W101Master - the ongoing challenge of temptation. Who is he? Where did he come from? Is it really fair? Hero or Villain?
You know, looking back on things, this should have been easy to spot...but such is the challenge that always surrounds things that are 'Free'.
For those of you who are not aware, there was a user on Twitter that appeared out of nowhere. He was a new user, and tweeted about W101...however, it was the nature of his tweets that really sent the Twittersphere a-buzzing. He was giving away codes - packs, Crowns, the usual type of thing, but the size of these prizes was far in excess of the usual code-based giveaways! 60,000 crowns at a time! In fact, I have seen estimates of the value of the prizes topping $25K!
Seems like something might be up.
A lot of people had a lot of opinions about this W101Master user. Some called him a hero for giving away such wonderful prizes, I mean, these codes actually worked! How can that be wrong?
However, other members of the W101 community were suspicious. So suspicious in fact, that they contacted KingsIsle to ask who this user really was! Could this really be true?
Then, the investigation. The W101Master account went quiet and people started getting concerned. Finally, the account was suspended.
Oh oh. This wasn't looking good.
Then the official KingsIsle account started becoming more active on this topic and finally, W101Master met his timely death.
As reported by our intrepid reporter-type Tabitha, Mr Lincoln had something to say about it:
a-message-to-our-community
And the Twittersphere erupted again.
How dare KI temporarily suspend accounts? Why are people being punished as a result of ignorance?
I guess, that is when it is time to sit back and reflect.
There are many old and wizened Twitter users. They give away codes in line with KI rules and are consistent with the size and types of prizes on offer.
Why would KingsIsle allow a new user to do something that not even Paige Moonshade has done? Sure, he could be a rich person wanting to spread his wealth, but in the real world this doesn't happen. At least, not very often.
It is tough. This is how KI make money. We expect so much of them - great games, ever expanding and evolving, and a lot of people expect it for free. KI are a company. They have people they need to pay, and the hard reality is, without us buying Crowns, they will go out of business and Wizard101 and Pirate101 will just get shut down like a number of other games over time. Is that really what we want?
And it isn't like Crowns are not given away, but the quantities are typically 2,000 and less, and from 'approved' sources. If you follow the trail back to KI, you can find out whether you can trust the person doing the 'gifting'.
I think the old adage just cannot be overlooked. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
I know a lot of young people were duped by this trickster, and it is an important lesson to have to learn. In fact, if the place you learn this lesson is simply a virtual game with pretend money, I guess it could be the best place to learn it.
I fully support KI trying to correct this imbalance as they simply cannot afford this kind of behaviour to become commonplace. I hope they catch the guy IRL to stop people like this taking advantage of others.
I think it is important to note that "Crowns Generators", cheats, hacks and illegal freebies will always pop up from time to time. Please try to take time to remember that KI will and must protect their business. And if they don't - we all lose.
Morgrim
A lot of you might not know about this, especially if you're a member as it only shows in-game to non-members. Basically, it's as simple as it sounds. You can simply go to KIFreeGames and complete any trivia quizzes you want. They have varying questions of varying difficulties and varying themes.
