Howdy all, thanks for checking out the video 👋 For science, please let me know in the comments if you’ve ever personally read a user agreement for a game. This episode has convinced me that most people do not-and who can blame them. Alternatively, if you haven’t ever read one I’d appreciate a “aint nobody got time for dat” and I will count that as a “heck no I’ve never read that wall of text.” 😂 If more than 10% of people claim to actually read EULA agreements, then I’ll make a funny rap track or ASMR video or something wacky for the channel as penance. I hope this episode made you laugh, and have a great week ahead!
I have yet to set aside the time and money to obtain a law degree in order to fully understand what is written in the legalese used in these EULAs. Nor do I have any PTO left at my job so that I can take an entire week off work and read through the entire thing start to finish. So no, I haven't ever read one of these things, but I also hardly have to as I tend to avoid at least 100% of the stuff that comes from EA, Ubisoft, Activision/Blizzard, or any of the other giant corpos.
I have read through a couple, but I can't remember which games. There is a really useful website called "Terms of Service; Didn't read" that has all the major points of a bunch of different service's TOS listed, and you can click on each point to get a more detailed explanation.
Back in the original release of Wrath of The Lich King when I first started playing WoW, I actually did read the eula, every single paragraph. I had a teacher who always said "never sign anything without reading it", and I took that warning seriously. Ironically, as I grew up and got older, I read eulas less and less often. This video has made it clear I need to change that.
For some reason EULA's is the one thing i sign without reading the whole damn thing...That said, i dont think blizzard makes games worth playing anymore anyway.
Absolutely love that a slight obsession with you having a mustache, not even like hyping it up just it being on your face period, has become a part of the brand.
I'll read all the EULA agreements just so you can record that rap track :) *2 hours later* Blizzard agents are in my room right now, trying to steal my kidneys... apparently I gave them consent while agreeing to the Diablo 3 EULA (help)
I don't read them, but I usually don't have to, because 9 times out of 10 a game with a EULA on my face before I even start playing it doesn't last half an hour until I uninstall it.
Imagine if there was a whole entire job that was just "Hey can you take our legalese and Englishify it?" I wish it was a big deal job that people got big monies for.
I read them to see if they're using generic template EULAs. Sometimes you can find funny stuff left in unrelated to video games like land ownership, corporate email policy, and wedding cancellation fees. Sometimes you find funny Easter Eggs. Amazon’s Lumberyard engine includes a clause about how it should not be used with critical systems like medical equipment or nuclear facilities, except in the event of a 'certified zombie apocalypse'. lol?
Thank you for your sacrifice brother. I really hate the trend of forcing you to accept an EULA to even access a game you already payed for. I wish there was a law requiring EULA's to specifically list, in plain words, everything that you are agreeing to at the top of the document before all the legalese.
What sucks is that they can change the EULA and ToS well into a product's life cycle. Not agreeing prevents you from playing and refunds are not allowed.
This whole thing reads like one of those evil contracts from a cartoon or movie that someone is forced to sign cause it’s insane to me how they can put all this stuff in on top of it reading like Activision/Blizzard hates you for even attempting to understand this. The part that also gets me is how is some of the stuff in this NOT ILLEGAL? Seriously, monitoring gameplay and your devices for any they deem as “bad”? That’s invasion of privacy while also giving the middle finger to any kind of game modding whatsoever! Stuff like this is why I’m happy I don’t play their games….
What's funny about the class action clause is that there are some situations that this could actually hurt them. But, they were being so slimey they couldn't even foresee it. They are unlikely to happen but it is possible.
Just as an addition to this there was a whole south park episode in reference to this sort of stuff. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't referenced in this video.
I find it weird that I see so many TH-cam channels with great production quality and great dialogue such as this one that have less than 10K subs in the last few years Edit: I just noticed you've only made a few videos, so good job on the quality!
Thank you Misah for the kind comments-my editing has come a LONG way since my original videos, where I basically just sat and talked. I will continue to improve, one video at a time!! (Thank you again for checking out the video.)
I read the terms and service for a lot of things. I kind of became known in the friendgroup as the guy who always reads the terms of service. It was born out a of a need to know where I stand with games I play, so I know I'm not going to get screwed over. An example I can give you is the time I read the whole terms of service for star citizen, back when I was still passionate about the game in 2014 or 2016. I was hyped enough about the game back then, that it translated to me reading the TOS.
W video as per usual Also, the only EULA I ever read was the Pokemon Brush or whatever its called to help me brush my teeth lol Ever since, then it's just been "Ain't nobody got time for that!"
Also the #8 "we investigated on our own and make the decision so go screw yourself :)" just reminds me of how I got treated by pokemon go way back when it was still fresh. I finally got a phone that could run it, I played it for 1 night with my friends as we walked around the park, I was banned the next day for "cheating". I appealed, I asked what the heck I did through customer service, and I was told DEFINITIVELY, without a shadow of a doubt, with NO POSSIBLE MISTAKE on their part- they know I was cheating, so my ban was permanent and I should just make a new account and follow the rules this time :) I, if it wasn't clear, was not cheating- I still do not know what the hell they were on about but I decided then and there to never support niantic ever again in the future. Love great customer support AND good anti-cheat- both working as intended on that day. (also I think you skipped 7 if I didn't zone out lmao, happens trust me I know :P)
I read the EULA for Chants of Sennaar. The language was pretty understandable, no joke intended. I reckon it was mostly written to protect the company's IP, but of course there was a whole scummy section of how you don't own the game and only a license to play it.
jesus christ, that is some genuine cartoon villain levels of evil. its disgusting and horrifying that not only do these insane levels of restrictions and rules exist, but that it's hidden in the midst of things you expect in a EULA
Fun fact: This EULA is no better than toilet paper in front of literally every EU court in existance, because every clause that goes against local laws is invalid by default
I read some user agreements in the past, but that's because I was weary of Nintendo taking action on us. At normal times, I just click away. To be honest. I find End User License Agreements to be tantamount to signing a contract under duress, and I feel like that argument could have a small chance to potentially hold up in court. Take the example of someone who buys a new video game system. You went to the store, either grabbed it off the shelf or added it to your cart. Brought it home, and opened the box. In most cases, when you open a box, many stores will not even entertain a refund. At this point, no EULA was signed. Now you plug it in, turn on the system, and then you are met with a wall of text with an agreement you have zero power over. You can't negociate, you can't disagree, you must agree, or you end up with an unusable brick, mere ewaste. Now, money has already exchanged hands. Your options for a refund upon refusal are either limited or inexistant. Then you're stuck with either accepting the unfavourable terms, or losing that money forever. Your money is held hostage while you're being asked to answer. You could refuse, but it would come at a loss for you. Because of the predatory nature of such a practice, I believe it should not be legally-binding. EULAs should not even exist. That is also taking into consideration the ownership angle. No one should have the right to tell you how to use the things you purchase. If you want to mod it, sell it second hand, etc... this should just be your right. If you buy a car, you normally can repair it, repaint it, upgrade its parts, etc... why can't we do that with our games? In most advanced countries, it is illegal to force people into signing a contract. This usually makes the contract void. This is what I called signing a contract under duress earlier. It exists to prevent situations like people being forced to sign off all of their assets away at knifepoint, or say... when your child is being kidnapped. Holding people's money at ransom would appear to me to be in the same wheelhouse.
That's a great way of putting it, Vigilante. Like, we aren't signing away our rights when we're shopping 99% of the time, but suddenly when it comes to video games / software we're expected to don our legal hats and read through 10,000 words of legal jibberish before we can play our games. 🤣 Thank you for the wonderful write up, and for checking out the video! I hope the dancing or skits gave you a laugh, but you'd be forgiven if you found them cringe.
I usually don't read EULAs. For a simple reason: if a digital service requires me to sign an EULA to use it, it's not worth it, and I avoid it on principle if I can. And if I have to agree, I'm sure that the longer the EULA is, the more it is violating my country's laws that in theory should supersede it. However, to prove this a court would need to be involved. As such, either I avoid the service, or I resign to relinquish any right I have while I use it, because that's how things are.
Exactly, country's laws supersede the EULA anyway. Most of the things there are plain and simple illegal so the EULA might be even considered null and void in my country.
Doing Nintendo as the first season might've been a mistake. Yeah Blizzard is not your friend, but so far they don't seem nearly as evil as Nintendo is, so it feels more like an exaggeration than a genuine concern and leaves me wondering "and that's it?" after every video
Ever since South Park's "Human Centipad" episode I feel compelled to read these things I'm signing or agreeing to. I have tried to skim them and they are long and written in the legal jargon that compels people to fall asleep.
So... Any company can just skirt liability by putting in their user agreement "BTW you can't take us to court." Wtf? I can't imagine that would actually hold up.
To follow-up on my previous comment, I once spent like $200 on Hearthstone, one of the cards they'd advertised didn't do what it was advertised to do, I sent a lengthy legal looking ticket into Blizzard, they refunded me for the full amount and asked no further questions.
Watching this video reminded me that my first overwatch account got banned for literally no reason. I Phoned up blizzard to figure out why my OW account has been banned. They said they saw files on my computer that they did not allow.... HUH ?! I asked them what files it was, and they said they couldnt tell me... thanks blizz.
Oh my god, I am so glad I didn't check out Overwatch. This is the kinda stuff a virus does. At this rate, they'll be unstoppable, they will take over the world! As for the EULA, I've read a bunch, but only finished, like, two. I tend to skim most and just read the top of the section.
I would be interested if this is the same for eu, cause we have some laws making some of this impossible - no i did not read it myself - btw old store items were no eula printed, so back in the days, it was not part of contract - atleast in germany also i just discovered your channel - keep it up, really good work ;)
This is why we need to read contracts before we sign them! I at the very least skim through every user agreement that's forced into my hands. I blame South Park... Happy to report that, as a side effect of not caring for Blizzard's games, I've never read one this plainly evil before. A lot of big tech corporations have some nasty stuff in there, but Blizzard is on a whole new level of villainy.
@21:19 is exactly when I decide not to buy products from certain companies. When EULA is so confusing as to purposefully screw you - I'M OUT. Thank you SO much for damaging your brain for our wellbeing and safety.
🦕 Yooooo these skits were some of the best yet. Let's go. I absolutely never read user agreements, ain't nobody got time for that. I just scroll to the bottom and say "Yeah yeah, i agree to sell my firstborn son, yadayada, lemme play already!" I've made it a habit now. 😆 But Jesus, that last one was absolutely vile, Blizzard is overly paranoid. Yet, a part of me does wonder like, if they've gone to these measures to make their agreements so intense, did they have a history of bad actors that provoked this response, or were they always this fickle? Like its a big company, 🤔 but i guess looking up case records would be hard since they can't go to court......
The youtube guidelines are also wage as fuck even if you read every single sentence you forgot at least the first three because they are a wall of text or you read them and still don’t understand the second half of it because you’re brain is fried from this layer language 😵💫
I have been a free to play mobile gamer for the longest time, recently I have been trying to get into pc gaming and actually paying to buy games but if this is where the industry is heading I might just quit gaming altogether
i tried a few times to read a eula but every single one hurt my brain so bad that i just gave up (2024 steam eula and 2023(or 22 i forgot) minecraft eula are the only two i’ve tried reading)
I got used to read more the terms of service when it comes to actual stores i would be buying physical items from. When it comes to software, yeah i guess ive been lacking a lot on that. It boggles my mind that a physical store's terms of service for online purchases is far more readable even with all the legalese than purely software/online stores. I should also admit that i do prefer using more libre/open source software not only because i dont want to even bother with unending terms of service wall texts, but because i know i wont be accepting selling my soul to them in the very least.
NOT A LAWYER #15 this is true of every game valve is nice and lets you sell it and gives a cut but they don't need to. #14 that can be done on every storefront what do you think sales are? #13 don't buy them thru battlenet then epic steam etc all have this clause this just says if we ban you this includes single player games but other than maybe diablo I don't see how banning .someone from online play wouldn't do that regardless. its bad for steam n stuff because you know singleplayer games but for blizzard it's more of a given that this happens. #12 I do agree this is fucked but how they have always done it this one could be fought against. #11 you play on their servers it would be weird if they couldn't how would they be able to verify any player reports of cheating if they were unable to. but yeah your on the same page it should be more obvious but it's a givien. #10 I agree this agreeing to ransom ware you will go off the grid after you find out how many games have this in their terms of service. thor/pirated software talks about this compaines don't want to hire people to find cheaters anymore so to save cost they install anticheat with the permissions of spyware instead. it doesn't even work becuase cheaters just find loopholes and then they needs mods to manually ban them anyways. #9 we can ban you. #8 we can ban you again didn't they say this with #13 they just didn't mention your balance. #6 (you skipped 7) doesn't hold up in court just there to scare people who don't know how contracts work. or saying if we forget to enforce doesn't mean it's void this part is kinda vague either evil or a given but put there to clarify. #5 Is evil and stupid but mostly evil Disney tried to get away will killing someone with allergies with this clause if you remember. it didn't work because it was for Disney plus not for Disney world one day there's gonna be a court case to make this clause wholesale illegal to put but right now it's flimsy. #4 we can ban you again again/we can change the rules #3 should be illegal but isn't basically auto renew but instead of money its for contracts. #2 either saying they can have other people sign this which why would they say that or they are saying other people breaking the rrules can apply to you. I think it's their so you can't say my my dog logged into my account and installed aimbot but yeah worded horribly for the layman that doesn't read these for fun. or as you said give it to another company but again that's a given most of the time i.e. when Microsoft bought them that didn't make their EULA void. #1 also a given it's just saying you understand you are harming the company by breaking the rules I.E. you admit fault/knowledge if you break the rules it's only there to again like you say scare people I accept is the same thing as this clause. I do agree this is worse written EULA out of the big companies but imo this could have been a top 10 especially since you missed one of the numbers. I do love your work and we need more laymen explaining the crap these guys do in English. or as the PVZ creator described it in his gdc talk sophisticated cavemen.
I wish I had you with me when I was reading it, Nathaniel!! Thank you summarizing all of these points. They definitely range in bad to super bad, but I'm hopeful that the really not-so-nice ones can be spotlighted for folks to understand what they're signing up for. 🙏
Most of this is just illegal to enforce in the US, and would never hold up if it actually came down to it and has been settled multiple times already in sealed cases so no one knows. Users win, EULA gets to stay and legally no one can talk about the consumers winning.
Contracts are supposed to bind both parties.. Even if it is heavy handed on you but not them, the most egregious thing is that it ISNT binding on them. Therefore it is a contract only for you.. You have no rights whatsoever. This really shows their attitude toward you, their consumer.. I can sum up the EULA as such: 1) You consent to all of our terms if you use our product. 2) You have no rights, as we can unilaterally change all of our terms at will.. with zero constraints. 3) We will not refund you under any circumstances unless we feel like it. 4) You forfeit any legal means to challenge us in any way. 5) We can do whatever we want, without even needing to tell you and if you don't like it.. you can stop playing and say bye to whatever you invested into it.
Have not read them more than superficially and searching for specific parts of interest with a keyword search, I depend on people like you who do read and talk about them highlighting the "parts of interest". As you said, it filled with stuff that makes your head spin and leaves you wondering at the implications for hours (or even weeks) and without any experience to draw from like a lawyer might, it's really hard to understand them and what they mean anyway. To me, they are pretty much like that episode from Star Trek episode "Darmok", and we need to figure out what "Shaka, when the walls fell" actually means. The UT might be translating the speech/words into scribbles and sounds that we could "recognise" but as commoners we lack total understanding of the meaning behind them. So why bother reading them at all (which is ironically, exactly how companies get away with stuff like this I guess, at least until people like you, do take the time to read and understand and translate them for the rest of us). - Was Shaka just an unlucky house builder who had a land slip and his house fell down? - Was Shaka a great king/queen/leader/commander who was besieged and lost a great battle when the enemy blew up their fortifications? - Was Shaka just really bad at making lego walls? - Was Shaka a network engineer who forgot to turn on his firewall and got their Windows XP machine infected with a virus the moment they connected to the internet? I can't even infer, that "walls falling = bad", because that assumes that I'm on the side for whom it is disadvantageous to have a wall, what If I'm on the attacking side and my goal is to breach the wall! then the Walls falling is a good thing!
Only way to change or stop this UELA nonsense is to just say NO. Once Blizzard or any company see's their profits drop like a rock, they will change it ASAP!
Thanks for this video. I haven't played Blizzard games in a long time -- this video made me uninstall everything Blizzard. Btw, I did read Facebook's and TH-cam's user agreements once. That was food for nightmares.
You gotta love it. Blizzard changed their UA to make sure they never lose another Dota again. And as a result the community never made anything in their games again xD Another proof that their overwhelming greed is literally killing their company and... well id say brand, but that ship has sailed long ago. Also, this UA means nothing if you are from the EU. Much of this is so anti consumer that it becomes illegal. Its the same as if they made you sign over your life and work free for them. Sure, you signed it, but since its illegal to do so, its invalid and void. Crap like this only really works in the US where worker rights are a myth.
Howdy all, thanks for checking out the video 👋
For science, please let me know in the comments if you’ve ever personally read a user agreement for a game. This episode has convinced me that most people do not-and who can blame them.
Alternatively, if you haven’t ever read one I’d appreciate a “aint nobody got time for dat” and I will count that as a “heck no I’ve never read that wall of text.” 😂
If more than 10% of people claim to actually read EULA agreements, then I’ll make a funny rap track or ASMR video or something wacky for the channel as penance. I hope this episode made you laugh, and have a great week ahead!
I don't recall ever being told of the existance of one for a game I purchase.
And I include games you confirm in this video do in fact have them.
Ain't nobody ghat tyme fur dat
I have yet to set aside the time and money to obtain a law degree in order to fully understand what is written in the legalese used in these EULAs. Nor do I have any PTO left at my job so that I can take an entire week off work and read through the entire thing start to finish. So no, I haven't ever read one of these things, but I also hardly have to as I tend to avoid at least 100% of the stuff that comes from EA, Ubisoft, Activision/Blizzard, or any of the other giant corpos.
I read the EULA for FFXI back in the day, but I sure as hell don't remember it, and I didn't for FFXIV
I have read through a couple, but I can't remember which games. There is a really useful website called "Terms of Service; Didn't read" that has all the major points of a bunch of different service's TOS listed, and you can click on each point to get a more detailed explanation.
What is nice though is that some of these are super illegal in EU and are not in Blizzard's EU EULA/TOS.
Back in the original release of Wrath of The Lich King when I first started playing WoW, I actually did read the eula, every single paragraph. I had a teacher who always said "never sign anything without reading it", and I took that warning seriously. Ironically, as I grew up and got older, I read eulas less and less often. This video has made it clear I need to change that.
For some reason EULA's is the one thing i sign without reading the whole damn thing...That said, i dont think blizzard makes games worth playing anymore anyway.
why dont we have the AIs read the eula
Absolutely love that a slight obsession with you having a mustache, not even like hyping it up just it being on your face period, has become a part of the brand.
"I am but a mustache wearing a man!" 🤣
(You're the best YTU, thank you for being a friend of the channel and checking out the video)
@@NotYourFriend-YT You makw Good Video about Bad Company.
Help feel Sane about Companies be Bad.
16:39 Literally omniman appeared while I read this.
I'll read all the EULA agreements just so you can record that rap track :)
*2 hours later*
Blizzard agents are in my room right now, trying to steal my kidneys... apparently I gave them consent while agreeing to the Diablo 3 EULA (help)
Game over man.
In australia the assumption is that people don't read end user license agreements and thus they're unenforceable.
Luckily most of this is illegal. If Blizzard were to try defending this in a court they'd be laughed at by the judge, at least in the EU.
doesn't stop from doing the stuff anyways, until someone brings then to answer for it.
I don't read them, but I usually don't have to, because 9 times out of 10 a game with a EULA on my face before I even start playing it doesn't last half an hour until I uninstall it.
Honestly, I really don't get how EULA's like these are even legal in the first place. Its all one massive middle finger to the consumer.
Afaik exploitative EULA's are usually undermined by the legal system of the users country.
They judges just go: Yeah, no.
Imagine if there was a whole entire job that was just "Hey can you take our legalese and Englishify it?"
I wish it was a big deal job that people got big monies for.
ChatGPT. That's chatGPT. Throw the whole EULA in there and ask questions about it.
Never. Touching. Blizzard. Ever. Again.
Disgusting.
Still satisfies me to this day that Bobby Kotick is finally out of the picture.
Yeah that guy definitly should have been fired years ago.
@@ProjectionProjects2.7182 yeah
Yeah, definitely never made time to read an entire EULA. Aint nobody got time for that, gotta get to mah gamin'!
Another great video as always!
I completely read a EULA once (Rocket League), and my brain was fryed when I finished
I read them to see if they're using generic template EULAs. Sometimes you can find funny stuff left in unrelated to video games like land ownership, corporate email policy, and wedding cancellation fees. Sometimes you find funny Easter Eggs. Amazon’s Lumberyard engine includes a clause about how it should not be used with critical systems like medical equipment or nuclear facilities, except in the event of a 'certified zombie apocalypse'. lol?
Thank you for your sacrifice brother.
I really hate the trend of forcing you to accept an EULA to even access a game you already payed for. I wish there was a law requiring EULA's to specifically list, in plain words, everything that you are agreeing to at the top of the document before all the legalese.
What sucks is that they can change the EULA and ToS well into a product's life cycle. Not agreeing prevents you from playing and refunds are not allowed.
This whole thing reads like one of those evil contracts from a cartoon or movie that someone is forced to sign cause it’s insane to me how they can put all this stuff in on top of it reading like Activision/Blizzard hates you for even attempting to understand this. The part that also gets me is how is some of the stuff in this NOT ILLEGAL? Seriously, monitoring gameplay and your devices for any they deem as “bad”? That’s invasion of privacy while also giving the middle finger to any kind of game modding whatsoever! Stuff like this is why I’m happy I don’t play their games….
Glad my jurisdiction has a law that forces companies to give a refund window, and that the EULA can't go against this.
6:51 they do this in overwatch and have made it obvious since the policy was made, it says it in chat every single round of the game
rest of this video is a good look at the BS they've been up to otherwise tho
Thank you for this context Sizzyl, you're the best!
I finally understand what B.L.I.Z.Z.A.R.D stands for:
Belligerent
liers
instigating
zenophbic
zealots
and
recruiting
dumbasses.
We need a subtitle appreciation month.
14:37 this is the best segement of a TH-cam video I have ever seen. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Soooo... I pay them for me not owning anything, except a bitter aftertaste.
What's funny about the class action clause is that there are some situations that this could actually hurt them. But, they were being so slimey they couldn't even foresee it. They are unlikely to happen but it is possible.
Man, not even our friends are our friend. ):
Literally never read a eula because that giant wall of text is way too much for me pay attention to.
Just as an addition to this there was a whole south park episode in reference to this sort of stuff. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't referenced in this video.
I find it weird that I see so many TH-cam channels with great production quality and great dialogue such as this one that have less than 10K subs in the last few years
Edit: I just noticed you've only made a few videos, so good job on the quality!
Thank you Misah for the kind comments-my editing has come a LONG way since my original videos, where I basically just sat and talked.
I will continue to improve, one video at a time!! (Thank you again for checking out the video.)
I read the terms and service for a lot of things. I kind of became known in the friendgroup as the guy who always reads the terms of service.
It was born out a of a need to know where I stand with games I play, so I know I'm not going to get screwed over.
An example I can give you is the time I read the whole terms of service for star citizen, back when I was still passionate about the game in 2014 or 2016.
I was hyped enough about the game back then, that it translated to me reading the TOS.
W video as per usual
Also, the only EULA I ever read was the Pokemon Brush or whatever its called to help me brush my teeth lol
Ever since, then it's just been "Ain't nobody got time for that!"
i need to get back into private servers, there is more transparency over there. =/
Also the #8 "we investigated on our own and make the decision so go screw yourself :)" just reminds me of how I got treated by pokemon go way back when it was still fresh.
I finally got a phone that could run it, I played it for 1 night with my friends as we walked around the park, I was banned the next day for "cheating".
I appealed, I asked what the heck I did through customer service, and I was told DEFINITIVELY, without a shadow of a doubt, with NO POSSIBLE MISTAKE on their part- they know I was cheating, so my ban was permanent and I should just make a new account and follow the rules this time :)
I, if it wasn't clear, was not cheating- I still do not know what the hell they were on about but I decided then and there to never support niantic ever again in the future. Love great customer support AND good anti-cheat- both working as intended on that day.
(also I think you skipped 7 if I didn't zone out lmao, happens trust me I know :P)
I read the EULA for Chants of Sennaar. The language was pretty understandable, no joke intended. I reckon it was mostly written to protect the company's IP, but of course there was a whole scummy section of how you don't own the game and only a license to play it.
Deleted my account. Had enough of Blizzard's BS.
jesus christ, that is some genuine cartoon villain levels of evil. its disgusting and horrifying that not only do these insane levels of restrictions and rules exist, but that it's hidden in the midst of things you expect in a EULA
Fun fact: This EULA is no better than toilet paper in front of literally every EU court in existance, because every clause that goes against local laws is invalid by default
Those terms should be illegal!
lmao the poopasaur skit :P Good video!
Thank you Featherogue! I appreciate the kind words, I often wonder if I'm only making myself laugh with some of these wild skit ideas. 😂
I read some user agreements in the past, but that's because I was weary of Nintendo taking action on us. At normal times, I just click away.
To be honest. I find End User License Agreements to be tantamount to signing a contract under duress, and I feel like that argument could have a small chance to potentially hold up in court.
Take the example of someone who buys a new video game system. You went to the store, either grabbed it off the shelf or added it to your cart. Brought it home, and opened the box.
In most cases, when you open a box, many stores will not even entertain a refund. At this point, no EULA was signed.
Now you plug it in, turn on the system, and then you are met with a wall of text with an agreement you have zero power over. You can't negociate, you can't disagree, you must agree, or you end up with an unusable brick, mere ewaste.
Now, money has already exchanged hands. Your options for a refund upon refusal are either limited or inexistant. Then you're stuck with either accepting the unfavourable terms, or losing that money forever. Your money is held hostage while you're being asked to answer. You could refuse, but it would come at a loss for you. Because of the predatory nature of such a practice, I believe it should not be legally-binding. EULAs should not even exist.
That is also taking into consideration the ownership angle. No one should have the right to tell you how to use the things you purchase. If you want to mod it, sell it second hand, etc... this should just be your right. If you buy a car, you normally can repair it, repaint it, upgrade its parts, etc... why can't we do that with our games?
In most advanced countries, it is illegal to force people into signing a contract. This usually makes the contract void. This is what I called signing a contract under duress earlier. It exists to prevent situations like people being forced to sign off all of their assets away at knifepoint, or say... when your child is being kidnapped. Holding people's money at ransom would appear to me to be in the same wheelhouse.
That's a great way of putting it, Vigilante. Like, we aren't signing away our rights when we're shopping 99% of the time, but suddenly when it comes to video games / software we're expected to don our legal hats and read through 10,000 words of legal jibberish before we can play our games. 🤣
Thank you for the wonderful write up, and for checking out the video! I hope the dancing or skits gave you a laugh, but you'd be forgiven if you found them cringe.
Good thing EULA:s generally aren't enforcable in the EU it seems. Some rights you can't just sign away.
I usually don't read EULAs. For a simple reason: if a digital service requires me to sign an EULA to use it, it's not worth it, and I avoid it on principle if I can. And if I have to agree, I'm sure that the longer the EULA is, the more it is violating my country's laws that in theory should supersede it. However, to prove this a court would need to be involved. As such, either I avoid the service, or I resign to relinquish any right I have while I use it, because that's how things are.
Exactly, country's laws supersede the EULA anyway. Most of the things there are plain and simple illegal so the EULA might be even considered null and void in my country.
Cool Channel, Good Quality! Subscribed!
I've Boycotted Blizzard for a long time now.
They sure aren't trying to get anyone to return.
Doing Nintendo as the first season might've been a mistake. Yeah Blizzard is not your friend, but so far they don't seem nearly as evil as Nintendo is, so it feels more like an exaggeration than a genuine concern and leaves me wondering "and that's it?" after every video
Thank you for sharing this feedback and for checking out the video Orange, you are greatly appreciated! 🙏
I actually read user agreements because your consent is one of the most powerful things you can give.
Ever since South Park's "Human Centipad" episode I feel compelled to read these things I'm signing or agreeing to. I have tried to skim them and they are long and written in the legal jargon that compels people to fall asleep.
Such a great (and totally distressing) episode, haha. Good on you for reading them Vitannah! Have you ever found anything wild or interesting in them?
I hope yhe recovery from the eula reading went smooth
So... Any company can just skirt liability by putting in their user agreement "BTW you can't take us to court." Wtf? I can't imagine that would actually hold up.
I’ve never been more happy that I don’t play a single Blizzard game.
we need consumer protection for gamers, please, anyone with power?
DM your reps.
To follow-up on my previous comment, I once spent like $200 on Hearthstone, one of the cards they'd advertised didn't do what it was advertised to do, I sent a lengthy legal looking ticket into Blizzard, they refunded me for the full amount and asked no further questions.
Watching this video reminded me that my first overwatch account got banned for literally no reason. I Phoned up blizzard to figure out why my OW account has been banned. They said they saw files on my computer that they did not allow.... HUH ?!
I asked them what files it was, and they said they couldnt tell me... thanks blizz.
Hear me out topping the charts :) (ain't nobody got time for that btw)
Hoo boy i'm not going to mince words here: rapist EULA.
Oh my god, I am so glad I didn't check out Overwatch. This is the kinda stuff a virus does. At this rate, they'll be unstoppable, they will take over the world! As for the EULA, I've read a bunch, but only finished, like, two. I tend to skim most and just read the top of the section.
2:27 ..."burger king foot lettuce."
I've read user agreements for software products, never read a EULA for a game. I don't play games to read for 5 hours before starting a game.
1:29 The Mustache Man Boogie
I would be interested if this is the same for eu, cause we have some laws making some of this impossible - no i did not read it myself - btw old store items were no eula printed, so back in the days, it was not part of contract - atleast in germany
also i just discovered your channel - keep it up, really good work ;)
This is why we need to read contracts before we sign them! I at the very least skim through every user agreement that's forced into my hands. I blame South Park...
Happy to report that, as a side effect of not caring for Blizzard's games, I've never read one this plainly evil before. A lot of big tech corporations have some nasty stuff in there, but Blizzard is on a whole new level of villainy.
@21:19 is exactly when I decide not to buy products from certain companies. When EULA is so confusing as to purposefully screw you - I'M OUT.
Thank you SO much for damaging your brain for our wellbeing and safety.
🦕 Yooooo these skits were some of the best yet. Let's go.
I absolutely never read user agreements, ain't nobody got time for that.
I just scroll to the bottom and say "Yeah yeah, i agree to sell my firstborn son, yadayada, lemme play already!"
I've made it a habit now.
😆
But Jesus, that last one was absolutely vile, Blizzard is overly paranoid. Yet, a part of me does wonder like, if they've gone to these measures to make their agreements so intense, did they have a history of bad actors that provoked this response, or were they always this fickle? Like its a big company, 🤔 but i guess looking up case records would be hard since they can't go to court......
The youtube guidelines are also wage as fuck even if you read every single sentence you forgot at least the first three because they are a wall of text or you read them and still don’t understand the second half of it because you’re brain is fried from this layer language 😵💫
We shouldn't be signing any contracts. Because if you do you get the human centipad. No one reads anymore.
I have been a free to play mobile gamer for the longest time, recently I have been trying to get into pc gaming and actually paying to buy games but if this is where the industry is heading I might just quit gaming altogether
loving your video and your humor!
TLDR: Blizz can do anything and we can do nothing besides pay and smile.
Another great video. A lot of this is why I don't use uPlay or buy Ubisoft games.
This reminds me of a Episode from south park iirc it was with the Apple TOS Season 15, Episode 1.
South Park warned us for this with Apple.
Did Blizzard get their laws from the Australian government?
YAY! Under 48 minutes club!
I don't really worry about it. Half of the US EULA is not even legal anyways in the EU.
i tried a few times to read a eula but every single one hurt my brain so bad that i just gave up (2024 steam eula and 2023(or 22 i forgot) minecraft eula are the only two i’ve tried reading)
*human bean*
I got used to read more the terms of service when it comes to actual stores i would be buying physical items from. When it comes to software, yeah i guess ive been lacking a lot on that. It boggles my mind that a physical store's terms of service for online purchases is far more readable even with all the legalese than purely software/online stores. I should also admit that i do prefer using more libre/open source software not only because i dont want to even bother with unending terms of service wall texts, but because i know i wont be accepting selling my soul to them in the very least.
NOT A LAWYER
#15 this is true of every game valve is nice and lets you sell it and gives a cut but they don't need to.
#14 that can be done on every storefront what do you think sales are?
#13 don't buy them thru battlenet then epic steam etc all have this clause this just says if we ban you this includes single player games but other than maybe diablo I don't see how banning .someone from online play wouldn't do that regardless. its bad for steam n stuff because you know singleplayer games but for blizzard it's more of a given that this happens.
#12 I do agree this is fucked but how they have always done it this one could be fought against.
#11 you play on their servers it would be weird if they couldn't how would they be able to verify any player reports of cheating if they were unable to. but yeah your on the same page it should be more obvious but it's a givien.
#10 I agree this agreeing to ransom ware you will go off the grid after you find out how many games have this in their terms of service. thor/pirated software talks about this compaines don't want to hire people to find cheaters anymore so to save cost they install anticheat with the permissions of spyware instead. it doesn't even work becuase cheaters just find loopholes and then they needs mods to manually ban them anyways.
#9 we can ban you.
#8 we can ban you again didn't they say this with #13 they just didn't mention your balance.
#6 (you skipped 7) doesn't hold up in court just there to scare people who don't know how contracts work. or saying if we forget to enforce doesn't mean it's void this part is kinda vague either evil or a given but put there to clarify.
#5 Is evil and stupid but mostly evil Disney tried to get away will killing someone with allergies with this clause if you remember. it didn't work because it was for Disney plus not for Disney world one day there's gonna be a court case to make this clause wholesale illegal to put but right now it's flimsy.
#4 we can ban you again again/we can change the rules
#3 should be illegal but isn't basically auto renew but instead of money its for contracts.
#2 either saying they can have other people sign this which why would they say that or they are saying other people breaking the rrules can apply to you. I think it's their so you can't say my my dog logged into my account and installed aimbot but yeah worded horribly for the layman that doesn't read these for fun. or as you said give it to another company but again that's a given most of the time i.e. when Microsoft bought them that didn't make their EULA void.
#1 also a given it's just saying you understand you are harming the company by breaking the rules I.E. you admit fault/knowledge if you break the rules it's only there to again like you say scare people I accept is the same thing as this clause.
I do agree this is worse written EULA out of the big companies but imo this could have been a top 10 especially since you missed one of the numbers. I do love your work and we need more laymen explaining the crap these guys do in English. or as the PVZ creator described it in his gdc talk sophisticated cavemen.
I wish I had you with me when I was reading it, Nathaniel!! Thank you summarizing all of these points. They definitely range in bad to super bad, but I'm hopeful that the really not-so-nice ones can be spotlighted for folks to understand what they're signing up for. 🙏
Most of this is just illegal to enforce in the US, and would never hold up if it actually came down to it and has been settled multiple times already in sealed cases so no one knows.
Users win, EULA gets to stay and legally no one can talk about the consumers winning.
Contracts are supposed to bind both parties.. Even if it is heavy handed on you but not them, the most egregious thing is that it ISNT binding on them.
Therefore it is a contract only for you.. You have no rights whatsoever. This really shows their attitude toward you, their consumer..
I can sum up the EULA as such:
1) You consent to all of our terms if you use our product.
2) You have no rights, as we can unilaterally change all of our terms at will.. with zero constraints.
3) We will not refund you under any circumstances unless we feel like it.
4) You forfeit any legal means to challenge us in any way.
5) We can do whatever we want, without even needing to tell you and if you don't like it.. you can stop playing and say bye to whatever you invested into it.
I don't read the user agreement on game. I also head a world of warcraft account when I was a kid haven't played it since hopefully I am fine.
i didnt think id stumble upon another reason to play twow today
The monitoring explains so much honestly. I got rid of bnet but not my old games like Starcraft. Guess it's time to say goodbye to even that.
Have not read them more than superficially and searching for specific parts of interest with a keyword search, I depend on people like you who do read and talk about them highlighting the "parts of interest". As you said, it filled with stuff that makes your head spin and leaves you wondering at the implications for hours (or even weeks) and without any experience to draw from like a lawyer might, it's really hard to understand them and what they mean anyway.
To me, they are pretty much like that episode from Star Trek episode "Darmok", and we need to figure out what "Shaka, when the walls fell" actually means. The UT might be translating the speech/words into scribbles and sounds that we could "recognise" but as commoners we lack total understanding of the meaning behind them. So why bother reading them at all (which is ironically, exactly how companies get away with stuff like this I guess, at least until people like you, do take the time to read and understand and translate them for the rest of us).
- Was Shaka just an unlucky house builder who had a land slip and his house fell down?
- Was Shaka a great king/queen/leader/commander who was besieged and lost a great battle when the enemy blew up their fortifications?
- Was Shaka just really bad at making lego walls?
- Was Shaka a network engineer who forgot to turn on his firewall and got their Windows XP machine infected with a virus the moment they connected to the internet?
I can't even infer, that "walls falling = bad", because that assumes that I'm on the side for whom it is disadvantageous to have a wall, what If I'm on the attacking side and my goal is to breach the wall! then the Walls falling is a good thing!
I’ve read one or two but really no one got time for that.
If I have scroll on the ULA, it's a hard no.
Ms. Mustache got no chill 😑
Blizzard's policies got me feelin' frosty! 🤣
(Oh dear, my dad jokes are terrible.)
Hey there ! nice videos!! very enjoyable and informative :)) Although ur channel name isn't very "friendly" lol x)à
Only way to change or stop this UELA nonsense is to just say NO. Once Blizzard or any company see's their profits drop like a rock, they will change it ASAP!
#15 That's because of DOTA's success, I think.
Yea but sadly they don't let you play the game if you press decline.
R&M was made by PDFs, do not associate yourself with that it is a timebomb
I've read EULAs. I've read Namco's and Capcom's EULAs.
Ain’t nobody got time for that
I did actually read it back in the day
Thanks for this video. I haven't played Blizzard games in a long time -- this video made me uninstall everything Blizzard.
Btw, I did read Facebook's and TH-cam's user agreements once. That was food for nightmares.
Loving your eyebrows
Probably shouldn't agree to any long user agreements for that matter. Good luck with that one.
You gotta love it. Blizzard changed their UA to make sure they never lose another Dota again. And as a result the community never made anything in their games again xD
Another proof that their overwhelming greed is literally killing their company and... well id say brand, but that ship has sailed long ago.
Also, this UA means nothing if you are from the EU. Much of this is so anti consumer that it becomes illegal. Its the same as if they made you sign over your life and work free for them. Sure, you signed it, but since its illegal to do so, its invalid and void. Crap like this only really works in the US where worker rights are a myth.
they dont care.. they write it so they can do whatever the want to do.
doesnt mean its legal ..
especially in the EU
Aaaaaiint nobody got time for that!
I am just waiting for a Poopasaurus shirt.. ngl
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