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Blackmoor VituperativeHero Games bans my friends
I learned the other evening that not only has my account on the Hero Games forum been blocked from logging in, they have also placed blocks on the IP addresses of several people in my gaming group.
To quote Susan, “That’s crazy. I don’t even know what to say.” Me, either, sweetheart.
No response from Ben Seeman, Steve Long, or Darren Watts yet. Actually, I had overlooked contacting Watts until today, so I’ll reset the week waiting period to give him a fair chance to respond. It’s important that they have a fair chance to make amends.
April 2nd, 2006 at 03:37
Well, I am certainly not trying to defend DOJ, but is it possible they are blocking IP addresses that you may have logged in from in the past.
Silly, I admit, seeing that they could just as easily be blocking off accounts from a library that you logged in from, or a hotel that you stayed at, but do you think it could be an attempt to thwart your logging on while banned?
Not that you are, just that they are trying to prevent it out of a desire for ’security’?
KA.
April 2nd, 2006 at 03:43
Oh, I think it’s pretty likely that’s the case. Absurd and unreasonable, yes, but there you go. If the person doing the banning were reasonable, none of this would be an issue to begin with.
Even so, there’s still a chance, however slim, that the people at Hero Games to whom Dan Simon answers will call him to heel.
April 4th, 2006 at 16:51
[…] Gaming — bblackmoor @ 16:50
Still no response from Hero Games about their treatment of their customers. There’s still time (I’m waitin […]
April 4th, 2006 at 17:00
Incidentally, some of my friends still can’t even read the Hero Games forums, much less log on to them. I am curious how Long and Watts rationalize treating their customers so poorly.
What they should do is remove the IP blocks. Keep my login blocked, if they like — it makes little difference to me, since I won’t be posting any more in any case, at least until there’s a policy change that prevents Dan Simon from freely abusing the good will of Hero Games customers. But un-block the IP addresses of the innocent bystanders.
That would be the honorable thing for them to do.
April 6th, 2006 at 13:53
There are times when I wonder about the general state of things at DOJ.
I don’t know anything other than what I can see on the surface.
Steve seems to be overworked, and not overly happy in his personal life.
Ben seems to have gotten into running the website by having some knowledge and thinking it was going to be a fun job.
I have not seen enough from Darren to form an opinion one way or another, which means, like everyone, I give him the benefit of the doubt, and figure him to be okay.
I will say that Ben showed very poor judgement in the Kara/Rachel revival that he helped Mightybec orchestrate. But I think that may have been exactly that, very poor judgement, not any kind of malice.
Dan Simon, on the other hand, I have formed an opinion of.
He seems like his own gratification, ego, whatever, overrides every other concern, including and especially, what is good for DOJ.
I don’t know if the others endorse what he does, or if he has created a state of paranoia, by convincing the others that the Hero website, and Online Store, are under constant attack from ‘hackers’, and that he is the only one (or at least the only one they can afford) who is able to protect them.
Therefore, they put up with whatever he chooses to do because they are afraid of losing their business if he leaves, or worse, turns against them.
The sad thing is, Ben seemed to be doing a decent job as moderator, until Simon stirred up so much ill-will that they had to institute a ‘police state’ on the boards, at which point Simon seemed to take over the lead role.
Coincidence?
In any case, I, and many other long-time posters, are gradually spending less time on the Hero boards.
It just isn’t as much fun as it used to be.
The worst part is, I don’t know if there is going to be an alternative.
Unfortunately, the Hero Board, under DOJ, is managing to undo what the old board did, which was make me want to play Hero again. I just don’t really have the good feelings about it that I once did.
At one time I was actually creating my own Hero website, but as time goes on I am not sure if I have any interest in doing something to promote the Hero system, when that, in turn, promotes DOJ, and by extension puts money in Dan Simon’s pocket.
KA.
April 8th, 2006 at 00:21
[…] ts, aka “DOJ dba Hero Games”: You’ve had more than a week to respond to my concerns, but you have not done so. Neither of you has seen fit to apologiz […]
April 9th, 2006 at 22:20
[…] @ 22:17
In a surprising turn, after ignoring two separate previous emails [1] [2] (one of which was also CC’d to Ben Seeman, another Hero Games re […]