Tales of Pirates

For the first time in a long while, we've come across a tale of digital wrong-doing that doesn't involve internet spaceships and is definitely not allowed by the developers. The game in question is Tales of Pirates published by IGG. Apparently a number of the game's players have fallen victim to a trick, and IGG wants to publicize this to make people aware of the scam. There's a brief warning on the official Tales of Pirates site about account security, but they just put out a press release that's far more detailed.

IGG writes: "As with any popular game, IGG's Tales of Pirates has attracted its share of scammers. Even the most careful pirate can sometimes be fooled by a well-executed scam. The best way to avoid becoming a victim is to learn the common tricks scammers use. To help players, the ToP would like to highlight one particularly popular method used recently." We can only hope they emailed the full info to their playerbase, but we'll keep our own take on it short and sweet here -- five steps to violating the Tales of Pirates EULA and getting banned (and of course, what to watch out for.):

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Tales of Pirates, the 3D cartoon-style free-to-play piratical MMORPG from igg.com, is holding Triple Exp Carnival again this weekend across all servers. There's no particular seasonal or event-based reason for this; the motive is simply 'more fun this weekend', and it's hard to argue with that.

Tales of Pirates is a popular MMO with a laid-back atmosphere, and recently celebrated its one-year anniversary. It's based upon an intricate background history and large campaign world, with a particular emphasis (not surprisingly) on oceanic exploration. ToP has also earned particular acclaim for its fighting system and ship-to-ship combat.

Triple Exp Carnival is set to run from 9.00 AM ET on May 24th through to 21.00 PM ET on the same day. Make the most of it while it lasts!

Internet Gaming Gate (IGG to its friends), who you may recognize as the company behind such free to play MMOs as Myth War Online, Zu Online, and Tales of Pirates, has announced that they have received a new chunk of funding to the tune of $4.5 million USD from an investment capital firm to expand their operations. Having only launched in 2006, IGG has already put out an impressive number of titles and boasts a user base of over 3.5 million. If we had any doubts about the efficacy of the free MMO business model, this vote of confidence has to quell those doubts at least a little.

The funding was provided by IDG Technology Venture Investments, a subsidiary of the International Data Group, a body whose primary goal is to link Silicon Valley to the burgeoning Chinese technology market through the use of venture capital.