I quit (maybe a forum rant)

General
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Hello,

Some of you know me from my 2017 forums rants. Others may know me for my in-game generous giveaways.

This is my last huzzah on this game. Since 2018… This community has grown… Increasingly hostile to my presence. Unlike 2017, I find no comfort in playing this game anymore.

Pixel Worlds has taken not only a toll on my wallet, but also on my mind as well. It has lost it’s magic touch that it had on me when I first saw an online advertisement about it.

The rant was going to start here… But I deleted it and saved the draft in a text file. I went over this thing more than 20 times in my head. The spoiler parts maybe count as rants idk.

If anyone wants the draft, it goes into detail about all the problems this game has. I wouldn’t bet on it though since I might not even be here much longer. If I posted the full draft, I probably would’ve gotten banned from the admins just because that’s how it is with many admins/mods in many gaming communities.

I was hoping the admins would help me with my final problem… But the wolves of this community are, as always (same in Discord and on the old forums), quick to tear apart. However, I won’t tolerate any verbal abuse. The admin’s can prove me wrong right here and now. They shouldn’t be bound by standards that many admins/mods in other gaming communities uphold. Especially the “can’t” and “won’t” standards.

If anyone wishes to put up an argument against my case, I’m all for it. However, I’ll only take it from the intellectuals of this community that know about the problems that this game faces. Not the ignorant wolves that cut to the chase.

At the end of this year. . . I’m going to be doing my final giveaway. It first started with 2017. Now it’s all going to end with 2020. I still believe there are many other good people within this community. However it’s only full of greedy individuals looking to profit off this MMO just like any other. What a shame. What a big fat shame. . .

My first criticism…

ADE… Admins just had to ruin the immersion for us rare rift travelers. I mean… Sure… Open it up to advance the lore. But now… Stop. Everyone is just trying to profit off of it. Ruined it for us 1%. It’s been more than a couple of months. Always profit. If it had been open for at least 2 weeks, it would have kept the rarity and exploration at a balanced minimum… However… You admins ruined one of my reason for staying.

The second criticism…

I don’t hate Support. I’m just not fond of them. That is both an opinion and fact.

Third criticism…

I can’t leave without saying one thing on the matter of scamming. It has become much more prevalent in pay to play (P2P). It’s always the players. You’re going to take it from me admins. You going to take this informative criticism. IT’S ALWAYS THE PLAYERS THAT SCAM OTHER INNOCENT PLAYERS. THUS THE CYCLE REPEATS AND THE VICTIMS BECOME SCAMMERS THEMSELVES. Eternal. Unlimited. Infinite.

Why the heck did you guys think P2P was a good idea to be allowed. Especially when managed by shady players. You guys can’t keep mitigating the situation with the moderators. Enforcing the rules does nothing but causes the rule breakers to do their shady business in secrecy and anonymity. In the end, it’s the general population of innocent players and bystanders that lose.

P2P is basically gambling. Underage gambling is illegal in some particular countries. Kukouri Entertainment is overdue for a class action lawsuit from the parents of many underage players of this game in multiple countries. Especially when such fraudulent activity is involved in this environment. You guys are gonna have to cut your losses right now and prohibited P2P.

But how could you guys have forgotten. Especially in gambling, there’s always dealer in gambling that manages the assets of all the participants in the playing field. Make a dealer block/item that auto detects winners/losers and distributes the rewards to the winner. Compatible with multiple minigames and wiring mechanics. Make it a free 0 gem item in the shop that is only available after 24 hours between purchases. And allow a percentage tax. Only allow P2P with such an item because it discourages scamming.

I still wouldn’t risk it though. Prohibit P2P. It’s done. It’s over. If the parents find out, they’re going to hunt you admins down across international waters. It’ll all be all over the news and a PR disaster.

The only way P2P would survive is if it was prohibited but mutiple third-party individuals are still dedicated to keeping it alive. It would still encourage scamming, but it would rat out the scammers themselves and engrave the trustworthy dealers as potential P2P hubs for many players.

Also…
I would even go so far as to say Boosters are a form of gambling. In fact, it would be very much akin to scratchers that you would buy at any store that sells them.

Last but certainly not least, the lottery wheel of fortune in PIXELMINES. I got on 5 stars 10 times and it bopped it back to 1 star from like 15 feet away. That’s not how physics works. That’s not how a lottery wheel works… Especially in real time and life. That is trash RNG. That is blatant fraud. That is pure arcade gambling. I put so much money into that and never got the Wyvern. The same can’t be said for the lucky few who managed to achieve the possible “payout” rate.

Fourth criticism…

There’s another topic that I would like to bring my attention towards. It’s cheating. I’ve lurked around in some game hacking communities and forums… It’s blatantly obvious that the development against cheats/hacks have reached an all time low for this game. There are also some months old trainers that I’ve seen that are possibly still working. I can’t say much though because… How the hell would I know.

On the matter of hacking and not cheating, an acquaintance of mine recently had their account compromised. I have advocated for 2FA for in-game accounts in the old forums but admins don’t listen. Money money money.

Unless you follow the stereotype of being the kid who takes candy from the shady guy in the white van, no one would ever share their account credentials. Not only that, but you would also make a good password. However, I had a password that was relevant to my username and easy to guess for 3 years. Same password since 2017. I changed it a week ago into a completely different and secure password. They had a password that was utterly irrelevant and impossible to brute-force under any circumstance and never downloaded any sketchy keyloggers or malware. Based on the knowledge they have given me, my only guess it that there was an unannounced database breach. That’s only speculation though. I’m not pointing fingers though.

It just goes to show how lax the security in this game is. I would encourage 15+ character string passwords that are changed every month.

2FA for sure won’t solve anything. But it’ll at least add an extra layer of security that is needed. Better yet, security questions. Many games use security questions as a form of account security. Not only that, but also suspicious activity and IP detection with the possibility of blacklisting unauthorized IP.

Back to cheating. As I have just mention, blacklist. I recently brought it up on Discord but world owners should be able to blacklist cheaters from re-entering a world after they leave to escape a world ban.

That’s all I have for now…

There are many other things that I would love to bring up, especially in some “private” support emails. But… Typing this is already getting too stressful.

Fifth and final…

Old forums and user data. Here’s my take on the new forums… It sucks. The old forums was much more linear and easy to navigate. This is too much for my small brain. User data from the old forums should at least be archived if not imported. There are some useful points of reference that community may still need and not have access to.

There are going to be some crack heads trying to be smart and explaining things to me that I already know. I’m going to say it right now. Stop. I don’t want to hear it. I already know how things work in this game. If you do it, I will consider you a troll when I’m trying to be serious.

I will only take serious arguments. If you start to defame me, call me weird, or question my sanity, I’m going to delete and repost this. This is how I have always been. Since 2017 old forums. Until today.
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To those who read until the end or maybe skipped everything but still chose to view this rant. . .

Congratulations. You have come across the crucial information to my giveaway.
The theme of this giveaway… “Regret.” I’m only going to choose only 1 winner. Tell me what is your greatest regret of 2020. Starting now until the end of this year, I will only look for 1 winner with the most serious and honest answer. The prize is unknown. Anyone may participate.

(Ex. “My greatest regret of 2020 is/was returning to this game and playing it.”)
(Ex. #2 “My greatest regret of 2020 was staying home and not being able to see my friends.”)
(Ex. #3 "My greatest regret of 2020 is being unable to help my parents financially during these hard times.)

So and so forth. If you want to give me a list of your greatest regrets go for it. But I’m only looking for 1. Your top most greatest regret of 2020. Let all your frustrations and anger out. Share your regrets. Tell me everything. I will listen. Then we can move forward towards a better future. To 2021. This is and will be my last act of defiance and charity against the nature of this toxic wasteland. Until then, fare thee well and stay safe.
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Huge edit:

I was also going to bash on the moderator system. Not the moderators themselves. They’re only human. Same with the administrators. But… Still. This system is outdated.

With the advent of this new forum board. . . Admins should be asking themselves this. When was the last time they hired new volunteer moderators?

There are not enough mods online to go around. There should be at least 20 mods. Moderator applications should be based on age, maturity, and practicality. A new rotation cycle should be implemented every 4-6 months to see who wants to stay on the team, who wants to leave, and who has been inactive the longest.

I’m definitely not going to apply since I’ve already quit this game to begin with. But we should have a new fresh set of virtuous applicants willing to go around the clock and moderating the game.

Definitely should hire some, multiple people from each different timezone so that “around the clock” idea will work. 3-5 users/players from each timezone.

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I respect all the thoughts you have in mind. Please calm down. Don’t let toxicity kills your peace .

Cheers . I’m listening

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ADE… Admins just had to ruin the immersion for us rare rift travelers. I mean… Sure… Open it up to advance the lore. But now… Stop. Everyone is just trying to profit off of it. Ruined it for us 1%. It’s been more than a couple of months. Always profit.

How is it being turned into profit? Players selling some items that can be obtained from there? I agree that this is maybe “against” the whole point of lore stuff, but as you said, it must advance some day.

Last but certainly not least, the lottery wheel of fortune in PIXELMINES. I got on 5 stars 10 times and it bopped it back to 1 star from like 15 feet away.

This was an unfortunate visual bug that affected some devices and it was patched in the next possible update.

On the matter of hacking and not cheating, an acquaintance of mine recently had their account compromised.

I keep using this example, but I’m still waiting for Jake’s account to be breached (this is not a dare!). If the security was as bad as you claim, admin/mod accounts would be stolen every once in a while. I feel like I have to defend Jake here: He’s heard community’s wish for MFA and keeps bombarding the dev team with it. Majority of stolen accounts are a result of scams or poor passwords.

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Well I read most of it and i agree with some parts but disagree with most (ofc we have our own opinions) so won’t bother to change your mind.
My biggest regret this year is maybe expecting too much out of everything (not gonna go deeper into detail but yeah)

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I am also extremely pissed that the data was deleted without warning but we have people like farmminer who are saying we should have basically been paranoid and saved everything we wanted beforehand just in case something like this were to happen

I also despise the p2p and sometimes lack of dev communication. At least we have some on the forums though.

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I read the whole thing and i agree mostly.
My biggest regeret in 2020 is avoiding my friends just to be home alone and play games alone or just watch tv…
And i didint even know that p2p was legal and i agree with everything u said bout p2p

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I really enjoyed reading your criticism! It was so surprising and mindfully great! I even laughed in joy so awesome it was! I really liked this part of the criticism:

I couldn’t even imagine to describe it so good and nicely like you did so great it was reading it.
I love to hear more from your criticism! It’s even relatable to some

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In regards to your post, there are many things that I agree with you, as well as several things that I don’t share views on. One undeniable fact is that the community, especially in these past couple months, have been leaning toward pure profiting 24/7. Although I don’t have any say since it’s their lives, this situation begs the question as to what drives them to be so invested in virtual money that holds practically $0 in valuation—unless it somehow does which hints on the game terms violation by said individual.

It’s sad knowing that a great game that is meant primarily toward social is abused as a money-making simulator. This, for all we know, may have just contributed to the whole idea of scamming others for easy quick money. There are obviously some flaws that I can say for sure, especially the lack of manpower within the moderating team. A team of five or ten, unless dedicating themselves 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, won’t be able to moderate and uphold all the rules and properly punish those who break the rules.

One thing that I cannot agree is with the prohibition of P2P. Is it due to personal bias? Is it due to my age being legal, and I don’t see this as a problem? Is it because I am naturally an anti-authoritarian, and this somehow gets reflected? I don’t know. It may well be just all those things combined. Though when we’re talking about the actual law in the world, things get so much into grey area since every goods purchased with real money does not hold monetary value in any way, the team, equipped with good lawyers, are within reasonable doubt to win the court case. The worst scenario is just the game being blacklisted from a specific country though I doubt its player base would just suddenly stop playing considering VPN is clicks away. This is actually favoring the Kukuori if they do get sued as many, and I mean many, other games out there having these sorts of gambling aspect. Take “UNO” on mobile, for example. Not to mention various poker games being rated as EVERYONE whereas Pixel Worlds being rated EVERYONE 10+. Before Pixel Worlds can be sued, all those games will be gone first. And even if PW got sued, I’m sure their legal case can be dismissed by arguing the players practically bet $0 (those goods hold virtually $0 in money), they aren’t betting money or gambling by law definition.

“A person engages in gambling if he stakes or risks something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under his control or influence, upon an agreement or understanding that he or someone else will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome.”

Any items inside PW is not interchangeable into real world currency at any situation (with exception of purchase refund, of course). Thus, no risk of something of value is being gambled.

That being said, I do agree that introducing automated machine where players can be automatically paid will significantly reduce the risk. This, however, begs the question as to whether it’s worth the time invested by developers to start on this feature.

All in all, thank you for investing your time, life, and effort in playing this game and writing this whole post. I hope something positive can be taken from both moderator team and the community itself. It’s sad to see you go, but I wish you the best in your future journey—who knows whether we might meet each other in another game?

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My greatest regret of 2020 is wanting to start and learn coding and video-game making but i let laziness and unimportant things get in the way.

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Loved it, yours and appends’ post. I am not sure if i agree with these points, but i have definitely have enjoyed reading it.

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Nobody is forcing you to participate in P2P. If you don’t like it, don’t play. I have been playing PW since 2017 and I haven’t got scammed ONCE. Trust no one.

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Gems can be purchased in-game with real money though. With the wheel in the PIXELMINES for example, you can purchase extra coins with gems that you may have spent real money on, and you can then roll for a very small chance to get a valuable familiar (made even more valuable from the familiar being limited). Therefore, even though the currency can be earned in-game, other people may be indirectly gambling real money for the chance to get the familiar. The familiar being limited also encourages people to spend real money, instead of working for the gems to spend on the wheel, or earning the coins through finishing mines, as the fear that the item will eventually be unavailable is constantly present.

Many countries are starting to look into situations like this, and they’re beginning to rule for them to be regulated similarly to gambling, or sometimes even just banning them (see below). This is because, although Fifa coins, which can be earned in-game, and spent on packs allow players to obtain players without gambling, they can also purchase Fifa points for real money, which encourage the players to gamble for rare footballers.

EA to appeal Dutch FIFA loot boxes ruling following €10m fine.

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I have never played P2P. NEVER. On my life. I just don’t like it. Also, I adopt the same philosophy on the Internet as a whole. Anonymity ranges wide, but no one online can be trusted… Even if they have good intentions as myself. It’s not a fair standard, but it’s a matter of privacy and security.

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It’s profit. Trust me. Have you even seen some of the players making insane broadcasts, selling multiple of each fragments at a time? Iirc, it’s been open for about 2 months. That’s more than enough time to fluctuate prices. As many people say, more of everything/decrease in prices. Less of anything/increase it prices. That goes for many stores across the world.

Not only does keeping ADE open for a long time ruin the immersion, it also drops the rarity of said items. When any development team exposes an item or feature to sudden changes, it’ll also change the economy and understanding of the game as a whole.

Actually… Just take a look at this picture.

Screen_Shot_2020-12-10_at_10.01.48_PM
Screen_Shot_2020-12-10_at_10.01.48_PM704×440 168 KB

I’m not even going to ask if you see that. . . It’s right there. That’s just one of the many expenditures I see relating to ADE/rift. You guys have exposed to the entire lore world to excessive farming and hoarding based on the whims of your actions. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but still. . .

It kinda hurts. . . I prided myself over having such rare items and have never sold them for profit. I even pushed the price of both fragments to 5 platinum locks. I was tempted to make the trade, but it was of my own volition that I would keep the set.

If the exploration and profit were balanced, then it would have all been fine with me. Had it been an occasional event, like a week every two months or even a day per 3 weeks. . . But it’s too late to make amends to such an action.

I already stopped trying to even get myself into ADE. I had bought more than 40k spike bombs and set up a contraption where I held my USB wireless mouse and had a wire attached the the capacitive iPhone screen and my skin. I was ready to boost myself up to level 125 through a somewhat legit method of auto XP farming. Not only that, I set up afk jelly boxes while I farmed.

Then. . . I just stopped. There was no more excitement. My rare encounter with the lore world is a forgotten statement of this game. The rarity of my set of fragments dulled with the passage of time.

I can’t force any of the development team members to change their minds and actions. What you guys say or do goes… Same could be said for any other game. But, please do take care to understand the risks and rewards of such actions.

~sigh~ What a shame.

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Coincidently, my biggest regret of 2020 is the complete opposite. I regret going to college and trying to learn to code, I absolutely hate it, hell, I’m procrastinating over two assignments for it right now.

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One more announcement. . .
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The prize of my final giveaway. . .
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Shall be. . .
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3 6 5 world locks.

There maybe only be one winner. Good luck to all contestants. Have a joyful holidays and safe winter. 2021 is upon us all.

The rules are simple:

  • Only the most serious and honest answer may win.
  • Forums only.
  • No spam, bot, or alternate accounts are allowed.

Winner receives all and the right to crown themselves “King of Pix…”

(“What? That’s not in the script? Who the heck even typed this then? “King of Pixel Worlds?” Stop messing me with and give me the correct script.”)

Edit: Why 365 world locks? Don’t ask me. I would never do it for something so childish, insignificant, and the symbolic 365 days in a year. I swear on my life.

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Okay.
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(This is my honest and serious answer)

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Gems can be purchased in-game with real money though.

This is actually a very good point and keep in mind that I am not a legal expert. Take any of my answers with a grain of salt. However, as I have stated above, the virtual goods, once delivered into players, hold $0 in valuation. Since gambling is a law applied in real world, it is only legally defined as ‘gambling’ if and only if one is involved into a huge risk outside of his control with the knowledge of he or someone else will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome. Even though each player bets their virtual money, being that any of those item hold zero dollar in valuation, they cannot be deemed as gambling by legal standard. It’s not a gamble if they bet $0 with understanding that he or someone else may receive $0 at the end of a certain event outcome.

This is what most likely protects tens, if not hundreds, of games that are rated for everyone including minors.

As far as international concern, I’d say the worst scenario would be this game taking itself out from a specific region, thus no longer subject to the penalty applied in that region.

For specific EU case that you’ve provided us the link, thank you. That’s a good argument to make. From it, about two paragraphs into the article, we notice the following:

EA has said it will appeal a ruling from Dutch authorities over loot boxes in FIFA after it was fined up to €10m.

EA has three weeks from the date of the order (15th October 2020) to change the way FIFA 19, FIFA 20 and FIFA 21 works in the country. So, in effect, it has one week to make a change to its most recent FIFA games. If it refuses to make a change, EA must pay €500,000 per week, up to a maximum penalty of €10m, in fines.

Notice the first paragraph and the second contradicts each other. The first sentence argument directly implies that EA has been found guilty and need to pay a sum of fine. On the second paragraph, however, seems to tell a different story. EA actually is given three weeks to fix the three games or it will be fined each week until a maximum of one million euro.

This is one of the reason I hate modern-day journalism. I am not saying the whole article is wrong, but I believe the second paragraph is the more accurate sentencing. EA hasn’t been fined. It (EA) is subject to fine if it does not fix the games as ordered by the court. EA obviously have the option to pull the game altogether from EU. As for whether Pixel Worlds should take this action, I cannot say that. It depends on the developer’s decision which will obviously be based toward what the community wants as well as whether it is financially reasonable.

Diving a bit more into the article that you provided, it seems that EU has actually sanctioned many other games that have this loot boxes attribute. I actually just realized something that our case with Pixel Worlds’ gambling is potentially different than these other companies—another card that may be played by the Pixel Worlds developers.

Notice the potential difference between the two lays in that those games (e.g. CS:GO, FIFA, Overwatch, etc) are in it for loot-boxes directly purchasable only through real world money whereas Pixel Worlds never offer an randomized algorithm that takes in real world money. Players always get what they purchase without potential of feeling loss because they draw the bad straw. Pixel Worlds offer either VIP plan, bundle pack (100% chance to get items that are promised in the pack), or Gems. None of these purchase that involves real money is affected by various variables that determine the outcome.

As for whether the case pushed solely for this type of ‘gambling’, that I don’t know. But it could very well be one, considering CS:GO’s loot boxes can only be opened with keys purchased with real money.

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That’s a reasonable concept, but I believe the issue there lies within the fact that people can purchase certain items in-game with real-world money. While yes, if a player bets $0, they may also receive $0 back, if someone else bets $5 worth of gems, then should they also be content with the potential for the same $0 outcome? If it isn’t gambling, then they’d receive a similar amount of items compared to the number of gems they bet, there wouldn’t be any room for variation.

The keyword there, as you highlighted in bold, is potential. The main point I’ll be using here is the V.I.P system, compared to Overwatch. In Overwatch, lootboxes can be earned and opened each time a player levels up (through until level 1800), or they can be purchased and opened. V.I.P time can be earned in Pixel Worlds through completing achievements. This leads onto the V.I.P daily bonus, which can only be opened by players with V.I.P status. (If I did my maths right) players in Pixel Worlds can earn up to 130 days of V.I.P through completing achievements. Once the player has used all 130 days of their V.I.P status, and a V.I.P daily bonus prize that they like becomes available, then they’re forced to purchase V.I.P with real money to roll the V.I.P daily bonus. Something that has to be acknowledged here though, is that the player could purchase the prize from someone else, but once again, it comes into question if that person purchased V.I.P to obtain the prize, or not. The V.I.P daily bonus is a completely random chance at receiving one, of nine prizes, so if a player buys V.I.P for the sole purpose of rolling the V.I.P daily bonus, similarly to Fifa’s packs, that’s essentially gambling, with the promise of receiving a valuable in-game item.

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Keep in mind that when you buy VIP pass, you are technically purchasing 2,000 Gems on daily login, 5 total accessible slots on PWE for your account, highlighted name to indicate you’re contributing to the developer by supporting them financially, right to pass “VIP Door”, and last but not least the right to roll chances to get bonus prize. As it’s called in the game, it’s ‘bonus’ prize. It’s not the selling point, rather a bonus. You already obtain 100% without doubt what you are promised during the transaction. Anything else that may or may not come is just a ‘bonus’. On FIFA packs, however, you are purchasing that very essence of ‘bonus’ as that’s the product of loot boxes.

Regarding the keyword being “potential”, that’s true. This is all assumption as I was not present in the hearing, nor do I have extensive knowledge over what’s going on in EU and their conflict on that loot box court case. The fact that the article may very well be wrong as indicated by the first two paragraphs contradicting each other is not very helpful either—if they cannot even get such simple statement straight, God knows what else in the article that could be misleading or wrong.

I understand this well. That’s why I never put an argument about, “people can buy these exclusive items using their in-game money.”