More Thoughts on the VN Censored PostI saw the censored post before it was removed and wondered if that might happen. A similar but more extreme measure was taken on the Official Ultima IX Boards <http://boards.owo.com/w3t-bin/wwwthreads.pl>: because the game was so buggy and choppy when it was first released, most of the postings there were justifiable gripes about the problems, and also some sincere and heartfelt pleas for patches (which probably convinced Origin to re-release a patched CD for free to registered owners), but a few troublemakers (although I did enjoy the forged and sarcastic letter from a Lord British impersonator) led Origin to the decision to close the boards completely, although some archived or official messages are still available.
With the Official Wizardry 8 Board<http://vnboards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=5140> I’m not clear on the ownership and involvement amounts shared by Sir-Tech and VN. VN gets to show their ad banners and plug their site, so I’m assuming they’ve paid Sir-Tech some sort of license rights to host the “Official” Wizardry 8 Message Board. Due to the problems its had and its resulting unpopularity, Sir-Tech may want to consider hosting the board themselves (or letting Rick do it 
), especially since traffic will pick up as we approach a tangible release date.
As for censorship, I’ve seen this of course on the heavily moderated Ultima IX Board and also in some listservs that I’m on at work (one deals with the Web, and someone was kicked off <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Web4Lib/archive/9905/0200.html> the list for posting off-topic tirades about pornography filtering). All in all I see NO REASON in this case why Rick’s message was censored – doing so only draws attention to the popularity of this board, and it comes across as very childish. I’m not really in to censorship (or any other form of fascism), so it bothers me that VN would pull such an obviously commercially-minded stunt.
I deal with these issues a little too (or rather try not to) because I’m an Open Directory editor for the Wizardry Series <http://dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Genres/RPGs/Wizardry_Series/> section, but I also host a Wizardry fanpage. The type of behavior VN displayed would be akin to me deleting the other entries in the directory, or making my site an “Editor’s Choice” (which is of course frowned upon by the ODP) – but I’m not gonna: the reason I became an editor was to compile a complete list of Wizardry sites, and to fairly list them in the directory (Yahoo? in contrast, lists 3 sites <http://dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Games/Computer_Games/Titles/Role_Playing/Wizardry/> as compared to my 45, and 1 of theirs is dead and another is a partial Wiz1 Item list – but what takes the cake is that they formally rejected my site for their directory, saying it wasn’t up to their standards … and then the official links <http://www.wizardry8.com/index-links.html> page at wizardry8.com likewise removed their link to my site, but what are you gonna do?).
VN’s behavior also reminds me of the unproductive methods employed by the FOX legal team, who are nnotorious <http://hotwired.lycos.com/special/millennium/> for squashing fansites on the Simpsons, X-Files, aand other popular shows – sites which, although may sample snippets of copyrighted material, serve a far greater role of promoting the shows. Corporations are always the last to realize that free speech of this nature is not necessarily a hinderance to their profits. Did you know that Universal Studios sued <http://caselaw.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=464&invol=417> Sony when they made the VCR? And we'll probably be talking about a similar MP3 case someday.
Until there's another Wizardry board that's trafficked as much as this one and where I can make a post with links like this one, I see no reason contribute to other commercially moderated boards.
- John
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