vol¿un¿teer
1 : a person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service: as a : one who enters into military service voluntarily b (1) : one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest (2) : one who receives a conveyance or transfer of property without giving valuable consideration
[From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary]

As most people know by now, Lumthemad.net reported last week that several disgruntled former Ultima Online counselors have filed a lawsuit against Origin Systems/Electronic Arts for back pay of approximately three times the current minimum wage rate, plus overtime for their work in UO's volunteer program. The UO volunteers serve as assistant customer service representatives, helping new players learn the ropes, assisting with problems and accelerating issues to the Game Masters.

The offending game.
I understand the reason why these people have filed the lawsuit. An article on Salon.com reinforces the belief that many people have--that this lawsuit is a result of a few people having gotten angry about having their goodies taken away, and they feel under-appreciated for their efforts at helping build and maintain the UO community. The lead complainant, Catherine "Terendil" Reab, had worked her way up in the volunteer program to the position of regional lead counselor, managing a rather large team of volunteers under her. For this, she was given $500 per month as a thank you, in addition to various goodies (including sundries), both real and virtual (in-game), from OSI, including a free monthly account. As reported about a month ago, OSI suddenly stopped the free accounts for volunteers and took away some of the goodies that the volunteers had gotten used to. Thus, many volunteers got extremely angry, started feeling unappreciated and disgruntled, which leads us to this lawsuit.

A Little Background

I think I'm in a pretty good position to understand how Terendil and others felt. I have been involved with Asheron's Call for a long time. I started their first fan site, The Olthoi's Lair, and was their first foaming-at-the-mouth fan. As such, I was able to get in good with the people at Turbine in the early days, had exclusive interviews and information from them, and they graciously allowed me into the pre-beta testing of the game, called Preview 2.

After that phase of testing closed down, and before the closed, limited external beta test began, I was asked to join a team of seven hardcore fans to be the first members of their volunteer program, called the Advocate program. It was quite an honor. I took a lead role on the team and I helped in a significant way to develop the Advocate program for Turbine, which at the time was little more than an idea. I helped develop and shape the program and worked my way up to being the Advocate program coordinator, managing the entire Advocate team. I also assisted in developing and managing the volunteer Sentinel program for Asheron's Call.

Next: Being a volunteer...