Comments on: Alganon: Blatant Plagiarism

By: mandrill

mandrill — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:46:12 +0000

You have to wonder sometimes if Mr. Smart is a real game designer or just a troll playing at game desinger. Why does anyone take this man seriously?

By: Starting Fresh in Middle-earth Three Years Later « The Ancient Gaming Noob

Starting Fresh in Middle-earth Three Years Later « The Ancient Gaming Noob — Thu, 13 May 2010 00:54:25 +0000

[...] and character progression. But with LOTRO, in addition to these they’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. That story leads you along with the action taking place in [...]

By: Votan

Votan — Wed, 12 May 2010 22:56:20 +0000

Any company that would allow a press release to go out without first reviewing and approving it and then running it by legal is first off is not a very smart business. Putting this on the PR firm for your companies bad business practices is a cop out.

These “little read blogs” are read by 1000′s plus daily who will link to other sites and forums who will then link to others and presto you end up on the “main stream” media sites. And it does not take much to verify the claims when you just have compare the two press releases it is more than obvious.

And speaking of little read blogs…Derek Smart ohh the irony in all this when your own blog starts out with:

“WARNING: This blog and all posts within are my property and are thus protected by copyright. It is also subject to revisions as things progress. Unless you really – truly – want to hear from my attorneys – DO NOT reprint it.”

By: Broken Toys : We Little Known Blog Sites Kind Of Stick Together

Broken Toys : We Little Known Blog Sites Kind Of Stick Together — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:04:04 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Adventurer Historian

Adventurer Historian — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:01:28 +0000

I believe you! I was just pointing out that the internet actually goes on something of an honor system at times.

By: Ethic

Ethic — Wed, 12 May 2010 13:37:47 +0000

I agree, I didn’t see it at first but looking closer you can see they copied around half of them word for word. No doubt in my mind they copied the list and then changed what didn’t make sense and left the rest as is.

By: Cosmik

Cosmik — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:32:02 +0000

Then again, I did ask John Smedley directly. That is what he replied with.

By: IainC

IainC — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:01:36 +0000

They are in general but when they are transcribed word for word with the feature list of the biggest subscription MMO on the planet (and one that has already been *ahem* a major ‘source of inspiration’ for Alganon) it’s not so likely to be coincidence.

The features are the same in many games but all of those other games find new words to describe them rather than simply stealing the ones that Blizzard used.

By: Alganon – очередной скандал | Новости игровой индустрии

Alganon – очередной скандал | Новости игровой индустрии — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:25:56 +0000

[...] был опубликован в октябре 2008 года, сообщает блог Kill Ten Rats. Сейчас представители BioWare потребовали от Quest Online [...]

By: Victor Stillwater

Victor Stillwater — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:15:19 +0000

If I’m understanding this right, did someone just lay down a Smedley Trap that Derek Smart fell for?

Because that makes for awesome retellings in his history, if I had a wikipedia account.