Aw...Edge mag is evil

Yeh, this claimed association with Edge magazine seems to be the biggest problem, as it’s his largest claim to legitimacy. It’s also not clear what exactly it is, as presumably Edge magazine aren’t willing/able to talk about it.

There actually seems to be some weird stuff with it that suggests he’s not even talking about the same magazine. The link on Langdell’s page www.edge-magazine.com redirects to something called Edge Web TV. And that image in the tigsource article of a fake magazine cover he used to demonstrate his brand’s association with games hardware.

Has he just got some magazine he makes but never sells, that he can call Edge because he owns that trademark, and can use the same font as Future’s Edge because that’s not restricted?

It’s all very odd, anyway.

So how did this guy become a board member of IDGA? It’s looks like the confusion behind his connection with Edge Magazine is his claim to fame.

Given that the last board election was a list of people I’d never heard of, I’m not surprised. It’s hard to vote when the only real info you have is a blurb about how much they care about the game industry.

It continues here:

It should be noted that the rest of the IGDA Board could, if they wanted to, eject Tim Langdell from both the board and the organization*. They have chosen not to do so.

(*) Actually, technically, they would eject him from the organization, which would then remove him from the board.

Why would you link to a blog instead of the letter itself? Are you allergic to actual sources?

-Tom

EDIT: Actually, reading the letter itself now, I can see why. It’s a long tedious read that I’d just as soon have summarized for me…

To anyone following this story as it unfolds, it’s well worth staying up to date with this thread on the IGDA forum. The members there systematically pull apart Langdell’s claims in an efficient and, crucially, econiomical way.

I also suggest getting hold of some Edge Ware to wear while reading the thread.

What? Adding logos to stock photography of clothing using MS Paint to give the impression that your mark is somehow active? Never!

Yeah Tom I read both, but I thought the synopsis was more helpful for the discussion. That said, I am allergic to cats.

Please refrain from infringing on our intellectual property.

Signed,
The Walt Disney Company

The madness continues with the escapist magazine seemingly managing to get roped in by the Langdell PR machine:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/op-ed/6401-Edge-or-Edgy-The-Clash-of-Two-Game-Makers

Apparently the rest of the games industry and media has just lept on to the Langedell hating bandwagon without understanding that Langdell is just defending his trademark.

Some choice quotes:

Isn’t the timeline. Instead Mobigames pulled the game after Tim’s initial threats then reinstated it when they decided he was probably full o’ crap. Later Tim confronted Apple to get the game pulled for the second time.

Mischaracterizes the back and forth considerably. In fact Papizan offered to change the name of the game to Edgy and then Tim registered the Edgy trademark the next day behind their back. Realising that this was an easy way to quickly identify his insane villainy Tim has since cancelled his request for the Edgy trademark to try and make the whole episode quietly disappear. It was in no way a “very polite settlement offer” more a devious piece of backstabbing later back pedalled on.

Is this how anyone who actually researched the Langdell issue feels? ‘Puzzlingly rebuffed’ widely known trademark troll Tim Langdell who has already lost a case against Namco, fled the UK after being sued more than twice for not paying developers and has a usage case for his trademark built up like an illusuory house of cards (Fake Edge magazine covers, Mirrors a game by Edge, Claiming to have also published a game called Soul Edge that he hadn’t). Its not how I feel I feel they should not only rebuff langdell but get a restraining order filed against him. Oops, someone already did that which is why he was kicked out of Bafta.

As several people have painstakingly researched Bobby Bearing a marble madness clone from the mid 80s was republished in 2003 for a single range of mobile phone handsets that are now out of production. Noone can find anywhere that still sells it or any other platforms. This in game production terms is the equivelent of me putting the executable for an asteroids game that someone else made onto the internet in 2003 as evidence of recent game production.

A terrible piece of journalism that mischaracterises the whole dispute as a ‘both sides are as bad as each other but Tim is legally in the right’ when the truth is that he is on highly dubious legal ground and appears to be a highly manipulative individual who should be strung up regularly in the gaming press. He certainly shouldn’t be put on an equal footing with a two man indie dev shop. That the public exposing of Tim hasn’t been done more completely and more vigorously by a mainstream news organisation is a failing and a real opportunity for someone who isn’t afraid of digging through court transcripts, finding old 80’s game developers to interview or threats to sue. The Eurogamer piece was an excellent start but there are many more layers to this story for the investigative journalist looking to make a name.

For a much better overview of this dispute I recommend again the Tigsource info page:

http://www.tigsource.com/pages/edge-games

Yeh, I had a moment of pause when I first read Langdell’s defence page, thinking that perhaps he really was just a very small-time game publisher that was the victim of a smear campaign. But after poking around since reading that, it does seem clear that he’s doing an awful lot of lying about his company’s accomplishments and property. Which means it’s rather hard to trust any of his claims that aren’t verified by anyone else. And very few of his claims are.

Indeed, I too was initially thinking well this could be a case of six of one half a dozen of the other. Its only after looking beyond the surface that it becomes apparent that Langdell spends almost all of his time crafting an illusory facade of being a medium sized publisher thats been in the buisness consistently for thirty years and further diversified into magazine, comic, film and space travel. The most irritating thing about this piece is that after several award nominated journalists did some of the painstaking legwork, some other fellow comes along assuming that they’ve got it all wrong. This conclusion being seemingly based on firstly taking Langdell’s word, then presenting a lawyer with some generic incorrect information and finally a cursory google search for ‘Bobby Bearing’. Its already being used by Langdell as further ‘proof’ that this whole thing has just been cooked up propaganda.

The Escapist used to be a better magazine than this, Kieron used to write for it back in the day, and it had an interesting style.

It’s not going to help the site’s reputation. This may just be an opinion piece but they took a side in this matter by publishing it. Definitely the wrong side, I might add.

Apparently (according to TIGSource forums) another journo emailed the editors of The Escapist asking about all the factual innaccuracies and recieved a boilerplate (as in another emailer got an identical response) email stating that they were standing by their story:

It only took three guys a week to accurately survey a literal mountain of paperwork? Sounds like a rush job. Mountains are very large – at least the literal kind.

Maybe by literal mountain they mean figurative mountain of “literal”, ie letters.

Asked an old Brit gaming industry guy I know from my days at codemasters and he was loving seeing Tim get what he deserved. I think there may be no one who likes this guy anywhere! An awesome life achievement.

But wouldn’t that be a literary mountain?

Do you think he cares?
It seems like a moneymaking scheme by now. Scare people into paying you instead of wasting time developing new stuff.