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Post by kb on Jul 7, 2015 21:10:00 GMT
In a Steam discussion thread titled " hearing alot of mixed reviews", an individual asked if he should buy the game in light of the mixed reviews, and several posters warned the OP not to buy SotA. One of these posters was Strykerx88, who unsurprisingly, posted many negative things about SotA being a chance for adults to play dress up and that it was little more than a virtual LARP-fest (he also posted a review about it with 17/20 helpfulness rating). However, his posts were quickly removed and he was apparently banned, but fortunately, some snippets of quotes from him remained in posts made by "Smackaholic" (I assume that's Smack from the SotA forums). This snippet of quoted text led another individual named DEAGLE EVERY ROUND to post the following: Hilariously, and with no sense of shame, Chris wrote the following in response: It's too bad for the LYING LIAR Chris that taking a simple gander at Strykerx88's Steam profile shows that he DOES, in fact, own the game:  So much for the LIE that he verified if Strykerx88 purchased the game or not. Also, all the talk about verifying if he owned the game or not implies that they don't ban people who own the game, but then what about this:  ^(This image is from my own ban, not Strykerx88's, but I wanted to include it as proof that they DO in fact ban people who own the game, not just those who post negative things and don't own it, as Chris implied) .... What's even more amazing to me, considering the experience of so many of us here, is the claim that they "might ban one person a week." LOLOLOLOOLOLOLOLLLLLLLLLLLLL. Holy shiet. And how about the hubris in statements like "Sorry, but you have to add something to the conversation and that guy didn't." <--- pretty fucking amazing that Chris is now the final judge for what is and isn't "adding something to the conversation." So, Strykerx88 posts a review that garners 17/20 "helpfulness" rating, yet now his posts are deleted and he's presumably banned because Chris decided Strykerx88 is not adding something to the conversation and then Chris LIES about him not owning the game. Let's call a spade a spade... he wasn't adding something to the conversation that Chris LIKED, so he banned him. In conclusion, FUCK YOU, Chris. Alright, back to delivering mah rainbows all around tha werld....
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Post by kb on Jul 7, 2015 21:46:08 GMT
I commented on Strykerx88's review:
and he replied:
My reply:
And my reaction to SotA and the state of the "crowd-sourced" ecosystem that Starr loves to crow about:
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Post by templara on Jul 7, 2015 22:09:53 GMT
I tweeted this thread with hashtags.
@insane always tweet with hashtags in order to reach more people.
#mmorpg #sota #shroudoftheavatar #portalarium
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Post by grimgryphon on Jul 7, 2015 23:30:06 GMT
I tweeted this thread with hashtags. @insane always tweet with hashtags in order to reach more people. #mmorpg #sota #shroudoftheavatar #portalarium Tweeted as well. |
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Post by kb on Jul 7, 2015 23:44:22 GMT
Thanks for tweeting it, templara and grimgryphon. I noticed there were like 20 guests here just a second ago. Maybe people from Strykerx88's circle of friends?
I only wish I was a more coherent writer (and what I posted made more sense). Hopefully the gist of what happened is still in there somewhere.
Anyway, I still can't decide if Chris is either so incompetent he couldn't figure out that Strykerx88 owned the game, or so dishonest that he made a bold faced lie in that thread about his reasons for banning him.
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Post by ChodeKillers on Jul 7, 2015 23:49:20 GMT
Chris Spear's faggotry knows no bounds and as a former lawyer his lies come with ease.
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Post by Housewife British on Jul 8, 2015 0:01:19 GMT
Good find, this exposes a lot of what has been going on for a long time now with undeniable proof. Chris seems to have an obsession for logging player information, I think this because in the past within conversation he would sometimes spews out information about our computers, statistics, etc. stuff that rea;;y had nothing to do with game development. He seems so creepy that who knows what this guy has embedded in the game to gather information on us, our computers. I want to know why these people are so insecure, worried so much about the average bad review. This has been happening before shroud was available on steam. It clearly looks like without a doubt that they are doing this to make themselves look better, throwing away any dignity or morals that they had to do corrupt stuff like this. all to try make more money and preserve the fake legacy. Keep pooping on this gong show.
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Post by Housewife British on Jul 8, 2015 0:13:04 GMT
I also want to say, I wonder why Chris doesn't ban all the people creating Positive reviews under their 4 other alt accounts? I'm pretty sure that's one of the big reasons that Shroud even has a positive rating, the other reason is that the developers make the majority of anything negative disappear. Instead of taking action against bias'd multiple reviews done by one sheltered fanboy, they promote it and encourage it.
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Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 8, 2015 3:27:54 GMT
retweeted.
KB if you don't mind, I may just kind of copy and paste this over on my blog as well. Great info! I don't do Steam, so there is a little bit of a lack in covering it from my side.
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dodgy
Strong in the Force
Posts: 1,171 
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Post by dodgy on Jul 8, 2015 3:46:54 GMT
Do you think that they have made less then they budgeted for and now just trying to make enough to pay the investors back as mentioned in another thread? I can't understand why else trying to keep money coming in without progressing the game to a more complete state or at least drop the pre alpha to represent some kind of headway.
Steam EA is always a bad idea and I did express this when they first brought it up. It seemed like a dash for cash that offered no long term benefit to the game. At least if you put a near finished game on EA it looks a lot better and attractive to a wider gaming audience.
Ultimately censoring opinions and reviews, engaging in holier than thou rhetoric and arguments with gamers is just bad for business. The numbers show it, we know it the wider community knows it.
I'm still bitterly disappointed I love Ultima I enjoyed all RG games I played I really wanted physical memorabilia as promised in Kickstart (where are they?).
The attitude or perceived flaws could all be forgiven (for me anyway ) with transparency and the removal of the feudal like structure of the pledge system. Even direction in what to test each release to the wide community would be a step in the right direction!
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Post by kb on Jul 8, 2015 4:20:08 GMT
retweeted. KB if you don't mind, I may just kind of copy and paste this over on my blog as well. Great info! I don't do Steam, so there is a little bit of a lack in covering it from my side. I don't mind at all (for one, it's your forum, after all). Plus, the whole reason I posted it here is just to spread the info and create a record of something that I found outrageous. I'm glad to know several of you find it interesting and think Chris behaved foolishly, even if my TL;DR wall of text posting style isn't that coherent. When I saw it happen, it bothered me greatly because what he said about how the poster's comments failed to add something to the conversation was a subjective call on his part (and extremely arrogant). It exemplifies Port's enormous contempt for the opinions of any who don't ass-kiss, as well as their extreme ineptitude (if he mistakenly thought Strykerx88 hadn't bought the game) or outright ill-intent toward those who don't worship their cocks 24/7 (if he used the "he didn't buy the game" reason as cover for such shady shit). I wouldn't worry much about missing things on Steam. Normally, the only interesting thing to keep an eye on over there is the reviews (and any dev comments that get posted on the negative reviews). The SotA forum on Steam has minimal traffic and I rarely check it in earnest, so I imagine I've missed other examples of Chris (and Starr's) bullshit, but I'm still glad that I can add my pair of eyes to the cause and contribute something to exposing SotA's disgusting play on people's nostalgia for what it is: a dishonest and cynical cash grab by shameless assholes who believe their own hype and are convinced that their shit doesn't stink.Very simple answer to your question: "BECAUSE FUCK YOU, GIVE PORT MONEY!!!!!" (to paraphrase AngryJoe) P.S. I like your point about how easy lying comes to lawyers, ChodeKillers, but couldn't keep my "like" on your post because of the word "faggotry." I'm all for people saying whatever they want, and I agree he is a dick, but faggot is just too loaded of a word for me and I personally don't feel comfortable liking any post with words like that (or bro or kike or whatever other slur is out there). I know that "likes" are pointless and who the fuck cares if somebody likes a post or not, but just saying, I would have totally been on board with what you were saying otherwise, but it gives me pause when people cross those kinds of lines. In my eyes, you have every right to say whatever you want, but I just avoid slurs like that because part of my anger towards Port and their fanboys is how they bully people who deviate from their group-think/herdpoisoning (so I'm just not a fan of using slurs for minority groups to describe the fuck-ups over at Port, because at least in the context of Port and their forums, *WE* are the aggrieved group that is being shit on, so it feels wrong to me to attack them using words for groups that are often marginialized by our broader society). I realize it's hypocritical (I once railed at Port's moderation of obscenities by posting this video), but just saying, I like your point though I'm a pussy when it comes to some of the things many of you don't think twice about saying.... (I guess I spent too long as a teacher in the public school system. Fucking PC bullshit has infected my mind)  |
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Post by Housewife British on Jul 8, 2015 4:46:14 GMT
I think the majority of the money made paid for the company to be formed, to get up and running. I doubt that much of it has gone into the game itself. Aside from the textures and music, I could easily code this game, I could easily form the terrain, create scenes, instances, there isn't anything advanced going on within this game at all. My point is that it's almost as low of a budget as a game gets aside from going 2d, I've never opened a business before and know not much about that but the people that backed the game didn't pay to have the money goto forming a company, it was suppose to go directly into the game itself, created by an already formed company that was pre setup. I'm extremely shocked by the lack of progress within this game, either they are hiding a super mega horde of crazy content/technology or they really are just holding out on us to bank the money.
Did crackhead spears design these prove your human word things? fuck lul
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Post by kb on Jul 8, 2015 4:49:04 GMT
I think it's safe to conclude that most of the KS money (and maybe even a lot of what came after) went to paying off the venture capitalists who ponied up the money to create Port (and the dead-end that was "Ultimate Collector")...
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Post by Housewife British on Jul 8, 2015 5:11:03 GMT
Could be, wherever all our money went, one thing I think we can all agree on is that it definitely isn't in the game.
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Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 8, 2015 6:31:03 GMT
retweeted. KB if you don't mind, I may just kind of copy and paste this over on my blog as well. Great info! I don't do Steam, so there is a little bit of a lack in covering it from my side. I don't mind at all (for one, it's your forum, after all). Plus, the whole reason I posted it here is just to spread the info and create a record of something that I found outrageous. |
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Post by argyle on Jul 8, 2015 16:11:33 GMT
I replied to the Steam post. I assume I'll now be banned (since I actually don't own the game) for not adding anything constructive.
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Post by kb on Jul 8, 2015 17:15:23 GMT
Thanks for doing that, IM (hilarious to see the Parry Gripp video at the end.... lulz). It's too bad I'm such a bad writer. My tendency to mangle the language really stands out next to your concise and to the point intro. Oh well, it's still nice to see this info out there besides what I posted here on this forum  P.S. Thanks for what you posted on that Steam thread, Argyle. I would have posted the same, but obviously, I'm perma-banned there. |
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Post by Housewife British on Jul 8, 2015 18:14:11 GMT
Do you guys think that it would do anything if enough of us reported Port to steam for something they are actually doing, abusing the review system to make themselves look better to get a better rating, abusing players in the process. If not someone needs to bring attention to how steam let's games have free will over modifying their rating/reviews, however they like.
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Post by kb on Jul 8, 2015 19:51:46 GMT
Do you guys think that it would do anything if enough of us reported Port to steam for something they are actually doing, abusing the review system to make themselves look better to get a better rating, abusing players in the process. If not someone needs to bring attention to how steam let's games have free will over modifying their rating/reviews, however they like. FWIW, I sent an email to Gabe Newell asking him to investigate 3 of the biggest issues I have with Port's anti-consumer practices: 1) Steam Review Request 2) Arbitrary Bans of Players on Steam Discussion Forum (with false/subjective reasons given as justification) 3) No disclosure about the transfer of partial ownership of pledges to Valve when/if backers migrate their accounts over to Steam. I would have pasted what I wrote here, but I screwed up and copied something else before I could save that text (and I made the mistake of using Valve's email form, instead of sending from my actual email). While I realize that it's unlikely to get a response, especially because Gaben probably has a million more interesting things to do than muck about investigating such a niche game with such "established industry veterans" behind it, he has been known to help people in the past (okay, in all reality, he probably just passed the buck to an assistant and even dictated the email he sent back in reply to the gamer who emailed him). Still, I guess it was worth a shot and I'm glad HWB suggested it. Any who are interested in sending their own emails www.valvesoftware.com/email.php?recipient=Dota+2+Teamor gaben@valvesoftware.com Oh, and I was honest that I had been banned from SotA's official forums and the Steam forums, but I tried to make my request about the broader implications of what Port has done to others, not just me. I doubt anything will come of it, but at least there's a better chance of receiving SOME kind of redress to grievances than we could ever hope to receive from the likes of Chris "LYING LIAR" Spears or Starr "Marketing Magician" Long. |
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Post by Dewderonomy on Jul 9, 2015 2:43:33 GMT
I replied to the Steam post. I assume I'll now be banned (since I actually don't own the game) for not adding anything constructive. Solid. |
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Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 9, 2015 3:09:26 GMT
Do you guys think that it would do anything if enough of us reported Port to steam for something they are actually doing, abusing the review system to make themselves look better to get a better rating, abusing players in the process. If not someone needs to bring attention to how steam let's games have free will over modifying their rating/reviews, however they like. FWIW, I sent an email to Gabe Newell asking him to investigate 3 of the biggest issues I have with Port's anti-consumer practices: 1) Steam Review Request 2) Arbitrary Bans of Players on Steam Discussion Forum (with false/subjective reasons given as justification) 3) No disclosure about the transfer of partial ownership of pledges to Valve when/if backers migrate their accounts over to Steam. I would have pasted what I wrote here, but I screwed up and copied something else before I could save that text (and I made the mistake of using Valve's email form, instead of sending from my actual email). While I realize that it's unlikely to get a response, especially because Gaben probably has a million more interesting things to do than muck about investigating such a niche game with such "established industry veterans" behind it, he has been known to help people in the past (okay, in all reality, he probably just passed the buck to an assistant and even dictated the email he sent back in reply to the gamer who emailed him). Still, I guess it was worth a shot and I'm glad HWB suggested it. Any who are interested in sending their own emails www.valvesoftware.com/email.php?recipient=Dota+2+Teamor gaben@valvesoftware.com Oh, and I was honest that I had been banned from SotA's official forums and the Steam forums, but I tried to make my request about the broader implications of what Port has done to others, not just me. I doubt anything will come of it, but at least there's a better chance of receiving SOME kind of redress to grievances than we could ever hope to receive from the likes of Chris "LYING LIAR" Spears or Starr "Marketing Magician" Long. Well I can't speak for everyone here, but I am going to do this also. I would actually like to create a petition of some kind and get everyone with steam issues to sign their steam names to it, but that could be problematic for many. Disclose your identities to Port in that fashion and a ban will be incoming. At the very least, I will have to write to that E-Mail address kb provided above, especially about point #3. That was fucking tricksy. Thanks kb! |
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Post by grimgryphon on Jul 9, 2015 3:18:42 GMT
FWIW, I sent an email to Gabe Newell asking him to investigate 3 of the biggest issues I have with Port's anti-consumer practices: 1) Steam Review Request 2) Arbitrary Bans of Players on Steam Discussion Forum (with false/subjective reasons given as justification) 3) No disclosure about the transfer of partial ownership of pledges to Valve when/if backers migrate their accounts over to Steam. I would have pasted what I wrote here, but I screwed up and copied something else before I could save that text (and I made the mistake of using Valve's email form, instead of sending from my actual email). While I realize that it's unlikely to get a response, especially because Gaben probably has a million more interesting things to do than muck about investigating such a niche game with such "established industry veterans" behind it, he has been known to help people in the past (okay, in all reality, he probably just passed the buck to an assistant and even dictated the email he sent back in reply to the gamer who emailed him). Still, I guess it was worth a shot and I'm glad HWB suggested it. Any who are interested in sending their own emails www.valvesoftware.com/email.php?recipient=Dota+2+Teamor gaben@valvesoftware.com Oh, and I was honest that I had been banned from SotA's official forums and the Steam forums, but I tried to make my request about the broader implications of what Port has done to others, not just me. I doubt anything will come of it, but at least there's a better chance of receiving SOME kind of redress to grievances than we could ever hope to receive from the likes of Chris "LYING LIAR" Spears or Starr "Marketing Magician" Long. Well I can't speak for everyone here, but I am going to do this also. I would actually like to create a petition of some kind and get everyone with steam issues to sign their steam names to it, but that could be problematic for many. Disclose your identities to Port in that fashion and a ban will be incoming. At the very least, I will have to write to that E-Mail address kb provided above, especially about point #3. That was fucking tricksy. Thanks kb! I'm onboard with that! |
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Post by Housewife British on Jul 9, 2015 3:44:58 GMT
I would like to see something more organized to happen. something like the petition. i say that we all do this and wait a month, if we don't get a response than we should set a date, a day. to repeat the process every 2 weeks. Something like this isn't exactly about Port either, it's a Steam issue too, no game developers or anyone at all should have access to a system that allows the ability to modify their ratings, reviews however they like. It's a complete bullshit system, those privileges shouldn't be there at all. It's pretty messed up that they allow this when players look at reviews to help make the decision to buy or not, not aware of how fake. corrupt and stacked the ratings/reviews could be. I want to see a system implemented that gives the 100% truth, with no ability for the developers to modify or remove anything, so we know exactly what we are buying into. The majority of people can tell if someone is trolling, humans have the ability to decide if they want to continue reading something or not, we don't need some sheltered individual deleting everything that has a slight sign of negativity. Usually if enough people are giving you a bad rating, enough to bring down your rating, it isn't people trolling, you are developing something wrong.
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Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 9, 2015 3:49:54 GMT
I would like to see something more organized to happen. something like the petition. i say that we all do this and wait a month, if we don't get a response than we should set a date, a day. to repeat the process every 2 weeks. Something like this isn't exactly about Port either, it's a Steam issue too, no game developers or anyone at all should have access to a system that allows the ability to modify their ratings, reviews however they like. It's a complete bullshit system, those privileges shouldn't be there at all. It's pretty messed up that they allow this when players look at reviews to help make the decision to buy or not, not aware of how fake. corrupt and stacked the ratings/reviews could be. I want to see a system implemented that gives the 100% truth, with no ability for the developers to modify or remove anything, so we know exactly what we are buying into. The majority of people can tell if someone is trolling, humans have the ability to decide if they want to continue reading something or not, we don't need some sheltered individual deleting everything that has a slight sign of negativity. Usually if enough people are giving you a bad rating, enough to bring down your rating, it isn't people trolling, you are developing something wrong. Anyone have a suggestion on how a petition could be handled for this purpose? |
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Post by 4theLOLZ on Jul 9, 2015 5:19:18 GMT
The tears of a bunch of incompetent assholes... Love it!
[media]http://youtu.be/DksSPZTZES0[/media]
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Post by kb on Jul 9, 2015 5:31:31 GMT
The tears of a bunch of incompetent assholes... Love it! Incompetent assholes? Last I checked, we aren't the ones who are making such an ugly, shitty, godawful excuse for a game.... If you're looking for incompetent assholes, try the following --> shroudoftheavatar.comAnd, to answer IM's question, it would probably be easiest to achieve via a petition created at change.org, but I don't think much would come of it, tbh (tho I like the idea). Valve has recently decided to pass the buck on bans. Simply too many games available on their platform for them to handle the problems themselves. They leave it in the hands of devs and players must appeal directly to the game's devs for any redress. About the only thing people can do now is spread word about the shady practices of devs who abuse their power and leave it to the court of public opinion to decide whether or not to give such shady business a pass. www.pcgamer.com/steam-bans-now-come-direct-from-developers/That's why I tried to make an appeal to Gaben. He likely gets thousands of emails though, so I doubt much comes of it, but it's worth trying even if Port only gets told in private to mind their p's and q's and stop being such despicable pieces of shit. |
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Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 9, 2015 5:32:28 GMT
The tears of a bunch of incompetent assholes... Love it! [media]http://youtu.be/DksSPZTZES0[/media] I knew you couldn't hold out much longer But, if a group of competent developers make a good game in the woods, does anyone cry? |
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Post by Membrane_on_Vacation on Jul 9, 2015 5:46:43 GMT
The tears of a bunch of incompetent assholes... Love it! Incompetent assholes? Last I checked, we aren't the ones who are making such an ugly, shitty, godawful excuse for a game.... If you're looking for incompetent assholes, try the following --> shroudoftheavatar.comAnd, to answer IM's question, it would probably be easiest to achieve via a petition created at change.org, but I don't think much would come of it, tbh (tho I like the idea). Valve has recently decided to pass the buck on bans. Simply too many games available on their platform for them to handle the problems themselves. They leave it in the hands of devs and players must appeal directly to the game's devs for any redress. About the only thing people can do now is spread word about the shady practices of devs who abuse their power and leave it to the court of public opinion to decide whether or not to give such shady business a pass. www.pcgamer.com/steam-bans-now-come-direct-from-developers/That's why I tried to make an appeal to Gaben. He likely gets thousands of emails though, so I doubt much comes of it, but it's worth trying even if Port only gets told in private to mind their p's and q's and stop being such despicable pieces of shit. With this in mind I think I will probably just Email Gaben. I also like the petition idea, but shit, if that is Steam's policy then I'm not sure how 30 people are going to make any dent on that sort of thing. What should really happen though, if a game is on steam, that should be the only place they can distribute. So players can get a fucking refund. |
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Post by templara on Jul 9, 2015 9:18:13 GMT
The tears of a bunch of incompetent assholes... Love it! [media]http://youtu.be/DksSPZTZES0[/media] I knew you couldn't hold out much longer But, if a group of competent developers make a good game in the woods, does anyone cry? Loved the яeference! |
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Post by grimgryphon on Jul 9, 2015 11:20:49 GMT
The tears of a bunch of incompetent assholes... Love it! [media]http://youtu.be/DksSPZTZES0[/media] Oh, it's you. Klonopin/Prozac cocktail wear off again? |
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