PC Gamer's Bill of Rights

Stardock has the PC Gamer's Bill of Rights prominently displayed on its website at www.stardock.com, and now the company hopes that the rest of the PC game industry will follow suit and also adopt the bill of rights. It is truly what PC gamers have wanted for years and many believe it refreshing that a video game company has taken up the banner for us gamers.

The PC Gamer's Bill of Rights is a set of ten guidelines that companies of good conscience would offer their customers, except for the fact that it often eats into the game company's profits. Rights such as being able to return a game if it does not play on the customer's computer, and being able to play a single-player game downloaded from a download service without having to be online or even connected to the service to play the game.

Following are the PC Gamer's Bill of Rights:

1) Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.

2) Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.

3) Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.

4) Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.

5) Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.

6) Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.

7) Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.

8) Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.

9) Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.

10) Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

Being an avid PC gamer from the very foundation of PC gaming, I for one have longed for video game companies to treat the customer like they are the ones who really do sign the developer's and publisher's pay-checks. And I have to admit that I have seen some companies that have done well by their customers in a few of these suggested rights.

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For example, when I downloaded a game on Steam, (www.steampowered.com), and it didn't run properly on my PC, I sent a note to the developer asking for technical assistance. When they failed to respond to repeated attempts to contact them, Steam technicians tried to help resolve the issue. When it was found that we were unable to resolve the issue, Steam gave me a full refund for the games.

But I have yet to, and don't think we will ever find a video game company other than Stardock and maybe one of two others, who's games can be played without the CD/DVD being in the drive.

GameSHOUT is one company that applauds the efforts of Stardock and any other company that picks up this PC Gamer's Bill of Rights and runs with it. After all, PC Gamer's have rights too, don't we?

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