kay22626 wrote:I cannot understand the purpose of these desperate wannabe detective attempts.
Are you a paparazzi in rl?
Actually I shouldn't answer to such a question at all, not only due to it insulting character, but also because it already shows that you'll be unable to understand the answer. But, so what, I'm doing it anyway.
My concern is that someone is sending me an email telling me that I'm a VIP and I get to play for free, and that I need to install a "fix". Traditionally, "VIP" and "free" are buzzwords to catch the simple and the stupid, especially when these words appear in emails.
Excuse me when these words get me leery for a second. They just so happen to be the same words that people use who try to steal your bank account information or install spyware or spam relays on your computer. I'm not saying that "Spiderweb" is doing or intending any of this, but the wording in combination with an entirely anonymous entity approaching you is a bit of an awkward combination.
Usually, things work a bit differently. Normally, there is some kind of trust relationship between people who deal with each other, whether they're individuals or companies. This involves at the very least knowing who the other person is, or for example what a "fix" is indended for (when what's being fixed wasn't "broken" before).
You wouldn't just let me use your computer and your credit card either, if I rang your doorbell and was wearing a black mask, would you. You wouldn't let me fix the brakes on your car either, if I came to your house and promised to do it for free, would you?
I don't see how the desire to know at least who you're dealing with (and nothing more) is so unjustified. In fact, EU law has it that for any type of online business (regardless whether you take money or not), you are required to provide contact information and some other information such as court of jurisdiction or vat reg number (what exactly is required varies by country and by business type).
This is very different from personal privacy. Insisting on your personal privacy generally must not be interpreted in any negative way (except in countries like China, USA, and Germany... but that is another story).
In business (apart from the obvious necessity of trade secrets), covert operations are considered illicit unless proven otherwise. The idea behind this is easy: if an transaction is legitimate, there is no reason why you can't reveal your identity.
The last I remembered was that there were some questions after a mysterious company from Cyprus allegedly threw in some 250k euros, and this Xavier person wanted to file a compaint because of some mistake in the suit. Also, according to some rumour, Gameforge had not even paid most debts from the first bankruptcy either, and whatever... all in all, most kamiesque.
People were talking of "at least half a year or a year" before anything might be heard from the court, or maybe longer. Now, out of nowhere, the game is back, all of a sudden, without a word of explanation.
The terms of service say that the terms are a contract governed by French law. While this might theoretically be a remnant of Nevrax times, the terms nevertheless contain "Spiderweb" in all places that were once Nevrax or Gameforge France, so obviously the document has been reviewed. This makes intent more probable than accident.
The download server for the client download was an OVH Kimsufi, and the email came from the OVH network too, which again points to France. Also, the now changed whois record entry from 1st July wasn't left over "from before Gameforge" as abizmal suggested. Registrars aren't charity organisations, they don't renew records upon expiration if you don't pay for it.
I don't know, but is it so unreasonable to feel a tiny bit uncomfortable? Don't get me wrong, if the game is back, then that's great... but if it is legitimate, then why does there have to be such a darn mystery about it?
Mind you, we're not talking about accidentially forgetting to mention something, but about an active concealment.
What is so difficult in saying for example something like: "Welcome back to Ryzom. I'm Etienne, head of Spiderweb's new development team. We are ... [some former Nevrax employees, let's just pretend they are], and our principal office is located in Cyprus [for our very own private reason *cough*]. The address is [whatever], and our chief operating officer is [whoever]. As you probably already know, we managed to buy the game back during the most recent liquidation process.
Last week, the court finally granted us the rights on the game, so now we're planning to roll out again. For the next 1-3 months, we invite you to play for free while we fix/tune a couple of things, and after that, we'll see about pricing and such.
Because the old client contains a hardcoded server address which is no longer valid, it will need a small patch that you can download."
