yeah, I know, but what can be done about it? online FPS gaming had this particular artificial penis forcefully crammed into it's rectum quite some time ago, and no one with enough industry clout to get it clawed out has been particularly inclined to do so.

eBay makes money off of it too. eBay is entirely a peer-to-peer resale outfit. That's their gig. In fact their 'agency' model of used games could encourage much more reselling that Gamestop's 'retail' model - eBay makes less off each sale, but encourages more peer-to-peer selling (which I think is the better model for selling used games). Also, the publisher's inclination is to kill used altogether or move to a model where the selling of used games has no or limited effect - like encouraging micro-transactions, online passes, subscriptions, and F2P.

Again, none of the new transaction types would be bad if it were the natural evolution of a healthy publisher-customer relationship, but instead it is being driven by fear from the publishers.

A fear which is unfounded. They complain about Gamespot's effect and yet, the sale of new physical games isn't really decreasing all that much and is probably being taken up and surpassed by digital sales. They're a bunch of chicken littles and it isn't even raining. I mean c'mon first it's piracy, now it's used sales - and each time it's going to cause the complete destruction of the industry, billions of dollars are being lost, jobs destroyed, Hollywood movie lots will be vacant, game studios will burn to the ground in post-apocalyptic hell-scape to come - and yet somehow never actually comes to pass. They're using apocalyptic language to describe something which isn't even causing a problem for them - not when you actually look at sales and revenue.

He's not using rational arguments and his type are pushing it so than it doesn't matter if you're Gamestop or an average joe, you don't ever get to resell your game and if they can make gaming a service that you pay multiple times for the same product you used to pay once for then even better. He's trying to appeal to the fear that you'll never get to play games again - literally saying there won't be a games industry - because of used games. Even if I agreed with arguments about fairness to the publisher/dev - and I think fairness to the customer trumps that a thousand fold - surely you cannot tell me that the games industry will disappear unless we ban used games or move to financial models like F2P/micro-transcations. Not with a straight face. Surely not.

And I will not stop calling you Shirley! :)

Same thing as always. A) Boycott as much as possible. B) Be outspoken and protest wherever possible.

Glad someone agrees that the attitude that these sociopathic business ethics being "okay" has got to go.

*edit*

awww, fuck it! the quote got screwed .....

Yeah. I have my hope set on a growth in non-profit organisations / companies. Point is not to amass money at all cost, but to allow people to make a living and re-invest the rest. It's simple really - the purpose of the economy should be to enable society, rather than the other way round.

[Also: If you are against (extreme) poverty you also have to be against (extreme) wealth - no way around that, no matter what your ideology.]