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Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

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Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#111

Post by tombert »

10x-dev wrote: post #45
sefrost wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t feel any guilt about pirating the content I bought on any of those services if my account was taken from me for inactivity. I’d be interested to hear the argument about why that would be wrong though.

It's the same argument as vigilante justice.

Sure, but taking this to its logical extreme, it seems like I could justify any act as long as it’s also legal.

While I totally agree with the advice of “it’s illegal so you probably shouldn’t do it”, I don’t think it’s a terribly interesting conversation philosophically. Deferring to human law in these discussions feels like an existential cop-out.

I think the question is substantially more interesting if you pretend that you have a magic wand to make the laws whatever you want, and then ask “why would it be wrong for me to torrent a game that I have purchased a legal copy of?”

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#112

Post by paxys »

boring_twenties wrote: post #102
paxys wrote: post #28

I paid extra for a disc version of the PS5 for exactly this reason. If I buy a game today I want to be able to play it 20 years from now. I can bet money that none of the mainstream digital stores of today will be operational by then.

I hate to defend Sony in any way, but I can still download my PS3 games, that system is 15 years old now.

Funny that you mention it. Sony announced earlier this year that they would be shutting down the PS3 store permanently (including the ability to download past purchases), and only delayed the move due to public backlash. They did shut the PSP store though, so those games are unplayable now.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#113

Post by tombert »

iamthirsty wrote: post #99
tombert wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that? If you buy the game off Steam or something, this implies that the creators/publishers/platforms have gotten their due compensation. The cracks and files on ThePirateBay are done on a volunteer basis, meaning that it’s not costing the game developers any money.

It is costing a developer money — someone who downloads the pirated game would’ve otherwise bought it. Game devs make money on sales. However if you have already bought the game, and then download a pirated version, it isn’t.

I was reasonably certain that this thread was specifically speaking in regard to the latter case.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#114

Post by michaelmrose »

pdonis wrote: post #44
josephcsible wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people want to play the games, and there's not an alternative way to buy them that does give you that confidence.

> there's not an alternative way to buy them that does give you that confidence That doesn't sound to me like a reason for legislation. It sounds to me like a reason for competition. But for there to be competition, customers have to be willing to put their money where their mouth is. If there were a competitor that charged, say, 20% more for a product that included the confidence you want, would you pay it?

Competition is very nearly worthless as far as ensuring consumer choice. The market tends to trend towards a small number of players who all act collectively with or without the benefit of collaboration to serve their own interests.

The customer may have preferences along n dimensions where n is a very large number of choices and a small number of choices wherein their ability to effect the distribution of characteristics is limited to avoiding choices which make massive strides along multiple axis away from desirable areas. Regulations force all players into a reasonable space in the game board and let them compete within that space. It is the only practical way to achieve this.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#115

Post by jjkmk »

firecall wrote: post #93
causi wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These days I generally pirate the single-player content I purchase anyway. Anything that requires Origin, Epic, uPlay, or any other cancerous software to be installed gets paid for and promptly pirated. I trust the Pirate Bay more than I trust Ubisoft.

Dont you worry about Malware, Viruses and suchlike?

If you use a private tracker you will usually be fine.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#116

Post by lentil_soup »

pdonis wrote: post #58
josephcsible wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't copyrights preclude meaningful competition here? If a game is sold through Publisher X, Publisher Y can't just unilaterally decide that they want to sell it too.

> Don't copyrights preclude meaningful competition here? No. The game developer, who owns the copyright, decides what channels it gets sold through. If game developers knew that people wouldn't buy their games through channels that didn't give good guarantees of ownership and access, they wouldn't sell through those channels.

In the case of the article Ubisoft is both the developer and owner of the store

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#117

Post by boring_twenties »

paxys wrote: post #112
boring_twenties wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to defend Sony in any way, but I can still download my PS3 games, that system is 15 years old now.

Funny that you mention it. Sony announced earlier this year that they would be shutting down the PS3 store permanently (including the ability to download past purchases), and only delayed the move due to public backlash. They did shut the PSP store though, so those games are unplayable now.

The email I got from Sony back in March said that they were only disabling new purchases, "You will still be able to download your owned PS3, PS Vita, and PSP content, including games and video content." Full text: https://paste.debian.net/1224883/

Now that they've backed down, I'm pretty sure you can buy new PS3 games as well.

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#119

Post by fragsworth »

causi wrote: post #67
sefrost wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t feel any guilt about pirating the content I bought on any of those services if my account was taken from me for inactivity. I’d be interested to hear the argument about why that would be wrong though.

These days I generally pirate the single-player content I purchase anyway. Anything that requires Origin, Epic, uPlay, or any other cancerous software to be installed gets paid for and promptly pirated. I trust the Pirate Bay more than I trust Ubisoft.

Is that really practical these days given the frequency of updates developers put out for their games?

Re: Ubisoft deleted account with hundreds of dollars’ worth of games for inactivity

#120

Post by seanhunter »

pdonis wrote: post #44
josephcsible wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because people want to play the games, and there's not an alternative way to buy them that does give you that confidence.

> there's not an alternative way to buy them that does give you that confidence That doesn't sound to me like a reason for legislation. It sounds to me like a reason for competition. But for there to be competition, customers have to be willing to put their money where their mouth is. If there were a competitor that charged, say, 20% more for a product that included the confidence you want, would you pay it?

This is a sort of reductionist viewpoint that's ignoring the realities of the market (in this case computer games) and how monopolies are created.

Games aren't fungible with each other. If you want to play Dark Souls, you have to buy it from From software. You can't go to an alternative Dark Souls provider that offers you better terms. Likewise Ubisoft has IP that fans want access to. Therefore due to copyright etc they have small monopolies that aren't as subject to market forces.

Some years back I decided I had had enough of Ubisoft's anti-consumer bullshit, and decided AC: Unity would be my last Ubisoft game (bits of the game that I had bought were locked behind a mobile game and there were paid-for items as well). There have been lots of times I have thought I would love to play certain games (eg Anno 1800) but I've held off because they were Ubisoft games.

These days I try to spend my game dollars in a way that rewards publishers with a more positive stance, but that does mean depriving yourself of certain games etc. I can totally get why people don't do this.

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