Cease & Desist Letter

[Agent 12]

And.........we beat our most visitors ever, by quite a large margin.

Three cheers for Ramsus for making a site that still hasn't crashed under the digg effect.

Hip Hip......Hooray!

--JP

[rguinn]

owned~!!

[Lord J Esq]

Yeah, the old record was 252, and most of those had been bots. These are all real people...reading this thread! Hey, if anyone wants to hire a freelance sci-fi and fantasy writer, I come highly recommended!

[Acacia Sgt]

It was to be expected, considering what happened...

Yet I'm surprised it took several days. Then again, it needed time to be known.

[Xshu]

I can't help but wonder what Square's thinking right now. Part of me thinks they're banging their heads off of their desks over what a mess they've caused with this. Another part of me thinks they don't really care.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

So today I called Square Enix.  This is how it went down.

Reception: Thank you for calling Square Enix, can I help you?
Me: Yeah, hi, my name is Tom DeLaney and I'm with the Birmingham News writing a story that concerns your company, could you please connect me to your PR department?
Reception: I'd be happy too, Mr. DeLaney. Hold one moment.

I got connected but no one answered.  The answering machine gave her name and an e-mail.  I left a message and hung up.  I then called the front desk again.

Reception: Thank you for calling Square Enix, can I help you?
Me: Yeah, this is Tom DeLaney again.  I left a message for the PR department, but --
Reception: I'm sorry, I should've already told you.  PR doesn't come in until 8:00.
Me: Oh yeah, the time change.  Well I left message...
Reception: Was there anything I could help you with?
Me: I'm writing an article for the entertainment section.  Would legal perhaps be able to answer any questions?
Reception: Is this about the Cease and Desist going on?
Me: Actually, yes.
Reception: Then you need to talk to _____ in PR.  She's the one taking care of this.
Me: Could I get her e-mail, please?
Reception: Here's my e-mail.  I would be more than happy to give her the message.  My e-mail is ________.
Me: Awesome.  Thanks.  I'm gonna go ahead and send the e-mail.  I really just wanted an official statement, anyway.  Would it be okay if I tried calling back after while?
Reception: Oh, yes, sure.
Me: Great. Thank you so much.
Reception: You are welcome. Good luck with the article and have a great day!
Me: Thanks! You too!

END.

I never called back, nor did I e-mail her.  But I have her e-mail address... It's only the receptionist.

I think someone needs to leak this story to mainstream media - not just the video game community.  But I think it should come from someone in upper management like Zeality, Agent12, Rasmus, Faustwolf, etc.  So don't start getting vigilante on us.

[Agent 12]

I think someone needs to leak this story to mainstream media - not just the video game community. 

I really don't think mainstream media cares as much as I wish they did.  I'm pretty sure top 10 on digg.com was the best that we could hope for.

--JP

[Lord J Esq]

I really don't think mainstream media cares as much as I wish they did.  I'm pretty sure top 10 on digg.com was the best that we could hope for

I would have agreed with you until "Dijongate."

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

That's why it would need to have a slant that makes it relevant to mainstream media.  Such as talking about net neutrality, fan fiction as an art form, and copyright infringement as a whole.

[teaflower]

Who knows? This could be an amazing feature story. Make it seem like we're the good guys fighting the evil evil conglomerate for a game we all love. Key interviews, press statements...

... if we gathered up enough people in the California area (where the NA SE headquarters are), we could protest in front of the building. That's sure to get media coverage.

[mav]

It'd be very unlikely for major news organizations (Fox, NBC, etc) to pick up this kind of story and air it on television, but it's not too outlandish to think that someone like the Associate Press would write something on the story. And it's somewhat plausible for a tech-centric organization to feature this story on multiple media (online, broadcast, etc). But the story needs to get bigger and more well known for any of that to happen, and I doubt SE and the Compendium want that right now. Right now it's on blogs and shit, but I think the rest will have to wait.

Buuuuut, Boo's post was very inspiring. Hopefully all the naysayers will follow suit and be met with similar results.

[Dark3mx]

anybody thought about submitting the story the Attack of The Show? its a G4TV show that is up-to-date with all gaming and electronic news.

[ZealKnight]

anybody thought about submitting the story the Attack of The Show? its a G4TV show that is up-to-date with all gaming and electronic news.

No one has posted this on the G4 boards yet? Pretty sure we could get it on attack of the show if we get all pre-release pics and trailers on their boards. If we were going to challenge their authority and wanted to be martyrs WHICH WE DON'T then we could get main stream news like NBC and Fox. We could get the sequel we so desire if we were to get on the mainstream news, but remember we don't want to be idiots here. It is still only a game, maybe the best game ever but still a game.

[mav]

I say let Zeality and 'em decide what to do; if they don't want this more publicized than it already is, then we need to respect that. But I agree ZealKnight, we could possibly get this on G4 and possibly some other news organizations. But once again, it's people's real lives that could be affected, so they should be the ones making the decisions.

[Agent 12]

I have no qualms with letting the story be known.  We complied with their demands, but that does not mean we have to just roll over and die. I support having what has transpired here be known to the world.  Heck, it will might make squareenix try to negotiate with us. I'm sure they were ready for the firestorm that would ensue from this....though it has definitely gotten bigger than I thought it would.

--JP