My story will tell you why:

A group of 5 people at work decided to play the game “Ikariam” (also from Gameforge) together and we formed an alliance. During a lunch break, we figured out that we should help one of our colleague by sending him some materials. And so we did. All of us.

Some days later, 3 of us got permanently banned from the game because we had co-operated while sitting on the same network (behind the same firewall). According to the game rules, this is illegal. If we had done the exact same thing, but from our home-networks, it would had been legal, according to the rules Gameforge had created. Everyone reading the License Agreements on all applications and games they play, please raise your hands now.

Getting banned is one thing. We also lost a lot of money. Gameforge do not reimburse the money we had left on our account when they decided to ban us. This make me question their ethical values…

So 3 out of 5 was banned. What happened to the other 2? They did the exact same thing from the same network, why didn’t they get banned? I don’t know, but they have not heard a thing from Gameforge.

And the dumbest thing, according to the “support” people: We can create new accounts and then spend more money on those… yeah right. :-/

Administrator can ban you from chat or user forum for more days without any warning or noticing just because of two letters in name e.g. (in my case BA= Bratislava) or for copying one Wikipedia page at user forum (30day ban) when arguing about that “BIG” should be added to The Rules, so users can recognize, it’s a “crucial personal information”, they cannot mention in chat (or 7days ban).

Administrators (CZ/SK) use sweard words in replies to users i.e. “an*l alpinism” or “as*-crawler”, etc. If user asks to get any explanation of The Rules admins often ignore him or block him on user’s forum.

In chat (even in “prime-time” 8:00-11:00PM) is often a rude language, abuse and insulting seen. Children can join this “trash talk” without any problems.

Ambiguous or faulty rules are hard to find from the main screen (but you’ll find game features easily). There’s no list of penalties mentioned in The Rules, so it’s a pure administrator’s “free-style”.

So if you’re calm, asking for nothing just paying for Uridium, everything is fine. But if you are at the top with ship equipment (no much further fees expected?) or mention any technical problems with your ship in chat, troubles begin (jeer, ban, blocking, ignoring…). My advice is, be very carefull, if your consider to start with Dark Orbit!!!

I was perusing OnMMOs and I noticed that you don’t seem to have any coverage of Game!, which is certainly a shame. On the plus side, that’s a simple problem to solve, as Game! is free and I assure you, you can start playing sooner than you can finish reading this email. Just point your browser at http://wittyrpg.com and you’re off to the races!

So, what is Game!? Game! is the game that’s so silly, we couldn’t even come up with a serious name for it. Beyond that, Game! is a unique fusion of RPG, humour and experimentation, presented entirely through your browser. Of course, words rarely do a game justice, so I would recommend you experience Game! for yourself before you pass judgement.

I would be honoured to have OnMMOs review Game!, so please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Anyways, I’m sure your time is valuable, so I won’t consume any more of it.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

- Neil