TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Have you ever bought a game you had high hopes for, and then were disappointed, not by the game itself but all the politics and mismanagement surrounding it? Buggy and rushed releases, draconian copyright protection, intrusive download managers or updaters – all significant distractions from enjoying a game. Some feel so strongly about those distractions, developers included, that they have sought to craft a “PC Gamer’s Bill of Rights” that they feel should be used as a framework for game development and release.

Compiled by an independent game developer, it is composed of 10 rules they feel highlight the most common mistakes publishers make, most of which just anger and frustrate gamers, causing them to potentially avoid buying games in the first place. The rules include asking publishers to quit releasing rushed games, focusing on completing them rather than getting them out the door. It also asks to avoid using DRM, along with removing CD/DVD checks on launch. Some of the rules are very reasonable, and in fact if every game was released to those standards PC gaming would be a much different industry.

Most of them are just fantasies, though, as publishers these days would never agree to such terms. It's a good read, but perhaps more of a dream than anything close to reality.