[MUD-Dev] FW: [uodevlist] OT - Lawsuit on Lum's

[Dave Rickey]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Freeman <skeptack at antisocial.com>
To: mud-dev at kanga.nu <mud-dev at kanga.nu>
Date: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] FW: [uodevlist] OT - Lawsuit on Lum's


>At 06:18 PM 9/19/00 -0700, Raph Koster wrote:
>>>From Lum the Mad's site:
>>> EX-VOLUNTEERS FILE CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST OSI: DEMAND
>>> BACK WAGES FOR ALL VOLUNTEERS
>
>One, could that have been avoided if OSI had been more graceful with the
>perk removal?  IIRC, the timing wasn't the greatest since it hadn't been
>too long since the purple-named-seer/love-it-or-lump-it thing.  Seems like
>relations were a bit strained, and then followed with a form-letter
>explaining that they wouldn't be getting free accounts any more.
>
    The primary plaintiffs all left well before the perk-removal.  And that
removal was apparently a belated response to the realization that any
"compensation" like the free player accounts strengthened the potential
lawsuit the plaintiffs were already making noises about.

    I've been asked by my current employer to write up a white paper on a
customer service strategy for DAoC.  Somewhere in the first paragraph I
advise not to even *consider* a volunteer program, because of potential
legal consequences.  Looks like I'll have to delete "potential".  I was
having a hard time selling my plan, because of increased operating expense
and a likely reduction in quality of service (not to mention the effect on
corporate culture, the company would wind up with far more CS staff than
game developers).  Looks like my arguments just got a lot stronger.

    According to my math, a win for the plaintiffs (assuming they get
class-action status), *without* counting in legal expenses and any
additional punitive damages that might be awarded, will mean that overall UO
*lost* money for EA, even if they are only awarded based on minimum wage.
They get the full amount they are asking for, the judgement will exceed the
*entire* revenue the game has ever generated.

    Volunteer programs are dead, I'd expect UO's to be disbanded or sharply
cut (to reduce potential liability without giving the plaintiffs more
evidence) within weeks, and EQ and AC to follow shortly thereafter.  Future
titles won't have them.  Overall CS quality is going to drop significantly.
This isn't maybe stuff any more.  In fact, my only remaining question is
whether EA pulls the plug on UO and UO2 completely, they've never been
particularly pleased with the profitability and this may be the last straw.
It's going to make publishers gun-shy about investing in these games for a
while, too.

    What I really love about the interview is where the
bottom-fe^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hlawyers say that they don't *want* to destroy the
industry, but they don't think it deserves to exist.  At least, not if its
continued existence get in the way of a fat payday for them....

--Dave Rickey (but I'm not feeling hostile, not at all)




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