A very honorable idea. It is sad, unfortuantly these company's haven't done anything illegal. Which is why BBB and others can't do anything, they may of done things that are wrong, but not illegal. Its a sad state of the world and the gaming industry when legal/illegal have nothing to do with right/wrong. I would love to see a organization like this, it probably won't happen because of the lack of compassion and the overwhelming amount of greed involved with gaming companies these days. With the exception of Valve I doubt many would be on board. You could always "Tyrant" style it but then you become as bad as the companies you are looking to improve. Plus a lot of gamers these days aren't true gamers I have noticed (not to insult anyone) but I personally know handfuls of people who play Call of Duty 6-8 hours a day and then turn around and start insulting people who play RPG's, MMO's, Puzzle games ETC. Because they only feel their game is important, I have literally been told that "Call of Duty is the best and most challenging online game ever made" which is a stretch from the truth at best. Recently when I was playing Far Cry 3 (Great game BTW if anyone is curious) I was having a friend watch me, this friend was a huge fan of facebook games and he spends all day playing them. He then tells me "You just wasted 2 hours playing that game when we could of been doing something else." Games have become so casual, which isn't always a bad thing, these days it gives people who use to think gamers were "nerds" (Nerd pride!!!!!!) the ability to play games without feeling like a nerd (Nerd pride!!!!!) I bring it up because you would need gamers to support this, and most gamers these days are one game pony's or are in denial that they are a gamer at all. But Knight Light you have my support all the way!!!!!
It's time they do that for people before they can own a business. One of the prerequisites should be: not being a sociopath.
ADVOCATE FOR PEN CONTROL
To be honest, I believe there's only a handful of people alive who don't play games of some type. Whether it's freeze tag, chess, bingo, WoW or Aion (blargh). They like to pretend they're not wasting time and look down on others who enjoy gaming to make themselves feel better.
Some kid in highschool tried to start a fight with me for wearing a game shirt. He said a bunch of stuff about finding something better to do, and blah blah blah peer pressure, fitting in blah blah blah. And I asked, "Would a better use of my time be, looking for stupid excuses to beat people up?"
Frankly, I am not for the regulation of business by any government. At least not like this. I don't like what NCSoft did, but I'm also tired of people looking to elected officials to solve all their problems. Everything comes to an end. If you are lucky, you can witness a movement of a number of people to bring it back like Team Wildcard is doing. But leave the government out of it.How else can we pass the buck and avoid responsibility? :P
Let me put it this way. The people give government its power, right? Well, where does it come from? That's right the people. The more power we give them, the less we have. Not exactly a great thing to do, historically.
Frankly, I am not for the regulation of business by any government. At least not like this. I don't like what NCSoft did, but I'm also tired of people looking to elected officials to solve all their problems. Everything comes to an end. If you are lucky, you can witness a movement of a number of people to bring it back like Team Wildcard is doing. But leave the government out of it.
Let me put it this way. The people give government its power, right? Well, where does it come from? That's right the people. The more power we give them, the less we have. Not exactly a great thing to do, historically.
Frankly, I am not for the regulation of business by any government.
Guess what I heard today. Donald Trump is trying to sue some political comedian for 5 mil, over what is essentially a "your mom" joke.
You know how they're talking about putting stricter regulations on gun laws by having more complex background checks before someone can own a gun?
It's time they do that for people before they can own a business. One of the prerequisites should be: not being a sociopath.
A businessman uses a pen. It's mightier than the sword, and also more destructive.
ADVOCATE FOR PEN CONTROL
"A conscience have no place in business."- A successful business person I know.
An idea that deserves to be eliminated, by any means necessary.
And give it time... business people want to whine about "lazy people" taking advantage of the system? They should've thought about that when they were trying their darnedest to make everyone dependent. Nothing makes a better customer than a lazy person who wants everything done for him/her.
Can't have it both ways.
There's more to having a conscience than being nice to people. It's realizing that eventually you're going to reap what you sow.
An idea that deserves to be eliminated, by any means necessary.
And give it time... business people want to whine about "lazy people" taking advantage of the system? They should've thought about that when they were trying their darnedest to make everyone dependent. Nothing makes a better customer than a lazy person who wants everything done for him/her.
Can't have it both ways.
There's more to having a conscience than being nice to people. It's realizing that eventually you're going to reap what you sow.
I +1 this. Especially the bolded part.Agreed.
We lost an entire CITY! We should get a bailout from the Feds here in the U.S. so we can reclaim our CITY! Our politicians should have the clout to force this issue. We only need about 150 mil to get NC Scum to sell it to us. Far less than was sent to any other bailout. ;) Obama, you listening Bro? 8)
Your post helps me recognize how different all our views can be different but I firmly believe that no matter our differences, if we always genuinely work together to find the middle, we have considerably less chance of being completely wrong.
Firstly, let me say that I take great offence to your usage of the term "Everything comes to an end". It has no place in the matter of "NCSoft vs. Paragon City".
I have absolutely no idea precisely what happened but I know for sure with every fibre of my being that at no point did City of Heroes "come to an end." It was put down. A perfectly healthy Championship race horse was taken out to a field and shot in the back of the head.
I believe the primary purpose would be to become an embodiment to which the public would have no choice but to say "You know what, I don't agree with everything that everyone says, but if these folks are saying etcetera about this particular matter; then it's got to be right. If it's there, it was quintuple checked and agreed upon by people who know what they're talking about, at least as a collective. "
It's not about regulation; if we start regulating things we are bound to constrict and get in the way of art. Under the banner of such an association, many of the works taken into consideration should be treated as art and it would be wrongful to stand in the way of that. The main power would come from the ability to grant company and product support and provide accurate information and dependable arguments for not supporting a company or their product.
The secondary purpose of such an organization would be to become something that the companies are genuinely afraid of. Companies don't fear anything these days because we've shown them that no matter what they do, they can solve it all by writing someone a check later. The idea is to make them have to say to each other "Look, we're not subject to every whim that comes to our door but if we don't do right by these people on the basics, if we don't have their support; we're sunk. They are reasonable but they are pissed and they are done rewarding bad behaviour"
It's very much a rudimentary idea filled with too much idealism to fit properly in the world as it functions(?) currently but who knows, perhaps with some nurturing.
As for the following, I believe part of it belongs in an entirely different forum but since you brought it up.
Regardless of the realities of life, in my world the people should never give power to their government, they lend power to a collection of people for administrative purposes. If that's not how things are where you are then I'd look into what's within your reach to change that. Elected officials are there to speak for you; if they aren't helping to solve the problems you cannot solve alone, problems that a decent population is up in arms about, then what are they really good for? I know I'm making CoH sound more important than it is; there's bigger concerns in the world, but if governements have the time to argue for a day on a matter and not get anywhere, they have 5 minutes to talk about City of Heroes.
However, I'm not suggesting that the governments come in and solve our problem. I suggest government recognition as a means of reaching up to a platform on which we actually have the means of waging a battle against an entity such as NCSoft...
...When they announced the closure of CoH, we lacked the power to even ask why and expect an answer. It took a month for them to deem to speak to us. There should be some manner of investigating a situation like the one that has occurred. If not to condemn NCSoft, then to clear their name(I, personally, believe NCSoft is evil and malicious, however not knowing absolutely every detail about what happened; I would be a fool if I completely dismissed the infinitesimally small possibility that they made the right decision)...
As far as governments go, aside from recognition of "You're pissed and want to be heard in the pursuit of genuine justice.", they would be restricted to assisting in it being a fair fight, not fighting the battle.
Unrelated: I am a boss now! If this was an AE farm, I would be turned off.
Frankly, I am not for the regulation of business by any government. At least not like this. I don't like what NCSoft did, but I'm also tired of people looking to elected officials to solve all their problems. Everything comes to an end. If you are lucky, you can witness a movement of a number of people to bring it back like Team Wildcard is doing. But leave the government out of it.Hear here.
Let me put it this way. The people give government its power, right? Well, where does it come from? That's right the people. The more power we give them, the less we have. Not exactly a great thing to do, historically.
Your rhetoric displays at least some semblance of intelligence, but I think you need to be much more clear and waaaay more concise.
I can see how, from your surroundings, you might think consensus is a joke but I assure you; it does exist.
Gee, thanks... that's not a backhanded compliment at all...
I'd love to have given you a short concise plan detailing precisely what to do but I kind of didn't want this to be a dictatorship. I had an idea that, despite my many qualities, I could not possibly flesh out on my own and so I opened it up for debate in this, what's it called? oh right, a forum. I don't believe anything like this had been done before so there is no plan or guide to follow.
Y'know, we don't really learn it in school but I wonder how long it took to draft your Constitution. They hammer that out in an afternoon? It was all Jefferson, right? He was always the rock star.
Is it so terrible to want some manner of harnessing the power of the consumer for protection from these massive corporations that can't be fought and can get away with anything?
As for their right to privacy, I was all for it until they came in and intervened in my personal life and ripped a hole in my soul. So they've forfeited that on this issue.
No matter how long it takes, one way or another, if I can't have the only thing I have wanted with every fibre of my being for every single second since 4:08pm thursday, march 24th, 2011, then NCSoft is going to tell me precisely why. There is no argument on that and there isn't a thing that will stand in my way. Perhaps you cannot fight NCSoft, but I am going to and while I'm there I'll see what I can do about getting CoH released from their prison closet. City of Heroes is something that deserves to reach its conclusion.
Oh and I hate to break it to you but it is not your government that has too much power. It's the only two parties your peeps vote for and the lobbies that back them that have entirely WAY too much power.
It's fairly evident there's a problem when a Congressman has the ability to insert an amendment drafted by the National Rifle Association into an unrelated spending bill in order to effectively cripple your Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
That's probably best left to another forum though.