All I care about here are the kids involved. Adults can dump money into VFK until their hair turns blue- they're all smart enough to see all the signs and make an informed decision. Kids aren't as well-equipped to deal with the situation, and VFK completely took advantage of them. I came across (and stayed with) VMK not because of the Disney-factor, but because it was an amazing kid's game. I haven't found a game this perfect for tweens since. VFK made promises they couldn't keep and created an unsafe environment. That's not okay.
Because they were offered employment to help pay to support their family through a company that they decided would provide them with a paycheck and a respectable job. Perhaps?
Wow. I feel that you are attacking the wrong people. Those VMK staff that took work within VFK did not give the game their seal of approval did they? I never received a notice of such. They took a job. They found someone to give them a paycheck through what they believe to be respectable work. When Ben & Jerry's started, they got a deep freezer by promising free ice cream for life of the company to someone who had the freezer they needed since they had no cash to pay for it. They believed in their hearts that they would be offering free ice cream for a few months. Today, that person who agreed to the deal STILL gets free ice cream. He believed in 2 guys who were trying to get a business going - and got an amazing deal! I REALLY think it is wrong to judge anyone who takes a job with a start-up company.
No, that's not what I'm saying at all. There's nothing wrong with taking a chance on a startup. There are lots of successful games right now that were started by a bunch of dudes, just like VFK. Dizzywood is in the same situation as VFK right now. Club Penguin was started by some Canadian guys and -like Ben and Jerrys- grew more than they ever could have imagined. There's a difference between these games though. Because they're targeted at kids and they understand skepticism that comes with an internet startup, Dizzywood has gone out of their way to show that they're serious about safety. They had an outside agency come into their game and test it to ensure that it's an ok place for kids to be. It passed without question. Club Penguin always kept safety as a top priority, and it's one of the reasons why the game is so successful. Both games are (and have always been) compliant with laws pertaining to child protection.
VMK moderators were amazing, and I don't see the same level of awesome in the VFK mods. Like I said before, they might just be reading from a different script now and play out different roles in VFK. I can't fault anyone for waiting it out to see what the game is like before making a decision- potential employees included. It's a different story once they got into the game, and saw that they couldn't do anything. The main job of a moderator is to keep kids safe. If you can't do that- why are you there in the first place? If you were a surgeon or an air traffic controller, would you accept a job where you didn't have any of the tools you needed to do the job right? I know that I would be out of that place faster than you can say Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, but I probably wouldn't have joined in the first place. I would never join an organization that I didn't fully support, so yes, in a way they did give their seal of approval for the game by joining it and saying that they were the same people that kept VMK safe and fun for all.
I seriously doubt that VFK was the only opportunity available to these moderators. As was described in
their boss's blog, most had been doing this type of work for a while, and were the best group he (Sulake manager) had ever seen under one (virtual) roof. There are so many virtual worlds out there, and other choices for employment. There are a few big agencies that would snap them up in a minute, and I'm sure any game that directly hires their moderators would be interested as well. They were the best of the best, and I'm sorry to say that their talents aren't being used fully if they really are still with the game.
I certainly support small businesses, but they have to go the extra mile to show that they're serious about it. Dizzywood has, Club Penguin has, VFK has not. I can haz integrity??
edit: thanks Alice- totally missed your reply before I posted, but thanks for the confirmation (in a much more succinct manner than I managed!)
)
Sometimes its better to be above it and not go looking 
