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Bannable or Not? Advertising ingame...Devs?

  • Thread starter Melissa Rohan
  • Start date
  • Watchers 1
M

Melissa Rohan

Guest
Hi All,

Hearing half and half here... I have a website selling my ingame items for ingame gold. I know according to the terms of service I can't advertise a shop/service that sells for real life cash or other gaming site, etc. My question is... Can i give people the URL at the bank to go peruse my item lists as all the sales are for ingame gold? Does it break the TOS? Any chance of a firm answer from a Developer/EA spokesperson please as I have asked several long term vets and am getting a 50/50 response.

www.pinkscrolls.t35.com

Thats the site if you want to take a look at it thanks.

Melissa
 
DevilsOwn

DevilsOwn

Stratics Legend
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
urls ingame is a no-no

as is posting 'for sale for cash' sites on Stratics

from the KB:

With the exception of the sale of in-game items for in-game items or services, you may not market, promote or advertise anything, or make any other form of solicitation (including pyramid schemes and chain letters) through the Ultima Online service or Ultima Online web site.
 
Black Sun

Black Sun

Grand Poobah
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
DevilsOwn pretty much covered it. URL's in game will get you in hot water if you're paged on. No matter what kind of website that URL goes to.
 
W

Wallenstein

Guest
Melissa Rohan said:
Hi All,

Hearing half and half here... I have a website selling my ingame items for ingame gold. I know according to the terms of service I can't advertise a shop/service that sells for real life cash or other gaming site, etc. My question is... Can i give people the URL at the bank to go peruse my item lists as all the sales are for ingame gold? Does it break the TOS? Any chance of a firm answer from a Developer/EA spokesperson please as I have asked several long term vets and am getting a 50/50 response.

www.pinkscrolls.t35.com

Thats the site if you want to take a look at it thanks.

Melissa
Click to expand...
Well I heard someone got banned in the past for promoting Stratics in-game, so if that's any inclination then I'd avoid mentioning the URL.

I have a site myself (UOLedger.com) and have never once mentioned the URL in-game because of fear I'll be banned.. it's sad, really, but what can you do? My site makes absolutely no revenue right now so I personally don't see anything wrong with it. Rather than just disallowing the promotion of sites that make money off of UO they likely threw a blanket ban on mentioning any URLs except uo.com and uoherald.com..

Bottom line: it does violate the Terms of Service to mention a URL in-game, so be safe :)
 
M

Melissa Rohan

Guest
Thanks for the quick replies everyone.

Ok folks, looks like im gonna play it safe and not mention it in game then.

As for the shard its for the Europa one. I'll get something put on the front page to that effect. i never really thought about it, I usually just advertise on the europa trade boards with it! ;-)

Melissa
 
R

RavenWinterHawk

Guest
Melissa Rohan said:
Thanks for the quick replies everyone.

Ok folks, looks like im gonna play it safe and not mention it in game then.

As for the shard its for the Europa one. I'll get something put on the front page to that effect. i never really thought about it, I usually just advertise on the europa trade boards with it! ;-)

Melissa
Click to expand...
or you can do what all the other sites do.

I posted once about not letting temp accounts drop books, runes or anything that can be marked with URLs.

Get trial account. Drop a million books. So what if you get banned.

Another annoying way the system is abused.
 
C

Chrissay_

Guest
Black_Sun said:
DevilsOwn pretty much covered it. URL's in game will get you in hot water if you're paged on. No matter what kind of website that URL goes to.
Click to expand...
The only URLs that you are allowed to use in the game are official EA links and links to the Official Fansite program. So if you linked to http://uo.stratics.com that link should be fine.

If any player has problems posting a link from a site that is listed as an official fansite please pm me the particular link for me to investigate.

http://www.uoherald.com/fansites/
 
W

wee papa smurf

Guest
Melissa Rohan said:
Hi All,

Hearing half and half here... I have a website selling my ingame items for ingame gold. I know according to the terms of service I can't advertise a shop/service that sells for real life cash or other gaming site, etc. My question is... Can i give people the URL at the bank to go peruse my item lists as all the sales are for ingame gold? Does it break the TOS? Any chance of a firm answer from a Developer/EA spokesperson please as I have asked several long term vets and am getting a 50/50 response.

www.pinkscrolls.t35.com

Thats the site if you want to take a look at it thanks.

Melissa
Click to expand...
Way to advertise your website lol! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Good website btw :p
 
B

Beer_Cayse

Guest
See Chrissay's response above ... sending folks to Stratics via the url does NOT violate the rules. I'll admit, tho - when the rules first came out some folks were at least jailed for a bit.

As for your site - have you registered it as a fansite? That would make things all legal I believe.
 
B

Beer_Cayse

Guest
nice assortment of stuff, decent pricing as far as I can tell.

what shard(s)?
 
Lynk

Lynk

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Why not tell them to check Europa Stratics Forums for a link to your site?
 
M

Melissa Rohan

Guest
Thanks for the quick reply Chrissay!

Good idea , i could tell people to search for my site via stratics...all be legal then.

Thanks for all the nice comments, I've worked hard on the site and it looks pretty good i think for only a few weeks experience working with websites! I didn't know anything about them till two months ago. I try to keep prices current and am tweaking and updating when i can. Going by mid range luna prices at the moment but i can drop prices a little if need be.

My current playable shard is Europa... but may be expanding the next few months. Keep watching!

I never knew about this fansite thing...I'm gonna have to investigate! Can't see where to go to register though.


Melissa
 
M

Melissa Rohan

Guest
Thanks again Chrissay! :thumbsup:

Sent in my submission to you all there!

Melissa
 
Setnaffa

Setnaffa

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Hi Chrissay.

Are IM addresses OK in game? I see alot of ICQ numbers on vendors.
 
M

Melissa Rohan

Guest
Hi

Submitted my info a couple of weeks ago. No messages or emails. Just wondering if there were certain requirements for a fansite, or a waiting time? Any more information would be appreciated thanks.

Melissa
 
B

Bullet

Guest
As far as im concerned. Farmers of gold and items hurt the game and if its against the TOS i will spend as many hours it takes to stop or prevent such actions. Before anyone asks why ill explain in very short terms. If you are farming an area to make real life cash you are blocking that area from players that are there just to have fun and to entertain themselfs. This game was not designed for you to make real life cash but to entertain people who pay EA. Not you!
 
M

Melissa Rohan

Guest
Ummm, your rant bit out of place wasn't it?

Did you even check my site? If so you'll see that i trade only in in game items and gold. I don't hunt much any more (I've had a total of about 8 drops from this Tokuna event) and now concentrate on trading. If you see my other posts you'll see i've recently been trading on other shards to bring back rare and unusual items for the Europa community. What I do is for the love of the game, not to make a quick buck. Ask any of the other major name traders on Europa and they'll tell you i don't make deals for real life cash. My site is done to provide items of unusual interest to the population of Europa (Asian slime cloth, unusual import items, obsidian statues ,etc, and also provide information about the items. Its done for fun, the funds i acquire go to buying bigger and better items for players to purchase.

So, back on topic ... how about adding me to the fan site list, Chrissay?

Melissa
 
Lady_Calina

Lady_Calina

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I think what he's trying to say is that your site isn't a site dedicated to UO as a game, but it's a broker site... which isn't a fansite.
 
Hemisphere

Hemisphere

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Looks like a shopping site to me, like selling for gold ingame, and run by a fan of Ultima Online - so a fansite in that respect.

It's not a business. All the prices are in GP.

Considering STRATICS allows sales of items for $ on it's forums, if you're going to take that slant on things then Stratics is worse.

The only reason I can see for it not being accepted as a fansite (although I see nothing in the fansite program that explicitly says this is not allowed), is that it's a personal site, for just one person, and although it's not a business in the sense that it makes real money, it is an enterprise.

If it was a trade board where anyone could sell their stuff (and only for gold), then it might be okay (was uo-auction/uo-auction2 ever a listed fansite?), but ultimately the decision is down to EA, and hopefully if it's not allowed, they will give Melissa a fair and detailed reason as to why not.
 
M

Melissa Rohan

Guest
Mant thanks for the kind words Hemi . I too believe what I do does qualify my site as a fan site. If people want more ULTIMA related stuff, maybe i should post a weekly journal on there detailing my shopping trips and deals that I find. A Merchants guide maybe. I mean, it already has pretty accurate pricing as much as I can tell (they're baed on average Luna pricing), has some info regarding items and usage, provides information about items abilities and pictures of said items. It would take more work but I'm sure i could add other sections for would be merchants and traders, insider tips maybe. I mean theres already a couple of well known sites for the thief class so how about I go ahead and start working on this one for merchants? Hows that sound people?

Melissa
 
T

thelust6

Guest
I've noticed on Europa there are players (different names after about a week or two) that place books renamed with the url of the site on the floor around Luna bank and the inner rectangular path around the player housing within the walls that advertise two sites in particular, one of them providing a name and icq for a regular spawner in Despise...oh God, I pick them up and trash them, an hour or two later they are there again in the same spots on the floor.
 
P

popps

Always Present
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
DevilsOwn said:
urls ingame is a no-no
Click to expand...

Just curious.
May I ask what the rationale is for this ?

I mean, it is not allowed, ok.

Question is, why ?

What is the logic behind wanting that URLs are kept well out of the game ?

Thanks.
 
P

pdkc

Guest
They can be anything from shock sites to fraud sites. Better just keep them all off.
 
C

Corpsecrank

Guest
The original TOS to the current have always stated that advertising in game for anything not related to the game or for any type of cash profit is illegal and can be cause for terminating your account.
 
W

Wallenstein

Guest
Referring back to the original link (the OP's personal shop), I think a site more like the old UO-Auction (formerly UO-Auction2) would be the type of 'shop' site they'd take interest in as a fansite. As opposed to someone's personal shop selling personal items, UO-Auction was universal and allowed players from every shard to buy and sell any UO in-game items for UO gold using an eBay-like system.

If you were to develop a site like that- one that allowed the entire community to buy and sell for in-game gold only- you'd probably have a better shot at becoming a fansite.

All the best.
 
M

Melissa Rohan

Guest
Thanks,

I'm working on a couple of things that will benefit the Europa community at the moment (and maybe other shards later) and they will appear on my site very shortly. Can't say more at the moment but its gonna take a lot of hard work and time to sort out the details and get everything posted and linked in correctly. It may be a couple of days , it may be a couple of weeks , depends on my time constraints really.

Sorry to be a bit mysterious but don't want to give anything away until details are finalised.

Melissa
 
Arrgh

Arrgh

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
ChrissayEAMythic said:
The only URLs that you are allowed to use in the game are official EA links and links to the Official Fansite program. So if you linked to http://uo.stratics.com that link should be fine.

If any player has problems posting a link from a site that is listed as an official fansite please pm me the particular link for me to investigate.

http://www.uoherald.com/fansites/
Click to expand...
Is there anyway that you can get a certain guild (can't mention names on the boards) to please quit frickin dropping their trash books on every shard?? I'm sick of picking them up and selling them.
 
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