LadySirse
08-25-2005, 06:34 PM
Standing Strong Against IGE
An Interview with Aaron Lewis, By Lady Sirse
742What do you do with your MMO guild once you start it? On the average, 100 guilds a day choose GuildPortal to manage their content and members in game. From the beginning, GP has been designed to manage content for numerous games, and does just that! Unfortunately that also means a battle with IGE. GuildPortal refuses to bend their integrity and has so far stood against IGE successfully.
As I reported in my news article (http://www.silkyvenom.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1138) last week, GuildPortal has selected Vanguard Silky Venom to be their offical source of news for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. This news will be appearing on all their guild forums and is a step in furthering the goals of both Vanguard Silky Venom and GuildPortal.
Aaron Lewis, creator and developer of GuildPortal, says that his run-ins with IGE began soon after they were up and running. Luckily, it seems that they have not been in IGE’s direct sights. He commented, “Well, actually there hasn't been anything that would qualify as an overt attack on GP by IGE. More like the typically subversive, what-has-that-kid-gotten-into-now stuff we're all used to from them. They've been approaching us for advertising in one way or another (them or third parties) since a little while after we opened our doors, and we've always said no.” Many in the Vanguard community rejoiced at this stance after reading my previous article in July.
It seems that the consistent indirect path taken by IGE has been in many forms, “They tried to get in by advertising on UGO -- that was actually a pretty big grab on their part. The ads on UGO circulate to the gaming sites that partnered with UGO, and the thing that's sneaky about what IGE did in this case, is that their ads went live on a Friday afternoon. That's an unusual go-live date for any ad campaign, and in this case it's pretty easy to assume they did it because they were hoping it would go unnoticed for at least a little while. We contacted UGO, had them remove the ads from our site, and also the entire network until their lawyers decided they weren't liable for breaking the EULA of any game, so they started running the ads again, excluding us at our request.” It is this understanding and care about what the community wants that keeps GuildPortal’s 500,000 plus registered users coming back day after day, game after game. 748
Ever vigilant, Aaron commented on a recent happening, “They also acquired GuildWizard, which is a direct competitor of ours. They're staffing up programmers and having a go at guild hosting. With their resources, we're not sure what kind of effect it'll have on us over here, or what kind of bad taste it'll leave in people's mouths for third-party guild hosting in general. They're leveraging their OGaming property's traffic to direct people to their guild hosting product, there's a chance people will stop right there and not do any comparison shopping on their own. When you control the flow of information, you've got a powerful position, regardless of how good (or bad) your product is.” He summed up his feelings on this topic by saying, “It's an important fight, and I honestly believe it can be won. It's just a matter of putting aside the dollar signs for a minute and trying on ethics for a little bit.”
I asked Aaron if he plans to play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes or would it just be one of the 38 games they support. He responded with, “Oh yeah, we saw the game at the E3. Everything already looked great, but when I heard that pirates would be attacking and boarding our ships at sea, I offered to wash everyone at Sigil's dishes and do other chores for them until release, just so they could get it out faster.” He began GuildPortal with a database set up for EverQuest’s Rodcet Nife server where he played for many years.
When I heard that he began this set up for EverQuest and that Rodcet Nife was the first server, my impression was that this project would be something to help him and his guild mates and that it grew from there. Aaron corrected me, “That's the usual story, but not in this case. From the start it was designed to host multiple games with different structures behind the scenes. Most of the time you hear how products are developed "by accident", but with GP it was on purpose from the start.” GuildPortal began out of the ideas of another project. “Well, while I was working on a course-ware portal at a company called eCollege, I thought it would be neat to have the same level of content management and membership management tools for any user, not just university level stuff. So in developing the portal, I thought a natural fit for it would be guild web sites. Back then there weren't many options for that kind of thing, and the tools were way behind the professional content management systems, in terms of usability and customizability.”
649GuildPortal’s growth has been a steady progression according to Aaron. He stated, “We grow at a rate of about 9% per month, and that hasn't slowed down. We never thought it would be this big, no... We had no idea that the market for this type of offering was as big as it is. We used to have our numbers on the home page, and of course people started taking note of how many guilds there really were out there, and what kind of demand there was, so naturally, competition started springing up all over the place -- even from one of the game development companies. Good for everyone in the long run, generally speaking.” Aaron has been working full time running GuildPortal since May 2004. His wife, Sandie, has worked full time on it since 2001.
Aaron’s final statement to the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes community was, “We're very excited to be of service to them, especially given the game and the community that's formed around it. We're going to be playing the game as well, something we haven't done since EQ, and so we're going to be paying a lot of attention to the product and how we can enhance the feature set for what is promising to be the best MMORPG ever released.”
As the time for Vanguard approaches, GuildPortal continues to grow. Every day the number of guilds registered for Vanguard increases. With the team at GP joining the Vanguard community as players, it will be an exciting time to see how GuildPortal continues to honor the gaming tradition and stand strong against companies like IGE that are not out to protect the integrity of the game.
Next week in Part II, I will bring you more exciting information on how Vanguard Silky Venom and GuildPortal will be working together. One of the areas I will talk about is the future plans to allow Vanguard Silky Venom content onto your customised GuildPortal site.
Text copyrighted © 2005 by Lady Sirse
All rights reserved.
An Interview with Aaron Lewis, By Lady Sirse
742What do you do with your MMO guild once you start it? On the average, 100 guilds a day choose GuildPortal to manage their content and members in game. From the beginning, GP has been designed to manage content for numerous games, and does just that! Unfortunately that also means a battle with IGE. GuildPortal refuses to bend their integrity and has so far stood against IGE successfully.
As I reported in my news article (http://www.silkyvenom.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1138) last week, GuildPortal has selected Vanguard Silky Venom to be their offical source of news for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. This news will be appearing on all their guild forums and is a step in furthering the goals of both Vanguard Silky Venom and GuildPortal.
Aaron Lewis, creator and developer of GuildPortal, says that his run-ins with IGE began soon after they were up and running. Luckily, it seems that they have not been in IGE’s direct sights. He commented, “Well, actually there hasn't been anything that would qualify as an overt attack on GP by IGE. More like the typically subversive, what-has-that-kid-gotten-into-now stuff we're all used to from them. They've been approaching us for advertising in one way or another (them or third parties) since a little while after we opened our doors, and we've always said no.” Many in the Vanguard community rejoiced at this stance after reading my previous article in July.
It seems that the consistent indirect path taken by IGE has been in many forms, “They tried to get in by advertising on UGO -- that was actually a pretty big grab on their part. The ads on UGO circulate to the gaming sites that partnered with UGO, and the thing that's sneaky about what IGE did in this case, is that their ads went live on a Friday afternoon. That's an unusual go-live date for any ad campaign, and in this case it's pretty easy to assume they did it because they were hoping it would go unnoticed for at least a little while. We contacted UGO, had them remove the ads from our site, and also the entire network until their lawyers decided they weren't liable for breaking the EULA of any game, so they started running the ads again, excluding us at our request.” It is this understanding and care about what the community wants that keeps GuildPortal’s 500,000 plus registered users coming back day after day, game after game. 748
Ever vigilant, Aaron commented on a recent happening, “They also acquired GuildWizard, which is a direct competitor of ours. They're staffing up programmers and having a go at guild hosting. With their resources, we're not sure what kind of effect it'll have on us over here, or what kind of bad taste it'll leave in people's mouths for third-party guild hosting in general. They're leveraging their OGaming property's traffic to direct people to their guild hosting product, there's a chance people will stop right there and not do any comparison shopping on their own. When you control the flow of information, you've got a powerful position, regardless of how good (or bad) your product is.” He summed up his feelings on this topic by saying, “It's an important fight, and I honestly believe it can be won. It's just a matter of putting aside the dollar signs for a minute and trying on ethics for a little bit.”
I asked Aaron if he plans to play Vanguard: Saga of Heroes or would it just be one of the 38 games they support. He responded with, “Oh yeah, we saw the game at the E3. Everything already looked great, but when I heard that pirates would be attacking and boarding our ships at sea, I offered to wash everyone at Sigil's dishes and do other chores for them until release, just so they could get it out faster.” He began GuildPortal with a database set up for EverQuest’s Rodcet Nife server where he played for many years.
When I heard that he began this set up for EverQuest and that Rodcet Nife was the first server, my impression was that this project would be something to help him and his guild mates and that it grew from there. Aaron corrected me, “That's the usual story, but not in this case. From the start it was designed to host multiple games with different structures behind the scenes. Most of the time you hear how products are developed "by accident", but with GP it was on purpose from the start.” GuildPortal began out of the ideas of another project. “Well, while I was working on a course-ware portal at a company called eCollege, I thought it would be neat to have the same level of content management and membership management tools for any user, not just university level stuff. So in developing the portal, I thought a natural fit for it would be guild web sites. Back then there weren't many options for that kind of thing, and the tools were way behind the professional content management systems, in terms of usability and customizability.”
649GuildPortal’s growth has been a steady progression according to Aaron. He stated, “We grow at a rate of about 9% per month, and that hasn't slowed down. We never thought it would be this big, no... We had no idea that the market for this type of offering was as big as it is. We used to have our numbers on the home page, and of course people started taking note of how many guilds there really were out there, and what kind of demand there was, so naturally, competition started springing up all over the place -- even from one of the game development companies. Good for everyone in the long run, generally speaking.” Aaron has been working full time running GuildPortal since May 2004. His wife, Sandie, has worked full time on it since 2001.
Aaron’s final statement to the Vanguard: Saga of Heroes community was, “We're very excited to be of service to them, especially given the game and the community that's formed around it. We're going to be playing the game as well, something we haven't done since EQ, and so we're going to be paying a lot of attention to the product and how we can enhance the feature set for what is promising to be the best MMORPG ever released.”
As the time for Vanguard approaches, GuildPortal continues to grow. Every day the number of guilds registered for Vanguard increases. With the team at GP joining the Vanguard community as players, it will be an exciting time to see how GuildPortal continues to honor the gaming tradition and stand strong against companies like IGE that are not out to protect the integrity of the game.
Next week in Part II, I will bring you more exciting information on how Vanguard Silky Venom and GuildPortal will be working together. One of the areas I will talk about is the future plans to allow Vanguard Silky Venom content onto your customised GuildPortal site.
Text copyrighted © 2005 by Lady Sirse
All rights reserved.