The Monopolistic FFOnline (Under Construction) A Fellow Monopolistic Site    The Competition is quite harsh in the world of Final Fantasy Sites. There are literally thousands of fan pages around, many of which receiving hits from their owner's only. Some sites have great content, some are disasters, but no one knows about them. It is a cruel world indeed. At the top of it lies a select few "big time" sites, having broken the great barrier known as 1,000,000 Hits. At the top of this mountain is Final Fantasy Online, the site everyone loves to hate. But how did they get there, who did they push over, rip off, and gerbil stuff? They are clearly ahead of their best competition (Shinra Online, FF: Worlds Apart) in terms of popularity. No site gets to the top of the mountain with out pushing over a few sites along the way.    The webmasters of FFOnline would lead you to believe that they got ahead by design and content. Hands down, FFO does have an excellent design and content (though the accuracy of it is questionable), and that indeed was a good boost, but where did they get it from. According to Lanham, "FFOnline stole FFAlpha's design". Well, looking at some historical designs, it appears just that.    Well, thankfully we now have proof of FFO's dastardly intentions. I sat down with one poor soul who was literally screwed by old deadhorse. The following MSN (Sephiroth using Trillian) conversation appears in it's editted form. Only irrelavent parts are removed. The real handles for the two are as follows: Jrock is [email protected] Myself is [email protected] Myself: Well, let's get this interview on then. Jrock: cool Myself: Ok, what is the source of your problems with FFOnline. Jrock: Well... a year or so (may have been two) ago I launched yet another Final Fantasy site known as FFlegends. This site may have been on the web for no less than 24 hrs. The next morning after I uploaded every thing I recieved an email from some service FFonline was associated with accusing me of stealing html, graphics, and even site design... more >> Myself: Go on (it says your offline) Jrock: they said that the site needed to be removed and that they had already contacted my host (fortunecity) and if I had not removed the site in 24 hrs they would have to take legal action. Whats funny is that same night I uploaded my site I had contacted Squaregamer to see if they would put up a link to my site or something (I was just looking to get some help in getting a few hits... big mistake). Myself: Now, was this information of your own working? Myself: ie, the content? Jrock: Yes. This was info I had gathered on my own (by playing each game I owned, and having friends help) even before FFonline 7 even existed (or became what it is today). I'll put it this way, not even a single pick of FF8 was even out when I started. Jrock: started gathering info that is Myself: Ok, how about the imagery? Jrock: All custom done through photoshop 4. Any images I had were gathered from all over the place (the same way anybody else got their images and stuff at the time). Myself: So you did not get any imagery or information from FFOnline at all. Jrock: not at all. Myself: Ok, do you have the e-mail with the threat? Jrock: No. It was quite awhile ago so it got deleted when my hotmail account was shut down. Sorry. Myself: Ok, now, you say your site was a Fortunecity site, do you have the original format saved? Jrock: No. I was freaked out so everything got deleted (hey I was still sorta new to all this... I didn't know what to do so I deleted everything). I may have something on a zip disk though... lemme check. Jrock: Sorry this ain't helping much... but it was quite awhile ago Myself: Well, if you have a screen shot, that will do, and it is helping alot Jrock: crap... nothin... my xoom account may have had something but I guess their gone now... Myself: Ok, now, can you describe in detail the letter from FFOnline, and who it was from? Jrock: Ok, the first letter was from some bizare service (agency). I had emailed them back asking for specific information as to what the hell may have been even remotely similar to the site. They could give me nothing just sending back a reply similar to the first. So I then decide to go to the source of all this... DH. Myself: Dh was the webmaster one year ago? Jrock: My site went up right at the time DH took over. Myself: I see Jrock: Laz (the original owner) was completly out of the picture. Myself: Ok Jrock: so... after I sent my e-mail to DH asking him what the heck was up with all this crap, he emails me back promptly stating that he has sent my email out to all his staff members and that "they were all laughing at my ignorance." Myself: He is known to do that Jrock: laughing most likely because they probably finished off one of their FF sections with my info. Myself: Ok, go on Jrock: I just gave up after that. I didn't have the time to waste bickering with this moron seeing as my maturity level is much higher than his own, and comming back by flaming him would just show I was no better than him. So I pretty much gave up doing webdesigns since. If that is what I will have to put up with everytime I want to make a site based on my favorite game (Final Fantasy) then count me out. For the actual conversation file, click here.    If you ask me, its a damn shame. Hard work just thrown down the toilet. Not only that, but Dh has screwed others out of their sites as well, by sneaky, subvertive tactics. Sometimes he would rat out sites with illegal forums, othertimes he would do exactly what he did to Jrock. The point is simple: If you plan on making a FF Site, make sure it isn't good or Dh will try to shut you down.