The gamer's social contract

I thought this was pretty interestig and I'm a FMA nut so I couldn't resist equivalent exchange.

The original article can be found here
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1. The social contract.

The core, the center, the key to a gamer's loyalty is the social contract. The customer tells the business "I will buy this console if this company works really hard for me and gives me additional benefits." In return, the company has to tell the customer "I will work really hard to give you additional benefits if you buy my console and continue to buy games and services from me."

It's like a the preservation of matter or the "principle of equivalent exchange" in alchemy. Quid pro quo. This for that.

What happens if the console company turns out to be a collection of jerks? The contract falls apart. In extreme situations, the gamer might switch to another console.

2. Things to think about before switching to another console.

Switching to another console is not free. There's a switching cost or substitution cost. Many people think this just means you have to pay for another console, but there are sacrifices to make when going to another console:

* Is your TV set compatible with the new console?
* Do you need to buy new cables or accessories?
* How quickly will you get used to the quirks of the new console?
* How much do the new games cost?
* If you're planning on selling your old console (or if it's broken - if you're planning on not replacing your old console)...
o Will you miss the exclusive titles?
o Will you miss your online gaming buddies?
o What will you do with your library of games? You can't sell them at full price.
o What will you do with your accessories? You can't sell them at full price.

3. Switching cost and gamer loyalty.

Switching cost is one of those things that create gamer loyalty. Many of us gamers (not most of us, but many of us) are loyal to our consoles because it's just too costly in terms of money, time, and comfort to switch to another console. So we end up sticking with the same old console.

But we will switch to another company when our customer loyalty goes down for real or imagined reasons (because remember, it's never as bad as the media says it is):

* Not enough decent games.
* Crappy, nasty, or slow customer service.
* Problems with hardware and accessories.
* Shortages, hard-to-find things, and the like.
* Skyrocketing prices for games and accessories.
* Corporate arrogance (you know what we mean - the company thinks that they can live without us but we can't live without them).
* Related to corporate arrogance: the company messes up during an important or crucial situation (e.g., the company acts like a jerk during a big crisis or the company spokesperson says bad things about the customers during a stressful moment in the company's history).

Notice that all of the above has been said about Nintendo's Wii, Sony's PS3, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 - but all three of these consoles have millions of fans. Things are never as bad as we think (that's good advice for the new year!).

4. Our list of demands.

Let's start the new year off with a review of the social contract. Close your eyes and think about how your console's company has treated you this year. Is there room for improvement? Some of us here at QJ think so. So I made this list of additional demands for the gamer's social contract:

Dear console makers (and game makers too):

o You aren't paying us to be your telephone operators, so it's not our job to spend half an hour going through your telephone menus (press 2 now, press 5 now...).
o We paid good money for your consoles (and games). You should spend large chunks of that money investing in better games, downloads, services, and accessories for our mutual future. Otherwise there won't be a mutual future.
o We bought your console (and games) because we chose to. We didn't need to. If you abuse us, we can also choose to go online and tell the rest of the world to shun your console (and games).
o You will have polite and well-trained customer help and support people.
o If we are paying you for a service or membership, then that service should work for us. It's not our job to check if there's a change in the terms of service; it's your job to tell us.
o You will fix your mistakes as quickly as you can - and you will smile while doing it. This much: ^________^

With that list of demands, and with that big smile, let's end this article here. Happy new year!
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As greed and corruption engulf the earth, this would help to keep an equivalent balance of power in the system, what do you think of this?