User Agreements. Unbelievably 'Fun'.

Here’s a random (ish) post on user agreements. The gaming industry is big. I read that it’s worth something like £300 or £400 now, and maybe bigger than One Direction. Are they still going? Understandably, businesses want to protect their products and services as they can make a few pennies. How do they do this? Legal protection.

Now, I’ve worked in legal protection many moons ago, but I’m a boy scout on the subject, and that’s not what this post is about. Or is it? This is a gaming site, and an opinion piece. It’s not to change the world or any crap like that, just sharing a thought – not an angry rant as such.

So, Captain Tsubasa was a game that was covered a few times on this site, and I was getting quite stoked for it as a football gaming fan. As the publisher is one of the big boys, and this website is still in its infancy, a code didn’t materialise, nor was I confident in spending £50 on a football game – the Super Sports Blast package is cheaper than that. The football game is currently my go-to one. That comment wasn’t sponsored.

A demo is now out for Captain Tsubasa, and I downloaded it. After feeling somewhat disgruntles that 16-bit Soccer only allows you to play the first half of a match in their demo, I fired up Bandai Namco’s title.

I was greeted with a user agreement to adhere to before playing the demo. The last time I saw this much text was back in the days of installing Windows. It got to the point, where almost all of us would skim over it, if not just agreeing to it and getting on with it.

Of course, we can get caught out by stuff like that with the infamous agreement compiled by Electronics Boutique. 

The amount of text and legal terms you have to read (you don’t, but…) before accepting is absurd. Are there really that many legal cases filed? Scratch that. Last time I was naive about this sort of thing, I ended up coming across as a goon. Of course, there are those who threaten everybody with legal action, so it makes sense to add protection.

A bit annoyed, I accepted after scanning the text, but there was another agreement, then another. Agreeing to them all, the game finally started and then it was further walls of text on how to play, mid-game. You know what? It’s a demo. I can’t be bothered. Deleted.

A couple of days later I picked up Little Nightmares 2 demo. Without knowing it’s Bandai Namco, the title screen loaded up, and it was the same thing again. Reading the text, which was mostly common sense, but packed with legal stuff, it seemed like silly hurdles for a demo. 

You have a choice: you don’t have to agree to is, but that means you can’t play the game. Oh well. Deleted. I’ll regret that – Little Nightmares 2 looks good and guarantee I’ll but in a few months.

Looking through my collection, I have a good selection of Bandai Namco games but don’t recall this much red tape. Was it because of the online usage? It’s referred to in some text, but the legal terms are a chore. My One Piece Collection and Taiko No Tatsujin (though it’s in Japanese) don’t have the same text.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one for boycotting games or companies, and that’s not remotely what this post is about. It’s just an example as it applies to several companies. I’ll still be playing Bandai Namco games, and in a better frame of mind, will skip through the agreements as before.

But is it that necessary? Do most gamers know their rights et al.? Well, it’s like insurance – you don’t know until you need it/applies to you. For the time being though, I’m sitting out of this one, not to make a stand, but I just can’t be bothered.

Solution? Can we have pretty diagrams instead, like a picture of a screwdriver being inserted into a socket with a cross on it? In context, a picture of a troll with a cross on their mouth, the words “Your mum/mom…” scribbled out? Maybe Ikea can design the EULAs?

Or you could click accept. Captain Tsubasa wasn’t that good anyway.