Posted in: Games, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, games, Hello Games, No Man's Sky, playstation, sony, suicide squad, video games

Getting A Refund After Playing A Game Over 50 Hours Doesn't Make You A Thief But It Is Hurtful To The Art

No Man's Sky has been a controversial topic in the few short weeks it has been out. Accusations of lying, false advertising and missing features have run rampant and everyone and their mum has an opinion on where they fall. Arguments range from changes being part of the artistic process as things change in development, to people saying that the marketing was outright deceptive and used to sell a product that barely exists.

The newest debate is probably the most interesting one though. This comes from murmurs that people are getting refunds for digital downloads of the game, even after having it played it in excess of 15 hours. The discussion of refunds for digital items is a really abstract, and a legally complicated one, but major headway occurred last year when Valve announced that games bought and played for less than 2 hours on Steam could be refunded with more or less no questions asked. It was hotly debated then, especially by developers who create shorter experiences, but also did some good helping Batman: Arkham Knight's awful PC port getting taken down from digital stores. It's a tricky policy, but clearly was a win for consumers of digital products.

However this new delvelopment is, at least to me, is concerning. There are reports of people getting refunds for No Man's Sky after 15, 30, 50, even 70 hours of play.  This has proven to be a very controversial issue. Ex-PlayStation exec Shahid Ahmad even tweeted this:

Now, I don't think anyone applying for a refund after substantial ammounts of play is a 'thief'. It is someone just existing in the system that allows it. However, it's not hard to see the analogy. After such a long time with the game, expending what it has to offer for you and then asking for a refund is pretty iffy.

The problem here is that games are being treated as physical goods, when I think experiences, and specifically art, are really hard to put into those terms. The good, in this specific case, No Man's Sky has a value to it, and it's value is in you experiencing the game. Once you have for a decent amount of time with it, its value is largely spent for you personally. To bring this back into physical goods, you can't drink 4/5ths of a coffe and then ask for a refund for little reason. Of course, if customer service is excellent and that specific barista is willing to put up with nonsense, they might give it to you. We all know you consumed the majority of the coffee though and asking for a refund after is beyond cheeky. When you then go out and start advertising on coffee shop forums (I'm sure those exist) that you did get the coffee refunded, and then everyone should go out and try and get a refund also, that is when it turns destructive.

Now, while I like No Man's Sky decently, I understand this situation is a little bit more in flux. There were certainly things said to be in No Man's Sky that you might not experience. While Hello Games played it down extensively, they never outright said that the title wasn't multiplayer and have even said you could see other players in interviews. That has been proven to be untrue now. I can understand if the game's extensive crashes hurt you, or the game isn't what you might have thought it was, asking for a refund after a short time. But over 10 hours? That's too much.

Lets put it back into another term, this time closer to the art world. In the trailers for Suicide Squad, there were a lot of scenes involving the Joker that quite simply weren't in the final film. They got cut out as part of the creative process. However, if you go to the cinema, watch the whole movie and then ask for a refund because the shots weren't in there, that seems a bit ridiculous to me. Cutting things is part of any piece of entertainment's journey to market. It's how things get better, or done in time, or simply finished. However, you've consumed the film's value afterwards. It no longer has a value to you, the consumer. You spent it, and then are asking to get the experience for free.

And here is where we get to my real worry around all of this. Consumer rights are incredibly important and the entertainment industry has to find a way to give digital users the same rights as physical users, but if things go too far, we could get to a point where people are asking for refunds simply because they didn't like a piece of art. Sometimes we see bad movies, play bad games, read bad books, or at least, things that just don't jive with us. But asking for a refund because you didn't like something? That is painful for any artform. We are still getting an experience. We are still consuming them, and even if we don't like them, creators derseve to be paid for their good. Our opinions and critique are what we get out of it, and we can use those to criticise the product. Not our wallets.

My worry here? It disuades art. Good art will always be successful, but bad art has value too. It teaches creators what doesn't work. It's part of any medium and without it, we'd lose a lot of the discourse that is important to everything growing. We need things people don't like. We need it so we can have discussions. We need it so a creator can learn, bounce back and give us that masterpiece on the sophmore effot. If we hurt them with our wallet by taking away income, that creator quits the dream, gets a job in an area where their income can't be retroactively taken from people who have experienced it. It encourages more design or creation by comitee. A space where everyone plays it safe, too afraid to make mistakes for worry of a large portion of the audience taking back all the money they've earned.

Now, again. I absolutely believe in consumer rights when it comes to experiences or art. If something doesn't work, or it isn't what you felt was advertised, there should be an avenue to get a refund. That's an imperitive right of us as buyers. But there is a point where that right can be abused, and 'the customer is always right' has to be questioned. Not to support corporations that are lying to you or giving you sub-par products, but to protect the arts as a viable income source. Without that, growth, better products and invovation can't happen.

Or, to put it in simpler terms. If you have consumed a game or a film, even if you don't like it, don't be silly. Pay for your experience. We will get better things out of it.

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