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I think both gamers and publishers can be blamed for this insane level of secrecy surrounding games nowadays.
Gamers because we are these reactionary bunch of idiots who freak out at the smallest sign of bugs and write off entire games due to them. We don't understand the concept of betas, let alone stress tests like this. Just watching the thread in the morning was saddening because it proved exactly why the NDA was needed.
As for publishers, they should know better. This game has been in dev for over 7 years. It's being made by their A team. It likely cost well over a $100 million. Spend a few thousand more to pay testers instead of having the public test their game for free. expecting people to abide by the nda without giving them an incentive is naive.
Other than that, i can't see any other reason to blame them. Gamers, or at least the vocal minority, has latched on to this outrage mentality that has doomed many games unfairly. I have played so many good to great games this gen that were blasted over the internet for bugs, online issues and just being bad that i have come to really sympathize with developers. Driveclub was perfectly playable at launch. Had a great campaign but because of some online multiplayer issues, people dismissed it as a bad game and a great studio shut down. Ac unity had bugs that clearly showed the game was rushed by Ubisoft since they were fixed within weeks but it was too late and a fantastic ac game was thrown to the wolves. Not a single sequel since by that dev. Andromeda only had unfinished cutscene animations and was actually pretty bug free otherwise for an open world rpg but every YouTuber pretended it was the worst thing ever made. Mg survive was the latest casualty despite being bug free. All these games have largely positive official threads. People who actually played these games realized they were good despite some technical issues.
But despite all that, I will blame the publisher for those games shipping with issues, but what i can't do is blame a publisher who is actually actively trying to prevent that from happening with these stress tests.
Gamers because we are these reactionary bunch of idiots who freak out at the smallest sign of bugs and write off entire games due to them. We don't understand the concept of betas, let alone stress tests like this. Just watching the thread in the morning was saddening because it proved exactly why the NDA was needed.
As for publishers, they should know better. This game has been in dev for over 7 years. It's being made by their A team. It likely cost well over a $100 million. Spend a few thousand more to pay testers instead of having the public test their game for free. expecting people to abide by the nda without giving them an incentive is naive.
Other than that, i can't see any other reason to blame them. Gamers, or at least the vocal minority, has latched on to this outrage mentality that has doomed many games unfairly. I have played so many good to great games this gen that were blasted over the internet for bugs, online issues and just being bad that i have come to really sympathize with developers. Driveclub was perfectly playable at launch. Had a great campaign but because of some online multiplayer issues, people dismissed it as a bad game and a great studio shut down. Ac unity had bugs that clearly showed the game was rushed by Ubisoft since they were fixed within weeks but it was too late and a fantastic ac game was thrown to the wolves. Not a single sequel since by that dev. Andromeda only had unfinished cutscene animations and was actually pretty bug free otherwise for an open world rpg but every YouTuber pretended it was the worst thing ever made. Mg survive was the latest casualty despite being bug free. All these games have largely positive official threads. People who actually played these games realized they were good despite some technical issues.
But despite all that, I will blame the publisher for those games shipping with issues, but what i can't do is blame a publisher who is actually actively trying to prevent that from happening with these stress tests.
As many have said in this thread, BioWare already has paid testers in-house for years for the build being alpha-tested now. Public testing is for gathering data and user behavior at scale that can't be obtained in-house; even if you could do that internally, it would not be "a few thousand more".
The existence of bugs in the final product is not necessarily a failure of testing/QA; it's more a cost/benefit analysis of delays/costs of fixing the bug on the business/Product Manager side.
No it doesn't.
Also, inserting a curse word doesn't make your already obtuse post anymore powerful. It just makes you look angry.
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I blame the industry on this one, so many devs release "Beta's" that are really just glorified demo's.
You should buy Unravel for your 7 kids, its a great and fun game.
Nah, its not limitless penalties for breaking a NDA like this. EA cant sue this guy for 500 trillion dollars or request 1000 years in jail (extreme hyperbole examples, but i think you get my point) and win such lawsuit. The amount of damage VS penalty has to have some correlation.
By the way, why does it matter how much money that someone has in this case? If this was an indie developer who had taken mortages on their houses to fund this game, do you think it would be less, more or equally ok to break a NDA in that case? People should have the same rights even if they have 1 dollar or 1 billion dollars.
There will also be plenty of opportunities to check out the game and get feedback from it before choosing to buy it. Getting information about bugs and such in a alpha build might not even be representable in the final build.
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I can't speak for everyone else but the reason I'm fine with it is because I don't plan to break any rules with the people I buy games off so I don't fear losing access to them. Also it's not so much that we're cheering EA on, it's that we have no sympathy for someone who goes out of their way to purposefully break the NDA THEY signed.
Replace EA and Anthem with literally any other publisher and game title and you would see a lot of the same comments. Just because it's EA doesn't mean anything.
Insurance will replace the value of those games, though. I'm not arguing physical doesn't have downsides. This entire conversation was based on the scenario of a company taking away your digital purchases. And that can't happen if you have physical games.
Really all depends on how good your insurance is. And how much personal property you are covered for. Be persistent, and have a detailed inventory list with pictures. You should be able to get near the full value.
It's not surprising to me that he broke EA's rules so they kicked him off of all EA services. If you can't play by the rules then leave. It's not like him breaking this NDA put food on his family's table or a roof over his head so there was any way to spin his actions as necessary. It was just a jackass FU move. He got jackass FU'd back.
I'm surprised they haven't flat out banned him for life. Billions of people on Earth never play EA games. Adding one more to the list really amounts to nothing but fewer bad actors in the community/customer base.
I'm surprised they haven't flat out banned him for life. Billions of people on Earth never play EA games. Adding one more to the list really amounts to nothing but fewer bad actors in the community/customer base.
You can always just not sign a contract if you are not comfortable with it. No one is forcing you to sign anything.
i think people just figured: its a video game. Whats the worse that can happen?
Well, that.
'Company reserves their rights to steal back what they sold by hiring some lawyers to write some bullshit.'
Ok.
I'm... do people think NDAs are that important? Half the scoops you guys read about upcoming games come from someone breaking an NDA. I can't say I feel too terrible for this guy - he did sign a contract - but the glee here is beyond baffling.
Gotta protect the optimization of the marketing strategy for maximum hype production.
Won't someone think of the MBA types?
They didn't steal them in that case. You lost access because you broke the agreement you'd entered into.
If you stop making payments on your car, the repo guy isn't 'stealing' it...
Uh, yeah? NDAs are used all the time everywhere. It's not some videogame jargon nobody gives a shit about. Let's not kid ourselves, this guy wasn't some reporter that got a hot tip about something people want to know about, he's a shitty gamer that was trying to make a quick buck and get some twitch follows by showing off something near release that isn't showing anyone anything truly unknown about the game.
To compare it to someone getting an actual scoop is ridiculous.
The difference being the games were paid for in full. In your analogy it would be the same as Ford towing away your car after you finished paying.
Don't break NDA's. Just because its a video game and we are a video game enthusiast forum doesn't mean it's acceptable. Even in the Anthem thread 95% of people posting in that thread are breaking the NDA. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that we have NDA Breaker Apologists here but whatever. The law is the law.
No, they're being taken because you broke the agreed upon terms and lost access...
So you lost your license, kept driving and got caught, and they impounded your car.
Edit - and honestly I don't really care about the NDA at all. If you don't want to obey it, don't. But people who break it shouldn't complain when they then face repercussions.
The product has been paid for and delivered. Period. Any other nonsense is something the company should have no right doing. Your license example has nothing to do with the exchange of goods between the client and the car manufacturer.
This is really no different from any of the 'online services' attached to games these days. If you fail to uphold your end of the agreement - basically don't be a douchebag - you lose access to it, and it doesn't matter if you paid for it or not. You broke the rules, you face the punishment for it.
People have no ability to take responsibility for what they choose to do these days. It's not the company that's to blame for someone deciding they don't need to obey - or read - the NDA.
So you think he should have been sued for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, basically destroying his entire life, rather than just removing some games? You think that's a better deal? It's what the publisher is entitled to for breaking their contract, revealing company secrets and potentially damaging the company image.
Except it's bought on a store/platform that has to be maintained and the downloads and online services are on a server which also has to be paid for. That's why it's seen as a service and if they keep up their end of the bargain of consistently making sure you can play your games and downloads, and you don't keep your end of the bargain of acting reasonable/ not stealing their stuff (broadcasting stuff you don't own like the Anthem alpha is stealing) they can lock you out of that service, just like if you broke things in a restaurant they can throw you out, and it doesn't matter if you paid for it or not, they don't have to give you the food. The law does not give consumers carte blanche to just do what they want with no repercussions.
As opposed to a reporter who... reports on something under NDA who wants to get more clicks for their website? If this guy had been smarter and captured 30 minutes of video from the alpha and gave it to a journalist, that would be fine, but this isn't?
He saw something that was of interest to the gaming public - at least, certainly it was of interest to me, I clicked on this thread hoping to see unfiltered and unedited alpha footage of the game - and he posted it, hoping that it might boost his profile or get more clicks. This is not in any way different than what a Polygon would do other than, I suppose, that he doesn't have a byline.
It's not a law, it's a contract. No one is going to jail over this, or suffering any other kind of punishment from a government that implies wrongdoing.
Breaking an NDA isn't against the law, nor is breaking an NDA a cause of action for a civil lawsuit. The only way you would see such consequences was if the NDA itself contained such language (and it almost certainly doesn't, because slapping some streamer with a 5-figure fine would be a PR disaster).
Because Polygon doesn't break NDA's, they release information that the developer gives them permission to.
Contracts are governed by law. Breaking a contract is breaking civil law. Sure, you won't go to jail, instead you will get sued into oblivion, owing money for the rest of your life.
What do you think Contract law is? It can be incredibly serious to break a contract and the consequences can be really severe, including bankrupcy. It can destroy you for life, and you are incredibly foolish if you think that doesn't happen.
Polygon isn't signing an NDA and breaking it.
You're comparing the equivilent of us here on the forums discussing this guy breaking the NDA, to the person actually doing the breaking.
Reporters sign NDAs for press events all the fucking time, and it's pretty rare that we see those broken, because there are actual legal ramifications to doing so.
Ever heard of doctor-patient confidentiality, or legal profession privilege? Those are NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) too. They're not some thing EA conjured up to revoke peoples' accounts. There's a long history of their legitimate use in many industries too, not just the video game industry.
Yes? NDAs are extremely important for a wide variety of things. Just because it's "just video games" doesn't make them any less legally binding. Don't sign an NDA if you don't understand or care about it.
No. It's not the same at all. The service is there as a portal to the content. You buy the content, not the service.
I don't give a shit about this dude. This conversation is much bigger than some idiot who decided to play himself for 15 minutes of internet fame. It's about the constant erosion of customer rights in the digital space. No company whatsoever should be allowed to remove content that was bought and paid for. None of this would fly with physical goods.
Physical goods...I've signed NDA's for trying early-access development hardware, where if I break the NDA I lose the harware. I paid $3000 for that hardware. Exact same circumstance.
Nintendo is banning Switch consoles from online play after detecting they've hacked their consoles. Microsoft and Sony have banned consoles from online play after detecting piracy.
Basically, Physical goods have had functionality restricted, so your point is moot.
From the agreement signed for the Anthem Closed Alpha:
But breaking an NDA is ok.
MS banned consoles but your purchases would still be accessible on the console that had them and if you went online on any non banned console as well.
Even in cases of canceling the purchase on the bank/credit card Ms only blocks your ability of purchasing new games.