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| Behind the Online: Persistence is Futile by Dave Bonnewell,MMORPG.COM  Weekly Column by Dave BonnewellEditors Note: This is a weekly column by Staff Writer Dave Bonnewell. The column is called Behind the Online and will look at different events from around the world of MMOs. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of MMORPG.com, its staff or management. Greetings fellow gamers and welcome to whats on my mind lately." title="Behind the Online: Persistence is Futile">Weekly Column by Dave Bonnewell Editor's Note: This is a weekly column by Staff Writer Dave Bonnewell. The column is called "Behind the Online" and will look at different events from around the world of MMOs. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of MMORPG.com, its staff or management. Greetings fellow gamers and welcome to what's on my mind lately. In life, a great many of us take for granted a great many things. Several immediately come to mind: The fresh, new fallen snow on a crisp winter's morn; living at the majestic precipice of the all-or-nothing digital age; the miraculous gift of aerial freedom gallantly granted by Red Bull; free internet porn. In the massively multiplayer online world of gaming goodness, however, there is one aspect which we take for granted far more than any other and that is the ability to return to our favorite alternate virtual lives whenever we so desire; hacking, slashing, questing, mining, crafting and generally pwning our online gaming days and sleepless nights away. This is something most gamers think of as a well paid for right, but which the MMORPG big wigs (namely City of Heroes/Villains, EverQuest II and World of Warcraft) have deemed a privilege easily and abruptly taken away without warning well, without a glaringly obvious warning at any rate. Lately, Blizzard has been speaking rather softly, but carrying a big ban-stick. Numerous unsuspecting denizens of World of Warcraft have already found themselves no longer welcome anywhere in all of Azeroth, a very good friend of mine included. Let me just fill you in on the gory details of how it went down. My friend (we'll call him Terrance, the Tauren Hunter) had been looking after a fellow guild mate's (we'll call her Ursula, the Undead Warlock) account while she soaked up the Jamaican sun on Summer vacation. It was not long before Terrance discerned that some items under his care were unaccounted for. He took the next logical step and shipped the remainder of his guildmate's valuables to himself for safekeeping, while Ursula submitted a GM ticket. Upon further investigation, this led to Blizzard deducing that Ursula's account had been hacked by Terrance and, thus, his World of Warcraft account was unceremoniously bludgeoned to oblivion with the hard-hitting Blizzard banstick. By now you are probably thinking to yourself, "Here we go again, yet another editorial singling out a great game and a great game company just because they're so popular. This guy really needs to get a life." Ok, so the later is almost certainly true, but don't get me wrong (or your Fruit of the Looms in a bunch). I'm not here to bash World of Warcraft or Blizzard According to their own Terms of Use, "You acknowledge and agree that you shall have no ownership or other property interest in the Account, and you further acknowledge and agree that all rights in and to the Account are and shall forever be owned by Blizzard Entertainment." Going by this, Blizzard is completely and unequivocally in the right here. Their records clearly prove that Terrance was a thief, having received swag mailed to him by his trusted guild mate Ursula, and then a GM ticket turns up a couple weeks later insisting that valuable items are missing. It was not until much later that I learned Ursula, being completely oblivious to the fact that Terrance had actually moved the remainder of her loot, professed that only she had access to her personal account. The persistence of big name MMOs such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest II, City of Heroes or City of Villains may be guaranteed, but a player's right to persist in them is far from guaranteed once the wordy and all-to-easily ignored User Agreement is, well...agreed to. Keep in mind that agreeing to any of these game's Terms of Use means plainly that you have absolutely no rights as the owner of your account. Your ability to play thus becomes a privilege at the total discretion of the game's publishing company. Be careful when interacting with other players while roaming around in any of these virtual worlds, because making the wrong kind of waves can get you drowned. Take it or leave it, the best advice I can give is to just let your Crusader, Hero, Villain, Warlock or what have you chill out whenever you manage to take a breather from playing. And especially never, ever give anyone your account password. There is simply no rationale for it despite your best intentions and the results could be disastrous for you and others. There are really three lessons to be learned as a result of this little horror story, my fellow fanciers of online gaming. The first is to fully read and understand the MMO's Terms of Use before actually agreeing that you did and that you do, even if you are quite literally dying to join your friends in virtual pwnage within the latest and greatest big name MMOG and it may seem to take longer to install the damn thing than it does to wait in line at your friendly neighborhood Department of Motor Vehicles. The second is once you do finally enter the game world, always look before you leap or you just might find you by yourself. The third and possibly most important moral is that whatever your MMO of choice, always remember and never forget, Big Brother is watching one hundred percent. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Game News :: home page |