A Paladin Without A Crusade Thread...

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Just out of curiousity, because I really don't care much about any of this, but why should you be able to buy a product from where you want? What does that even mean?

Different services offer different features. If the game was sold from Steam, it would mean that no company could scan my machine without my expressed permission, that I can buy the game and all its DLC directly from Steam without opening an account for Origin and that the game might have certain Steam features that Origin does not provide.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I want this to be clear:

I clearly stated that these are, in my opinion, the most disappointing games of 2012. Not that they are the worst games of 2012 in terms of the game, its gameplay, its balance or similar for that matter. Its clear to me that this is where the confusion lies. If this were a top 10 worst games of 2012, Mass Effect 3 would not be on this list. I've played some pretty dang terrible games this year and Mass Effect 3 is no where near them. However, that was not the point of this blog post.

It was to point out which games I considered to be the most disappointing because the company didn't try harder. Not because the games were awful. I mentioned that several times how disappointed I was that the game in question didn't reach its potential. Especially Skydrift which I saw had the most potential to be an awesome game and it fell flat on its face.

[QuadShot]

Doesn't matter WHAT you call it Tim, Review, Opinion, a recipe for you favorite Christmas cookie, the bottom line is that is IS published therefore COULD be a case for a libel suit.

Bryan, Tim actually means get it without paying from whatever bit torrent he deems acceptable to HIM. This is and has been (for as long as I've been on this forum) your story Tim. If you think a company wants to make a profit then you believe they're dishonorable. Period. And yes, you DID give YOUR uneducated review of ME3

[QuadShot]

I want this to be clear:

I clearly stated that these are, in my opinion, the most disappointing games of 2012. Not that they are the worst games of 2012 in terms of the game, its gameplay, its balance or similar for that matter. Its clear to me that this is where the confusion lies. If this were a top 10 worst games of 2012, Mass Effect 3 would not be on this list. I've played some pretty dang terrible games this year and Mass Effect 3 is no where near them. However, that was not the point of this blog post.

It was to point out which games I considered to be the most disappointing because the company didn't try harder. Not because the games were awful. I mentioned that several times how disappointed I was that the game in question didn't reach its potential. Especially Skydrift which I saw had the most potential to be an awesome game and it fell flat on its face.

I want this to be clear:

I clearly stated that these are, in my opinion, the most disappointing games of 2012. Not that they are the worst games of 2012 in terms of the game, its gameplay, its balance or similar for that matter. Its clear to me that this is where the confusion lies. If this were a top 10 worst games of 2012, Mass Effect 3 would not be on this list. I've played some pretty dang terrible games this year and Mass Effect 3 is no where near them. However, that was not the point of this blog post.

It was to point out which games I considered to be the most disappointing because the company didn't try harder. Not because the games were awful. I mentioned that several times how disappointed I was that the game in question didn't reach its potential. Especially Skydrift which I saw had the most potential to be an awesome game and it fell flat on its face.

I want this to be clear:

I clearly stated that these are, in my opinion, the most disappointing games of 2012. Not that they are the worst games of 2012 in terms of the game, its gameplay, its balance or similar for that matter. Its clear to me that this is where the confusion lies. If this were a top 10 worst games of 2012, Mass Effect 3 would not be on this list. I've played some pretty dang terrible games this year and Mass Effect 3 is no where near them. However, that was not the point of this blog post.

It was to point out which games I considered to be the most disappointing because the company didn't try harder. Not because the games were awful. I mentioned that several times how disappointed I was that the game in question didn't reach its potential. Especially Skydrift which I saw had the most potential to be an awesome game and it fell flat on its face.

And really had they "tried harder" you'd have complained they took too long to release..

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Doesn't matter WHAT you call it Tim, Review, Opinion, a recipe for you favorite Christmas cookie, the bottom line is that is IS published therefore COULD be a case for a libel suit.

Bryan, Tim actually means get it without paying from whatever bit torrent he deems acceptable to HIM. This is and has been (for as long as I've been on this forum) your story Tim. If you think a company wants to make a profit then you believe they're dishonorable. Period. And yes, you DID give YOUR uneducated review of ME3

I boycotted Mass Effect 3. Made that public knowledge too. Dunno how you managed to twist that into piracy, but you did. Wow. Thanks for trying to discredit me.

You know what Quadshot? I'm done listening to you twist and pervert my words EVERY TIME you disagree with my opinion. You just cannot stand that someone doesn't like what you like or disagrees with you. You have made it, for whatever reason, to make sure that I am discredited. I can't imagine it was because it of the Twitter incident but its the only thing I can think of. I do not pirate my games and you check my Steam profile. http://steamcommunity.com/id/KingIsaacLinksr/ I own 193 games and you CANNOT pirate your way into hacking Steam's profile. I buy my games. Period.

I'm done. I'm out, I've had enough of being accused a liar, a libel, a con, and a pirate multiple times on this forum. I am a personal of morals. And if you don't accept that, that's your own damn problem but don't accuse me of something that you have no proof of. Yeah, I once pirated a game. Who the hell doesn't do something like that once in their lifetime? And I haven't since. I did not pirate ME3. I BOYCOTTED Mass effect 3 and its entire company. If you don't believe me....I give up then.

Done with this forum. Done with being called a liar. This hurts so f)(*&% deep you have no idea.

-King.

[QuadShot]

Tim you're a person who (seems) to be disappointed with EVERYTHING. Stating that should never be confused with morals. Period. And I'm not out to discredit you - you pretty much accomplish that for yourself by admitting that you're giving your opinion on a game (a HIGHLY negative one at that) then admit you never played it. It's like me saying a movie sucks, but I haven't seen it. And for the record dude, don't compliment yourself so much, I honestly could give a rats buttocks that you unfollowed me on Twitter...wow, talk about EGO! And, as you ask..."who the hell doesn't pirate a game"...uh, me. See, I have morals, I don't steal.

[Feathers]

I love the fact that you think you OPINION of Tim's OPINION carries any more weight than the original OPINION. :D (Sorry, couldn't resist the capitals :))

[Jobydrone]

MAN I write a post and go to a staff meeting and I come back to THIS!?!?!?!?  Tim, I certainly didn't mean for anything to get taken to this level of personal attacks or the villification of your morals or values.

TIM please don't leave the forums over this, I for one VALUE your opinion, I love your writing and reviews, and have had a lot of fun debating with you about games, movies and all other topics.  Take some time and cool off and you'll be fine.  You shouldn't let one person's opinion of you (someone who doesn't even know you at all) bother you to the point that you let it get you down so badly.

GUYS, chill out, please!  This is a young man who is taking time to write about a topic he loves, for no personal gain other than to derive some enjoyment out of writing and sharing his opinions.  It's fine to be critical, ask questions and debate, but whatever your opinion is on the subjects he chooses to write about, there's no reason for personal attacks, meanness or cruelty. 

[Feathers]

MAN I write a post and go to a staff meeting and I come back to THIS!?!?!?!?  Tim, I certainly didn't mean for anything to get taken to this level of personal attacks or the villification of your morals or values.

TIM please don't leave the forums over this, I for one VALUE your opinion, I love your writing and reviews, and have had a lot of fun debating with you about games, movies and all other topics.  Take some time and cool off and you'll be fine.  You shouldn't let one person's opinion of you (someone who doesn't even know you at all) bother you to the point that you let it get you down so badly.

GUYS, chill out, please!  This is a young man who is taking time to write about a topic he loves, for no personal gain other than to derive some enjoyment out of writing and sharing his opinions.  It's fine to be critical, ask questions and debate, but whatever your opinion is on the subjects he chooses to write about, there's no reason for personal attacks, meanness or cruelty. 

100% agreed

[Bryancd]

Would like to hear what people thought :).

Just saying. ;)

I have mentioned to you before, you remind me of my younger brother. You two are the same age, love and are knowledgable about technology in general and games in particular. You also curiously both have the same sort of open source, egalitarian view about it. Likely because you grew up in a world immersed in both tech and the internet which is the ultimate egalitarian technology. Because so much of what is done online or digitally is done with almost no barriers of cost of entry to the user, it's easy to get sucked into a world view that most things in life should be incredibly cheap or free, that we should be able to have everything we want the way we want it when we want and in the format we want. It's a very interesting phenomenon which has become prevalent in a generation that never a knew a world without such remarkable access to content, media, information, ect. It seems you are taking issue with BioWare's efforts to control the distribution and content of their material in a manner they see appropriate for protecting their intellectual property and to generate the most revenue they can from that IP. Companies have been forced into what you consider unfair or consumer unfriendly practices (in your opinion) because people will steal and even copy and distribute their games and justify it because it has DRM or whatever equivocation they might use. I find it that to be an arrogant and almost narcissistic attitude towards what is ultimately nothing more then a company selling a product. The idea that they must deliver it so it's the way YOU (not you per se, but all the people who feel entitled to have everything their own way) is absurd and unworkable as there's no consensus. All BioWare can do is deliver a quality product via the distribution channels they deem appropriate, charge what they feel the market will support, and defend their copyrights. I can't speak to you, but I know my brother downloads movies, TV, games, software for free all the time because he feels he's entitled to if it costs more ten what HE thinks it should cost or had DRM, or whatever. I yell at him all the times about it....but I still love him. :)'

See what i did there? ;)

[X]

Wow, I go to world and the end of the Mayan Long count seems to have happened.

Tim, I'm sorry that you are hurt by all of this, but you did ask for opinions on what you wrote. My intention was not to call you out or make you think that I was calling you a liar, but to give you honest feed back. You gave an opinion that you based on secondhand opinions. You didn't know how the DLC applied to the game because you didn't play the game.

I'm old school when it comes to putting things in print and calling people out. Maybe it's the old journalism thing, but you need to have facts and have those fact verified by other sources. If you use other sources in composing a piece, you cite those sources.

Now here is the thing about OpEd or blogs, you can say what ever you want to say, but you can't expect everyone to agree with you. Hell, when you freely admit that you have no hands on with many of the things that you are talking about, it might annoy those people that actually did have hands on experience. Then when you ask for those opinions, expect to not be agreed with.

Ours is a great country that allows for freedom of speech. However, that only means that you can say what's on your mind, not that you are protected from people responding to what you have said.

People can get harsh when it comes to their opinions and regardless if you are directing it at some big company or a guy that wrote something negative about said big company, at the end of the day, we get out what we put into the world.

When we put out negative energy and negative thoughts, we often receive them back. It's hard has hell to get beat up for having positive feelings about something.

As many people have said before, it's hard to see someone so young so jaded about the way the world works. When my generation didn't agree with something, we used positive actions to yield positive results. Roswell, farscape, and Star Trek weren't renewed because we attacked the network's decisions, it was because we showed them that we still wanted the product in positive ways.

Don't take this the wrong way, but it seems that people in your generation seem to have an Eeyore outlook of the universe where as most of the older generations still try to believe in the magic of a little Pooh bear.

Now, there is a rumbly in my tumbly and I need to eat dinner.

[Meds]

At the end of the day everyone is entitled to an opinion wether you agree with it or not. The rule of intelligence is that your opinion is based on your own experiences. I would never give you my opinion on a film if I've not seen it. Also don't fall into fanboy blindness, take Star Wars we all know a bad film when you see one but to give a honest opinion who have to remove the love of a franchise and look closely at the film (phantom menace here). But if you honestly believe that the story is solid and Jar Jar is as good as Orson Welles after viewing the film then your opinion matters and you stick by it. If you say of course that say The Phantom Menace is "amazing and I don't need to see it because the box office proves its good" then frankly you're an idiot.
Always base opinions on your own experiences that way people can disagree but can't prove you wrong.

[Bryancd]

I posted tis on your FaceBook page as well, but the part where your comments could be libel are when you say that there may be HD scanning software secretly installed in the game and that their business practices are "shady", your words. That's where your "opinion" becomes more of an accusation of something potentially illegal. Libel.

[Feathers]

Joking aside, those are the bits that made me wince too. With no evidence to back up either statement you're potentially on thin ice. An argument over whether those words could be interpreted as 'malicious' or not sounds like a very grey area of law to me.

At the very least you may get a 'take down' request.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Hello all, yeah, I'm back. But only for a short time to wrap things up and then I'll be taking a Christmas vacation from the forum to think over things that happened here. I apologize for letting things go too far. I should have realized that Al was basically trolling me. But I didn't because I let my guard down when I come to TSF. I have done that since I came to the forum all those years ago, for better or for worse. The reason I'm back here is due to Joby and Bryan wanting me back. I'm not saying I'm back for good but I need time to think it over.

I will concede to the point that the line about other shady practices was far too vague and without even a decent amount of proof. It has been changed to be phrased better (aka: "other practices"). I have also updated the bit about HD scanning software to link to the article that goes into better detail about the Origin EULA and the potential for your system to be scanned. I have sources cited in one of the three blog posts that talk about the hardrive scanning but I should have provided the link in main post straight away. So that would be my bad on that. I still hold fast to my opinion about Mass Effect 3 being, for me, the most disappointing game of 2012. At the end of the day, I really did want to enjoy Mass Effect 3 and it really should have been the grand finale to one of my favorite RPG/FPS story game series. Instead, other things interfered. If you disagree that I shouldn't allow (for lack of a better term) "company politics" to get in the way of enjoying a game, I am happy to have a debate about that. But let's keep the libel accusations down. http://kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/kings-top-disappointing-and-dishonorable-games-of-2012/

I do not expect people to agree with me. Heck, I can't even get my own family and close friends to agree with me all the time. I don't see how I could possibly expect an entire Internet of people to agree with me. My issue came with Al twisting my words against me more than anything and that's why I left for 24 hours. I'm all for having a debate but it got personal and I just couldn't take that sort of attack.

@bryan As far as the Open Source thing and piracy, that is an entirely separate debate. I don't accept your brother's way of thinking though. My issue with DRM in particular is when it makes the experience worse for the person that bought it rather than the person that pirated the game. DRM that I find acceptable includes: Apple's iOS DRM, Netflix's DRM, Valve's Steam DRM and those are just the ones that come to mind. I have no problem with companies protecting their IP but it is how they protect that I can take great issue with. And that tends to lead me to not bothering with the game at all. Ubisoft and Blizzard's Diablo 3 DRM are perfect examples where pirates had a much better experience than the customers who bought it legally because the pirates didn't have to deal with crashing servers, lag and other issues. Those who are of the Open Source way of thinking tend to be more generous to those that are more mainstream I might add. The Humble Indie Bundle proves that time and time again.

I might as well post that my Top 10 Favorite and Honorable Games of 2012 as that was published last night. http://kingisaaclinksr.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/kings-top-10-favorite-and-honorable-games-of-2012/ This will likely be my last gaming-related post of 2012 as I'm also taking a short break from the blog. It was going to happen anyway as I had planned on doing so even before the recent drama cropped up. I'll be open to answering questions for a couple more days before I leave for a while.

So a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you guys and...we'll see what 2013 has in store for A Paladin Without A Crusade...

-King