few instances where an official stick has been shaken at us because of such discussions. We cannot loosen the rules and we cannot give such discussion any sort of official sanction.

I would rather see a thousand posts complaining about the gameplay of a favorite game than one more post of someone getting on their knees and performing sexual favors on StarDock's proverbial male genitalia.

You propose dropping the moderation of this one onto the backroom team? Otherwise it will be the same two victims volunteers reading the posts. We'd just have to do more clicking.



Now some actual amphibian thoughts:

Do I like the DRM etc posts? No. I'm heartily sick of the subject. I became so long ago, and I'm a frog who passes over buying PC games if they contain certain types of DRM.

IMO this proposed forum would end up mostly empty except for a small collection of topics blasting EA, cheering for Stardock, and picking over the odd event like Stardock's gamer's bill of rights. Am I the only one who finds the idea unappealing? A forum made - in essence - for people to complain in.

I also believe it's a phase. Mass Effect, Spore, Red Alert and that bill of rights have brought the topic into the spotlight. It will fade back again in time. I've seen other hot topics come and ago over the years. It's currently a hot topic on the other two gaming forums I look at.

Games Workshop? Nothing to do with the arena, even with a speculative backroom. Child slavery isn't our territory, and that would be the real subject. Games would only be a sideline.

I also don't understand what is so undesirable about putting the topics into the existing backroom.



In the past I have shunted topics over to the existing backroom leaving a redirect in the arena. Because of the slower turnover in the arena that redirect remains on the front page for a week or two, meaning people have plenty of time to see it and follow it. This can still be done. We don't need a seperate forum for it.

The difficulty, the thing keeping my itchy finger away from the move button, is where to draw the line. Which topic stays and which moves? Which posts are removed from topics, which are left untouched?

I can play draconian froggy instigate a lightly updated version of my original rule:
Any topic discussing DRM does not belong in the arena and will move to the backroom.
Any topic on subjects such as the bill of rights does not belong in the arena and will move to the backroom.
Any game's topic containing multiple posts on DRM will get a nudge for being off-topic.
It is fair for any nasty DRM to be mentioned a handful of times so potential buyers are warned.
It is not fair to complain about how bad said DRM is. Conversely, it is not fair to post about how good a certain DRM or lack thereof is. DRM discussion is DRM discussion.

Under that set of rules the spore/amazon topic goes, the bill of rights topic goes, multiple threads get a "DRM is not the topic" mod post, and of course a topic is created informing people of the change in topic ... and is anyone actually happy? Does it improve the arena? Because that's the second thing holding back action. Until now I had no idea I was alone in wishing people would get back to talking about games.

Alternately we take a different view. Maybe the discussions we are seeing now are what people want to see in the arena, and the arena should adapt to house them. That doesn't necessarily require a seperate sub-forum. For example, all DRM related discussion could be required to stay in a seperate thread, so we'd have the bioshock gameplay thread and the bioshock DRM thread.

What do people want to see?



It would be a good idea to set up a link in the arena so people are aware the matter is being discussed. I only found out when someone PMed me a link this evening :makes link: