Re: Call of Duty: Black Ops Video Games’ Failure to Function as Advertised
Gamers’ Voice is a consumer advice and lobbyist group that represents computer and video game consumers in the UK. As part of our remit, we are tasked with ensuring that the purchasers of computer and video games are given a fair hearing when they have a particular issue with a game they have bought. It is for this reason we are contacting you now, as we have been inundated with complaints from people concerning a particular title that was launched late last year.
On the 9th November 2010, Activision Blizzard, Inc. and its subsidiary, Activision UK Ltd, launched Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii and Nintendo DS video game consoles/formats in the UK. Since its launch, both the PlayStation 3 and PC versions of the game have been reported to be plagued by problems that are claimed to render it almost useless as the piece of entertainment the game purports to be. This is especially with regards to its multi-player online component. This is where the game utilises the internet to connect other players around the world to participate in the game, both cooperatively and in adversarial modes of play.
This element of the game is its major selling- point and can be the sole reason why people would purchase it. With it not functioning as intended, we can only conclude that as a product it is faulty and should not have been released in this state. To make a comparison to a more familiar product, it is akin to buying a fridge-freezer only to find that the freezer component doesn’t work.
The list of problems that have beset the multiplayer online component of Call of Duty: Black Ops are as follows:
* Sudden disconnections from online multiplayer game sessions
* Inability to join servers that play host to multiplayer game sessions
* Freezing of PlayStation 3 console, forcing the user to reset it
* Main menu freezing as the game is started on the PC version
Note that some of these issues could be generated by user error; however, we have carried out checks on these complaints and we have determined that this was not the case.
Sadly, this is not an exhaustive catalogue of issues people are having with this product. We have been contacted by people not only in the UK, but across the world regarding these issues. As such we feel compelled to contact you in order to lodge a formal complaint against Activision UK Ltd. and its parent company, Activision Blizzard, Inc.
This complaint is on the basis that Activision UK Ltd are in breach of the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) which states that when a consumer buys goods they must be: as described; of a satisfactory quality; and fit for any purpose made known at the time of sale to the seller.
It is clear that Call of Duty: Black Ops for the PlayStation 3 and PC is not ‘as described’; of a satisfactory quality or fit for purpose i.e. to entertain, which was stressed at the time of its release.
We can provide you with copies of the correspondence we have received regarding this issue, if such documents were to aid you investigating it further.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
I don't own a copy of the game, so I couldn't comment on whether their complaint will hold water, but if the OFT decides it does, it's going to set one hell of a precedent.
And we have lobbyists now? 'kinnel.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
I'd be shocked if this goes anywhere. Not necessarily because the author's complaint is wrong; I think we can all agree that games frequently fail to deliver on their marketing or suffer from numerous bugs because they were launched too early to keep to an arbitrary schedule, but because Activision has a lot more money and influence to throw at the problem than the complainer does.
Conversion Table:
2000 Mockingbirds = 2 Kilomockingbirds
Basic Unit of Laryngitis = 1 Hoarsepower
453.6 Graham Crackers = 1 Pound Cake
1 Kilogram of Falling Figs - 1 Fig Newton
Time Between Slipping on a Banana Peel and Smacking the Pavement = 1 Bananosecond
Half of a Large Intestine = 1 Semicolon
Master_Baerne wrote:but because Activision has a lot more money and influence to throw at the problem than the complainer does.
It would be the Office of Fair Trading that would actually bring the case to court. National debt or no, I think the British Government can probably outspend Activision, especially when it's paying itself to do so
There are plenty of games that are as buggy and unoptimized as Blops on PC/PS3, this is just the only massively popular one. STALKER 2 never getting a UK release?
A scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
So...because other games also have problems, it's stupid to complain about one of them?
It's good that argument would never hold water in court, because then every producer of shoddy good could scream "BUT OUR COMPETITION ALSO MAKES CRAP" and get out of any obligations towards the consumer.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
So...because other games also have problems, it's stupid to complain about one of them?
Are you saying there is a legal obligation for developers to ship well optimized games that are without any significant bugs? There is a huge precedence for this sort of thing in video games, it's stupid for people to get up in arms about this incarnation of it, specifically.
A scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the Earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?'
'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down.'
Yes, I would argue the devs have an obligation to deliver a product without significant bugs, or at the very least to fix those bugs in a reasonable timeframe.
The producers have such an obligation with any other consumer product from cigarette lighters to cars and heavy construction equipment ; The fact many publishers managed to get away with releasing unfinished shoddy products on the market is irrelevant.
Obviously it's going to be hard determining the exact extent of their obligation ; Nobody should expect every game to be released perfect, as that's impossible ; However, when major parts of the game don't work as advertised, a buyer should have some means of recourse, no?
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
If there is no law there should be one. People payed for a service (multiplayer gaming) and if they are not getting it then they are being cheated out of their money.
I have to tell you something everything I wrote above is a lie.
Sarevok wrote:If there is no law there should be one. People payed for a service (multiplayer gaming) and if they are not getting it then they are being cheated out of their money.
I think it's just a question of applying existing consumer protection laws. Nobody wants to do that because the issue is complicated, but it will have to be done eventually. Might as well start with black ops.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
PeZook wrote:Yes, I would argue the devs have an obligation to deliver a product without significant bugs, or at the very least to fix those bugs in a reasonable timeframe.
The producers have such an obligation with any other consumer product from cigarette lighters to cars and heavy construction equipment ; The fact many publishers managed to get away with releasing unfinished shoddy products on the market is irrelevant.
Obviously it's going to be hard determining the exact extent of their obligation ; Nobody should expect every game to be released perfect, as that's impossible ; However, when major parts of the game don't work as advertised, a buyer should have some means of recourse, no?
When you're talking about an entertainment product you're going to have a hard time arguing duty of care beyond ensuring the game doesn't actually cause harm. You might be able to get them for false advertising but I don't see what else you could reasonably expect.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Why? ; If a major part of the game just plain doesn't work (it may not be the case for CoD, but Prototype, for example, just plain refused to work on some popular systems) it's a faulty product. A product doesn't need to be dangerous to fall under consumer protection laws.
And I do agree determining which is and which is not covered by those regulations is going to be a pain ; But it has to be done eventually.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
PeZook wrote:Why? ; If a major part of the game just plain doesn't work (it may not be the case for CoD, but Prototype, for example, just plain refused to work on some popular systems) it's a faulty product. A product doesn't need to be dangerous to fall under consumer protection laws.
And I do agree determining which is and which is not covered by those regulations is going to be a pain ; But it has to be done eventually.
You might be able to get customers a refund if the game doesn't work, but frankly I don't see what else you'd realistically expect to do besides that.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
If you promise that your product has a certain function at the moment you sell it, then your product should be required to have that function, and that that function should work reliably and properly.
This applies to every single other product. Yes, it also applies to toys - if i buy a squirt gun and it doesn't actually shoot water, it's a faulty product - even if it is completely non-dangerous. If i buy candy and it tastes bad, the product is faulty - even if that bad taste is not actually gross or due to the product being dangerous.
I see no reason why this should not apply to digital entertainment. Heck, it already applies to similar stuff - if a movie-DVD is faulty and you can't access half the features, it is counted as a faulty product like everything else.
Yes, some bugs are inevitable and so on. But if they are that bad that you can not access whole features of the game, then the product is faulty by any meaningful definition of the word. And it should be treated like every other faulty product.
SoS:NBAGALE Force "Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent." - Sir Nitram
"The world owes you nothing but painful lessons" - CaptainChewbacca
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." - Wilhelm Stekel
"In 1969 it was easier to send a man to the Moon than to have the public accept a homosexual" - Broomstick Divine Administration - of Gods and Bureaucracy (Worm/Exalted)
Serafina wrote:
Yes, some bugs are inevitable and so on. But if they are that bad that you can not access whole features of the game, then the product is faulty by any meaningful definition of the word. And it should be treated like every other faulty product.
In other words, get a refund? Like I just said in my last post?
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
PeZook wrote:Why? ; If a major part of the game just plain doesn't work (it may not be the case for CoD, but Prototype, for example, just plain refused to work on some popular systems) it's a faulty product. A product doesn't need to be dangerous to fall under consumer protection laws.
And I do agree determining which is and which is not covered by those regulations is going to be a pain ; But it has to be done eventually.
You might be able to get customers a refund if the game doesn't work, but frankly I don't see what else you'd realistically expect to do besides that.
On the other hand, if there's a precedent set that retailers have to refund games just for being buggy, then publishers are going to be seeing a lot of stock returns and a lot less profits.
QA will become a significantly more important part of the publication process, because bad QA might actually start hurting the publisher rather than just costing a patch release or two.
It sounds to me like people are expecting the company to do a lot more than just provide a refund.
There's plenty of stores that have a 'no refunds if the packaging is open' policy, even with faulty games that don't work due to not having any QA done. That's actually already illegal, IIRC, but nobody actually applies consumer protection laws because they're games... or something.
I believe the 'no refunds if packaging is opened' thing is because retailers only have the user's word that the game is faulty. How hard is it to burn a copy of the disc and then return it claiming it refused to run?
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
Zaune wrote:I believe the 'no refunds if packaging is opened' thing is because retailers only have the user's word that the game is faulty. How hard is it to burn a copy of the disc and then return it claiming it refused to run?
However, under the terms of the Sale of Goods act, the retailer is under the legal obligation to prove that the product is not faulty until six months after purchase.
Vendetta wrote:However, under the terms of the Sale of Goods act, the retailer is under the legal obligation to prove that the product is not faulty until six months after purchase.
Which would be extremely difficult, at least for PC games. A faulty batch of discs or a misprint on the minimum specs on the back of the cover are easy enough to resolve, but otherwise you'd need expert testimony from a computer technician who's done everything they can think of to get it running and still drawn a blank before you hit the civil standard of proof.
There are hardly any excesses of the most crazed psychopath that cannot easily be duplicated by a normal kindly family man who just comes in to work every day and has a job to do.
-- (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)
Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
Vendetta wrote:However, under the terms of the Sale of Goods act, the retailer is under the legal obligation to prove that the product is not faulty until six months after purchase.
Which would be extremely difficult, at least for PC games. A faulty batch of discs or a misprint on the minimum specs on the back of the cover are easy enough to resolve, but otherwise you'd need expert testimony from a computer technician who's done everything they can think of to get it running and still drawn a blank before you hit the civil standard of proof.
An innocuous scratch wouldn't make it readily apparent either. I've had rental discs that were scratched up play just fine for a few hours then all of a sudden refused to play past a certain spot. Likewise I've had discs equally scratched up play just fine through the entire thing.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
