welp, certain people that hang on this forum stated that they were not on a witch hunt when they went after neverdie. now that they have done there conflict of interest posts the tables have turned a bit, and it is now time to point the guns at SEE and FPC now for having the new conflict of interest. as i recall those people stated that if there were other conflicts of interest that they would go after them. ill give you guys a little bit of time to go after SEE and FPC with your pitch forks, because if you do not, that will prove that those threads that went after neverdie being a conflict of interest was infact a witch hunt. but anywho, im sure you will do the right thing with this matter, ;)
This would be possibly true if the entire MindArk corporate entity had been sold. It wasn't, only FPC which was a subsidiary company responsible solely for Calypso content and not the server farm or platform software. Is there any evidence that the server farm owned and maintained by MindArk is being transferred to SEE? Any evidence that the developers responsible for maintaining those servers and the platform software are moving? The only data I've seen is that Marco has a new job. Must be nice to have a new job in this economy!
Quoting me and talking about pitchforks is a bit insulting since i never was, neither plan to be part of any lynch mob, but i'll take it with a grain of salt, believing that the comment isn't towards me but towards 'some people' If MA was sold, then we'd be back to the old days where we have one company doing the system and the planets. This is obviously not the case. Do you propose though that the planet partners that bring 90% of MA's income (figure out of my ass, based on the number of planets announced) and happen to be in the same room with MA's developers DON'T have an edge over other planet partners that are in a different time zone and, "don't have any way to know when the last server sync was, or what has gone online"? Because if that is the case, then it's a view through pink tinted glasses
No, I'm stating that no planet partner is currently collocated with the platform provider. FPC is under SDS's roof now, not MA's.
I think that's the exact part that is causing the conflict of interest queries as Marco, Hanne and all the other FPC workers are quite literally in the same building as MA but they now potentially work for the planet partner SEE, so there is indeed potentially an advantage for SEE having their workers so much closer to an MA representative than other ones like Neverdie for example. However, it's technically nothing new as FPC have always been in there and have technically only been a planet partner for a while now. So I guess it's partially how you look at it. Before it was a given Calypso has easier access to MA as it was their baby now Calypso has been sold and the company it's been sold to have easier access.
And there isn't anything stopping never die studios or Arkadia studios from leasing space in goetnberg either
Where exactly do you perceive a conflict of interest with the sale? MindArk put the rights to Calypso up for sale. SEE bought it. I do not know of anyone working in or for SEE Virtual Worlds actively playing regular avatars, or being involved in working on planets they do not own the rights to. The issue raised by Manny about FPC knowing about server synchs, I'm also not sure is really there. They might have a faster point of entry due to being in the same timezone, but I clearly recall Marco getting caught off-uard by something MindArk implemented in a VU as well. Well, that, or he was lying about not knowing exactly how something was implemented.
One could think of a COI with MA owning one of the planet partners (FPC) and the power to treat them preferentially since all the profit would stay within the group. But with FPC being sold exactly that COI would vanish. Where have you been when the FPC Community Advis(o/e)rs were under attack? Or Shoti in the Prot DNA incident? Or MA for the flood VU? Or... Looks like it's all about ND...
hmmm. so the only possible conflicts of interest exist where a player is concerned? of course not. there is reasonable objection, though no more than currently exists with the FPC company and their relationship with their parent company. there is a considerable introspective, player oriented view to these discussions around conflict of interest, which miss other wider issues. it seems to me the biggest potential for conflict and of concern for players is whether the new owners would divert development resources from Calypso to their new planets, to the detrement of the existing player base, using Calypso as a cash cow to milk and fund other projects.
Pitty it is "SEE" and not another company (without being negative towards SEE). It would be nice to see a bigger number of companies involved and believing in the concept. Atami
Okay, after reading this thread I have one big question... I see that FPC and SEE have the shared address, but it that address the same one that FPC has had or a new one? As in, is it the same address as MA, or does this mean tha FPC is actually going to be in a seperate building now? Also, I want to thank everyone for their research, opinions, thoughts and words on this!