I know Feldon put a great deal of good work in to the data feed and stuff over the last year or so. I am wondering what this turn of events will mean for that. If you show too much dissent will they cut yr datafeed off? What will happen after doomsday? Will you only get EU data? etc.
I know Feldon put a great deal of good work in to the data feed and stuff over the last year or so. I am wondering what this turn of events will mean for that. If you show too much dissent will they cut yr datafeed off? What will happen after doomsday? Will you only get EU data? etc.
@Feldon saw that. Keep posting 🙂 Isn’t this freedom of speech after all ?
Freedom of speech doesn’t apply on an internet forum that requires registration. You are subject to their terms and conditions.
My point is, so are the Moderators. They must abide by the same rules and cannot just delete the posts they don’t like. They must point out which rule has been violated and be able to back it up.
There is nothing offensive, profane, attacking, abusive, or threatening about Tuatha’s illustration. In fact it does not mention SOE or ProSiebenSat1 by name.
So if they are going to delete my post, they’re going to have to give me a reason why.
I think this picture will be the symbol for a hurt community! Guess it backfired back at them for removing it. Personally I don’t care if they ban me at this point, guess they wont change their mind about this anyway and this is where SoE and I part ways if so.
I will miss my ratongas, friends, the guild and all the fun this MMO did provide 🙁
Just to clear things up with the cartoons. One was removed as it was considered a political discussion and cruelty to kids. The famous one that everyone seems to enjoy is removed as it depicts the sale of children (which is illegal).
The interesting thing about an illustration is that it is open to interpretation. Is the horizontal line across the shorter person’s face a mouth? or a moustache? Is the shorter person a clean-shaven dwarf? A midget? A gnome? A child? It cannot be definitively stated.
I’ll ask Tuatha if a variation on the cartoon can be produced, but it’s kind of hard since we don’t know what illegal activity will be imagined in the eye of the beholder. I usually prefer to go by verifiable facts that are directly in front of me, instead of trying to shape something based on the imagination of another.
There were two cartoons ? Obviously I missed the other due to swift censoring by the iron fisted fascist moderators. Of course you know they will tolerate absolutly no dissent, and the beatings of the player base will continue until proper moral and line toeing is restored !
reading about what’s going on what makes sad is seeing what this has done to Feldon who has done so much for the eq2 community (which helps SOE). Seeing him so dissapointed and dispondent should be troubling to SOE and to us. Hate to see you go through this and thanks for all yu have done Feldon (not soe).
These are the ones I have contacted. I think SOE getting bad publicity for this is the only way for them to understand that the playerbase can not be pushed around like this and that this decision is a bad one no matter how you look at it.
Agreed. You did nothing wrong CheesePirate. You did what you felt was right, and the masses agree with you. The people with egg on their face are the ones who are scrambling to cover this up as fast as they can. They are the ones who are acting like smegging muppets. Keep up the great work both of you. Its a sad day when the customers care more about a companies product then the company themselves.
The forums are pointless anyway, everyone there is under Smedley, and this seems in line with what he’s talked about. I don’t know if anyone at SCE even pays attention to the Smedley empire, they’re likely far too busy annoying the PSN userbase.
I posted this Wire story to my facebook page. I have more then a few guild and raid friends who will be interested in this story. I say to anyone who has a facebook page with eq2 players as friends speard it around. I’m even tempted to post it on the eq2 facebook page to see how fast it takes them to take it down.
The mod trolls on the SOE forums are working overtime right now. They are deleting things left and right. I would not be suprised to see at least 5 pages of deleted posts at this point. They have gone way overboard on this one. 🙁 Banning you was complete bull. Those mods need to take a chill or be moved to another department.
I would love to know what reason they have for removing your latest image CheesePirate, since all the previous concerns from the mods were addressed 0.o
Feldon, what upset me even more than having the censored picture removed is that they deleted all the nice things Itsey said about me and you in his post before I could screenshot it…was going to print it out and hang it on my wall 🙁
I just received a VERY nice private message from one of the mods … (quoted below). I respect him (her) and applaud the effort … but really ?
Koava,
I’ve gone ahead and removed your post from the thread referenced in the title of this message for violations of the Forum Guidelines. The text of the post was as follows:
I am sorry but I have no constructive feedback to offer. Everything in this deal is so destructive of the player base that I am appauled.
Also, it just boggles my mind that the mods are banning folks for expressing problems with this decision.
Free Feldon in 2012 !
While we very much support your desire to express yourself on this matter at the same time we have to continue to enforce the Forum Guidelines. I’m more than happy to work with you to ensure that any future post on the topic does not violate any rules, or to forward on feedback directly in this matter.
Please let me know how we can best help you,
-Piestro
Note that Piestro is “more than happy to work with me”. Well Piestro, PLEASE forward my severe concerns over the removal of posts, the banning of prominent community voices, and for this destructive path that SoE has embarked on.
Sincerely, Grimmond
aka Scott Steinmetz (Seattle)
“What the heck … Peggy at that Siberian site is gonna be posting my name, address and Visa card number soon enough anyways)
Personally one of the things that I have always enjoyed about eq2 is being able to play with people from around the world. From what I understand this change means we’ll be isolated. We can no longer play with people in other countries… my question is why?
Think I would be banned if I posted this opinion?
Sorry, you’ve been banned from posting messages in this forum.
Reason for Ban: Other
Your account has been suspended 1 day for repeated non-constructive posting. Please see our forum guidelines for acceptable posting standards.
Length of Ban: 1 day (from 02/22/2012 09:07:24 to 02/23/2012 09:07:24)
Love the reason. How is 1 post “repeated non-constructive posting”? Lol
Piestro does at least appear to be polite. I was impressed with how he handled responding to multiple threads with the rebate fiasco this past weekend. In this situation, polite seems more like patronizing.
LMFAO Posts are disappearing from Facebook now. [Mod02] stated the forum rules are being enforced on FB and I politely reminded them that their forum rules cannot be enforced on FB as they have their own policies. The whole post was removed.
the mods have gone into overdrive and are removing thing right and left. I don’t think they are even reading them anymore. They are just removing if they feel offended in any way.
Hey Feldon, I’ve never posted on this site but I check it daily and I really appreciate your efforts and just wanted to let you know I posted this in your support:
I’m absolutely disgusted that you banned Feldon from these forums. Feldon, of all people, who spends his spare time maintaining one of the best Everquest II fansites around, who paid a small fortune to fly all the way across the pond to visit your FanFaire, who has diligently worked for months with your devs to provide us with an excellent alternative to EQ2Players. If you treat people like Feldon, who are so involved in this community, sometimes critical of you but never badmouthing you, with such little respect because he dares to call you out on this absurdly bad decision, it’s obvious to me that all you care about is the bottom line.
Lol@ Rugrat Think that was under my post I made on their page. I politely told them they can stuff it =) So far it seems my post is still there as I still see it.
I would like to say that “they cann’t ignore us forever” … but … alas … they can. They are probably going to have to call in “off duty” mods to handle the raft of posts that “need” sanitizing (deleting). Soon though, the silence on the boards will be defining. Of course they will just lock that thread and delete whole scale any new thread in it’s wake, warning of bannings for “continued trolling”.
They won’t call in extra mods. Give it an hour or two and if it doesnt quieten down, there will be a mysterious tech fault and the forums will just go offline.
Posting that Feldon has been banned is cause for that post to be removed. We aren’t even allowed to tell people that they’ve silenced a major community voice.
Yup – Piestro basically warned me … very politely … not to do such things. Of course I think it was his (her) own cut and paste … probably already used a thousand times this morning.
Amazingly, this post is still intact, while both my cartoons are gone:
“I support this decision. I have a lot of children. When my eldest daughter was a teenager, she became a handful and impossible to deal with. Then i met an arabian fellow who offered to take her off my hands for a nice sum of money. It was the best decision that could be made for me, my family and my daughter. The fellow still occasionally sends me money as well per our agreement as long as my daugther behaves herself, so i know she is doing well too. Very wise move Sony.”
I guess the mods just read “I support this decision” and “Very wise move Sony.”
It’s upsetting that the mods react this way. What happened to the days when the guides/devs all played eq and had the best intentions at heart? I’m glad Holly is back but it’s too little too late. I understand they need to make a profit but when you have this many people that say it’s a bad idea, it’s a bad f*cking idea. I see no conceivable reason why this should be even considered an option, they will lose far more then they will gain
Given the new woman hasnt even posted a single thought on the forums i have grave doubts she’s anything other than the tea lady to SJ’s troll like producer after all we have only that foolish mans word that she’s taken on the roll.
The mods today reminded me of the glory days of SWG,they hide behind generic names and ban people for nothing cretins the lot of them.
Pretty funny when there’s more drama on official forums than there’s been on eq2flames in a long time. I’m gonna cancel my account! Oh wait, I already did a while ago because I could see that SOE was converting the game to make nearly all of it’s money through SC rather than subs. Pretty sure this whole contract thing is much less about local advertising and distribution and much more about effective ways to sell more station cash in the form of alaplaya points to the European market.
Sadly, it does seem that Holly is not stepping up in a leadership role. I am sorry to see that. Perhaps there’s not much to say …
At least we have EQ2Wire to go to for uncensored info and comments. Banning Feldon really was an amazing bungle. They are really, really afraid over there.
I responded to a comment (dev or someone posing as) about the double casting bug. My post got flagged as off-topic and “moved”. The link they posted to where it moved was broken and when I searched for all my posts it does not show up. I don’t mind the off-topic modding as I can agree the dev just mentioned the double-cast bug in passing; but the rest of it was just odd. I pm’ed a mod that was online, no response.
Now this madness with cheesepirate’s pics? I give up on that forum. I’ll stick to flames and wire.
As angry of a response and as negative of feedback as this stupid change locking out regions in an MMO truly has been, at the end of all this – Sony doesn’t care. They have always felt that they can do anything that they want because ultimately people will continue to pay for their product because MMO’s are addicting and it’s hard for people to give them up. It’s why changes like locking out regions can be made because people will still play the game, despite the fact I haven’t seen one positive remark in regards to all of this.
And I can tell you exactly how/why this happened, because I understand Sony’s way of thinking. ProSiebenSat.1 probably made Sony a huge offer to take over their entire European subscriber base. Sony then, in turn went through ALL their financial records to see how money exactly, per month, is brought in from European based players – both in terms of market transactions and subscriptions, and then they factored in server and administration costs/overhead and what they probably found out is that ProSiebenSat.1 is offering them more money.
So, instead of being loyal to their customers and keep them in-house, Sony has done the unthinkable and sold off a portion of their clientele to a third party company. It’s one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen, and I would feel completely betrayed if I were a European player.
If anything, this proves how little Sony cares about their customer base, which has been evident throughout the years, but to essentially sell off a portion of your customer base to another company is one of the most scandalous things a company can do.
I am sorry to hear Feldon getting banned … I don’t think I have ever seen a post from him that would justify anything like that. I have seen several posts removed that weren’t bad at all and this makes me feel even worse about this whole thing.
SOE and Smed (sheee look at his twitter post) seem to really loose it.
Oh yeah, Feldon sucks that you were banned. I sent a PM to one of the mods stating so and asking for him to forward it as it truly seemed to be a childish act of spite and done just to show you that he/she could do it.
@Kwill,
Yeah I am aware of her past, that means little here though.
[Therefore, we’ve brought Holly Longdale back to SOE to take over the Producer position for EQII. In fact, she’s been working with the EQII team since last December. (We delayed announcing her presence so she got a chance to come up to speed for a few weeks before needing to answer a thousand questions.) 😉 But, the honeymoon is over and it’s time for her to “take the con.”]
This is from SJ’s mouth, either this should be given as much face value as any of the other drivel from him or she needs to get on the ball, my initial feeling when she was announced is we had nothing more than a new SC shill and the longer she scoffs at the players by outright ignoring them the more I’m convinced of it.
@Lempo
I haven’t seen her do a single thing. It was more of a hopeful comment as I know she used to show great compassion and care for the game. This may or may not have change and since SJ gets his way all the time it may not matter who does what with good intentions.
You guys need to widen your rage. Move it to SOE’s other forums not just the EQ2 forums. Take it over to Sony’s main feedback section. Call Sony and complain directly to them. You need to post on as many of their forums as you can to get their utmost attention.
I do not want to give a foreign company with such a bad track record my banking information. However, and this is only a guess mind you, but I will bet dollars to doughnuts, that all the transferred accounts will have their banking data transferred to Alaplaya en-mass (the thinking being that they did not just buy the game rights, or the accounts, but the account info as well … the marketing info there is a gold mine to them).
So, just as a little kicker and in that line of thought, I would bet that cancelled and or inactive account information will become thier property as well. So anyone who has ever done business with SoE from a region locked area will have these clowns as their new banking gate keeper. I am sorry, but we are all screwed and even though they have yet to commit a fumble with our football it is going to happen. One day, next to your EQ2 billing of 15 dollars (US) will be a change for 1500 bucks (US) from a Siberian porno site.
Royalty swap agreements on distribution partnerships are not uncommon at all. There is no reason to do the region locking with this distribution agreement.
Yep. If you’re gonna get a ban, it might as well be for a good cause right?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
John Smedley was standing on the edge of his toilet hanging a clock when he slipped and hit his head. When he came to, he had a vision, a picture in his head, of how to get European profits.
It will take a miracle (and Plutonium) to make it work.
Also just curious on this but legally can SOE transfer your account information to another company without getting permission from it’s users. I haven’t seen any updates to the EULA or elsewhere for that matter. Serious question
Keeler – before this week I would have said a hearty NO. But after what Google did with Safarii and now Explorer (getting users to opt in without them knowing they did) I would say they will … weather it is or not. remember “it is easier to ask for forgiveness then asking for permission” AND “You are in THEIR world now !!”
I guess it’s because I didn’t repost it, but I’m surprised they didn’t ban me for the baby in bathwater pic. Heck there is so much mod intervention over there, I swear I even saw Piestro pop in, which is odd because isn’t he in charge of EQ1? Or did they play musical chairs with him too?
Geez. This takes me back to the old Whineplay days. Keep it up and they’ll have to take down their own forums. Again. The mods seem to have gone insane this time, though. The reasons they are giving for the removals and bans are flat out demented.
I posted about this on my own blog and linked here and to CheesePirate and the forums for what that’s worth. Made me feel better at least.
I sooo miss you Kiara. Well, tbh, the whole Test server is missing you, you were so nice to us!
Very good cartoons all of you. I had a good laugh at them and they’re very true.
[sarcasm on] But I must say, you’re all trolls, the whole bunch of you. Please ban yourselves! *goes away to pay her respects to the big altar to Smedley she has in her bedroom*
[/sarcasm off]
posted this and had it deleted, PM’d Amnerys with same text.
“There was better than a 90% chance that I and my family would have preordered EQNext, the chance of buying it at all is now close to nill.
If Australian customers are directed to ProSiebenSat my accounts and those of my family will be immediately cancelled and I will be submitting a claim for the reamaing time on those accounts. If the money is not forthcoming I will consider legal action for recovery.
If any of my information, or those of my family members is passed to, or has been passed to ProSiebenSat I will consider legal action options for the breech of trust.”
Well. posted a comment over on the official forums. Not that i think it’s going to do much at this point. Just figured i’d add my voice in as well and maybe weight of sheer numbers will hit them. This is the only time i think i’ve seen a thread where absolutly no one is supporting what SOE is doing so maybe someone will actually listen. Faint hope but it is there.
I know this game has been barreling full speed over a cliff, well all of Sony seem to be heading in that direction, but banning the cartoon and Feldon’s comments? I guess my breaking point has been met, well that and the wings for sale in the store. This move is just an awful decision and probably has more to do with future game releases then EQ2 itself. This game has been fun, and the gameplay has kept me amused for close to six years, but enough is enough. It’s too bad, there’s a lot I like about the mechanics in the game however, I can’t stand the management team’s decisions. The player base has always been more mature then average, and it’s hard to find that in MMOs these days.
Feldon you really should put lili’s petition as a story and sticky it up top for a day or three. 🙂
They deleted it, with the standard petitions are not allowed on the forums BS.
ProSiebenSat.1 Feedback – We’re Here and Listening!
Hey folks – I know it’s been a long few days. We fully appreciate the time and effort you’ve taken to provide your feedback.
As we’ve said before, we ARE listening, and we are in discussions with ProSieben. We will come back to you with information when it becomes available, but it will be some time yet.
Please keep in mind that this is not an overnight process and no games are transitioning to ProSieben immediately.
Thank you for bearing with us during this planning period.
[~Brasse]
@Wayena yeah on official forums too, in it’s own thread not in the feedback thread, locked immediately and all the folks have tucked tail and went home for the night.
Feedback on the official forums aren’t going to amount to a hill of beans. The previous feedback thread was ignored for a month and a half. While the newest one is rallying everyone against SOE, its not going to impact what is already a done deal.
So, this is where we go outside of SOE’s control and start telling EVERYONE that will listen. Bad press, and lots of it, will make them turn their heads. I’ve sent mail to the news links given above, and I’d strongly suggest you all do as well. The more people that contact them, the more likely they will take it seriously and publish articles about this debacle.
IN ADDITION, the only other language they understand is $$$. I cancelled my account and wiped my CC info. If you continue paying a sub, you are sending a clear message that these actions by SOE are acceptable. NOTHING about this even approaches acceptability.
Its all well and good to vent. Now you have to back it up with action.
I posted this on DC comics official forums, as DCUO is in this deal.
This segregation move could be viewed in many ways and possibly go against some clause to protect the namesamek of the IP, one of the legal catchalls.
Poetic justice it would be if DC Comics pulle a Lucas-Arts on them, because as much as some people want to believe that SOE dumped that line Lucas Arts, said “Damn, just damn. No more” and took their IP and went home.
So far I have been banned on two of my three accounts. No profanity or anything, just for posting stuff they didn’t like. Used the “non-constructive” post excuse. lol
@Wanda_Clamshucker
“So, this is where we go outside of SOE’s control and start telling EVERYONE that will listen. Bad press, and lots of it, will make them turn their heads. I’ve sent mail to the news links given above, and I’d strongly suggest you all do as well. The more people that contact them, the more likely they will take it seriously and publish articles about this debacle.”
Honestly, I don’t think it’ll make a bit of long-term difference. Just reminds me of the F2P/Subscriber split, Sony have the arrogance to say they’re doing what’s best for EQ2 whilst trying to keep the players happy.. and then they implement it in the worst way possible and annoy both parties fracturing an already dwindling population.. and then after a year or two merge them all anyway. All because they had a deadline they set themselves and were unwilling to change (except for when it’s utterly missed through their own ineptitude).
I can’t help but think that the best case scenario is that they’ll remove the region locks.. only for them to magically appear again in 6-12 months. I just can’t see them cancelling the deal.
In a time when most MMO’s are breaking down more and more social walls.. of course it would be SOE trying to build walls and further alienate their customers. Le sigh.
The difference is, I could ignore Free-to-Play/EQ2X. It doesn’t affect me significantly on Butcherblock.
I cannot ignore the ProSieben deal as I am currently living in Europe and may be IP locked, and further this will disrupt guilds and friends. I cannot ignore this.
The only thing that will work is mass cancellations of SOE accounts.
I don’t know what’s up with the forums, mods locked a thread that began about lore but became about nothing in particular for being “off-topic”, then 12 hours later unlocked it for no apparent reason?
All I can think is that the forum looked ridiculous with all but one thread locked and mod names everywhere.
@Feldon
I understand completely.. I’m based in the UK and played semi-hardcore on Oasis and Splitpaw between RoK and SF and have lots of friends on both servers that I still keep in touch with (despite not playing much since DoV).
I love EQ2. It was my first MMO and I have incredibly fond memories of it. The sad thing is that I’m really not surprised by anything SOE do any more (actually that’s a lie, I was baffled that they were stupid enough to ban you too). It’s felt like one mistake after another for a few years now and this latest scenario is just ridiculous. But that’s the thing.. they’ve been making all these mistakes but not much has really changed for the better.. so i’m not at all surprised with this latest debacle.
I have a responsibility to EQ2Wire and EQ2U to keep them running as long as people feel a need to use them. I have turned EQ2Wire black, and may disable EQ2U for 24 hours to bring this issue to people’s attention, but as long as there is a need for this site, I will not shut it down. I also have an obligation to Dethdlr who has spent the last 4 1/2 months programming EQ2U.
So I am sorry if it sounds like hypocrisy to suggest that others cancel their accounts while I keep mine, but it is necessary for me to maintain an account to continue to do my “job”.
At this point, I am doubting I will go to Fan Faire, and I think it would be a very visible statement that might get picked up by “real” press sites if Fan Faire numbers were down by 50%+. Actually, it’s interesting that SOEFanFaire.com now redirects to SOE.com. Maybe there won’t be one?
I think you misconstrued my intentions regarding taking action against SOE by contacting the press and cancelling accounts. I have been dealing with them since the EQ1 days, so I am painfully aware of how little they think of public opinion on the forums. Nothing said there, no amount of cancelled accounts, and a barrage of damning online news articles can’t un-sign this contract signed in the blood of their loyal customers.
What those actions WILL do is send a message, and maybe even give them a black eye. Additionally, the gaming world needs to know just what sort of people are managing SOE so they can make informed choices on if they want to support them through subs or buying their products. So far, SOE hasn’t even sent out emails to its customers about this. If you read the thread on the official forums, you will see hundreds of posts by surprised people that happened to stumble across the info. Spreading the word to a larger audience will help to inform everyone on this little jewel SOE and PSS1 are coveting and patting their backs about. A company is nothing without its reputation.
See, the thing with subbing with SOE over the years is it parallels the structure of an abusive relationship. You love them, yet they treat you badly. They say their sorry and buy you presents, then things smooth out and are ok..until they abuse you again. Then it begins the cycle that only ends until their is one particular episode that make you say, “ENOUGH!”.
TrulyVexed, it may not be enough for you yet, but for myself and hundreds (thousands?) of others it is time to cut that cord. Not only that, but its important to make SOE accountable or at least aware, quite clearly, of what’s going on.
Well I didn’t get banned or my post removed, just edited.
They removed the last paragraph for ‘moderation discussion’. It read:
“Above all though, FREE FELDON NOW! Feldon has always been the voice of reason and very frequently finds positive sides to SOE actions when players complain. Banning him has only served to make players even angrier.”
Glad you’re able to post again now Feldon. Keep up the fantastic work.
To everyone: I feel for you guys right now. I really hope that everything works out. Keep giving your feedback (I swear I need this part macro’d) constructively and within the forum guidelines 🙂
I’m sad now that I never banned Feldon for kicks and giggles while I had the chance, just so that I could be first. Darnit!
Also, I’ve met Holly before. She’s a good egg 🙂 Don’t judge her by this situation, because it isn’t something she can affect.
KIARA!!!! 😀
But yea I agree, nobody blame holly. This deal was signed in blood way before she was moved into her current position. It’d be like blaming piestro, and he just got here. XD
I’ve went through 80% of this discussion but I think I’m not reposting what someone already said (at least not all):
SOE doesn’t care. They care about their money. They seem to go with the path that p2w games take learning form the masters (EASY http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win ) but as far as EASY goes with their caring only for their money they’ve never moderated their forums to such an extent as to what SOE does on their forums, that is absolutely banning the freedom of speech.
Thousand of nerf/buff posts are OK, it’s only when someone speaks the truth that’s when soe mods come into play.
If you read their Forum Guidlines they went as far as to put even this rule:
“Polling/Petitioning – The creation of petitions or polls for the purpose of game changes without approval from SOE are not permitted in SOE communications channels.”
So even posts in “suggestions” and saying that anything in this game is wrong can be a reason to be banned.
SOE “official” forums is a trash bin for everyone that wants to complain, there’s NO player-developer communication there.
They communicate through tweeter, facebook, reddit and PSU forums.
People on PSU forums had programs made by SOE to list their achievements by connecting to SOE database long before “Players tab – beta” was introduced on the official site.
There are twice if not more of official SOE dev posts on PSU forums than there is on official forums.
When they were looking for new leaders for their events they posted it on PSU forums and not a word on official forums.
After a while people from official forums did something smart and started posting on every other site how the communication is bad and so SOE couldn’t ignore them.
So they introduced RoadMap on forums.
The same roadmap that was MADE ON reddit with the help of redditers and decided on reddit.
They(devs) went as far as to say on reddit that (that here is not a direct quote) “don’t worry redditers, we’re putting it onto official forums but we won’t listen much for what they have to say there, just getting the general idea if something is really hated by majority”
And after some roadmap points got a thousand of disikes and close to no likes they said they’re still going to introduce it.
If you’re unhappy player the first place you’ll go to post your concerns is PS2 official forums, and then, you’ll get moderated.
Feldon 
Awesome!
Gj *again* norweigan artist!
Thanks you! And thank you Feldon for publishing the image here! I’m furious about this whole dirty deal, grrs.
Of course, it keeps getting removed from the official forums… (“trolling”, “inappropriate images”)
Yeah I reported SOE-MOD-04 about 20 times for being Not Constructive, and have reposted the image.
great comic – sadly it sums it up perfectly…
@Feldon saw that. Keep posting 🙂 Isn’t this freedom of speech after all ?
I know Feldon put a great deal of good work in to the data feed and stuff over the last year or so. I am wondering what this turn of events will mean for that. If you show too much dissent will they cut yr datafeed off? What will happen after doomsday? Will you only get EU data? etc.
Thanks for the support Feldon!
The data feed is available to anyone who wants it at http://data.soe.com/
If there is a split in the data, I would only get U.S. data.
I am still 100% excited about the Data Feeds, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize my independence as the writer of an EQ2 News site.
Well done Feldon he needed reporting
Freedom of speech doesn’t apply on an internet forum that requires registration. You are subject to their terms and conditions.
My point is, so are the Moderators. They must abide by the same rules and cannot just delete the posts they don’t like. They must point out which rule has been violated and be able to back it up.
There is nothing offensive, profane, attacking, abusive, or threatening about Tuatha’s illustration. In fact it does not mention SOE or ProSiebenSat1 by name.
So if they are going to delete my post, they’re going to have to give me a reason why.
I think this picture will be the symbol for a hurt community! Guess it backfired back at them for removing it. Personally I don’t care if they ban me at this point, guess they wont change their mind about this anyway and this is where SoE and I part ways if so.
I will miss my ratongas, friends, the guild and all the fun this MMO did provide 🙁
So the latest total nonsense:
@Feldon : actually it mentions PSS1 on the plate number of the pedodream van but yes it’s not “ProSiebenSat1” per say
I reported the mod he’s on a power trip nothing will get done though i would assume
@soe-mod-02 – seriously??
Redo the cartoon, and change the characters to dogs and puppies. Then see what they say lol
The deal was bad enough, the censorship of opposing views just makes it look even worse.
I’m not normally one to jump on the bash soe bandwagon, but…really? /boggle
This is now the equivalent of a red cape, waved at a bull. (Yeah, I know that’s not how toreadors work, roll with it.)
Looks like this is the week I establish my Flames cred. This is war.
Got a PM from SOE-MOD-02. My reply:
There were two cartoons ? Obviously I missed the other due to swift censoring by the iron fisted fascist moderators. Of course you know they will tolerate absolutly no dissent, and the beatings of the player base will continue until proper moral and line toeing is restored !
The other one was:
LOL
The baby/bathwater cartoon is a politcal one featuring UK Chancellor George Osborne throwing out growth to get rid of the deficit.
It’s pretty harmless tho…
Horribly stolen without giving proper credit to cheesepirate
Banned? Really? In no way were any of your posts ban-worthy 0.o
Take the points we are making to Twitter, FB and all the other social networks where SOE has a presence. I did.
Shame on em for banning Feldon.
Just want to say hopefully nobody gets banned in vigorous defense of me.
reading about what’s going on what makes sad is seeing what this has done to Feldon who has done so much for the eq2 community (which helps SOE). Seeing him so dissapointed and dispondent should be troubling to SOE and to us. Hate to see you go through this and thanks for all yu have done Feldon (not soe).
Heh. Looks like I earned myself a ban as well. I wonder what flooding forum-admin@soe.sony.com with appeals will earn me.
Cheeses Christ on a pogostick, they tempbanned you from the forums? I’m sorry for getting you in trouble, Feldon 🙁
You didn’t get me in trouble.
SOE-MOD-02 and SOE-MOD-04 imagining children in a stick figure illustration is the problem.
I just got this message, I am waiting for the ban one
Hello,
We have reviewed all the posts that were moderated in that thread. Each of the posts that were moderated were violations of our forum guidelines, which you can view here: http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=499935.
Failure to abide by our forum guidelines will result in posts being edited or removed and possible loss of access to our forums.
Regards,
Paul “Virrago” Williams
Community Relations Manager
Sony Online Entertainment
Dammit, now I’m even more jealous of Feldon, and I didn’t think that was possible! I want banned too!!!
I wonder how many FREE FELDON posts it would take. Hmmmmm…..
Ho come’on !!!
This post has moved:
/eq2/posts/preList.m?topic_id=48345…post_id=5720269
Removed for general trolling
And this is the edited cheesepirate i posted above…
Well ok, it might be trolling a little bit but… Come’on ! This is ridiculous.
http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n150/Yelisme/ForumBan.png
LOL!
Like I said on the EQ2 forums:
I would recommend everyone to send info about this to gaming news sites:
tips@kotaku.com
http://www.ign.com/news-tips.html
http://www.gameinformer.com/p/contactus.aspx
news@gamasutra.com
http://www.pcgamer.com (top right corner)
These are the ones I have contacted. I think SOE getting bad publicity for this is the only way for them to understand that the playerbase can not be pushed around like this and that this decision is a bad one no matter how you look at it.
I LOVE the fat cat in the baby bassinet ! congratulations on being banned Feldon … way to go ! Ach-tung
Ahoy! We are all there to support you Tuatha!
And thank you again for your comics and your sigs 😉
Agreed. You did nothing wrong CheesePirate. You did what you felt was right, and the masses agree with you. The people with egg on their face are the ones who are scrambling to cover this up as fast as they can. They are the ones who are acting like smegging muppets. Keep up the great work both of you. Its a sad day when the customers care more about a companies product then the company themselves.
FORUM RIOT!!!1!!eleventy!!!
Yes the soe forum mods are out of control, too bad the admin formus mod is out of control as well, by backing up the stpid stuff they are doing.
Oops, bb code no worky :/
You can use regular HTML. Btw love the dwarf.
Wish me luck, I’m going to post the fixed version if I haven’t been banned already.
The forums are pointless anyway, everyone there is under Smedley, and this seems in line with what he’s talked about. I don’t know if anyone at SCE even pays attention to the Smedley empire, they’re likely far too busy annoying the PSN userbase.
I posted this Wire story to my facebook page. I have more then a few guild and raid friends who will be interested in this story. I say to anyone who has a facebook page with eq2 players as friends speard it around. I’m even tempted to post it on the eq2 facebook page to see how fast it takes them to take it down.
LOL @ CheesePirate. Love the modded version. (though the first is more accurate hah)
The mod trolls on the SOE forums are working overtime right now. They are deleting things left and right. I would not be suprised to see at least 5 pages of deleted posts at this point. They have gone way overboard on this one. 🙁 Banning you was complete bull. Those mods need to take a chill or be moved to another department.
Interestingly enough, the original picture is still there in several comments on their Facebook page.
But I see two children around the three dwarves! And one of the child is even smoking! Feldon, please ban CheesePirate immadiately!
Still waiting for someone like, oh say, Amnerys to post something…
CheesePirate,
Looks like your revised picture got removed.
I don’t think they’ll even bother to make up a reason to ban you this time.
I would love to know what reason they have for removing your latest image CheesePirate, since all the previous concerns from the mods were addressed 0.o
Probably because the pedophile in the trench coat by the van looks too much like Smokeblower. SOE mods are power tripping for sure.
Feldon, what upset me even more than having the censored picture removed is that they deleted all the nice things Itsey said about me and you in his post before I could screenshot it…was going to print it out and hang it on my wall 🙁
I’ll have to send him some jumjum muffins the next time I log in on Everfrost.
Wonder if this pic would get banned
O.o
I just received a VERY nice private message from one of the mods … (quoted below). I respect him (her) and applaud the effort … but really ?
Note that Piestro is “more than happy to work with me”. Well Piestro, PLEASE forward my severe concerns over the removal of posts, the banning of prominent community voices, and for this destructive path that SoE has embarked on.
Sincerely, Grimmond
aka Scott Steinmetz (Seattle)
“What the heck … Peggy at that Siberian site is gonna be posting my name, address and Visa card number soon enough anyways)
The mods even deleted someone’s post for linking to my comics thread on the forums, sigh.
And the answer is 1. It took 1 FREE FELDON post to be banned.
You have been deemed unworthy of mention. Damn.
Personally one of the things that I have always enjoyed about eq2 is being able to play with people from around the world. From what I understand this change means we’ll be isolated. We can no longer play with people in other countries… my question is why?
Think I would be banned if I posted this opinion?
Love the reason. How is 1 post “repeated non-constructive posting”? Lol
Piestro does at least appear to be polite. I was impressed with how he handled responding to multiple threads with the rebate fiasco this past weekend. In this situation, polite seems more like patronizing.
LMFAO Posts are disappearing from Facebook now. [Mod02] stated the forum rules are being enforced on FB and I politely reminded them that their forum rules cannot be enforced on FB as they have their own policies. The whole post was removed.
the mods have gone into overdrive and are removing thing right and left. I don’t think they are even reading them anymore. They are just removing if they feel offended in any way.
Hey Feldon, I’ve never posted on this site but I check it daily and I really appreciate your efforts and just wanted to let you know I posted this in your support:
Obviously, it got edited away soon after…
Nubek,
Thanks, I got a screenshot before it was blown away. 😉
Lol@ Rugrat Think that was under my post I made on their page. I politely told them they can stuff it =) So far it seems my post is still there as I still see it.
I would like to say that “they cann’t ignore us forever” … but … alas … they can. They are probably going to have to call in “off duty” mods to handle the raft of posts that “need” sanitizing (deleting). Soon though, the silence on the boards will be defining. Of course they will just lock that thread and delete whole scale any new thread in it’s wake, warning of bannings for “continued trolling”.
I hope their mods don’t speak Icelandic. Guess they’ll delete posts containing foreign gibberish anyways.
They won’t call in extra mods. Give it an hour or two and if it doesnt quieten down, there will be a mysterious tech fault and the forums will just go offline.
I had a jpeg of a troll ready to post …. but I deleted it due to excessive trolling on my part …
Posting that Feldon has been banned is cause for that post to be removed. We aren’t even allowed to tell people that they’ve silenced a major community voice.
Google Translate.
Ouch. 😉
Deleted as “off topic”, haha.
Yup – Piestro basically warned me … very politely … not to do such things. Of course I think it was his (her) own cut and paste … probably already used a thousand times this morning.
They’re disappearing posts like they’d just finished a course on Argentine dissent reaction methods.
And I mean that in the kindest possible manner.
Or was that Chile? Heck, probably not much difference…
Is the newest mod is from Syria ?
I won’t even post there anymore. They are deleting things so fast you would think we live in china.
Amazingly, this post is still intact, while both my cartoons are gone:
“I support this decision. I have a lot of children. When my eldest daughter was a teenager, she became a handful and impossible to deal with. Then i met an arabian fellow who offered to take her off my hands for a nice sum of money. It was the best decision that could be made for me, my family and my daughter. The fellow still occasionally sends me money as well per our agreement as long as my daugther behaves herself, so i know she is doing well too. Very wise move Sony.”
I guess the mods just read “I support this decision” and “Very wise move Sony.”
Aha! The secret is to wrap your real message in praise.
LMFAO!! That post is brilliant.
Tbh I think the board of directors at soe have adhd.
AWESOME CHEESE!!!! Pretty soonit will be te only post left and then they will read the whole thing 😉
Hey Cheese, I lol’d at your picture 🙂
L O L. I got blocked from commenting on the eq2 FB page. I just spammed the picture. Oh well, now onto the forums.
Aren’t you glad you aren’t there to deal with this crap?
Keeler, at least one of your picture posts are still there.
Kiara, thanks you 🙂
Oh! Real Kiara? <3
Yupper! Accept no substitutes 😉
I have figured it out:
They couldn’t fix the critmit changes….
so they made up this scheme so everyone leaves EQ2 before we find out they can’t implement it.
Feldon dear, you have NO idea, lol.
<3 Kiara You are greatly missed.
@Keeler I posted under yours to see if they had blocked me yet, and seems nope not yet.
Cheese – Can you do a cartoon of Santa and the EQ2 Mods looking at lists … with the “To Delete” list being twice as long ?
It’s upsetting that the mods react this way. What happened to the days when the guides/devs all played eq and had the best intentions at heart? I’m glad Holly is back but it’s too little too late. I understand they need to make a profit but when you have this many people that say it’s a bad idea, it’s a bad f*cking idea. I see no conceivable reason why this should be even considered an option, they will lose far more then they will gain
Given the new woman hasnt even posted a single thought on the forums i have grave doubts she’s anything other than the tea lady to SJ’s troll like producer after all we have only that foolish mans word that she’s taken on the roll.
The mods today reminded me of the glory days of SWG,they hide behind generic names and ban people for nothing cretins the lot of them.
I miss you guys too 🙂
Pretty funny when there’s more drama on official forums than there’s been on eq2flames in a long time. I’m gonna cancel my account! Oh wait, I already did a while ago because I could see that SOE was converting the game to make nearly all of it’s money through SC rather than subs. Pretty sure this whole contract thing is much less about local advertising and distribution and much more about effective ways to sell more station cash in the form of alaplaya points to the European market.
Keep up the good fight Tuatha and Feldon!
Sadly, it does seem that Holly is not stepping up in a leadership role. I am sorry to see that. Perhaps there’s not much to say …
At least we have EQ2Wire to go to for uncensored info and comments. Banning Feldon really was an amazing bungle. They are really, really afraid over there.
I responded to a comment (dev or someone posing as) about the double casting bug. My post got flagged as off-topic and “moved”. The link they posted to where it moved was broken and when I searched for all my posts it does not show up. I don’t mind the off-topic modding as I can agree the dev just mentioned the double-cast bug in passing; but the rest of it was just odd. I pm’ed a mod that was online, no response.
Now this madness with cheesepirate’s pics? I give up on that forum. I’ll stick to flames and wire.
As angry of a response and as negative of feedback as this stupid change locking out regions in an MMO truly has been, at the end of all this – Sony doesn’t care. They have always felt that they can do anything that they want because ultimately people will continue to pay for their product because MMO’s are addicting and it’s hard for people to give them up. It’s why changes like locking out regions can be made because people will still play the game, despite the fact I haven’t seen one positive remark in regards to all of this.
And I can tell you exactly how/why this happened, because I understand Sony’s way of thinking. ProSiebenSat.1 probably made Sony a huge offer to take over their entire European subscriber base. Sony then, in turn went through ALL their financial records to see how money exactly, per month, is brought in from European based players – both in terms of market transactions and subscriptions, and then they factored in server and administration costs/overhead and what they probably found out is that ProSiebenSat.1 is offering them more money.
So, instead of being loyal to their customers and keep them in-house, Sony has done the unthinkable and sold off a portion of their clientele to a third party company. It’s one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen, and I would feel completely betrayed if I were a European player.
If anything, this proves how little Sony cares about their customer base, which has been evident throughout the years, but to essentially sell off a portion of your customer base to another company is one of the most scandalous things a company can do.
I am sorry to hear Feldon getting banned … I don’t think I have ever seen a post from him that would justify anything like that. I have seen several posts removed that weren’t bad at all and this makes me feel even worse about this whole thing.
SOE and Smed (sheee look at his twitter post) seem to really loose it.
@Keeler Just exaclty what has Holly done or said to or on behalf of the playerbase since she was announced that makes you ‘glad that she is back’?
Really?
I’m not even trolling you here but from what I have seen so far she is worth about as much as a set of teats on a bull.
Oh yeah, Feldon sucks that you were banned. I sent a PM to one of the mods stating so and asking for him to forward it as it truly seemed to be a childish act of spite and done just to show you that he/she could do it.
I completely agree Necromancer…except for the fact that they went over the data carefully. I think they just took the offer.
@Lempo — Holly was an excellent designer and assistant producer in the past. Now, who knows.
@Kwill,
Yeah I am aware of her past, that means little here though.
[Therefore, we’ve brought Holly Longdale back to SOE to take over the Producer position for EQII. In fact, she’s been working with the EQII team since last December. (We delayed announcing her presence so she got a chance to come up to speed for a few weeks before needing to answer a thousand questions.) 😉 But, the honeymoon is over and it’s time for her to “take the con.”]
This is from SJ’s mouth, either this should be given as much face value as any of the other drivel from him or she needs to get on the ball, my initial feeling when she was announced is we had nothing more than a new SC shill and the longer she scoffs at the players by outright ignoring them the more I’m convinced of it.
The more I look into the track record of alaplaya, the more foreboding I feel for the future of the entire franchise.
Looks like it’s time for me to get my other games warmed back up. I may be looking for a new home this year.
@Lempo
I haven’t seen her do a single thing. It was more of a hopeful comment as I know she used to show great compassion and care for the game. This may or may not have change and since SJ gets his way all the time it may not matter who does what with good intentions.
You guys need to widen your rage. Move it to SOE’s other forums not just the EQ2 forums. Take it over to Sony’s main feedback section. Call Sony and complain directly to them. You need to post on as many of their forums as you can to get their utmost attention.
Try this line of thought …
I do not want to give a foreign company with such a bad track record my banking information. However, and this is only a guess mind you, but I will bet dollars to doughnuts, that all the transferred accounts will have their banking data transferred to Alaplaya en-mass (the thinking being that they did not just buy the game rights, or the accounts, but the account info as well … the marketing info there is a gold mine to them).
So, just as a little kicker and in that line of thought, I would bet that cancelled and or inactive account information will become thier property as well. So anyone who has ever done business with SoE from a region locked area will have these clowns as their new banking gate keeper. I am sorry, but we are all screwed and even though they have yet to commit a fumble with our football it is going to happen. One day, next to your EQ2 billing of 15 dollars (US) will be a change for 1500 bucks (US) from a Siberian porno site.
Remmember “You are in their world now” ….
Royalty swap agreements on distribution partnerships are not uncommon at all. There is no reason to do the region locking with this distribution agreement.
Oh and LOL at your forum ban, is it your first?
Atan,
Yep. If you’re gonna get a ban, it might as well be for a good cause right?
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
John Smedley was standing on the edge of his toilet hanging a clock when he slipped and hit his head. When he came to, he had a vision, a picture in his head, of how to get European profits.
It will take a miracle (and Plutonium) to make it work.
Also just curious on this but legally can SOE transfer your account information to another company without getting permission from it’s users. I haven’t seen any updates to the EULA or elsewhere for that matter. Serious question
Keeler – before this week I would have said a hearty NO. But after what Google did with Safarii and now Explorer (getting users to opt in without them knowing they did) I would say they will … weather it is or not. remember “it is easier to ask for forgiveness then asking for permission” AND “You are in THEIR world now !!”
My god Kiara not heard that name in ages
She got out of SOE at the right time that’s for sure.
I guess it’s because I didn’t repost it, but I’m surprised they didn’t ban me for the baby in bathwater pic. Heck there is so much mod intervention over there, I swear I even saw Piestro pop in, which is odd because isn’t he in charge of EQ1? Or did they play musical chairs with him too?
@Eschia Not sure what Piestro’s “official” position is, but I’ve seen him around a few times in the past month.
Geez. This takes me back to the old Whineplay days. Keep it up and they’ll have to take down their own forums. Again. The mods seem to have gone insane this time, though. The reasons they are giving for the removals and bans are flat out demented.
I posted about this on my own blog and linked here and to CheesePirate and the forums for what that’s worth. Made me feel better at least.
I sooo miss you Kiara. Well, tbh, the whole Test server is missing you, you were so nice to us!
Very good cartoons all of you. I had a good laugh at them and they’re very true.
[sarcasm on] But I must say, you’re all trolls, the whole bunch of you. Please ban yourselves! *goes away to pay her respects to the big altar to Smedley she has in her bedroom*
[/sarcasm off]
I hate this whole moderation, and SoE choices 🙁
It’s interesting to see the last page number jump 2 steps back in an instant and then 1 forward a few seconsd later…
posted this and had it deleted, PM’d Amnerys with same text.
“There was better than a 90% chance that I and my family would have preordered EQNext, the chance of buying it at all is now close to nill.
If Australian customers are directed to ProSiebenSat my accounts and those of my family will be immediately cancelled and I will be submitting a claim for the reamaing time on those accounts. If the money is not forthcoming I will consider legal action for recovery.
If any of my information, or those of my family members is passed to, or has been passed to ProSiebenSat I will consider legal action options for the breech of trust.”
if it comes to it I will be talking to an Australian firm re class action will post here again for people looking to join it if the time comes.
One of our members started a petition and it would be neat if as many people as possible would sign it!
http://lili-s.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1773&sid=187869b9c332b28771997178f97987e8
errr this is the direct link … sorry for that!
http://www.change.org/petitions/sony-online-entertainment-stop-the-prosieben-soe-partnership#
Free Feldon is looking to be the rallying cry for this cause. Hah.
Well. posted a comment over on the official forums. Not that i think it’s going to do much at this point. Just figured i’d add my voice in as well and maybe weight of sheer numbers will hit them. This is the only time i think i’ve seen a thread where absolutly no one is supporting what SOE is doing so maybe someone will actually listen. Faint hope but it is there.
I know this game has been barreling full speed over a cliff, well all of Sony seem to be heading in that direction, but banning the cartoon and Feldon’s comments? I guess my breaking point has been met, well that and the wings for sale in the store. This move is just an awful decision and probably has more to do with future game releases then EQ2 itself. This game has been fun, and the gameplay has kept me amused for close to six years, but enough is enough. It’s too bad, there’s a lot I like about the mechanics in the game however, I can’t stand the management team’s decisions. The player base has always been more mature then average, and it’s hard to find that in MMOs these days.
Feldon you really should put lili’s petition as a story and sticky it up top for a day or three. 🙂
They deleted it, with the standard petitions are not allowed on the forums BS.
Please people look at the petition – http://www.change.org/petitions/sony-online-entertainment-stop-the-prosieben-soe-partnership# , the official forums are so moderated right now its almost funny
This was posted to the Facebook page:
ProSiebenSat.1 Feedback – We’re Here and Listening!
Hey folks – I know it’s been a long few days. We fully appreciate the time and effort you’ve taken to provide your feedback.
As we’ve said before, we ARE listening, and we are in discussions with ProSieben. We will come back to you with information when it becomes available, but it will be some time yet.
Please keep in mind that this is not an overnight process and no games are transitioning to ProSieben immediately.
Thank you for bearing with us during this planning period.
[~Brasse]
@Wayena yeah on official forums too, in it’s own thread not in the feedback thread, locked immediately and all the folks have tucked tail and went home for the night.
What a steaming pile of horse-pucky.
Feedback on the official forums aren’t going to amount to a hill of beans. The previous feedback thread was ignored for a month and a half. While the newest one is rallying everyone against SOE, its not going to impact what is already a done deal.
So, this is where we go outside of SOE’s control and start telling EVERYONE that will listen. Bad press, and lots of it, will make them turn their heads. I’ve sent mail to the news links given above, and I’d strongly suggest you all do as well. The more people that contact them, the more likely they will take it seriously and publish articles about this debacle.
IN ADDITION, the only other language they understand is $$$. I cancelled my account and wiped my CC info. If you continue paying a sub, you are sending a clear message that these actions by SOE are acceptable. NOTHING about this even approaches acceptability.
Its all well and good to vent. Now you have to back it up with action.
To bad they only want to share their post in facebook and twitter and not show up in the formus.
http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/web/thread.jspa?threadID=2000272728&tstart=0
I posted this on DC comics official forums, as DCUO is in this deal.
This segregation move could be viewed in many ways and possibly go against some clause to protect the namesamek of the IP, one of the legal catchalls.
Poetic justice it would be if DC Comics pulle a Lucas-Arts on them, because as much as some people want to believe that SOE dumped that line Lucas Arts, said “Damn, just damn. No more” and took their IP and went home.
@Badcat
http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=515273
it is there on the official forums, posted in quite the cowardly way, but it is there.
So far I have been banned on two of my three accounts. No profanity or anything, just for posting stuff they didn’t like. Used the “non-constructive” post excuse. lol
Unfortunately I cant access the forums, I coped a day ban for posting the link to change.org.
I’m not sure DCUO matters, their PS3 disks were region locked, which annoyed lots of people but it was an SOE decision.
Feldon got banned from the forums ?!
Sorry but that is messed up.
@Wanda_Clamshucker
“So, this is where we go outside of SOE’s control and start telling EVERYONE that will listen. Bad press, and lots of it, will make them turn their heads. I’ve sent mail to the news links given above, and I’d strongly suggest you all do as well. The more people that contact them, the more likely they will take it seriously and publish articles about this debacle.”
Honestly, I don’t think it’ll make a bit of long-term difference. Just reminds me of the F2P/Subscriber split, Sony have the arrogance to say they’re doing what’s best for EQ2 whilst trying to keep the players happy.. and then they implement it in the worst way possible and annoy both parties fracturing an already dwindling population.. and then after a year or two merge them all anyway. All because they had a deadline they set themselves and were unwilling to change (except for when it’s utterly missed through their own ineptitude).
I can’t help but think that the best case scenario is that they’ll remove the region locks.. only for them to magically appear again in 6-12 months. I just can’t see them cancelling the deal.
In a time when most MMO’s are breaking down more and more social walls.. of course it would be SOE trying to build walls and further alienate their customers. Le sigh.
Feldon where can we get a Free Feldon 2012 T-Shirt…I need something to remind me of the cluster soe has created with this “agreement”?
TrulyVexed,
The difference is, I could ignore Free-to-Play/EQ2X. It doesn’t affect me significantly on Butcherblock.
I cannot ignore the ProSieben deal as I am currently living in Europe and may be IP locked, and further this will disrupt guilds and friends. I cannot ignore this.
The only thing that will work is mass cancellations of SOE accounts.
I don’t know what’s up with the forums, mods locked a thread that began about lore but became about nothing in particular for being “off-topic”, then 12 hours later unlocked it for no apparent reason?
All I can think is that the forum looked ridiculous with all but one thread locked and mod names everywhere.
Somewhat related.
Hm, html tags no worky for me either :/ http://cheesepirate.com/comics/soe/snap600.jpg
@Feldon
I understand completely.. I’m based in the UK and played semi-hardcore on Oasis and Splitpaw between RoK and SF and have lots of friends on both servers that I still keep in touch with (despite not playing much since DoV).
I love EQ2. It was my first MMO and I have incredibly fond memories of it. The sad thing is that I’m really not surprised by anything SOE do any more (actually that’s a lie, I was baffled that they were stupid enough to ban you too). It’s felt like one mistake after another for a few years now and this latest scenario is just ridiculous. But that’s the thing.. they’ve been making all these mistakes but not much has really changed for the better.. so i’m not at all surprised with this latest debacle.
Hope you get the result you’re after!
Well, I just got blocked from SOE’s Everquest 2 page for posting my latest cartoon.
(on Facebook, that is)
@feldon (and trulyvexed)
I agree
So when do we do the mass cancellation. Right away or coordinated?
I need to make an ethical statement here.
I have a responsibility to EQ2Wire and EQ2U to keep them running as long as people feel a need to use them. I have turned EQ2Wire black, and may disable EQ2U for 24 hours to bring this issue to people’s attention, but as long as there is a need for this site, I will not shut it down. I also have an obligation to Dethdlr who has spent the last 4 1/2 months programming EQ2U.
So I am sorry if it sounds like hypocrisy to suggest that others cancel their accounts while I keep mine, but it is necessary for me to maintain an account to continue to do my “job”.
At this point, I am doubting I will go to Fan Faire, and I think it would be a very visible statement that might get picked up by “real” press sites if Fan Faire numbers were down by 50%+. Actually, it’s interesting that SOEFanFaire.com now redirects to SOE.com. Maybe there won’t be one?
Whenever I am going to need an example of a “perfectly worst” business decision, I now have one. Thank you, SOE!
@TrulyVexed
I think you misconstrued my intentions regarding taking action against SOE by contacting the press and cancelling accounts. I have been dealing with them since the EQ1 days, so I am painfully aware of how little they think of public opinion on the forums. Nothing said there, no amount of cancelled accounts, and a barrage of damning online news articles can’t un-sign this contract signed in the blood of their loyal customers.
What those actions WILL do is send a message, and maybe even give them a black eye. Additionally, the gaming world needs to know just what sort of people are managing SOE so they can make informed choices on if they want to support them through subs or buying their products. So far, SOE hasn’t even sent out emails to its customers about this. If you read the thread on the official forums, you will see hundreds of posts by surprised people that happened to stumble across the info. Spreading the word to a larger audience will help to inform everyone on this little jewel SOE and PSS1 are coveting and patting their backs about. A company is nothing without its reputation.
See, the thing with subbing with SOE over the years is it parallels the structure of an abusive relationship. You love them, yet they treat you badly. They say their sorry and buy you presents, then things smooth out and are ok..until they abuse you again. Then it begins the cycle that only ends until their is one particular episode that make you say, “ENOUGH!”.
TrulyVexed, it may not be enough for you yet, but for myself and hundreds (thousands?) of others it is time to cut that cord. Not only that, but its important to make SOE accountable or at least aware, quite clearly, of what’s going on.
I hope you get the results you are after as well.
I noticed Cheesepirate got banned from the EQ2 forum and they even removed the posts saying so for discussion of moderation
Feldon,
If you need an SOE forum account you know where to find me.
Well I didn’t get banned or my post removed, just edited.
They removed the last paragraph for ‘moderation discussion’. It read:
“Above all though, FREE FELDON NOW! Feldon has always been the voice of reason and very frequently finds positive sides to SOE actions when players complain. Banning him has only served to make players even angrier.”
Glad you’re able to post again now Feldon. Keep up the fantastic work.
@Whilhelmina – *HUG*
To everyone: I feel for you guys right now. I really hope that everything works out. Keep giving your feedback (I swear I need this part macro’d) constructively and within the forum guidelines 🙂
I’m sad now that I never banned Feldon for kicks and giggles while I had the chance, just so that I could be first. Darnit!
Also, I’ve met Holly before. She’s a good egg 🙂 Don’t judge her by this situation, because it isn’t something she can affect.
<3 to all of you!
KIARA!!!! 😀
But yea I agree, nobody blame holly. This deal was signed in blood way before she was moved into her current position. It’d be like blaming piestro, and he just got here. XD
I’ve went through 80% of this discussion but I think I’m not reposting what someone already said (at least not all):
SOE doesn’t care. They care about their money. They seem to go with the path that p2w games take learning form the masters (EASY http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win ) but as far as EASY goes with their caring only for their money they’ve never moderated their forums to such an extent as to what SOE does on their forums, that is absolutely banning the freedom of speech.
Thousand of nerf/buff posts are OK, it’s only when someone speaks the truth that’s when soe mods come into play.
If you read their Forum Guidlines they went as far as to put even this rule:
“Polling/Petitioning – The creation of petitions or polls for the purpose of game changes without approval from SOE are not permitted in SOE communications channels.”
So even posts in “suggestions” and saying that anything in this game is wrong can be a reason to be banned.
SOE “official” forums is a trash bin for everyone that wants to complain, there’s NO player-developer communication there.
They communicate through tweeter, facebook, reddit and PSU forums.
People on PSU forums had programs made by SOE to list their achievements by connecting to SOE database long before “Players tab – beta” was introduced on the official site.
There are twice if not more of official SOE dev posts on PSU forums than there is on official forums.
When they were looking for new leaders for their events they posted it on PSU forums and not a word on official forums.
After a while people from official forums did something smart and started posting on every other site how the communication is bad and so SOE couldn’t ignore them.
So they introduced RoadMap on forums.
The same roadmap that was MADE ON reddit with the help of redditers and decided on reddit.
They(devs) went as far as to say on reddit that (that here is not a direct quote) “don’t worry redditers, we’re putting it onto official forums but we won’t listen much for what they have to say there, just getting the general idea if something is really hated by majority”
And after some roadmap points got a thousand of disikes and close to no likes they said they’re still going to introduce it.
If you’re unhappy player the first place you’ll go to post your concerns is PS2 official forums, and then, you’ll get moderated.