Taking a look at news about a recent update for Fallout 4 that seemingly removed content and the idea of game ownership, jumping into two incredible articles from the gaming community, and more!
I don't hold out much hope for meaningful consumer protections on the digital licensing front any time soon - it's just too confusing of a topic, and relates to things few people find relevant in their lives [even though they probably should] and so any uproar from a subculture is going to be drowned out by money from the industry feeding off that subculture. And even if you assumed everyone sympathized and had the will to do something about it, I honestly don't know what the best, most enforceable standard would be.
Full availability of all versions for selective download, like you usually get with drivers, would be ideal from a power user standpoint, but there are perfectly good reasons why even independent projects tend not to actually commit to that, and once you start talking about bundled licensing negotiations and planned obsolescence and so on, it feels like a non-starter.
Maybe the best compromise would be a mandate to leave the 'day zero' release version of any software available to any license holders - it wouldn't prevent developers from removing content added later, but it would at least keep the content originally 'purchased' from being totally eradicated, and would be comparable to physical disk media that 'must' be patched to function, but still technically contains the full set of original data you paid for, in addition to the license to download and apply updates.
Wow, thanks for sharing! That compromise sounds like something that would be a great way to handle it. It would be amazing to have a way, similar to what you said about the drivers, for people to be able to select what they want to update or not. But, being able to at least let users maintain the original release of their purchase seems like it would be a sensical approach to it.
Oh man how disappointing about the Fallout 4 song removal! That seems crazy that they didn’t want to renew the license. I also need to do a deep dive on that lawsuit stuff! So interesting. I always wonder where people are coming from on these things. Is it actually morally motivated or not. 🥲
Thanks so much for the shout out! That means a lot! 💚
I am very much looking forward to the blogs! How exciting to see more of your writing 🤩🥳 experimentation is always good and not just in terms of what lands with the readers and community but also in regards to what you like writing about and how. 🌟
Thanks Margot! I know, the Fallout 4 music removal was sad for me to see, and I hope that we can officially know what happened in the future! I also hope for more ways that consumers can be protected from random updates that can cut content like this. The type of updates that make me question who actually owns the game after it's bought by the consumer!
And no problem, I loved your review and really appreciate your writing style! It is always a pleasure to read your work whenever I see it hit my inbox 🙌
Hoping to get the blog stuff started up soon, and I thank you so much for your support! Thanks again Margot!
I don't hold out much hope for meaningful consumer protections on the digital licensing front any time soon - it's just too confusing of a topic, and relates to things few people find relevant in their lives [even though they probably should] and so any uproar from a subculture is going to be drowned out by money from the industry feeding off that subculture. And even if you assumed everyone sympathized and had the will to do something about it, I honestly don't know what the best, most enforceable standard would be.
Full availability of all versions for selective download, like you usually get with drivers, would be ideal from a power user standpoint, but there are perfectly good reasons why even independent projects tend not to actually commit to that, and once you start talking about bundled licensing negotiations and planned obsolescence and so on, it feels like a non-starter.
Maybe the best compromise would be a mandate to leave the 'day zero' release version of any software available to any license holders - it wouldn't prevent developers from removing content added later, but it would at least keep the content originally 'purchased' from being totally eradicated, and would be comparable to physical disk media that 'must' be patched to function, but still technically contains the full set of original data you paid for, in addition to the license to download and apply updates.
Wow, thanks for sharing! That compromise sounds like something that would be a great way to handle it. It would be amazing to have a way, similar to what you said about the drivers, for people to be able to select what they want to update or not. But, being able to at least let users maintain the original release of their purchase seems like it would be a sensical approach to it.
Thanks again for sharing 🙌
Oh man how disappointing about the Fallout 4 song removal! That seems crazy that they didn’t want to renew the license. I also need to do a deep dive on that lawsuit stuff! So interesting. I always wonder where people are coming from on these things. Is it actually morally motivated or not. 🥲
Thanks so much for the shout out! That means a lot! 💚
I am very much looking forward to the blogs! How exciting to see more of your writing 🤩🥳 experimentation is always good and not just in terms of what lands with the readers and community but also in regards to what you like writing about and how. 🌟
Looking forward to more! 🎉
Thanks Margot! I know, the Fallout 4 music removal was sad for me to see, and I hope that we can officially know what happened in the future! I also hope for more ways that consumers can be protected from random updates that can cut content like this. The type of updates that make me question who actually owns the game after it's bought by the consumer!
And no problem, I loved your review and really appreciate your writing style! It is always a pleasure to read your work whenever I see it hit my inbox 🙌
Hoping to get the blog stuff started up soon, and I thank you so much for your support! Thanks again Margot!