Controversially video games may not be that important for most people but let's not forget that it is one of the main drivers in the PC market especially. Most gamers will spend easily over R10000 to play their games smoothly and with the highest detail they can get.

Also the game industry itself is well within the billion mark. However there is a grim picture is unfolding as more and more games becomes online dependant. Some games when you buy them you have to do a 4 Gigabyte update and it will continue to update every time you play the game.

To be fair 4 Gigabytes and updates may not look like much but consider the costs in South Africa. A game "new title" will set you back R600+ 4 Gigabytes of data will set you back between R300 to R400 easy "depending on provider/ contract" and then you still need to be online to play it.

If the game developers get there way and they normally do, "play-stations" will follow soon and even there games will demand to be permanently online…

The fact is our consumer council did very little to protect us against these developers and there growing set of requirements. If a game needs a 4 gigabyte update just to play then was the game sold as a complete product, because it cannot function as a complete product on its own.

The real scary part is your children are communicating with whom exactly? Fact is most games can no longer be played over a standard network thus there is no control for a parent.

Thus there is no protection for children at all… This seems to be ok because the designers seem to want this as it gives them total control over their product while being used. Why is such heavy control needed? Clearly it is no longer a question of just piracy as they claim it to be.

It is about utter control and fact is we have no control over them at all. Thus the biggest question of all comes to mind. Why have the consumer protection act failed the gaming population in such a horrific degree?

Many more questions needs to be answered and for the most part games are not without glitches most of them have some type of cheat code if the player gets struck but because there are no regulation cheat codes are purely voluntary and there are many games with glitches that becomes unplayable because they failed to add simple cheat codes to aid the product when it fails.

Now most people will argue "that is why one have 4 Gigabyte updates " but it is simply not true. We updated a popular title and we still get stuck at a particular stage in the game and seemingly there is no other option available other than giving up and then you wasted over R1000 on a game? How is that even legal?

Yes it is true that there are support sites but we find them to be slow to none responsive at best.

In the end you can't sell a car without the engine? Why can games be sold without the ability of being stand alone? How can they not include basic cheats to combat basic bugs within their products? Why isn't any of this regulated after all we do pay tax on it?

Fact is most gamers have to use trainers that can introduce viruses on their systems and even lead to data being stolen. But again the Consumer are not protected against any of this? Considering the amount of money we spend on it and the tax we pay on the product is it not fair to ask our government to protect us against such abuse?

the fact is there are laws protecting the gaming industry...

Sadly we as customers have little to no protection at all...