Holy crap, you all been reading the goings on between Mythic and Slow News Day? It's like 2 8 year olds at the schoolyard.

Eldin has apparently pulled the plug to SND.net, so I have to link you to the VN-boards for an idea of what's going on.

http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=19019156&replies=174


A summary, if you don't feel like reading the novel posted there:

A SND.net forum poster with a history of being a trouble maker posted some stuff about Mythic that was mostly a giant lie. Mark from Mythic asked SND.net to remove the post since it was a clear lie (according to Mythic. I never read the supposed information). One of the updaters on SND.net suggested they interview the poster and put the interview on the front page. Scott Jennings (Lum the Mad) caught wind of this and pulled the plug on SND.net (since LtM owns the code) since Eldin refused to promise not to do the interview and publish the false information. Scott later restored the database.

Eldin, the current opperator of SND.net got a might bit upset (as you can guess) and posted a rather large rant about this being a conspiracy to stop the truth. His rant, unfortunatly, decayed into a hissy fit that got most of the SND.net forum community united against him.

It's a real mess. Looks like SND.net may be shutting down. Eldin apparently cracked, Scott wants his code removed from the site, and Mark Jackobs, president of Mythic Entertainment, has forbidden Mythic employees from working with SND.net in the future.

Add this to the fact the Verant, OSI, and Turbine also refuse to work with SND.net any longer and you have a rant site without any kick to it anymore.

Plus the fact that they had already degenerated (long before Lum joined Mythic) into a rant board that ranted for the sake of ranting and being abusive.

--- Alan

Exactly. I pretty well had stopped checking it out. It went from a daily visit to a never visit. Honestly, it went downhill for me when they brought Snowspinner on staff. He ranted for days about EQ issues that either weren't true or that weren't worth bitching about. He played, by his own admission, over 30 hours a week but NEVER had a good thing to say about the game. Yes, it was a rant site, but unfounded complaints just aren't worth reading.

Well, I can't agree. I liked SND, and I think Lum's actions are, well, despicable.

As for Mark, his actions tell me everything I need to know about Mythic. I'll be cancelling my account. Civ 3 is out anyhow. ;-)

Which of Lum's actions? I thought he was pretty much justififed in most of everything he did, according to what I've been able to discern.

--- Alan

I love people who are so "anti-corporation" when it comes to game companies. Mark says "I will not post on SND anymore" and suddenly he's the anti-Christ.

Lum took down the database for 5 minutes several weeks ago. Why it took Eldin 3 - 4 weeks to suddenly get pissed off about it is beyond me. The only thing I can think of is that when Mark said "I can't say anything here without it getting twisted by you guys, so I think it's best i don't say anything at all", it set him off. It's not like Mark was the first game company exec to say SND was a waste of space now-a-days. Smed, who worked with LtM and SND for 2 years, suddenly cuts off contact because of several rants that were outright lies. Wolfpack and Funcom stopped posting there very early due to the rabid and usually unfounded criticism that was always on the front page.

Every time you get pissed off at Mythic for "shutting down SND", remember this:

Mythic didn't shut down SND, Eldin did.
Eldin chose to use Lum's software even after being told to get his own.
Eldin and several ranters managed to alienate every developer and most of the community. Don't believe the community thing? Obviously you didn't read the forums much. SND's own fan base turned against most of the ranters.

Remember, Lum created the original rant site because he loved MMOGs. He wanted to say "Hey, developers, these are the probems". When the problems were fixed, he posted about them and said thank you. When new problems showed up, he pointed them out and held the companies responsible. It wasn't some "I have to get these guys!" site, like SND became. It was meant to be a place that would inspire change, not a site that just bitched for the sake of bitching.

If I wanted to see people bitch about every little thing without anything good to say about anything, I'd watch any Walter Mathow/Jack Lemmon vehicle.

I can't say I'm glad to see SND shut down because, well, I didn't go there much anymore. But I will say that it didn't break my heart.

Please everyone forgive my digital pimpage, but well...I am contributing editorials to the site so...{http://www.mmognews.com}
After the implosion of SND.net, alot of the um...emotionally unbalanced writers formed player2player.net (which isn't up yet). Delusion, who designed all the SND rotating logos set up MMOGnews.

I know the article(and part 2) is pie-in-the-sky thinking but that is just to force people to consider new ideas and the series comes down to earth in part 3.

Jim Frazer:
"Wolfpack and Funcom stopped posting there very early due to the rabid and usually unfounded criticism that was always on the front page."

For the record, Funcom never posted there.

"a trouble maker posted some stuff about Mythic that was mostly a giant lie"
Actually I completly agreed with Roark(sp?) and his GIANT LIES. And when Mark Jacobs responded he pretty much just attacked Roark, he didn't even bother to address the issuses Roark was talking about. Camelot is a very shallow game and MarkJ won't even accept the possibility that some people may hate his game. SND was a rant site. MarkJ seemed to think his game was completly different from the the other mmorpgs. Snd was pretty much full of Lum worshipers and when roark made a slightly weak rant against Lum's company all of lums fans attacked and Eldin was stupid enough to listen to them.