Gamers... we're a vocal bunch nowadays, aren't we?

You've probably noticed that there have been a lot of protests and petitions online recently, dealing with every issue under the sun.

Going door to door collecting signatures or handing out leaflets is a time-consuming and often expensive business, more often than not achieving absolutely nothing, but with a few lines of text on a web site and a simple CGI script or even just an e-mail form, you can easily collect thousands of names from all over the world.

Not surprisingly, the games community has seen its fair share of protests recently, and they are becoming more common. Here's a quick round-up:

• Final Unreal Patch calls for Epic to release an update with all of the latest Direct3D, OpenGL, Glide and sound code. The organiser claims: "As Tim Sweeney said, they owe us this patch."

• Tiberian Dawn Patch Petition asks that Westwood add some new features and gameplay modes. Not really calling for a patch, just a bunch of people wanting some extra stuff for free.

• Jane's Attack Squadron Petition currently boasts over five thousand virtual signatures from people who want Electronic Arts to continue funding the game that was being developed by Looking Glass Studios. The petition is organised by one of the project's programmers, who claims it is "very close to being complete".

• Wing Commander Engine Source Code Release Project asks Origin and Electronic Arts to make the Wing Commander source code available for modification by fans.

• Paul Steed was Id is the protest page from the Dteam development group, which is boycotting all Id Software products until Paul Steed is given his job back. Ridiculously, the site's poll boasts over a hundred thousand votes, with 90% agreeing that Steed should be reinstated.

• Ultima Online Protest and First UO Protest in a decade are two pages telling of protests in the Ultima Online world which resulted in the protestors being imprisoned, again in the online world. The original protests were about poor customer service from Origin, with characters being deleted and stats corrupted.

Strangely, these protests are becoming more frequent at the same time as dodgy software is becoming more rare.

From my lofty position atop the Mountain of Righteousness, I've been pleased to see that most titles nowadays are released in a decent condition, usually followed up with a small patch to fix compatibility issues and often add some extra content.

So are these protests on the increase because people are sick of shoddy treatment from games companies, or are they just a bunch of spoiled brats who stamp their feet and start crying when they don't get what they want?