A Dagger Through The Heart of the Empire
We just thought we would make you all aware of a cute little back-stabbing trick that one of our partners in successs competitors tried to injur us with lately.
Of course we’re all familiar with the age-old sphiatt rumors and misconceptions, but apparently p o z y isn’t ready to let the dust settle, nor let the rumors dissipate.
Over the last few days, Empire has been doing routine traffic checks to see where (precisely) recent web traffic has been coming from. We noticed p o z y was among the many websites directing traffic our way. Apparently they noticed this too, and in an effort to cripple our customer base, the clever goons used a profanity blocker to swap the words (phrase) “Empire Board Games” with “Hiatt & Hiatt Enterprises”. Correct us if we’re wrong, but that’s what it looks like to us. Please, somebody tell p o z y we are weeping.
A couple of examples:
Who knows, maybe it was just some newly-knighted moderator on his high horse, abusing his newly aclaimed powers on the p o z y forums. We hope this is the case and that they will see their mistake and delete said profanity blocker rule. If this is not changed within the week, Empire will consider it a direct act of war and will be forced to adjust it’s prices accordingly! Oh, wait, they can’t get any lower. 
EDIT: “Oh wait. They can’t get any lower unless we…s-s-s-start giving games away free. hmmmmm.”
What do you, fellow Empire Board Gamer, think about this? Please, do let us know in the comments.
Just A Note: I say “p o z y” so that p o z y reaps no Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit from our this post. Just returning the favor.
UPDATE: Be sure to check out the newest member of the Empire family: “Some Domain Name Nobody Cares To Buy“.
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on Oct 1st, 2008 at 8:21 am
Check out this thread on their forum, which got locked after I challeneged Pozy on this very issue:
http://pozy.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1221961348/12#12
Not only will their censoring change “Empire Board Games” but also “Empire” and “E m p i r e”.
on Oct 1st, 2008 at 10:21 am
Hey, I’m famous!
on Oct 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am
As long as the text is not a link, Pozy will not gain any SEO benefit by simply using their name here. In fact, if anyone were to gain a benefit it would be you guys, since your site would be more likely (albeit slightly) to come up when people are searching for Pozy.
on Oct 1st, 2008 at 12:56 pm
@ Tim:
I figured that was the case, but I still didn’t want the (complete) name to be on our site at all.
@Watcher_b:
LOL
@BigTuna:
Isn’t it just despicable?
Thanks for chiming in guys.
on Oct 1st, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Well, my link above no longer works because the admin over there deleted every topic about deals here. Also he banned any further posts about Empire’s deals. I am astonished by the sheer pettiness.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Perhaps Pozy felt it was true since Empire Board games is registered as “doing business as” under Hiatt and Hiatt.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 8:31 pm
@Tim.
Fair enough. We have explained our position in that regard, so we’ll just leave it at that. I just find it hard to believe they would give the go-ahead on deleting perfectly valid posts on their forums from their loyal customers about our store altogether. Whatever floats their boat though.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Perhaps it was because you wait until they post a game and then post the same one for less? Just a hunch, but my money is on that. Seems pretty obvious to me as an outsider. Good Luck to both companies. More games for less the better.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 10:46 pm
@Jon
That certainly is a possibility
Thanks for the luck, they’re going to need it.
Have a good one.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
@Jon…
Because Pozy isn’t known for using such anti-Tanga tactics, right?
There’s an old saying about sauce for the goose…
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 am
Wow, way to make yourselves sound like jackasses: both of you but mostly Empire for posting a whining article about it.
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
@Kakaris
“Whining” is definitely an interesting word choice. We just took it upon ourselves to set the record straight, seeing how our adversary has taken it upon themselves to delete their own users valid comments regarding this.
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
@jeremy
why do you feel entitled to be listed on their site? your business is the same as them, so why would they advertise for you? you dont advertise for them do you? and i think it was proven that Hiatt has an interest in empire games, even still you try and say he doesn’t. i think someone even posted a link to your blog where you mention as much. it was on eliteeternity.com blog about you starting a business with your former boss. good game deals are good game deals so as long as you keep up the good shipping and customer service it wont matter. i think you should drop the entire whining though like kakaris said. it makes you sound 15.
on Oct 3rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
@scott.
We didn’t expect them to advertise for us. We just found it humorous that they would do such a thing.
The rest of your points are valid, but I feel they have been responded to the best they possibly can be on previous posts, so I won’t make another effort to clear the water.
Nonetheless, I agree with your point “good game deals are good game deals so as long as you keep up the good shipping and customer service it won’t matter”. This is exactly what we intend to do and I appreciate all of your comments and support.