[MUD-Dev] Summary of PvP attempts?

[Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frank Crowell [mailto:frankc at maddog.com]

> The new server SZ went up 3 days ago.  It is diety based that
> creates three teams -- good, evil, and neutral.  Level 1-5
> sanctuary, hometown faction hits, no level limits -- anyone 6 and
> above can attacke anyone else.  Coins only looting.  This server
> is available only through testserver and the players will be wiped
> when it goes live. SZ is more complex than I have described here,
> so it's better to go read the EQ sites for more details or create
> a character and experience it yourself.

Perhaps I'm jaded, but to me SZ is more of an experiment in
diminishing support costs of a server by attempting to allow player
policing. They have stated that the play nice policy, and training
etc. are no longer petitionable offences as they can be solved
within game.

Adding further weight to this is recent change to the ToS:

8<------------ 
  As the population of Norrath increases, so too do issues regarding
  stolen or compromised accounts, and/or accounts that have been
  transferred from one player to another in violation of the User
  Agreement. These issues - and the time it takes to investigate and
  attempt to resolve them - hugely detract from the time that SOE's
  customer service staff have to devote to providing quality
  customer service to issues that impact upon the gameplay
  experience.  Accordingly, SOE must remind all players that:

  (1) Account security -- whether it be password protection, running
  virus checks, disabling file sharing, or any other element of
  making sure accounts are not stolen or compromised -- is the sole
  responsibility of the account owner.

  (2)Any and all stolen and/or compromised accounts that are
  reported to SOE will be banned, and no items will be
  reimbursed. Any player found to be involved in an account theft
  will have any and all of his/her accounts banned.

  - The EverQuest Customer Service Team 
8<------------

i.e. If your account gets hacked they ban all your accounts for it
(policeman_at_crimescene : 'yeah, lets shoot the victim, its his
fault he got robbed, and it saves paperwork'). I'm not sure whether
such a stand is really sensible in a game where it can take 150
played days to build up a good character. I'd prefer a stance
whereby they built sufficient tools to make policing this a lot
easier for their CS.

I certainly agree that a self policing game is a nice ideal to work
to, but I think it might well have a disastrous affect on player
relations if handled badly. Going back to SZ, as I said, I think its
an experiment to see if they can base future games on this model.

Dan

p.s. I tried hard not to rant about the change to the ToS - its
something that REALLY bothers me.
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