"They could take or leave you, so they took you, and they left you."

- St. Vincent, "Cruel"

FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

More and more developers are making public criticisms of second-hand gaming, or at the least, the used game market. Creators used to speak with their software - DRM, one-time codes, etc. - but with the rise of Twitter and 24-hour gaming news, chatter is bound to leak through the corporate firewall sooner or later. Before, it was business. Now, it just might be... PERSONAL.

Part of this, of course, is that developers have a lot more concrete information about how many people are paying to play. Hell, you don't need some sneaky spy worm... just about every game has Achievements for playing through the basic story mode, and Game Maker X simply has to look at two numbers and compare:

Units Sold: 370,000

Players With Story Achievement X: 710,000

That's a lot of people riding the bus for free. And let me tell you, I take the bus to work to be green, and my driver has some very strong opinions about people trying to ride for free.

I'm well-known here for generally taking the side of developers. Corporations or not, they're still creators, and I believe creators should be compensated by those who enjoy their work. But it's not a black-and-white issue by any stretch, and it's nearly laughable when a company like Electronic Arts plays the victim card after a decade plus of underhanded business and labor practices. Both sides of the issue have plenty of dirt on their hands.

Developers have tried just about every tactic in the book. Some appeal to decency ("we need legitimate sales to feed our families and keep our company afloat!", some to pragmatism ("we can't make you new games without money!"), and some of them are just plain pissed off. Hey, it happens. A team spends two years working on a game, and two days before launch, it's already been hacked and torrented across the Intertubes. That's gonna make someone a little grumpy.

A common refrain is that second-hand gaming has always been part of the hobby, but that's something of a half-truth. Everyone - including myself - has loaned and/or borrowed games here and there. The real issue is more modern: the incredibly organized and profitable second-hand market that sprung from GameStop, Amazon, E-Bay, and the like. Not even the most ruthless publisher is going to worry about people loaning games to their cousin, but once a national chain is set up that is specifically designed to promote and profit from used video games, with no kickback to the developers? Then, my friends, it is on like Donkey Kong. (I love when I get to use that phrase in a video game context.) Some developers have accused GameStop of ceasing orders for new product after the initial sales rush, so they can deal strictly in used product. GameStop is pretty scummy, but that's a very strong accusation. See what I mean? It's heated, y'all.

And as per usual, THAT'S the problem. Both sides go right to nuclear weapons without trying something gentler first. Publishers found out there were freeloaders, and went right to DRM and connectivity babysitting. Gamers feel they've been slighted in the least, and it's all "pirate these scumbags!" and "hack the code so that the guy's head looks like asex toy!"I hate to go all Jimmy Carter in here, but where's the dialog? Where's the sitdown? Just about everyone has it tough right now; why can't we find common ground in that? Why is the relationship between game makers and game players so adversarial? Shouldn't it be the opposite? Don't we need each other?

Rumors abound that the next X-Box will be designed to not play used software. I mean, rumor or not, that is draconian all over. Siblings will have to fight each other to see who gets to tie the game to their account. ISN'T GAMING FUN?!?

Maybe there's no common ground. Maybe developers would stab their own mother for a nickel, and gamers are all deadbeats looking to pay .17 for a AAA blockbuster. But can we at least try some conversation before the machetes come out? This hobby is meant to be about entertainment, and not rooting for a side in a proxy battle between hackers and digital security experts.