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from the big-brother-is-morally-judging-you dept.
On December 7, a Magic: The Gathering player with a YouTube channel called "UnSleevedMedia" ( https://www.youtube.com/user/mtgheadquarters ) was banned for life from the game by the Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast for allegedly harassing others in the MtG community on social media. As a consequence, he immediately lost access to all the virtual items he's previously purchased while receiving no refund, and he may no longer play online, partake in tournaments, or cover events on his YouTube channel (details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIh3ykLBzOM ).
The ban was issued after articles appeared on gaming news sites Polygon ( https://www.polygon.com/2017/11/29/16709796/magic-the-gathering-cosplayer-harassment-youtube ) and Kotaku ( https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/11/magic-subreddit-on-lockdown-after-cosplayer-quit-due-to-alleged-harassment/ ), where a cosplayer accused UnsleevedMedia operator Jeremy Hambly of persistent harassment. (Note: While the articles report on the controversy, neither present any actual evidence for either side.)
While Mr Hambly claims that the allegations of threats and harassment are demonstrably false, and that the evidence against him is based on excerpts from Twitter/Facebook posts taken out of context, he now says he's uncovered something quite chilling while investigating the case: evidence that employees at Wizards of the Coast are trawling the Internet looking for social media activities going back years in search of conduct they might find "objectionable".
In at least one instance they've allegedly requested and gained access to a closed Facebook group only tangentially related to the MtG community, and then issued bans and warnings based on the contents of conversations therein. This includes a one-year ban against professional player Travis Woo, who has now effectively lost his job. Mr Hambly presented the evidence for these claims in a YouTube video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGFcLvDRJNQ ) on his other channel, "The Quartering" ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfwE_ODI1YTbdjkzuSi1Nag ).
In response to this, he has started a change.org petition ( https://www.change.org/p/hasbro-wizards-of-the-coast-must-reinstate-travis-woo-jeremy-hambly ) asking people to boycott all Hasbro products until such time as the bans are reversed. His main argument is that corporations should not be allowed enforce End User License Agreements that dictate what a person may or may not say or do in their spare time on social media.
(Disclaimer: I've signed the petition, as I wouldn't like to see a future where a Twitter spat could cost someone their Steam games.)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Virindi on Monday December 11 2017, @05:36PM (15 children)
Buy into an ecosystem where the manufacturer has absolute control, and this is the kind of thing you get. It's not like they're going to show up at your house and seize your physical cards; it is much easier for them to deny access to a central platform.
When everything is centralized, the owner is naturally going to be put under more pressure from all sides to use that power. We see this all over the place in all sorts of things, from software to government. Often, the issue can be mitigated by having a set of strong rules ahead of time that proscribe how the control can be used. But most people don't seem to even notice that such control exists until it has already been abused. They simply do not think about the fact that now that 'cards' are just a number on someone else's computer, that someone else can add or remove them at will. Or, it is considered such a remote possibility that it is ignored compared to the convenience benefits.
But such crap happens all the time. This reminds me of the "cloud" garage door opener which was disabled because the owner made angry posts about the company. We're going to see more and more of these. And your only recourse will be mob rule; whoever gets the most angry people on social media on their side wins. That is a recipe for unfairness.
Just buy physical cards. They're safer.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11 2017, @05:45PM (1 child)
If Microsoft disabled Windows 10 on people who curse the OS... there would be a helluva lot of happy people installing Linux.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Snow on Monday December 11 2017, @05:59PM
Or Google making you sit in the dark if you use Bing.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by melikamp on Monday December 11 2017, @05:46PM (3 children)
Good points. This sort of player abuse is virtually guaranteed in any ecosystem where the software is nonfree (and especially when closed source), and so designed from the ground up to exploit and subjugate the user.
As far as virtual items go, it would be interesting to see a game with its own crypto-cash built in, so that item ownership is checked against a block chain. Not an ideal system, but notably less centralized, and much harder to abuse with respect to banning than the current bank-style setups, where the same party has the total and exclusive control over game code, the virtual assets, and all the player information.
(Score: 2) by Virindi on Monday December 11 2017, @05:51PM (1 child)
Rules ahead of time could even solve this problem. If the company made a strong public guarantee, included in the user agreement, that "virtual items" were immutable, it could be enough.
Instead though we get weasel talk and "all rights to do anything we want for any reason". And people don't mind this until it is too late.
People seem to think that the mob will save them in cases of injustice, so it's okay. Live by the mob, die by the mob.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday December 11 2017, @07:00PM
Someone said it best [youtube.com].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JNCF on Monday December 11 2017, @06:15PM
I haven't played this, or even read the white paper: https://novablitz.com [novablitz.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Ingar on Monday December 11 2017, @06:15PM (3 children)
Trading card games have always been about milking more money from the customer.
The "game" is where you buy a "card" with an almost zero chance of it being a rare and powerful one.
The "trading" happens when the victims of bad fortune start to swindle each other.
Just print your own cards, they're cheaper.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Monday December 11 2017, @08:39PM (2 children)
This. I played MtG for several years. I dipped a toe into the cutthroat tournament scene a few times, but went no further. Stuck with the physical cards, and never went online. Mostly I played with friends, for fun. We were always trying weird stuff that would never work in a tournament because it was too weak for "serious" play. I saw no reason why we shouldn't fire up the scanners and printers and copy whatever valuable rare cards we wanted to play with. But, wow, do most MtG players get zealously bent out of shape over that. It's like they're all suffering a mental block. I wasn't trying to pass off fakes as the real thing. I made sure the copies were obviously copies. I just wanted to play with cards I didn't own, that's all.
For those who don't know, it was clear from the first that MtG was an unusually expensive game. There are of course monster games and stuff such as miniatures that can run up a lot of expense, but most board and card games, you pay somewhere between $10 to $100 for a copy, and if the game is a success they will likely try to milk the players for an additional couple hundred with expansions, but that's usually it. For the most hardcore, there might be deluxe editions and special high quality playing pieces, but we're still talking well under $1000. MtG on the other hand can easily soak up over $10k, $5 to $100 at a time.
The best course of action is not to play the game. Don't start. There's plenty of other entertainment as good or better, and a heck of a lot less expensive. But if the players would accept playing with copies of cards, MtG wouldn't be such a money pit. Doubt that will ever happen. Seems using wealth to obtain unfair advantage, buy your way to a greater chance of victory, is part of this game.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 11 2017, @09:07PM
Warhammer 40K is a good example. What they don't tell you is that the 40K is the average amount spent before people realize its a scam.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday December 11 2017, @10:38PM
In my family, we play Catan: the Gathering, lol.
Catan is just too much fun.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 5, Informative) by Grishnakh on Monday December 11 2017, @06:23PM (2 children)
Exactly, I don't see the problem here. If you don't want some company to ban you from an online game or from your own garage, don't buy their internet-connected products or services. Don't hand over control of your life to some company that can restrict you at any time in the future on a mere whim.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday December 11 2017, @10:39PM (1 child)
I read this as ESPECIALLY Microsoft and Apple.
but is it just me? :|
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday December 12 2017, @05:24AM
Actually, I wasn't thinking that when I wrote it, but that's a very good point, especially considering that Windows 10 blatantly sends data ("telemetry") to MS.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Adamsjas on Monday December 11 2017, @07:34PM
> Buy into an ecosystem where the manufacturer has absolute control, ...
Are you talking about the game here or the social media?
Maybe both?
Someone who spends a great deal of time gaming AND on social media couldn't have any time left for any meaningful contributions to society. Why should we get all up in arms when the puppet string they tied to their own left hand gets tangled in the string they tied to their right hand? Walk Away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 12 2017, @12:02AM
or like, don't like, play like, video gamez like.