Ea makes statement March 2 making paysites ok?

[Sigmund]

On the other hand EA does lose money from supporting paysites.  If someone is shelling out 100$ a year, or worse a month [it is possible too] to get all the nifty pay-crap, then they are less likely to shell out the 100$ to EA for the expansions and stuff packs and now the official paysite.

So, if Blizzard can go, 'This is dividing the community, cut it out.' when its not affecting their bottom line, but just overall player enjoyment, then why the fuck can't EA do the same when it is going to cost them a lot more money?

This is the same question I have had for ages. Financially, it doesn't make sense for EA to allow paysites to exist, especially with current economic issues. Their unwillingness to step in is pretty baffling to me, actually.

[Anouk]

Not that baffling. They probably recieve money from TSR, without having to give out an official lisence, and the risks attached to that.

[Skoria_Bay]

Well, yes.  Blizzard doesn't -lose- money from people selling the guides with the add-ons.  Not really, maybe from a few people 'beating' the game and quitting for something else, but that will happen regardless.

On the other hand EA does lose money from supporting paysites.  If someone is shelling out 100$ a year, or worse a month [it is possible too] to get all the nifty pay-crap, then they are less likely to shell out the 100$ to EA for the expansions and stuff packs and now the official paysite.

So, if Blizzard can go, 'This is dividing the community, cut it out.' when its not affecting their bottom line, but just overall player enjoyment, then why the fuck can't EA do the same when it is going to cost them a lot more money?

Blizzard has always cared about its customer base unlike EA. When Diablo II came out they apologized profusely to the Mac gaming community because their port was several months behind. (And yes, their disks used to be ac/dc meaning it worked on both a Mac and a Windows machine) And Blizzard knows how to keep their customers happy. EA has a lot to learn about customer service and customer retention. If I  had the extra money, I might seriously consider playing WoW.

If EA was smart, they'd enforce their own EULA instead of relying on us (the customers) to do it.

[SoggyFox]

Diablo 3 is supposed to be out soon, too.  And this is true.  EA did what, one MMO and it flopped - it flopped because during Beta they took the advice of people who said 'MMOs need to be a grind, or people won't play.' So it went from being able to be a recluse and having a home of your own to having to share lots with 7 other folks - all this before beta ended.  It got me -playing- mmos, but not theirs, because they were so worried about 'keeping' players to make money, they missed what keeps people -playing-.

Don't get me wrong though, Blizzard needs to fire and get new folks for their Cloth class devs and artists.  Granted, as a mage I don't feel like a colourblind nun anymore, just like a nun.  Our one trick, dps, is being done bettwer by warriors, DKs, pallies and hunters [that's at least not new], and tailoring is one of the most obnoxious armour making skills out there.

But overall, yeah, they are a good company.

[Skoria_Bay]

I had a friend who played on the Sims MMO and said it was awful. People couldn't even talk or socialize they had to "work" and maintain their homes. If they'd made it like the game (except with the ability to talk to others on line) it might have been fun. But yeah, I can understand what you say about the "game design". Bioware has allowed people to mod the heck out of NWN. It is still a fun game for me.

[SoggyFox]

It sucked - I was so disappointed because it had potential, if they'ed listened to simmers rather than hard-core powerplaying mmo types.  I watched it go from fun to horrible and said as much on the forums too.

[neriana]

Don't get me wrong though, Blizzard needs to fire and get new folks for their Cloth class devs and artists.  Granted, as a mage I don't feel like a colourblind nun anymore, just like a nun.  Our one trick, dps, is being done bettwer by warriors, DKs, pallies and hunters [that's at least not new], and tailoring is one of the most obnoxious armour making skills out there.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

You've obviously never played a blacksmith. Tailoring is no worse than leatherworking. Also, mages don't just have one trick; they also have crowd control and buffs. But it wouldn't be WoW if people didn't complain incessantly about their classes .

[SillySarah]

first post, it's terribly off topic, but i have to just say... i downloaded both Zygor and joana (mancow)'s  wow guides for free... by torrent. 

[SoggyFox]

Actually, I did do a blacksmith, got her all the way to 300 and something, then found out that [at the time] there were -no- swords for a holy pally, and not mcuh armour for one either, so switched to alchemy and engineering with friends feeding me mats.

The reason I say tailoring is harder is this - Blacksmithing, while a rampaging pain in the ass, does -not- have a four day time limit.  With persistance you can make a whole set in a few days of farming what you need.  Tailoring, unless you just buy the cloth, requires months to make a full set of anything, a set being -three- pieces.  It was three months for me to make the extra pieces to fill out my spec armour set [which only took a month or so, while I worked on hitting 70.

No class should have to wait like that, and its just plain dumb that they kept that with Wotlk - I still haven't made my frozen shadowweave set - between instance and raid drops [ 4-man Kara wooo!] I haven't even had to replace stuff yet with wotlk gear, but when I need to, I can craft better [ well, when they make mages have to have spirit to be any good ]

[Pescado]

UPDATE on EAxis EULAe in TS3:
Apparently, in TS3, being a paysite is no longer mentioned anywhere as being forbidden, but at the same time, by creating stuff at all, you "...expressly grant to other users of the Software the non‐exclusive, perpetual, transferable, worldwide, irrevocable right to access and use, copy, modify, display, perform, and create and distribute derivative works from...", meaning that we are absolutely allowed to be pirates. YARR! The future of PMBD looks rather bright, it seems, as EAxis decides to officially tuck in their tails and run away from this issue with both hands.

[keirra]

UPDATE on EAxis EULAe in TS3:
Apparently, in TS3, being a paysite is no longer mentioned anywhere as being forbidden, but at the same time, by creating stuff at all, you "...expressly grant to other users of the Software the non‐exclusive, perpetual, transferable, worldwide, irrevocable right to access and use, copy, modify, display, perform, and create and distribute derivative works from...", meaning that we are absolutely allowed to be pirates. YARR! The future of PMBD looks rather bright, it seems, as EAxis decides to officially tuck in their tails and run away from this issue with both hands.

I wish they would have out-lawed paysites, but at least they finally agreed pirates are "legal".

[Pescado]

From a more immediately relevant perspective, "diva-ism" is officially outlawed. Creators can no longer behave as divas, insisting that no one modify their stuff, etc., etc. That is officially declared to be dead.

[Immortelle]

That's only granting EA rights to unlimited usage.  Part 2 sort of seems a little 'anti-booty' if you ask me.

[Pescado]

Part 4 is the relevant one. Part 2 is just the part saying they can banhammer people at will. Also keep in mind, this is a partial draft of a specific subpart of a product which doesn't actually exist, but it clearly makes their intended position known: They intend to duck and cover.

[justso]

Part 2 is saying third part copyrights or trademarks, meaning no uploading a McDonalds, if you do it a lot then you get banned.