Long time signer of petitions and first time writer of one. I'm a screenwriter and I find my go to release more often than not through gaming so understandably when the next console launch was upon us, I was ecstatic. The last console war changed the game for all of us  Videogame consoles became entertainment devices. You could play games, pause and watch Netflix and then continue your game or even invite friends online to watch you play. I wrote my first horror movie after playing Shadow of Mordor and I started the first 30 pages while watching Powerpuff Girls on Hulu all on a PS4. Gamers are united by play. It is much easier to build relationships with others by having fun with them. There are gamers that live a thousand  miles away that know each other and talk about one another like they live right around the corner.

So why aren't gamers happy? Why aren't you happy when a server gives you the bad news about your food order at the table? Why aren't you happy when what you want is not available? Now imagine that feeling and add that the server did place your food right in front of you but at the last second, took it off the table and took it to another one a few steps away. You look over at the table next to you... you'll see a person at a large table by themselves filled with plates that cover every inch of the massive stretch of wood with the the exact dish you were told was now unavailable. And instead of this person simply enjoying the meal because it should be what anyone wants, they try to sell it back to you at upwards of 200% of it's value. They never wanted it. They just knew you wanted it and they knew how to take it from you and they knew how to take advantage of you. Scalping is like someone taking the food off your plate when they they don't even need it and no one should be able to do that. Worse, we let them get away with this every time. 

No more. Even if you are not a gamer, even if you have never picked up a controller in your life, you are a human being. No person should ever be humiliated and taken advantage of. No one should have to sell their wife's diamond ring in exchange for a videogame console. No one. And why? Because selfish, uncaring, and completely remorseless people want to make a quick buck at your expense. That isn't what Sony intended. That isn't what Microsoft intended. 

My proposal is simple. We can get Sony and Microsoft to hear us out and talk to their retailers. Instead of online sales which are where scalpers thrive by using bot software programs to buy out multiple consoles and leave many of us in the cold with nothing, desperate enough to pay whatever price from them, we suggest online appointment setting. It's Covid safe for retailers as they can choose the max numbers in any given timeslot (eliminating the need to camp out and possibly spread the virus) and it makes their bots completely useless. The majority of retailers limit in store purchases to one person in events like these. All the scalper bots will be able to do is save appointments. That alone severely limits their purchases and if it's one unit per person in store? Goodnight Irene.

This is our chance to make things better. Not just for ourselves, but for that kid who really wants to play the new Spiderman on the new console or that girl who wants to try out the full MyCareer experience as a WNBA superstar. And as always, the kids who saw both and said I want to do both. Do it for the college kid stressed by their exams in a time of Covid who needs something to take their mind off the stress or OG gamer who has been playing since that first Christmas blowing on the Sega Genesis cartridge to play Sonic the Hedgehog for the very first time. Do it to show the world that even if you don't care for gaming, you care about people. 

Ice skates are for ice skaters and hockey players. Notebooks are for students, writers, journalists, etc. Videogame consoles are for gamers. Let's get consoles back in the hands of gamers. Please sign and share this petition if you feel the same as I do.