Is there a reason why this game is covered here, other than it looks nice? I mean as far as i can see there is no native linux version planned, it is not based on an open sourced engine, etc.
What makes this game special?

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Quoting: CGullWhat content, in a game, is simply "inappropriate" universally and for everyone?

Don't know where you are from (guess US), but over here in Europe youth protection laws with regard to content are a common thing and not perceived as a bad thing.
As a parent I can say that it is possible "to clear" the content for you 6yo Child, but not for your 13yo teenage daughter. To do that i would need 36 hours in a day.

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Absolut overkill by Steam (or the legislator). It would be still less disruptive if they asume an age restriction of 18, which would be the harshest possible restriction.

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Quoting: pleasereadthemanualSome patents The Pokemon Company owns: https://patents.justia.com/assignee/the-pokemon-company [External Link]

Wow, really worth having a look. Some pretty hilarious and/or wild things to find there.

GAMIFICATION OF HEALTH AWARENESS BASED ON A WAKE-UP TIME

An object is to provide a user with motivation to enjoy waking up in the morning and guide the user to sufficient awakening by generating a breeding event in a breeding game of a virtual life form when the user wakes up in the morning.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyFor the record, though, I'm pretty sure the library I work in is not destroying the universe.

Yeah, that's exactly what i would tell people if i'd work in a library that is about to destroy the universe. :whistle:

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Quoting: pbMeh, it's probably a part of some cashgrab plan.

Nah, EU:IV is just at the end of its lifetime. EU:V is already announced, so PDX just wants to get into the news with this brand and, as mentioned by other users, reduce the maintainance cost of the game. They also know that old players have paid for these DLCs already (which are indeed some of the more "must have" DLCs) and new players would shy away from an investment of fourty-something dollar/euro (in sale!) for the basegame + these DLC for an potentially dying game.

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Quoting: Mountain ManI can think of any number of legitimate business reasons why a company would not wish to make its intellectual property and code freely available.

I think a large part of the disagreement comes from the fact that you confuse "freely available" with "make it free" like in FOSS. There are a lot of games out there who make their server code freely available without making them free software or giving up any of their rights.

The whole mobile game industry offers free games without opting to free software. And I'm pretty sure Valve has absolutly no problem to ensure DRM for games, even when they make no direct profit from that. This way you can easily patch already sold copies and prevent additional distribution. Not the perfect solution, but better than the current state.

No business ever plans for their product to fail, but it happens regularly and unpredictably,

This is why companies have to insure some risks separately. Or form reserves, for example for dismantling obligations. You act as if this has never been solved.

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Quoting: Mountain ManYou can't expect the entire global software industry to suddenly go open source

Neither I nor the Initiative asked for something like that. The bare minimum ist that software that was already purchased will remain functional or give the customer the ability to run the necessary infrastructure. At no point the text says something about making intellectual property open source.

It is of course possible to agree in the contract between the developer and the artist that all rights revert to the artist at the end of the distribution phase of the game. The artist can then pursue all copyright infringements outside of the customer's purchase agreement.

licensed intellectual property, music, and artwork in their games that they can't simply give away.

And nobody said something like that.

You say it's not the consumer's problem, but it is,

I said it shouldn't, but at least for the last part we can agree.

and they already have 100% control over the situation: If you have any concern whatsoever that an online service for a game might be discontinued at some point in the future, then don't buy that game.

That's the opposite of control. In fact this argument applies to all sorts of fraudulent sales, since you were not forced to buy any fake products.

To be frank, if the government takes up this cause and passes legislation saying that companies must make their games available to consumers in perpetuity, then I can see a lot of developers and publishers deciding that the EU market isn't worth the trouble.

Yeah, we heard it all before, in every discussion from consumer rights to data privacy/protection. I don't fear any of this.

Edit: You know man, i hope you will never be in the situation where your car gets unusable because of licensing of software and stuff. But of course you could easily avoid such a thing by not purchasing a car in the first place.

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Quoting: Mountain ManAssuming it's not proprietary or licensed. That's one part of this debate that is never considered, that developers may not legally be able to release their games for free.

I don't see why this should be the consumers problem instead of the developers. If a legislation is enacted according to the initiave, than such kind of licensing isn't the way to go (within EU) anymore, so what? THEN the market could sort out the rest.

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Self-Published Survivors is a 'complete the set' bundle,

Wasn't sure if something like this is supported by Steam. Sad thing that it isn't used more often. Hooded Horse could have much more of my money if they would.

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