There have been a series of recent stories in the games industry highlighting private sector incompetence with online game development. Last year, the game company Blizzard fumbled the launch of its highly-anticipated Diablo 3. Earlier this year Electronic Arts did even worse with the launch of Simcity, winning it the title of “Worst Company in America” for the second year running. And most recently, the brand new title Battlefield 4 has been plagued with connection issues, glitches, and various bugs since its October launch.
What does this show? We need online game socialism.
Some people will inevitably point to other issues, like unnecessary and highly complicated copyright restrictions, an anti-consumer corporate culture, straight-up greed (eg, deliberately underinvesting in equipment), or even just the incredible complexity of modern technology as the root of these problems, but these are clearly the last gasps of a failed paradigm. After all, it’s not like these problems were ever fixed, after which the story died down.
Nope, only government action can force game developers to cut through the redundant anti-consumer platforms, the self-defeating business decisions, and the accelerating technological arms race to give people the entertainment experience they want.
What other conclusion is even possible?
