Flight

Most of us will know about the recent bullshit, where a guild of dozens of people were transferred from test to a live server, taking with them many dozens of Fabled loots they put on the vendor and also with loot on the chars ffrom high end raid mobs they'd never got close to killing.


A couple of posts in there made me think about some of the other things SoE are doing at the moment. Firstly, those posts were :


The other one was :




This made me think. last week, I started a thread on FoH forums titled [SoE] - Robbing Bastards . In summary, SoE sell hundreds or even thousands of dollars of in game Legends of Norrath cards to many individuals. What they don't let you know is that no-one outside of 40-odd States can enter the tournaments, that people buy these cards to enter.

The only mention of this is hidden in the EULA. Seven US States can't play for legal reasons; Europe and the rest of the World are just told to fuck off, we aren't letting you play, without giving any reason. There is no legal restriction; SoE for whatever reason refuse to comment on, acknowledge or even discuss this. It should be said you don't ever see the EULA, especially if you play from within EQ2. Its a hidden away text file, that even says -click here to accept - but has nothing to click, as its just a text file. You see and get spammed with phat loot adds for entering and winning tournies. You play the game, you go to the Sony Store and buy hundreds of dollars worth of cards - you never see the EULA or find out you can't enter until you try to do so. Lots of pissed off people when they find this out, after spending massive sums of money.



The other thing is this announcement that Sony are expanding their virtual for real money online trade system with the establishment of Livegamer



My main worry about the whole guild transfer shit, was whether Sony really were concerned with the integrity of their worlds and live environments. Seems more and more obvious that actually, they don't give a fuck. Pretty soon you'll be able to legitimately buy your way through the game. All they ever see is dollar signs.

And, no, theres no chance of anyone being sacked for the recent bullshit. They really don't give a fuck.



On the bright side, we have Froech taking over the job from Scott, heading up the EQ2 team. We know we can trust him because he was the Producer when EQ2 was developed and went live. Errm, hang on a minute ........ (and yeah, he's also the guy that responded to the transfer thread on the official forums with the kindness, kindness, kindness post on the official forums).

spyderbite

Dunno if you're old enough to remember the signs that used to hang in every family restaurant in the 70's and 80's.. "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason". Still applies today.. business owners just aren't hanging the signs anymore.

There are seven states that do not permit online gambling of any sort even if a free variation is offered. If the site takes money in any form and permits competitive play it is forbidden to these states. As for Europe and any overseas country.. old news.. every country has its own laws regarding gambling.. online and off. It is in a company's best interest to just prohibit it from these continents rather than research every single, country, province, territory, etc. This is the way it is with all sites.. not just Sony.

People keep trying to hang Bruce for his post. Yah.. its his job to post it as the producer. I guarantee that he didn't write it. You can focus your frustration on SOE's legal department for that gem.

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Flight

Yeah, sadly I'm old enough to remember those.

They didn't used to sell you the food then kick you out, saying you weren't allowed to eat it.


The only mention of it is buried in the small print of the EULA. You don't ever, see the EULA. Couple of months back when they tested the tournie system, they even ran test tournaments on Euro times for Euro players. Many players have bought hundreds or thousands of dollars worth, without knowing they are useless.

All I'm saying is SoE should be more open on their rules and at least acknowledge it; discuss why on the forums. Theres no legal reason behind it.




As for Bruce, the only two things I know about him are that :

i) he was lead produced during EQ2's development and going live;


ii) on his first day in the job he alienated half the players and the majority of the test server.

Shinzul

Bad analogy. You can still play Legends of Norrath to your heart's content, using the cards you bought all you want. Tournaments are a different animal... They can refuse service to the tournaments at their discretion, but that doesn't prevent you from enjoying LoN at all.

dawy

I LOL'd when i read this

Grindtoof

6 stars.

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"Behind every good woman is a great slap in the ass!"

Avaela

gilamarth

I have no problems myself accepting that it was not written by him. The thing that get's me though is it was still under his signature and at the very least there's nothing stopping him from posting something to correct that. Not sure I can think of why a post couldn't simply say something like "If it sounded like I was blaming the community that wasn't my intent. We do apologize for this.". His name was signed, so he's ultimately responsible for the post, and if it was "wrong" he probably should do something to correct it. Granted nothing at this point would passify all, but something like this would've saved a few accounts at the least and probably gone a ways to restoring many other players good will towrds SOE. But left as it is the players are stuck with this being SOE's "official" stance no matter who wrote it I'm afraid.

I agree that it would be bad though if he was simply "not allowed" to say anything more even if he wanted to fix this post. Being a whipping boy cause of something ya did, or didn't botherer to fix it is one thing, being one because yer forced to really sucks. I can only imagine the Dev that did the work doesn't feel happy over things either even though that person had no real choice in the matter. Except to walk out of the job of course but that's a different discussion.

-Gil

Sonorod

Couple things,

I know it is against federal law for U.S. citizens to take part in foreign lotteries so it might apply to the other foreign nations that play EQ as well.

Second, don't you have to Accept or Decline the EULA every time you run EQ2? Or are you arguing that because it's not part of the independant LON client that it's a discrepancy? Or is there a seperate EULA for LON? I'm not clear on this from reading above.

Flight

1. No it is not against the law in the vast majority of countries, including Europe. You'll notice there are separate rules in the EULA that cover the restricted US States and Europe. The US reason is given - its illegal.

The rest of the world / Europe isn't discussed. No reason, whatsoever, is given. Thats what they enforce, but they've given no reason, discussion or even acknowledgement on the LoN forums, or anywhere.



2. LoN has a separate EULA. You don't EVER see it. That includes playing the game and buying cards. I bought a couple hundred dollars worth and knew nothing about the restriction, until I tried to enter a tournie. Lots of folks have spent thousands or hundreds of dollars, not knowing.

There is an EULA you can find in LoN, if you do some digging. Its just a text. It even says, click ehre to accept yes / no, but there obviously no buttons to click because its just a text.



The resale or trade value of rares has become next to nothing, due to this. Folks often sell collections of cards for a tenth or less than they paid for them.

The real issue is that it is still catching people out because the restriction is so low profile, until you actually try to enter a tournament.





edit : The loot cards they introduced are worth up to $100 each; buying the cards could certainly be described as gambling in the same way the tournies are - random prizes worth much more than the buy price. Guarantee they won't stop selling them, though.