1503AD and the Rapid Erosion of End-User Rights?

Agram asks: "I bought the Sunflowers' 1503AD game practically as soon as it came out, since my wife and I loved to play the old 1602AD together via LAN. 1503AD's expanded multiplayer feature was touted all over the internet, yet when I bought the game, for a costly $52, I was very unpleasantly surprised that it had no multiplayer mode at all. Despite the continuous claims that the company is working on the MP patch, we're now over 7 months away from the initial release, the game now sells for a measly $15, and I have yet to play a single second of it, as I have no interest in the single player experience. My attempts at communication with the company led to nothing but dead-ends and unprovoked mistreatment. Unfortunately, this is not a unique occurrence in today's software entertainment industry, where atrocious lack of support is growing rampant and is increasingly coupled with ridiculous EULA's. I have therefore decided to finally exercise my end-user rights and pursue a class-action lawsuit against the company. I am now asking you, fellow Slashdot reader, for help in seeking answers to the following questions as, well assistance in assembling signatures for the class-action lawsuit."

"Here are my questions:

• How does one go about locating a reputable and internationally active law firm that could handle this case?
• What is the required number of the participants for a class-action lawsuit to be instantiated?
• Do you think that this course of action will yield any results?

If you have this game and feel the same like I do, I would like to urge you to please join the class-action lawsuit. Also, if you feel that you can and are willing to help out in any other shape or form (i.e. website maintenance etc.), please do not hesitate to contact me and/or visit the website stated below. I believe that this can be used to leverage further attempts at forcing the other entertainment software companies to support their product(s) as they ought to, as well as hopefully abolishing the obfuscated EULA's that relinquish them of any responsibility towards consumers. 1503AD is by no means an exception, but rather it is part of an unfortunate growing trend among the entertainment software companies.

For more details regarding this issue please visit this site."

Comments

Get a life!

[fm6]

Why do people insist on asking for legal advice on Slashdot?

More to the point, why does Cliff keep accepting such lame "tell me how to" stories?

It isn't just that Slashdot is the wrong place to go for legal advice. Agram's whole attitude is just plain childish. Here's the scenario: somebody makes a cool game. People love it and play it to death. Motivated by their previous success, the developers plan a followup. But they overreach themselves, fall behind schedule, and end up releasing an incomplete product.

This is not anything new. It certainly isn't a "Rapid Erosion of End-User Rights". Game buyers have been getting stung since forever, especially those that rush out and buy without reading the reviews. It sucks, but it's not a major moral crisis.

But since legal advice is solicited, here's mine: forget it. You're not going to recover anything, even if the law is on your side. You can prove a claim, but the claimee isn't obligated to sell his family into slavery to satisfy you. Or do you think that a software company that can't get a product out the door has infinitely deep pockets?