Orrrrr......instead of being greedy fucks and involving some cashscam in the whole thing, ndoors could just make a donation? Nonsense to do something asblatantly obviously greedy and self serving as this, try to pass it off as charity, then put the owness on the players when they call bullshit. Blizz just pulled the same shit. Its crap.
"charity" should not involve the company "being charitable" making a pile of money off it. Luckily, most people aren't too dense to see this kind of scheme for what it is....though, obviously , there are those dense few.
Yeah.. but even Blizz donated 50% of the revenue for these items. To me, 50% of the procedes does show good intention. 5% is simply an attempt to gain free advertising and a false incentive for players to actually buy the items.
50% of like 2 months of something that is ongoing forever...but yeah...
{ Mod Edit } Its not a scam if people were going to spend their money on items anyways. The game runs off an item mall. Dont like it? Dont play it. They didnt have to donate 5% to charity but wanted to do something nice. Doing something nice is not being greedy. Now because of stupid people like you who have nothing better to do then be whiny bitches, theres going to be less money being donated to a great cause. Having worked at a childrens hospital, I can tell you a large majority of the costs needed to run it comes from donations. Most of those donations come from what you would call "greedy" companies. So, perhaps while your taking games away from children, you should also unplug their life support since it was paid for by these donations.
Originally posted by WarpHunter { Mod Edit} Its not a scam if people were going to spend their money on items anyways. The game runs off an item mall. Dont like it? Dont play it. They didnt have to donate 5% to charity but wanted to do something nice. Doing something nice is not being greedy. Now because of stupid people like you who have nothing better to do then be whiny bitches, theres going to be less money being donated to a great cause. Having worked at a childrens hospital, I can tell you a large majority of the costs needed to run it comes from donations. Most of those donations come from what you would call "greedy" companies. So, perhaps while your taking games away from children, you should also unplug their life support since it was paid for by these donations.
I would be absolutely willing to bet that a VERY small portion of the costs to run a childrens hospital DO NOT come from charities tied in to advertising. They come from people who donate out of a desire to do so. There are companies...lots of them...who just fucking donate...you know...to be nice..not to raise sales.
Its nice to see that no one will even touch what I keep bringing up. You have two choices: one, give 5% of that item to charity. Two, give nothing. Apparently alot of people thought option number two was better because option number one was too 'immoral'.
You said you gave a homeless guy 20 bucks cause he needed them more than you. How about I complain that you could've given him 50 and that you're just a cheapass, uh? The guy lives on the street, its fucking cold, he has no money. You have a home, a job and you give him 20 bucks? fork over 50 or 100 and make sure he makes it through the winter with enough blankets to stay alive out there.
Or better yet, invite him to spend the holidays in your home. Now thats proper charity.
Its nice to see that no one will even touch what I keep bringing up. You have two choices: one, give 5% of that item to charity. Two, give nothing. Apparently alot of people thought option number two was better because option number one was too 'immoral'. You said you gave a homeless guy 20 bucks cause he needed them more than you. How about I complain that you could've given him 50 and that you're just a cheapass, uh? The guy lives on the street, its fucking cold, he has no money. You have a home, a job and you give him 20 bucks? fork over 50 or 100 and make sure he makes it through the winter with enough blankets to stay alive out there. Or better yet, invite him to spend the holidays in your home. Now thats proper charity.
Youre wrong. There are 3 choices. They could have just made the donation quietly.
Its nice to see that no one will even touch what I keep bringing up. You have two choices: one, give 5% of that item to charity. Two, give nothing. Apparently alot of people thought option number two was better because option number one was too 'immoral'. You said you gave a homeless guy 20 bucks cause he needed them more than you. How about I complain that you could've given him 50 and that you're just a cheapass, uh? The guy lives on the street, its fucking cold, he has no money. You have a home, a job and you give him 20 bucks? fork over 50 or 100 and make sure he makes it through the winter with enough blankets to stay alive out there. Or better yet, invite him to spend the holidays in your home. Now thats proper charity.
Youre wrong. There are 3 choices. They could have just made the donation quietly.
And we come full circle. Welcome to the real world, where some companies try to merge the useful and the pleasant.
Edit - and I dont know if you noticed, but players were sending what was basically 'hate mail' to Child's Play, not Ndoors. Way to go, bitch to the charity and not the company. Now thats some good old fashioned 'lol' for ya.
Its nice to see that no one will even touch what I keep bringing up. You have two choices: one, give 5% of that item to charity. Two, give nothing. Apparently alot of people thought option number two was better because option number one was too 'immoral'. You said you gave a homeless guy 20 bucks cause he needed them more than you. How about I complain that you could've given him 50 and that you're just a cheapass, uh? The guy lives on the street, its fucking cold, he has no money. You have a home, a job and you give him 20 bucks? fork over 50 or 100 and make sure he makes it through the winter with enough blankets to stay alive out there. Or better yet, invite him to spend the holidays in your home. Now thats proper charity.
Youre wrong. There are 3 choices. They could have just made the donation quietly.
And we come full circle. Welcome to the real world, where some companies try to merge the useful and the pleasant.
Edit - and I dont know if you noticed, but players were sending what was basically 'hate mail' to Child's Play, not Ndoors. Way to go, bitch to the charity and not the company. Now thats some good old fashioned 'lol' for ya.
Certainly can't argue with the point in your edit.
Originally posted by Archemorous Edit - and I dont know if you noticed, but players were sending what was basically 'hate mail' to Child's Play, not Ndoors. Way to go, bitch to the charity and not the company. Now thats some good old fashioned 'lol' for ya.
I'm not 100% certain on the exact details, but as I recall, NDOORS recently made changes to Atlantica's item mall. It used to be that players could decide between getting items faster (through the mall) and farming them yourself (slower). In the change, they nerfed drop rates of a lot of important items for the game, basically forcing late-game players to either pay money or fail at the PvP.
Players complained A LOT. And for all of their complaining, NDOORS did nothing. So it makes sense that they would contact Child's Play, a company that might actually listen to their complaints.
Also, it's impossible to say if it was hate mail or not. The entire release from NDOORS sounds more like them trying to make anyone who complains out to be bad guys who, like us, feel that 5% is a spit in the face. It's possible that everyone who contacted them said "Look, this is what's going on, and we'd hate to see a great company like Child's Play team up with scum over 5%."
What Ndoors should of done instead is giving 5% of what they received from players buying from their item mall since launch. That would of been better instead of trying to screw people over with a "event" for charity which involves the item mall. Why do companies always have to take the contreversial road when they got the easy road right under their noses? AO is worst then gambleing at the casino tbh,without knowing in 7 months I've putted 3K $ into their item mall,I slapped myself and haven't touched my computer for a whole month and then uninstalled the game,since then I kept my ass away from F2P MMO's.
Don't see Ndoors complaining, they get the extra 5%! Sounds like they were in the only winners in this scenario. Advertising something as going to charity and then turning around and not doing it seems to be like they are breaking some laws. Perhaps some attorney general's need to look into this situation.
Personally I find Ndoors one of the more greedy producers in this genre. I don't play their games and advise any one else to avoid them too.
Its nice to see that no one will even touch what I keep bringing up. You have two choices: one, give 5% of that item to charity. Two, give nothing. Apparently alot of people thought option number two was better because option number one was too 'immoral'. You said you gave a homeless guy 20 bucks cause he needed them more than you. How about I complain that you could've given him 50 and that you're just a cheapass, uh? The guy lives on the street, its fucking cold, he has no money. You have a home, a job and you give him 20 bucks? fork over 50 or 100 and make sure he makes it through the winter with enough blankets to stay alive out there. Or better yet, invite him to spend the holidays in your home. Now thats proper charity.
No. The actual two choices are:
1. Have an increase in sales of more than 5% (more people will buy than normal cause of the charity) with the drawback of having to give 5% for charity.
2. Do your normal sales and give nothing for charity.
----
If that's ok for you, why don't you sent me 100$ and i promise i 'll give to some poor guy over here the 20$.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
Its nice to see that no one will even touch what I keep bringing up. You have two choices: one, give 5% of that item to charity. Two, give nothing. Apparently alot of people thought option number two was better because option number one was too 'immoral'. You said you gave a homeless guy 20 bucks cause he needed them more than you. How about I complain that you could've given him 50 and that you're just a cheapass, uh? The guy lives on the street, its fucking cold, he has no money. You have a home, a job and you give him 20 bucks? fork over 50 or 100 and make sure he makes it through the winter with enough blankets to stay alive out there. Or better yet, invite him to spend the holidays in your home. Now thats proper charity.
No. The actual two choices are:
1. Have an increase in sales of more than 5% (more people will buy than normal cause of the charity) with the drawback of having to give 5% for charity.
2. Do your normal sales and give nothing for charity.
----
If that's ok for you, why don't you sent me 100$ and i promise i 'll give to some poor guy over here the 20$.
I guess I just refuse to be that cynical. Must be a flaw in my character.
I guess I just refuse to be that cynical. Must be a flaw in my character.
You didn't sent me any money either... Why? Cause it's not about being cynical. It's about common sense.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
I guess I just refuse to be that cynical. Must be a flaw in my character.
You didn't sent me any money either... Why? Cause it's not about being cynical. It's about common sense.
I didnt send you any money because you're not actually providing a service, or a product, unlike Ndoors. Say what you want about the company. All companies are greedy, we get it. They sell a product, dont want to buy, then dont. But dont whine because they try to make money, thats what all companies do.
Completely agree. So far, the only game I've seen that decided to do this the way it should be is Wizard101... that is, 100% of all money earned off of people who bought a special mount went to charity. Seriously, is it really THAT hard to say "Hey, let's spend an hour or two desinging this special *thing* and then not only get a tax write-off as a company, but get good promotion and good feelings as well!" It was bad enough when Blizz was all "Yeah, 50%!", but 5% is just terrible. It's throwing crumbs at those who are suffering and going "What, I'm giving them crumbs! How dare you get upset over this! It's better than nothing!"
SOE is doing the same thing I believe. You buy the different Child's Play items for 500 Station Cash [$5] and they are donating $10. So they are doing double the amount the players spend.
Child's Play simply decided that it would deny the donation. Higher-ups there are the ones that seem to be too full of pride to accept money to save lives because of some bad e-mails that you may not even be able to prove that came from actual Atlantica Online players and consider them as coming from the whole Atlantica community. Could even be NDoors sending the e-mails as players. You never know...
Unless NDoors pulled all this BS, and is actually using CP as scapegoat, because I fail to see how CP would ever need to bring this up, and if they really knew about gamers they would know how much people can be jerks in the internet and acknowledge that saving lives is more important than giving in to asshats. Very strange...
I didnt send you any money because you're not actually providing a service, or a product, unlike Ndoors. Say what you want about the company. All companies are greedy, we get it. They sell a product, dont want to buy, then dont. But dont whine because they try to make money, thats what all companies do.
Making money is the single most healthy thing for a company to do. However selling charity is not. If they didn't wanted this to turn against them they could have just claimed "ok we sell this. it's at normal price, however we expect to make a bit higher sales cause 5% of the money will go for charity". But they decided to treat their customers like idiots. That's the price they 're paying now.
Like when you meet a girl, you have to be decent on what you want to do with her. Sex or relation? If you say relation but the next day you 're with the next girl on your list, you 're probably gonna pay it... Basic shit you learn from highschool...
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
I propose an elegant solution to this for next year.
1) Pick an item in the item mall to sell for charity next year. Said item must stay in the item mall all year long.
2) Next December, when you want to donate to the charity, figure out the average amount of these items sold per day.
3) IMPORTANT: Don't tell anyone you will be donating money to charity, because this would be advertising.
4) Any day during the unadvertised charity event that more than the average number of units is sold, reserve that money in the "charity fund."
5) At the conclusion of the secret donation event, simply announce that you will be donating X amount of money to a charity, where X = the amount in the "charity fund."
This solution seems to be the exact solution that would make everyone happy as it includes the following key points that I have picked out in this thread:
1) No advertising.
2) NDoors makes no more money than they potentially would have anyhow.
3) Company appears to have "just cut a check" to the charity, making players feel good about the company.
4) Since no item appears to have been the target of the charity, players don't feel ripped off for purchasing something they would have purchased anyhow.
Downsides however to this method are very few, numbering almost exactly one. There may be others I haven't considered, but here is a complete list as of this moment:
1) Charity receives little to no money because no-one was aware of the event.
Clearly there are a lot of better ways that this could have been handled. There are also numerous ways that this could have been done even worse. I think we need to get over ourselves and our opinions on what is right and wrong. The fact that they decided to donate any portion at all is a great gesture. It may have looked like advertising, but I think that was just an unavoidable part of letting people know of the plan to donate. My state lottery "benefits older Pennsylvanians", but I don't buy lottery tickets because I want to help old people, I buy them because I want something. This item mall sale is the same idea, it benefits children in the hospital without video games, but I didn't buy it because I wanted to help children, I bought it because I wanted something. In this case the something is simply a mount, or that thing for the druid quest, while in the previous case I wanted money.
Next time, lets not mess up a chance to do a little bit of good, even if some of it does seem immoral. If you feel so strongly, simply donate to the charity yourself and don't make the purchase. I mean really, isn't that the ultimate kick in the face?
In closing, I would just like to thank this thread for the best laughs I've had in quite a while.
It doesn't matter if you thought that 5 percent was a piddly amount: if you complained directly to Childs Play, you are a sack of absolute shit.
Beau
Exactly! If you want to complain,just troll around in the official forum. Since when people started to worry about the complaints being effective? Holy..
What's next? Someone see a crime and instead of talking to the bad guy,he calls THE COPS? Just absurd
I am the Community Coordinator here at Ndoors Interactive Inc. In order to give some clarification on our promotion, we created a special item box for our players to have the opportunity to receive a desirable item within our game. As an added bonus, we would be donating 5% of our gross sales of this box to the Child’s Play charity. When we released this item we informed our players about which charity the proceeds would go to so that players who did not wish to participate by purchasing this item had the opportunity to donate to the charity directly.
The promotional item mall box in question included a group of in-game items which was gathered from our player’s feedback. This was created in order to give back to some of our users this holiday season. Players are neither required to purchase this item box to play our game, nor is it the only possible way of obtaining the items that are contained in this box.
We here at Ndoors Inc. wish to continue in keeping with the giving spirit and we will be continually giving back to charities on an annual basis. We are now working with our community in order to decide on a new charity so that the proceeds will benefit people in need.
It doesn't matter if you thought that 5 percent was a piddly amount: if you complained directly to Childs Play, you are a sack of absolute shit.
Beau
Exactly! If you want to complain,just troll around in the official forum. Since when people started to worry about the complaints being effective? Holy..
What's next? Someone see a crime and instead of talking to the bad guy,he calls THE COPS? Just absurd
=[
Let me re-state what I have said:
If you emailed Child's Play to gripe, complain bitch or moan about the small amount (5 percent) that the charity would receive, then you need to have your head examined.
This is not about someone writing Childs Play to go "Hey, you know, I think that you are not getting a fair shake.." this is about several members of the community writing emails griping, bitching and moaning about, more than likely, the contents or price of the item and the small (by their standards) percentage.
Oh well, what else would you expect from a community of angry white male youth?
Beau
Listen to the Spouse Aggro podcast at spouseaggro.com. Twitter: spouseaggro
i wasnt aware you knew exactly what was mentioned in the emails.
Until someone comes out with a copy of exactly what those people had emailed, dont jump to conclusions about what those "complainers" did or didn't say.
Edit: if you know atlantica, you'd know that communication between player and company is lacking...(hence the new creation of Lawl, the CC to help solve this)
Though, after the box was released, there were comments about NDoors not listening to the community. People not really fond of getting a box for a higher price only to receive a costume. The box was not well received.
I am the Community Coordinator here at Ndoors Interactive Inc. In order to give some clarification on our promotion, we created a special item box for our players to have the opportunity to receive a desirable item within our game. As an added bonus, we would be donating 5% of our gross sales of this box to the Child’s Play charity. When we released this item we informed our players about which charity the proceeds would go to so that players who did not wish to participate by purchasing this item had the opportunity to donate to the charity directly.
The promotional item mall box in question included a group of in-game items which was gathered from our player’s feedback. This was created in order to give back to some of our users this holiday season. Players are neither required to purchase this item box to play our game, nor is it the only possible way of obtaining the items that are contained in this box.
We here at Ndoors Inc. wish to continue in keeping with the giving spirit and we will be continually giving back to charities on an annual basis. We are now working with our community in order to decide on a new charity so that the proceeds will benefit people in need.
Sincerely,
The Atlantica Online Team
Do not play your game and most likely never will.
That said, any type of charity should be welcomed and appreciated. Most companies would of just placed the things for sale and took all the profits. Hello, cash shop?
Many companies (Businesses) do this, give a small % to some charities, and do not take flack for it that i am aware of. This is first MMO that i have heard of that tried something like this.
5 % is always more than 0% so to me, the charity and the people complaining, seem to be the only ones losing here.
People seem to be confusing the way charities are run, the actual % of donations that go to the cause -VS- the % taken for salaries,operating costs and so on. And donations, what people or companies give, to a charity.
Really, we are now going to try to make anyone, companies, or people, have to donate a set percentage to qualify as a "good thing"? As i said above, any donation is better than none.
Anyhow, for me it seems that your company tried to do something good. So well done.
Comments
Yeah.. but even Blizz donated 50% of the revenue for these items. To me, 50% of the procedes does show good intention. 5% is simply an attempt to gain free advertising and a false incentive for players to actually buy the items.
50% of like 2 months of something that is ongoing forever...but yeah...
{ Mod Edit } Its not a scam if people were going to spend their money on items anyways. The game runs off an item mall. Dont like it? Dont play it. They didnt have to donate 5% to charity but wanted to do something nice. Doing something nice is not being greedy. Now because of stupid people like you who have nothing better to do then be whiny bitches, theres going to be less money being donated to a great cause. Having worked at a childrens hospital, I can tell you a large majority of the costs needed to run it comes from donations. Most of those donations come from what you would call "greedy" companies. So, perhaps while your taking games away from children, you should also unplug their life support since it was paid for by these donations.
Warp
I would be absolutely willing to bet that a VERY small portion of the costs to run a childrens hospital DO NOT come from charities tied in to advertising. They come from people who donate out of a desire to do so. There are companies...lots of them...who just fucking donate...you know...to be nice..not to raise sales.
Its nice to see that no one will even touch what I keep bringing up. You have two choices: one, give 5% of that item to charity. Two, give nothing. Apparently alot of people thought option number two was better because option number one was too 'immoral'.
You said you gave a homeless guy 20 bucks cause he needed them more than you. How about I complain that you could've given him 50 and that you're just a cheapass, uh? The guy lives on the street, its fucking cold, he has no money. You have a home, a job and you give him 20 bucks? fork over 50 or 100 and make sure he makes it through the winter with enough blankets to stay alive out there.
Or better yet, invite him to spend the holidays in your home. Now thats proper charity.
Youre wrong. There are 3 choices. They could have just made the donation quietly.
Youre wrong. There are 3 choices. They could have just made the donation quietly.
And we come full circle. Welcome to the real world, where some companies try to merge the useful and the pleasant.
Edit - and I dont know if you noticed, but players were sending what was basically 'hate mail' to Child's Play, not Ndoors. Way to go, bitch to the charity and not the company. Now thats some good old fashioned 'lol' for ya.
Youre wrong. There are 3 choices. They could have just made the donation quietly.
And we come full circle. Welcome to the real world, where some companies try to merge the useful and the pleasant.
Edit - and I dont know if you noticed, but players were sending what was basically 'hate mail' to Child's Play, not Ndoors. Way to go, bitch to the charity and not the company. Now thats some good old fashioned 'lol' for ya.
Certainly can't argue with the point in your edit.
I'm not 100% certain on the exact details, but as I recall, NDOORS recently made changes to Atlantica's item mall. It used to be that players could decide between getting items faster (through the mall) and farming them yourself (slower). In the change, they nerfed drop rates of a lot of important items for the game, basically forcing late-game players to either pay money or fail at the PvP.
Players complained A LOT. And for all of their complaining, NDOORS did nothing. So it makes sense that they would contact Child's Play, a company that might actually listen to their complaints.
Also, it's impossible to say if it was hate mail or not. The entire release from NDOORS sounds more like them trying to make anyone who complains out to be bad guys who, like us, feel that 5% is a spit in the face. It's possible that everyone who contacted them said "Look, this is what's going on, and we'd hate to see a great company like Child's Play team up with scum over 5%."
What Ndoors should of done instead is giving 5% of what they received from players buying from their item mall since launch. That would of been better instead of trying to screw people over with a "event" for charity which involves the item mall. Why do companies always have to take the contreversial road when they got the easy road right under their noses? AO is worst then gambleing at the casino tbh,without knowing in 7 months I've putted 3K $ into their item mall,I slapped myself and haven't touched my computer for a whole month and then uninstalled the game,since then I kept my ass away from F2P MMO's.
-Happy New Year in advance
Don't see Ndoors complaining, they get the extra 5%! Sounds like they were in the only winners in this scenario. Advertising something as going to charity and then turning around and not doing it seems to be like they are breaking some laws. Perhaps some attorney general's need to look into this situation.
Personally I find Ndoors one of the more greedy producers in this genre. I don't play their games and advise any one else to avoid them too.
No. The actual two choices are:
1. Have an increase in sales of more than 5% (more people will buy than normal cause of the charity) with the drawback of having to give 5% for charity.
2. Do your normal sales and give nothing for charity.
----
If that's ok for you, why don't you sent me 100$ and i promise i 'll give to some poor guy over here the 20$.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
No. The actual two choices are:
1. Have an increase in sales of more than 5% (more people will buy than normal cause of the charity) with the drawback of having to give 5% for charity.
2. Do your normal sales and give nothing for charity.
----
If that's ok for you, why don't you sent me 100$ and i promise i 'll give to some poor guy over here the 20$.
I guess I just refuse to be that cynical. Must be a flaw in my character.
You didn't sent me any money either... Why? Cause it's not about being cynical. It's about common sense.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
You didn't sent me any money either... Why? Cause it's not about being cynical. It's about common sense.
I didnt send you any money because you're not actually providing a service, or a product, unlike Ndoors. Say what you want about the company. All companies are greedy, we get it. They sell a product, dont want to buy, then dont. But dont whine because they try to make money, thats what all companies do.
SOE is doing the same thing I believe. You buy the different Child's Play items for 500 Station Cash [$5] and they are donating $10. So they are doing double the amount the players spend.
NDoors claims to have done nothing.
Child's Play simply decided that it would deny the donation. Higher-ups there are the ones that seem to be too full of pride to accept money to save lives because of some bad e-mails that you may not even be able to prove that came from actual Atlantica Online players and consider them as coming from the whole Atlantica community. Could even be NDoors sending the e-mails as players. You never know...
Unless NDoors pulled all this BS, and is actually using CP as scapegoat, because I fail to see how CP would ever need to bring this up, and if they really knew about gamers they would know how much people can be jerks in the internet and acknowledge that saving lives is more important than giving in to asshats. Very strange...
Making money is the single most healthy thing for a company to do. However selling charity is not. If they didn't wanted this to turn against them they could have just claimed "ok we sell this. it's at normal price, however we expect to make a bit higher sales cause 5% of the money will go for charity". But they decided to treat their customers like idiots. That's the price they 're paying now.
Like when you meet a girl, you have to be decent on what you want to do with her. Sex or relation? If you say relation but the next day you 're with the next girl on your list, you 're probably gonna pay it... Basic shit you learn from highschool...
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
5%???? How about instead of "donating" to NDOORS u give something to "Child´s Play"??
I propose an elegant solution to this for next year.
1) Pick an item in the item mall to sell for charity next year. Said item must stay in the item mall all year long.
2) Next December, when you want to donate to the charity, figure out the average amount of these items sold per day.
3) IMPORTANT: Don't tell anyone you will be donating money to charity, because this would be advertising.
4) Any day during the unadvertised charity event that more than the average number of units is sold, reserve that money in the "charity fund."
5) At the conclusion of the secret donation event, simply announce that you will be donating X amount of money to a charity, where X = the amount in the "charity fund."
This solution seems to be the exact solution that would make everyone happy as it includes the following key points that I have picked out in this thread:
1) No advertising.
2) NDoors makes no more money than they potentially would have anyhow.
3) Company appears to have "just cut a check" to the charity, making players feel good about the company.
4) Since no item appears to have been the target of the charity, players don't feel ripped off for purchasing something they would have purchased anyhow.
Downsides however to this method are very few, numbering almost exactly one. There may be others I haven't considered, but here is a complete list as of this moment:
1) Charity receives little to no money because no-one was aware of the event.
Clearly there are a lot of better ways that this could have been handled. There are also numerous ways that this could have been done even worse. I think we need to get over ourselves and our opinions on what is right and wrong. The fact that they decided to donate any portion at all is a great gesture. It may have looked like advertising, but I think that was just an unavoidable part of letting people know of the plan to donate. My state lottery "benefits older Pennsylvanians", but I don't buy lottery tickets because I want to help old people, I buy them because I want something. This item mall sale is the same idea, it benefits children in the hospital without video games, but I didn't buy it because I wanted to help children, I bought it because I wanted something. In this case the something is simply a mount, or that thing for the druid quest, while in the previous case I wanted money.
Next time, lets not mess up a chance to do a little bit of good, even if some of it does seem immoral. If you feel so strongly, simply donate to the charity yourself and don't make the purchase. I mean really, isn't that the ultimate kick in the face?
In closing, I would just like to thank this thread for the best laughs I've had in quite a while.
It doesn't matter if you thought that 5 percent was a piddly amount: if you complained directly to Childs Play, you are a sack of absolute shit.
Beau
Listen to the Spouse Aggro podcast at spouseaggro.com. Twitter: spouseaggro
Exactly! If you want to complain,just troll around in the official forum. Since when people started to worry about the complaints being effective? Holy..
What's next? Someone see a crime and instead of talking to the bad guy,he calls THE COPS? Just absurd
=[
Hello,
I am the Community Coordinator here at Ndoors Interactive Inc. In order to give some clarification on our promotion, we created a special item box for our players to have the opportunity to receive a desirable item within our game. As an added bonus, we would be donating 5% of our gross sales of this box to the Child’s Play charity. When we released this item we informed our players about which charity the proceeds would go to so that players who did not wish to participate by purchasing this item had the opportunity to donate to the charity directly.
The promotional item mall box in question included a group of in-game items which was gathered from our player’s feedback. This was created in order to give back to some of our users this holiday season. Players are neither required to purchase this item box to play our game, nor is it the only possible way of obtaining the items that are contained in this box.
We here at Ndoors Inc. wish to continue in keeping with the giving spirit and we will be continually giving back to charities on an annual basis. We are now working with our community in order to decide on a new charity so that the proceeds will benefit people in need.
Sincerely,
The Atlantica Online Team
Exactly! If you want to complain,just troll around in the official forum. Since when people started to worry about the complaints being effective? Holy..
What's next? Someone see a crime and instead of talking to the bad guy,he calls THE COPS? Just absurd
=[
Let me re-state what I have said:
If you emailed Child's Play to gripe, complain bitch or moan about the small amount (5 percent) that the charity would receive, then you need to have your head examined.
This is not about someone writing Childs Play to go "Hey, you know, I think that you are not getting a fair shake.." this is about several members of the community writing emails griping, bitching and moaning about, more than likely, the contents or price of the item and the small (by their standards) percentage.
Oh well, what else would you expect from a community of angry white male youth?
Beau
Listen to the Spouse Aggro podcast at spouseaggro.com. Twitter: spouseaggro
i wasnt aware you knew exactly what was mentioned in the emails.
Until someone comes out with a copy of exactly what those people had emailed, dont jump to conclusions about what those "complainers" did or didn't say.
Edit: if you know atlantica, you'd know that communication between player and company is lacking...(hence the new creation of Lawl, the CC to help solve this)
Though, after the box was released, there were comments about NDoors not listening to the community. People not really fond of getting a box for a higher price only to receive a costume. The box was not well received.
Do not play your game and most likely never will.
That said, any type of charity should be welcomed and appreciated. Most companies would of just placed the things for sale and took all the profits. Hello, cash shop?
Many companies (Businesses) do this, give a small % to some charities, and do not take flack for it that i am aware of. This is first MMO that i have heard of that tried something like this.
5 % is always more than 0%
so to me, the charity and the people complaining, seem to be the only ones losing here.
People seem to be confusing the way charities are run, the actual % of donations that go to the cause -VS- the % taken for salaries,operating costs and so on. And donations, what people or companies give, to a charity.
Really, we are now going to try to make anyone, companies, or people, have to donate a set percentage to qualify as a "good thing"? As i said above, any donation is better than none.
Anyhow, for me it seems that your company tried to do something good. So well done.