In and of itself not something I would worry about. But of late it almost seems like Bioware or EA or LA or whoever is pulling the strings is going off the rails. Rather than be interested in getting the best possible experience out we hear the devs love WoW and look to that as what an MMO should be and they want to control advertising in fan sites.
It feels like someone has 300 million pages of broken code and has finally snapped and is more interested in proping up the competition and monoploising advertising. Someone really needs to rein it in and say lets get an amazing game out there and who cares if some site is advertising or what WoW is up to.
Did SOE and Lucas Arts do this with SWG ? if not then perhaps there is something else we aren't seeing because SWG was a Lucas Arts licensed product too.
It's a bit of a prick move by Bioware. But it seems like more of a scare tactic than anything else.
Most of the info about the game I have gotten directly from Bioware anyways. It's not like fansites have been giving out their own press releases on SWTOR.
It is a STANDARD move that everyone does.
Else, everyone will become a 'fansite', have direct access to the dev team and make money off of it.
You've effectively killed the 'media' sites.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Lets throw something out there. I've run fansites for Star Wars games for over a decade. From galacticbattles, SWGalaxies.net, Empireatwar.net and now KOTORMMO.net.
Over this period of time, I have found LucasArts (because that is who I dealt with directly) to be extremely accommodating for requests - I had live developer chats, exclusive interviews, exclusive screenshots, reveals etc and in no way were they heavy handed.
As those who do it know, when you embark on creating a fansite for a game you like, you do it because of your passion for that game and you shouldnt make any financial gains. You sometimes get other rewards, like access to free copies of the game, free play time(in the case of Galaxies) and access to events. This more than offsets any cost from hosting. Besides, hosting costs is very low in todays world.
I also received the email from Bioware but KOTORMMO .net doesnt have any kind of advertising today or will it in the future. Personally, I have found adverts too intrusive on the content.
All I can say is, that if you dont want to shell out the small expense, then dont make a fansite.
Indeed. There is a huge difference between Specialist press, such as IGN/Gamespot and even print - compared to fansites. Essentially, fansites simply do not have the traffic for a start and secondly, you will only visit a fansite if you like that game. The specialist press provide an arena to show off a product to a much wider audience.
It's a bit of a prick move by Bioware. But it seems like more of a scare tactic than anything else.
Most of the info about the game I have gotten directly from Bioware anyways. It's not like fansites have been giving out their own press releases on SWTOR.
It is a STANDARD move that everyone does.
Else, everyone will become a 'fansite', have direct access to the dev team and make money off of it.
You've effectively killed the 'media' sites.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
"Media" sites are overrated. Most of them give every game that comes out a glowing review just to make some money on advertising.
Take Earthrise for example. The game is terrible. I haven't played a game that bad that I can remember. Yet it gets decent reviews from almost every game site. Most fail to mention that some users still haven't got working keys. Or that the lag is horrendous. Or that you can Desync from the server and have to constantly relog.
Besides with the internet media is changing. You don't need to be a huge company anymore to be 'media". All you need is a website and the ability to write.
It's a bit of a prick move by Bioware. But it seems like more of a scare tactic than anything else.
Most of the info about the game I have gotten directly from Bioware anyways. It's not like fansites have been giving out their own press releases on SWTOR.
It is a STANDARD move that everyone does.
Else, everyone will become a 'fansite', have direct access to the dev team and make money off of it.
You've effectively killed the 'media' sites.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
"Media" sites are overrated. Most of them give every game that comes out a glowing review just to make some money on advertising.
Take Earthrise for example. The game is terrible. I haven't played a game that bad that I can remember. Yet it gets decent reviews from almost every game site. Most fail to mention that some users still haven't got working keys. Or that the lag is horrendous. Or that you can Desync from the server and have to constantly relog.
Besides with the internet media is changing. You don't need to be a huge company anymore to be 'media". All you need is a website and the ability to write.
So you think fansites give better reviews?
By "Media", he's saying sites like Gamespot and IGN cover HUNDREDS of games. Seriously, do you think all they talk about is TOR, like a TOR fansite would? That's the difference.
And overall, I agree with jpnz. Was this move really necessary? No, but was it evil and unjustified? No. It just happened. Hosting doesn't cost that much nowadays and if you're going to make a website, you should know how much it's going to hurt your wallet. If you still do it because you're passionate about the game - the whole point of a fansite - you have nothing to worry about.
I don't have much use for fansites and don't visit them. Frankly, I'm kind of glad that Bioware and LucasArts are taking this stance. Fansites are just that, sites for fans, who often start up sites to get preferential treatment from developers when it comes to swag and beta access. Shoddy developers use this to sell their game. How many of the recent MMO failures were helped along by self-serving "fans" heaping lavish amounts of praise on a game that really needed work?
I like basing my decisions on what the company is willing to show about itself, not what some fan with beta access for himself and his friends gushes out. There's money involved here. I'm not a fan, I'm a customer.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II "People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
I too fall into the "Don't mind this a bit" category. It's a trade off that fan sites have to decide on in the very beginning and after reading the agreements for 17 different games that put out fan site kits, I found that all but one had this same rule about not making money off the fan site. My guess is that the owners of this game feel you are getting some really neat graphics for your site for free, so you can't make money off them.
Hey maybe BioWare, and all the other companies I found out there with this agreement, should make fan sites PAY for those kits instead and then allow the sites to charge for advertising and usage of the site? Hmmm . . . something to think about anyways.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
It's a bit of a prick move by Bioware. But it seems like more of a scare tactic than anything else.
Most of the info about the game I have gotten directly from Bioware anyways. It's not like fansites have been giving out their own press releases on SWTOR.
It is a STANDARD move that everyone does.
Else, everyone will become a 'fansite', have direct access to the dev team and make money off of it.
You've effectively killed the 'media' sites.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
"Media" sites are overrated. Most of them give every game that comes out a glowing review just to make some money on advertising.
Take Earthrise for example. The game is terrible. I haven't played a game that bad that I can remember. Yet it gets decent reviews from almost every game site. Most fail to mention that some users still haven't got working keys. Or that the lag is horrendous. Or that you can Desync from the server and have to constantly relog.
Besides with the internet media is changing. You don't need to be a huge company anymore to be 'media". All you need is a website and the ability to write.
And what does this post have to do with anything that is being discussed?
It doesn't matter how 'easy' it is to be 'media'. It is treated differently and always will be. You can't be 'media' AND 'fansite'. This is a STANDARD move that everyone (including industries like Movies, Music) does.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
As im hoping for a massive fail of this game I feel this as a good move... The less BioWare suport their player base the better... Lets keep our finger crossed they keep making retard moves like this..
That's a very mature and grown up perspective you have there.
Now , why should fansites be allowed to profit purely from someone elses ideas? Hardly seems fair.
This move is most likely to prevent production of unlicensed content, merchandise and so on. In addition why should I (the consumer) have to pay to find something out about the game when other sites are telling me the same things for free?
Yes I suppose it's a choice, if I don't want to pay I don't have to, but I am glad BW and co are putting something like this in place to prevent enterprising individuals from taking advantage of people.
Originally posted by Pugsleyxxx Originally posted by Isane
Originally posted by Pugsleyxxx
Originally posted by gamer1982o39
eh seems reasonable to me
Really? Then the fact Bioware is continuing to let other sites have the same info, like Gamestop and IGN, while allowing them to run ads must seem unreasonable? It is very reasonable... If a site is more generalist then they classify a Media and hey Ho...... If a site is dedicated to their MMO then Bioware/Lucas Arts don't really want people profiteering of of the back of all their hard work and I don't blame them.... Something for nothing seems unreasonable....... 'Something for nothing....'? It's obvious you don't know anything about running a fan-site... These sutes are run by fans, unasked and unthanked, who pull together whole communities whose sole function is, in effect, to create marketing and support for a game in which they have no financial interest whatsoever. The fact that some of them try to cover their costs - including hosting, design, etc - through small advertising is eminently reasonable to anyone sane.
They aren't saying you can't advertise on your fan site dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic. They're saying that if you sign an agreement to not receive any income from outside sources for your fansite, you'll receive exclusive information that will be unavailable anywhere else. You'll receive that information directly from Bioware.
Sites that do not want that exclusive information can advertise all they want to. Sites that do want to receive that exclusive information will not be able to rent space to advertisers. That's the difference and the agreement.
Stop acting like Bioware is trying to squash fansites or free speech.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
As im hoping for a massive fail of this game I feel this as a good move... The less BioWare suport their player base the better... Lets keep our finger crossed they keep making retard moves like this..
That's a very mature and grown up perspective you have there.
Now , why should fansites be allowed to profit purely from someone elses ideas? Hardly seems fair.
This move is most likely to prevent production of unlicensed content, merchandise and so on. In addition why should I (the consumer) have to pay to find something out about the game when other sites are telling me the same things for free?
Yes I suppose it's a choice, if I don't want to pay I don't have to, but I am glad BW and co are putting something like this in place to prevent enterprising individuals from taking advantage of people.
I honestly don´t know what the problem here is with people ?
No you cannot host a website dedicated to swtor and have tons of pron advertisement or buy viagra advertisement ... (extreme case since zlayer is going extreme route) ...
Thats logical to all isn´t it ?
Now you make a swtor fansite , paste all kind of rift wow insert other mmo games advertisement on it , still expect exclusief materials ..... yay right Games Workshop already stopped that 4 years ago .
So if you want to moan about these rules , they were in place 4 years ago with games and workshop .
If a fan wants income and get exclusief support from bioware with fan kit etc ... then they should play according to Lucas Arts rules , one of the problem with registrated IP MMO games is the no mod policy .
Since visual Mods can change a excisting merchandise into something rubbishe .
Honestly yes it stinks to host a fansite pay all the expenses without getting anything in return .
But then again sooner or later the fansite might become like MMO Champion (blizzard sponsored site) thats the risk you take and the game you play .
They aren't saying you can't advertise on your fan site dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic. They're saying that if you sign an agreement to not receive any income from outside sources for your fansite, you'll receive exclusive information that will be unavailable anywhere else. You'll receive that information directly from Bioware.
Sites that do not want that exclusive information can advertise all they want to. Sites that do want to receive that exclusive information will not be able to rent space to advertisers. That's the difference and the agreement.
Stop acting like Bioware is trying to squash fansites or free speech.
Thank you for clearing that up. With that information it doesn't sound anywhere near as bad as the OP and others are making it sound.
Really? Then the fact Bioware is continuing to let other sites have the same info, like Gamestop and IGN, while allowing them to run ads must seem unreasonable?
It is very reasonable... If a site is more generalist then they classify as Media and hey Ho......
If a site is dedicated to their MMO then Bioware/Lucas Arts don't really want people profiteering off of the back of all their hard work and I don't blame them....
Something for nothing seems unreasonable.......
When a fansite promotes itself, it also promotes the game it is dedicated to. Not to mention creating an option for another community to be built up around that game. The game company gets a ton of exposure in return from fan sites.
But it doesn't suprise me at all that BW/Lucas/whomever are putting the kibosh on this practice. I hope they spend as much time polishing their game as they do polishing their jackboots. Strangling everyone else so they can maintain the tightest possible grip on the fanbase is hardly a surprise. Emperor Palpatine would be proud.
Just another reason these jackals can go hang, as far as I'm concerned.
Comments
Very strange move.
In and of itself not something I would worry about. But of late it almost seems like Bioware or EA or LA or whoever is pulling the strings is going off the rails. Rather than be interested in getting the best possible experience out we hear the devs love WoW and look to that as what an MMO should be and they want to control advertising in fan sites.
It feels like someone has 300 million pages of broken code and has finally snapped and is more interested in proping up the competition and monoploising advertising. Someone really needs to rein it in and say lets get an amazing game out there and who cares if some site is advertising or what WoW is up to.
Did SOE and Lucas Arts do this with SWG ? if not then perhaps there is something else we aren't seeing because SWG was a Lucas Arts licensed product too.
It is a STANDARD move that everyone does.
Else, everyone will become a 'fansite', have direct access to the dev team and make money off of it.
You've effectively killed the 'media' sites.
You can't have your cake and eat it too.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I agree with this dude!!
how much does it cost to host a fansite anyway?
I couldt care less. There will be fansites just fewer of em, that aint a bad thing at all.
Exactly, if they don't want to take what little cost there is without turning a profit, then I suggest a quote:
"Condolences. The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose."
If people love and want to help, they will get direct access to the devs (within reason). (aka the fansite)
If people want to make money (aka the Media) you have to go through a different avenue with legal stuff but no direct access to the devs.
Simple isn't it?
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
*looks at his posts. Searches for 'much much worse' or anything like it*
Sorry, you seem to be replying to something else. Did you mis-quote?
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
There isn't much to go back on.
This was a troll article by some media outlet.
As I said before, Fansites and media operate under different 'agreements' and always have.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Indeed. There is a huge difference between Specialist press, such as IGN/Gamespot and even print - compared to fansites. Essentially, fansites simply do not have the traffic for a start and secondly, you will only visit a fansite if you like that game. The specialist press provide an arena to show off a product to a much wider audience.
get your 7 day FREE sub to SWTOR
http://www.swtor.com/r/7DDKjQ
"Media" sites are overrated. Most of them give every game that comes out a glowing review just to make some money on advertising.
Take Earthrise for example. The game is terrible. I haven't played a game that bad that I can remember. Yet it gets decent reviews from almost every game site. Most fail to mention that some users still haven't got working keys. Or that the lag is horrendous. Or that you can Desync from the server and have to constantly relog.
Besides with the internet media is changing. You don't need to be a huge company anymore to be 'media". All you need is a website and the ability to write.
So you think fansites give better reviews?
By "Media", he's saying sites like Gamespot and IGN cover HUNDREDS of games. Seriously, do you think all they talk about is TOR, like a TOR fansite would? That's the difference.
And overall, I agree with jpnz. Was this move really necessary? No, but was it evil and unjustified? No. It just happened. Hosting doesn't cost that much nowadays and if you're going to make a website, you should know how much it's going to hurt your wallet. If you still do it because you're passionate about the game - the whole point of a fansite - you have nothing to worry about.
Create a fan page on Facebook. It's all free and you can post all the pictures,videos and information that you want on the game.
Currently Playing: World of Warcraft
I don't have much use for fansites and don't visit them. Frankly, I'm kind of glad that Bioware and LucasArts are taking this stance. Fansites are just that, sites for fans, who often start up sites to get preferential treatment from developers when it comes to swag and beta access. Shoddy developers use this to sell their game. How many of the recent MMO failures were helped along by self-serving "fans" heaping lavish amounts of praise on a game that really needed work?
I like basing my decisions on what the company is willing to show about itself, not what some fan with beta access for himself and his friends gushes out. There's money involved here. I'm not a fan, I'm a customer.
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
I too fall into the "Don't mind this a bit" category. It's a trade off that fan sites have to decide on in the very beginning and after reading the agreements for 17 different games that put out fan site kits, I found that all but one had this same rule about not making money off the fan site. My guess is that the owners of this game feel you are getting some really neat graphics for your site for free, so you can't make money off them.
Hey maybe BioWare, and all the other companies I found out there with this agreement, should make fan sites PAY for those kits instead and then allow the sites to charge for advertising and usage of the site? Hmmm . . . something to think about anyways.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
not a smart move on bioware's part. the dark side of the force has strong influence over this one.
And what does this post have to do with anything that is being discussed?
It doesn't matter how 'easy' it is to be 'media'. It is treated differently and always will be. You can't be 'media' AND 'fansite'. This is a STANDARD move that everyone (including industries like Movies, Music) does.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Hah, they won't be giving exclusive stuff to fansites that make $$$ off ads...
Exclusives like:the 4th pillar,and "we can't talk about it yet".
That's a very mature and grown up perspective you have there.
Now , why should fansites be allowed to profit purely from someone elses ideas? Hardly seems fair.
This move is most likely to prevent production of unlicensed content, merchandise and so on. In addition why should I (the consumer) have to pay to find something out about the game when other sites are telling me the same things for free?
Yes I suppose it's a choice, if I don't want to pay I don't have to, but I am glad BW and co are putting something like this in place to prevent enterprising individuals from taking advantage of people.
Maybe the fansites like it?
In Bioware we trust!
It is very reasonable... If a site is more generalist then they classify a Media and hey Ho......
If a site is dedicated to their MMO then Bioware/Lucas Arts don't really want people profiteering of of the back of all their hard work and I don't blame them....
Something for nothing seems unreasonable.......
'Something for nothing....'?
It's obvious you don't know anything about running a fan-site...
These sutes are run by fans, unasked and unthanked, who pull together whole communities whose sole function is, in effect, to create marketing and support for a game in which they have no financial interest whatsoever. The fact that some of them try to cover their costs - including hosting, design, etc - through small advertising is eminently reasonable to anyone sane.
They aren't saying you can't advertise on your fan site dedicated to Star Wars: The Old Republic. They're saying that if you sign an agreement to not receive any income from outside sources for your fansite, you'll receive exclusive information that will be unavailable anywhere else. You'll receive that information directly from Bioware.
Sites that do not want that exclusive information can advertise all they want to. Sites that do want to receive that exclusive information will not be able to rent space to advertisers. That's the difference and the agreement.
Stop acting like Bioware is trying to squash fansites or free speech.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I honestly don´t know what the problem here is with people ?
No you cannot host a website dedicated to swtor and have tons of pron advertisement or buy viagra advertisement ... (extreme case since zlayer is going extreme route) ...
Thats logical to all isn´t it ?
Now you make a swtor fansite , paste all kind of rift wow insert other mmo games advertisement on it , still expect exclusief materials ..... yay right Games Workshop already stopped that 4 years ago .
So if you want to moan about these rules , they were in place 4 years ago with games and workshop .
If a fan wants income and get exclusief support from bioware with fan kit etc ... then they should play according to Lucas Arts rules , one of the problem with registrated IP MMO games is the no mod policy .
Since visual Mods can change a excisting merchandise into something rubbishe .
Honestly yes it stinks to host a fansite pay all the expenses without getting anything in return .
But then again sooner or later the fansite might become like MMO Champion (blizzard sponsored site) thats the risk you take and the game you play .
Thank you for clearing that up. With that information it doesn't sound anywhere near as bad as the OP and others are making it sound.
Hmm so that means MMORPG needs to pull all the star wars stuff off this site?
When a fansite promotes itself, it also promotes the game it is dedicated to. Not to mention creating an option for another community to be built up around that game. The game company gets a ton of exposure in return from fan sites.
But it doesn't suprise me at all that BW/Lucas/whomever are putting the kibosh on this practice. I hope they spend as much time polishing their game as they do polishing their jackboots. Strangling everyone else so they can maintain the tightest possible grip on the fanbase is hardly a surprise. Emperor Palpatine would be proud.
Just another reason these jackals can go hang, as far as I'm concerned.