The biggest issue with #GamersGate: The Silencing of Dissention

I had my say on this, I truly, truly did. But the more I see how people who are only asking for a reasoned debate are being treated, how the truth is being bent to force a particular narrative, the more angry I've gotten. I would post the "Mad as Hell" clip, but I think one movie reference video is good enough.

So this article came out on Badass Digest. I read it, researched it, and found it was more opinionated crap. So I decided to actually engage the believers of the other side. Ho boy, what fun this morning was. It resulted in Badass themselves banning me.

And for what? I have no idea. I never hurled an insult, never mistreated anyone, and did leave two sarcastic comments. One was for a one liner about "Asshole Custard's last stand," and the other was for a video of a hippopotamus fart. Yea, lovely discussion indeed.

This is the biggest issue in Gamer's Gate: The cessation of discussion. This black-or-white, right-or-wrong, terrorist-or-saint mentality that has polarized the debate this far. If you are pro-GG, expect to be muted and belittled because you are a "manbaby." Insults will be the normal way the you are treated. Or is that even correct?

You see the blog post is obviously from a hard-line supporter, someone whose opinion is beyond reproach, and the vocal minority (yes, minority) are over there still attacking me. I can see the comments via email just fine, and most of them are turning to how I am a horrible person, how they are right and I am wrong even in the face of facts.

So, since anyone on the Internet can have a voice, here's my reply to some of these supporters.

To pretty much anyone attempting to elicit some form of rage-filled reply: You can stop. I can't reply to you there anyway. Besides, you'd never get the response you want because, again, this is about video games at the end of the day. Both fringe sides need to be silenced so that the middle ground can debate and discuss this to improve gaming as a space for all.

In reply to this:

SecretAgentHulkYou've got the facts (the CNN bit sounds fishy but that's neither here nor there), but you refuse to connect the dots. Sarkeesian is known *only* for critiquing video games. A massive hate group masking as an ethical inquiry has repeatedly threatened her in the past two months. She gets another death threat for an event where she will talk about games again.
Connect the f***ing dots. 

The threat never states her talk by name. It could very well almost be a form letter to any feminist speaking anywhere. It references the Montreal Massacre, a horrible act of depravity, but yet aside from that, there's no other direct references to her outside of her name. The reality is this could even be a form letter bot spitting these out to any feminist speaking anywhere.

It would also make a lot of sense why the FBI would write it off so quickly, especially if this form letter has been used before and for other people. It never mentions her videos, gaming, or anything. It's so generic that it makes me think that it's nothing but a scripted automailer harassing any and all feminists based on some spider crawling the web.

In reply to this:

gundehttp://seriouspony.com/trouble...Seems like this is what we're dealing with here, someone mightily pissed that some people are getting "undeserved" attention.

gundePlease give some evidence for gaming media not following the "well established FTC guidelines for disclosure of bias." 

gundeSince you didn't reply to my polite request for evidence of the gaming media not abiding by the FTC regulations, I'm going to call you a poopy poop-face!

First, I would love to have replied, but Badass removed my ability to do so. Second, I actually retweeted that story myself. It's a disgrace and, since I am now on home turf so I can just swear as I normally would, fucking appalling. Those involved should be outed, arrested, and tossed in with real criminals where they can be... re-educated... as how people should behave in polite society. Honestly, I think most of these internet badass trolls would shit themselves in fear if they actually had to spend any real time around real badasses.

Finally, for proof of FTC guideline violation, see anyone who took the Mordor deal without disclaimer. Or Battlefield 4. Or any deal. What about the Dorito Pope? I mean, this is just too easy. The FTC guidelines state that you must advise of any relationship between yourself and any product you review or promote. For example, I am an affiliate of NoScope glasses. If I review them, I must first disclose that I am an affiliate of them, and would receive compensation for any pairs sold via my affiliate links.

I did exactly that in a video I made.

Now, most gaming sites don't always receive direct money. Often, they promote games to continue a good relationship with a company in order to receive future preferential treatment. For example, see this "article" by IGN for FFXIV: GotY. Now, this is just the re-release of a press release, not a news story. So, first, it should feature that statement. Second, it didn't really win any Game of the Year this year, unless you count one small gaming site calling it "Mainstream Game of the Year". Maybe they didn't want the extra M.

In reality, the term Game of the Year has become the catch-all term for a game that includes all the DLC content available... yet it doesn't match THAT distinction either. You see, the base game and this edition are the same as far as the game goes. There has been no paid DLC or expansions released as yet, all the content that has been released is free and included with the base package.

So, this is a bold-face lie, it's promotion because SE knows GotY editions sell better than standard due to the assumption by the consumer that they are getting more value for their dollar. IGN didn't do a bit of research, tossed a few platitudes around the game, a couple old article links and BAM, a promotional item now becomes a "news story".

There's obvious violation of the FTC guidelines here because they need to state that this is an article to promote, not review or even educate, about this product. While they didn't receive a direct dollar amount (one would hope) for doing this, it is intended to curry favour with SE so that they continue to get exclusive content from them.

To this:

luci_ferNo. Not you personally.
No one is saying you personally have insulted or threatened.
But your movement has. Either indirectly (by disseminating rumour, conspiracy theory and misinformation about individuals fuelling further harassment) or directly (by deliberately driving people out and then celebrating - Jenn Frank for example. And yes, #we're wi nning #g amergate #thedominoes are falling).
Additionally, an influential voice in your movement, RogueStar was in the channel originally stirring up abuse against Zoe Quinn personally, wanting to crack her email, has authored various 'operations' that your movement has then carried out.
I really don't see how, then, you could stand by your movement as 'not a hate group' and try and represent it as a few bad apples that spoiling the bunch. The apples were spoilt from the beginning.
Personally, if I really needed apples, I would buy fresh ones at this point.
9:36 a.m., Thursday Oct. 16

Since these are long (and I actually respect this poster's civil tone), let's take these separately.

If you read the replies, you'd be hard pressed that they aren't saying it's me who did this. Hell, I just got accused by the article's author of sending the death threat. No, really. I was discussing this via Twitter, suggested that, since Sarkeesian never received the threat directly, she cannot confirm its source so easily as her tweet states. And then the author tweets this:

https://twitter.com/devincf/status/522758445066240002

I personally have stayed out of it because of how others like you feel. You see black and white, right and wrong. The truth is not that easy. The truth is that there has been a segment of people trying to direct hate at any female journalist and developer they can, and have done so without any sort of banner or rallying cry. This has been an issue long before GG, and sadly likely long after. Until some accountability comes into play, there's little we can do with it.

And since GG is just a hashtag, not a website, professional organization, or anything else where we can control the membership, then yes, sadly some will claim to act in the name of GG. Just like terrorists claim to act in the name of Islam. Just like Crusaders acted in the name of God. The extremists will always be there, and should be rightly feared. They should also be rooted out and removed from society for a time until they can learn their actions have consequences.

And you point to a single person, RogueStar. I have never spoken with, never read anything by, nor even associated with that person. Yet, you group him in with me because he claims to represent GG. See, this is the problem. A very vocal minority are becoming the face of a large group, just like Sarkeesian has become the face of feminism in gaming. They are vocal, they are representative of ideals some in the group hold to, but others denounce. The difference here, and it is important, is that RogueStar should be called to account for any criminal actions he is stating need to happen. Uttering threats is unacceptable.

Sarkeesian has done nothing more than air her beliefs. She has not called for people to be hacked, to run people off of the Internet, or do anything of the sort. No, all she has done is wanted to put her viewpoint out there.

I stand by the concept of ethics needing to return to journalism, all journalism. If we can start with the small corner of the world that is gaming, great. But I'd like to see less Glenn Becks holding sway over public opinion. I'd rather people think for themselves than be told what to think by those with vested interested in them believing in what they are selling.

luci_fer...yes, but most gaming journalism is, actually, reviewing or previewing games.
which is entirely subjective. all reviews are, by nature, opinion pieces. pretending they are objective is where corruption can come in, because you can just pay for high scores.
Which are then aggregated and effect sales.
GG's calls for reviews to be entirely objective and unbiased are absurd, as you'd be left with either a descriptive sentence on content "this is a shooting game where I shoot people" (that can't comment on quality at all, as this is subjective) or a technical feature about frame rates.
Your movement appears, at this moment, to have an issue with polygon for being the only review to grade Bayonetta 2 on sexualization. Because this is not objective. Because this is opinion.
But anything based on your experience of media IS opinion, by default.
You're swimming the wrong way if you're equating subjectivity with corruption. 

I have no issues with subjective reviews. What I take issue with is when those subjective reviews abuse the readers' trust by not revealing bias. Look at TotalBiscuit as a great example. He lays all biases, both personal and professional, out there on every video and article. He lets you know where he stands, provides a divide between objective and subjective criticism, and does his best to ensure his audience is aware of this.

The same cannot be said of all media outlets. Polygon is so well known that it was expected to take points off Bayonetta 2. And again, a group claiming to be within GG is wanting this. That's the problem. There is no club house, no way to exclude those who want these other items from just rolling it into the larger discussion. It's much like the 99% movement. At first, there were people there who truly believed in the movement. In the end, so many people just bandwagon hopped that the core message got lost.

It's why, at first, I said #GamersGate needed to die. It's been polluted, stained forever by the people who use it to hide behind, to cowardly attack those online they have some person agenda against. But I see now that, if we relent, and let the other side write the history of this, they will gain greater influence in the industry, and will cause no end of issue. They will (and have) censored debate. They will (and have) use major outlets to pass off rumor and conjecture as fact. They will (and have) become the new harassers. And that won't be good for anyone.

The Utter Idiocy of Moving Countries In a Digital Age

We live in a global age.

In mere minutes, words I type on my phone can fly around the world, be seen by millions, and shared in any number of languages, even if the grammar and wording might be off. I can create a video and share my unique experience within minutes. I can shop around the globe, buying from anyone with an internet connection and the ability to mail a package.

But dear God, don't ever think of moving anywhere else but your one lonely corner of the digital universe!

When I decided to move, I thought the biggest issue I would have would be how to get my stuff from A to B. I figured that all the rest would be simple. Oh, but friends, let me tell you of the horrors of moving in the digital age.

The first on the chopping block was getting my PayPal switched countries. I frequently use PayPal as it means that I have a single point of contact when it comes to payment changes. It makes live so much easier, I assure you. So, I went into change my address, and the horror began.

I couldn't change the country. It wouldn't allow it. So I contacted PayPal via email, and was told to call in to process this change. I did, and was told they were unable to change country. UNABLE. Their "software" doesn't have the "option" to do this. Why does it not? Has no one ever moved before? I was told to just set up a whole new account. Now, I could have gotten a new email (despite this account being linked to my main email account), made a brand new PayPal, linked it all to my new bank account and such in the US, but why? My payment history is on my old account, the one now rendered useless due to their "software" not having an "option".

The alternative, and this was wonderful to do, was to cancel my old account, and remake it. And of course lose all my payment history. I chose this option simply because I don't need yet another email I don't use and to have two damned accounts to keep track of for fraud, and the whole damn purpose of having a God-damned PayPal account for me was having a single God-damned point of contact for all my God-damned purchases!

So, after that lovely experience, I moved on to my Apple account. They were more than happy to tell me that yes, you can change your account. Joy of joys, I thought! So I did so... and then lost access to ALL of my music, ALL of my apps, EVERYTHING. Now I can, and did, switch it back. And was told that there was no guarantee of me having access to my entire purchase history once I moved countries.

I am so glad I went so digital.

You see, I never used to buy anything online for fear of losing rights to it. Never had I considered that once I moved, that would be exactly what would happen. So, I simply told Apple that they would see no future business from me, and my account is now still, and forever will be, tied to a property I no longer own.

Onto Steam.

Now, I had this deep fear that, once again, I would lose everything. Joke's on me! Steam and Valve do not give to fucks about it. I can still play my games. Literally I just changed my country and state, and all my games are right there. It's so beautiful I want to cry. I didn't have to delete my account. I didn't lose my friend list, none of that. It's just a change of where I am located, who cares digitally where it's stored, right?

Next to PSN.

Now I had hoped that, since I was fine on one gaming platform, I'd be fine on them all. And since I just bought Rocksmith, I was down to get me some song packs to learn to play those songs. So I went to put in my new payment info. And guess what? PSN does not allow you to change! Once you are in a region, that's it. There are petitions all over to change this, because the alternative, if you want to use the same email, is to delete your account.

That's right, you read that correctly. Delete your account. Lose your friends' list, your achievements, any online content you've purchased, All of it. Gone. Forever. Boom.

I was going to buy a PS4. That's it for that, now. If I am going to lose all I got there, they can fucking go piss up a rope for all I care. Until that policy changes, not another Sony-based game will enter my house.

Onward to Google!

I have a small Adsense account, being a partner with YouTube, as well as for ads here on this blog. It has made next to nothing in comparison to other channels, and honestly I have never received a payout. It has a bit of money in it, so I would assume Google would allow me to change countries. Apparently I don't make enough for them to bother.

Their "answer" via an FAQ says that you can, of course. But after reading tons of posts on the Adsense forum, the answer is, "Of course, if you are making enough money for us to give a damn, otherwise remake your account and lose any money in there." It's a wonderful moment when you realize that, if you were bigger, of course they'd be happy to help...

Finally, we come to Microsoft. I was certain this would be the worst. However, no, they allow you to change. Not only that, it's automated. And if you have issues, they walk you through it. And reassure you, as Myra from their support chat did. I keep all my friends, all my content. Everything, as I am not leaving the region my account was created in.

I have other accounts yet to tackle, such as from Square-Enix-Eidos-Idontevenknowanymore, Blizzard, and the like, so there might be an addendum when those come to pass. Overall, this experience has been hell, with so many phone calls and web based chats railing to just have my accounts back the way they were. The digital world needs to be free, open and ready to allow you to move your life, not punish you for your decision to move.

So, if ever you feel the urge to move, just remember your digital life might not move with you.

Can I be a non-profit too?

I never like mentioning this woman's name. It is what she wants, it is what she craves, and it's the driving force behind her so-called activism. But silence of a single person means little. However, adding to the voices of dissent might do much more.

Feminist Frequency founder Anita Sarkeesian has, through some horrid little loophole, turned her video-making enterprise into a non-profit organization. Rather hilariously, it falls in into class 501(c)3, where you will also find religious and anti-animal cruelty groups. Yup, her little webisode series soapbox for the evils of chauvinism in the media now groups in with PETA and the Roman Catholic Church.

This turns my stomach. Not because of the existence of her ridiculous, pointless drivel that passes as some form of revolutionary, thought-provoking series of insightful videos, but because now she has a legitimate way to pay herself a salary while at the same time hiding in a tax shelter that doubles as a criticism shield.

"Oh, you can't say that I am doing this for money. I am a non-profit, so I am not seeking money for me! It's for the project!"

The reality is that Sarkeesian exists in an echo chamber of her own creation. She repeats what she finds to be popular feminazi dogma (and before you say I am exaggerating, remember, she is in the same camp as those who see disagreement as being worse than rape threats, where men are incapable of any form of understanding of women's rights issues, and where women can get PTSD from Twitter), then makes a passively decent video to try to prove how the media pushes those ideals.

This helps no one. It's the ultimate first world problem. Women in the developed world are forced to see how sex still sells, and how some genres still have lazy tropes tossed in for the sake of justifying a character's motivations. Oh dear god, nothing worse exists in the world for women, right?

I mean, it's not like there isn't a country where there is widespread rape and murder of women, right? I mean, it's not like there is someplace where women are so marginalized by the legal system that their rape and murder isn't even really a huge crime, right? Um, have you looked at this story from India? Or, what about the Sharia, laws still enforced in some countries. I mean, that's not really important, even though it allows for honour killing of women without punishment, right?

You see, it's hard to take any of these feminazis seriously when real feminists like Margaret Atwood exist. In fact, these feminazis have poisoned the well badly enough that even she has backed off on calling herself a feminist. See, that's the problem, this over-privileged, myopic and ultimately pointless people are becoming the face people think of when the word feminist pops up. They are seen as these crazy, irrational women who want to stomp men into the turf and take control, when the reality of feminism is simply the desire that women should be seen as equals as far as human rights, pay and opportunity for advancement.

I will definitely not say that even the US is there yet. We still have a baffling pay inequity. women are still routinely seen as a second-best choice, and there are fields that could use more balance of the sexes, mainly because having another viewpoint, regardless of sex, is better than an old boy's club of people who all agree.

Validating Sarkeesian's pointless video diatribes with the self-righteous stamp of non-profit is a step in the wrong direction. It gives her a pseudo-credibility with anyone who does not think hard enough on the fact that the company, not herself, is non-profit, and that non-profits are fully able to pay staff so long as the net gain for the business is 0. The only advantage I can see is that as a non-profit, she will be required to file her income, and that will be information we, the public, have a legal right to.

Avoid Spacial, get RadioDJ instead

And now for something completely different...

Almost no one knows about this, but on the weekends I do some hobbyist level radio streaming. Nothing major, and no, no links to it will be posted. It's not that I am not proud of it, it's mainly because the stream I rent is very, very tiny from a listener limit standpoint, and posting a random link online might end in me being overloaded. Maybe someday I will do a large-scale broadcast. You know, when the lotto money comes in...

But more seriously, when I started, I wanted a premiere software to do this with. I tried out Winamp as a solution for free, but it was atrocious, and very difficult to set up. After asking around and a few searches, I found Spacial's SAM Broadcaster. The software looked great, complex for me at the time, but great. I downloaded the trial, found it met my needs, and went to for it.

The software, at the time, cost $300 and change.

Now, to ease the pain, I did it in payments. It was no worse than buying some games or any other hobby at that point. My first misgivings happened at the third payment. For some reason, they didn't attempt to pass it, and at one of my attempted streams, with people waiting on me to stream, my software stopped working due to an expired licence. I had to call it off, and contact Spacial. It's then that I found out $300 doesn't buy you shit these days.

Their support, what little of it there was, utterly sucked. They were unresponsive, took forever to actually fix the issue, and in general it was a pain even finding how to get support in the first place. It should also be noted that, at this time, they announced that their software was getting a new version... which I could get for $50 for a limited time!

Given that I was already having issues, and the only bonus I saw was Windows 8 compatibility, I passed. I was not about to get suckered in for more cash when they had shown a blatantly bad amount of service thus far.

Flash forward to present day.

I just bought myself a fancy new rig... with Windows 8. Now, I had thought that they would at least patch or give a work around for their software to run under Windows 8. I tried contacting their support to see what, if anything, they would do. Shockingly, their support had gotten WORSE. Before, you could chat live with them. Now, it just drops you into creating a service ticket. However, nowhere on their site can you view the ticket. It just goes off into the ether, never to be seen again... until they email you a survey about how you liked the service you didn't receive.

On top of this, that $50 offer was gone like smoke. Instead, now they ask a whopping $179 for the same patch to Windows 8. Not anywhere have I seen it have a single new feature that is not already in the software, this is strictly compatibility.

Fed up, I tweeted at a DJ resource twitter account if they had heard good things about Virtual DJ. VDJ is a far more complex remix software. It is software I'd love to know how to use someday, but it vastly outstrips my basic knowledge today. It, like SAM, costs $300 In way of reply, a follower of the same account, Gary, tweeted that I should check out RadioDJ instead.

It was uncertain of this, some random twitter person linking me to some odd domain, but I went anyway. I am so glad I did. What I found is a software I wish I had found 2 years ago. RadioDJ is, in essence, SAM 2.0. It has more powerful automation features, a much more reliable stream management software that allows for dead air (something SAM most assuredly does not), it's light, fast, powerful... All the things SAM is not. The best news: It's free. That's right, 100% no charge, zip, zero, nada. There is a donate button (which I happily used once I had full knowledge the software worked), but aside from that, no money is required at all.

And the support, my word the support. This is a one-man operation, but he is surrounded by fans (for obvious reasons). He still does support as much as he can, and all his user support one another.

There are downsides, small ones. There's no installer, so you need to be used to dealing with software like that. You need to install the database yourself (SAM does use a database, but installs one for you), and you have to install your own streaming software. However, all these steps, with links and videos and so many supportive users, are provided right there on the website.

Spacial's homepage says you can be up and running in minutes. The same goes for RadioDJ, except you will still have money in your wallet! The learning curve may be more steep with RDJ, but for a free piece of software, it's worth the invested time. I only wish I had that $300 to give to Marius, the developer of RDJ. He deserves it far more than Spacial

Why it is wrong to not have female assassins in Assassin's Creed: Unity

First, let me start this off by saying that no, I'm not going to cry sexism. It's the low hanging fruit of this discussion, and really it isn't the reason why there are no women in Assassin's Creed: Unity. I know, many blogs and commentary pieces are going to beat that horse until the meat is mashed into the turf.

No, the real issue here is that it showcases UbiSoft's slide back from creative and diverse developer to shovelware distribution house. Assassin's Creed, as a franchise, has been bent over the table and thoroughly used in the most foul of ways to make a buck. And while there have been shining moments, overall each new entry has gone further from the original concept of the game in order to include other elements to be more "popular", or to have "broader appeal."

It's the same road that led them to turn Deux Ex into an app, rather than producing a sequel worthy of the series. It's the concept that the game would do better if we do what everyone else is doing. It's the creative void that has sucked the innovation and fun out of gaming, and leading us to have cloned franchises that run concurrent sequels year after bloody year.

So why would women be excluded? Because, quite literally, they were too busy tweaking the male characters in order to cater to whom they see the game appealing. They wanted to allow customization, which is shorthand for "We need a way to squeeze micro-transactions in here". Rest assured, there will be a customizable appearance system where part will be unlocks, and the rest either incentives for pre-order or purchasable content.

I am willing to bet that you will have every race of man available, with tons of different outfits, paperdoll style, to pick from. And during this process, they either considered the frat boy survey that was used build buzz around the time games like Remember Me and The Last of Us came us, or, more likely, simply decided to invest in a bankable idea.

Everyone likes the Assassin's Creed visual style. Cosplayers the world over do it up. Hoodies are sold by the dozen bearing the look. It's marketable, and gives you a great way to give all your distributors exclusive content without a ton of effort. However, doing double duty for the art department wasn't priority, it would lower the margins some, and not gain much money.

It's games as a business trumping games as a medium. That's the true evil. It's the same reason a gay lead won't do for an UbiSoft games. In an interview, Lucien Soulban, an openly gay writer for UbiSoft Montreal, stated that we won't see gay heroes "... for a while, I suspect, because of fears that it'll impact sales." There it is. Not a bias because gay heroes are icky. Because it could cost them dollars and cents at the cash.

That's what this is. Not sexism, it's that good old bugbear of packaged goods guys running the show, rather than a creative, open mind wanting to experiment and risk in the medium. So the next time a feminist says that gaming is sexist and mentions UbiSoft, correct them. This isn't about women, it's about money.

To our lost gift

These are words that you will never read, for we will never get the chance to teach you what they mean. Those same eyes will never see the joy that learning you existed did create. You were a dream come true, a wish plucked from the heavens made flesh. Neither of us understand why you could not stay, and we both bear the weight of that sadness.

We cannot be sure when life begins, but we do know when it ends. Just know that a house full of love awaits you if you choose to come back.

8bitMMO Review

Have you ever wondered what an MMO would look like if it were made in the Nintendo/Sega Master System era? Well, keep wondering. This isn't that game. Crated by Robby Zinchak, 8BitMMO was apparently hailed by a couple indie game cons that I have never heard of as being good.

It decidedly isn't.

First, the graphics of the world look in theme, but the actual characters look utterly cheap. The controls are horrible. You move with either the WASD combo, or via the arrow keys, and attack with the space bar. Here is the thing, your character only ever faces left or right, and  only marginally. And your sword attack direction is in the last faced direction. This makes combat problematic. The "animation" for the game looks and feels cheap.

Hailed as a 100% player built world, oh dear god does it ever look like it. Towns are half finished and devoid of any NPCs, there are a few enemy generators which spawn some supposedly humourous enemy types (one styled after Yahtzee Crowshaw's avatar for his videos, for example), but there is virtually no content.

There are about 4 actual quests before you are dropped into the hell that is player generated quests. These quests amount to wandering around looking for a reward block which you click on to complete it, then you run back for another. Depending on the nastiness of the individual, the warp to there can be safe, or just a death trap. And I mean a literal death trap, placed on spikes that insta-kill you, for the lulz I suppose.

Now, with a dedicated, motivated community like the Minecraft one, which is obviously where the creators mind was, this could be a fantastic game. In reality, combine free with player creation, and suddenly your game becomes an utter garbage heap of useless, time wasting crap.

What makes this a special kind of hell though is the massive amount of lag. Supposedly there is a player versus player option, but I didn't bother to try it. The game lags so hard that you frequently warp across the screen, or keep moving long after you stop. You freeze up, you fall off walkways, and in general have a terrible time.

The final straw is the economy of the game. You need gold to build. God comes from questing, which we have established is hell. It also comes, slowly from killing enemies. OR if you purchase the game... Yea, it is one of those brilliant, pay for fun style games. So afraid of the big guys using this, we forgot the little guys can too.

While the horrible lag issues do showcase why MMOs need steady funding to be viable, this is not the game to fund. The player created content idea sounds great on paper, given how player created content has really revolutionized different games, even creating a entirely new genre of games. However, without a guiding hand or structure from a dedicated creator, what results is what resides in this game: an utter goddamned mess.