The Gaming Anarchist Collective and Being a Gaming Anarchist

Occasionally the question arises "why gaming anarchist? Isn't that a bit puerile and outdated punk rock behaviour?" It's an interesting one and it should really be clarified somewhere along with a more in depth description of what we are here for so here goes.

There was a lot of thought that went into the choice of name for this project, lots of ideas were banded around before we decided on the name of the group as the Gaming Anarchist Collective. Even so there is a chance that some assumptions can be made on it. This group doesn't ascribe to any specific party political ideal, members and contributors can and do have a wide spectrum of views. We are gamers, that's an easy one; we are a collective, we work together as a single entity; and we hold an anarchic view, this is where things can get sticky.

Anarchism, nothing to do with an over-the-hill, culturally irrelevant butter salesman

The meaning of anarchism has been deeply mismanaged by the punk movement and has almost turned it into a cultural irrelevance (personally I love punk music but that isn't the point, I also love metal but I don't think devil worship is a good idea).  It does not mean being a disruptive force for the sake of disruption alone.  It is the belief of the current state of affairs is wrong and seeking to change that according to a driving ethos, that ethos isn't fixed so what any given person or group that claims to be in any way anarchistic could be opposed to wildly different things, which I believe is where the confusion comes in.  Anarchism comes directly from the Greek "an" (no) and "arkhos" (leader) and reinforces the fact that this movement is intentionally faceless, not through cowardice but through necessity as well as our aims. We also refuse to accept leadership from the industry, they are facilitators and people we fund to entertain us. The gaming industry isn't a government, it is a business that produces a non-essential product, a product there is a huge market for, a market that is being poorly served by some people who stand on the shoulders of the originators of this industry and risk ruining it for everyone by taking advantage of ever increasing complexity. To give it a film analogy it is like comparing Charlie Chaplin to Adam Sandler.

Any name of a group unless it is a unique brand name (not ones that use twee respelling of real words) will have unavoidable connotations to pre-existing ideas or philosophies. If you consider the political philosophy that you could ascribe to our title the closest etymologically would be collectivist anarchism. Collectivist anarchism is a political doctrine that states that the means of production should be owned by the masses and people should benefit according to their labour (which diverges from Marxism which states all take according to need). Taken purely in the sense of a consumer capitalist culture that might initially sound ridiculous but there is a difference between a philosophy within a system and a desire for a certain system of government.  If you did some reading into the philosophy from the perspective of the narrow aims of this project it works out as a pretty good fit. The name as it is was selected organically from the meaning of the words not in order to ascribe to an ideal, there is no desire in this project to change our respective economic or political system. If that was the point this group certainly wouldn't have anything to do with gaming, instead we would have V masks on and be standing outside banks. Our aim is simple and achievable, to improve both the view of gamers and the health of the gaming industry.

It is easy for people who believe a company in a free market can do whatever they want and consumers should just accept it to label people who disagree as "commies", "lefties", "Marxists" etc and that is bullshit (people also do this to anti-prejudice movements when they ascribe the "far right" neo-Nazi groups as being opposed by extreme beret wearing ultra liberals). Demanding value for your money is the basis of capitalism, money has a value in terms of investment into a task either with labour or financial investment or the rarity of a commodity. If you have a job where you work for a salary you will know how much your time is worth according to the economy, it's stipulated in your contract.  We can either pay less for what we get or get higher quality for what we pay for, those are the only agreeable options.  This project is entirely devoted to the spending of disposable income and how much that can buy you and we believe everyone is paying too much and getting too little for it, it is as simple as that.

A overly simplistic meme but nicely sums up the absolute opposite of our aims and what some people may immediately think of

To stick with the political analogy the gaming industry is an entertainment medium, as such it is a non-essential commodity. The means of production, i.e. game development and production, are in the hands of those businesses that does the work but they have no value without the consumer. They exist and prosper by consensus and financial investment of their customers. A plough in the hands of a farmer who grows a crop that nobody wants is just scrap that could be better used by someone else to better effect.

The entire perspective is wrong, as with politics, the people shouldn't fear their government, a government should fear their people. In the same way the gaming community is in control, not the developers or the producers, some people desperately try to wrestle that from their benefactors, the gamers.

To put it into a graphic and fairly unpleasant metaphorical imagine the gaming industry as a large powerful person, let's call him Jim. You're an insignificant speck to Jim, a single cell organism, bacteria that lives in it's intestines, consuming whatever by-products he produces, there are lots of other little cells like you, some consuming different by-products of Jim's, some the same but ultimately there is no competition between these cells as there is more to consume and more space to exist that you could ever want. Jim doesn't care how his body works but it seems to, he does what he wants and everything is find in his world. If Jim changes his diet then the composition of his by-products will change, some of the bacteria is fine, consuming away oblivious to what is going on. There is other bacteria that can't consume anything from what Jim produces and increasing numbers of the cells keep dying off, not that Jim even notices or cares, he is doing fine. Eventually Jim's the by-products of Jim's metabolism has changed so much that entire populations are missing that used to co-habit quite happily for the benefit to all. You see the fact is that these aren't parasites, Jim can't just get rid of them, they have their own tiny by-products that in large enough numbers sustain Jim's existence. Individually they are fairly meaningless but together they keep Jim's body running, to what extent that is Jim really can't tell and without them before he knows it Jim suffers kidney failure, no more Jim.

Individually we are specs to those in the industry but we each generate the money that it needs to exist, it is a symbiotic relationship and not a parasitic one. There is a balance to be found, between cost and value, between piracy and slavish copyright enforcement, between popularism and banality, between Microsoft and Sony. Division creates profit for those who don't deserve it, as gamers we are one socio-economic group, we don't need to play the same things, be able to afford the same things, own the same platforms of be of the same skill level. We just want to be able to spend some time playing games if we want and we should want that same freedom for others should they wish.

There are some people who like to stand up as voices of public opinion and that is great but ultimately they need to balance their desire for their message and their continued recognition for their opinion and in the end they all either put on a tweed jacket and sell butter on TV or disappear into obscurity. We are happy to be unremembered, playing games is ultimately an unimportant thing, it's a fun way to pass the time but it isn't a way of life, it doesn't separate us from other people, it just serves as an opportunity to being some people together.

We intend to bring the power to the gamers because we are obscure, the person writing this will probably never be individually recognised for it because ultimately recognition doesn't matter. What matters is that anyone who joins us or supports us or is influenced by us want the same thing, a thriving video game entertainment industry. No leadership is needed, each person has their role to play and for some it is to talk, for others it is to listen, for some it is to organise and others to create, but if we act as one and stand together we will meet our goal.

Everyone will support different caused under this banner of positive change and a healthy industry. Some may focus on DRM; some on increased consumer rights (i.e. returning a game if you think it's rubbish) some it will be to fight the media's impression that all gamers as potential murders and rapists who are all men who live in their parent's basement; some to point out that variety and creativity is better than predictability; others to find a better price point for games (either through a healthy retail price or preventing DLC price gouging), the list goes on and on.

Ultimately it is about finding a balance we can all live with, nobody gets what they want all the time but as a community the gamers and the industry (most of which are gamers anyway) can find the point where the industry can grow in a sustained way by producing quality products. There are some simple things all paying consumers can all do without resorting to activism to be heard in a way that hits hard:

• Do not buy DLC that clearly should be part of the game and has been held back i.e. anything created during the main development cycle, by buying the game you should get these included in the retail release. 
• "Real endings" e.g. Azura's Wrath 
• Missing levels e.g. Azura's Wrath (again), Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Assassin's Creed 
• Game changing upgrades e.g. Street Fighter X Tekken (gems), Dragon's Dogma 
• Extra characters e.g. Street Fighter X Tekken (especially when it's clear the content is on disc, complete or not) 
• Anything that can be unlocked by playing the game 
• Do not buy games in stores that offer retailer exclusive DLC or download that content 
• Pre-order any game you are interested in (be cautious of non refundable deposits in stores) and be willing to cancel it immediately upon the news breaking about any bad practices or a weak demo 
• If a publisher has a history of releasing GOTY, complete, gold editions etc never buy the initial release, wait them out 
• Do not buy any game that contains user limiting DRM, that goes double for single player offline games 
• Do not pre-order digital content 
• Do not buy anything digitally that is the same price or more than physical media 
• Do not buy any competitive online game if you have reason to believe that any patching or balancing issues will not be addressed by patches but a new iteration e.g. any fighting game from Capcom 
• Do not buy any game that insists on agreeing to terms of service that damage your consumer rights, legal rights or change your ownership of the product into a revocable "licence" 
• Do not buy any game if the servers are cut for a previous title within 2 years of launch e.g. pretty much any online EA game 
• Do not buy any game that is published by a company that bans users for voicing opinions on the quality of a product 

If enough of us follow these practices the companies will feel it in their profits and will quickly adjust their marketing strategy, they want to prosper and will do what it takes to remain profitable. It takes having convictions, you don't need to consume anything in the gaming industry any terms of service of practices are there because we allow them to be there. There is one thing holding us back from this, excessive fan service for a developer, publisher or IP. Nobody HAS to buy any product in the gaming industry, it is an entertainment medium, this is an attitude that above all needs to change for the good of everyone. If you had to buy something on day one and were so excited to get it home and play the hell out if it I understand, we all do, we aren't dismissing your fan-hood or considering you as less than any other gamer but you are wrong, that shouldn't be the end of our conversation, it's the beginning.

If a production company has the rights to an IP you enjoy boycott it, even if it kills the IP off for good, something will come along to fill the hole left by nostalgia. If you love gaming or even just quite enjoy it you need, like with all things, a sense of proportion and discipline, without it the industry will soon reach saturation point where more and more people become excluded. Some people love that, that they have something that others don't, the problem with that attitude is firstly it's selfish and secondly it just goes to prove that you had to pay over the odds to get something, it's self defeating. We have already seen subscription plans for consoles being tested out in the US by Microsoft, if we don't pull the market back we will end up with a price plan like your mobile/cell phone or else be forced to pay outright for an inferior model. Even as I write this an article popped up saying there will potentially be two tiers of next generation box, a proper console and an "accessible, budget conscious machine for casual gamers." That isn't a good idea, it's an excuse to turn consoles further towards being the cost of a desktop PC which consoles have thrived as being the cheaper plug and play model that doesn't need upgrading until the next generation. Bit by bit what built this industry is being chipped away by people who don't understand their own market but do understand how to sell stuff to credulous people. The people who are sucking this industry dry rely on loyalty, you owe them none, they should be respectful to the people who buy their products.

Together we can make a difference.