There is a very interesting article on The reticule that talks about this concept. Personally, I loved the idea that “The main tenet of their design is not playability but profit and, while this is true of most every game now, they do very little to hide this. The level grind, the uninspired quests, the ludicrously hard boss fights, it all comes together to make you shell out more money for less gratification. In fact, given that most endgames require large groups of players, your input becomes invisible amongst the unbridled throng of spells and people shouting about DPS.”

That article was not alone. A blogger in The Escapist said “the level of mystery around the games industry is still rather shocking. There remains a layer of secrecy cast over everything that goes on in gaming, something we attempt to maintain by keeping the real creators voiceless and trotting out PR men and producers to be the faces of our games, lest anyone catch a glimpse of Oz behind the curtain.”

He notes another key point, “while wholescale rip-offs do occur, the amount of sameness that plagues the games industry is not a result of outright copying – rather, it’s a more insidious process whereby one example becomes law. Only games that look like they will sell will be commissioned; only games that are similar to what’s already out look like they will sell; therefore only games that look like what’s already out there will ever get made.”

And if this leads you to a pessimistic view of the future of gaming, you are not alone. An article in the ominously titled Player vs Developer the writer states “MMORPG’s are not a democracy, and we wouldn’t want them to be – we have seen what happens when you let players make the design choices.” He is commenting on a rather frank quote from a game executive. He brashly states, “We’re not interested in developing under a system where we have to get community buy-off for our decisions. We don’t think that will ultimately lead to a strong design. I don’t mean for that to sound harsh. I’m just trying to steer you away from logic that ends up where we have to justify every decision we make or you can somehow get us to make the decisions you want if you just find the right knobs to turn.”

He is talking about feedback in the gaming industry. Lawyers, customer service professionals, marketing people are used to feedback. But I’m talking about FEEDBACK (all caps intentional). Let me give you a very recent example. Infinity Ward recently announced that Modern Warfare 2 would work not be available on “dedicated servers”.

An article on EL33TOnline says that “an online petition (which has nearly reached 120 000 signatures) seeking to convince Infinity Ward to reconsider the implementation of IWNET for the developer’s upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and re-allow the running of dedicated servers for the hardcore online crowd, and enable players to run custom game mods, maps, and organise private matches more easily.” If you want to read the specifics about the pros and cons of a dedicated server, read that very interesting article. But for the purposes of this discussion; consider, 100,000 signatures plus in a week about what type of server an online game will run in, “once it is released.” Now that is feedback.

You should consider this article an “awakening call” to those who feel that gamers rights is an emerging field. The game companies are digging in their heels as far as their decisions being law, and maybe the gamers rights consist only of a decision whether or not to buy a game. Or maybe this is a perfectly justifiable decision. Is it a symptom of gamers being “too into their games”, or is it a symptom of a greedy game industry? Or is it somewhere in the middle? Is fairness off limits to being influenced by the players’ decisions, or are game companies too insulated from the millions who make the money for them? As for me, personally, the best sign is that the burgeoning games industry faces parallel questions to the movie industry during each of its difficult growing periods. But that’s another whole discussion. So, reader, should game companies have such absolute control over multiplayer once release has been made? Comments?

Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.