Thursday, July 12, 2007

Integrity meltdown at MTGO...

It appears that over the 5 years of MTGO - a few have violated the Terms of Service in MTGO. When you login to MTGO - before signing in -- you have to Accept the TOS. In the TOS there are a variety of legal issues addressed. A simple one is - do not share your account.

Now its hard, if not impossible, to properly regulate and police people using their own accounts. WOTC even had a paid writer (a British pro with the initials QM) on magicthegathering.com actually admit to taking over a friend's draft in MTGO. Its a TOS violation. Against the rules.

Seems as if there are 3-5 threads AFIRE with this issue on the MTGO general boards.

KUDOS TO WORTH AND GAMERZERO FOR INVESTIGATING - but the fires are burning.

There is no integrity or trust left in MTGO at this time. Too many users I thought I could trust now think cheating or "breaking the current rules" or "breaking an unenforceable rule" is pretty darned ok.

Well its not.

MTGO is a trading card game. Its the online version of MTG. Richard Garfield, a mathematician, invented or co-invented it. He was very proud of its rules structure and following the rules are important. If a rule needs to be changed or modified - thats fine - but until then its there for a reason.

Drafts, Leagues and Premier events in MTGO cost real money. Prizes are awarded and can be sold/traded eventually for REAL MONEY. When REAL MONEY is on the line - TRUST and INTEGRITY are important.

Some really dont care, dont see the point or just enjoy Winning at All costs.

This is costing MTGO a lot of trust now.

MTGO is basically unable to host PRO level events because of this and the lack of DCI enforcement.

Its a Casual place like a Virtual Bar to hang out with friends, play some casual gaming but do not put any serious money into it - people cheat and get away with it.

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