TUX Versus the shroud of McCarthyism

Monday, August 10, 2009

SoE's "resolution"


Here's what Linda felt (and posted) on the subject, posted in the Flurry forums:



A brief reminder that the position of Galactic Senator is an appointed, not
elected position.

Please read this link for more information about how the
program, nomination and selection of Senators is handled:
http://starwarsgalaxies.station.son...ent.vm?id=66959

On Monday, July 27th, Rich Schmelter, Director of Global Community Relations, spoke directly with Tux426 regarding his removal from the Star Wars Galaxies Senate program. This is a private matter between Tux426 and SOE that has been
thoroughly evaluated, addressed and resolved. We will not discuss the matter
further.


To that end, I am locking this thread. Any future threads of this
nature will likewise be locked or moved.

Sincerely,

Linda CarlsonSenior

Community ManagerSony Online Entertainment


Message edited by SOE-Brasse on 08/03/2009 15:42:52.




What I find interesting is where she states "This is a private matter between Tux426 and SOE that has been thoroughly evaluated, addressed and resolved". Given that statement, I think it's clear that SoE will be allowing Draakull (Roger) to remain the CRM and face of SoE.



So...Here's your SoE "face":




Thursday, August 6, 2009

Sony Online Entertainment contacts

All of this has been given freely, so I don't think I'm sharing anything I shouldn't...just wanted to organize all SoE contacts I have in one place.


John Smedley
jsmedley@soe.sony.com

President of Sony Online Entertainment

Russell Shanks
Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
Sony Online Entertainment
rshanks@soe.sony.com


Dave Dhunjishaw
Vice President of Operations
Sony Online Entertainment
ddhunjishaw@soe.sony.com

Louis Corrado
Director of Human Resources
Sony Online Entertainment
lcorrado@soe.sony.com


Brad Wilcox
Executive Director of Global Customer Service
Sony Online Entertainment, LLC
http://www.soe.com/
Phone: 858-577-3929
bwilcox@soe.sony.com

Rich Schmelter
rschmelter@soe.sony.com
Director, Global Community Relations

Linda "Brasse" Carlson
lmcarlson@soe.sony.com
Senior Community Manager
Sony Online Entertainment
Tel. 858-790-3611 ~ Fax. 858-577-3200

Roger Pilney "Draakull"
512.250.3350 <-- dial by name directory...not a direct line.



Sony Online Entertainment - Austin Studio
512.250.3350

Post on MMORPG.com

Link here!

This is taken from a post made by Draakull in the forums that made it to mmorpg.com's forums. I replied at the above link, but I'll copy/paste that reply here as well.


1) you should ask Tux the truth on what he did that lead to this. Feel free
to keep thinking that Tux is a victim. Attacking SOE staff in public and private
because his private short term, ban based on his choice to use behavior that was
not appropriate for the forums, brought on the results we have now. I expect
more from leadership and especially of a senator. Tux decided to make this a
public discussion and frame it to his opinion on what was going on. It's not the
case.


2) I agree with the fact that he worked very hard for this community. You can ask him how many people from SWG have called to talk with him ever. I did and for a few hours several weeks ago to get to know him and try to find ways to work with him. But the rules are the rules.


3) Some people are a
victim of their choices and want to blame the people that enforce the rules.
Next time you get a speeding ticket make sure to tell the cop that it's his
fault you were speeding and got caught. Then start yelling at him in public once
you get the ticket. I bet that goes over just as well.


4) I like Tux but I am in a position that requires me to enforce the rules to the best of my ability. I will never live up everyone's expectations and I understand that. Some things that I have to do in my position are not always fun, exciting, or bring on that "loving feeling" with the community. I asked that he allow me some time to
figure something out and he took his anger to the forums with his other account
(no one knew he was temp-banned but he and I. Tux made that public), stirred
this kind of mess up for me, and now I am here replying to these threads,
removing people that are attacking me in the forums, etc based on his choice not
to act like a leader.


5) I apologize that his actions and my duties to enforce the rules have lead to this. It's unfortunate and not something I wanted. I did all I could do to work things out but the person you all are making these posts about took this too far and left me no other options. I won't ask anyone to try to see it from my side because that is not your job to do. I would ask that, before anyone else breaks any other forum rules, that they take some time to cool off. I did not want to post this discussion up. I prefered to keep it private but other people made choices that have left me to where I had to make a public response and explanation.


6) Again, I like Tux, I appreciate everything he did and / or tried to do and I am not happy with where we are with things now. I hope that he and I can talk again to discuss this in private but that is up to him. I want to continue to hear his ideas if he is willing to share them. I just have my rules that I have to follow and I was not expecting this to be anything like a celebration.


7) I don't mind talking to anyone that feels like approaching me in a mature way and leaves the attacks out of it. I would prefer that this discussion is stopped and I have asked that the moderators lock and / or remove any posts on this subject.


8) I ask this not to avoid the conversation but that it's not fair to Tux for any of us to have a discussion about this topic until he can provide his thoughts should he wish to
do so. I want to be fair even though I am frustrated. Anyone that has worked
with me in private over an issue can tell you that I am fair. I won't change
that approach because of this either. I believe in communication and trying to
work things out with members here that have issues.


9) The rules say to take these very types of topics to private messages because it starts lots of trouble in the forums when many of these things can be resolved in private. Had Tux made another choice then we would not be having this
dicussion.


Thanks,
Draakull.


Wow...I missed this one I guess. Nice that he accuses me of attacking the staff. I'd like to also point out where he says "I" made this public and challenge him to please provide a shred of evidence that supports that claim...because it's FAR from the truth!


1) The "TRUTH" is, I was off work...my son also plays SWG and we were both browsing the forums after breakfast. I had posted that morning, came back to read some threads and saw this big glowing RED box saying "You've been banned" or something like that.
Since their forums glitch almost as much as the game, I didn't really care much...until it persisted for some time...so...I logged on my other sons account to see what was going on. In the mean time, my son is online in-game telling people in guildchat that TUX was banned from the forums...it was a joke to him and since we were going out of town for 3-days, hardly that big of a deal to me (3-day ban).


Now...since "I" was banned, maybe someone can explain to me how "I" (as Roger accuses me of above) made this a public discussion...I did NO such thing! I did reply to other peoples posts about it on my sons account, but at no time did "I" initiate a topic on it...in fact, I did just the opposite! I actually told people it was "no big deal, 3 days".

2) Next, lets move on to his benevolent phone call to me...what a farce. The guy LOVES to hear himself talk. After 2-hours, I felt like he had no interest in me (which was fine) or the game...he has blinders on...it was all about him. Whatever. Never complained about it, never mentioned it, he flet the need to.

3) Wow...his simile with a speeding ticket and his job...WTF?! Is he arresting me?! I'm lost on that whole thing so **edit** trying to explain that one to ya guys...again, it just seems to go back to his false suggestion that he felt "I" started broadcasting this. Well...hate to break it to ya Roger, but I know some of these people IRL. I get texts, phone calls, emails from almost a hundred players. Was this supposed to remain "secret:?! If so, he really should have mentioned that to ME. I tend to be an honest person...if someone asks me something, I just don't lie. Works well for me in life and on the forums.

4) I took my "anger to the forums"?! Holy sh!t! Did he really write that? Not only is that NOT the truth, that's slander dude. And AGAIN he suggests that "I" let it slip...like we did some ghey handshake and swore not to tell anyone...Geezus Roger...that one could hurt ya bud.

5) Holy Captain Kirks nipples...does he AGAIN say that "I" brought it to the forums?! (refer to the above if you're still reading)

6) OK...now we're getting somewhere. He offers to discuss this with me...cool! Sounds reasonable right?! I called the number he'd given me weeks prior 512.250.3350 (SoE Austin's main number) and left him a voice message. I have no email address to him and the only place I "talked" to him was in the forums...which he'd banned me from (banned both my kids accounts as well). He has my email and phone numbers...all he needed to do was type or call. Neither ever happened guys.

7) LOL! Yeah, he didn't really give a rats **edit** about telling ANYONE who asked what his side of the story was. I have received so many of his PMs to people it's freaky (they emailed them to me). To think that an SoE employee was talking that freely about MY account boggles my mind. HOLY **edit** that's messed up. Uh...last I knew, "I" was the customer in this whole deal right?! What the hell?! Whether I'm right or wrong, who on Earth are they to speak so publicly about me and why would he feel he has a right to discuss the actions taken against my account with anyone other than me?! Wow...that's pretty **edit**ed up stuff if ya ask me.

8) Oh wow lol! "Now that I've told you my side of things, I ask that we be respectful and not talk about it...". Again..wow!

9) Finally..."TUX just couldn't shut his big **edit**ing mouth". Meh. Had I known we were supposed to keep this a big secret Roger, I'd have hid it from my kids too. I love how "I" get blamed for people posting about ME. Anyone else starting to see the flaws in his argument?!
But...it wasn't just my **edit** comment that got me kicked. I've been (to quote SoE) "excessively negative"...and It was actually my comment AFTER the **edit** one that really POd SoE. See...the line that followed that was this:


"John Smedley is about as competent at running SWG as Captain Edward Smith was at piloting the Titanic"

Rich and Linda from SoE asked me at the end of our conversation about this "What were you thinking when you wrote that?"...I paused...trying to act serious...and replied "I honestly thought it was funny as hell".

That, readers, is "the rest of the story".

Monday

Monday...kids are still banned, no email, no PMs, no calls from Draakass as he'd promised so many people he'd do.

There's a post on the Flurry forums from darkmelvader asking for contact info for me. I send him an email, he replies...eventually I call him as he requested. He wanted to tell me it was a no win situation, that Roger was going to win and I had no hope. Went on and on about how wonderful Draakass was and how I would be best to drop the subject and that he's an Influencer that plays on Eclipse with Roger as well and said he's a "good guy".

Well...lets face it...he might be a good guy to some of you, but he royally **edit**ed me! Go through what he did to me with YOUR account and tell me how "wonderful" this retard is. Draakass should NEVER have been put in a Community Relations role. He lacks the very basic of skills to effectively handle it.

All he really is, is the sad little man who just wants to be the "popular kid"...and the RED NAME he has gives him that. All our previous CRMs had the intelligence to use different names in-game than they do on the forums...Roger doesn't. None of our previous CRMs used their influence to build cities or promote servers...he does. I like that he plays, but I dislike that he plays as a CRM...not a "normal" player.

Anyway...Monday night...

Rich and Linda from SoE called me. We spoke on the phone for close to an hour about the situation...they were quite pleasant and they kept it quite professional. My removal from the Senate stood as they both felt I've been "excessively negative" and they (SoE) don't feel I reflected well on SoE.

Damn...imagine how stupid I felt. All this time I thought my job was to speak for the players and represent the players...not SoE. DUH! No wonder I **edit**ed up! Silly me...I thought the Red Names spoke for and represented SoE while Senators were supposed to represent player views.

Roger was to be investigated internally (read, has to buy his own lunch for a week) and the results of that investigation will not be disclosed (like he did with MY my account information).

Rich and Linda made it clear that it wasn't JUST my **edit** comment...it was the part that followed that where I said "John Smedley is about as competent at running SWG as Captain Edward Smith was at piloting the Titanic"...they asked me (Rich and Linda) "What were you thinking when you wrote that?"...I replied "I honestly thought it was funny as hell" (this was after an hour of discussions - before we hung up...not at the beginning ;) )

Needless to say, I think it's time I work on my "excessively negative attitude" in a more positive environment...another game.

Block Party

That Saturday was the big SoE "block party" in San Diego.

A good friend reported to me from the event...told me Roger was a decent guy, easy guy to feel sorry for as his life has been one **edit** up after another and this new job was a saving grace for him in several ways. He also said Roger was obviously the kinda guy who makes mistakes and rather than ever apologizing, he compounds mistakes with more poor choices.

Anyway...in person, Roger's a decent guy that people feel sorry for...whatever Oprah.

Roger told my friend that he'd unban my kids accounts right away, that "he didn't do it". He also said what he mentioned in the PMs "If TUX can tell people it was his fault, maybe I can get outta this mess?!" He also went on to assure my friend that he'd talk to me...

Yeah...well...FU Draakass! I **edit** up enough on my own ...but I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. Until you learn that lesson dude, life will be one major disappointment after another.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Draakull's PMs to other players

According to Linda M. Carlson, SoE's privacy policy is as follows:

Our privacy policy at SOE means that we do not discuss private matters,
including bans, suspensions or other penalties with persons other than those
affected. We have clearly stated that the decision to remove Tux426 was
reviewed, and upheld. His forum ban was lifted and his removal from the
Senate was reaffirmed. Aside from that, we will not discuss the matter with
anyone save Tux426 himself. How he himself chooses to share information is
beyond our control, outside of our own forums.


lmcarlson@soe.sony.com
Linda "Brasse" Carlson • Senior Community Manager • Sony Online Entertainment ( San Diego ) • Tel. 858-790-3611 ~ Cell. 321-438-2661 ~ Fax. 858-577-3200 • AIM: bhindersama

If that's the case, perhaps Ms. Carlson can explain to me why Roger (Draakull) felt entitled to send the following PMs to players:

I can't discuss what warnings he has or has not had. But I have let other
issues pass. I was going to take care of his short ban but he pushed it over
the edge with the flame baiting and making all this public. Mistake to
enforce the rules? no. Happy with the upset this caused the communinty? No.
Made Tux chose the way he handled the ban he had based on his behavior which
let to the final out come? Nope.. I did not force him to act that way. He
was not 100's of other posters. He was a person in a leadership role that set
the tone on how to act and react in the community. Every Senator knows, and
I told him on the phone a while back, that I expect senators to be leaders
by how the act and treat each other. You can't slam the CRM as a senator and
make up things as to why you were banned, stir up the community, and expect
nothing to happen. If he accepts what his part was in all of this then maybe we
can work things out but that is up to him and he and I need to have that
conversation. I can lift his ban any time and put him back as a senator should
we come to an agreement.







From:Draakull
To:XXXXX
Date:07/23/2009 23:31:54
Subject:Re:Help
Please,
He wanted to be a martar based on the information he flamed the
forums with using his alt account. He would still be Senator and back on the
forums right now had he not pushed me into a corner. He should apologize for
placing me in a position that I had no other choice to make. No one in the
community is above the rules and I had to deal with the first issue, asked him
to give me some time let things cool off to deal with what I contacted him
about, and no one knew but he and I until he took it to the forums.

Taking that to the forums, with incorrect information at that, was
another violation of the forum rules and I was left with the choices I had to
do.

I am sorry to hear your members are leaving and leaving over
incorrect information. I had not one issue with him not agreeing with red names.
I told him that on the phone. He had never had anyone from SWG call him let
alone talk for 2-3 hours on the phone. I did that weeks ago to get to know him,
give him some guidance to help out, and just build some communication.

XXXXX, your friend Tux was a hard worker for the community, dedicated
player, and I am sure your good friend. Tux was not a victim but he chose to
take those actions.
I am more than willing to apologize to anyone or a group
of people when I make a mistake because I take responsibility for my actions.
You are assuming that I don't, that I have not, and that I want to blame Tux for
something I did.

Yes I enforced the rules, but as I tell every Senator,
I expect them to set the tone as a leader and some of his recent choices left us
where we are now. They were not attacks by me or some which hunt rather they
were results of choices he made. Had Tux left it alone as I asked, had he gave
me a day to work out with my team on how to address what was considered an issue
on our end, he would not only be the Senator still but he would be on the forums
today.

Not only would he still be Senator but you and I would not have
had this PM conversation, your members would not have left, and I would not be
in the position to deal with all these riots in the forums because of the
information he chose to post.

You can post every day till the keys break
that you don't like zombies or wings or what ever. That is fine and expected to
hear from people on what they want and don't want and never an issue for me.

He wants people to believe that is why he is not senator. I don't want a
yes man, I am not a yes man, and even though everyone is upset I can't just
bypass the rules. Then I have everyone else that has ever been banned for
something silmilar up in arms. Had I not banned him the same would have
happened. I was pushed in to a no win situation but no one wants to see that.
Everyone wants to see that I somehow launched this crazy ban assault on the
forums and on Tux.

I was hired to enforce the rules and the rules apply
to all players no matter if they have been here since beta or just subbed and I
can promise you I don't like being in this position about this either.

What if I were to uban him right now? Would he be able to carry on a
conversation with me without doing what he did before? Would he be willing to
accept his part in what brought us here? Because I might be able to salvage the
senate spot and find a way to work with Tux. That would make him more of a hero
to me.

So how about this. If his love is the community of rebels, which
I happen to be, then he would be willing and able to see his part in what got
him to this place, explain the real deal to the rebel community and prove that
he is willing to work with us for the sake of his community not as any favor to
SOE. Work with us you might ask? Yes because if he can do that then I can look
at what I can bring to the table and re-instate him as well as some posts by me
to try to smooth things over.
Senators are chosen by the community team and
I manage that for SWG here. They are not voted in or out. They are nominated and
we use those nominations for who we look at but it's not done on popularity but
by who can work best to represent the community, is not hostile to the community
even if they disagee (SOE is part of this community), and can work with SWG
rednames. Notice I did not say "yes man" like Tux likes to say. I just want to
be respected for my position and the rules followed.
So it's up to him and
if he would like for me to call him again I would be glad to. I am guessing he
will say no and with something nice and colorful after that. But that's fine. I
know he is upset and feels like I did him wrong but this job is not easy and I
have plenty of eyes on me all the time. I knew when this all went down that this
would be a mess but, again, I was left with no choice.

Thanks for the
PM. Let me know if you want to discuss this further.

Regards,
Draakull




there is much more to it than that but I am not allowed to say anything so I am
stuck trying to enforce the rules. I wish I could have done something else
but I
was placed in a position that has me where I am today. I wanted a day
to figure
out what to do. I was not given that chance. I am traveling for
work and stayed
up till 4am trying to reply to every PM I had.

If I
had not enforced the rules I would have had another set of issues to deal with.
I am not where I can access my voice mail at my Texas office. I am new here
without experience with previous senators but I do know that I am to enforce the
rules on reported threads.

I know you are upset as well as others. That
was not my goal. No one had to know about any of this and things would have been
back to normal that very day. So what am I supposed to do now? This is not an
easy position to be in and I don't see a way to win either way at this point. I
want to do what is best for the community at the same time enforce the rules
that I was hired to do and that no one is above.

Senators are selected
by the community manager and not voted in by the community. They are nominated
but selected by my team. Senators are expected to be the examples of how to
conduct yourself on the forums. I really didn't have any other choice even
though it appears simple to someone on the outside looking in.

I like
Tux, I have no issues with disagreements being posted at all, I am not trying to
say anyone was bad / etc or bad mouthing anyone, but there are things I have to
do even when I don't like them and when I know that the outcome will be hard to
deal with.

I can't change the past, I can't change the choices made by
anyone at this point, and I wish I had the magic answer to this. I get 3-4 hours
of sleep per night trying to work hard for SWG, playing the game 4-5 hours per
night so I can understand
issues better, reply to dozens of PM's per night
and work hard to resolve each
one, but that is not enough and I am not sure
what to do at this point.

I wish you all would stay, I hope I can find
an answer for all of this
that appeals to everyone but I don't know at this
point. It's in my managements
hands now.

Thanks for the PM. I wish
you the best,

Draakull



That's 3 PMs to players, all 100% verifiable and I have passed along all information to SoE, that Roger felt were in his best interest to send. ALL 3 violate Ms. Carlson's stated "privacy policy".


Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Thursday...

I went camping with my kids the next 3 days...had a BLAST! Rained like hell the 1st day/night, but despite the rain we went out hiking, cooked over the campfire and made the most of the trip. I had a slight heads up that something was up as I received a text while camping asking if I was Rebel Senator...I was like "huh?!", reply comes back "YES OR NO?!"...I replied..."I was...?!".

We get home Thursday night, log on to the forums and find that I'm still banned...wth?! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...surly by Thursday the 3-day ban is over right? Wrong. It was extended to 2-weeks and there's this firestorm on the forums. I log on Jaxon, he's been banned. Aced logs on his account, HE has been banned. WTF?! Now I'm getting a bit annoyed...ban me, but don't **edit** with my kids!

NO PMs, nothing from them, just an extended forum ban and an open Senate seat. WTF?!

Roger (Draakull) had given me his phone number, so I called the number he gave me 512.250.3350...crap! It's just SoE Austin...

I didn't have his extension or know his last name, so I start thumbing through the directory trying to reach "Roger" (cuz that's all I had to go by). Tried Loche's extension, left him a voice mail :). Called back, reached some poor guy hard at work at his desk, ask for "Roger", he asks me "who's calling?" I tell him I'm just a customer. He patches me through to Roger eventually and I leave him a voice mail. He has all my contact info, I only had the forums and the phone number.

I then get an email from someone saying I should contact:
Brad Wilcox
Executive Director of Global Customer Service
Sony Online Entertainment, LLC
http://www.soe.com%7cphone/: 858-577-3929 Email: bwilcox@soe.sony.com

So I send him an email. He replied very promptly!!!

TUX,
Thanks for the email, getting some additional eyes on this, and escalating it up the community chain. I wanted to make sure you know your email has been received. You should hear back from someone today if you don’t please ping me again. -Brad

Soon after that, I get a reply from:

Rich Schmelter
Director, Global Community Relations


Chris,

My name is Rich Schmelter and I am the Director of Global Community Relations for SOE. I recieved your email and am looking into this further.

Regarding your phone message to Roger, he is currently on assignment and not at the Austin office. I will be speaking to him about this in person tomorrow and can follow up more then.
I am out of the office today so I appreciate your patience as it may take a little longer then normal to look into.

Sincerely,

Rich Schmelter
Director, Global Community Relations

Cool huh?! Sounds like it should all be cleared up soon right? Nah...