Just a teaser. So you know I'm not sitting on my laurels but actually doing stuff related
to this.
First of all, I had addressed the issue that TacticalOps was under suspicion about using copyrighted material as well as intellectual property. This was, of course, dismissed by Shag, Barra, BloodKnight, Rojazz, et al. I admitted that this was nothing but speculation, but that I would investigate it further.
Comments from my original post are bolded. Shag's comments in his post (found here)
He claimed (and I admit that as of this writing, these allegations are nothing but accusations, though I am currently investigating) that Tactical Ops stole other mods/games sound effects (namely Firearms HL and Rainbow 6.)
The best P/TC category also stipulates that no conversion may win if it contains any sort of copyrighted material.
5) We didn't break any rule, any law, nor steal nor rip any content from any other game / mod.
6) We do use some copyrighted material that will be removed in beta 2. (Textures from HL/CS (in a few maps) and the ladder and buy item sounds from HL). That's the only 'illegal' content in our mod. These will of course be removed in Beta 2 to be shipped with UT GOY.
Yep. Textures from Half-Life and Counter-Strike. I love how the word illegal is put in quotes, as if it wasn't really illegal just because it was used to win a contest by blatantly voiding the rules (you can find the rules at the Official MSU contest site)
And apparently taking textures/sounds from other games/mods and entering them into a contest that says no copyright material right on it, is not breaking the rules of the contest, or any copyright laws, and its certainly not stealing or ripping content from other games/mods in an uncredited, unmentioned format! If any of you doubt that taking content from a free mod is actually a crime, refer to RaekwoN (Infiltration mapper)'s problem using textures from Counter-Strike (which he scrapped and recreated 100% original textures before release).
The next comment was also blatantly denied by all involved. It slowly turned from "we are not, and never have been receiving money from Epic" into "we have not received any money from Epic yet". Epic also provided them with all sorts of in-house support. These quotes are taken directly from a man working at Epic in graphics: "Epics going to be helping SWAT for UT out with new skins (really cool ones) that John Muellor will be doing.." "hes also doing a few weapon skins too. And Epic will be helping them with world textures." "cause Swat has gained some favoiritism over that mod that first came out..forget the name" "Yeah Epics good about funding mods..but a word off the record to you..theyll cut you off or go with another mod in a blink of an eye if someone elses mod is better" This is proof positive that Epic DOES play favorites, and doesn't give
a damn with what the community thinks -- they make it a popularity contest, and they offer increased exposure to games that do. (Rojazz admits this in his own piece, that you can find within Shag's aforementioned comments)
It turns out Infogrames was funding Tactical Ops.
Just like the 2 other mods to be featured on GOY we will receive help and money from EPIC this is true. Up to now we haven't received a single cent. (the date was wrong on my computer i wanted to say up to now today the 15th august. You can copy that if you want).
Apparently because they haven't YET received a cheque, they aren't really on the payroll. Apparently. I was considered a full-time employee during my five weeks training, and two weeks working on the desk. My cheque, after arriving via mail after those two weeks desk work, took five days to show up in the mail box and another day to clear. That's one day shy of two months of being an official employee earning backpay without having "a single cent" show up in my hands or my bank account. Just because the cheque is in the mail does not mean there was no reason to mail the cheque.
You are completly right i cannot stop you from lying. I'm not trying to stop you (or whatever other paranoiac feeling you might have).
I didn't like the idea that people could believe your lies. Big brother is not there i'm affraid.
Yes, I was actually going to withdraw. I wrote a praising email to Shag saying it was great how he came forward and how I would reconsider my position, since an admission of guilt was all I was ever gunning for in the first place. This comment made that consideration come to an abrupt end. Attempting to STILL call me a liar in the face of this is a pretty blatant ploy that we refer to in North America as Spin Doctoring. In case any of the overseas readers aren't familiar with this term, a spin doctor is somebody who puts a spin on the truth to make that truth seem more favourable (or less damaging) to the party involved.
On a side note, I saw something on Something Awful that really made me stand up and take note. To any of you who doubt that Gamespy (and their affiliated "planet" sites) and the gaming community in general could be dirty, take a look at this. Apparently he's doing his own research into it, and will have more later. I've never known Lowtax to fall through on his word.
Anyways, here's the quote:
On a similar note of "fucked companies", I've been talking with a bunch of fellow ex-Gamespy employees lately. Boy do they have some stories to tell. Turns out that company is in even worse shape than I knew of (and that was pretty bad to begin with). I'm not going to get into any specifics yet, but here are some of the juicier tidbits:
The entire music department (RadioSpy) was recently fired in one single day. Keep in mind that this is the division of the company that Michael Ovitz invested millions of dollars into. No clue as to how that will affect their stock or financial holdings. Their website hasn't been updated since last week.
Company owner / founder Mark Surfas is going to the Newport Beach courthouse for his second DUI charge. Former GSI employees will be testifying against him. I have been talking with a witness that was present when Mark was pulled over by the Police and he has personally confirmed all of this.
When I worked there, they had special servers set up with gigs and gigs of illegal warez / programs / mp3s. I don't know if they've cleaned up since then, but I've been told they haven't. If the Software Piracy Association wants to have a field day, they should swing by their offices sometime.
All of these facts have been verified by other ex-employees from the sinking ship that is GSI. Yes, I know that you're as shocked as I am to see actual legit news on the front page of Something Awful, but I'm just sick of how GSI treats its employees. Everybody outside the company thinks that it's just a bunch of hardcore gamers that spend all day playing Counterstrike and listening to Fargo talk about the hot girl he saw outside the Cinnabun in the mall, but there is some serious bad blood inside that company and I wouldn't advise getting within a 500 foot radius of that place. Sheesh, the more I'm exposed to the gaming network industry, the more I realize how utterly awful and slimy it is.
And don't think that this is the end of it. Like I said, this is just to show you guys that I'm actually doing work here and not just sitting on my thumbs.
<img src="http://badmojojacket.homestead.com/files/bmj.gif" alt="Bad.Mojo: Born to Kill">
to this.
First of all, I had addressed the issue that TacticalOps was under suspicion about using copyrighted material as well as intellectual property. This was, of course, dismissed by Shag, Barra, BloodKnight, Rojazz, et al. I admitted that this was nothing but speculation, but that I would investigate it further.
Comments from my original post are bolded. Shag's comments in his post (found here)
He claimed (and I admit that as of this writing, these allegations are nothing but accusations, though I am currently investigating) that Tactical Ops stole other mods/games sound effects (namely Firearms HL and Rainbow 6.)
The best P/TC category also stipulates that no conversion may win if it contains any sort of copyrighted material.
5) We didn't break any rule, any law, nor steal nor rip any content from any other game / mod.
6) We do use some copyrighted material that will be removed in beta 2. (Textures from HL/CS (in a few maps) and the ladder and buy item sounds from HL). That's the only 'illegal' content in our mod. These will of course be removed in Beta 2 to be shipped with UT GOY.
Yep. Textures from Half-Life and Counter-Strike. I love how the word illegal is put in quotes, as if it wasn't really illegal just because it was used to win a contest by blatantly voiding the rules (you can find the rules at the Official MSU contest site)
And apparently taking textures/sounds from other games/mods and entering them into a contest that says no copyright material right on it, is not breaking the rules of the contest, or any copyright laws, and its certainly not stealing or ripping content from other games/mods in an uncredited, unmentioned format! If any of you doubt that taking content from a free mod is actually a crime, refer to RaekwoN (Infiltration mapper)'s problem using textures from Counter-Strike (which he scrapped and recreated 100% original textures before release).
The next comment was also blatantly denied by all involved. It slowly turned from "we are not, and never have been receiving money from Epic" into "we have not received any money from Epic yet". Epic also provided them with all sorts of in-house support. These quotes are taken directly from a man working at Epic in graphics: "Epics going to be helping SWAT for UT out with new skins (really cool ones) that John Muellor will be doing.." "hes also doing a few weapon skins too. And Epic will be helping them with world textures." "cause Swat has gained some favoiritism over that mod that first came out..forget the name" "Yeah Epics good about funding mods..but a word off the record to you..theyll cut you off or go with another mod in a blink of an eye if someone elses mod is better" This is proof positive that Epic DOES play favorites, and doesn't give
a damn with what the community thinks -- they make it a popularity contest, and they offer increased exposure to games that do. (Rojazz admits this in his own piece, that you can find within Shag's aforementioned comments)
It turns out Infogrames was funding Tactical Ops.
Just like the 2 other mods to be featured on GOY we will receive help and money from EPIC this is true. Up to now we haven't received a single cent. (the date was wrong on my computer i wanted to say up to now today the 15th august. You can copy that if you want).
Apparently because they haven't YET received a cheque, they aren't really on the payroll. Apparently. I was considered a full-time employee during my five weeks training, and two weeks working on the desk. My cheque, after arriving via mail after those two weeks desk work, took five days to show up in the mail box and another day to clear. That's one day shy of two months of being an official employee earning backpay without having "a single cent" show up in my hands or my bank account. Just because the cheque is in the mail does not mean there was no reason to mail the cheque.
You are completly right i cannot stop you from lying. I'm not trying to stop you (or whatever other paranoiac feeling you might have).
I didn't like the idea that people could believe your lies. Big brother is not there i'm affraid.
Yes, I was actually going to withdraw. I wrote a praising email to Shag saying it was great how he came forward and how I would reconsider my position, since an admission of guilt was all I was ever gunning for in the first place. This comment made that consideration come to an abrupt end. Attempting to STILL call me a liar in the face of this is a pretty blatant ploy that we refer to in North America as Spin Doctoring. In case any of the overseas readers aren't familiar with this term, a spin doctor is somebody who puts a spin on the truth to make that truth seem more favourable (or less damaging) to the party involved.
On a side note, I saw something on Something Awful that really made me stand up and take note. To any of you who doubt that Gamespy (and their affiliated "planet" sites) and the gaming community in general could be dirty, take a look at this. Apparently he's doing his own research into it, and will have more later. I've never known Lowtax to fall through on his word.
Anyways, here's the quote:
On a similar note of "fucked companies", I've been talking with a bunch of fellow ex-Gamespy employees lately. Boy do they have some stories to tell. Turns out that company is in even worse shape than I knew of (and that was pretty bad to begin with). I'm not going to get into any specifics yet, but here are some of the juicier tidbits:
The entire music department (RadioSpy) was recently fired in one single day. Keep in mind that this is the division of the company that Michael Ovitz invested millions of dollars into. No clue as to how that will affect their stock or financial holdings. Their website hasn't been updated since last week.
Company owner / founder Mark Surfas is going to the Newport Beach courthouse for his second DUI charge. Former GSI employees will be testifying against him. I have been talking with a witness that was present when Mark was pulled over by the Police and he has personally confirmed all of this.
When I worked there, they had special servers set up with gigs and gigs of illegal warez / programs / mp3s. I don't know if they've cleaned up since then, but I've been told they haven't. If the Software Piracy Association wants to have a field day, they should swing by their offices sometime.
All of these facts have been verified by other ex-employees from the sinking ship that is GSI. Yes, I know that you're as shocked as I am to see actual legit news on the front page of Something Awful, but I'm just sick of how GSI treats its employees. Everybody outside the company thinks that it's just a bunch of hardcore gamers that spend all day playing Counterstrike and listening to Fargo talk about the hot girl he saw outside the Cinnabun in the mall, but there is some serious bad blood inside that company and I wouldn't advise getting within a 500 foot radius of that place. Sheesh, the more I'm exposed to the gaming network industry, the more I realize how utterly awful and slimy it is.
And don't think that this is the end of it. Like I said, this is just to show you guys that I'm actually doing work here and not just sitting on my thumbs.
<img src="http://badmojojacket.homestead.com/files/bmj.gif" alt="Bad.Mojo: Born to Kill">
![DeadeyeDan[ToA]](/data/avatars/s/4/4873.jpg?1424422806){kind=avatar}
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