Profile: Kordo
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• • When PlaneShift developers and staff are breaking their own policies in regards to PlaneShift "spoilers"

  • Originally posted by pstruth
    

    I don't think you should stop playing because you disagree with how the devs do business (since it's free). i've made it pretty obvious that I don't like a lot of the crap that happens, but I still play and think it's a fun game.

    
    I don't think I should keep playing it just because the game is free. Even if it's free, it should at least be acceptable. If one offers you free lunch, it must not be rotten. That's common sense.
    

    Unless breaking your own rules and policies became a style of "business", I wouldn't call it a "business" at all. They're breaking their own policies, while trying to enforce those policies on many others and censor/delete any posts that bring up the issue. That's not a "business" but a "business failure". By continuing to play this game, I would be supporting their hypocrisy, dishonesty and lack of integrity, and I refuse to do that.

    I've seen you complain about a lot of things in this game. I've also seen you turn around and beg forgiveness. This post isn't about those issues.

    Originally posted by pstruth
    

    The german community hasn't really done anything wrong and they've done a lot for players, so I'm not complaining if they haven't been punished.

    
    Does doing "a lot for players" make one exempt from a policy? They may have very well done a lot for some players but that isn't even an issue here.

    Just like the German PlaneShift community and "spoilers" thread starter, I think people should be able to discuss spoilers with the "[SPOILER]" tags on the official forum. This isn't about "punishing" German PlaneShift community but about PlaneShift staff following their own policy when they expect others to follow it. I didn't want to be a part of the environment where the main developer and staff team are breaking their own policy, playing favorites and only enforcing their policy on the newcomers, who haven't yet "done a lot for players".

    I think you drastically misunderstood what I said.

    As for things changing "pretty quickly", the PlaneShift staff have been made well aware of the problem since April 27, 2008, provided that they honestly didn't know about it prior to that. It's June 24, 2008 now.

    Originally posted by UtMoon
    

    Wonderful.

    
    Thanks.

    I wasn't looking for a response, only for people to read it and since the number of views is increasing, that is all that matters.

    I don't play this "game" anymore but that is irrelevant to the fact that PlaneShift developers and staff (some of which doesn't even develop the game) are not following their own policies. Following your own policy would be an "improvement". It also doesn't mean I can't share my experience and observations with others.

    Have a nice day too, everyone.

  • Posted: 6/24/08 1:37 AM
    Planeshift
• • When PlaneShift developers and staff are breaking their own policies in regards to PlaneShift "spoilers"

  • PlaneShift Game Rules and Policies (specifically [GAME Policy 11] Spoilers and Walkthroughs last edited on June 08, 2008) clearly states that:

    Posting walkthroughs and spoilers in password-free sites or forum threads is against the rules. Players should keep in mind that if they wish to share information they have gathered they should do so in-game and only through private channels or password protected sites.
    
    Not following any of these rules is liable to official actions stated in the Game Sanctions.

    
    However, the official PlaneShift website is officially linking to a German PlaneShift community, which contains numerous spoilers on its website and forum, both of which are password-free.

    This Tips and Tricks Forum on PSDE.DE is filled with numerous spoilers, many of which are specifically tagged as "[SPOILER]" in the thread title. Such threads usually contain either exact phrases to say to NPCs in order to advance in quests or complete quest solutions. All PSDE.DE administrators and moderators are well aware of it and even encourage it. Many of the participants are regular posters on the official PlaneShift forum.

    Some of their screenshots in the Screenshot section contain a "bird's eye view" type of screenshots, which, according to PlaneShift rules and policies, are "spoilers" because they resemble maps, and posting maps is "against the rules".

    Here is an example of a Forum Thread from the official PlaneShift forum to illustrate the above:

    How to zoom the camera out to see entire map in one screen?
    
    I am looking for a method to zoom the camera out in the game as much as possible, to take a screenshot of entire area (e.g. Hydlaa Plaza) from the top. I tried zooming out with the keyboard but then it stops after a certain distance and I can't see the entire city in one shot. Is this possible? I think it is, because I looked at this picture: (I removed the pic because it may have been considered a spoiler)
    

    These are a couple of replies he received:

    You can make your own maps and ask about the technical things required to do so, but please avoid posting them here or any other public site. It's considered a spoiler. Please edit your post to remove that pic. Thanks.
    

    Thanks for removing the map. It was an old one and it sprung a nice walk down memory lane so I guess it wasn't that bad to have it up for a few minutes. We just need to avoid spoilers.

    
    Keep in mind that the PlaneShift staff has been made aware of this problem on their official forum (in case they weren't before) on April 27, 2008 in the thread titled German PlaneShift community and "spoilers", which was eventually locked to prevent people from discussing it and from keeping it in a forum's focus. The thread has been read over 1900 times. However, they continue linking to PSDE.DE to this day and they haven't changed their policies to allow players to discuss spoilers with the "[SPOILER]" tags on the official forum.

    While they do state that they are not responsible for and cannot control the content of the unofficial sites, they are, in fact, responsible for what links they officially post on their main website, especially after being made aware of linking to a password-free site that is breaking the rules by posting spoilers. These links have been manually added by the website administrator and PlaneShift project leader Luca "Talad" Pancallo.

    This is a screenshot of the linking page just in case:

    img299.imageshack.us/img299/71/psdems7.png

    Are Luca Pancallo and the rest of the PlaneShift staff "liable to official actions stated in Game Sanctions" for linking to a password-free website and forum containing major "spoilers"? Why haven't they faced any "official actions", as they should have, and why haven't they stopped linking to such a website? They are, in fact, breaking their own rules and policies by knowingly continuing to link to such a website, even after being made well aware of its content, therefore, officially giving it support.

    Any subsequent mention of the problem on the official PlaneShift forum is typically censored by the staff, who hope that the issue is going to go away, if people can't discuss it. The threads or posts concerning the problem or containing PSDE.DE URL in them are usually deleted (because it's a "spoiler") and nothing is being done by them to either ask the Germain PlaneShift community to remove the spoilers or to stop linking to them from the official PlaneShift website. The same regular posters, who continue posting spoilers on the German PlaneShift community site, also continue posting on the official PlaneShift forum without facing any "official actions" or even a warning.

    PlaneShift staff is well aware that the German PlaneShift community helps increase PlaneShift's popularity and is one of the sources for potential players, not to mention the obvious link and traffic exchange. They also provide one of the mirrors for downloading the game itself. Obviously, they don't want to ruin a relationship with them, so much that they are ready to disregard their own rules and policies, while continuing to censor any "spoilers" from the main forum, warning and threatening anyone who does post them with "official actions", and trying to insult anyone who chooses to post them on independent sites, such as The Linux Game Tome.

    I wanted other people to be aware of the obvious dishonesty, lack of integrity, and plain hypocrisy of the PlaneShift development and staff team. Since the PSDE.DE link has not been removed from the official site, then at least many should now be aware of where to find the "spoilers", something that the PlaneShift team is terrified of (unless they think they benefit from traffic exchange). If it is officially linked to from the main website and they are aware of the linked site's contents, it must be ok to post the link anywhere. It's ok to break and disregard PlaneShift's policies, since its staff, including their project leader, break and disregard them too. This is also a thread/post that they are powerless to delete. Even though the site and forum are in German, it is easy enough to find quest solutions you're looking for, since the quest names and exact phrases to say to NPCs are in English, just as the game itself. One can also use automatic translators, such as Google Language Tools on the entire site.

    That is if you are still playing this "game" at all. I don't.

  • Posted: 6/23/08 7:46 AM
    Planeshift