Originally posted on 11/19/2008.
Fubar's new feature,
fu-Owned, launched this week. It is a feature that allows fubar members to use their fubucks to buy other members. As with any new feature, there appears to be some confusion as to how this works and what to do to get the maximum enjoyment out of it.
For the purpose of education, this blog will show what we know so far about the feature, what we don't know, and hopefully serve as a forum to discuss either. As always, your input is appreciated.
What We Know
What we know about the feature can be summed up in the following outline.
- Members must be at least level 10 to be eligible for purchase.
- Members can be purchased by clicking on the "own me" link on their public profiles. This will bring up that person's "fu-Owned" profile, where you can also see a list of the members that person owns (and, consequently, go to their profiles and buy them).
- The starting price of a member is fu$10,000 (as of 11/18/2008), but you can pay more ("Set your own price" link).
- Each time a member is purchased, his or her "fu-Owned Worth" increases by 10%.
- The purchaser is guaranteed to keep the person for at least 5 minutes (fu-Owned won't let anyone place a purchase on that person until the cooldown timer has expired).
- In the transaction, the person who has been bought receives half of what the person has paid to buy them. The former owner, if any, gets a reimbursement of 20% of what the new owner paid.
- Your fu-Owned profile is accessible through http://www.fubar.com/owned.php, or in your "My" or "Fun & Games" menus under fu-Owned.
- You can check to see who owns you and what your current going rate is by looking at the appropriate spot on your home page (at least, in Power view).
- Members not wishing to participate in the game can opt-out in their Privacy Settings ("My" menu, "Settings", Privacy Settings tab). This does not appear to remove your current "owner" or set your worth back to fu$10,000, but you can limit who can make bids on you to friends or family (or nobody).
- The bar tab can be set to filter out fu-Owned transactions.
- You can "disown" someone by going into their fu-Owned profile (easily accessed by clicking on his/her display pic from your own fu-Owned profile), and clicking the "Disown (whoever)" link (it replaces the "Buy Member Now" link when you already own that member).
- You can leave comments on people's fu-Owned profiles.
- Your fu-Owned profile now shows you how much you have earned as well as how much you have spent on fu-Owned.
What We Don't Know
- Is there an advantage to holding on to specific members for any length of time (earning a percentage of their points, for instance)?
- Will there be another "Top" listing based on fu-Owned (Most Traded, Highest fu-Owned Worth, fastest rising stars by rank, etc.)?
Things That Appear to be Known Issues
- There is currently no known way to "disown" someone. See above.
- There is currently no known way to emancipate yourself (remove or hide your owner).
- The return-on-investment appears to be lopsided; most of the money is made by the purchased member, who earns half of what the new owner paid. Members involved in this game have gone fu-broke very quickly as members are routinely bought from them without warning or much payback.
Credits
I'd like to thank the following members for their input to this blog, in no particular order of importance:
BrightEyedArtist for some initial information regarding bugs and purchases
Freak On A Leash for... well, being my first owner and letting me know this thing existed
Shannon5077 who was my first purchase
Freya who also went fu-broke testing this with me
VanWrecker, who confirmed that setting your privacy settings does not affect your current owner. [11/20/08]
CareBear, for correcting me about how to "disown" someone.
