Tag: Ethics

EA’s Loot Boxes Are ‘Quite Ethical,” Says EA


If there’s a company at the forefront of predatory and unethical business conduct in the gaming industry, it has to be Electronic Arts. From the company that brought about the high profile disasters of Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem to the wholly panned monetization schemes originally present in Battlefront II, Electronic Arts has become the poster child for various governments looking to put an end to what they perceive as video game publishers coercing children into gambling habits.

But Electronic Arts doesn’t consider what they are selling to be loot boxes, as noted by the VP of legal and government affairs at EA Kerry Hopkins. Speaking to the UK Digital, Culture, Media, and Sports Committee, Hopkins referred to loot boxes as “surprise mechanics” and stated that they are indeed quite ethical. It’s hard not to see this as a company desperately defending its questionable and highly lucrative business practices in the face of increasing threat of government regulation around the world.

Then again, perhaps we don’t need to hear about ethics from the company who patented a method to make subtle adjustments to a game’s difficulty in order to encourage more microtransaction purchases.

Source: PCGamesN

[Less Massive] Slitherine Among The Best Mobile Devs, Says Slitherine


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Pockettactics.com recently named Slitherine Software as runner up to their Creator of the Year award, putting the company in a position that, in their own words, “no other publisher came close” to matching.

That makes Slitherine responsible for four games that garnered votes for GotY in our behind-the-scenes polling. No other publisher came close.

So what’s the problem? Well, as they only announced yesterday, pockettactics.com has been owned by Slitherine Software since August. Even more so, it appears that editor Owen Faraday lied about how the acquisition took place, stating back in August:

I acquired the site from Slitherine/Matrix who still retain some financial interest in the site. But every buck stops with me. I have complete and utter editorial independence and none of my writers will ever interface with a human at Slitherine. I view the current arrangement as similar to General Electric owning a stake in NBC — doesn’t mean NBC won’t do tough reporting on GE.

In the announcement, David Neumann reveals that Owen’s statement was untrue, in fact the exact opposite of what happened.

Well, Slitherine didn’t sell the Wargamer to Owen, in fact the opposite happened and the site you’re reading now, as well as the upcoming Strategy Gamer, became part of the aforementioned Wargamer Limited, a subsidiary of wargame publisher Slitherine.

So Pocket Tactics reveals months after the fact that they are now owned by the company that they are heavily favoring for Game of the Year and Creator of the Year, while claiming that the company has no editorial influence over the website. Did Slitherine have such a great year that they deserve this much recognition? That I can’t say, I don’t cover the mobile gaming scene. It is an important reminder on why game creators/publishers should not have a financial stake in the people who are supposed to be covering their titles objectively. It is for the same reason that, say, presidential candidates cannot have reality tv shows on the networks covering their campaigns.

Community: MMO Fallout Ethics Q&A


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I’ll be honest with you folks, I am poorly prepared this week. Those of you who follow me on Twitter will know that I’ve been snowed into my house with no internet since last Monday, I haven’t had the capability of doing anything other than a few news pieces on my barely passable Chromebook. So instead of trying to catch up on current happenings for this week’s Community article, I’d like to instead talk about the recently posted ethics policy here at MMO Fallout. I’d like to talk about why this website exists and why I got into this field, as well as answer a few questions that I seem to get pretty often.

So about myself. The concept for MMO Fallout was started out of my fascination with the idea of games shutting down. I found it amazing, the idea that the games that cost the most (box plus subscription) also had the caveat that they would eventually become unplayable should the developer whim it. While focusing on MMOs, I started MMO Fallout as something of my learning tool, a creative outlet to track how I’d progressed as a writer while going through college. In all honesty, I never expected this website to get off of the ground, coming from a website that had less than 10% of the current traffic.

The trust of my readers is what made MMO Fallout what it is today, and continues to be the driving force behind its expansion. I could never see myself throwing that trust away with shameless click bait, pandering, sensationalism, and outright lying.

So here are a few questions on ethics I’ve received over the past few weeks:

1. Have you ever accepted gifts from developers?

Yes, and I have immediately given them away through this website. To date, the only ones I can think of are the Line of Defense/Alganon comics and the SMITE god pack/gems. Anything I win through random giveaways on other websites, I enter as just a normal person using an email that (hopefully) can’t be traced back to MMO Fallout.

2. When you talk about products on Twitter, are they sponsored?

No. MMO Fallout doesn’t have any sponsors presently and never has. Whenever I talk about a product on Twitter, that’s just me sharing something that I enjoy as a consumer. If we ever are sponsored, it would be clearly disclosed, and only for something that I personally believe in.

3. Do you have a personal Twitter?

No, and if it wasn’t for MMO Fallout I wouldn’t have a Twitter account at all.

4. Are there any conflicts of interest that we should know about?

I used to be a GM for the MMO Xsyon. This does not affect my coverage of the game.

5. Do you receive advance copies of games?

I haven’t to date.

6. Has MMO Fallout ever run a sponsored article?

No, but I have had a lot of inquiries from online casinos.

7. How much does MMO Fallout make from advertising?

I don’t make enough in a week to buy a 25 cent gumball.

 

If you have any other questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below.