Is this an abuse of official powers?

I don't understand how an Official avatar can be like that. About the shittiest way to behave I have ever seen.

I also don't understand your personal vendetta against Planet Arkadia and the team behind it. You have been at it for a long time, even got yourself banned from ark forum even though it's almost impossible to get a ban from there... I don't get it, sincerely.

Angel O2 Mercer said:

...even got yourself banned from ark forum even though it's almost impossible to get a ban from there... I don't get it, sincerely.

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When I got the ban from Ark forum I had made no posts on it. I did however say something negative about Arkadia on EP forum, perhaps that got me the ban. I can't be sure since no reason was given just a permanent ban.

It's good to read the chat log on the "other forum". George stated his belief that he had a right to exact revenge on Arkadia. MA asked him to leave because he was disrupting the event. George refused to leave so the official offered to lock his account instead. George thought about this for a while then asked to be moved to space, which was done. I don't see any abuse of power by the MA employee.

I think the only mistake the Mindark official made was being too nice and not giving out the temp ban after the first few minutes of bickering. George has a history of purposely attempting to disrupt official events and this was not an innocent "offering of flights" or a griping over bad loot. If it were me, there would have been a single verbal warning given, and if he refused to leave within a few minutes, b-bye!

It's good to see a Mindark official making an appearance in game and taking an active role. MA wants planets to run events (they increase revenue) and all the planets, including Caly, need to know they're going to have MA's support (assuming the events are approved... ahem! Cyrene) and have ways to deal with troublemakers since MA hasn't given out those admin powers to planet partners themselves.

When I got the ban from Ark forum I had made no posts on it.

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I assume you mean other than attempting to buy votes via the forum?

No you broke the EULA, intentionally.

From a PP and Mindark point of view. You were clearly disrupting the event. Demotivating people and thus diminishing their enjoyment of Entropia Universe.

Next time dont be a drama queen and just don't go to planet Arkadia anymore, since you obviously wanted to "exact revenge". Fortunately as Lich said that ain't possible for us mere mortals. EULA cover all theirs bases. If you have to think if something is against the EULA it probably is.

Just because you had issues or whatever on Planet Arkadia, doesn't mean that everyone else has too. Don't like a planet? Don't go there, it's as simple as that.

Power abusing would imply if you only offered flight services to Calypso. And then get locked for that. Since that ain't against the EULA. No power abusing here. Just an assistant of MA enforcing the EULA. Beware, break the EULA and face the wrath of the Assistants of MA!

Indeed Neil; the full PM does nuance the story completely; and actually provides more accurate information.
I'm not picking any sides here; I only pick the side of information and thruth and sadly the rules today stand in the way from that truth and are actually doing the opposite of what they were put in place for.

So the people reading this thread only see a part of what has happened; and in so this thread is NOT informative anymore. One might aswell close and delete this thread and aknowledge that this forum is not a source of neutral news. Since news should be uncencored; and censoring a part of the events and conversations between the parties is concidered a censorship by all definitions of freedom of speech.
Note that the cencored parts do not contain any profanities or any content that can be seen as "unfit". And the content might in this case even be in favor of PP/MA

My heart bleeds, not about what happened, but the way freedom of speech is being handled here.
This will be my last post here (outside the trade forum). From now on I'm only going to use this forum as a buying/selling place; as I stipulated in September (and understood wrongly by 711, hence the improved forum search) this is the only major function this forum can still fulfill.

Angel O2 Mercer said:

I don't understand how an Official avatar can be like that. About the shittiest way to behave I have ever seen.

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Lich was courteous and professional, according to the chat logs on the unlinkable "other forum".

Neil Stockton said:

Lich was courteous and professional, according to the chat logs on the unlinkable "other forum".

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Yes, completely agreed, if anything he was a bit too soft.
Why the heck do they gotta delete the link. There's nothing in that log that makes MA look bad. It only shows the truth about a particular player who broke the rules. This is one of the things I dislike about PCF, overmoderation everywhere. Even for good publicity.. for gods sake. How often do we see a MA avatar doing something right for once? All this negativity is what's killing the game. People assume the worst of MA, I do that too most of the time. But this time I'm surprised and happy that they proved me wrong for once.

--Personal opinion. NOT Mod's comment--

OK, so I waited until more info was given before forming my opinion. I went to the other forum and read the transcript of the private chat.

It's no secret that you have personal issues with Ark. How the fight began, and who did what almost doesn't matter. We're talking about this particular volley of actions.

Mistake #1: You flew someone to a place you hate, and didn't leave immediately.
Mistake #2: You bashed the event.
Mistake #3: You bashed the loot.
Mistake #4: You brought the fight here to this forum.
Mistake #5: You intentionally left out information that would show your true intent to your actions, (I.E. Exacting revenge on Ark) to show yourself as some poor random target being abused by planet powers.


Fact is: Ark staff had no choice but to read your comments with the knowledge that you attack Ark at every opportunity.

Consider: Had a true Ark fan, someone who loves that planet and obviously enjoys their time there said "Leave this rubbish event save yourselves" yes, it would have been read differently. But since you always attack them, it's seen as another attack. (The best part is you deny and admit it was an attack in the same chat.)

The fact is, past actions color present actions. Your words and actions toward Ark are/will always be seen in the worst possible light for a simple reason: You've attacked them again and again. Ark staff can only see your actions there as yet another attack, and act.

--/Personal opinion--

--Mod's comment--
Frankly, I'm sick of reading your Ark attacks here. I've given you a lot of leeway, but if you continue to bring your personal attacks against Ark here on the forum, I'll find you in breach of Forum Rule 2.3 - Personal Disputes and give you some time off to think about things.
--/Mod's comment--

Acro said:

I'm not picking any sides here; I only pick the side of information and thruth and sadly the rules today stand in the way from that truth and are actually doing the opposite of what they were put in place for.

So the people reading this thread only see a part of what has happened; and in so this thread is NOT informative anymore. One might aswell close and delete this thread...

Click to expand...

I think this part of the thread is quite informative - for that very reason; that we are forbidden to see the whole truth.

You/your statement displays that one or more rules, applicable to this thread, is/are inherently broken (provided it's not the actual intention of the rule(s) involved). I therefore find it rather important to leave this thread available, as a testament to this fact.

Perhaps it could provide incentive to a discussion among the one(s?) making the rules, to present and allow the users to comment on their findings? I mean, rules and justification for them obviously should be able to stand up to scrutiny.

(if this suggestion/request brings down a ban-hammer on me for some invented rule 3.141592653989, I'll laugh )

transporting you back from your mothership to tell you "stop this and leave arkadia" ... aehm .. didnt they see you been allready leaving .. ???

and which event did you disrupt .. by offering flights!?!?!

Edit: awww you left out the small info that you allready had some trouble with ark and are probably on their blacklist, so your comments were taken as offence against the event/arkadia.

JohnCapital said:

Consider: Had a true Ark fan, someone who loves that planet and obviously enjoys their time there said "Leave this rubbish event save yourselves" yes, it would have been read differently. But since you always attack them, it's seen as another attack.

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Well, actually, there used to be a lot of people offering rides from Caly to Ark in Twin, event or no, proclaiming that loot was much better on Ark. Quite possibly it is still ongoing. I really can see this as anything more than advertising (possibly false advertising, but still), especially if done in trade chat. I furthermore don't think that any such, even if it was not in trade chat, could really be considered ruining somebodies game.

If PP want to have rules about no "badmouthing" of their events in game, then they should get such a point added to TOS.

I see there is Another problem: Apparently, MA staff can't see on which server you are.

That should be fixed so that annoyances like this is less likely to happen (MA Thinks you're at Planet A, spacestation B etc when you are at planet C.)

Is this an abuse of official power?

Ace,

Above was your question yes?

But what it really was, was a gross attempt to misrepresent and Liable MA/Ark Dev Team by trying to play the fuck fuck game with the PCF Rules, knowing God Damned well that you would make claims that couldn't be proven right or wrong in the forum due to the rules.

You expected that everyone would just accept what u said at value (and many did) instead of actually asking for the logs to see for themselves (few did).

Shame on you. Really, you not only disrupt the game with your little kid bs, but you are affecting real peoples lives. Grow Up.

I don't know what fucking planet your from but, this has been the ONLY PP to have communications regularly with the playerbase and actually respond and deliver.

I don't know who pee'd in your cereal or tied ur panties in a bunch, but really get over it.


We need good PR for this game, all of it, not part of it. Our EVER SHRINKING population depends on it. So you could be a big boy, suck it up and use that energy to promote the game instead of be a dick and we might get more players instead of fewer.


LB

Edit: decided to remove my own comments

I know this is not the popular opinion but in my opinion loot whiners who call up others to stop playing should be temp banned (if you dont like it , it is your opinion, but you shouldnt expect your host to watch you badmouth him in public).

Look at yourself as a taxi driver, you took client to strip club and then stayed there and started shouting that strip club in other end of the town is much better. Strip club owner bouncer decided to threaten you and now you complain.

IMHO you were really rude and i dont see this as one-sided as you described it.

Raven Lunchbox said:

I don't know what fucking planet your from but, this has been the ONLY PP to have communications regularly with the playerbase and actually respond and deliver.

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You have to understand though, that your success on Arkadia during the referenced events has, in the Eyes of the general population, been "above average".

I've spent some time on Rocktropia, and the area where i used to do some runs in (and occasionally get some condition bars in loot window) has been disabled and who knows when it will be enabled (it was level one and level two warewolf mines on the part of Rocktropia you nowdays get "the area you have trie to enter is currently not availible". People who have Went to Rocktropia to hunt Motörhead type of mobs have expressed there frustration that there is none (because the area they were moved to has been rollbacked).

My returns in % there on a certain event mob has been low, and the return % I don't Think is the fault of the planet partner. Though during some of the events, a representative for the planet partner, if not the planet owner himself, has been present. The mob i mean spawns on average once/day so it's not a mob you can kill thousands of to even out the returns (and even if it was possible, the cost for a player to participate is around 200 ped/spawn - and then return more often are at 50% or below than 90%.)

On Rocktropia, I got the feeling the planet partner does what he can do with limited Resources.

Actually though, last weekend oratan events had pretty returns PEDwise. No item for me though. (The weekend Before I looted an (L) longblade at level 20-25 - I'm at level 50+). Last weekend though, after I ran out of ammo, I spend the last hours there with my Embra C1 repairable sword (level 7) I had some PEDs on. (That one I had looted on Rocktropia several months ago).

I have no complaints whatsoever about arkadia staff and the event, it was a good event and they did a hard work to keep it running, I was a bit surpriced they had long Days and only short delays. Good spawns and also help in healing.

If a man sits on a bench in a public park eating his lunch and taking pictures is required to to go somewhere else because kids are playing there, then that is an abuse of power.

If a known convicted child pornographer/rapist sits on the same bench taking pictures of the children play, then you would expect the parents or or authorities to be uncomfortable and ask him to leave. (even if there were no probation restrictions that prevent him from sitting there)

Justified or not, you would have to be a moron to not realize that breaking the rules and Fing with the authorities comes without consequences.

Raven Lunchbox said:

We need good PR for this game, all of it, not part of it.

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Not at all. Not if you want it to sustain. PR is not the solution, it's just a consequence of a good game. It promotes itself if it's good/fair/fun/..., if the service/communication/support is good, ... (be it thru mouth-to-mouth or other consequences ... when it was good, i got people interested, couldn't shut up about it). Instead of making good PR, which will result in a big disappointment for arriving players, use that energy to fix the problems. Everything else is just lies that will end in more discontent players that will cause havoc and it'd be justified. The more PR the more expectations the more disappointment the more problems whatever the form.

On different levels humans are presented with crisis, if MindArk/exploiters/... stick to (old) habits, ... need i say more?

lol

imagine you are inside a dance club and encourage the audience there to go dance and drink elsewhere instead... you will meet with the bouncer - 2 times on your head and after that you get kicked into the parking lot.

dont wonder that they didnt call you a taxi.

Well... I don’t have any further information about what beef George has with Planet Arkadia. Must’ve missed that.

I remember, it hasn’t always been so.

What I do know is that during my last stay on Planet Arkadia Mr Dobson––or at least the person speaking through his avatar––had made it quite clear that certain playing styles and strategies are not looked favourably upon by the Arkadian organization (»unacceptable« being the term used, as I remember).

I also felt disrespected in the way my questions were handled, myself being nothing but polite and constructive.

I haven’t been to Planet Arkadia since, although treasure mining has been introduced in the meantime and I really would like to have a try at that and although there are a number of Arkadian loots I would be interested in obtaining.

Now. In the light that the behaviour of George––and even though he admitted to a hidden agenda of his––has prompted the described actions of the unknown MA official I can understand, considering what is all not working and missing and going not well or even plainly wrong in-game, that ppl might be questioning the priorities set by MA here.

LeeLoo Faith said:

transporting you back from your mothership to tell you "stop this and leave arkadia" ... aehm .. didnt they see you been allready leaving .. ???

and which event did you disrupt .. by offering flights!?!?!

Edit: awww you left out the small info that you allready had some trouble with ark and are probably on their blacklist, so your comments were taken as offence against the event/arkadia.

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Most likely the MA official didn't have a clue where Ace was at and possibly still thought he was at the event still saying that. Warped him there to give him the warning and to tell him to leave. That was probably done to show how serious the warning was. I think though that they would only temp ban if they did anything at all.

Hi,

At first:

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to JohnCapital again.

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This is a great Mod post, IMHO, and I'm very pleasantly surprised by it.

For the people not reading this other forum, imagine you'd be enjoying an event on Caly, and would hear me spamming the trade channel over and over, for 40 minutes:

EU_Fiction said:

[Trade] [Xandra] offering warp flight to Arkadia
[Trade] [Xandra] Leave this rubbish event save yourselves
[Trade] [Xandra] warp to Arkadia
[Trade] [Xandra] i heard loot is better on Arkadia
[Local] [Somebody] loot is shit everywhere
[Trade] [Xandra] even worse on Caly
[Trade] [Xandra] offering warp flight to Arkadia
[Trade] [Xandra] Easy way to save yourselves
[Trade] [Xandra] Easy way to save yourselves....Warp to Arkadia ....<<offering warp flight to Arkadia>>
____________________[... repeat this ad nauseam, for 40 minutes ...]_________________

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And if an official comes by, reprimanding me politely, I enrage:

EU_Fiction said:

[MindArk Official Assistant] Please refrain from telling people to leave Calypso for other planets, and that "This event is crap"
[Xandra] I find that a strange request
[MindArk Official Assistant] how so?
[MindArk Official Assistant] you are intentionally badmouthing the event, and encouraging other users to leave for other planets.
[Xandra] i believe i have been wrongly treated by planet calypso
[Xandra] as such i have a right to exact revenge
[Xandra] so they are free to abuse

Click to expand...

I now start a discussion about the fine print of the EULA, for sure. And after a 30 min discussion, where I openly confess to be on my holy crusade of revenge against Planet Calypso, this most patient MA Official still doesn't ban me, mute me, wizkill me, instead offers various ways to get me outta here, even to beam me back to Arkadia!

Wouldn't you regard this official as ways too wimpy?

Have fun!

PS: The quotes from "EU_fiction" are based on what is known yet from this story. They have been condensed, lot's of not important lines have been omitted, and the player and planet names have been altered. I confess to be pro-Arkadia in this struggle, but I tried to give a most exact example of the OP's problem.

Hope I didn't violate any rules, where's my web site saver? ...

1. You have your personal war with Ark therefore you are biased.
2. Your comments were bashing event (even if they were unnintentional)
3. Official assistant behavior was at least silly (especialy conducting that in game). Shall be PM/Mail with warn ,then temp ban if they intend to do so for real.
4. Someone driving Official assistant avatar had drink at work or had bad sex day before.
5. Temp ban in such situation would be prcedence and crosing new frontiers by MA stuff ( and related)
6. This event must have been total crap if one pilot chat add make Official stuff shit their pants for ruining it and make them using threats (loooool)
7. Expecting Ark authorities to receive your actions as friendly is same useles as me trying get answer from Cally support

It's not a crime to dislike something or someone. Acting on that dislike and doing things which are allowed is also not a crime. It is also not a crime to be honest and state you dislike someone/something.


Whoever this official was he/she was way out of line. From transporting me unnecessarily, most likely lies about reading chat log as well as number of complaints received and most importantly threatening me with a temp ban for no justified reason.


Some of you can keep trying to twist the facts as much as you like and presenting this as something positive. It's not going to alter the facts and all your "public relations"/"spin doctoring" are not going to change the reality.

In fact all it does it show you as something akin to "thought police". I have no idea how you square it up in your mind. I mean it's not enough to be dictators now you have to go the extra mile and disallow freedom to think. Which I would have thought is a universal right for each and ever one of us.

"Thought Police"?

Please review how many of those in this thread who are against your actions have also said negative things against MA and/or PP (including me).

That you are negative against Ark isn't the problem. (Other than my previous mod comment about forum rules against personal disputes)

It's that you punch those you dislike, then come here crying when they punch back.

Solo4711 said:

lol

imagine you are inside a dance club and encourage the audience there to go dance and drink elsewhere instead... you will meet with the bouncer - 2 times on your head and after that you get kicked into the parking lot.

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A somewhat flawed analogy, as in your example it would have to end in the bouncer threatening to deport the disgruntled guest without any means of 'due process'.

Let's face it, MA plays "state" (nation) here with EU. They are the dictator. Threatening to ban you from EU is the equivalent of threatening to declare you persona non grata from a nation (you have long supported and paid a lot of money to) and see all your possessions confiscated, had it been an IRL situation. I believe most sane people would consider such a threat completely unacceptable unless in extraordinary conditions, such as threats against the state or its privileged upper class (the peons no state ever cares about).

You may claim it's in their right, as they are dictators, but I'd like to see you on that opposing end of that gun and still defend it.

tamlin said:

A somewhat flawed analogy, as in your example it would have to end in the bouncer threatening to deport the disgruntled guest without any means of 'due process'.

Let's face it, MA plays "state" (nation) here with EU. They are the dictator. Threatening to ban you from EU is the equivalent of threatening to declare you persona non grata from a nation (you have long supported and paid a lot of money to) and see all your possessions confiscated, had it been an IRL situation. I believe most sane people would consider such a threat completely unacceptable unless in extraordinary conditions, such as threats against the state or its privileged upper class (the peons no state ever cares about).

You may claim it's in their right, as they are dictators, but I'd like to see you on that opposing end of that gun and still defend it.

Click to expand...

actually, that's exactly how a bouncer works. there is no due process in a nightclub... and that's how it is... the stipper says u touched her.. your out the door, u start talking shit, your out the door. They don't have time for beurcratic bullshit.

LB

Raven Lunchbox said:

actually, that's exactly how a bouncer works. there is no due process in a nightclub... and that's how it is... the stipper says u touched her.. your out the door, u start talking shit, your out the door. They don't have time for beurcratic bullshit.

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Except, in EU you may have a noticable financial investment. You may be even a business partner to the nation (or in your flawed attempt of analogy, the nighclub).

You honestly think a lowly bouncer would, without repercussions, be allowed to not only physically throw out a part owner, but also steal his share in the company and ban him from ever returning? I understand you are american.

Personally I think such a bouncer wold find himself ending up with his genitalia in his windpipe at the bottom of a dumpster, waiting for transportation to a recycling plant. Then again, I'm known to sometimes be a too kind person.

SHY said:

But anyways... On topic...
When i reported a player once to Support i received this reply:


"It is very regrettable that there are participants that use bad language. However, we have no means to control communication within the virtual universe. Entropia Universe is designed to resemble the real world in as many ways as possible. As in real life, not all people you meet will be honest and well behaved."

Maybe this rule does not count for this "Official" from what i have read. Either he can bend the rules like a spoon in the Matrix or he did put in too much of his own personal feelings and love for this planet reacting like this.

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If I compare how MA reacted in that case and their reaction in this one they don't quite match do they? Couldn't someone dislike a real life event as well? If they didn't interfere in SHY's why in this one and if in this one why not in SHY's case?

EonNeoNeon said:

If they didn't interfere in SHY's why in this one and if in this one why not in SHY's case?

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I'm not familiar with SHY's case, but I would imagine MA stepped in on this case because of:

1. The avatar involved has a long history of harassment verging on libel against this particular planet partner.
2. The avatar in question chose to do the harassment in question in the presence of said planet partner and employees of that planet partner.
3. In addition to support cases by players, the planet partner most likely reported the harassment to MA directly.