11
Mar
LFG and EQ2Flames
>компютри втора употреба been away for a while. So I sorta went MIA there, went back to school in order to get my LCSW and while psychology is great fun for me, it absorbs a lot of my time.
That doesn’t mean that I’m not aware of the drama that surrounds MMO’s. I use the occasional trainwrecks as a time to take a break from studying or writing. And while I still play online games (in fact someone called me an anomaly in that he thought I was a hardcore gamer and knew that I am a girl…), I just have so many hours in each day to spend with hobbies and the like.
That all said and done… I watched the EQ2Flames vs SOE rock ‘em sock ‘em match and felt a compulsion to post something.
Let’s get a few things out in the open first so there’s no misunderstandings. A company can do whatever they want when they want as long as they are not breaking any laws. If they are public they are beholden only to their shareholders and if they are privately owned - well it still comes down to the same thing. Profit.
Websites that are message boards, blogs, or just news sites have no obligation to anyone, but the owner of the site. A website can promise that the world is going to come to its end tomorrow and guess what? No one really cares. Are forums a form or press? No. Are news sites a form of press? I think a lot of them would like to think that they are, but they aren’t. In essence they are beholden to the games they cover and in order to keep in the good graces with the companies, they cannot write freely.
So essentially, what happened is that information was released on an “official” community website. SOE, who didn’t do anything that was out of line of any other corporation, said “no, no, no!” and pulled away their nod of approval. In retrospect it was a knee-jerk reaction and they didn’t give the site owner (LFG) time to fix the situation, which as near as I can tell, he did. However, the match was already lit and there was absolutely nothing that was going to stop the flames (or the mental image of Madeline Kahn and her memorable line from Clue: “Yes, I did it, I killed Yvette. I hated her, so much… That… it… it… flam - flames. Flames, on the side of my face, heaving… breath - , heaving breaths. Heaving breath..”).
LFG got pissed with SOE’s response and war was waged. In the waging of said war, dirt was brought out by the truckloads.
And this is what compelled me to make a post. To come out of my sabbatical so to speak. It isn’t that EQ2Flames lost its official nod, it’s not even that SOE did nothing wrong from a corporate standpoint, it’s the dirt. You see the dirt revealed some pretty shady dealings from within the company and since I can’t ever resist a good trainwreck, I got sucked into seeing some of the dust too. If the only result is that dirty laundry has been aired, and let’s face it, it’s dirty laundry that everyone knows is there, but has been shoved under the bed in hopes of hiding it, then I will defend LFG. I don’t necessarily agree, but he is standing up for something, and regardless of what it is, seeing someone stand behind their convictions is refreshing.
Honesty, integrity, and respect are the things most important to a community. SOE has apparently dropped the ball. While I don’t necessarily agree with LFG’s tactics (I think he responded in much the same knee-jerk manner), I can understand them.
It’s not a popularity contest, folks. It’s not about sides, it’s about shady dealings that make customers, investors, future employees and past employees raise and eyebrow and question things. SOE can respond three ways here, they can sweep it under the rug and play “let’s just pretend it didn’t happen”, they can sweep under the rug and in the next 6 months shift people out of positions, or they can regain a some integrity and respect and acknowledge the dirt and respond to it.
LFG has a few ways to respond as well. He can stop the war and continue with what EQ2flames was, a good repository of information that became a tool for EQ2 staff, he can continue to wage a battle which will eventually smolder out but not before the tiniest glimmer of hope can be extinguished out, he can attempt to work things out diplomatically (but to be honest, the only way I see that happening is a new SOE regime coming in and a blanket amnesty being dropped down, kind of a “fresh start, slate wiped clean thing”), and finally he can just walk away quietly.
Regardless of what happens, the shit will eventually roll itself down hill and this will become nothing more than a blip several months from now. Remember when they wiped the old EQlive boards? Yeah, thought so. Or remember the name of the community relations guy at Blizzard who went postal on their official boards? And no fair looking up the answers.
You can’t deny that feelings were hurt, things were taken personally and rationality was left at the doorstep. Things were said and done that in retrospect probably shouldn’t have been.
I keep on hoping that with each trainwreck, some how, someone will learn something and the casualties won’t be in vain. So far I haven’t had that hope met. Perhaps someday it might happen, but I don’t think I will be holding my breath.
