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Giant Bomb #7 | Hey There, Small Business Owner!
- Thread starter Patryn
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I keep getting the same fragment of Max Temkin eating something over and over again. And also by funny I mean it's not really a department of Giant Bomb over there right? I'm not up to speed with all these shenanigans with friends.
Same, although I can totally see why he might appear standoffish to some.
undercoverb0ss
Member
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Didn't really feel the Chicago stream unfortunately. I don't mind any of them, but without the "normalcy" of someone from SF (and it's weird when the SF office is considered normal), it's just way too much.
undercoverb0ss
Member
For me, any new live content is welcomed and considering UPF is still in queue, keep it coming.
Max seems like a great guy but he comes off as more of a fan than a guest on most of his appearances. He just isn't as comfortable on camera as the rest of them who have been doing it for years. Can't imagine why that is... It's probably because he hates Brad.
I've been playing that game today and I think it's quite tough, :-(
Incandenza
Banned
Nice try, everyone knows Jeff is Matt Kessler's uncle.
nckillthegrimace
Member
Whenever people mention Max, I think of the baby and get very confused.
RazielCuts
Member
When will people learn, from Brad's own lips, 'Max doesn't count.'
HappenstanceUK
Member
Fried Food
Banned
ok what was the tweet, surely someone saved it
Fotheringay
Member
While it's a good and comprehensive apology for the tweet part, I find it baffling that this story was something that he spent so much of his time on. Almost every single majorly successful iOS game is a blatant rip-off of previously successful game(s), and yet it's Three's that's what inspired him to track down those responsible for cloning these things?
Patrick Klepek
furiously molesting tim burton
I would have posted the tweet if I still had a copy of it.
Anyway, appreciate you guys keeping my feet to the fire on this one. I had deep reservations about writing about Threes, and knew the disclosure was not going to get met out of the way on anything that smelled funny.
I still think what happened with Threes opens up a complex set of issues that were worth exploring, and the Interview Dumptruck going up on Monday with Greg Wohlwend has a bunch of stuff that didn't make it into the story itself (i.e. patenting mechanics). The story was going to get killed for lack of an interesting angle, but then both the 1024 developer and 2048 developer got back to me.
But as someone that takes this job really seriously, I'm only able to keep perspective when other people tell me "hey, this doesn't pass the smell test." We may disagree on that, but I appreciate everyone bringing it up. I don't check this thread often, but you can always reach me at patrick@giantbomb.com or Twitter or Tumblr or a billion other places.
Fried Food
Banned
wait he linked the whois page? lol jeez patrick you blew it on that one. Definitely not making people more willing to talk you.
I enjoy a lot of your work, but in honesty I didn't find the Threes story compelling. I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I don't think what happened was new or unique, nor did it shed any light other than a bunch of people trying to make some money in a fucked up marketplace.
Have you considered writing a similar story with a larger scope? Maybe try to contact a spokesperson for Apple App Store or Google Play to see if they have any guidelines on cloning? The latter must have some internal, unpublished regulations because they stopped accepting Flappy Bird clones. Maybe try to track down any legal team who've tried to bring some order to the wild west that is mobile apps? Even if it's not gaming related, maybe devs could learn a thing or two.
Edit: Also, if you read this Patrick, can you please clarify why you consider the 2048 creator a "public figure" but someone like Col Rodgers a private one? I'm not comparing what you did to Pete Dodd (completely different league), but I'm interested what criteria you use for determining public/private.
So glad you recognized and wrote about the tweet Patrick. People in this thread need to realize that when others call out things like that or other things the crew does its because we care about Giant Bomb and its staff. Instantly labelling people who criticize the crew's actions sometimes as "haters" need to realize we wouldn't be in the Giant Bomb thread if we didn't like the site!
Patrick Klepek
furiously molesting tim burton
The 1024 guy didn't really make that much money ($1000) and made it because he liked Threes, and made a game for his fiancee. With 2048, the guy didn't even know what Threes was, and was naive about the consequences of open sourced code. We'll have to disagree on whether those are interesting pieces of information, but neither person is the "money hungry" cloner that we often think of.
Yeah, absolutely. Apple and Google have policies that allow developers to remove games that infringe upon named copyright--it's why you don't see anything actually called Threes. But, yeah, there is absolutely room for a story that explores some of the larger questions.
Tone is definitely important. Some people just don't like me, and I get that. No big deal. But some of the comments here and elsewhere stung. When it hurts, you can respond by walking away or trying to reflect. I try to practice what I preach, even when I make a mistake.
Everything's got to start somewhere, and here's as good a place as any.
LackingSaint
Neo Member
Is the site down?
OverBlood 3
Banned
Baloonatic
Member
Pretty much. Having easy access to someone who has been affected by something like this is a good starting point.
Thanks for posting here, Patrick and I'm glad you wrote about that tweet. Twitter seems like a dangerous thing to me with how easy it is to post things on a whim. I know if I used it I would post something I regret more often than not.
OverBlood 3
Banned
DNS issues, try a different browser apparently?
Tried IE and it's still broke.
Tried IE and it's still broke.
I don't have an opinion as to whether or not Patrick was in the wrong, but you gotta give props to the guy for realizing he made a mistake and owning up to it. So many other people that we read about just double down on a mistake because those people think they're better than "the internet".
Yeah on chrome too. Weird.
symphonask
Member
Site's down for me too.
Kazuma Kiryu
Member
Down here too.
Fotheringay
Member
When you ignore a situation that's been ongoing for several years, but only start when it's someone you're working close to, it's rightly going to be criticized as the writer being personally involved, as well as distract from the main point of the piece.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'd really love to see you get something out of Apple/Google. There's a good chance you'll waste a lot of time and get completely stonewalled, but I think it's definitely worth it. The mobile marketplace is simply too big and making too much money for the complete lack of scrutiny it gets away with.
Regarding motivations: honestly, I insinuated and read between the lines a bit there. I could be completely wrong (and I would hope I'm wrong), but I felt those developers knew you were writing a story anyway and didn't want to admit to just financial motivation. Felt a bit too naive.
I can understand it, Threes is a good example of both a high profile game getting ripped off and the swiftness at which it was ripped off.
Threes is reasonably popular, got a good amount of media attention (including giant bomb) and came out only a month before 2048 came out. The fact that 2048 is now way more popular than Threes, and stealing sales from the devs of a Threes who worked a hell of a lot harder than the 2048 dev, disgusts me.
And it's absolutely fine to start an article because of knowing someone personally. The talk has to start from somewhere and at least this cloning issue is being discussed now. As long as you remain objective in your reporting and research it's fine.
Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it wasn't as interesting before until it hit someone you knew and could talk to more easily.
Patrick's not a goddamn superhero who has an obligation to report on every story as some kind of objective colossus the moment it comes into existence. He can work on whatever he finds interesting for whatever reasons he finds them interesting.
OverBlood 3
Banned
Yeah it is hard! But I bet you don't stand still while you load your gun do you?
"Stealing sales"? That's some extremely loaded language.
I'm glad you wrote about the whole incident, Patrick. I look up to you a lot and it's good to see you recognize when you mess up. That's not easy to do, but it's very much appreciated.
Rarely am I able to interact with anyone who produces content that I enjoy, but every time I've written to you, you always write back. Again, it's really appreciated.
I liked the piece a lot, by the way.
Rarely am I able to interact with anyone who produces content that I enjoy, but every time I've written to you, you always write back. Again, it's really appreciated.
I liked the piece a lot, by the way.
Sure, it's so you can help sense my annoyance at the situation.
Patrick Klepek
furiously molesting tim burton
I think the guy from China might have been playing it up a little, for sure. I'm with you there. Not the 2048 guy. He seems genuinely apologetic about the whole thing, and I do believe him. As for Apple/Google, I'm not even sure they're the right people to be talking to. How is Apple/Google going to figure out what is a clone and what isn't? That's why copyright on names works well, since it's easy. It's a direct copy. Game mechanics, which have been organically iterative for decades, are much harder to make a case for. What Apple/Google can do, however, is use curation on marketplace storefronts to highlight the original games, even if the clones are climbing the charts. All of this is not surprising from an open marketplace. But we are happier with a world where people can make, submit, and release games easier than ever, even if we deal with some of this? I am.
LackingSaint
Neo Member
The whole staff talked about the whole Ridiculous Fishing/Ninja Fishing thing last year. Sure they had some connection to Greg, but this is not the first time they've commented on the issue.
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