Ross Scott
Scott in 2025
Born	Ross Scott
YouTube information
Channel	@Accursed_Farms
Years active	2007-present
Genres	Machinima game reviews game preservation activism
Subscribers	430 thousand
Views	143.8 million
Last updated: 2025-12-26
Website	https://www.accursedfarms.com/

Ross Scott, also known as Accursed Farms, is a YouTuber and video game preservation activist. He is primarily known for his Half-Life machinima series Freeman's Mind^[1] and creating the Stop Killing Games movement, which he remained active in as a figurehead since its inception in April 2024 until he stepped back in August 2025.

Freeman's Mind is a machinima series using the Source remake of the 1998 video game Half-Life.^[1] It follows the first-person perspective of the silent protagonist of the game, Gordon Freeman. Freeman is given a voice in the series by Scott, who acts as a combination of narrator and running commentary, often criticizing and satirizing the game world's conventions in a style similar to that in Mystery Science Theater 3000.^[2] The series ran from 2007 to 2014 and consisted of 71 episodes.^[a] In the same year, IGN reposted the series.^[3]

A sequel series, titled Freeman's Mind 2 set in Half-Life 2, debuted in 2017 and is still ongoing.^[4][5] Freeman’s Mind 2 also features modifications to the original maps, adding new or changing existing set pieces and adding entirely new areas.^[4]

Scott is critical of online-only games being shut down, describing the practice as an "assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media"^[6] and comparing it to movie studios during the silent film era "burning their own films after they were done showing them to recover the silver content", while also pointing out that "most films of that era are gone forever."^[7] In 2019, Scott criticized games as a service, calling it "fraud", and has been openly critical of the issue since 2013 in his Test Drive 3 review.^[8]

In April 2024, after the shutdown of The Crew, Scott released a video titled "The largest campaign ever to stop publishers destroying games" on his YouTube channel introducing Stop Killing Games and launched a website for the campaign.^[8] The movement encourages users to vote on petitions to force developers into providing ways to play games after the end of support, such as adding an offline mode or an ability to host private servers.^[9] He also encouraged multiple petitions for Stop Killing Games, such as the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Protection in France,^[6][10] the UK Parliament petition, and the European Citizens' Initiative in the European Union,^[7][11][12] the latter of which gained over 350,000 signatures in the first two months.^[13]

Scott expected the movement to fail when the European Citizens' Initiative stagnated at 45% of the amount necessary for government action to be taken, which he attributed in part to opposition and misinformation about the campaign by YouTuber Jason Hall, also known as PirateSoftware.^[14][15] The movement has seen success in Europe, where the European Citizens' Initiative closed with over 1.4 million signatures, 97% of which were considered to be valid.^[16][17][18] The movement has seen less success in the UK, which prompted a debate in UK Parliament following a petition of almost 190,000 signatures. The movement saw support by some members of parliament, but it was ultimately decided no changes would be made to UK law, stating that the government would instead work with game companies to ensure accurate information is provided to consumers.^[19][20]

Scott would figurehead this movement through videos uploaded to his YouTube channel and interviews with the press throughout 2024 and 2025.^[21][22][23] He would continue to do so until August 4, 2025, when he announced he would take a "standby break", in which he would only contribute to the campaign if something were to arise that he felt would benefit from his involvement.^[24][25][26]