Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Selling Beta Keys = Dumbasses

Real Poor Dot Com

With the recent announcement from Richard Duffek about how they want to crack down on the breaking of the NDA and people selling accounts for real life money, I decided today to go looking for dumbasses that get the privilege of being a beta tester for WAR and instead try to make a quick buck by selling their key.

I've taken a liking to reporting people I find at the above-mentioned site (horrible place where characters are bought and sold more often than ebay, though apparently it has its fair share of scammers too). When I find one, I send an e-mail to the beta center with a corresponding link.

I'm not much for "tattling", but when there's a game, any game, that people are dying to be a part of the testing process for, and there are jerks like these people getting keys and selling them, I feel it's my duty as a geek to report them and hope they get banned.

Join me in the cause, won't you? Who knows, maybe we'll even get to take the offenders' place in the beta. One can dream.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

But why would you want to impede a situation wherein people who got into the beta are selling their keys to people who didn't? The person who buys their key from this site is the victim here, not the person selling the key. You're keeping someone from a measly profit, sure, but you're also keeping someone who wants to play away from that. Why?

Unless you have a way to keep people who don't intend to play from signing up in the first place, I don't really know who's benefiting here, unless they start rewarding tattles.

Anonymous said...

It's like ticket-scalping, except worse 'cause you're doing it with something that should be free. I don't blame you at all for reporting 'em.

Anonymous said...

ryan: it frees up the beta key to go to the next person in the pool who hopefully actually wants to play the game. it isn't like it's getting taken out of play altogether.

Bildo said...

Ryan, ratting out the sellers and NDA breakers is a good thing. I know that people who want to buy a 400 dollar key are very likely in love with the game more than I am. But I also doubt they'd do much testing. Spending 400 bucks on a beta key seems like they want to play, not to bug hunt and repeat content over and over to test it.

As for them being the victims... I would rather call them the dumberasses. Dumber for spending that much cash on a beta key. Just look at that forum. people are buying them... for lots.

Anonymous said...

Fight the good fight Bildo!

Anonymous said...

"But I also doubt they'd do much testing. Spending 400 bucks on a beta key seems like they want to play, not to bug hunt and repeat content over and over to test it."

It's true that there are plenty of ways to justify it. However, the fact remains: you're keeping someone who's willing to pay from playing the game for no good reason. You have no way of verifying whether the claim you just made is true.

I realize that the key goes back into the pool- it doesn't happen instantaneously. For every complaint you file, you waste valuable customer service time that could be used for resolving bugs and attending to real issues.

This reminds me of the guy who tapes our local college radio station and listens to it all day just so he can report them to the FCC if they swear. I'm sure he thinks he's doing everyone a favor. Of course you can do whatever you want, but it's not exactly a noble pursuit.

Bildo said...

Well then, Ryan. We'll have to agree to disagree. Because while I understand your points, I'm in firm contention with them.

Selling and buying keys is even against the legal contract of the NDA put forth by EAMythic, as Richard Duffek pointed out for me on the VN.

I do feel it's a "noble pursuit". I'm not exactly spending every waking moment looking for them, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't check RealPoor every few days for more jerkweeds trying to make a quick buck.

Refer to my newer post on this topic as to why I'm doing anything at all. I'm not just some dude out for a beta key thanks to a tattle.

I can't even get into the beta right now, as I'm deemed press thanks to being on the staff at the Vault. So, there's no reason other than pure dislike of the whole idea why I'd report them.

Again, this is all in my opinion Ryan. Either one of us can be "right". It's simple disagreement here.

Anonymous said...

Ha, sorry for the belated follow-up. Agreeing to disagree is just as fun. Of course this is a point of contention -- scalping, arbitrage and their ethics have always been a hotly debated topic, so I shouldn't sound like I claim to know the truth.

Anyway, I'm writing a post on my site about this issue, so I'd appreciate your commentary on it, as well!

Bildo said...

You'll have to tell me where the site is Ryan, because your profile is hidden! :)

But I'd be glad to once I see it.