



Anyone who plays a mobile game long enough will hear the term: Devs.





The term is short for "developer" but who are they? They are the people who make your game run, right? Nerds, sitting behind some terminal, squinting at lines of code that determine your comings and goings ... all those inter-workings that trigger once you tap the screen in a certain place on a certain screen at a certain time. They built your game, they keep it running ... you can talk to them and get your game experience rectified if something goes awry. They are the symbol of neutrality and everything good in your game's world, right? ALL HAIL THE DEVS!





Wrong. at least by the standard of MZ, creators of Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire.





MZ "devs" are digital snake oil salesmen.





They are more cunning than the biggest guild-master, more cunning than the worst of rogue players. They can be your guild neighbor, your worst enemy ...





or ... they can literally take a side and ensure that you will NEVER win.





I am a FFXVANE player. I have been playing since September of last year. I finally decided to give it a go because of another app that gave me points toward gift cards (yeah, it's THE thing now). I waited almost a year to play this game ... I've been into the franchise since FFVII (the first RPG I ENJOYED playing) and it has grown to be a comfort of sorts. I had never played a mobile MMORPG of this style, previously I was into Legacy of Discord.





So I get in ... I'm noticing that these pack prices are like kinda ... insane. I go "nah, I don't need that" ... and I keep playing. But it dawns on me, "the more awesome I get, that means that everyone else is 100x more awesome". I buy my first pack. I start a few farms ... I play the game, do the events ... people say I'm coming along nicely. I buy another pack, and another, and another. I'm beginning to catch up. I am able to participate more and more in the game. Events get better, prizes get better ... and I consider giving MZ a commendation for actually solving the level gap and leveling the playing field.





I log into the game yesterday ... and get the news.





According to MZ (this email was released today to players who have been writing tickets for a 48hr period, after refunds started flowing like a freshly tapped keg) the items in question (long story short, the ability to decimate any and everyone who has been playing this game no matter the length of time or purchasing power) were ACCIDENTALLY sent to "random" players, and they are working on a fix. Perhaps they will fix in-game chat so that words like "boycott", "fraud", and "refund" (your message will NOT be sent if you use these words) are treated the same as words like "unfair", "advantage", and "cheat". Perhaps favoritism will be fixed too. I learned for the first time yesterday that there is a membership / subscription element to the game where if you "spend enough", THEY contact YOU. Nah, nothing seems wrong with this at all.





Why is this wrong?





Take the lottery. The odds of you winning are based not on how much money you spend, but how many people buy tickets. The prices of the tickets don't change and neither do the odds. But what if ... the more lottery tickets you bought put you in separate drawings where ONLY THE PEOPLE WHO SPENT A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF MONEY were entered into the drawing. So now your odds of winning INCREASE because of the AMOUNT OF MONEY YOU SPEND. This is economic discrimination.





So what can you do? You can call Google, Apple, and Android ... you can call your financial institution.





But you can't call or email MZ ... because they don't answer ... and they don't care. New players to the game now get bonuses that veteran players have spent time, money, and effort to PREPARE to get.





This is how class action lawsuits start.







