Entropia Universe and Xfire Team Up for Global Gamer Communication

[Sunab Naverith]

Originally Posted by AlphaGeek

I use the "rename" function in the in-game FL for this.

All my Soc mates get a "DS- " in front of their names, pilots get "FLY- " in front of theirs, etc, etc, etc.

Does the same job, right in the game, and doesn't report my marketing preferences or demographics to anyone.

AG

Jesus geek, stop being so damned paranoid. Yahoo and MSN report your every email to the FBI, your CC company sends copies of your records on a monthly basis to the TID (Total Information Database) that the US Government has, and you're somehow worried about non-existent marketing demographic and reporting that Xfire doesn't do?

I'll see if I can make this clear to you in regards to Xfire.
1. Xfire doesn't acquire ANY data on you, other than your email. No other data is required to sign up (maybe age verification for 13+/- but that's it).

2. Xfire has NEVER, in almost 5 years of me using it, sent me a "partner" marketing email. The only emails I have ever received from them were "oh whoops this update messed up the system" and event/competition emails. THAT'S IT.

3. Xfires "advertising strategy" is that little advertisement box somewhere on the program itself (it changes location depending on what skin you use). That uses IE coding, so the stupidest pop-up blocker for IE will block all ads - IF that worries you.

4. The friends list in EU is limited. I don't care how "streamlined" you make your friends names in EU, you will hit a limit on how many you can add. Period. What if you have a 70 man soc? Write down everyones name so that you can remember? Go to the soc terminal and delete someone from your friends list just so you can add someone else, so you can PM them something?
Xfire bypasses all of that. About 5 months ago they implemented a 1k friends list limit (oddly enough it was a big request...). You can rename your friends as you wish in Xfires friends list, sort them into groups (soc/flights/friends/bastards), PM them at any time, group chat, call them with the VOIP setup, transfer them pictures of your latest hof/global/loot, etc.


Stop bashing something that (to you) is new. There are enough people here who DO use Xfire, and will continue to do so now that EU has it's security issue fixed. Xfire rocks for the GAMERS genre. If you don't fit into that genre, then do not comment on it - unless you have used it for an extended period of time and THEN find it "superfluous".

Originally Posted by MindBuster

That's like saying over 600k people plays EU.

Since it's not blocked now, Xfire - gaming simplified - UNLIKE EU, they have a "Current Users Online" on their front page , and have from almost day 1. I remember when it used to say <100 users on at once... lol! As of the time of me writing this post, there are ~253k users online. Just like in EU, you will get your peak times and down times. Check the user limit during the weekend, I've seen it at over 2 million, especially right after new games have been released .

[Aziphirael]

Originally Posted by MindBuster

Why is MindArk targetting people that arent even allowed to play EU ?

Now first all respect to the little handful of adult players, which EU'ers are, that actually found a use for Xfire, but Xfire users are mostly 15-17 year olds who uses it to brag about they got no real life, "look how many hours i've played" type of counterstrikers, EU EULA say's 18+ years.

Maybe it's time for a roadmap telling us older players what MindArks plan is with EU, first all the avatar changes to look young and smart, now targetting sub18 year olds.

Where is EU going exactly ?

Frank said at a conference that the Mindark definition for their "Virtual Universe" was threefold.

1. Online Interactive Entertainment
2. Social Networking
3. User Generated Content

That seems to be where they are going to compete in terms of their niche. Interestingly enough in a lot of the charts that plots virtual worlds it puts them smack bank in between traditional MMOs and the Social Metaverses.

Asked whether it means EU ending up being Second Life, he did say that as far as MA were concerned, the interactive MMO type features was what made EU unique and gave them creative flexibility so that will definitely stay in EU.

Given that point 1. has to a certain extent been achieved, I think a lot of the recent graphical changes and window dressing of the game is to achieve point 2 and 3.

Although I do think that Mindark still needs to improve the internal chat and communication system in any case.

[AlphaGeek]

Originally Posted by Sunab Naverith

Jesus geek, stop being so damned paranoid.

Nope. As an IT professional in the business for... 23 years now and a pretty damn good one based on my performance reviews, and an internet user for 14 years, I know that its simply good practice to alert users to the risks they undertake with regard to "free" software.

Paranoid? Perhaps. Then again, You cite that you've never gotten email from anyone that got your email address from Xfire... How would you know where spammers got your email address from?

Read their privacy policy. Read it carefully. Think about this. How could a company offer these services for absolutely free? Where does the money to keep them solvent come from? What happens to the data they have on me if they go under?

If you're comfortable with releasing that kind of data and not knowing what happens to it later, that's just spiffy. But at least people may now understand the potential risks involved.

I'm done, you get the last shot. Make it a good one. Make sure you call me an idiot in at least 3 creative ways. I know ya want to. Perhaps the onlookers will be nice enough to give you a score on it. At least some people are informed about the "miracle of free software" now and will give pause before downloading crapware.

AG

[ATBLOODy]

I've been in the IT business for 40 years used the internet as soon as it existed.

Welcome to the internet, where you can say things that may or may not be true.

[Sunab Naverith]

Originally Posted by AlphaGeek

Nope. As an IT professional in the business for... 23 years now and a pretty damn good one based on my performance reviews, and an internet user for 14 years, I know that its simply good practice to alert users to the risks they undertake with regard to "free" software.

Fair enough, and that is a good thing to do. However, repetitively bashing a product that you know zero about (outside of rumours) isn't very credible. In several of your posts regarding Xfire you have commented about things that Xfire does not, has not, and will not do. And yes, I'm too lazy to go and quote them for reference .

Originally Posted by AlphaGeek

Paranoid? Perhaps. Then again, You cite that you've never gotten email from anyone that got your email address from Xfire... How would you know where spammers got your email address from?

I know how, and where, my email addresses are culled for spammers. I actually read every single sites privacy policy BEFORE I sign up - even if it's 14+ pages long!
The email address that I have hooked with my xfire is one of my 100% private email addresses that has NEVER been posted online. In over 5 years, I have never received a single piece of spam - just Xfire event notifications, newsletters and my friends & family emails.

Originally Posted by AlphaGeek

Read their privacy policy. Read it carefully. Think about this. How could a company offer these services for absolutely free? Where does the money to keep them solvent come from? What happens to the data they have on me if they go under?

I have read it carefully. It's worded in more ways to protect the end user than MA's EULA will ever be worded! They do offer these services for "free", but the "Catch" is that the ad-screen has to be enabled on the skin. It makes no mention, however, of any active pop-up blockers on the users computer .
The money that keeps them "solvent" was initially from donations and out of their own pockets. Now, they get paid an AMAZING amount of money for ad rotation through their program, which is 99.9% gamer genre, they get a lot of money for advertising other large-scale competitions (CPL & other gamer competitions - as well as company promotions), and they are such a large name now that other companies pay THEM to work with their programs.
As for the data, I honestly don't know. Then again, I'm not one of those people who decide to fill out name, address, email, DOB, SSN, and any of that other stuff in an online profile. The most that will get out would be my email address. What else are you worried about "leaking", regarding you, that I couldn't find anywhere else online for <$24.95?

Originally Posted by AlphaGeek

If you're comfortable with releasing that kind of data and not knowing what happens to it later, that's just spiffy. But at least people may now understand the potential risks involved.

Ya, the potential risk(s) that you outlined are no different than if, say, this forum was bought - or EU was sold & closed.
Our information (no matter how varied) would/could be disclosed to any potential buyer.
The difference though is that with Xfire the only information you have ANY reason to even be remotely concerned about is your email address. I see no other field to fill out VOLUNTARILY that could compromise your life.
Oh wait, that's right - why ever would I want someone to know that my ATH total time playing CS was >1k hours...? Such information is PRIVATE! (small bit of humor - playing the smartass on that last part!)

Originally Posted by AlphaGeek

I'm done, you get the last shot. Make it a good one. Make sure you call me an idiot in at least 3 creative ways. I know ya want to. Perhaps the onlookers will be nice enough to give you a score on it. At least some people are informed about the "miracle of free software" now and will give pause before downloading crapware.

AG

Shot, shmot. Just like I'm sure you would defend a program and/or service you've been using without any issue for 5+ years, I am doing the same.

AG - If you can point out how I have called you an idiot, at least once, in any of my posts towards you, I'll donate you all of my EFD. You are a very intelligent person, and as such you are a very worthy adversary for debate - but I would never demean myself by insinuating that you are an idiot! Potentially ignorant in some things, but never an idiot .

Don't care *much* about score, although those green bars do look delicious when I gain more .

And you need to stop confusing "free" with "crap". Last I heard there were these certain operating systems that weren't Microsoft, that could be downloaded for free. And ya see, servers use them to run good & all that...

Xfire has a 5+ year reputation up their sleeves. I'd trust their reputation and history over MA's any day (considering I was there since almost day 1). Xfire works to improve the community relations, and their programs efficiency. Can you say the same about how MA handles theirs?