LolHQ
Now a news article on a well known Runescape fan site was bought to my attention several minutes ago. I won’t mention the actual name of the site because the owners are trigger happy retards who threatened to sue the last time I made a derogatory blog post about them, unless I removed it. Which you can guess, I did.
Anyway, this site in question *cough* NAZIS, WHALES, 12 YEAR OLD MODS *cough* have announced that they will be giving away monthly prizes to valued members. These prizes include gaming systems, yes. A Runescape fan site is actually offering to give away Xbox360s/Wiis/PS3s to people voted “valued members”. May I be the first to say; HOW FUCKING RIDICULOUS. It’s pretty obvious to anyone with more than one brain cell (and thus sadly nobody at the site in question) that this is just a sickeningly sad ploy to try and;
1) Attract more members, lets face it, what 12 year old wouldn’t be lured by the idea of a free Xbox360 or PS3.
2) Make existing and new members behave, hell a next gen gaming console is rather a large incentive.
However brilliant this idea sounds in theory, we must remind ourselves that the people executing this plan are complete morons. I doubt they’ve given it more than 2 seconds thought, infact I’d be willing to detail the thought process in the head of the said owner:
Now, Nazi references aside. This seriously is a dumb idea. You can’t ‘bribe’ a community to act better, and in their own words they describe this prize giving (and the possibility of introducing more incentives and prizes in the future) as an effort to ‘Stay at the top of the food chain’. So they are basically admitting they are trying to attract more members, and keep them in line, with offers of prizes not related to runescape in any way, for actions that are also not related to runescape in any way. Anyone else have difficulty understanding why they brought their goal to ’stay at the top of the food chain of rs fan sites’ in, when what they’re offering is nothing to do with Runescape, and is something no fan site should really have, or even consider having to offer.
The bottom line? Popularity and reputation can’t be bought, especially when your site has a reputation as colourful as the site in question. And trying to keep your community in line with little more than bribes? I think Einstein said it best;
If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
That’s just sad. If they have to lure in kids with the promise of a gaming console, they really underestimate the consequences. A few months will go by, and someone who (by their standards) had been acting civil, will realize they won’t ever get anything. What will occur when this person realizes this?
SPAM
Their forums may benefit at first, but it’s sure to backfire.
Note to *cough*HQ - Don’t offer up prizes for people expecting everyone to stay happy. Everyone gets something, or you’ll pay for it in forum moderation time.
What profit can you get from giving some 12 year old an Xbox360 or PS3?
Surely enough you can’t convince a community to act better. Especially for a game system. Which I highly doubt will bring much to the community except a large bill. How you can pay the server bill and PS3 bill I would never know.
Frankly, I think it’s a farce and they won’t actually give anyone anything. Just hold it over their heads and tell them to behave.
Hey I remember a year or two ago when HQ was much smaller, they always complained about ‘not able to pay bills’ and threatened to close down if donations are insufficient.
So tell me, how would they manage the prize money AND the bills, especially if the community there increases twofold at least.
They can’t, it’s obviously a lie.
Well I’ve heard from well informed, trust-worthy people that Stormy actually makes quite a bit from RHQ. Or so he’s said.
Ehm? WTF? Such assholes, they are just wanting to show off, I bet that “Valued” player is just Im4everdumb’s second account.
Fucking potheads, stop ripping people off and stop pretending to be elitaristic…
Hmm, I find it sad that they need to use gaming consoles to draw people in. It’s depressing that they can’t get members any other way.
This is just plain going too far. RuneHQ needs to crawl up into a hole and die, and do me a favor and take it’s shitty, whiny, immature player base with it.
Wait, whoa! I’m beginning to sound like Brad! Oh well…..