Serica, aren't you the News Editor in the revived PCF Newsroom? It seems like something you should disclose and not hide to be accurate. You have a stake in getting news early, which means of course you are against someone else doing it. Unfortunately you chose to attack the person who could give that news to you and hide your stake in the matter. That hardly seems like a great move. I wish you the best of luck in your new position though and please do keep an eye on PR Newswire for the latest news.
I was all done with this thread until someone linked me this one. Now I'm forced to reply once more.
I have several points to cover:
First of all, do you know WHY Serica is the News Editor in the revived PCF Newsroom? She only recently became a moderator on PCF to begin with, after all. She is the editor because she is known throughout the game as being one of the most fair players that there is. Her personal integrity is beyond reproach. When PCF decided to take on new mods, the existing mods suggested who would be the most appropriate players for the task, and her name was on top of the list.
For you to imply that her only motivation for objecting to a player having access to market-sensitive information is that she wanted to break the story herself is ignorant, at best. I, for one, am offended that anyone would even have the gall to make such a statement. But to top it off with a snide remark about "...please do keep an eye on PR Newswire for the latest news" is the height of insolence.
If you are the President of the agency that MindArk and Planet Calypso use for public relations, it doesn't surprise me that Entropia Universe is held in such low regard among the gaming community.
Secondly, regarding MS9 receiving this information ahead of the rest of the players...
I will say that I've known MS9 for many years in Entropia, and I consider her a friend. I don't personally believe that she would try to profit on any information given. But this misses the point entirely.
For one thing, she does not work alone. Any member of her team could use any information to profit (or avoid loss). Also, any one of them could make a casual remark to a friend, who could then simply deduce the information. But most importantly, it sets a precedent. If this now, what next?
Thirdly, when Rocktropia first was launched, MS9 spent a considerable amount of energy championing the fact that Neverdie should not be allowed to use his own personal avatar in the game, due to the fact that he would have access to information that nobody else had. And I would say, rightly so. And while I have the utmost respect for MS9, for her to accept information now ahead of its release to the playerbase in general is, in my opinion, inappropriate.
Fourthly, there is the matter of popular perception. For many years, Mindark has suffered from the perception that some avatars are favored over others. That some players get special treatment or information. This arrangement only serves to further that perception. And when this arrangement comes from the President of the agency that MindArk and Planet Calypso use for public relations, it demonstrates incompetence in public relations, to say the least.
Fifthly (yes, I'm a redneck. I'm allowed to use words such as Fifthly), you state that "Mindstar is not getting any type of unfair player advantage here..." and this is not true. Mindstar does, in fact, get unfair advantage, as hers is not the only news service in the game. By this arrangement, she gets an unfair play advantage over PCF (as demonstrated by the quote at the beginning of this reply), over AHR (AtlasHavenRadio), over NR (Normandie Radio), and over any other news service that may come along in the future. Not everyone plays this game the same, and everyone has their own motivations in-game.
In summary, if you want to give MS9 a "scoop" on a story, do so by releasing it to the forum, to the wires, or wherever you like, and then help her out by personally flagging it to her. That will give her plenty of time to be the first to break the story, and using her proven writing talent, she will no doubt put out the best story as well. As long as she is a player in Entropia Universe, however, I maintain that giving her inside information before it is released to the rest of the players is inappropriate.
***Disclosures***
Serica is the leader of the Antipodean Army society, of which I am a member. The reason I am a member is because she is the only society leader in the game whom I would trust enough to lead a society I would join. Were I not a member, I would still defend her name, but I would do so with a lot more swear words.
I am a former member of AHR, as is MS9. I left on good terms almost a year ago, and I frequently interact with their current staff, although I did not talk to any of them about this thread, about CLD's, or about your disrespect to Serica before I posted here.
My time in AHR overlapped with Mel's time there (from NR) and I am on good terms with him, and consider him a friend in game. I also consider many of the NR DJ's to be friends.
I was also in the running to become a moderator on PCF. I consider John Capital to be a friend in game.
711 was instrumental in the launch of AHR.
I gave input into the formation of the PCF Newsroom before it was revived. This input was limited to structure and hierarchy of the newsroom staff, and I have no input as to content or sourcing of material for stories in the Newsroom.
When I left AHR, I began making a station of my own, with a scope unheard of in EU. My entire team has worked full time for almost a year to build this station, and when launched it will be the largest project ever done in Entropia Universe, short of planet partners building new planets.
I trust David from Arkadia's judgement, and as such, I think that MS9 is a good source for you to use for writing news stories and disseminating them to the Entropia playerbase, but I disagree with your view that it is appropriate to give her any information at all that would affect prices within the Universe, especially with expensive items, such as CLD's.
Entropia's grapevine is unlike any other, and every piece of information is always available if you are plugged into the grapevine, because regardless of intentions, people DO talk. People ALWAYS talk. Then other people use that information to deduce what is happening. Sometimes it is wrong, but more often, it is right. Would you like an example? Right now, the grapevine says that the Next Island investors are the ones who bought the CLD's. The logical deduction is that one or more of the Next Island investors pulled out, and triggered a buyback clause. 1150 is the midpoint between the original 1000 and the 1300 ped that the CLD's were going for before all of this happened. The logical conclusion, therefore, is that the buyback clause had a price stipulation to be the midpoint between original and current market price.
People ALWAYS talk.
