The Future of Gaming: We May Not Like It

So about two-three months ago now (yes, I didn't count down to the official date, so sue me) the world finally saw the long awaited release of Starcraft II, Blizzard's love letter to Korea and the rest of the RTS loving world at large. Even I picked up a copy, and I must say its a fun game to play. But there was one little thing about the game that bothered me. For whatever reason, as I read through the manual I decided to take a look at the legal agreement. What I saw bothered me. Quite a bit in fact, enough that if this little bit of legalese is the future of the games industry, I don't think I'd want to be a part of it.




So what makes this license agreement so worrisome? After all the very opening statement of the agreement points out that you own absolutely nothing and the title is effectively a long term rental that can be, at any time and with no warning or reason given, revoked. This seems harsh, but we've seen such unfriendly agreements before, this really isn't anything new. Granted, I prefer to own my copy of the game, not rent it long term, but if that's the only caveat I may be able to swallow that. It's the rest of the agreement I can't swallow.

Take for example, the entire section devoted to custom maps. Now, most companies usually have a little side section about custom map editors warning you not to produce unethical content or whatever. Blizzard just doesn't take that a step farther, they pick it up and run with it. Take a look at this:

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ALL MAPS, LEVELS AND OTHER CONTENT CREATED OR MODIFIED USING THE MAP EDITOR (COLLECTIVELY, “MODIFIED MAPS”) ARE AND SHALL REMAIN THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF BLIZZARD. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, YOU HERE BY ASSIGN TO BLIZZARD ALL OF YOUR RIGHTS, TITLE AND INTEREST IN AND TO ALL MODIFIED MAPS, AND AGREE THAT YOU WILL EXECUTE FUTURE ASSIGNMENTS PROMPTLY UPON RECEIVING SUCH A REQUEST FROM BLIZZARD. (Starcraft EULA, Section 3a. Emphasis Added)

Wait-wait-wait, so not only does any content I create automatically become the property of Blizzard (Not letting another DoTA slip past I see) but they may actually demand that I create additional content for them, and legally, I've agreed to do so? That's what it looks like. I'm sorry, but I will never touch the map editor, no matter how many good ideas I get, in order to generate a unique map if at any point Blizzard can require me legally to produce more for them. No. Absolutely not. That right there? Absolute trash. It's one thing to let fans create cool custom content for a title, but putting a little clause in the EULA that allows you to force them to? That's taking it way too far.

There are a few other worrisome areas as well.The warranty section in particular looks like it was written by two separate (and disagreeing) legal teams, first informing you that "THE GAME IS PROVIDED “AS IS” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND" only to have the next portion of the warranty section disagree, stating that "Notwithstanding the foregoing, Blizzard warrants up to and including ninety (90) days from the date of your purchase of the Game that the media on which the Game was distributed shall be free from defects in material and workmanship." Wait, so who wrote the first portion of this if Blizzard ret-cons it's own EULA document?

There are other little tidbits as well. They reserve the right to at any time, shut down their servers, which makes the game unplayable, and by the current EULA, you'd just be out of luck. They can cancel your account at any time, without warning or without reason, and your entire experience is pretty much at their mercy.

Look, I won't mince words. Starcraft II is far and above a solid game, but the EULA that comes with it stinks to high heaven. Honestly, even knowing how good this game was, had I read the EULA before buying the game, I may not have bought it. The game may be good, but the EULA sets a dangerous and worrisome precedent for the way games may be handled. If Starcraft II can get away with it, what game will come with it next? Like I said, if this is the future of games, I'm not so sure I want to be a part of that future. 

So what do you think? Am I just overly concerned? Did I just misread? Or is this a viable concern?

EDIT: Concenses seems to be that the EULA is poorly worded, as several who are bit more knowledgeable about legalese have pointed out that it's similar to other companies wording, although awkward, so maybe they're just saying its all ours, you can't claim it.