PSOBB Survey

[SegaTom]

Hi! I’m a high school student writing my IB extended essay on social and ethical issues related to Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst. I’m a PSO fan myself; I’ve been playing since December with a character called Tom, and so you might catch me online. My aim is to get a perspective of some issues from the PSO community. Please answer as many of these questions as possible. All replies will be anonymous. If you wish to keep the information private, or don’t want to make an account at PSO world, please email the answers to [email protected]. Please don’t send emails with attachments, they won’t be accepted.

1.If you feel any of the following are an invasion of your privacy, write Yes or No after the sentence (plus an explanation for why if you feel it is needed.)

a. Characters, Items and stats being viewed by Sega when a user is offline or online.
b. Sega reading private messages, team chats, or guild cards when a user is offline or online.
c. PSOBB automatically updating with new content, which you may or may not want.
d. Sega examining players even during single player games.

2. Are you addicted or socially dependant on PSOBB lol? (Socially dependant being that you feel attached to the community.)
3. Are you aware that Sega holds the right to ban players without a reason?
4. Is censoring swear words and possibly other phrases a positive or negative thing for you?
5. Are you aware that Sega only licenses the game to clients, that you never actually own PSOBB? How do you feel about this?
6. Have you experienced any issues with PSOBB staff? What is your reaction to GameGuard blocking antivirus and other third party programs?

I know all of this seems a bit negative, but I want a balanced view of the issues from both the company and users. Thank you for your time.

PS. Please answer as many questions as possible! Not handing in this essay = death.

[space_butler]

ooh, opinions http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

a. Characters, Items and stats being viewed by Sega when a user is offline or online.

no, if ST werent lazy they could do somethign about dupes etc.

b. Sega reading private messages, team chats, or guild cards when a user is offline or online.

yes, things discussed in this way have nothing at all to do with sega.

c. PSOBB automatically updating with new content, which you may or may not want.

no.

d. Sega examining players even during single player games.

no.

2. Are you addicted or socially dependant on PSOBB lol? (Socially dependant being that you feel attached to the community.)

what community?

3. Are you aware that Sega holds the right to ban players without a reason?

yes.

4. Is censoring swear words and possibly other phrases a positive or negative thing for you?

negative, but its more an annoyance than anything.

5. Are you aware that Sega only licenses the game to clients, that you never actually own PSOBB? How do you feel about this?

yes I am, and its nothign new. a lot of companies do that sort of thing.

6. Have you experienced any issues with PSOBB staff?

well, clumsy is retarded for a number of things I wont go into (IRC drama etc.) and unless you count the forum mods hes the only staffer I know of.


What is your reaction to GameGuard blocking antivirus and other third party programs?

gameguard is hardly a good programe...

[Sitka]

1.If you feel any of the following are an invasion of your privacy, write Yes or No after the sentence (plus an explanation for why if you feel it is needed.)

a. Characters, Items and stats being viewed by Sega when a user is offline or online: Sega should be able to check these and if verifiable dupes/hacks player should be warned and then banned on second offense.

b. Sega reading private messages, team chats, or guild cards when a user is offline or online: General snooping as in NSA style wiretapping, no. But, if complaints have been registered regarding unacceptable behavior regarding a player, than I think it is okay to verify such behavior, warn and then ban.

c. PSOBB automatically updating with new content, which you may or may not want: Yes, it's their game. If we don't like it, cancel your account and play a different game.

d. Sega examining players even during single player games: Doesn't bother me, particularly if complaints have been filed regarding someone using hacks/cheats to gain experience, "all rare drops," or something similar.

2. Are you addicted or socially dependant on PSOBB lol? (Socially dependant being that you feel attached to the community.): I'm attached to my teammates, particularly for cmode. I also have mutual respect for several players that I often interract with.

3. Are you aware that Sega holds the right to ban players without a reason?: As long as they own the game and stop charging me, I don't have a problem with that.

4. Is censoring swear words and possibly other phrases a positive or negative thing for you?: If done intelligently, a positive. No need for it in the game.

5. Are you aware that Sega only licenses the game to clients, that you never actually own PSOBB? How do you feel about this?: Well of course http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

6. Have you experienced any issues with PSOBB staff? What is your reaction to GameGuard blocking antivirus and other third party programs?: Two questions - 1) No issues with staff, just wish they could/would do a better job controlling the cheating. 2) I'm glad GameGuard blocks viruses - I wish it could block hackers.


Hope that helps.

[Neith]

1.If you feel any of the following are an invasion of your privacy, write Yes or No after the sentence (plus an explanation for why if you feel it is needed.)

a. Characters, Items and stats being viewed by Sega when a user is offline or online.

No- It's only character data, and I don't mind them checking for illegimate statistics.

b. Sega reading private messages, team chats, or guild cards when a user is offline or online.

No- It's a Sega-run game, they have every right to, besides, most things you send mail about are game-related anyway. However, I would feel like my privacy had been invaded if there as personal details in a mail- which would be stupid of me anyway.

c. PSOBB automatically updating with new content, which you may or may not want.

No, I don't mind updates, and they have no reason to look over a legitimate player's account.

d. Sega examining players even during single player games.

No- again, Sega runs the servers- you pay for the 'priviledge' of using ST servers. What you do on it should be monitored.

2. Are you addicted or socially dependant on PSOBB lol? (Socially dependant being that you feel attached to the community.)

Hmm.. I have met some great people through PSOBB, but on the flipside, I've also came across some total n00bs. There were a lot of people I would never want to meet, or play with again. As for being addicted, not any more. I don't really play PSO much now. However, a couple of months ago, all I seemed to do was play PSO. Only stopped when I realised I wasn't doing anything else.

3. Are you aware that Sega holds the right to ban players without a reason?

No, but it's no surprise, again, it's their servers we're all using. This still isn't fair though.

4. Is censoring swear words and possibly other phrases a positive or negative thing for you?

This depends. I think there should be a swear-filter, but one which can be turned off. This would allow younger people to avoid constant swearing, whilst still allowing older players to say what they wish. However, racist remarks, and general insults should remain censored.

5. Are you aware that Sega only licenses the game to clients, that you never actually own PSOBB? How do you feel about this?

It's an online-only game, we merely pay for the right to have a character on the server. This whole licensing doesn't bother me- once the servers close, a copy of the game would be useless anyway.

6. Have you experienced any issues with PSOBB staff? What is your reaction to GameGuard blocking antivirus and other third party programs?

Issues....yes. There's a distinct lack of 'GM'ing in-game, and problems sometimes take ages to get fixed. As far as gameguard goes, I like it. It cuts down on third party hacking programs, the likes of which have always been a plague on online games.

[Skorpius]

On 2006-01-23 12:30, SegaTom wrote:
1.If you feel any of the following are an invasion of your privacy, write Yes or No after the sentence (plus an explanation for why if you feel it is needed.)

a. Characters, Items and stats being viewed by Sega when a user is offline or online.
b. Sega reading private messages, team chats, or guild cards when a user is offline or online.
c. PSOBB automatically updating with new content, which you may or may not want.
d. Sega examining players even during single player games.
This all happens anyway. You mails and chats are logged on the servers, and your enterence into areas are also logged. Not only that, but they do have access to your characters, and you agree to all of this when you sign up to play the game. It's not an invasion of anything, since you agree to give away the privacy. So, this part of the whole thing is a little redundant. Sorry.


2. Are you addicted or socially dependant on PSOBB lol? (Socially dependant being that you feel attached to the community.)
Who isn't? Just look at the BB boards. Most players who play are dependant on the rest of the player community. I don't exactly understand this question, since when you play, you depend on the rest because the game is based off of teamwork. Making friends on the game makes the attachment, but I wouldn't call it a social dependancy.

3. Are you aware that Sega holds the right to ban players without a reason?
It's stated in the ToS that players can be banned from gameplay without notification. So yes.

4. Is censoring swear words and possibly other phrases a positive or negative thing for you?
The censorship is an attempt to control the content experienced during online gameplay. It's a way to try and keep the T rating universal among Offline and Online play. Especiall Blue Burst, since that's all Online. There's nothing that can be done about it, so I form no opinions. I deal with it.

5. Are you aware that Sega only licenses the game to clients, that you never actually own PSOBB? How do you feel about this?
This is obvious. You own the right to play on the servers, but nothing else. You never actually buy Blue Burst, it's a free download.

6. Have you experienced any issues with PSOBB staff? What is your reaction to GameGuard blocking antivirus and other third party programs?
This seems like two completely different issues. I'm not sure what the PSOBB staff has anything to do with the bahavior of anti-cheating software. For one, I've never had any issues with either point, and I have had no problems with program conflict (other than system resource drain).

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Skorpius on 2006-01-23 16:01 ]</font>

[Tycho]

1.If you feel any of the following are an invasion of your privacy, write Yes or No after the sentence (plus an explanation for why if you feel it is needed.)
a. Characters, Items and stats being viewed by Sega when a user is offline or online.
No; no reason to feel offended.
b. Sega reading private messages, team chats, or guild cards when a user is offline or online.
Yes; though I think reading guildcards and lobby chat are okay since they're public, private stuff is private stuff.
c. PSOBB automatically updating with new content, which you may or may not want.
No; fighting cheaters is important, and I don't remember of any updates I regarded as negative in the past.
d. Sega examining players even during single player games.
No; no problem.

2. Are you addicted or socially dependant on PSOBB lol? (Socially dependant being that you feel attached to the community.)
No; A long time ago I used to, but not anymore. (Take into account I quit the game, so I'm not sure if this would count at all...)
3. Are you aware that Sega holds the right to ban players without a reason?
Yes; and I'm fine with it.
4. Is censoring swear words and possibly other phrases a positive or negative thing for you?
A Negative thing, definitely. People will dodge the censors anyway, so it isn't really of any use.
5. Are you aware that Sega only licenses the game to clients, that you never actually own PSOBB? How do you feel about this?
I'm aware, and I don't think anyone other than maybe a few 'leet hax' teenagers would mind.
6. Have you experienced any issues with PSOBB staff? What is your reaction to GameGuard blocking antivirus and other third party programs?
No problems really, neither with the staff nor with GameGuard. The only bad things about GameGuard I can think of are that it wasn't updated quickly enough to keep ahead of cheaters, and maybe that it cannot be used for multiple online games at the same time.