Stardock and Gas Powered Games' recently suggested Gamer's Bill of Rights seems to have motivated all sorts of people to action. Within days of its unveiling, I received e-mails alerting me to the Casual Gamer's Bill of Rights, the Comcast Peer-to-Peer Bill of Rights, and some sort of U.S. Bill of Rights demanding, among other bizarre ideas, the freedoms of speech, assembly, and protection from the quartering of troops.

Wacky, huh?

Naturally, the lion's share of gamers responded very positively to the Stardock/GPG missive - who's going to argue with the notion that we should expect games to be released in a finished state, should have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release, or should have the right to play games installed on our hard drives without the CD or DVD in the drive?

If various website comments sections are any indication, some gamers will - including this one.

I am 100 percent committed to the belief that, as consumers spending hard-earned money on a product, PC gamers deserve to feel confident in their purchase. I should be able to return a game that doesn’t work on my hardware. I should be able to expect that listed minimum system requirements are true and accurate. I should be able to bring some sort of action if a game installs any sort of mal-ware on my machine.

But the Gamer's Bill of Rights is riddled with ambiguities, which is why I and others are eyeing it with some suspicion. What constitutes a game's "finished state" and who determines it? What makes for a "meaningful update"? And is it really my "right" to play a game without the disc in the drive - even if it increases the possibility that the game can be pirated?

I applaud Brad Wardell of Stardock and Chris Taylor of GPG for at least instigating a dialogue about these issues - in particular, the minimum system requirements conundrum has been a pet peeve of mine, because I think it single-handedly keeps potential PC gamers from foraying into the hobby. But if the Gamer's Bill of Rights is to transcend publicity-stunt status and become a catalyst for real change, it needs to be the starting point of a tough conversation about which rights PC gamers should really expect to enjoy - and which, as the result of enjoying the freedoms of an essentially open platform, they may need to give up.

October 3, 2008