Illustrating how few people pay attention to the terms and conditions of anything, UK retailer GameStation— as part of an April Fool’s gag—added a line to the fine print of its website that granted the souls of agreeing customers to the merchant.
The “Immortal Soul Clause,” as detailed by Bit-Tech, was slipped into a GameStation online sale promotion. 88.0 percent of the website visitors did not notice the clause and effectively signed away rights to an immaterial part of themselves (that may or may not exist).
Those who did notice the clause, and opted out, were awarded a £5 gift voucher.
For its part, GameStation said that it would not enforce the clause and plans to issue nullifications via email to those who were duped.
All in all, 7,500 customers reportedly signed away their souls.
|Image: Appalachian Soul Snatcher from Flickr|
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Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
April 16, 2010 -
Posted in
Shout box
Monte: trolls are just at their absolute worst when it comes to women and feminist. You could bet good money that if the developer were male the trolls would be silent and the conversation would actually focus on the journalism.10/18/2014 - 9:18pm
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Monte: Papa: Not the first time we've had a journalism scandals before, but the harassment never got close to this level; the difference with this scandal is that feminists are involved. Without the feminist angle, their would be A LOT less harrassment10/18/2014 - 9:15pm
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Papa Midnight: Monte: That's honestly rather short-sighted. As has been proven with other persons who have been targeted, if it wasn't Quinn, it would be someone else.10/18/2014 - 6:26pm
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Avalongod: I think that's part of what gives an esoteric news story like this real life...it taps into a larger narrative about misogyny in society outside of games.10/18/2014 - 3:29pm
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Avalongod: @Monte, well the trolls made death threats that came to police (and media attention). I think this is tapping into a larger issue outside of games about how women are treated in society (like all the "real rape" stuff during the last election)10/18/2014 - 3:28pm
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Wonderkarp: Zippy : Havent tried the PS4 controller. might later.10/18/2014 - 2:37pm
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Monte: Seirously, If Quinn was not involved and GG was instead about something like the Mordor Marketing contracts, the trolling would have never grown so vile and disgusting. There have been plenty of movements in the past that never sufferred from behavior..10/18/2014 - 1:57pm
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Monte: We have seen scandel's before but the trolling has never been as vile as what we see with GG. Trolls usually have such a tiny voice you can barely notice them, but its like moths to a flame whenever femistist are involved.10/18/2014 - 1:53pm
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ZippyDSMlee: Wonderkarp: You might be able to if you had a PS4 controller.10/18/2014 - 1:00pm
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MaskedPixelante: http://store.steampowered.com/app/327940/ Night Dive starts charging for freeware.10/18/2014 - 12:21pm
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Matthew Wilson: the sad thing is there are trolls on both sides of this. people need to stop acting like their side is so pure.10/18/2014 - 12:19pm
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MechaTama31: So, only speak out on a scandal that hasn't attracted trolls? I wouldn't hold my breath...10/18/2014 - 10:49am
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Monte: I feel like GG just needs to die. The movement is FAR to tainted by hatred and BS for it to be useful for any conversation. Let GG die, and then rally behind the NEXT gaming journalism scandal, and start the conversation fresh.10/18/2014 - 10:33am
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quiknkold: and we dont have a Dovakin to call a cease fire10/17/2014 - 7:37pm
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quiknkold: The whole thing is Futile. Both sides are so buried deep in their trenchs that there isnt a conversation. Its just Finger Pointing, Name Calling, Doxxing, Threats. there needs to be a serious conversation, and GG isnt it.10/17/2014 - 7:37pm
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quiknkold: I thought it was a good article. Jeff is right. I feel like GamerGate did destroy its message. I am for Ethics in game journalism, but man. so much hate. and its on both sides. I've seen some awful stuff spewed on twitter. Its a big reason why I exited..10/17/2014 - 7:34pm
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Matthew Wilson: while he focused on gg, he did call out both sides crap.10/17/2014 - 7:18pm
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Papa Midnight: That was a damn good read offered by Jeff Gertsmann.10/17/2014 - 7:17pm
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Matthew Wilson: http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/letter-from-the-editor-10-17-2014/1100-5049/ deferentially a nice write up.10/17/2014 - 6:44pm
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james_fudge: I think Evan killed it. He's a great guy and super smart.10/17/2014 - 6:38pm
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Comments
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Ctrl-Alt-Del have had the same thing in their footer fine print for ages now...
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Since I see the misconception thrown around a lot (and respecting jurisdiction of course) I thought I should mention that for the U.S. at least, EULAs are considered legally binding contracts so long as they pass the legal requirements surrounding contracts (this includes not violating any other laws).
There has been no ruling against *all* EULA contracts, only specific cases where the contract in question violated contract or other laws. There have also been several cases where EULAs have been held up by courts. In the US it's also relative to the specifc court district in question which way a case may go, unfortunate but true.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
...I'd sign away my soul in a contract. Surely some of the 88% that did sign it simply didn't care about ridding themselves of that pesky soul (like me)?
Funny story, though, hah.
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
I gotta say this was a clever april fools day joke.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/
http://www.killatia.com/
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
I seem to recall a gaming magazine once doing a similar thing with its cover CD. The click-through EULA signed over the rights to your home, which was revealed in the following month's edition.
It's always worth reading the EULAs regardless of their legal standing. 30 seconds skimming paragraph by paragraph can tell you what sort of data the service will harvest from you/your computer, what they do with it, what the penalties are or may be for modding... that sort of thing.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
30 seconds? Have you seen how long some of those are? You're not gonna get much from too many of them, especially MMOGs, if you just spend 30 seconds on it. It can take that long just to scroll through some of them to the bottom so you can hit accept.
Saying that Jack Thompson is impotent is an insult to impotent men everywhere. They've got a whole assortment of drugs that can cure their condition; Jack, however...
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
True, but in the modern world, people hide behind the fact that they aren't legally binding to get away with whatever they want.
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You KILL Vampires. You don't DATE them.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
I'd be more intrested to know how many people actually read those things.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
If the article is anything to go by, 12%
E. Zachary Knight
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
http://www.theeca.com/chapters_oklahoma
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
I'm amazed it's as high as 12%... I can't think of ANYONE who reads those things. I mean, when faced with the choice of reading a long, dry, document full of the standard legalese, or playing that awesome new game you got, I can't think of anyone who would choose the former.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Assuming they were told of the 5 pound certificate right away it was probably lower. If it happened to me I would run to my friends and tell them to get to that site and decline the EULA for 5 pounds.
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Debates are like merry go rounds. Two people take their positions then they go through the same points over and over and over again. Then when it's over they have the same positions they started in.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Well, considering that TOS and EULAS are not considered legally binding contracts, I doubt Gamestation would be able to get the souls anyway. Besides, they're going into Lucifer's turf, and he's got a killer legal team.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
Well, he DOES get most of the divorce attorneys.
Hunting the shadows of the troubled dreams.
Re: Price of Ignoring ToS Details: Your Soul
and the defense lawyers, and the RIAA lawyers....