Wearing an Albatross in a Gathering Storm

Last year, on February of 2018, a scandal hit the sixth iteration of the beloved PC franchise, Civilization. Civilization 6 boasted a tremendous success and, despite many players missing the several years of features made possible by the few expansions for the previous iteration, the game was well reviewed. It seemed to be the foundation for a great beginning for new entry into an old franchise.

EULA, or End License User Agreement, is a term most gamers are unaware how familiar they are with it. It is the agreement that comes up on every piece of new software installed filled with the pages of legal jargon they used to shove in the back of the user manual that nobody kept around or read. Many are, for the most part, virtually copy and pasted. Typed out by a lawyer, or more likely an intern, with several articles changed according to the needs of the company publishing the software.

There’s a long history of user agreements being bundled up and thrown in out the door with language that is borderline unreadable or even frightening. Most agreements are to excuse the publisher of being responsible if you use their programs to do something illegal or damaging. The lawyer’s job is to create a loophole for the company in case the worst possible scenarios come to pass. Really, it’s not that big of a deal.

However, what is a big deal is when an EULA changes after the purchase. There is a level of agreement the market used to have… you buy something, it’s yours. But over the years, as digital content has become more ubiquitous, the power of ownership has shifted from consumer to further and further in the favor of the digital publisher. iTunes alone set a massive precedent by declaring that your entire library bought through their store doesn’t belong to you. You bought a license, not the product. In our continued pursuit into the digital age, this trend has become a norm.

So when Civilization 6 introduced a new EULA containing information about a new program it integrated into its software, people took note. They made a stir and, by the mid-July Red Shell existed. Red Shell is a program described by the company as “Red Shell helps PC & console games uncover where their players come from through reliable attribution.”

But as described by the EULA itself, “The information we collect may include personal information such as your first and/or last name, e-mail address, phone number, photo, mailing address, geolocation, or payment information. In addition, we may collect your age, gender, date of birth, zip code, hardware configuration, console ID, software products played, survey data, purchases, IP address and the systems you have played on. We may combine the information with your personal information and across other computer or devices that you may use.”

The response to this was universal, “How about no.” And it stuck. Red Shell was removed. Civilization 6, released its next big expansion, Gathering Storm, this week. But like an albatross around their neck, a heavy weight still remains. Posts like these over on Reddit continue to plague the game. The burden of a legacy of a massive violation of the ethical spirit of the market, if not a violation of the law, remains.

This isn’t the first time Civilization 6 has been harangued at the sudden repost of this scandal. Users on the game’s subreddit have seen it so many times, they often ignore it rather than commenting and downvoting it. But this isn’t the only game to suffer from a legacy effect of prior mistakes – mostly in the form of review bomb campaigns over quasi-political issues. Total War: Rome II, a game that came out in 2012, put out an update in 2018 that included the potential for female generals. The response to the change came in the form of sudden reviews appearing on the steam page trashing the game for a “political stance” or a “violation of historical accuracy” for said stance’s take.

Fans of the series Half-Life who have been waiting for more than a decade for a third episode expansion, or even a third entry into the franchise, were incensed when in 2017 Marc Laidlaw published a “fanfic” of what many people pieced together was supposed to be Half-Life 3 meant for release in 2007. They responded in furious reviews of the Valve MOBA Dota 2, blaming Valve’s support of the game was the cause for the famous lack of the third entry.

The logo used for the Civilization series has been the iconic titan of mythology, Atlas, bearing the globe – the universal symbol of humanity and the world itself – on his shoulders. Like Atlas or yore, like an albatross swinging from the neck, the legacy of poor choices lives on for games years after their release. With the advent and rise of the democratization of reviews, is the unruly mob a trend that will see the rise of a more well educated consumer? Or will the mob roam supposed monster to supposed monster with their torches and pitchforks?