Stealing from Friends: Things That Cryptic Should Stop Doing

[Triforcer]

@schild and squirrel: Ok, that's fair.  You believe that eventually such practices will negatively affect the genre as a whole (and by extension us as players and our enjoyment), and I can understand that even if I do not agree on your predicted result. 

[squirrel]

Of course the upside now is that we can assume that the ChampO EULA/Terms of Use are irrelevant. After all if they don't respect others, why respect theirs? 

EDIT: I keed. I keed.

[Triforcer]

I wasn't wrong about anything.  Everyone was being dishonest about why they opposed this from the beginning (tossing up reasons like it hurt Diamonds, it was against the EULA, etc.) and you finally admitted the reason was naked self-interest, not morality.  I won because you finally admitted that. 

Plus, anyone debating you has to do so with one hand tied behind their back, for obvious reasons.  So I don't respond to your repeated personal insults, because giving it back to you in equal amounts is dangerous.  Sorry to break it to you, but you're not a brilliant debater, you're the guy holding the banstick. 

[squirrel]

Oh dear. Now you have to start class all over! Your parents will be very dissapointed.

[Triforcer]

All I know is I ended the discussion on a conciliatory note, saying I understood your position.  I was done with the thread at that point, but you decided a final insult was necessary.  Assuming you don't feel the need for a final kick (Prediction: I'm wrong about that), I'll say what I said before:

I now understand your position even if I don't agree with it.  Thank you.

[squirrel]

Also, finally admitted? Once again, you're incorrect. I play too few MMOGs to care (as in amount of time played). But I do care about the industry as a whole. I just used myself as an example because I often lead Bat Country and I have a platform from which to throw rocks at companies and cause pain.
Edit: In fact, my reasons are entirely selfless given that I don't actually care about what happens to me, as if anything could in this situation.

Unlike Schild I am actually a MMOG gamer primarily, although my consoles are getting more work lately. I currently have active subscriptions to EVE, LoTRO and WoW. Point being, what Cryptic did was fucking stupid. It's a small industry and they shit in the bed. Your defending them makes you smell like shit. Sorry mate, but it's not happy happy fun time. They're being assholes and using they're competitors tools to do shit they shouldn't do and you're defending it. Cool.

EDIT: "I now understand your position even if I don't agree with it.  Thank you."

That's a reasonable response. I'm not being sarcastic either. That's a fine position.

[Triforcer]

EDIT:  Never mind.  I will go back to my forum, and not walk the Newsthread Plane for 100 years. 

[UnSub]

First off, I'm a fanboi of CoH/V AND of Cryptic (at least, until recently - now I'm into 'meh' territory). I'm not butthurt about Cryptic chasing CoH/V players - actually, I think they refer to CoH/V too much and shouldn't run down their old title.

My complaint is that going onto the official CoH/V boards and start soliciting for players. Now, I'd have a lot less objection if they'd gone to CoH/V fansites and done it, or tracked down different CoH/V guildsites and gone for it. That's the way I'd expect it to go. But aiming to recruit key players off the CoH/V board? Ugly and unprofessional. It's not much above going into CoH/V and spamming RMT-style 'FAST RELIABLE CHAMPO BETA KEYS HERE!'.

Personally I don't care about Diamonds - Schild can confirm my reluctance to name him at all, but ultimately it lends credence to the event by providing a recognisable name. I care about the act here. That Cryptic did it now makes it acceptable for DCUO to try to recruit off the ChampO boards, or for Gargantuan's Marvel MMO to come by and try to steal off Cryptic too. Ultimately you don't punch another guy in the balls because then it makes it acceptable for someone to punch you in the balls. End result: everyone ends up with hurt testicles.

[Xuri]

Ahhh. And here I thought goldspam was my only worries. I may be stating something obvious here, but if Cryptic doesn't get their hand spanked over this, soon every MMO developer and/or publisher will have their own "Recruitment Squads", their only purpose being mass-inviting players from other MMOs, through their competitors' in-game chat/messaging systems.

[Reg]

This is the kind of thing the Shadowbane guys did back in the UO days. They took a lot of heat about it at the time.  But since it's a well-known fact that MMOG developers don't learn from history or each other I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see it happening again.

[Tebonas]

That is bad. Spammers are a bane to online games anyway, and now companies are doing it as well? Hope Cryptic gets kicked to the curb for this soon.

[Arthur_Parker]

I started the process to switch telephone companies yesterday because various marketing companies working for BT won't stop calling me and BT apparently doesn't care that I'm on the UK version of the "do not call list" and x-directory.

Somebody link the beta application for this new game, I don't like superhero games but have a sudden desire to contact lots of people ingame and tell them how great LOTRO is.

[Dtrain]

Let's play a game.

You are a community manager tasked with creating hype for a new game (details are up to you.)

Your two employees are Diamonds and Triforcer. Please describe the tasks you would create, and to whom they would be assigned.

(Triforcer, if you wish to play, your second employee can be Schild, without the attachable ban stick.)

...and go.

[Triforcer]

If I worked with Diamonds and schild, I'd assign them the task of shooting themselves in the face, and then I'd turn the gun on myself.

[schild]

I would imagine players would be *lucky* if I was the one wielding the banstick.

[Moorgard]

If I worked with Diamonds and schild, I'd assign them the task of shooting themselves in the face, and then I'd turn the gun on myself.

Congratulations on mastering Community Management Rule #47: Leave a big mess for your replacement to clean up.

[Merusk]

I can't wait for the EQ2/ Conan/ LoTR/ War spam to start-up in WoW using trial accounts.   Yay!

[Volusus]

Hello everyone.  I just want to bring to everyone's attention the horror that I have witnessed recently within my local gaming community!  Apparently, another company is soliciting me-- ok, well, not me PERSONALLY, but a friend of a friend of mine-- to play THEIR competing beta!  It's downright low, isn't it?  They send me-- ok, well, a friend of a friend-- this PM of the whole thing.  Here's a word for word copy of the PM (I can't supply a screenshot of anything because my screenshot button, and my friend's, and my friend's friends, is broken)

Here's a copy of the forum PM:

Hey <name>, this is KnownDevName from Evil Inc. Studios.

We would like to offer you beta access to Fantastic Awesomesauce Online (if you don’t already have it). We’re specifically reaching out to you so that you can get a chance to see the game before it goes live. If you already have applied for beta, then we would like to accelerate your application.

If you are interested in the Beta for Fantastic Awesomesauce Online please feel free to email me at <emailname>@evilincstudios.com.

Thanks!
KnownDevName


Can you believe this??  And KnownDevName is a recognized yellow name!  It's Seymour Buttz, a Web Programmer for Evil Inc. Studios.  Now... why Seymour, a Web Programmer who literally would never have any business sending out a request like this, (and also have NO reason to sign it personally… since, you know, they are only a WEB PROGRAMMER) would send such an e-mail out doesn't matter.  The simple fact their name is ON this PM (which I copied here, of course, but I've seen the actual PM.  Trust me) proves it's real, right?

Everything I've done to validate if this is real has proved it's real.  I won't go into all the details of course of WHAT I did to validate it being real, but oh yes, it's real.  Really.

Anyway, let's all get mad and start this whole trash talking session about Evil Inc. Studios!  Because after all, the internets is serious business, guys.


P.S.  Please ignore the fact that all this info has come to light AFTER an official post by my game was released saying to ignore solicitation mentioned that was about "another game company trying to lure you to their competing product."  I know it's a rather broad statement, but they are CLEARLY talking about Evil Inc. Studios.  That's why I've started telling everyone about this PM... that um... my friend of a friend got way BEFORE this statement was released.  Yeah.

There is no reason why after they made that ambiguous statement suddenly this PM surfaced clearly pointing the finger right at Evil Inc. Studios.  Also, can't you just tell by how the PM I typed is worded that it's true?  I know I can, and I typed it!  They said " accelerate your application" for Pete's sake!  That's clearly evil alliteration people!

Evil Inc. needs to STOP IT!

[schild]

What in the nine hells was that?

Edit: Looking through the logs, I blame Massively.

[tazelbain]

I think it was fanboy LARPing.

[sidereal]

I think naming their company Evil Inc Studios was their first mistake.  That's just a terrible business decision.  Also, can I get a beta invite for Fantastic Awesomeness Online?  That sounds awesome.

[schild]

First of all, it's Fantastic Awesomesauce, second of all, no. Beta invites are limited.

[Yoru]

Couldn't've come from Massively. The post doesn't have enough "Next Page" links.

[sidereal]

Ah, that's why googling didn't turn it up.

After I got the name right, I got in.  It's not as awesome as you'd think, but  

[sinij]

This pisses me off because:

1. I don't want it to become common practice.
2. As a gamer, this sort of shit is pretty insulting.
3. It's like they think the folks in City of Heroes don't know about Champions or aren't planning to try it, and that's just absolute crazytalk. The only people left in CoH are people that love that particular section of the genre and would play anything involving superheroes. Kind of like sociopaths and Darkfall.

As a gamer I really don't care if this practice becomes commonplace, aside from potential extremes where it becomes spam. Yes, whole thing could have been done more tasteful, but living according to some 'mmorpg gentleman's code' is setting yourself up for a failure. Next ruthless fucker that doesn't will eat your lunch and get your job.

Yes, this could be part of being Darkfall-loving, SB-playing sociopath... but there is more of us than there is of you AND WE WILL FUCK YOU UP.

Also, in closing I'd like to say:

SB.EXE

[HaemishM]

I dunno.  DirecTV uses Comcast's pipe to tell me to switch to cable, which seems like pretty much the same thing.

And they PAY for the privilege of doing so - i.e. they make media buys to use that pipe. This is not even remotely the same fucking thing.

EDIT: Nevermind, I see this thread was fagged up super quick by Triforcer soon after the quoted post. Nothing to see here.

[sidereal]

I dunno.  DirecTV uses Comcast's pipe to tell me to switch to cable, which seems like pretty much the same thing.

And they PAY for the privilege of doing so - i.e. they make media buys to use that pipe. This is not even remotely the same fucking thing.

Totally covered on page 1.  Cryptic theoretically paid for accounts to send their little spams as well.
But I was mostly playing Devil's Advocate.  I'm on board with it being a shitty, stupid thing to do.  Almost certainly against the TOS which, yes 12-year-old brothers break with impunity all the time, but which companies with lots of resources to sue for are very, very careful about if they're smart.

[Samwise]

this could be part of being Darkfall-loving, SB-playing sociopath

That's pretty much what I'm thinking here.   

[Ingmar]

I wonder if that sarcastrobomb Massively guy is just the first of many?

[Rendakor]

I wonder if that sarcastrobomb Massively guy is just the first of many?

I suggest moving the thread to Politics before that happens. 

[sam, an eggplant]

My favorite part about Cryptics CO beta is that they do a shitload of previews and send out more mail than any other company I've ever encountered. Ever. It's approaching spam.

Seriously. I think we're up to four or five emails just in the past week. Every time they turn the servers on they send two emails. It's a bit much.

[d4rkj3di]

 

This does not surprise me at all.

[Soln]

fanboy LARPing.

WHERE DO I GET MY F13 BETA KEY!!

[UnSub]

Evil Inc. needs to STOP IT!

Weak parody. 4/10. Also, I can provide screenshots if you really want, but then you'll say I faked them too.

Seriously, if I'm wrong, all Cryptic has to do is post a message saying "This didn't happen" and it's all done. They are paying a PR company money to do their PR, so get them onto it. Or admit it happened, apologise and move forward.

I find it amusing that people might imagine that either I or my sources have some axe to grind against Cryptic - I started following Cryptic / CoH/V back in 2001 or so, have been a fan of them for years and have always been really excited by what Cryptic  planned... up to this point. Or that I get some kind of advantage out of posting this. Net result: I'm no longer in the ChampO beta, user name and password no longer accepted.

So be it.

EDIT: There's a small chance I can't get in for other reasons - maintenance, technical errors, etc - but I did expect that putting my name to this would be the end of ChampO beta experience.

Works now.

[lamaros]

Evil Inc. needs to STOP IT!

Weak parody. 4/10. Also, I can provide screenshots if you really want, but then you'll say I faked them too.

Seriously, if I'm wrong, all Cryptic has to do is post a message saying "This didn't happen" and it's all done. They are paying a PR company money to do their PR, so get them onto it. Or admit it happened, apologise and move forward.

I find it amusing that people might imagine that either I or my sources have some axe to grind against Cryptic - I started following Cryptic / CoH/V back in 2001 or so, have been a fan of them for years and have always been really excited by what Cryptic  planned... up to this point. Or that I get some kind of advantage out of posting this. Net result: I'm no longer in the ChampO beta, user name and password no longer accepted.

So be it.

EDIT: There's a small chance I can't get in for other reasons - maintenance, technical errors, etc - but I did expect that putting my name to this would be the end of ChampO beta experience.

Se now this strikes me as being more unprofessional than the original post.