Change is Never Good
I'm sorry, but I have to interrupt the 2006 Stupid awards.Sort of.
There has been a major change in the MMORPG community, as a whole, and the FFXI community, specifically.
One of the main forum sites for these types of games has been purchased by a parent company that also deals in Real Money Transactions (RMT).
Note: for those of you new to the scene, RMT basically breaks down to the trade of online currency, such as gil or gold, for real world money.
Now, this begs the question: can the forum remain unbiased when their parent company wholly endorses an activity that the majority of players find terrible?
One of the things GMs do is occasionally read through forums to gain a better understanding of the player base. By reading your posts, GMs and our respective companies can make changes that make our world better for you.
Plus, it makes it much easier for me to undate my "this moron needs to be fed to a dragon" list.
The fact that this particular forum may now start endorsing a group whose actions are against the terms of service of practically every MMORPG on the planet is quite disturbing.
How can players be expected to respect a forum for players that is owned and operated (and whose revenue supports) actions that cause all players grief?
I wish I had a funny story or some witty comments to pass on, but honestly, I don't find this very funny.
I will not post the name of this forum because I don't want to give them even one extra reader, but users of this forum will know which one I'm talking about.
Perhaps nothing will come of this. Maybe the forum administrators will maintain a certain level of objectiveness.
But, personally, I wouldn't hold my breath.
I mean, would you trust a lung cancer forum that was owned and operated by a tobacco company?
I don't think so.
Right now, I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Also, trying to figure out how to feed an entire website to a dragon.
But for now, I can only do one thing:
The 2006 Stupid Award of the Day goes to the...
"We're lining our pockets with your grief" Forum.
posted by Goblin Smithy @ 12:36 PM
7 Comments:
I know what forum you speak of. While I do not agree with or condone with RMT, I still feel the forum has some valid information. I go there often for guides, item infomation, map information, mob information, etc. So what's going to happen? RMT banners and pop ups? Sorry to say, but almost every forum having to do with MMORPG's have RMT banners and popups.
I'm not going to get into the politics of it. If you don't like it, don't look at it. Just because a banner pops up, it doesn't force you to click it and go spend your real money on fake money. This doesn't mean the information is going to change, or the members of the forum become untrustworthy, or give unworthy information.
Maybe it comes down to morals. But the site isn't forcing us to buy "gil". I personally will continue to navigate through the website, and many others which are bookmarked on my PC.
My 2 gil.
P.S. Please feed someone to a dragon. We all need our daily fix!
"the forum remain unbiased"
By definition, any post on a forum is biased in some way.
And virtual economies will thrive wether they are sanctioned or not: there is a demand so there will be a supply. You better get used to it, and gaming companies should adapt or be buried by the inevitable competition that will actively promote (and profit from) real/virtual market interaction. I predict pretty soon some virtual economies will circulate more money than several third world countries.
Ehhh....Give it some time. Any long time poster on that forum will know that the owners are very much against RMT. Yes the company that now owns them also own IGE, but not a cent of the money they make will ever see IGE's hands. Also the owners of the website still have complete creative control. THERE WILL BE NO RMT BANNERS OR ADS. Any database that may have you personal information is still kept secret and will not be given or sold to IGE or any other part of the company.
I am very much against smoking, so you will never see me endorsing Molboro but wearing shirts or hats, or using anything that advertise for them. You will however see me eating Kraft Mac & Cheese almost daily. Altria own both companines. When was the last time you saw an ad for smoking on your mac & cheese or vice versa.
Everyone just needs to calm down. There will be changes but I think they will all be for better.
First to make things easier, the website in discussion is Alla's. Alla is merging with ogaming and thotbott which has been aquired by the holding company that also owns IGE.
Dave, I know that you didn't want the website mentioned but anyone who reads your blog more than likely plays FF, and I have yet to meet a person that plays FF who hasn't been to Alla's.
James Kilton, You are right, I don't really understand why there is all this hype over the deal. Alla and IGE are not merging. They are legally and practically seperate entities. The fact that Alla has stated "time and time again that he will NEVER bow down to RMT companies" is the very reason why I'm not upset. I trust his intentions and know that his actions won't betray his feelings.
I will admit that Alla is dancing close to the line, but he I trust,more than anyone else, will not cross it.
It's such a shame that this forum decided to make such a terrible, terrible move. How in the world did they think that a deal like THAT would ever, ever fly with the core usergroup?
Your guess is as good as mine.
A good portion of the userbase has decided to migrate to FFXIonline.com. It's a great forum site, but it lacks the material that the offending party has.
So instead of a one-stop-shop, we have several sites to visit.
A minor inconvenience when you consider the cause of the problem...
The company that purchased the forum in question was created by the owners of IGE to act as a controlling company for multiple subsidiaries.
So, the parent company is helmed by the people who run one of the largest RMT businesses on the net.
Oh yeah, no problem there.
Bwahahahaha.... who mentioned Vanaguide as non RMT? And I quote from their OPENING F**KING PAGE:
"Fantasy XI is set in the world of Vana'diel. Vana'Guide is a Final Fantasy XI Leveling Guide, Crafting Guide all in one. Valuable information about FFXI Astral Ring, Scorpion Harness and Bonecraft Recipes.
Buy FFXI Gil, and Buy FFXI Armor. Now you can buy ffxi astral ring and a lot more. Do you need to know Where to EXP on FFXI, Check out the our FFXI EXP Camp guide. Synthesis Directions,Synthesis High Quality (HQ) Tiers
If you want to play FFXI in a window, you can download the FFXI windower, ffxi crafting recipes, ffxi crafting database, ffxi crafting, synthing, A complete and ultimate ffxi armor list, beast weakness chart clothcraft synthesis,"
I'm sorry, they are the scum of the earth. Their entire site is an exercise in plagarism and violations of the FFXI EULA.
One can only hope Somepage.com resists better than Alla did. I wonder what lube IGE, I mean RPG Holdings offered for that experience.
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