Derek Smart Is A Very Original Writer

Not Derek Smart, 2008:

Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game.

Derek Smart, 2010:

Traditionally, massively multiplier [sic] online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game.

Whoopsie. Hat tip to f13, from where it has spread elsewhere.

No word on if Smart plans to add Bioware or Dr. Muzyka to his pile of pending lawsuits for the offense of plagiarizing his future self. Oh wait. What the hell, this is Derek Smart. OF COURSE we have word. Many words, actually.

So on Sunday morning when I opened up my email, it was like a bomb had gone off in there. And that was even before I saw the “Alganon” Google alerts.

It started with an accusation of plagiarism by a little known blog site. Then it got picked up, completely and unprofessionally transformed by Massively in a news (!) bit no less and accusing Alganon of stealing a press release. Yah.

The rest is history.

Practically, every game related press release reads like the next one. Whether they’re pushing an MMO, an FPS or an RTS game, the gist and context are the same – only words are mangled in order to avoid sounding like a broken
record. For example, the reference to “pillars” is a commonly used phrase in various structure driven disciplines (e.g. the government).

So that single referenced line that the PR Sirens used to precede my commentary was chosen as inspiration in order to convey the premise
of my quotes that followed. In truth, the reference should either have been reworded or credited and sourced. As I understand it now, that was the original intent; but they failed to make the change in their draft and which was to become the final version that went out on PRWeb. And since Quest Online – like most companies that hire outside PR firms – don’t have to fact check press releases, we clearly had no idea what had happened until my inbox started lighting up on Sunday morning.

This was clearly an unintentional oversight and shouldn’t even be news; but here we are. Just another glorious day in the gaming industry. It’s all about hits and giggles.

Note to Experienced Developer And Owner of Intellectual Properties Derek Smart: word-for-word plagiarism isn’t ‘clearly an unintentional oversight’. But wait! Smart’s final defense – Bioware stole it from John Smedley! Unfortunately, unlike the Bioware PR, Smedley’s speech, convienently, isn’t online. Maybe Bioware DELETED IT FROM THE INTERNET TO MAKE DEREK SMART LOOK BAD.

  • Robin Kestrel

    Also his balls are huge.

  • Vetarnias

    What was it again about Alganon being too derivative?

  • Dekyriel

    This is proper facepalm material here.

  • Tracey Snow

    Instead of “pillars”, he could have said “silos” or “column” or ”post” or “stake” or “mast”.  Then he would have been original!

  • Freakazoid

    It’s hard to call this a new low for him, considering how low he already is.

  • http://www,damnedvulpine.com/ J.

    omg smart ballz r hueg

  • http://noneyet Stormwatch

    It’s a proven fact that for example digital images all contain pixels just “mingled” differently. And music is the same, here it’s notes that are mingled so it doesn’t sound like a broken record. There was nothing wrong with Alganon either, they just mingled the textures and models and style differently, so it doesn’t play like a broken record … wait

  • Stark

    To be fair, this is not the first time a PR or marketing firm has screwed things up for a developer. Unfortunately, I’m speaking from experience!

  • http://eatingbees.brokentoys.org Sanya

    To be fair, I’ve done PR for people like him, and flacks learn by the second press release to quote him exactly. (Most CEOs you can just make stuff up and attribute it to them, especially if it makes them sound “smartier.”) Nothing goes out in quotes from this guy unless they got it from him.
    So blaming it on the PR people? That’s the kind of class act I expect from a guy who posts pictures of his wife to prove he could land a hot girl.

  • Stark

    Actually the PR person already posted that they screwed up. But who knows. That could just be PR. ;)

  • Jeff

    Wow. What a tool. Bioware has been promoting the “4th pillar” as one of the major clogs in the SWTOR since it became official.
    Does Derek Smart really think he is fooling anyone but himself when he starts carpet bombing the internet with the horse shit that comes out of his mouth? He plagiarized, plain and  simple.

  • http://www.antipwn.com/blog IainC

    To be fair I could tell immediately that it wasn’t a genuine D.Smart quote. There’s no mention of himself in either sentence.

  • Stormwaltz

    I’ve said this elsewhere, but Ray and Greg were touting the “Four Pillars” when I started working there in June of 2004. Back then it was an internal development model used in reference to single player games.

  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

    I suppose it’s technically feasible that Derek Smart didn’t commit outright plagiarism so much as this kind of stuff is so much “in the air” that he channeled it nearly verbatim by accident.
    Technically feasible, just so very unlikely as to cast more than reasonable doubt.  Sucks to be him.
    Of greater concern to me is if either game is capable of really following through with these claims that they can pull off “story.”   What MMORPG since the dawn of time hasn’t tried and failed?

  • http://www.antipwn.com/blog IainC

    I read the mea culpa posted by the PR agency and I’m having a hard time believing that anyone with any kind of communications qualifications went anywhere near it. It’s boggling to imagine anyone who works in a PR firm writing that poorly.

  • http://www.antipwn.com/blog IainC

    Re above: I take it back, having read the recent FB updates of the person who appears to be the author, it appears that basic proficiency with language is no longer a requirement in PR work.

  • Boanerges

    I’m amazed Mr Smart hasn’t sued Bioware yet for copyright infringement. Or posted here for that matter (Scott sure likes to tempt him, doesn’t he?)
    On the upside, Alganon Internet Buzz +100

  • http://www.emcouncil.org/ Morgan Ramsay

    And since Quest Online – like most companies that hire outside PR firms – don’t have to fact check press releases

    I led an ad agency for seven years and worked with many clients, from the small business and nonprofit organization to the Fortune Global 500. In my experience, both the client and the agency consistently verified every official document that our office produced. Facts, claims of fact, attributions, links, spelling, word choice, style, structure, etc., were constantly reviewed. In my opinion, the best copywriters are perfectionists, adjusting a word here and a phrase there until the deadline. They may even tweak their work after the final product has been submitted for dissemination because, quite simply, anything worth doing is worth doing right.

  • jhb

    This whole saga is starting to lurch off into a pythonesque path of finger pointing and gun-to-the head apologies. I cannot imagine how much weirdness is going on behind the scenes there.
     
     

  • http://trollshaman.blogspot.com Klepsacovic

    We just couldn’t hear his quotation marks and endnote which made it clear that he was pulling from a previous source.

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  • http://hardballgaming.blogspot.com/ ethereal.wolf

    i think the pundit metagame may be getting out of hand when we are scrutinizing press releases instead of games. seriously who cares.

  • Aufero

    Given the number of times John Smedley has babbled about “gameplay elements” in interviews and press releases over the years, it wouldn’t surprise me to find that he’d said something similar at some point.
    I’m just not sure how the argument that everyone plagiarizes when they talk about how innovative they are is supposed to be a point in Derek Smart’s (or Alganon’s) favor.  Wasn’t he going to try to suck less?

  • Gx1080

    @IainC
    To be fair, be a PR of a product with such a bad rep AND SPECIALLY with “Dr.” Derek Smart in the boat requieres people who are either a)Stupid and/or b)Desperate enough to want that job.

  • http://www.arksark.org/blog/ Arkenor

    Is it really normal to have quotes attributed to you that you never said?

  • Zuzax

    I’m frankly surprised he hasn’t shown up yet and plastered up a wall of text.  I hope he’s ok.

  • Walt Y

    Yes, it is normal to have quotes attributed to you that you don’t say.  Lots of times the marketing or PR person will work with someone in the trenches who actually knows what is going on to generate a relevant quote, and then it is ascribed to the big wig.
     
    I’ve experienced this both from the trenches and as the big wig.

  • http://Chrome.blogspot.com Chrome

    “ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!”

  • Brask Mumei

    I’d go farther than Walt Y.  It is abnormal to have quotes attributed to you that you actually said in press releases.

  • Vetarnias

    @ Walt Y and Brask Mumei
    Well, I guess you could ask the bigwig to read your planned press release aloud.  That way, you could claim he actually said it.

  • http://eatingbees.brokentoys.org Sanya

    To be fair, I’ve been wrong before ;)
    Still, I am willing to bet cash that a low level PR person fell on its sword because the litigation happy nutbag is not the one who admits to being wrong in public. Lord knows I have dozens of apologies attributed to me over things I never did, said, thought, and in some cases, vigorously fought. It goes with the territory, and if I objected that strongly, I’d have found another career path by now.

  • http://stabbedup.blogspot.com/ Stabs

    In the interests of full disclosure I brought it up at F13 but have since discovered it was spotted elsewhere first.
    I think the first person to notice this publicly was a guy called Blazinglynx at mmorpg.com.
    Alganon also ripped off a WoW press release. http://warpcorebreach.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/where-theres-one-plagiarised-source/

  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

    Stabs: Alganon also ripped off a WoW press release. http://warpcorebreach.wordpress.com/2010/05/10/where-theres-one-plagiarised-source/

    If you know anything about Alganon’s history, this was probably a deliberate move from Smart’s predecessor, who aimed to imitate wow right down to the style of the cat-riding elves.

  • Votan

    What company lets a PR company put out any statement without getting it approved first and going through legal?  Short anwer none that want to remain in business.

  • dartwick

    Isnt there some sort of karmic requirement that demands Paul Barnett and Derek  Smart be forced to work on the same project?

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