I dont see why everyone is upset. The Players and the people who were the ones doing events and helping were the ones that destroyed the program and destroyed Ultima Online because they wanted to teach a big company a lession and they should get paid...they coulda just quit being a counselor...but NOOOO they were greedy and helped ruin the community.
Sept. 21, 2000 | Catherine Reab (aka "Terendil") says she was logging up to 40 hours a week in Ultima Online, one of the Web's most popular online role-playing games, where druids and dragons wander the lands of Britannia looking for adventure. But Reab, 46, wasn't actually playing the game -- instead, she was volunteering as a community leader, answering questions and offering guidance to the game's many newbies. It was, she claims, basically a full-time job.
She had spent nearly two years working her way through Ultima Online's counselor program until she made it to the top position of regional lead counselor, managing a team of 90. As one of the 14 top "volunteers" in the program, she received a monthly $500 "thank you" and a free Ultima account.
But those days are over. Now Reab is suing Origin Systems, the creator of the Ultima Online game, and its publisher, Electronic Arts, claiming that Ultima exploited its volunteers, using free help to run what was essentially an extensive customer service program. Along with two other former counselors, she filed a class-action suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Colorado asking for compensation for her time. As her lawyer, James Schmehl, puts it, "This is not about people who are real volunteers, it's about people who are employees, but are called volunteers."
According to the legal filings, there are about 500 members of the Ultima Online volunteer program, and over the past three years thousands of players have participated. Volunteers are required to log a minimum of six hours a week in specified two-hour shifts, answering newbie questions and giving guidance to other players. In return for their time, the volunteers would receive free player accounts and special gizmos and gadgets for their game characters -- such as glowing wands or special robes that would make their characters stand out in the game. (These rewards were abruptly terminated last month, sending counselors into a furor.)
Donating a few hours of your time to an ego-affirming pastime is one thing, but 40 hours a week? "People did counseling because they loved doing what they were doing -- a love of the game, helping the players, the community and a feeling of family," explains Reab. "It changed from that to being a job -- with schedules and work hours, and people being fired and favoritism and all those things." She was angry when she felt unappreciated, burned out and had her feelings hurt. The reasons for her departure from the program earlier this year remain murky.
With the lawsuit, she says, she wants to show the world that "any industry cannot take advantage of a group of people who have a passion" -- and that companies like Origin Systems that gross $25 million annually shouldn't take advantage of faithful fans who will work salary-free.
While there may be merits to Reab's argument that Ultima Online took advantage of its dedicated community to build an unpaid customer service staff, it's also fair to ask what volunteers do to themselves. Did Ultima coerce Reab into spending 40 hours a week working, or was that merely the result of her own obsession with the game and love of the community? After all, no one forces a volunteer to volunteer -- it's easy enough to walk away if you don't want to do the work. And in fact, according to the legal documents, most counselors spent less than four months in the program
