Didn’t they suspend people who were simply members of the Facebook group, regardless of whether they had even responded to the posts in question? If so, then I think the first question to ask is: Is it reasonable for a company to expect people to actually pay attention to what’s being shared with them on Facebook? And the answer is a resounding no.
As I said above, my opinion depends on the quality of the investigation. Wizards isn’t going to share all their evidence, nor should they.
Is there a moral obligation to report the theft and dissemination of intellectual property? I’d say yes.
Also, it’s a two-way street - Wizards is under no obligation to allow people who are harming their business to play the game in sanctioned events.
How far does that obligation extend? If I were to post a link to a torrent site in this thread (I won’t), would the readers of this thread be morally obligated to notify all the film companies whose IP is being disseminated?
I saw the spoilers once they made it to the wide web. Did I have an obligation to report them?
Sure, we all have freedom of association. But Wizards has to walk a pretty fine line here or they’ll anger their players for being arbitrary. Their stated rationale wasn’t “these players harmed our business”. It was “these players had an obligation to report on others who were harming our business”, and that’s what we’re discussing.
I suspect that the percentage of their player base that is even aware of Judges and the pro circuit, let alone this controversy, is large enough that the idea this will anger anyone out of playing is irrelevant to them.
Not very. If you have the information and the ability to easily convey it to the damaged party, then you’re obligated, to me.
I’d say no, but that’s not really analogous. We’re talking about one company, not many; and a leak with one verifiable source, not an endemic issue like torrents.
No, unless you had information on the source.
Speaking as a player who wasn’t angered, I think they’ll be fine, but others are free to disagree.
If this is true, and the vast majority of their player base is unaware of this leak and the associated controversy, why would they be so upset about the cards being leaked at all?
Pareto’s Principle. The 20% who are aware of this issue probably account for 80% of sales.
It feels as if their response is ignoring that slice of the population that provides the income in deference to their marketing arm which is trying to expand the 80%. Somewhat similar to their curious response to requests to increase the number of tokens in packs versus marketing cards.
Not being aware of the details doesn’t mean they didn’t hear about the spoiled cards. What I mean is that if the pro tour and judges program disappeared tomorrow it would just be a dent in their sales, not the end of the game. They look at it is as a marketing expense not a source of revenue.