A report on exclusivity theft
by Raya
(Note: If you have already read this article, skip down to the bottom for an update.)
Just when the waters seemed to be calming in the recent MMORPG storm of exclusivity thefts, along comes Okratas, once again lifting exclusives that were supposed to be just that, exclusives, to
Vanguard Affiliate sites. Only this time, the victim is the new Vanguard affiliate
Vanguard Onlinewelten (VOW). The site admin of VOW, Sed, had heard of Okratas's practices and utilized the suggestion of adding their watermarks to the two exclusives VOW had received as a gift, from Sigil. And guess what?
Not satisfied with taking the screenshots and hosting them on their own server, Okratas decided to remove the watermarks and exhibit them from their own database. To add insult to injury, apparently Okratas then sent word to OTHER sites to link, implying that the screenshots were exclusives to Okratas. Now Okratas doesn't claim in so many words they are the rightful possessors of these exclusive screenshots – they just say "two never before seen glimpses into the world of Telon." The inference of course is that Okratas was given these exclusives by Sigil. That is NOT the case.
Does all this sound like international espionage and you came in halfway through the movie? Let me elucidate.
Some time in February of this year, Okratas was sold to IGE, the infamous secondary market purveyors, for an undisclosed amount of money, but reputed to be in the thousands of dollars. The reins of this site were turned over to a fellow whose online name is Berran, presumably an IGE employee. Berran then proceeded, a month later, to lift exclusive screenshots from the Affiliated sites (Silky Venom,
The Safehouse, Vanguard Warcry and Last Honest Fanboy, to name a few), which shots were given to the Affiliates personally by Brad McQuaid (CEO of Sigil and Exec. Producer of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes). These shots were for the exclusive use of the sites who received them from Sigil for a certain length of time, until Sigil put them up in their official gallery, at which time they were fair game for anyone to upload.
Cindy Bowens, Community Manager at Sigil, explains the reasoning behind giving Affiliated fan sites exclusive shots. "Our Affiliates are sites that have made a commitment to Sigil. They have shown their dedication to the community. One of the benefits we give to them for all of this is providing them with exclusive screenshots, articles and features."
As per oft-stated Sigil policy, because Okratas is owned by IGE, it is no longer eligible to be an Affiliated fan site of Vanguard. This doesn't stop Berran though. And his reasoning is quite creative.
I wrote to Berran a very polite letter at the beginning of April, asking him to remove the Silky Venom screenshot from his gallery as it was exclusive to SV and was given to us personally by Brad McQuaid
as an exclusive. I told Berran it was fine if he wanted to use the thumbnail and link to us (which is acceptable practice in online magazines), but that hosting the larger image on his site was not acceptable. Here is his reply (notice the fancy footwork in denying the issue by trying to shift blame).
Quote:
Raya,
After careful consideration of your request I regret to inform you that we will not be removing the screenshot from our gallery. Understandably, we know exactly how you feel about the exclusivevity of your screenshot. This is due to the fact Silkey Venom and several other Vanguard fan sites have taken it upon themselves to relieve the Okratas site of our own exlcusive screenshots by adding them to their own galleries. In short, the staff at Okratas know exactly what it feels like to have an exclusive item made nonexclusive.
We appreciate your patronage,
"Berran Grimman"
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The fact of the matter is that Silky Venom did not take ANY shots from Okratas. All of them were taken from the official gallery at the official Vanguard site. Furthermore, it is the practice of Sigil to allow a certain amount of time (anywhere from two weeks to a couple of months) for the sites with exclusive shots to enjoy their exclusivity, then the screenshots are uploaded to the official site for everyone's use.
In addition, since Okratas is now owned by IGE, it is no longer eligible for affiliate status with Vanguard and is also no longer eligible for exclusive screenshots.
These are the facts.
At the time, the staff at Silky Venom decided not to pursue this any further. There is apparently legal recourse, but it is lengthy and expensive. None of us has that kind of cash. Understandably, even the larger companies apparently prefer to put their money back into their gaming projects.
That's the background. Now this situation has arisen again. On May 6, two exclusive screenshots were given to Vanguard Onlinewelten by Sigil as a bonus for becoming an Affiliated Vanguard fan site and earning the benefits of such affiliation. There was the usual delight and congratulations. It was a noteworthy achievement.
Not only did the site have to be up and running for a month, but it is a German site. All the information, including FAQs, lore, history, and so on, had to be translated into German.
Sed, the site administrator for
Vanguard Onlinewelten, and his four-person team of translators worked hard for months to get all the FAQs, all the Qalia lore and some of the Thestra lore, the classes, races, and background translated into German. This is in addition to keeping on top of the new screenshots, quotes and news coming in these days with a right good will. Sed expressed how happy he and the team were when the affiliation was granted and VOW took its place on the
Affiliated Sites list at the official Vanguard site.
I asked Sed how he felt when he saw that Okratas had taken his site's exclusive screenshots, removed the watermarks, and posted them as Okratas exclusives.
"The first time I saw it I couldn't believe it because they removed our watermark too," Sed replied. "I became angry because it was a long procedure to achieve affiliate status, and now, the first time I get exclusives, [Okratas] steals them."
I asked Sed if he had written a letter of protest to Okratas. He replied that he hadn't because he had been informed that it wouldn't do any good.
The clincher to this, however, is, on top of lifting the screenshots that were given exclusively to Vanguard Onlinewelten, Berran apparently sent word to MMORPGDOT that Okratas had exclusive Vanguard screenshots. MMORPGDOT handled it the correct way, of course, by linking the thumbnails back to Okratas. Unfortunately, they didn't realize that the exclusives belonged to VOW and not Okratas.
So where does this leave Sigil? And where does it leave VOW.
Sigil spokeswoman Cindy Bowens told me, "This is a gift from us to [Affiliated Vanguard fan sites] for all of the hard work they do. It's also an avenue to reach our own community. SO it is frustrating to know others don't respect that those exclusive rights belong to the sites to which they were given."
She added, "We try to keep things fair among our Affiliates and rotate the exclusives. And sometimes, we get things out for all of them, as when Brad recently released a screenshot to all of the Affiliates as a surprise."
One of the difficulties Cindy described, along with the frustration in being thwarted to give the benefits they want to the Affiliates, is the confusion from people who read Okratas statements about possessing exclusive shots and the seeming corroboration from MMORPGDOT. What can she do except explain that these exclusives were not sent to Okratas, and that they are using these screenshots without permission?
As for VOW, the young site administrator is still enthusiastic, but perhaps a little more wary of the internet sharks out there than he was before. With a total portal fan base (including all games) of over 26,000, there is high interest from the German-speaking gamers in Vanguard. This fan base has grown slowly but surely as VOW was able to put more and more out for them to read and motivate them to become members of the German Vanguard community.
"Our goal is to build up a great community for Vanguard here in Germany, with a primary focus building up this community before Vanguard is released, so we can all start playing Vanguard together," Sed stated. "And to give the German community all the information that is available about Vanguard in their own language."
A worthy goal, and a great service to the international community. It's a shame they can't reap the benefits of their exclusive screenshots.
Perhaps the solution, other than insanely expensive legal lawsuits, is do what countries do when one country steps out of line, or at the very least, pass the word along. Okratas Vanguard screenshots are NOT exclusive.
UPDATE May 15/05 - And yet again has Okratas decided to take the battle head on by ignoring the facts. Their answer to this article is to comment privately that Silky Venom is guilty of inconsistencies and outright lies. They have further magnanimously intimated that they don't wish to get involved in a slinging match and disrupt the Vanguard community any more than it already has. How kind of them.
Okratas' creative reasoning comes in the form of an allusion, not an outright statement, mind you, that Silky Venom stole this (exclusive) screenshot from them. They maintain that only SV, Last Honest Fanboy and Okratas have this image up. Yet when I checked at the beginning of this whole debacle, I was assured that all the screenshots we received were from Sigil. So it is a bit of a puzzlement that this seems to be true.
With E3 at hand, Sigil (and Cindy) are too insanely busy to check backlogs of files to see to whom this screenshot was given. However, none of this is relevant in view of the main fact that Okratas is owned by IGE, the screenshots are owned by Sigil, and because of that fact, Okratas is NOT eligible because of Sigil policies to have or acquire in the future any exclusive screenshots. Nor are they eligible to display any screenshots given by Sigil to another entity. Despite this, we will certainly ask Sigil as soon as possible to avoid any misunderstanding. In the meantime, we are leaving the screenshot up for people to see if they wish. The moment that Sigil tells us to take the screenshot down, we will.
Article copyright (c) 2005 by Raya
All rights reserved
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