Snakes On An Industry

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A chum of mine received the following letter and posthaste sent it to me...

"My name is Erasmus -- I am the manager of Guild Relations for Sony Online Entertainment. Our EverQuest II team has been doing some really great things in the world of Norrath, and we are inviting a few select guilds to play and give us some feedback on the improvements that they have made.

Making EverQuest II the best MMO game in the world has been our passion - and we are constantly tweaking the game to make it better and more fun. In the past, we've received great input from gamers like you on how and where to improve. Now, it's your turn -- we want your guild's feedback and opinions.

If your guild would like to participate in our focus testing, please let me know. You and your guild mates can drop me an email at GuildRelations@soe.sony.com -- include your email, and the name of your guild. Give me a day or so to process the email, and I'll send you and your guild mates the link to download the client, plus a key that will give you 30 days of free play. Once the 30 days are up, you are welcome to continue playing, at your cost. You and your guild mates are welcome to drop me an email with your comments, insight, and feedback -- we want to hear from you.

We appreciate your consideration, and hope to see you in EverQuest II in the near future!

Erasmus
Manager,Guild Relations
Sony Online Entertainment
guildrelations@soe.sony.com
http://www.station.sony.com"

On the surface this seems like a nice thing to do. Fire off a letter to some EverQuest or Star Wars Galaxies guilds and ask them to try out EQ2 for free for 30 days to give comment on what could be improved. Bravo Sony! Of course, if that was the case you wouldn't be reading this in Loading... Sony didn't actually mail these guild leaders, they went to Guild Portal (a site that competes directly with their own "Players" guild product) and spammed the guild leaders via Guild Portal's internal messaging system.

It gets better...

They didn't spam customers of their own games. They spammed World of Warcraft guild leaders. People who would otherwise not have any exposure to the "Players" guild system at Sony.

This move deserves an award. SoE wins and becomes the the current title holder to the "Putting the "Ass" in Massively Multiplayer" award.
We still love you SoE and your current crop of Gods and Heroes media are simply stunning. Don't get me wrong. We like SoE in these parts and we are foaming at the mouth waiting for Gods and Heroes and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes to launch. Heck, I'm even going to fire up a character on the EverQuest progression servers and relive my favourite game. Still, bad form on the mass mailing. It makes you look like snakes. Snakes on a plane... or as Coyote so eloquently put it, Snakes On A Plane Of Fear.

Make your mark. Mark your territory. Post a comment. If you are shy you can E-Mail me.
Every good guild needs a home. A home free of gold ads, secondary market farmers. Look no further than GuildPortal.com.

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As always, thanks for visiting TenTonHammer.com,
-- John "Boomjack" Hoskin

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