Can one 'promote' an international business opportunity via lotro?

[Scarletstarr]

I've played LOTRO for around 6-7 years now, and I wonder whether there are any implications for talking to people about a business I've started outside of LOTRO? Long story short, i need to network to find people that may want to join me in my venture, and LOTRO is my main source of networking with people!

I just want to make sure it wouldn't be against the rules to for example, create a kinship named after the business and send out a message to those who want to learn a bit more about it - it's an international opportunity so if it wasn't against the rules it would be really helpful to use my favorite game to do the networking required

Or would it be seen as 'trolling' or 'spamming' or something if I did this? (Bear in mind though, its more about befriending people and talking about it, I wouldn't be posting sales pitches or pushy messages - just want to know how far something like this can go before it's against the rules)

Any advice on something like this would really help - I don't know if i'm really posting in the right forum either so apologies if not

[Gandolf_TheOld]

As a player, I would not be very happy having some commercial venture running about in game, spamming some tag line or commercialized Kinship name. I'm also pretty sure it is prohibited some where in the ToS or EULA or Community Guide Lines and deeply frowned upon by Turbine/WB and their lawyers to speak nothing of possible copyright issues. But, if you could somehow manage to surmount the above obstacles and legal issues, I'm sure Turbine/WB and Middle Earth Enterprises or the Tolkien Estate would be happy to talk to you about some fee for a LoTRO or LoTR tie-in.

[NaktiesKarys]

" 10. Spam.

Advertisements for any good, service, or site that is not directly related to The Lord of the Rings Online™ is not permitted and will be removed. Posts promoting sites, goods, and services deemed inappropriate will also be removed as spam. In addition, “Cross posting” without permission , “Bumping” and “Necro posting” are considered forms of spamming and are not permitted."

https://www.lotro.com/en/content/community-guidelines

I am afraid, any commercionalized name could be considered as spam, at least according to Comunity guidelines.

[Chupakabara]

I am not sure a lot of people will want to join you in your venture. People here tend to solo everything nowadays...

[Scarletstarr]

Thank you for the helpful answers

Just wondered as I don't want to jeopardize my account over it - its not about posting sales pitches as i said though just to make that clear - the whole idea is forming friendships and talking about the business in general.

Ill hold off though. I wasn't planning to talk about it on the forums, just in game with people as i go along, questing etc and meeting new players.

If it wouldn't be appropriate I won't do it - shame though I struggle to network outside of LOTRO!

[Nymphonic]

I really would not like seeing it. I play LOTRO to get away fom RL for a while.

[Alcor]

As others have said, it sounds risky. If you want to be sure where the boundaries are you might send a PM to Frelorn to get official word.

Developing networks is hard but it is hard to fathom that the LOTRO player base is your only recourse; it just may just seem the most accessible. Seems to me that Linkedin is built for this sort of thing, but it will take effort. Just my 2 cents worth.

[BangoTwinkletoes]

I've played LOTRO for around 6-7 years now, and I wonder whether there are any implications for talking to people about a business I've started outside of LOTRO? Long story short, i need to network to find people that may want to join me in my venture, and LOTRO is my main source of networking with people!

I just want to make sure it wouldn't be against the rules to for example, create a kinship named after the business and send out a message to those who want to learn a bit more about it - it's an international opportunity so if it wasn't against the rules it would be really helpful to use my favorite game to do the networking required

Or would it be seen as 'trolling' or 'spamming' or something if I did this? (Bear in mind though, its more about befriending people and talking about it, I wouldn't be posting sales pitches or pushy messages - just want to know how far something like this can go before it's against the rules)

Any advice on something like this would really help - I don't know if i'm really posting in the right forum either so apologies if not

Seriously, how on earth do you intend to do business with people when they're hiding behind fictitious identities? Secondly, and assuming you're looking to sell something, I doubt very much the people on your contact list logon to lotro in order to have their arms twisted into buying something.

If you are indeed looking for real business opportunities through networking then get in touch with your local chambers of commerce or whatever it is in your country and go from there.

[Scarletstarr]

Seriously, how on earth do you intend to do business with people when they're hiding behind fictitious identities? Secondly, and assuming you're looking to sell something, I doubt very much the people on your contact list logon to lotro in order to have their arms twisted into buying something.

Just to make this clear (again) it is a business opportunity, NOT an 'arm-twist' into buying anything. Where did that assumption come from?

Secondly having played lotro for a long time, i have physically met up with people from it over the course of time - there are also those i speak to via email etc, so it would be about seeing if anyone would be interested in making an external connection to speak more freely about it.

Lastly, I have known many of the players i know for the entirity of my time playing lotro, and speak to them regularly anyway. My post was pointing out that I have a network of people i talk to on there and wondering if it would be against the rules to hold that conversation. Its not about pitching to the world of lotro - its about talking to those i befriend about it just to see what they think.

Im sure i already made it clear i won't be going ahead with this now, i never get why people continue to answer to a query that has been solved already. Clearly the answer was yes, this is going to be against the rules and isn't going to sit well with mods, so thats that.

Thank you to those who offered advice - Bango, wasnt singling you out either but wanted to be clear on what i meant initially. I appreciate your input!

[Nuth_KM]

not to sound too contrite... but I have to wonder what thought you may have put into your "business venture" if you would have to rely on in-game promotion via Lotro. Unless it was something directly related to Lotro I would guess you'd be wasting time on the demographic.

Why not actually try a business related social media site? Have you heard of Linkedin?

[Lilka]

not to sound too contrite... but I have to wonder what thought you may have put into your "business venture" if you would have to rely on in-game promotion via Lotro. Unless it was something directly related to Lotro I would guess you'd be wasting time on the demographic.

Why not actually try a business related social media site? Have you heard of Linkedin?

This.

If your business is something related to Lord of the Rings - I'm going to hazard a guess it's not - then I can see where you're coming from, but if you're trying to sell car parts or become a wedding photographer, talking to people in LOTRO about it is doomed to failure. Surely identifying your target market and pitching something at them is all part of starting a business? If you 'struggle to network' outside of video games, maybe starting a business isn't the brightest idea - or perhaps you need to work on those offline skills in order to succeed.

Just to make this clear (again) it is a business opportunity, NOT an 'arm-twist' into buying anything. Where did that assumption come from?

It seems to be the nature of home-grown businesses these days - especially one where you haven't been clear about the business idea. Someone pretends to be a friend but then tries to sell you magical weight-loss juice. Asking someone round for a drink is just as likely to end up with you sat on a sofa listening to them sell real estate or beauty products. 'Work from home and earn millions!' schemes rely on sneakily 'dropping' your 'idea' into conversation as if you were pals. So, it's sneaky - and people are suspicious. The moment you start talking about 'my new business venture', alarm bells ring and you look sneaky and pushy - especially if you've missed the target big time and you're trying to flog your cupcake business to someone 1200 miles away through an online fantasy game.

[maartena]

My advice? Don't.

This is a GAME, and not the correct platform to network for business opportunities. People come here to get away from work and daily life, not to find out business opportunities. For that there are countless of other social networks, such as LinkedIn.