We Little Known Blog Sites Kind Of Stick Together

Derek Smart, the most effective manager of an MMO ever ever ever, when called on the carpet re: PR plagiarism (in a comment on ‘little known blog site’ Kill Ten Rats):

And yes, those were John’s words at that 2004 fair in New Orleans. Everyone is quick to point the finger, but when push comes to shove, nobody wants to do the actualy work of sourcing corrections. Nice.

John Smedley, talking to ‘little known blog site’ n3rfed:

Um. I’ve never been to New Orleans. That was the one year I missed it for family reasons.

Why yes, no one does want to go to the work of sourcing statements, following up on public pronouncements, or ensuring that what you say is accurate. Except for ‘little known blog sites’. We don’t count. Just ask Smart!

Both F13 and KTR are little read blogs. They are not mainstream media. Hence the distinction. Just because a bunch of fanboys get together to scratch each other’s backs while poking fun at the flavor du jour doesn’t qualify them as a credible source.

You know, given that Derek Smart is overseeing an independently produced MMO with zero marketing, completely and totally dependent on grassroots word of mouth to gain any business whatsoever – one would hope that he didn’t actually antagonize the very opinion-leader MMO commentary sites that drive his own publicity train, feed stories to major news sites like Massively, and in a very direct sense contribute to his bottom line.

Then again, given recent history, Smart probably didn’t actually write that quote above. Mikhail Gorbachev did, while he was in New Orleans advocating violent revolution.

  • http://www,damnedvulpine.com/ J.

    Smed: I AM NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS MAN.

  • http://eatingbees.brokentoys.org Sanya

    I hate Facebook’s “Like” terminology, because I flippin’ LOVE this.
    I didn’t realize “not mainstream” was the same as “little read.” I feel so much Smarter now.

  • http://www,damnedvulpine.com/ J.

    At this rate, we’ll be back to hooting peanut galleries more excited by the drama created by manchildren in charge of game projects,  than by the quality of work they produce.
    But, well, one might be more interesting than the other.

  • Vleskoe

    How can making fun of Derek Smart and pointing out all of his idiocies be the flavor du jour?  Aren’t we going on 10+ years now?

  • Vancian

    I don’t know if it’s been pointed out before, but I’ve reached the point where hearing “Derek Smart” always makes me think how similar to “Cugel the Clever” it sounds…

  • Pacer Dawn

    I love this stuff.  It’s funny to watch someone standing in the middle of a downpour try to convince everyone that it’s not raining.

  • Informis

    I love that one week he’s issuing legal threats about quoting or excerpting his blog writings, and the next week his company is doing a little of the old Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V on press releases.

  • http://www.battlevortex.com William Purvis

    Little read websites? That’s epic!

  • Aufero

    Smart’s jackassery has aged like a fine wine laced with cherry bombs and hallucinogenic mushrooms.

  • http://trollshaman.blogspot.com Klepsacovic

    After this, I dream of someday having a little read blog.

  • Chas

    Well, if Smed wasn’t at the 2004 SOE New Orleans Fan Faire… maybe someone else said it.  That would probably help Mr. Smart’s case, right?  I mean, the general theme expressed in BOTH the bioware and Derek’s article- but not necessarily those exact words- sounds like one of the tangents taken at the 2006 GLS conference by a former Executive Producer at SOE.  He would’ve still been at SOE in 2004, so he might’ve attended that conference and said something similar there.
    Hmm… let’s see… that was… Richard Vogel
    Just a theory, mind you….

  • Vetarnias

    It might well have been someone other than Smedley who said it.  But even if there had been no plagiarism, the problem for Smart is that he can hardly claim to be a trailblazer while complaining about Allen for being a WoW copycat, when everybody else has been saying the same thing for years, with varying degrees of success.
    To wit: The Falcon Crest plagiarism suit by a novelist, dismissed because the defendant’s attorney pulled out a vineyard-family-saga novel older than that by the plaintiff.  The purpose wasn’t to demonstrate that the plaintiff also was a plagiarist, but that everyone had been writing the same formula-driven crap for ages, and that it was irrelevant to talk of plagiarism in such a case.
    As much as I like the “gotcha!” sound of this discussion – because, based on the evidence, there clearly was plagiarism – I’d rather see the question of the originality, or lack thereof, of the tenor of Smart’s bold statements regarding Alganon.

  • doubleD

    This way more entertaining than his game.

  • http://n3rfed.blogs.com Cosmik

    Chas – If you want to look for sources so Derek doesn’t have to, all the more power to you. But regarding Rich Vogel, he left SOE in 2005 and by the time GLS 2006 rolled around he was at BioWare where he would have been toeing the company line on the 4 pillars (Stormwaltz has previously said that “the 4 pillars” were being used internally within BioWare from at least 2004).

  • Iconic

    To sum up:  Bioware *may* have plagiarized, but no one can find any evidence of the speech they supposedly plagiarized.
    On the other hand, multiple people can find the Bioware press release and compare it directly to the Alganon press release, and see that yes, Alganon definitely plagiarized a press release.

  • Iconic

    .. and also, Derek Smart simply cannot help himself.

  • Brask Mumei

    It was in a downpour in New Orleans that I had someone emphatically tell me: “It is not raining on Bourbon Street.  It never rains on Bourbon street!”

  • http://www.antipwn.com/blog IainC

    Additionally parts of the feature list have been lifted verbatim from the WoW feature list so plagiarism is not exactly an unthinkable conclusion to jump to – especially given the (lets be kind) constant homages to WoW that permeate Alganon.

  • Hoplite

    Setting down my shield and spear, the better to eat popcorn.
    Yes, I am entertained.

  • http://squidlord.posterous.com Alexander Williams

    “Just because a bunch of fanboys get together to scratch each other’s backs while poking fun at the flavor du jour doesn’t qualify them as a credible source.”
    Nor does it make them a development studio, yet here we have Derek Smart. Funny how that works out.

  • joker

    Stay classy, Derek Smart.

  • A Man In Black

    That’s not the only thing. From the KTR comments, the Alganon feature list is plagiarized from the WOW feature list page.

  • darwick

    Derek Smart is a dirty liar.
     
    (I wonder if hell sue me for saying “dirty” with out proof.)

  • Boanerges

    I believe Derek Smart is again plagiarizing Dan Rather, who, when caught in a scandal of his own making, defended himself (or others defended him) by claiming that blogs weren’t “real news sources”.

  • http://www.killtenrats.com Zubon

    The contention that Bioware plagiarized came from a Alganon fan who cut-and-pasted the same quote that Quest Online’s PR person did, including the spelling error, and changed the game name.  The odds that word-for-word quote ever happened at that fan faire, or any other event, is vanishingly small.

  • Jergis

    -The man wants everyone else to fact check but himself. I posted in the forums he might want to retract the info until he can verify it. He refused, saying he’s still ‘checking’ sources and refused to remove it. Even though it reads now as a lie as we know Smed didn’t say it in 2004, Mr. Smart seems unwilling to believe the person he’s quoting when they tell them they didn’t say that.

  • http://www.gamingtrend.com Jason

    Alganon Review: 65/100.

    Before the ‘revamp’, but unless they changed the game mechanics? It’s still boring.

  • Andy O.

    Also, how on gods green Earth could anyone as “smart” as Derek not know that EverQuest is EverQuest, not Everquest.
    That should be your first tip off. I don’t think Smed would EVER knowingly type Everquest. Chances are his auto speller is setup to correct himself anyways.

  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

    Hey, now, F13 was classy enough to ban me from their own forums simply for being <a href=”http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/tirelessrebutter.htm”>too damn spammy</a> and <a href=”http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/target.htm”>an overly effective foil</a>.  So, clearly, they must have some <strike>rampant elitism</strike> standards above the average fan site.   But I’m <a href=”http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/weenie.htm”>not bitter</a>.

  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

    Bah, forget an edit button, how about a “preview” button?
    Hey, now, F13 was classy enough to ban me from their own forums simply for being too damn spammy and an overly effective foil.  So, clearly, they must have some rampant elitism standards above the average fan site.   But I’m not bitter.

  • Angela

    One site down, rest of the internet to go.

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  • http://geldonsgaming.blogspot.com geldonyetich

    Angela: One site down, rest of the internet to go.

    As far as your measure goes, if it’s the average F13 forum denizen we’re talking about here, they’re well ahead of me on the banned-from-the-Internet-at-large scale.   Last I checked, they catered to a certain niche that is perhaps only welcome amongst 4Chan or SomethingAwful.
    But, I’m not just airing my dirty laundry.  Suffice to say, as pertains to the topic at hand, I can verify firsthand that Derek Smart is not without merit in his comment that there is a place where, “fanboys get together to scratch each other’s backs while poking fun at the flavor du jour.”
    But I try to see both sides of things  Though it may be in their own little self-serving way, F13 does good work, delivering a bit of funny and critical gaming commentary along with the obvious bias.   Derek Smart’s outspoken manner and precession of overly ambitious games make him a very qualified target.  Though F13 has a bit of a vendetta against the guy, you can’t say he hasn’t earned it.

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