Coming out against SOPA now is simply karma whoring
Editorial by Michael Hawkes.
The SOPA bill (Stop Online Piracy Act), is a vile peice of corrupt legislation that should have never been introduced in the first place. Luckily, the Internet is comprised of smart people who are good at voicing their opinion, especially when it comes to gamers. Many insisted that their favorite game developers and publishers oppose SOPA, but opposition to this bill should have been in place by game companies from the beginning.
“To be against SOPA today is like saying ‘I’m against dictatorship’. Where were all these developers like Bungie and Epic when SOPA was first introduced?”Over the past week, dozens of developers and publishers have joined the anti-SOPA movement, some because of pressure from their customers, others simply because it’s now “cool” and will get you respect from gamers — respect which was never really earned.
To be against SOPA today is like saying “I’m against dictatorship”. Where were all these developers like Bungie and Epic when SOPA was first introduced? Companies like Google and Facebook opposed SOPA from the beginning, notifying their users and customers of their stance, explaining what the bill means, showing what the effects of it might be, etc.
Where were the game developers and game publishers then? Oh that’s right, they were supporting it — directly or indirectly through their trade organization ESA. Now that SOPA has been revealed to the mainstream audience (which includes gamers) for what it is, it’s easy to score points by opposing it. Credit should go to those who helped shed light on SOPA (and the Internet activists), credit should go to those companies who were the first to take a stance against it, not the current horde of developers and publishers who are simply jumping on the bandwagon to get some karma points from gamers. The current trend is not a company policy, it’s a marketing policy. It’s decided by PR departments to come out against SOPA because it’ll look good on the company.
The game developers and publishers we’re seeing these days coming out against SOPA is nothing but a massive Internet karma-whoring trend. They should have opposed it from the beginning. When it wasn’t cool.
Also TotalBiscuit should be thanked for his YouTube video back in december that got a couple million views on why SOPA is bad.
I never thought about that, but I agree!
You are a moron. Their reasons are irrelevant so long as they are against it.
While some companies may be doing that to “karma-whore”, we can’t be quick to judge because a lot of communities went ahead to explain why SOPA was going to destroy the free internet. They raised awareness and because of that, more people got informed and understood the threat that SOPA posed. Once they understood this, they officially post that they were coming out against SOPA. Besides, this is helpful for us because the more pressure against SOPA, the less chance it has in passing through the Senate/legislative branch.
Read title, skipped to comment section.
Need I point out to you, and anyone who believes coming out against SOPA now is ‘Karma whoring’, that these companies are still allowed their say?
The reason so many are coming out so late is because none of the mainstream media have been reporting on it, for reasons which most of the general public are unaware of, including myself. I only heard about it on reddit a couple of days ago.
Just because protestors show up late, doesn’t mean they’re jumping on someones fucking bandwagon. Saying that not only invalidates their action, but dilutes people’s opinion of their company.They have a belief, and they make it heard. Good on them.
Jesus, I’m from Australia and even I can see you’re being a raging douchebag.
Perhaps you are right, but also perhaps not. Problem with making assumptions like this is we don’t actually know what is going on in another person’s mind. Maybe some of them are just opposing SOPA to win points from their customers, but to paint everyone with the same brush simply because they arrived late to the party is not right. I say better late than never. I’m not going to turn down someone’s help just because I thought they should maybe have helped sooner.