“I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but it's crazy-making how this has zero positive effects for anyone aside from wealthy, powerful people and their profits...F*ck this and f*ck them.” --Scott Benson, developer of Night in the Woods, Co-founder of Infinite Fall The internet is now officially on its way towards no longer being an open and equal utility for all. The Federal Communications Commission has decided on December 14th to repeal net neutrality. This will allow internet service providers to control the internet by slowing down or speeding up whatever they see fit (or WHOever pays the most). So what does this mean for video games? Sadly, in a lot of ways game makers, game consumers, and video game culture in general could potentially suffer a lot from this ruling. Here are a few examples. And in all of these examples, different aspects of gaming culture are suffering for similar reasons. Firstly, Indie games could be hit hard by this ruling. The sea of game producers trying to get their games played is more crowded than ever, and the repeal of net neutrality will make it even harder for indie producers to get their great games in our hands. Indie game makers can no longer be just that: “independent”. They can no longer avoid using expensive publishers to instead hype/build/fund/release a game through direct game maker to game player interaction. Indie game producers are more likely to have to pay the price (economically and artistically) to get through expensive paywalls, instead of climbing over them and producing new and exciting content. Here’s another quote from indie developer Scott Benson: “An internet where massive corporations have even more control over what you can and cannot see, hear and say opens up a whole new world of problems for developers and indie games in general.” Others who make their living on the internet are in the same situation. Game streamers and other figures involved in online gaming culture could suffer from the net neutrality repeal as well. Markiplier on Twitter And us, the gamers, could suffer from this repeal for the same reasons. Especially those who play games with online components (almost every game these days!). Machinima on Twitter What do you guys think? Remember if you oppose the FCC’s ruling, all hope is not lost yet! Congress has to step in to stop it at this point, and you could help make them do so! Check out the links below to find out how you can do your part to fight this: Battle for the Net ACLU Action Petition