As you’re aware, some gaming companies, looking at you Sony and EA, are trying to avoid class-action lawsuits in a rather questionable fashion by making you agree to a form of the TOS that you must agree to, thinking they can hide behind a clause that lets you opt out and hope that nobody reads that part or bothers to send a letter. Some gamers have responded to this with Gamers Opt Out.
Some countries, especially those in Europe, have very strict laws regarding customer and consumer rights and they are enforced in the best interests of the consumer while metaphorically pissing on the companies, the way it should be. Those of you not lucky enough to live in Europe have Gamers Opt Out. Their deliberate omission of electronic opt-out has been stomped on and burned to ashes.
The Chicago-based gamersoptout.com runs purely on donations to send out letters on the behalf of others who cannot (or will not) send physical mail to the companies, all for free. The organizer Matt Jakubowski was quoted as saying “I thought of the idea after first hearing about the new Sony PSN opt-out clause but didn’t think much of it until it came to light that Origin had the same one.” according to a GiantBomb article.
Even though an EULA’s legal power is questionable at best, Matt said “A lot of commenters seem to all mention that ‘This EULA wouldn’t hold up in court anyways,’ and I agree. But it’s not about that. The point is that Sony & EA put these clauses in and are being sneaky about it. They don’t expect people to send the opt-outs and you know what 90% of the people won’t. What we are trying to do is stand up for ourselves as gamers and show these companies that they can’t do this to us and that we don’t agree with what they are doing.”
They do this out of their own pocket, out of their own time, and on behalf of gamers, a truly good deed if there ever was any. He says that they have raised $600 so far, which is enough to send over 2600 letters, which is a paltry amount of gamers compared to the userbase of services like PSN and Origin.
