Video Game Industry Watchdog Reclaim Your Game Shuts Down (05/2015)

(Author’s Note: Originally posted May 2015)

End-User License Agreements (EULA), Digital Rights Management (DRM), and Terms of Service (ToS) are the dark underside of the video game industry; an underside that the majority of gamers don’t like to think about or even deal with. After all, no one wants to spend time sifting through the fine lines to see if they are selling their souls or search for DRM in games that developers and publishers sneak in from time-to-time. That’s where Reclaim Your Game came in. RYG is an organization focused on discovering questionable clauses and DRM practices in order to make PC gamers aware and improve PC gaming. Unfortunately, Reclaim Your Game has announced that it is shutting down permanently.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and with how things are going with RYG at this time, it’s come to a point where I feel it’s time to say goodbye,” says Reclaim Your Game co-founder Lisa Pham on the organization’s official website.

For the past five years, the RYG team has evaluated a plethora of games and offered up their results to consumers, developers, and publishers in order to help improve the PC gaming market. Many times over its existence, RYG discovered DRM inserted into games without the developer or publisher telling consumers.

One of the more recent examples of what this organization did involves the discovery that The Sims 4 was utilizing Sony DADC DRM. This type of DRM was used to validate whether or not the copy a consumer had was legitimate. However, neither EA nor Maxis made consumers aware of this despite EA being obligated to disclose what and all kinds of DRM they are using after going through a class action settlement for The Sims 2 and Spore. Not only did RYG discover the DRM, but sifted through the game’s various agreements to discover some unsavory phrases as well.

Aside from The Sims 4, other big games that RYG evaluated in a meticulous fashion included AAA titles such as Diablo 3, SimCity, and Mass Effect 3. Of the three games, gamers will be very familiar with the issues revolving around Diablo 3 and SimCity (both games I boycotted due to issues over DRM). Both titles suffered from many issues, most stemming from the always-on DRM forced upon consumers.

Having seen what Reclaim Your Game has done over the years, is it a bad thing that the website is shutting down and should gamers care?

The fact that the site is shutting down indicates that, overall, gamers didn’t really care for the information that RYG was offering. Even though the information being offered was very relevant for consumers looking to purchase video games. Not only have gamers failed to take notice of RYG’s evaluations but, when noticed, it has been criticized for its work.

According to Lisa Pham, sacrifices, both financial and personal, were made in order to keep RYG going. So why did it fail?  She brings up several salient points as she explains, “But simply put, most gamers just don’t care anymore… they just buy up the games they want, even when they know they have issues…How do you fight that? How do you fix that? How do you help with that? How do you help people who just don’t care?”

What she says is damning for gamers in general and not just regarding PC gamers and what she says is true. One only has to point out that over 15 million copies of Diablo 3 have been sold across all platforms despite the always-on DRM along with the issues, and eventual removal, of the Auction House. Or, more recently, the fact that Electronic Arts was able brag about a net revenue of $4.3 billion, and a profit of $806 million, despite being voted the Worst Company in America for two straight years and gamers speaking out against the publisher for a while now.

“All RYG wanted to do was fight for gamers, but most gamers don’t care enough to fight for their rights,” Pham writes towards the end. “Most publishers and developers don’t care about gamers enough to not shove DRM into their games, enforce online registrations & online connections, to release half made or badly broken games, to not fill games with paid DLC’s, etc. Whatever we do, it hasn’t made a difference to any of that, so there is no point continuing with RYG.”

Reclaim Your Game was one of a few sites that has focused on consumer rights by pointing out the unethical practices of developers and publishers inserting DRM into their games or questionable clauses into their EULAs and ToS agreements. Something that most major videogame websites do not bother with unless they think it will drive a lot of traffic to them.

What RYG provided is something that is needed in this industry, especially right now for PC gaming. There are those who have said that PC gaming is in its second golden age, but I must point out that it is an age bereft of any oversight, quality control, and responsibility. Yes, there are many benefits for PC gaming being like the Wild West. But as we’ve seen this year, and last year, the quality of major titles has been lacking and ports to the PC have been atrocious. Just look at the recent PC ports of Dead or Alive 5: Last Round and Mortal Kombat X with all of the issues they have, or lack of certain features at launch. These are just the latest examples and yet, neither developer nor publisher is being taken to task.

The shutting down of Reclaim Your Game is a sad one that, as consumers, we should care about. As one of the few websites that took the time to provide important information of consumers, it is a service that I will certainly miss.

Rest in Peace RYG and thank you for your contributions. You will be missed.

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