Hey, Everybody, It’s Time For Reader Mail!

17Apr/08Off

Hey, Everybody, It’s Time For Reader Mail!

From: Thomas Cheng [thomas.cheng@...]
To: Scott Jennings [my work email address, NOT the one posted here]
Subject: brokentoys.org's blog
Sent: 4/17/08 6:17 PM

Hello,

I noticed on your website that you have blog posts that relate to the MMO gaming industry. We are in the virtual currency industry where MMO gamers buy and sell virtual items such as weapons and gold for popular online games such as World of Warcraft. We are wondering if you would be interested in posting a blog about the virtual currency industry, which is also known as RMT (Real Money Trading) which includes topics such as gold farming. We would be happy to supply you with any information from within the industry provided that you mention our company so that we can get some publicity.

Please let me know if you are interested. We have press releases ready and can provide you with additional information.

Regards,

Alex Chang
[company name, US postal address, phone number, fax number and email removed]

To: Clueless In RMT-Land

Hello,

I am your enemy, not your friend.

Regards,

Raving Ass With A Blog You Clearly Don't Read That You Emailed At Work

Filed under: Dude, RMT, _ Comments Off

Comments (41) Trackbacks (1) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

gawain the blind
April 17th, 2008 - 18:44

heh. For great justice!
J.
April 17th, 2008 - 19:12

If you really were their enemy, you’d be posting all that contact info you redacted.
Rasputin
April 17th, 2008 - 19:30

Nah, he doesn’t want to give them any free publicity.
J.
April 17th, 2008 - 20:01

Fax machines aren’t for publicity anymore.
Athryn
April 17th, 2008 - 20:03

Thumbs up!
HitNRun
April 17th, 2008 - 20:19

Well, at least you were kind enough to clarify for him.
Nicademus
April 17th, 2008 - 21:30

I think you’re being short sighted here. You have your own game. Just think of all the RMT sales you could make on the side with loot you create out of thin air. You can be an RMT legend!
Ravenhawk
April 17th, 2008 - 22:00

You’re so civil and pleasant with your enemies.
Good sportsmanship! Vorpal swords at dawn and all that, wot wot.

But seriously…
If you’re ever feeling sadistic, just release some of that contact info.
They’ll be spammed to death with much excellence and the occasional smat of pron.
Elkestra
April 18th, 2008 - 00:44

I see he has an interchangeable name as well – sent from Thomas Cheng, but signed by Alex Chang.
Boon
April 18th, 2008 - 00:52

Just classic
Kayn
April 18th, 2008 - 02:24

On the bright side, this probably means your Google Pagerank increased to the point you’re now a target for spammers who think emailing the same email to the top 100 google results for “MMO BLOG” will get them publicity…
Artheos
April 18th, 2008 - 03:20

Tobold fell for this one…
D-0ne
April 18th, 2008 - 05:04

Scott Jennings is a good person.
Merlyn
April 18th, 2008 - 05:05

….you have got to be kidding me….he can’t be that stupid.
Ironwood
April 18th, 2008 - 05:09

Well Done. Seriously well done.
Drakks
April 18th, 2008 - 08:24

This is just the beginning for you.

EA’s email (with attached check) should be arriving shortly describing how you should describe their latest game, and your opinion on it.
Rae
April 18th, 2008 - 08:47

Clearly, there’s only one solution: We must all span him with ridiculous numbers of phony BUY OUR GOLD ads. An occasional ‘enlargement’ add for spice would also be appropriate.
kalain
April 18th, 2008 - 08:56

Dude, there’s an RMT blog lobby?
Vandermint
April 18th, 2008 - 09:07

I’m confused–was he offering you anything other than “information”? Money? A Belt of Extreme Smithing? Something?

You should have strung him along a while.
Paul
April 18th, 2008 - 09:35

I would have asked him what his real name was. He seems to be confused.
wowpanda
April 18th, 2008 - 09:38

A federal court will declared your actions unconstitutional and force you to publish their contact info

Just kidding. Must be extremely annoying when it is very clear the guy who sent the email doesn’t do the homework and read some of the blog’s contents.
Mr_PeaCH
April 18th, 2008 - 09:59

Between the Cheng/Chang mixup and the forthright-but-wrong style of prose, can anyone doubt that the Chinese Goldfarmers Collective #419 is going Nigerian Scam on ol’ Lum?
Grumble
April 18th, 2008 - 10:52

Nicademus :
Do you recall GM Darwin? He already made that Legend.
Matthew
April 18th, 2008 - 11:26

No one ever suggested marketing guys were smart…
Vasagi
April 18th, 2008 - 14:00

LOL
Ed
April 18th, 2008 - 14:43

LOL. Just lol.
hellfire
April 18th, 2008 - 15:59

Whatever. As if you’ve never forgotten your name in the middle of an email before. I guess this blog should really be called ROCKET SURGEONS ONLY!
Boanerges
April 18th, 2008 - 18:19

Actually, he hard to turn them down because of conflict of interest. As someone who has had to work on things that are antithetical to my public positions, I feel your pain.
J.
April 18th, 2008 - 18:52

So long as it’s done like Puzzle Pirates, it’s fine. Servers where the “coins” aren’t useful as opposed to others where they are, also make sense.

Building your service purposefully around providing players multiple avenues to get what they want out of their play experience = OK. Building broken toys that cater only to those with the most time and/or money that force players to make the choice between the two, often at the expense of social connections and nuance that are really supposed to be the draw of the genre = not OK.
Please
April 19th, 2008 - 00:11

@Boanerges

You never HAD to work on anything antithetical to your public position, you chose to. You and, seemingly, Lum haven’t felt pain enough not to do so.

Money is an absolutely fine motivator. Just don’t expect anyone to take you seriously on an issue when you fold on it to your employer.
ubvman
April 19th, 2008 - 00:46

I get the impression that Scott has some good ideas to actually incorporate some aspects of legalized RMT into MMOs or at the very least make RMT unprofitatble or impractical in the the games he works on.

I think the best scenarios for new games will be the ones that incorporate opt-in RMT with the game publishers running the RMT transactions itself or getting a huge slice of the action (via vig or commissions).
Lee Quillen
April 20th, 2008 - 02:05

Is your email address that accessible? I haven’t looked, but may take a peak now heh. The only people who have me on auto delete are my co-workers…. this could take me intra-national
Artheos
April 22nd, 2008 - 11:37

“I think the best scenarios for new games will be the ones that incorporate opt-in RMT with the game publishers running the RMT transactions itself or getting a huge slice of the action (via vig or commissions).”

That’s not a game you’re describing, it’s a money pit…
Spaz
April 22nd, 2008 - 13:05

“That’s not a game you’re describing, it’s a money pit…”

And one in which I will not participate. I don’t think I’m alone in holding that point of view.
Morgan Ramsay
April 22nd, 2008 - 17:15

Matthew wrote:

No one ever suggested marketing guys were smart…

Really? Nobody? Nobody at all? I guess no one ever suggested you could think critically then. For example, I bet you didn’t know that at least one marketing guy reads this blog. Me.
J.
April 22nd, 2008 - 17:55

Yeah, those marketing folks can really sound arrogant and testy for no good reason, too.
Morgan Ramsay
April 23rd, 2008 - 03:32

JtheYellow wrote:

Yeah, those marketing folks can really sound arrogant and testy for no good reason, too.

If you’re callous enough to have such a narrow-minded definition of “no good reason,” then sure, you’re probably right, within your limited worldview.
rob231
April 23rd, 2008 - 08:12

I would of liked to see the documentation they woulda offered you.
wzrd
April 23rd, 2008 - 08:29

Morgan,

Even though you’re a marketeer, I still love you man. Though you might want to cut back a bit on the grumpy…
Jeff Freeman
April 23rd, 2008 - 10:34

Marketing guys are so sensitive.
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July 13th, 2008 - 04:35

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