As unpopular as this is going to be, I feel that a few of these are a bit overly demanding. Most though, hit the nail right on the head.
1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund.
At least store credit would keep me happy. I mean if I was honestly intending to spend money on a game, then it was disposable income to begin with, and as much as I loathe chain retailers, even I know an easily scammable system when I see one.
2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
I couldn't agree more with this if a gun was put to my head while standing on a block of ice with a car battery hooked up to my man-junk. I'm counting on my PC alone here, 4 potentially brilliant and engrossing games what would have led me to follow a franchise into the gates of Hell itself,..but alas they are all unfinished and thus bug ridden and frustrating to no end.
3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release.
Totally agree. Even if a game is reasonably finished and functions well, any kind of updates or bug fixes are welcome. To me they're only "expected" up to a certain point though.
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.
As a parent who occasionally has to choose between internet for a given month, and something like car repairs or other bills etc.. I get truly annoyed when during really boring months I'm not able to play certain single player games that I've bought and paid for already and just haven't had time to finish.
5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will adequately play on that computer.
YES. Publishers, please stop trying to snowball me into thinking that you (or rather the development team you're yelling and screaming about to all that will listen) have somehow managed to squeeze true to life AI, per pixel real time rendered bump mapping, cyclical dynamic lighting, and a pie baked to perfection during every 20 minutes of gameplay into a game that supposedly will run on my old beta VCR. It's gotten to where I only look at Recommended Requirements as minimum now, and in some cases even that has turned out to be frustrating.
6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won't install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their express consent.
Seriously. FFS it's starting to get to where I'd not be surprised to see adware trying to install when I pop a disc in my drive now.
7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
I'd like to see Publishers who continue to profit from games months and years after developers stop getting a nickel, be held liable to pay for things like this.
8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
This is still a touchy subject for me, because no one has found a safe, reliable way to ensure any copy protection on a media source that needs to function on such a large array of hardware.
This is one case where I think case-by-case gamers can show what they will tolerate and what they won't.
If it's got too intrusive of a copy protection on it, or it goes above your tolerance level making install or play difficult, return it for a refund or store credit. I can't blame developers (much) for having a hard time with such a technically futile but still necessary problem that needs to be solved.
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.
Totally agree. See Number 4. My single player games are supposed to be moddable, too, and I don't want forced updates and patches stoppingme from enjoying 3rd party content once I've gotten bored with the vanilla version of the game.
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.
I'm ok with the game requiring a CD for the first couple patches or so. After a few buying seasons have gone by, say 6 months or so, maybe a year for a really heavy seller or huge hit, I'd think the publishers should let up off the few dollars they'll scrape up from the hard work they stopped paying the developers for months ago and let us just put our discs away completely.
I agree that it's much more convenient to play the game without the disc (e.g. UT99), but I don't think its that bad of an ordeal to use the disc to start up. I've had more games that require the disc than games that don't, and either way I don't care as long as the game is good. Besides, someone said something about the disc getting broken. Well, if you're storing your discs properly, then you shouldn't have any problems