I can’t believe how biased and cheap that site can be. I know people are entitled to their opinion, but the guy acts like we killed his dog. Does he do this to other companies or just reserve it for us?
man… are you a whiner
what did Evil do to you? examples?
I have no idea what you’re talking about here.
Oh come on Dave! It’s a fan site, not a pro site.
And no, it’s not just you. I doubt there’s a week that goes by that he dosen’t get under some developers skin. It’s his site he can pretty much say or do whatever he want’s, and usually does. It’s part of what I like about the site personally.
I know what your bitching about and it was nothing more than his opinion. I hope you’ve got tougher skin then that. As a developer you’ve got to know that not everyone is going to love your game. Phil’s just more vocal than some.
Just relax. :D
HTML alone, without images, is 191k
Just in case any of you are wondering what this is about, go here.
I agree EA for the most part is a clown. He is almost psychotically afraid of being proven wrong and an irrational braggart. I find the amount of begging for hardware he does on the front page ridiculous. His solution to any argument is to slyly insinuate that he has “inside sources” that you don’t have. About those sources, by the way - I suspect that numerous industry sources feed him laughable rumors as some sort of industry-wide “Let’s see if we can get your retarded brother to pee in his pants for all the tanks in the world” prank. As far as I know, he’s still wandering around, inanely parroting Half-Life 2’s reliance on the Quake 1 engine. Gentlemen, this is the sort of giggly man-child who buy bridges from Mohameddan taxi drivers.
On the other hand - DaveCBio, do you always go petulantly sulking to other boards when someone calls you on the fact that you are now releasing an $80 collector’s edition for a half-year old game that has no new content? I’m surprised you didn’t just type “Boo hoo, boo hoo” over and over again.
Am I reading this correctly? One of the new features is an “Exciting DVD-style case!”. Hey, I agree with EA, that’s some funky pricing for a game with no new game content - twice as much as it originally cost, and almost a three times as much as what you can find it for now. Maybe that would have worked six months ago - why would it work now?
If you want to be an artist and a businessman, Dave, you are going to have to grow some backbone and not burst into tears anytime someone tells you they aren’t willing to pay 200% more to buy your die-rolling simulator over again.
Before you think this is a personal attack, I haven’t played NWN, but I’ve loved all the Baldur’s Gates and MDK2. I’m looking forward to everything in the Bioware pipeline. But this is the point in a crime-noir movie where I’d Mike-Hammer slap you and shake your hysterical frame while shouting, “Get a hold of yourself, man!”
I really did not see anything that Evil at the site. I imagine the new version is aimed at gamers who did not by the original. I, for one, paid $54.99 upon the game’s release and cannot see paying $80.00 for a CE even if a rebate of some sort was involved.
Maybe if you had posted the reasoning behind the release at this point in the game’s life cycle, you could have made people understand where you coming from. As it was, you came off sounding like one of those 15 year olds who write into game mags claiming they are cancelling their subscription because a reviewer gave the ‘bestest game ever’ a not so favorable review.
I would have to also agree with some of the above posters. Getting all riled up about a videogame site who states a negative opinion about your product seems thin-skinned at best.
[/quote]
Who the hell is that?
Hey, I’m not defending or justifying the collector’s edition schtick. CE games are usually for die hard fans and not meant to be a replacement for the regular box. No one is forced to buy a CE, they can sit on the shelf until they hit the bargain bin if no one thinks they are worthwhile. As for growing a thick skin, that is BS. A thick skin is one thing, tolerance for constant ragging in every news item related to BioWare or NWN is another. Why is it that just because we make games we are expected to sit back and take any flaming people can throw and smile? Why did I post this here? Well, I had been told that other developers occasionally hang out here and I wanted to ask if this is a common thing on EA or if for some reason he just has a particular hatred for BioWare.
Seeing that one post out of context doesn’t present the whole story. It’s an on going thing.
I must summon him for comment!
“Derek Smart, Derek Smart, Derek Smart!”
Come and impart to us your wisdom and experience!
It is a common thing at EA, DaveC. Evil (Phil Hansen) ragged on Monolith for so long that it became an expected part of any post related to the company. He still bags on LithTech any chance he gets. You probably don’t remember any of this, and Steve Bauman can back me up, he was there, Phil posted to all the folks at Pumpkin Studios (Warzone 2100) he was glad to see their company fold. He was dancing with glee at them all losing their jobs.
Then there was SSI, he told their PR guy that he would have to view their software “differently” due to a personal disagreement he had with Jim Seaman who was there at the time. I don’t recall all the specifics of it but I dug up some old e-mail on it and SSI had requested they remove a link to something and EA went on a tirade.
I can tell you from personal experience (I did news for Evil Avatar in 1999/2000) that most of what he does is to get hits. He has no problem saying something inflammatory simply to drive traffic. He used to lie to suit his stories. He also posted under pseudonyms to the main page. He wants to be taken seriously as an industry “insider” site but will not shoulder any responsibility for what he writes. He even used to have a disclaimer about how the site was all for “entertainment purposes” and tried to hide behind that. I take some responsibility for his continuing readership because before I got there it was about to close. His host was ready to pack it in and didn’t think it would ever be anything. While I was there, Phil and I would go back and forth on lots of issues via main page postings and there was a large developer contingent that started reading the site regularly. I met a lot of industry people that way and some of the posters here at Qt3 were reading my stuff way back then. I think some of us are banned from his boards now so we can’t even pop in there to post. Xaroc and myself are for sure.
Anyway, it only feeds his site for you developers to post there. I’m not sure why you all do? I’ve been reading his site lately for the posts by that Spunior fellow who I think finds the best links to good stories. But he’s an anomaly. I’ve seen how Phil continues to go on and on about Neverwinter Nights and it’s just like the Monolith stuff of old or <insert developer name here> that he doesn’t like. 3DRealms was always a favorite target of his too.
Why not just hang out here on Qt3? We’ve even got the mighty Brian Reynolds posting here from time to time. :)
–Dave
Seeing that one post out of context doesn’t present the whole story. It’s an on going thing.[/quote]
OK. I will take you word for the vendetta thing and poke around at Evil Avatar. I may have spoken out of turn as I did not know there was a history between Bioware and EA and was only speaking to the posts that were linked by Mr. Crypt, M.D. above. Also, everyone loves me so I guess I have no real world experience with this sort of run in. 
I will add that I love Bioware games so I am in no way trying to add fuel to any confrontations. :)
evilavatar.com doesn’t even deserve the attention that this thread has generated. Let it go, really.
Oh, thats an easy one.
Answer: Because, for the most part, these fockers think that the average game developer is a pantsy-ass, gutless bitch - with little or no spine to speak of.
So they prey on this with libel, slander, harrassment and outright character assassination, unfounded criticism, ridicule and the like. And most of these fockers do it just so they can feel good about themselves or seemlingly become part of the in crowd.
But what can you [dev] do? When you rely on someone to cut you a pay check, make you are star - sometimes only in your own frigging hallucinatory imagination( see all the failed game devs for reference) etc - you have to tow the line. And believe it or not, towing that line means keeping your goddamn mouth shut; unless you want a visit (or an email or phone call) from a suit that looks a lot like your hated boot-wearing ex mother-in-law.
Back when I said* it and stood my ground on it, people kept trying to force feed me that bolloxical nonsense about the customer being right. The bastard who wrote that crucifiction warranted addage, never met DrCrypt, EvilAvatar, the Usenet kooks and their ilk.
*No focker is putting me under siege. You come at me with a baseball bat, I’m ripping up the goddamn flagpole in my yard and shoving…I’d better stop here.
Whenever I see hardworking, honest and generally ok developers getting this crap, it just makes my blood boil. Believe it or not, unless you’re on the receiving end of it, you will NEVER know whats it like to be constantly under attack from these anti-social misfits.
For those who don’t know, I’m a tad surprised that DrCrypt is here saying things about his best buddy. They must have gotten a divorse. Between the two of them, they literally turned the site into what it was destined to become: troll heaven. In short, they kept it to themselves and their trollish girlfriends; where they can do the whole chest thumping thing unhindered by, well, normal people who actually DO have something to show for their existence.
In fact, a skirmish between myself and those two pricks, subsequently got me banned by EA because DrCrypt made it his business to harrass me on the site, Usenet and via email - and when I reciprocated, I got banned.
In the end, not only did I contact the EA site owners and indeed John Brownlee aka DrCrypt’s employer (he sent me email while at work one day), I filed a complaint with both their ISPs. I was determined to make their lives miserable - but only they didn’t know it. I guess they did, cuz they stopped.
To see what I’m talking about, here is the final email I got from DrCrypt earlier this year.
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 09:29:52 -0500
From: “John Brownlee” <[email protected]>
Reply-To: <[email protected]>
To: Derek Smart <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: OK, I’ve had it.
X-Mailer: <IMail v7.05>Hi Derek! Its me, DrCrypt! waves
I was just wondering how your imminent lawsuit was
proceeding against me. I keep on looking in my mail
for subpoenas and summons, but they are no where to be
seen. Did you lose my address? Should I send it to you
again? I just wanted to let you know that while some
people might not have faith, I am -fully- confident
that you will indeed sue me and, using the legal
system as some sort of Mortal-Kombat-esque avatar, rip
my spine out in a devastating legal fatality. I
figured I should send you a reminder, since I
understand how busy you are destroying your own scant
forum community and designing your newest game with
the Serious Sam engine: a marvelous simulation of your
life called “Serious Derek”. As I understand it, it
will be much like Serious Sam, but instead of a
shotgun, you carry around a black phallus, and instead
of “shooting” monsters, you stab blind, deaf ugly
girls and people looking for tech support with it. The
boss monster is actually your own floating head,
replete with an agape, anticipating mouth. Sounds like
another best seller!I had plum forgotten about all of this lawsuit
zaniness, but as I was walking down the alley behind
my local Electronics Boutique, I saw a marvelous sight
that jogged my memory. The leperous bums who live back
there, clothed in rags that they also used as toiletry
products, had built a marvelous, glossy construction
out of the hundreds of unsold copies of BCM that the
EB had thrown into the alley dumpster. If you’ve ever
seen the pyramids at Giza (and surely a cosmopolitan
such as yourself has!), towering above the desert
horizon, the Cairene simoom singing like the voices of
the thousands of dead Jewish slaves who built it, you
can appreciate the mystery and majesty that I
experienced when I saw what this gaggle of drug
addicts, hobos and prostitutes had built of your silly
game.And ironically, even though they’d built this
marvelous construction out of copies of a game that is
practically radioactive with system-critical bugs and
crashes, the tower these outcasts had built never ONCE
came crashing to the ground… and as for bugs, the
cockroaches dropped dead as soon as they came in
contact with it. That’s right: this spiny, filth
encrusted creature of the family Blattidae that eats
the feces of plague victims and is rumored to be the
only animal that could survive in perfect health a
nuclear explosion, was far too pure to come in contact
with your game and live. I think this is a solemn
analogy upon the contemplation of which you might well
benefit.Anyway, keep the zaniness coming! You make my life a
far more entertaining place.cryptyPS: As usual, I’m copying people on this email. It has
been scientifically proven that the Tooth Fairy won’t
come if people are watching for her. I can only hope
that the same holds true for the Forgery Fairy.
PPS: Oh, and also as usual, you do not have permission
to reproduce my email on public forums.
Notice the date? And that was after I had sent him this email several months earlier. Out of the clear Blue sky - after NO communications whatsoever - he just upped and decided to send me the email above.
Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 13:12:12 -0500
To: <[email protected]>, “Philip Hansen” <[email protected]>
From: Derek Smart <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: OK, I’ve had it.Please don’t send me email anymore. I have already turned this
matter to my attorney. We already have your details. As such,
I expect that you will be hearing from him shortly.You think being online gives you carte blanche to commit wanton
acts of libel. As I’ve said time and time again, the only issue
preventing me from prosecuting you people in the past, is lack
of time and funds. Thats no longer the case. I have each and
every libelous post you’ve made about me on EA and they are
also liable because they condoned it and not to mention blatantly
against their own FAQ - all of which we have archived.That is all I have to say at this point. And I’m going to say
this one last time, so that nothing is lost in the translation.
I have NO interest in what you wrote below - and I do NOT want
any more emails from you. Rick has given my the legal details
for EA. I have your personal details. Thats all the info I need.Love and kisses
I couldn’t have said it better
Heh heh…I forgot about Adam. He’s had “fun” with Phil too. Derek too… ok, thread dropped. :)
–Dave
Can I rescind my entire post above? Did I learn nothing from Glengarry Glenross?
Never open your mouth on a sit until you know the shot.
Or something to that effect. I will shut my friggin’ yapper now.
Yeah, that letter I sent Derek was great, although Derek seems to have confused this for the anti-John-Brownlee thread.
For the record, though, that was in response to Derek’s hundreds of blustery threats of suing me for libel and how I was only a few months away from a lawsuit train that would knock me back into the stone age and make me sorry. This is the way Derek cows dissent - by threatening legal action. So when Derek didn’t hear from me for a few months, I wanted to make sure that he knew it wasn’t because I was afraid of his ridiculous litigation temper tantrums.
I was in sort of the typical anti-Derek stage at the time, and baited him quite a bit. Now I regret it, only because it is so cliched - not because Derek isn’t a chump.
By the way, got to love Derek’s zany “quoting private emails in public” strategy. Almost as good as his “quoting my full name and address in public forums” strategy of debate. Good job!
PS: Don’t know what Derek is talking about with the “DrCrypt and EA created the horror of EvilAvatar.com” nonsense. Jesus, all I ever did was post on the forums. And yeah, he’s right, my feelings have changed towards the site, but not because of any argument or anything - just outgrew it.