Crap NDA

I signed up to a beta for a MMORPG and I just got in. The game looks ok, so I thought I'd agree to the non-disclosure agreement I was directed to in my "welcome" email. As soon as I submitted the completed NDA, access to the private beta forum was granted. The forum covers EVERYTHING in the beta community.

But hang on, there's no client to download, so I don't even start to download the client. I can't play the game. But wait... the NDA isn't in effect...hmm... what will I do now that I've read every comment from beta testers since the tests started... Ahhh I'll strip all IRC chats, forums and everything else and publish it on this BLOG blowing the whole BETA test warts and all wide open to anyone with a web connection. I might get in trouble for copyright infringement, but the NDA isn't binding, yet.

Now of course I am not about to do what I wrote above, I'm not gonna start screwing someone over like that. But I guess it shows that game's companies still have a lot to learn. Here's the NDA in question, but with no references to who or what it's for.

"Non-disclosure agreement

Between (enter your first and last name) and xxxx

The act of accepting this download is a binding act. You are responsible for the complete confidentiality about your participation in this beta test phase, and about its content. Thus, no information, image, comment, involving your participation in this test phase can be published or communicated to anyone who hasn't signed this agreement. This agreement is effective as soon as you start downloading the client, and ends with a personal notice sent to you by x and/or x.
You cannot communicate or copy the client and its content, even a part of it. If you do so, you may face prosecution and a permanent ban from the community and test phases.

I the undersigned, (enter your first and last name) hereby declare that I abide to this non-disclosure agreement, and that I will not reveal any information regarding this test.

Please write in CAPITAL LETTERS the following sentence:
« I accept this non disclosure agreement »."

Keeping your game a secret until it's launched, or close to launch is a serious business. You don't want EVERYONE to know the truth about gaming service that is still in development. You dont' want competitors trying to steal your ideas, and getting to market before you. But you do need gamers to come and play with your product to test it, and you can't pay them all, so you give them an "early taste" of the game, in return for their trust and patience.

With so much at stake, why have these particular developers left themselves wide open for exploitation?

I sent my thoughts to the developers, and I've yet to hear what they have to say. I'd only be a little annoyed if I was punished for being a smart ass or even for publishing this NDA in my Blog. What can they do? Stop me from playing this particular gaming title in the future, or perhaps send a cease and desist notice for copyright infringement?

Dark and Light to open stress test

NP Cube, producers of one to watch on the MMORPG scene, has just announced that it will be opening DnL for stress testing. If you hop over to the Dark and Light website you can sign up for a free pass to play the game for a few days. They haven't announced dates yet, but they'll want as many people as possible to participate to see how good their network architecture is before letting in the fee-paying public.

Popular MMORPG website taking cash from gamer sweatshops

Ok, so I should know better, but something inside me enjoyed a bit of an argument going over on MMORPG.com.

The problem is that one of the largest - and indeed well respected - indi MMORPG review site is kept alive and active by sponsors from IGE.com who are a bunch of sweatshop attendants making their living from selling in-game items and currency.

I looked over seven of the most popular games, as rated by MMORPG.com and determined their stance on in-game sales. The results were pretty clear.

Guild Wars
You may not advertise the intent to or commit the act of buying,
selling, trading, sharing, or transferring access to any Guild Wars
account.

You may not advertise the intent to or commit the act of buying or
selling items for cash or trading items from one server to another.


EVE Online
You may not market, sell, advertise, promote, solicit or otherwise
arrange for the exchange or transfer of items in the game or other game
services unless it is for in-game sales of in-game services or items.


World of Warcraft
[users agree not to] exploit the Game or any of its parts, including, but not limited to, the Game Client, for any commercial purpose.


City of Heroes
NCSoft haven't got a tough stance, perhaps because their ingame mechanics and lack of high-level content in CoH is such that there is little point buying your way through the game. But they cover themselves against in-game sales under their copyright statement, and is clearly concerning to ebay power sellers for CoH

The Saga of Ryzom
Section 8 - You may not transfer all or part of the Game to another person.


Dark Age Of Camelot This is the most comprehensive by far and I'd be hard pressed to argue my way out of anything it says given the conventional routes used by the likes of the CoH ebayer listed above.

accessing the System and/or playing the Game for commercial, business, or income-seeking purposes is strictly prohibited.

YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE TIME YOU SPEND PLAYING DARK AGE OF CAMELOT(TM) IS FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY, AND THAT YOU CLAIM NO INTEREST IN THE VALUE OF SUCH TIME AS REPRESENTED BY THE BUILDING UP OF THE EXPERIENCE LEVEL OF YOUR CHARACTER AND/OR THE ITEMS YOUR CHARACTER ACCUMULATES DURING YOUR TIME PLAYING DARK AGE OF CAMELOT(TM).


EverQuest II
Sony has their own Station Exchange allowing in-game sales on two EQII servers, and I can’t find anything obvious that applies to their policy on in-game sales on the game’s other servers.

so what

I'm not completely against the RL sale of in-game items and currency, though there are limits to what one game's economy can take before the game becomes unplayable for the majority. I do enjoy a good argument.

Given the money involved in Sony's "trial" it's hard to see that the decision to stop taking adverts from people like IGE is gonna be clear cut for sponsor supported community websites like www.mmorpg.com.

For the majority of the developers, like the games listed above, their perception of the likes of IGE, Sony Exchange and Ebay sales are not good. How long before one or more of MMORPG's dev sponsors pulls out and leaves the indi website struggling for offers/competitions and events to keep bringin back it's punters?

And if devs and Publishers take no action, will it signify their continuing apathy on one hand, whilst sitting behind increasingly innefective and unenforceable EULA's and claiming to be "tough"?

If you're interested in reading IGE's opinion on the issue of in-game sales, I found a reasonable Q7A session with IGE's PR mouthpeice.

Certainly an issue I'll be coming back to.

Best idea of the week

The American's have to put up with a lot of abuse - about their politics, pop culture, food, guns, gangs, drugs, tv, etc - but every so often they have an idea that I wish someone would implement over in the UK.

http://savemyass.com/home

"SaveMyAss is a personal assistant that keeps your girlfriend or wife happy by sending her flowers on your behalf, on a regular but semi-random basis."

Quality :)


And also


http://www.gamefly.com/

Where you can rent computer games for the PS2 via the post and keep them for as long as you want, like on Blockbuster's DVD rental scheme.

If anyone can point me to UK equivalents of either of these, I'd be happy :)

Pre Launch Madness

Sustaining my interest with pre-launch beta games by visiting official community forums, I've noticed with alarming regularity the number of people who post questions of the "Where can I download the game/beta" variety -when the answer is clearly posted in the FAQ, or the front page of the website. The typical answer is "This game will be released in X months, when it will be available in the shop or via direct download".

Someone in the Dark and Light forum (release in November) answered one of those questions from a noob forum poster with a link saying "Download the Dark and Light Beta here: http://downloadnet.ytmnd.com/ "

The original poster of the question replied: "i can't download 23,993,564.998 MB :("

You gotta wonder about some people....

Boo!

Cream Crackered.

Been playing with my photo's as way of prep for a party in the near future. Guess the particular theme?

More on iMP

Phew....

I got more info on the new interactive media player I'm testing. The distribution is by P2P and all the files have proprietary DRM that allows the downloaded files to be transfered to your media player or laptops. I have access to the player next week. It looks like a good solution for providing protected content online, and a minimal bandwidth cost to the provider. Aunty is showing that it hasn't been sleeping over the past year while the world was passing round leaked episodes of its revitalised DoctorWho.

There's a news article in the timesonline with a little more about the project.

Here's a link that leads to something that some of you will likely have seen before. I was thinking about it because my all time favourite MMORPG (Eve Online) was once criticised as the only game that can be played with a spreadsheet!

Well, you'll be glad to know that some crazy Japanese Excel whizz, Nobuya Chikada has created an Excel version of Pacman that works on macro enabled Excel spreadsheet. I have it running on my PC and it doesn't contain anything nastier than four ghosts wanting to eat PacMan. This is two years old now, but it still good.

Of course the Excel fun doesn't stop there. Depending on how much Japanse you've learned watching anime you'll probably not recognise more than a few english words ont he following website, but have a look anyways for some classics: GALAXCEL et al

TV on demand down my DSL!

This should be interesting. I just got into a new beta for on-demand TV! Here's the message I received today:

"Thank you for your interest in participating in the iMP content trial. We are looking for 5,000 people across the UK to try out the interactive Media Player, and we are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to be part of this group.

The trial will run from September to November 2005, during this time you will be able to download and view a selection of BBC TV and Radio programmes up to 7 days before they have been broadcast.

As part of this trial you will be required to take part in our research programme which includes recording your overall media consumption and completing surveys throughout the trial relating to the iMP."

I like this bit: BBC TV and Radio programmes up to 7 days before they have been broadcast. It wont stretch to lottery draw or race meets, which is a shame.

Nerd!

Wow,

I've impressed myself. I thought in terms of nerdiness I was pretty average. However, seems that my knowledge of the periodic table from high school Chemistry just tipped me over the edge. Cheers Ms Campbell. I might only have got the same mark as the Dux, but it shows that there isn't anything wrong with the education system after all.



Now I'm not sure if I should go crack open a beer or hide away in a corner to avoid getting bullied by the "bigger boys, Mrs Paterson" ><.

Bioware's Storytelling

I watched the first in a series of lectures available online from the 2005 Game Developers Conference. The session title was "Storytelling Across Genres: BioWare's Perspective" and the guy speaking was Greg Zeschuk.

It's a lecture about some of the techniques used to build up the plots in games, from intro to "drop of doom" at the end of the game. BioWare's portfolio includes: Knights of the Old Republic, NeverWinterNights and Jade Empire.

Interesting from Bioware's perspective is that they have worked with game IP both old and new, with "predictable trade offs" for both. Having seen the Dungeon and Dragon Online (MMORPG) communities moaning and complaining about which rule will or wont be available from the PnP game (pen and paper), I think original IP is the more attractive option, even if it requires a more creative imagination to set up in the first place.

Zeshchuk said that Jade empire contains 340,000 spoken words, over 300 voice parts. Gheesh... and when he highlights the art involved in making all the characters voices, movement, scripts, interactions believable, its easy to see why AAA titles are becoming so damn expensive to produce.

The level of detail BioWare go into to create an immersive game setting is fantastic. Knowing how well received both Jade Empire and KoToR have been, it seems that BioWare have a pretty successful formula for story telling. I hope that the innovation that lead to the forumulae helps it develop story telling in games further.

I think I'll head into town tomorrow and pick up a copy of KoToR and see if its "creamy middle" still holds it own two years on!

MSN search loves a Nerf Bat

So what are the chances of my blog getting to the top of a search engine? Well, I noticed from the stats that someone came to my blog with "nerf bat" as their search phrase. Imagine how surprised I was to see that my blog comes up #1 for that term with search.msn.com.

For those of you confused as to why I'm talking about a brand name for an indoor-safe ball by Parker Brothers, as introduced originally in 1969.... Well, I'm not. Check Wikipedia's explanation of Nerf. A nerf bat is a tool used to apply a nerf (generally to suggest a certain lack of subtlety in doing so).

Note that Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for "nerf bat", and if it did, I'm sure North Central Positronics Ltd would still hold the top spot with MSN search, seeing as how Microsoft must hate the FREE open source resource for diverting punters from Encarta.

At it..

Here kitty :)

(work safe) Thanks to Daphster from the MA boards for pointing out that one.

mmorpg

Over the next few days (or weeks) I’m going to weave regular blog postings with a series of short posts about what makes a game MMORPG. Stop yawning at the back. Thing is that like it or not, MMORPGs are an ever increasing feature in the entertainment world. No longer the domain of spotty nocturnal angst ridden teenage boys, MMORPG participation is now enjoyed by representatives from just about every social and economic group in the country.

You don’t have to go far to find someone who has played or is playing an MMORPG. At a birthday party last night (happy birthday Lolo!), the second person I talked to was a WoW fan AND a clubber. So it’s worth taking some notes for future reference at yer public house gathering. And if you’re already a convert, then feel free to fire comments when you see something you don’t agree with.

You know already that a MMORPG is a “massively multiplayer online role-playing game”. My posts will focus on the five sections of MMORPG, the first being “massively”, through to the last: “game”. In case you’re wondering why there will only be five, I’m going to count RP as one.

Anyways, a good night was had last night, so I’m off to continue my recovery…