With Stop Killing Games-supported EU petition now closed, the campaign’s loudest voice reckons it’s “done about as well as is humanly possible”

The Stop Destroying Videogames citizens’ initiative, the petition asking EU lawmakers to look into the issue of publishers rendering online games unplayable when official support runs its course, hit its deadline at the end of last month looking like it’d amassed more than enough signatures. With that phase over, the Stop Killing Games campaign that’s vocally supported efforts like this is left to await the outcomes, whatever they might be.

That’s given YouTuber Ross Scott, who’s become the loudest voice publicising this worldwide push for action on consumer rights when it comes to these sorts of server shutdowns, a chance to take stock of how things have gone to this point. He’s keen to take a break, but will first have to see how things pan out with the multiple irons Stop Killing Games and their adjacent groups have in the fire.

“Since the signing period is over, we’re entering a phase where things like counter lobbying and political connections are most important,” Scott said in a ‘wrap up’ video posted to his channel Accursed Farms. “Frankly, that is not my department. I know nothing about that, though some political insiders do, and they’re advising the official organizers [of the EU petition]. I’m not even aware of all their plans.”

So, that means “a whole lot of the campaign now involves waiting”, though Scott did still encourage those who’re keen to support it to carry on doing things like contacting MEPs about the issue, or helping the initiative’s organisers get in contact with EU admin staff if they can.

Looking back on the campaign’s efforts and general strategy to this point, Scott reckons those behind it have done well in terms of having “maximized our chances to push back against the issue of games being destroyed on almost every front”. While he acknowledged that the group’s efforts in a number of countries, such as the USA and Brazil, having hit brick walls in some form or another, Scott said he believes the campaign’s “done about as well as is humanly possible given the landscape.”

“I think France, Germany, Australia, and the EU as a whole are the heavyweights in this,” the YouTuber reasoned, with measures in these places all currently waiting action or responses from the bodies they’re directed at. “As long as we get a major market prohibiting game destruction, I think we’ll largely win this globally…I don’t see lots of new stuff on the horizon later. I think we either win on at least one of these or if they all fail, then it’s over.”

With things now at that stage, Scott’s aiming to soon take a “standby break” from his volunteering to help promote this cause, only popping up if something happens with the campaign that he thinks would benefit from his intervention.

“I know a lot of people found out about Stop Killing Games just recently, but I’ve been going at it hard for over a year and a half now, and I wasn’t exactly well rested prior to that,” the YouTuber said, adding that he ironically hasn’t “had time to play a game for close to a couple months now”. Here’s hoping he is able to take that proper break, while we all wait to see what the outcomes of these bits of action are.