Additional data privacy statement regarding World of M.U.L.E. on Facebook and Twitter

Today there was an important ruling from the European Court of Justice (kind of like the European Union’s version of the U.S. Supreme Court). In essence, it says that I as the admin of the World of M.U.L.E. Facebook fanpage and the World of M.U.L.E. Twitter presence (which are Facebook and Twitter community extensions to this actual, independent website) am co-responsible for ensuring it’s users’ data privacy – YOUR data privacy – according to European data privacy laws. Sadly, I cannot fulfil this responsibility because the Facebook and Twitter platforms do not give me the tools for this. Facebook fanpage and Twitter account administration tools are not supporting GDPR demands yet. Therefore, until the time this changes and Facebook and Twitter become fully compliant with GDPR also for fanpages / fan presences, I see full responsibility of ensuring World of M.U.L.E. Facebook fanpage and World of M.U.L.E. Twitter presence user’s data privacy – YOUR data privacy – with Facebook and Twitter.

Everyone who does not feel well with this statement has two options:

  1. Unlike/unsubscribe the World of M.U.L.E. Facebook fanpage or unfollow the World of M.U.L.E. Twitter presence immediately and subscribe to World of M.U.L.E.’s RSS newsfeed instead to keep up to date.
  2. Understand and accept how Facebook and Twitter manage their users’ data privacy by reading Facebook’s and Twitter’s terms and conditions.

That being said, I strongly believe that it is not the intention of European data privacy laws to shut down hobbyist retrogaming projects like World of M.U.L.E.. Just an unwanted side effect on the way to strengthen data privacy where it really matters. Unlike many other hobbyist Facebook fanpage and Twitter presence administrators, I explicitly choose NOT to shut down the World of M.U.L.E. Facebook fanpage or World of M.U.L.E. Twitter presence. Instead I leave it up and explain the difficult matter to it’s users. This is meant to be a tiny contribution to make things (improved data privacy) better for all of us. This is optimistic, maybe even naive. In case I get sued for it, I’ll let you all know…

The initially mentioned European Court ruling is only a step in a process. Further rulings on the matter are expected. I will monitor the evolution closely. At the current point in time, I see no reason to panic (i.e. shut down this page, presence, or even website) from my hobbyist, non-profit point of view. It may be that further rulings create a situation requiring me to shut down. But I am optimistic that this is just a worst case scenario.

Updated Privacy Policy

Carpe Ludum

Hi y’all, GDPR came like a bulldozer, and overran Carpe Ludum, Eidolon’s Inn and World of M.U.L.E. too! I’m not complaining, because I think it’s a good thing for society in general. For hobbyist, non-profit websites like this one however, it is “kind of” ridiculous to fulfil all the demands. Nevertheless, I hopefully thought of everything. Therefore, please take note of the updated privacy policy.

Yeah, we’re back!

Carpe Ludum

Sorry for the long downtime since November 2016, when this website was hit with a massive spammer attack. It took some time to clean things up. After all, this is just a non-profit, hobbiest website. Now, you’re able again to use the site and it’s forums to talk about great games, Sega emulation / Kega Fusion and the wonderful World of M.U.L.E.! Have fun! Quick links:

M.U.L.E. The Board Game coming November 2015 – Interview with creator Heikki Harju

In its August 17th press release, Ozark Softscape let a big, almost Wampus-sized cat out of the bag. A board game adaptation of the classic game will hit the stores this November 2015. The board game is created by Heikki Harju and published by Finnish board game company lautapelit.fi. In an interview with World of M.U.L.E., creator Heikki Harju tells the story of how the game came to be. Read the interview here.

Welcome to the Third Act of World of M.U.L.E.

Act 3 – July 2014 and beyond

You’re looking at it right now. 🙂
In July 2014, I decided to close down the previous website for World of M.U.L.E. The choice to use the “Tiki” content management system (CMS) in 2004 was a bad one for me – I simply did not find time anymore to maintain such a complex CMS.

WordPress is – hopefully – much simpler to maintain over time. We’ll see!

The first migrated content from the old World of M.U.L.E. I have migrated is a very special review of M.U.L.E. in the form of a short story. Enjoy!

Act 2 – June 2004 till July 2014

At the same time I migrated my other website Eidolon’s Inn to a real content management system (Tiki CMS), I did the same for the World of M.U.L.E.. It went ok for a while, and I even found some nice people like xot and puzzud who helped me created content. At the end, about 400 people were registered in the community – but you couldn’t call it an “active” community. This is how the site looked like then:

TikiWoM

Act 1 – August 1997 till June 2004

At first, the World of M.U.L.E. was a set of simple, static HTML files. Look at the screenshot below – gross, wasn’t it!? I guess graphics design wasn’t really my strength back in 1997.

Bildschirmfoto vom 2014-07-04 14:01:28