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31
General Discussion / A Humanist Concern -- Unfounded or No?
« on: October 04, 2009, 03:05:38 pm »
I just came across what is probably one of the most horrific Youtube videos I've ever seen; I'm actually surprised it hasn't been taken down. People who can't stand cute furry things being harmed need not apply. I'm not even sure it's safe for work, so viewer discretion advised. You're probably getting visions of a hamster being cut up with a chainsaw or something, but it's much more subtle than that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEHTkoyw9ss
I've become more interested recently in examining our society's treatment of animals. I've even flirted with the idea that nature is outright immoral on some level by forcing animals to inflict pain upon and to devour one another in the wild.
Of course, we normally give Mother Nature a pass on that one. But what about this situation in the Youtube video -- is it a case of animal abuse? On one level it's just something that would happen in the wild; and yet, the person behind the camera intervened by purchasing a rabbit specifically to be killed in such a way.
What factors separate the cameraman (assuming the cameraman is the snake's owner) from, say, Michael Vick? And why should those factors make the cameraman's actions any less reprehensible than what Vick did? Someone in the comments claims to have actually reported the video, but since it's still up, I can only surmise that our society, in the aggregate, doesn't really care about events like this one.
Should we though? Where do we draw the line separating morality from immorality, and what rubric should we use?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEHTkoyw9ss
I've become more interested recently in examining our society's treatment of animals. I've even flirted with the idea that nature is outright immoral on some level by forcing animals to inflict pain upon and to devour one another in the wild.
Of course, we normally give Mother Nature a pass on that one. But what about this situation in the Youtube video -- is it a case of animal abuse? On one level it's just something that would happen in the wild; and yet, the person behind the camera intervened by purchasing a rabbit specifically to be killed in such a way.
What factors separate the cameraman (assuming the cameraman is the snake's owner) from, say, Michael Vick? And why should those factors make the cameraman's actions any less reprehensible than what Vick did? Someone in the comments claims to have actually reported the video, but since it's still up, I can only surmise that our society, in the aggregate, doesn't really care about events like this one.
Should we though? Where do we draw the line separating morality from immorality, and what rubric should we use?
32
General Discussion / Armchair Economists, Unite!
« on: September 15, 2009, 09:46:59 pm »
When I walked into my first PoliSci class back when I was still a wee undergrad, the syllabus started out with a sentence to the following effect: "Every person on this campus, whether they major in PoliSci or not, is a political scientist."
Similarly, I happen to believe that each and every person here has profound insight into economics by virtue of simply participating in the international economy. Ben Bernanke has a high position and a swanky PhD, but he doesn't participate in the rat race that is the rock-bottom level of capitalism; I suspect that most of you, like myself, do. There's an advantage to experiencing something at the ground level that birds-eye-view folks just can't get, or maybe forget once they've climbed that ladder through sheer fortune.
Anyway, I'm interested in everyone's ideas for improving the international economy, or your own country's economy if you like.
To give you an idea where I'm personally coming from, I have a firm belief that free trade, as it has been conducted since the mid 1990s, opened a floodgate that cannot feasibly be closed, and that flood will smash the capitalist system utterly. It's already happening; while the media would have us believe that the most recent economic crisis can be pinned on Wall Street's ridiculously blind trust in mortgage backed securities, the fact remains that underlying economic trends rendered US citizens unable to afford mortgages. Mortgages were previously heavily borrowed against to fund consumption, possibly due to an overall halt in wage growth. No wage growth, no mortgages, no consumption, no production, etc, etc. It's the heat death of the Economic Universe as far as the US, and probably the West, and possibly the current developed world, is concerned.
Perhaps I'll be proven wrong; I can only hope. If I am wrong, then it could ironically be due to a miraculous episode of Keynesian economic policy applied by the Obama Administration, something formal Chicago School-style economic training teaches students to write off nowadays. Otherwise, where else is the spending driving the recovery coming from? A sudden surge in private employment? The unemployment rate is 15.6% where I am now, and 9.7% nationally in the United States.
Anyway, consider this thread a free-for-all for everyone's personal treatise on economic reform, because I'm curious what ideas and observations generated from personal experience are out there; theory-heavy textbooks get boring sometimes. To jumpstart the discussion, I'd recommend taking a look at what this commentator had to say back in 2003:
http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-freedom.htm
It's actually a commentary on how the US economy would need to change to handle the widespread introduction of robotic workers. That's, perhaps, a bit of a ways off. Maybe. But regardless of the current state of robotics, I think one could very easily replace the word "robots" in the author's article with "outsourcing" and "illegal immigrants," and his suggestions for economic reform would be equally thought-provoking.
What does everyone think about the author's economic proposals, like just handing out money literally "backed" by private advertisement? Workable? Not so much? I find such out-of-left-field ideas intriguing. There's an economic theory according to which money can't cause inflation as long as it's backed by something that grows along with the money supply (like physical capital), but I need to dig out that book and double-check it. If it does, I wonder if we couldn't grow the money supply by backing it with human capital.
Similarly, I happen to believe that each and every person here has profound insight into economics by virtue of simply participating in the international economy. Ben Bernanke has a high position and a swanky PhD, but he doesn't participate in the rat race that is the rock-bottom level of capitalism; I suspect that most of you, like myself, do. There's an advantage to experiencing something at the ground level that birds-eye-view folks just can't get, or maybe forget once they've climbed that ladder through sheer fortune.
Anyway, I'm interested in everyone's ideas for improving the international economy, or your own country's economy if you like.
To give you an idea where I'm personally coming from, I have a firm belief that free trade, as it has been conducted since the mid 1990s, opened a floodgate that cannot feasibly be closed, and that flood will smash the capitalist system utterly. It's already happening; while the media would have us believe that the most recent economic crisis can be pinned on Wall Street's ridiculously blind trust in mortgage backed securities, the fact remains that underlying economic trends rendered US citizens unable to afford mortgages. Mortgages were previously heavily borrowed against to fund consumption, possibly due to an overall halt in wage growth. No wage growth, no mortgages, no consumption, no production, etc, etc. It's the heat death of the Economic Universe as far as the US, and probably the West, and possibly the current developed world, is concerned.
Perhaps I'll be proven wrong; I can only hope. If I am wrong, then it could ironically be due to a miraculous episode of Keynesian economic policy applied by the Obama Administration, something formal Chicago School-style economic training teaches students to write off nowadays. Otherwise, where else is the spending driving the recovery coming from? A sudden surge in private employment? The unemployment rate is 15.6% where I am now, and 9.7% nationally in the United States.
Anyway, consider this thread a free-for-all for everyone's personal treatise on economic reform, because I'm curious what ideas and observations generated from personal experience are out there; theory-heavy textbooks get boring sometimes. To jumpstart the discussion, I'd recommend taking a look at what this commentator had to say back in 2003:
http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-freedom.htm
It's actually a commentary on how the US economy would need to change to handle the widespread introduction of robotic workers. That's, perhaps, a bit of a ways off. Maybe. But regardless of the current state of robotics, I think one could very easily replace the word "robots" in the author's article with "outsourcing" and "illegal immigrants," and his suggestions for economic reform would be equally thought-provoking.
What does everyone think about the author's economic proposals, like just handing out money literally "backed" by private advertisement? Workable? Not so much? I find such out-of-left-field ideas intriguing. There's an economic theory according to which money can't cause inflation as long as it's backed by something that grows along with the money supply (like physical capital), but I need to dig out that book and double-check it. If it does, I wonder if we couldn't grow the money supply by backing it with human capital.
33
General Discussion / Patrick Swayze Returns to the Planet's Dream
« on: September 14, 2009, 09:55:23 pm »
Just heard this:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090915/ap_en_mo/us_obit_swayze_9
I'm unfortunately not too familiar with his work outside Ghost, so I'm hardly the best to offer a fitting eulogy. However, I'd hope that the media uses this opportunity to spread cancer awareness, and it is my greatest hope that the US government will one day go hogwild and spend trillions upon trillions of dollars in a final effort to vanquish one of the great scourges of our race. Whereas we're willing to mobilize the nation's resources to counterattack terrorists, there's an odd sense of complacency and fatalism about cancer...Except that sudden pang of terror the individual, usually nameless patient gets upon being diagnosed with it in some form.
Pancreatic cancer, the type that claimed Swayze's life, is one of the more horrific forms. It claims approximately 30,000 Americans every year, killing 95% of its victims within five years. It creeps into the Pancreas silently, producing symptoms only when the tumor impinges on the bile ducts and the victim develops jaundice. One's only hope at that point is usually the Whipple Procedure, which mutilates the victim by removing large parts of his or her digestive tract. For patients over 70 who wouldn't be able to tolerate such a major opertation, Pancreatic Cancer is little more than a death sentence.
My heart really goes to his family. I can imagine the rush to get him into the latest clinical trials, the hope, the despair once it didn't work. Our progression on treating this disease in particular has been abysmal -- the Whipple Procedure was developed in 1898, and it's still the best we've been able to come up with. Cyberknife is promising, but given the continued poor prognosis of Pancreatic Cancer victims, there's apparently a large number of kinks that need worked out, let alone the fact that treating easily targetable tumors is probably not the way to go for most cancers.
From my understanding, Swayze still worked all the way through June 2009 on the show The Beast. Given his condition and the prognosis he was perfectly well aware of, that's something pretty farking worthy of respect.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090915/ap_en_mo/us_obit_swayze_9
I'm unfortunately not too familiar with his work outside Ghost, so I'm hardly the best to offer a fitting eulogy. However, I'd hope that the media uses this opportunity to spread cancer awareness, and it is my greatest hope that the US government will one day go hogwild and spend trillions upon trillions of dollars in a final effort to vanquish one of the great scourges of our race. Whereas we're willing to mobilize the nation's resources to counterattack terrorists, there's an odd sense of complacency and fatalism about cancer...Except that sudden pang of terror the individual, usually nameless patient gets upon being diagnosed with it in some form.
Pancreatic cancer, the type that claimed Swayze's life, is one of the more horrific forms. It claims approximately 30,000 Americans every year, killing 95% of its victims within five years. It creeps into the Pancreas silently, producing symptoms only when the tumor impinges on the bile ducts and the victim develops jaundice. One's only hope at that point is usually the Whipple Procedure, which mutilates the victim by removing large parts of his or her digestive tract. For patients over 70 who wouldn't be able to tolerate such a major opertation, Pancreatic Cancer is little more than a death sentence.
My heart really goes to his family. I can imagine the rush to get him into the latest clinical trials, the hope, the despair once it didn't work. Our progression on treating this disease in particular has been abysmal -- the Whipple Procedure was developed in 1898, and it's still the best we've been able to come up with. Cyberknife is promising, but given the continued poor prognosis of Pancreatic Cancer victims, there's apparently a large number of kinks that need worked out, let alone the fact that treating easily targetable tumors is probably not the way to go for most cancers.
From my understanding, Swayze still worked all the way through June 2009 on the show The Beast. Given his condition and the prognosis he was perfectly well aware of, that's something pretty farking worthy of respect.
34
Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Latest Chrono scam
« on: August 29, 2009, 05:37:13 pm »
In case you hear anything about a new Chrono game being announced at this year's TGS in an Edge Magazine interview, it's total bunk. For posterity, I'll record the text of the supposed interview here before it's erased from GameFAQs on grounds of trolling:
As W_Mark_Felt pointed out at GameFAQs, the person supposedly being interviewed died four hundred years ago.
Would've been more entertaining if whoever fabricated this wrote, He beginth to thpontaneouthly combutht.
Quote from: Mr Funny Man
From the latest issue:
EDGE: E3 and GC have come and gone and we're antsy to find out what we can at this year's TGS which is just around the corner! Until then though, we're here with Square-Enix's press rep, Mr. Date Masamune. How's it going, Mr. Masamune?
Masamune: *laughs* Its great, guys. I'm really excited for TGS myself because we have some great announcements in store for the world. I believe the word for it in the gaming press is "megaton"? We will have plenty of megatons.
EDGE: So lets get this thing rolling right away. What can we expect? Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, a new IP? Maybe even.. something about Chrono?
Masamune: *laughs* Ah yes, the Chrono series is a fan favorite. All I can say at this moment is that Chrono fans will be pleased this TGS. As will fans of Cloud and his friends. I'm sad to say that no new Kingdom Hearts titles will be formally announced at TGS, but the PSP title has hardly had any exposure so far, so expect a full press boom. XIII and Versus XIII will of course be present as well. Except gameplay of the latter.
EDGE: So how about a new IP?
Masamune: Well you see, Square-Enix will be publishing Modern Warfare 2 in Japan and so that too will be a focus at our booth.
EDGE: But that's not really a new IP. What can you tell us about Square's original ventures?
Masamune: The focus of our TGS presentation this year will be on renewing classic series, so I'm sure our core fan-base is in for a treat!
EDGE: I'd just like to confirm that no new IPs will be revealed at TGS.
Masamune: *sigh* No, we will not have any new IPs... [Mr. Masamune makes a quick cell-phone call in Japanese. As the call ends, he smiles a bit.] We'll have some surprises in store, actually.
EDGE: That's just swell. So what exactly can you tell us at this moment?
Masamune: Well yes, I'd like to leave you with more than just a few teasers. *smiles* Square-Enix has been gaining extensive experience as far as online gameplay has been concerned. We've been through Final Fantasy XI, Before Crisis, and even Dirge of Cerberus through our Play Online model. We now have the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV. However, there is one new venture that I am now finally at liberty to speak about in some capacity. Full details will be available at TGS.
EDGE: And...?
Masamune: [He simply stares at us for a few seconds, with sweat trickling down his brow. Suddenly he flashes us a wide grin.]
EDGE: Are you alright, Mr. Masamune?
Masamune: [He's talking through his gritted smile.] I'm perfectly fine, guys. Anyways what I wanted to talk about was our new MMORPG, World of Mana Online, exclusively for the DSi. The first, in fact, DSi-only retail game. It'll have [he begins to froth at the mouth] 8 playable races, over 20 playable classes, over 100 professions, and 16 different deities to worship, including the mana spirits and god beasts. Famous characters from past games will show up as NPCs, like [he begins to breathe heavily and it sounds as if fluids are beginning to fill his lungs; my assistant begins dialing 911] Fffllaagmie, Thangghhaatos, the... cannongh gghhhshkggguy
EDGE: Hold on we'll get you help!
Masamune: [He begins to spontaneously combust]
EDGE: This interview will have to conclude next issue once Square sends us a replacement representative. Stay tuned.
Source: http://www.gamespot.com/ps/rpg/chronocross/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-51136601
As W_Mark_Felt pointed out at GameFAQs, the person supposedly being interviewed died four hundred years ago.
Would've been more entertaining if whoever fabricated this wrote, He beginth to thpontaneouthly combutht.
35
General Discussion / May Almighty God Bless Madonna
« on: August 27, 2009, 09:45:13 pm »
Hey, I knew a topic title like that would get ZeaLitY's attention, okay? 
Anyway, what I really wanted to say was, "Fuck Racism and Ethnocentrism." Madonna just got freakin' booed in Romania for defending the oft-downtrodden Roma people, also known pejoritavely as Gypsies.
Madonna is a heroine for having the guts to use her fame to bring attention to a social issue, and I hope she doesn't stop.
The Roma are beautiful people and should be valued. I mean, just look at them. For all the attention that racism gets in the United States, we need to be mindful that it's still a worldwide phenomenon.
Uh, yeah. So anyway, guess everyone can take this topic wherever they like, actually; whether it be anti-religious statements (or pro-religion) statements Madonna has made over the years, or socially heroic acts of other celebrities that you find inspiring.
Anyway, what I really wanted to say was, "Fuck Racism and Ethnocentrism." Madonna just got freakin' booed in Romania for defending the oft-downtrodden Roma people, also known pejoritavely as Gypsies.
Madonna is a heroine for having the guts to use her fame to bring attention to a social issue, and I hope she doesn't stop.
The Roma are beautiful people and should be valued. I mean, just look at them. For all the attention that racism gets in the United States, we need to be mindful that it's still a worldwide phenomenon.
Uh, yeah. So anyway, guess everyone can take this topic wherever they like, actually; whether it be anti-religious statements (or pro-religion) statements Madonna has made over the years, or socially heroic acts of other celebrities that you find inspiring.
36
Welcome / Birthday / Seeya! Forum / Internetless for 3 days
« on: August 13, 2009, 01:55:01 am »
I'm Internetless this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. If I'm not back by Sunday, you know what to do...call in this guy:
37
General Discussion / The doujin fangame industry -- what do we know about this elusive animal?
« on: August 11, 2009, 07:07:56 pm »
Didn't want to go on a tangent in the Chronotorious thread, so I guess I'll migrate some of my recent musings to a new thread.
Anyway, during the Crimson Echoes C&D controversy the concept of fangame licenses were mentioned from time to time. I dismissed it as an outlandish never-before-tried concept at first, but then OneUp Studios' Chronotorious album got me thinking about the possibilities.
I pondered whimsically on how awesome it would be if there were a company that did for fangames what OneUp Studios does for fan music. And then it hit me -- this really has been done before. Even with Square Enix. I'm pretty sure we've discussed this particular case before, but I'm not sure we did so in the context of the debate over fan activity that followed in the wake of the C&D the Compendium received.
Anyone know of outfits like EasyGameStation in the English-speaking world? Or would the folks behind The Silver Lining be the closest thing to it? Are there cultural or legal differences that make this sort of thing either impossible or extroardinarily improbable in the West? Or is only the lack of precedent standing in the way?
It seems to me that possibilities for English fangames abound in this economy marked by megacorporate game producers that are struggling with hugely overbearing production costs and development times. Game producers are accumulating and hanging on to more intellectual properties than they have the resources to handle -- certain properties end up just being left completely untreated. And yet at the same time, the Chrono community and other fan communities have amply illustrated that untapped demand still exists. I imagine there's also huge amounts of untapped game-producing talent among the community of would-be amateur game designers. It's a true market inefficiency.
I'm just interested in exploring what all's happened in this fledgling industry, and whether it's even fledgling at all.
EDIT: Just realized I forgot my own first rule: when you have a question about something, check Wikipedia first, because Wikipedia has teh great isightz. Here's an entry on the doujin game industry as it exists in Japan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Djin_soft
The industry as it exists in Japan still does not have the protection of licensing it seems, unlike OneUp Studios' venture in fan music. EasyGameStation might have even been selling their product completely under the radar somehow. Hmm. I wonder if any doujin houses operate with the promise of licensing fee and royalty profits for the IP holder?
EDIT: Great article here.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_44/266-Doujin-A-Go-Go-Baby
Anyway, during the Crimson Echoes C&D controversy the concept of fangame licenses were mentioned from time to time. I dismissed it as an outlandish never-before-tried concept at first, but then OneUp Studios' Chronotorious album got me thinking about the possibilities.
I pondered whimsically on how awesome it would be if there were a company that did for fangames what OneUp Studios does for fan music. And then it hit me -- this really has been done before. Even with Square Enix. I'm pretty sure we've discussed this particular case before, but I'm not sure we did so in the context of the debate over fan activity that followed in the wake of the C&D the Compendium received.
Anyone know of outfits like EasyGameStation in the English-speaking world? Or would the folks behind The Silver Lining be the closest thing to it? Are there cultural or legal differences that make this sort of thing either impossible or extroardinarily improbable in the West? Or is only the lack of precedent standing in the way?
It seems to me that possibilities for English fangames abound in this economy marked by megacorporate game producers that are struggling with hugely overbearing production costs and development times. Game producers are accumulating and hanging on to more intellectual properties than they have the resources to handle -- certain properties end up just being left completely untreated. And yet at the same time, the Chrono community and other fan communities have amply illustrated that untapped demand still exists. I imagine there's also huge amounts of untapped game-producing talent among the community of would-be amateur game designers. It's a true market inefficiency.
I'm just interested in exploring what all's happened in this fledgling industry, and whether it's even fledgling at all.
EDIT: Just realized I forgot my own first rule: when you have a question about something, check Wikipedia first, because Wikipedia has teh great isightz. Here's an entry on the doujin game industry as it exists in Japan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Djin_soft
The industry as it exists in Japan still does not have the protection of licensing it seems, unlike OneUp Studios' venture in fan music. EasyGameStation might have even been selling their product completely under the radar somehow. Hmm. I wonder if any doujin houses operate with the promise of licensing fee and royalty profits for the IP holder?
EDIT: Great article here.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_44/266-Doujin-A-Go-Go-Baby
38
Chrono / Gameplay Casual Discussion / Chronotorious? Anyone heard of this before?
« on: August 11, 2009, 02:15:55 am »
EDIT: Yes, this group of musicians has secured a fan license through OneUp Studios. My apologies for pondering confusedly over the next few posts; this is literally my first exposure to the professional Western doujin music industry. I am most intrigued!
The July 22 date of this obscure news post shames us all as the world's most die-hard Chrono fans.
http://www.gamervision.com/gamer/coop/news/article/chrono_trigger_announcement_coming_august_11th_
tsk, tsk. Square Enix distracted us with that teaser website for Lords of Vermilion, which is why we didn't see this I guess. Turns out it's apparently a doujin music album of some sort...for sale. The irony is not lost on all of you, I'm sure, but I wish them the best. Here's more info:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=20497
http://stephsketches.blogspot.com/
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BwM5DXQRwMg/SmfVVvCpn7I/AAAAAAAAAX0/NFKHxnpSI7M/s1600-h/chronotorious.jpg
Sooo, am I correctly understanding that this is actually a doujin album, and is for sale? Or did Square Enix commission this? Or, better yet, is there a fan licensing deal going on here? What is happening here?
I recall several Chrono-themed albums done by fans in Japan, and then put up for sale, but I guess I always thought there was some kind of licensing deal with Square Enix, Mitsuda, Digicube, or something. If people can remake Chrono music for profit, why can't they remake gameplay (or do novelizations, for that matter)? I'm definitely not familiar with the fan/doujin music industry though, so I really don't know the first thing about all this.
http://www.baddudesmusic.com/preorder.html
EDIT: We could probably start an investigation by contacting the artist, Stephanie, who might know who to direct us to at Bad Dudes Music. How the heck did they get a freaking licensing deal? Would it have been through Digicube as opposed to Square Enix legal directly?
EDIT: Looks like mazedude is one of the artists. Is he approachable over at OCRemix?
The July 22 date of this obscure news post shames us all as the world's most die-hard Chrono fans.
http://www.gamervision.com/gamer/coop/news/article/chrono_trigger_announcement_coming_august_11th_
tsk, tsk. Square Enix distracted us with that teaser website for Lords of Vermilion, which is why we didn't see this I guess. Turns out it's apparently a doujin music album of some sort...for sale. The irony is not lost on all of you, I'm sure, but I wish them the best. Here's more info:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=20497
http://stephsketches.blogspot.com/
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BwM5DXQRwMg/SmfVVvCpn7I/AAAAAAAAAX0/NFKHxnpSI7M/s1600-h/chronotorious.jpg
Sooo, am I correctly understanding that this is actually a doujin album, and is for sale? Or did Square Enix commission this? Or, better yet, is there a fan licensing deal going on here? What is happening here?
I recall several Chrono-themed albums done by fans in Japan, and then put up for sale, but I guess I always thought there was some kind of licensing deal with Square Enix, Mitsuda, Digicube, or something. If people can remake Chrono music for profit, why can't they remake gameplay (or do novelizations, for that matter)? I'm definitely not familiar with the fan/doujin music industry though, so I really don't know the first thing about all this.
http://www.baddudesmusic.com/preorder.html
EDIT: We could probably start an investigation by contacting the artist, Stephanie, who might know who to direct us to at Bad Dudes Music. How the heck did they get a freaking licensing deal? Would it have been through Digicube as opposed to Square Enix legal directly?
EDIT: Looks like mazedude is one of the artists. Is he approachable over at OCRemix?
39
General Discussion / RIAA Lawsuit lands Boston University grad school student in $675,000 extra debt
« on: August 01, 2009, 02:10:42 am »
*All monetary values expressed in this post are in US Dollars.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading
What's everyone's opinion on this case, the RIAA's actions, and the severity of the outcome? I'm interested in seeing what others have to say so I can further my own psychological development with respect to issues of copyright, artist interest, and justice.
I've done a lot of soul searching, theorizing, pondering and investigating regarding copyright matters recently (as I'm sure the whole Chrono fan community has to a greater or lesser extent, for obvious reasons). Clearly all intellectual property holders incur real harm when someone distributes songs currently on the market for free without paying the IP holders a royalty for each song consumed -- I imagine legal free audio-listening sites like Rhapsody.com and various Internet radio sites operate by paying the IP holders some average amount, in contrast to what the student on trial in this case did (straight-up free P2P sharing).
Before examining situational nuances that could be brought into the picture in the context of this case, I'd like to observe that the economic rationale on which cases like this are predicated may be significantly flawed. I imagine the RIAA, by singling out this one offender and punishing him to a gigantic degree, is attempting to deter his fellows from engaging in P2P file sharing of copyrighted works (I'm sure host file distribution like Rapidshare and Sendspace are only a few months or years away from the grasp of lawyers, so the method of sharing might not make a difference in the long run). However, Tenenbaum is still one of two high profile cases this year I can recall in a sea of what, 10 million? 50 million? One billion offenders?
The typical rational economic model of risk going around in Economics textbooks these days posits that your typical dude or dudette will essentially multiply the cost of an activity by the probability of occurrence, and then compare the resulting "expected cost" of the action to alternatives. If the $675,000 judgment against Tenenbaum fully holds, and he was one of 10 million peers -- maybe a conservative estimate -- the expected cost to any one peer is ($675k) * (1/10,000,000) or roughly 6.8 cents per infringement. The problem here is that a typical song will cost between 99 cents and $2.00 in most cases. Clearly, if you buy into the economic models the Chicago School and others are engraining into Econ undergrads' heads nowadays, the appropriate option for offenders is to *gasp* continue their P2P activities full scale! To the RIAA's credit, the expected cost of each infringement rises significantly if you factor in the $1.92 million judgment against the other lady that happened recently, and any others punished notably within the past few years. Whether it rises to the market value of the average song may still be debatable, however.
Not that I really buy into what Econ textbooks say on numerous issues, including this one. I'd put far more weight on the sheer probability of being caught than a formula we all supposedly implicitly carry out before embarking on some activity. IMHO the RIAA might be far better served by asking for a judgment of approximately the fair market value of the songs while pushing the probability of detection closer to 100%, which should be fairly doable with the current infrastructure. However, I'm not really familiar enough with traditional pirating techniques to know if some roadblock exists that prevents the RIAA from just having unpaid Interns run Internet searches and catching pirates by the hundreds in a given afternoon, so I could be wrong. Likewise, there may be something in national copyright law that sets a minimum punishment per infringement, essentially robbing the RIAA the opportunity to pursue more efficient and reasonable actions.
A closely related issue is preventing P2P sharing for copyright's sake, and not for profit's sake. What I mean by this is, say a piece of music still falls under copyright but the piece of music is no longer being sold except as a rarity in second-hand markets. The profit interest to the artist and copyright holder is essentially nonexistent (only the second-hand holder of the copy profits, an issue which itself has been subject to lawsuit from time to time!).
The First Sale Doctrine still standing, however (and hopefully forever), the letter of the law and the artist's profit interest do not necessarily coincide. I think an argument can be made for file sharing on the basis of art preservation in cases when First Sale becomes impossible -- original work "out of print," deleted from First Sellers' databases to make space on servers, what have you. This is the rationale on which I have no problem whatsoever seeking out a classic NES or SNES videogame and storing it on my hard drive; I'm not entirely trusting of game companies to preserve the artifacts of great gaming as if they were scrupulous museums. Admittedly, the practice of re-releasing old games muddies the art preservation rationale by making First Sale possible again -- in the cases of certain lucky titles.
Long post is Long, so I think I'll cut it short here. I'd eventually like to get to Fair Use (which, unlike the art preservation rationale, is codified in most developed countries' copyright law if I'm not mistaken -- which I could very well be) with respect to things like usage of copyrighted works in mixed content Youtube videos, and finally culminating in the situation Crimson Echoes and other fan works have become embroiled in from time to time.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_tec_music_downloading
What's everyone's opinion on this case, the RIAA's actions, and the severity of the outcome? I'm interested in seeing what others have to say so I can further my own psychological development with respect to issues of copyright, artist interest, and justice.
I've done a lot of soul searching, theorizing, pondering and investigating regarding copyright matters recently (as I'm sure the whole Chrono fan community has to a greater or lesser extent, for obvious reasons). Clearly all intellectual property holders incur real harm when someone distributes songs currently on the market for free without paying the IP holders a royalty for each song consumed -- I imagine legal free audio-listening sites like Rhapsody.com and various Internet radio sites operate by paying the IP holders some average amount, in contrast to what the student on trial in this case did (straight-up free P2P sharing).
Before examining situational nuances that could be brought into the picture in the context of this case, I'd like to observe that the economic rationale on which cases like this are predicated may be significantly flawed. I imagine the RIAA, by singling out this one offender and punishing him to a gigantic degree, is attempting to deter his fellows from engaging in P2P file sharing of copyrighted works (I'm sure host file distribution like Rapidshare and Sendspace are only a few months or years away from the grasp of lawyers, so the method of sharing might not make a difference in the long run). However, Tenenbaum is still one of two high profile cases this year I can recall in a sea of what, 10 million? 50 million? One billion offenders?
The typical rational economic model of risk going around in Economics textbooks these days posits that your typical dude or dudette will essentially multiply the cost of an activity by the probability of occurrence, and then compare the resulting "expected cost" of the action to alternatives. If the $675,000 judgment against Tenenbaum fully holds, and he was one of 10 million peers -- maybe a conservative estimate -- the expected cost to any one peer is ($675k) * (1/10,000,000) or roughly 6.8 cents per infringement. The problem here is that a typical song will cost between 99 cents and $2.00 in most cases. Clearly, if you buy into the economic models the Chicago School and others are engraining into Econ undergrads' heads nowadays, the appropriate option for offenders is to *gasp* continue their P2P activities full scale! To the RIAA's credit, the expected cost of each infringement rises significantly if you factor in the $1.92 million judgment against the other lady that happened recently, and any others punished notably within the past few years. Whether it rises to the market value of the average song may still be debatable, however.
Not that I really buy into what Econ textbooks say on numerous issues, including this one. I'd put far more weight on the sheer probability of being caught than a formula we all supposedly implicitly carry out before embarking on some activity. IMHO the RIAA might be far better served by asking for a judgment of approximately the fair market value of the songs while pushing the probability of detection closer to 100%, which should be fairly doable with the current infrastructure. However, I'm not really familiar enough with traditional pirating techniques to know if some roadblock exists that prevents the RIAA from just having unpaid Interns run Internet searches and catching pirates by the hundreds in a given afternoon, so I could be wrong. Likewise, there may be something in national copyright law that sets a minimum punishment per infringement, essentially robbing the RIAA the opportunity to pursue more efficient and reasonable actions.
A closely related issue is preventing P2P sharing for copyright's sake, and not for profit's sake. What I mean by this is, say a piece of music still falls under copyright but the piece of music is no longer being sold except as a rarity in second-hand markets. The profit interest to the artist and copyright holder is essentially nonexistent (only the second-hand holder of the copy profits, an issue which itself has been subject to lawsuit from time to time!).
The First Sale Doctrine still standing, however (and hopefully forever), the letter of the law and the artist's profit interest do not necessarily coincide. I think an argument can be made for file sharing on the basis of art preservation in cases when First Sale becomes impossible -- original work "out of print," deleted from First Sellers' databases to make space on servers, what have you. This is the rationale on which I have no problem whatsoever seeking out a classic NES or SNES videogame and storing it on my hard drive; I'm not entirely trusting of game companies to preserve the artifacts of great gaming as if they were scrupulous museums. Admittedly, the practice of re-releasing old games muddies the art preservation rationale by making First Sale possible again -- in the cases of certain lucky titles.
Long post is Long, so I think I'll cut it short here. I'd eventually like to get to Fair Use (which, unlike the art preservation rationale, is codified in most developed countries' copyright law if I'm not mistaken -- which I could very well be) with respect to things like usage of copyrighted works in mixed content Youtube videos, and finally culminating in the situation Crimson Echoes and other fan works have become embroiled in from time to time.
40
Site Updates / CE Video Walkthrough Released for Download
« on: July 18, 2009, 08:34:28 pm »
What happen!
Somebody set up us the torrent.
All your CE walkthrough are belong to the fanbase.
Take off every Gig!
For GREEEAAAT JUUUUSTICE!
(Link inside)
[hidden]http://www.seedpeer.com/details/2373101/CE-Video-Walkthrough[0].html
Let me know if you experience any problems accessing the torrent and/or files. You should see two zip files and two text files in your favorite torrent client after launching the linked torrent file.
Total size if 9GB uncompressed, so ouch.
Videos 20 ~ 33 were missing in the original torrent. Get them here:
http://www.seedpeer.com/details/2380592/Emerald-Dream-Video-Series-torren.html
[/hidden]
Somebody set up us the torrent.
All your CE walkthrough are belong to the fanbase.
Take off every Gig!
For GREEEAAAT JUUUUSTICE!
(Link inside)
[hidden]http://www.seedpeer.com/details/2373101/CE-Video-Walkthrough[0].html
Let me know if you experience any problems accessing the torrent and/or files. You should see two zip files and two text files in your favorite torrent client after launching the linked torrent file.
Total size if 9GB uncompressed, so ouch.
Videos 20 ~ 33 were missing in the original torrent. Get them here:
http://www.seedpeer.com/details/2380592/Emerald-Dream-Video-Series-torren.html
[/hidden]
41
Site Updates / The Month That Could Have Been: Bonus Footage and Credits
« on: July 06, 2009, 12:12:08 am »
The Month That Could Have Been draws to a close with some bonus footage taken while testing out the new playable character and some really really ridiculously difficult-to-reach gag scenes planned for the Choras casino. The second and final video is a credits reel featuring unused sprites created by Chrono'99, Darkken, and others during the project development cycle.
Bonus footage.
Credits reel.
As you can see there was some real awesomeness in store. We'd like to thank everyone for watching and supporting the CEMemorial Youtube channel, which has logged an amazing 134,032 views in just over a month, plus 507 subscribers as of this post. We'll work out some way of distributing the raw video footage in the coming weeks.
Bonus footage.
Credits reel.
As you can see there was some real awesomeness in store. We'd like to thank everyone for watching and supporting the CEMemorial Youtube channel, which has logged an amazing 134,032 views in just over a month, plus 507 subscribers as of this post. We'll work out some way of distributing the raw video footage in the coming weeks.
42
Chrono Trigger + / MOVED: Fiona's Forest Cutscene
« on: June 19, 2009, 09:45:07 pm »
This topic has been moved to ChronoTrigger Plus Closeout/Continuing Discussion.
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=5928.0
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php?topic=5928.0
43
Time, Space, and Dimensions / Weird Temporal Science: The Masamune in CE
« on: June 18, 2009, 04:46:50 pm »
Some of us were discussing a really interesting academic question recently: given the events that transpire in CE, is there a Masamune sitting in Guardia Castle's vaults in 606AD in the final "corrected" timeline in which the Masamune was restored?
In the beginning of CE, it is established that Glenn gated into 600AD post-CT and laid his Masamune in Guardia Castle (see 5:09). This timeline is replaced by a timeline in which the Masamune never existed in the Middle Ages, but yet Glenn's post-CT Masamune was preserved by Time Traveler's Immunity when he gated into that timeline's 600AD.
In 605AD, Glenn began doing some temporal travels again, taking the post-CT Masamune with him. Each time he gated in and gated out, he established original gate-ins and gate-outs that would occur in every active (non-DBT'd) dimension: the gate ins brought Glenn and his post-CT Masamune into all universes at specific times, and the gate-outs would cause Glenn and his post-CT Masamune to vanish via Time Bastard at specific later times.
Also in 605AD, King Zeal established his own original gate-ins and gate-outs, and he was equipped with what I'll call KZ-Masamune to avoid confusion. This is the Masamune removed from a certain point in 11,995BC.
All original gate-ins and gate-outs established by Glenn and King Zeal during 605AD occurred in a dimension in which the Masamune never existed in 605AD aside from those preserved by TTI.
After those original gate-ins and gate-outs occurred, the player in CE created a dimension in which the Masamune was restored, specifically by placing KZ-Masamune back in 11,995BC at a point after it had been removed from the timeline in the first place.
Now, in 600AD, Glenn gates in and places the Masamune in Guardia's vaults. Then all the gate-ins and gate-outs established by Glenn and King Zeal are applied to this new "corrected" dimension thanks to Time Traveler's Immunity and Time Bastard.
Is there any version of the Masamune still in Guardia's vaults in 606AD, in this "corrected" timeline?
In the beginning of CE, it is established that Glenn gated into 600AD post-CT and laid his Masamune in Guardia Castle (see 5:09). This timeline is replaced by a timeline in which the Masamune never existed in the Middle Ages, but yet Glenn's post-CT Masamune was preserved by Time Traveler's Immunity when he gated into that timeline's 600AD.
In 605AD, Glenn began doing some temporal travels again, taking the post-CT Masamune with him. Each time he gated in and gated out, he established original gate-ins and gate-outs that would occur in every active (non-DBT'd) dimension: the gate ins brought Glenn and his post-CT Masamune into all universes at specific times, and the gate-outs would cause Glenn and his post-CT Masamune to vanish via Time Bastard at specific later times.
Also in 605AD, King Zeal established his own original gate-ins and gate-outs, and he was equipped with what I'll call KZ-Masamune to avoid confusion. This is the Masamune removed from a certain point in 11,995BC.
All original gate-ins and gate-outs established by Glenn and King Zeal during 605AD occurred in a dimension in which the Masamune never existed in 605AD aside from those preserved by TTI.
After those original gate-ins and gate-outs occurred, the player in CE created a dimension in which the Masamune was restored, specifically by placing KZ-Masamune back in 11,995BC at a point after it had been removed from the timeline in the first place.
Now, in 600AD, Glenn gates in and places the Masamune in Guardia's vaults. Then all the gate-ins and gate-outs established by Glenn and King Zeal are applied to this new "corrected" dimension thanks to Time Traveler's Immunity and Time Bastard.
Is there any version of the Masamune still in Guardia's vaults in 606AD, in this "corrected" timeline?
44
General Discussion / Rebuttal to Prince LaCroix
« on: June 12, 2009, 01:15:52 pm »
Wow.
Prince, I'm going to respond to as many of your points I can. Before I start, my earlier offer stands: you can give your friend my email address (faustwolf@yahoo.com), and I would be interested in speaking with the beta testers who either feel they've been slighted during that process or feel that the C&D is fake. I have a valid interest in protecting the integrity of the work I put into CE during the late beta phase. For proof of that work, you can see the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnw9KH_WnfI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE5ZZvwy_bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtCSpxPoX3A
That took awhile, and it became an art form -- an art form I was looking forward to sharing with others who played CE. Believe me, if this C&D were fake, I would be rather angry that my work was trashed along with everyone else's. There were also a number of other contributors (sprite artist extraordinaire Darkken being one, he did the portraits) whose work didn't see the light of day in playable form, and I'm sure they'd be a bit miffed too. Again, faustwolf@yahoo.com
Now, let us begin.
Zeality and co. have been working on this game for 5 years. They managed to get everything in place, so to speak... the only problem? The game was bugged-up beyond any form of hope. Zeality just couldn't get his stuff together.
You know all those betas coming out and how each time the team is like, "oh, this is the incomplete version, like, only 75%, it's more like an alpha!" Pure baloney. You really think there's some kind of God-like nigh-perfect uber beta out there? Well there isn't, this is as good as it gets. Rather than admitting that one of these bugged-up betas is the real deal they're just calling them "alphas" while pretending that some mystical near-perfect super-beta is out there to cover up their real reasons behind the cease and desist, and to pretend that the actual quality of what they produced is of much higher than what it really is.
The lack of new techs and missing portraits, combined with the CE Memorial videos, are proof enough that what's circulating and what's shown at CEMemorial are very different things. Compare what you see in the leaked alpha with what you see here, esp. 2:38 starting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fH_uz1Qrd4
If you can get Robo to do VulcanPulse or Frog to do Nirvana X in your copy of the ROM; and the new portraits are in, you're looking at the bona-fide 98% beta in all likelihood. Simple as that.
Furthermore, why is it that whoever's releasing the "alphas" isn't releasing the "more complete" beta as well?
Just stop and think about that for a while.
For that to be true Zeality and co would have to have given one set of fans the first beta, and then only a second "more trusted" set of fans the "nearly complete" "98% beta" or whatever they're claiming it is or are calling it.
Correct. The last beta circulating within the beta tester pool was dated April 23 IIRC. That would have played out like a mostly bug-free version of the alpha now in circulation, but didn't even have the new techs inserted. Take a look here at the Compendium forum, where at least one member of the beta testing squad was completely unaware of the new techs even being in (this was one of the surprises reserved for the final release):
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,7608.msg166224.html#msg166224
That is circumstantial evidence suggesting the separation of the beta tester pool from the 98% complete version. Obviously a good idea in retrospect, as it decreased the risk of leaks (at least of the final version).
Truth is, Zeality and co were bad at fixing all the bugs- it was too much for him and his group. After 5 years he wanted to give up. But he didn't want to give up his fame and prestige for this or have to lose face. Instead, that's where all this C n D baloney originated.
Serving as a beta tester myself, I can attest to Agent 12's excellent bug-squashing skills. We actually made a list of all the bugs we encountered as we played through, and Agent 12 crossed them out as he squashed them. Having played through the game two and a half times, plus the 98% complete version you can see at CEMemorial, I know for a fact that numerous, numerous bugs and glitches disappeared with each rendition. Plus, Chrono'99 added a lot of polish, which kept my interest despite the possibility of playthrough fatigue.
And that is why I've been so "gung-ho" about CE as you call it, Prince: it was an excellent product. I've had a lot (and I mean a LOT) of hands-on time with the full game's various iterations. It was truly astounding, and I will never back down from that claim as an end-user of the product. You'll notice that the core CE team itself has been extremely humble about its quality. Nearly every claim of "oh, CE is sooo awesome!" will come from my username. And I'm not a bit ashamed, because I feel it's true. CE wouldn't have done it for everyone, but it did it for me.
Moving on...
Yet, through this all- notice how cool and calm and collected Zeality and the group has been? Almost too quiet if you ask me....
It's called "maturity," Prince. You realize that the CE team is composed of grad school students or people with working lives, right? Adults, not acne-ridden 13-year-old hacker wannabes with hormonal imbalances.
And really- five years of their life down the drain. FIVE WHOLE YEARS ON A PROJECT? And you REALLY think that in response to that they'd simply maintain their cool throughout all this implicitly like they were all a bunch of extraordinarly mature mini-Obamas?
Care to read or listen to Agent 12's explanation of the situation?
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Agent_12_Radio_Interview
The core CE team led perfectly normal lives during this process, which is part of why it took that long. Also, I am pleased that you approve of President Obama and consider him a mature leader. I do as well.
Most people would fight that- or at least, they wouldn't immediately give up. And even IF they gave up, they'd be mad as HELL about this, they would not be as "Joe Cool" as Zeality and co have been.
Again, it's called "maturity." I'm actually pissed as hell at you right now, Prince, but have I resorted to name calling and posting in all caps? No. Instead, I'm determined to break down your feeble tirade that substitutes quantity for quality of information.
Also, as far as the CE team not taking this to court, think about this for a second. When you walk in for a job interview, do you really want people to know you've gone to court over a fangame? Fans would understand, yes, but not your typical job hirer. In this economy, people are looking for every reason to a.) fire you, or b.) not hire you. I once made the mistake of mentioning anime, manga, and videogames on a job application, and I feel the employers thought less of me for it. That's the kind of thing the CE team is concerned about here. Additionally, I've made my own opinion clear: fan activity needs to earn its right to exist via precedent and not in court, for the aforementioned reason and also financial considerations.
SE ALREADY ISSUED A CEASE AND DESIST FIVE YEARS AGO FOR THE MOD CHRONO RESURRECTION AND MADE NO ATTEMPTS AT THE TIME OF DENYING THEY HAD DONE SO AT THE TIME?!
What on earth would change so much over the course of 5 years to make Square-Enix so much more shy and uncomfortable about doing the exact same thing over again? And bear in mind this IS a giant, wealthy, multi-national company we're talking about?
The answer? Nothing.
Correct. Well, almost. First, Chrono Resurrection was not a mod to my knowledge, but a freshly-coded and designed fangame.
But you're right, nothing has changed in the past 5 years (except the quality of the C&Ds they issue nowadays apparently). Square Enix sent Chrono Resurrection and Chrono Trigger Remake Project C&Ds back around 2004 or 2005, and then remained silent. Same deal with Crimson Echoes. Or do you have an official public statement issued by Square Enix on the previous C&Ds?
But what does Compendium man FaustWolf have to say about this?
"It's really a comedy of errors any way you slice it. The closest thing to the truth as far as we know is that a new hire in Square Enix's legal department decided to start out his job by writing a C&D, apparently the first he'd ever written, or at least he didn't bother to make it high quality (a la the well-drafted C&D received by Chrono Resurrection) because that reflected the amount of respect he had for modders of an SNES-era game.
Add to that the fact that the project may or may not have been brought to said lawyer's attention by a would-be modder/fangamer who felt jealous about the fact that he couldn't get whatever projects he had in mind off the ground while CE had reached fruition.
Add to that the fact that Square Enix refuses to make an official statement about all this, possibly because it's simply embarrassed at the poor quality of its own C&D.
My take on the situation, anyway."
Notice something in the above? For starters, how FaustWolf is already making up excuses for some of the shoddy quality of the so-called Cease and Desist such as, I don't know, maybe the lighting?
I'll give you points for not calling me "FalseWolf" again.
As I said, my take on the situation. If you compare the C&D received by CT:Resurrection to the C&D received by the Compendium...
http://www.chillingeffects.org/derivative/notice.cgi?NoticeID=1416
http://www.crimsonechoes.com/letter.pdf
I don't exactly have to point out the difference in quality there *aside* from lighting issues. Where did you pull that explanation from? Can you show us where there's Photoshopped lights or sparklies on the Compendium's C&D?
It's laughable that you feel you need lighting issues as evidence that the C&D has been falsified. The C&D's shoddy quality all around is what other skeptics have focused on, and I respect that. I also felt that it was suspicious at first, and grilled the core CE team, cross-referencing what they told me with what I knew shortly after this all happened. As I've stated before, I'm not interested in losing my work on the project toward the end of its development cycle, and I'm not interested in seeing people like Darkken and nightmare975 lose their hard work either.
That said, aside from the quality of the C&D, everything checks out. CE was extremely playable -- better than a lot of professionally developed games IMO, and I say this as an end-user who had extraordinary access to the project. There was simply no motive to fake the C&D. It wasn't maimed due to being fraught with bugs or anything. As for why I've been subsequently convinced that the C&D is real despite its quality, you can review my opinion on that in detail over at the RPGamer forum:
http://board.rpgamer.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?act=ST;f=10;t=19433;st=89
But in short, I feel the shoddy quality of the C&D can be explained by the fact that it was produced in-house (the C&Ds given to the earlier projects were produced by third-party contractors to my knowledge); and that the guy who authored the C&D PDF according to its metadata had only worked for SE less than a year. He's either inexperienced in writing C&D orders, or the quality of the letter showed his personal disdain for game modification -- maybe both. That's my theory right now, based on actual evidence. It's more plausible in my mind than the CE team just throwing away their work and everyone else's to advertise the project. You might think that because all you've played is the shoddy bug-ridden alpha, but as someone who's played the 98% version, I can safely say that the conspiracy theories just don't make sense.
And really- doesn't it seem odd he was "clever" enough to "trick" SE but too danged stupid to cover up his own tracks enough to avoid a banning pwnage from his name obviously connecting together? Why couldn't he just make up a fake name that couldn't be traced when bragging about "causing" the cease and desist. That seems pretty stupid and yet, his original actions seem very sneaky and clever. But these aren't traits which tend to mix together well, nor would an extremely sneaky person be too dumb to protect himself from being caught.
The point of trolling is to get attention, right? Sometimes people will settle for any attention, even the negative kind. It's always been my opinion that Alienat0r wanted to be outed for the thrill, given his careless blacking out of one of his other aliases on the supposed defamation letter.
Everytime there's a point made that makes them and what they're trying to do look bad or wrong and that has been made public they always have some convenient new excuse to make it look otherwise.
An excuse for the shoddy quality of the Cease and Desist letter.
An excuse for SE "refusing" to make a public response and trying to be secretive.
An excuse for the released beta being of such terrible quality, with them quickly giving it a catchy new nickname ("alpha") to dispel the belief that their beta was actually a piece of crap and not the work of art perfection that they claim.
And an excuse for giving up 5 years of their lives immediately with no hesitation and not a single bit of fight or anger in them. Really- does the person have such a great job or are they just lying and is it a crappy job or is he/they just a basement dweller? Whatever response to this will immediately deny/counter this as much as possible with an opposite claim.
At least we back up what we say with evidence. It's better than what you're dishing out. I could be persuaded otherwise, perhaps, if you invite the beta testers your friend is speaking with to shoot me an email so we can discuss whatever "the big gun" your friend referenced earlier is.
An excuse for not fighting this even though they think they might probably win it.
Care to produce a post from anyone in the CE team making this claim? As you've noticed, I'm producing actual evidence here, even if admittedly circumstantial at times. I expect the same of you.
Also there'll be an excuse for this topic too and every single point I have raised in it.
I'm sure I've missed numerous points in your multi-post tirade for fear of losing my entire Friday morning to this effort. At least I'm providing explanations and not just pulling unbacked claims out of thin air.
That is the whole story- there is no magically perfect "beta" and there never will be.
Certainly not "perfect" but I...sort of played through it in early May and recorded just about every second of the playthrough. Please re-examine your claims after watching through some of what's been uploaded so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSTpkMB9kNk
Or are you just going to poo-poo on that too, and call it fake footage whipped up in Dreamweaver as part of a huge grand conspiracy to cover up the bugs that you think would have been in the final version?
And for Zeality and co, well... oh boy! This is lots of fun for them.
I can't speak for ZeaLitY, but I'm not having too much fun right now. If anything, we've gotten just as many negative reactions from this as supportive ones. Oh, and did I mention that the C&D hit just before finals week? *Grad school* finals week, at least at the colleges ZeaLitY and I attend? If this had been faked, you'd think we would have picked a slightly more convenient time.
And so, they are posting their carefully, carefully, heavily and extremely micromanaged youtube videos in a manner to avoid all their multitude of bugs and make the game look decent and playable.
...Did you even watch the Youtube videos? This is the best concrete proof we have against claims that the C&D letter was fake, or that the game was fraught with bugs. As you can see, there are a still a few bugs that pop up. Take, for example, 00:33 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vKuU8zu5bs
...or 02:04 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIwJi3kLSbg
Not exactly avoidance playing there, Prince. Really, try watching these. The developer commentary actually pokes fun at the few bugs left in the game.
And if there were really that few bugs left in the footage shown, do you seriously think Agent 12 was incapable of squashing any in areas not shown?
And so, they are posting their carefully, carefully, heavily and extremely micromanaged youtube videos in a manner to avoid all their multitude of bugs and make the game look decent and playable. Then when it's done, and people are worshipping this thing like it's Jesus Christ reborn or, for us gamers, Chrono Trigger 2, some hapless fans who actually KNOW what they're doing with mods and who already have come to worship the thing will fix all the bugs and pimp the game out and make it shiny and new and sweet, thus fulfilling their desires and finishing the product for them.
That's what Faustwolf's post on this board in which he said seems to allude to I think. (NOTE- he may delete that post later. Janus deleted one of his and Faust deleted one in his topic and redid it to change something, they're probably make up some bogus excuse for what they edited so anyway, here's the post in full detail)
"This is not a struggle the CE team will win or lose for us; it's a torch that we must take up and carry on into the future. For the Chrono franchise, the next phase of the struggle will have to be completely underground; yet we can take some pride as fans in knowing that by the time any new Chrono project were to see the light of day..."
That's pretty much it- other fans do all the heavy lifting for them and make an exceptional project and then Zeality and co. get their egos stroked as they get to be heroes and the whole Chrono fan community just leaps up and rejoices at the "great" deed that has just happened. I doubt Zeality and co. ever planned it that way from the start- but with the entire way their game has magically been transformed into a symbol for something it's totally not, of it's course it's absolutely feasible and more than likely that this is what is going to happen. And it's shame because it really is **** ****.
I have no reason to delete that, especially since I'm not finding grammatical errors in it In fact, I'm rather proud of that one. Trying to finish CE is something fans might want to do, but bear in mind it's already been C&D'd and that endeavor carries extremely high risk. What I was referring to was the future of fangaming in general; I do hope it continues, and that the fan communities carry on as they have up till now.
(and you'll also see many more bannings there aside from the ones which have already taken place on Chrono Compendium against certain people who've been outspoken against them- obviously that is NOT the place to discuss the real stuff happening behind the scenes because of Zeality and co's influence there, ergo why I don't post there)
What a rotten set of accusations. The Compendium is a place where freedom of speech is incredibly encouraged, outside of leaking C&D'd work, obvious trolling like the stunt Alienat0r/Dark Serge pulled, and posting pr0n or something. A number of users questioning the happenings have not been banned, though they've been argued against vigorously. For example, take phelph here:
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,7437.msg161506.html#msg161506
Or Meol:
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,7636.0.html
Neither has been banned. Any Compendium users who've been banned recently were either responsible for the alpha leak, bots advertising Viagra, or Alienat0r.
"If your friend is really in contact with beta testers who have proof that the C&D was made up, Prince, I welcome you to tell your friend to forward my email (faustwolf@yahoo.com) to the beta testers he's in contact with. As an interested party who plunked dozens of hours into the development of CE, I would love to examine any real evidence your friend and these beta testers have turned up.
Furthermore, even if those beta testers are merely suspicious that the C&D was fake, I'd welcome a discussion with them as another interested party who's also helped tangentially in the development of this mod."
Wow really? You sounds so helpful and eager to be of assistance despite everything negative that's been said.... maybe I was wrong about you. You know what, I'm going to e-mail you everyone I've spoken to you so you can help sort this whole thing out for all of us.
..... yeah right, think I was born yesterday? Nice try acting all nice, but you really think I'm going to be tricked that easily by you? Or that I don't already know how you guys really act behind the scenes as opposed to the public "mature, friendly, nice guys" routine you always pull and are easily able to do since other fanboys automatically do all the bashing that's needed?
My offer stands despite your obvious mistrust of me. What more can I do? As I've said before, if the C&D is fake, all this went to waste:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnw9KH_WnfI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE5ZZvwy_bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtCSpxPoX3A
Do you know how long that took? Do you really think I'm not angry that others didn't get to enjoy that work as part of a feature-length mod? I have a legitimate interest in the truth here, and I assure you I'm not trying to launch a one-man sting operation against beta testers who have legitimate concerns. If you or anyone else has solid evidence (the "big gun" as you've called it), by all means reveal it. The beta testers your friend is in contact with don't have to do it over email if they're that worried I'll forward a private conversation; they can do it through an off-the-record chat or something. I'd be happy to set one up with them. You have my email, and I'm patiently waiting.
Anyway, let's assume two different scenarios since there are basically two scenarios to this. The first scenario- being that you're telling the truth. I already know personally that you're not so let's just skip that one and look at the second scenario- that you're lying.
If that's the case then you already KNOW that everything I've said so far is true. If that's the case then your claims that you would "love to examine any real evidence your friend and these beta testers have turned up" and that you would "welcome a discussion with them as another interested party who's also helped tangentially in the development of this mod" are utterly false.
Wow. Way to engage someone in a position to investigate further on your/the beta testers' behalf and maybe find evidence of discrepancies they've noticed. Again, my offer stands; if you've got some real solid evidence, I want to hear it. I wouldn't be afraid for a second to launch an investigation that could save my own work and see the release of CE. I've made this clear to both Agent 12 and ZeaLitY previously. It's a bit jealous perhaps, but the truth ultimately takes precedence over their interests and mine -- ff the C&D was fake, then there's no risk of Agent 12 and ZeaLitY having to go to court over it, obviating that concern.
@SuperSaiyanTien
Secondly, is it that far-fetched that Zeality and Co. couldn't handle it, so they just said F* this, I mean rom hacking isn't the easiest of things, not hard, but not easy either, bugs DO pop up, some more damaging than others, and sometimes you do need to restart over or what not. As for the "proof" that it was real, by the videos on youtube, I've seen those videos..it's called artful dodging, where you don't show anything BIG you show little things, to fill up time.
80-odd videos showing all the major game events without breaks is...artful dodging? Artful, maybe. Dodging, not quite.
Prince, I'm going to respond to as many of your points I can. Before I start, my earlier offer stands: you can give your friend my email address (faustwolf@yahoo.com), and I would be interested in speaking with the beta testers who either feel they've been slighted during that process or feel that the C&D is fake. I have a valid interest in protecting the integrity of the work I put into CE during the late beta phase. For proof of that work, you can see the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnw9KH_WnfI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE5ZZvwy_bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtCSpxPoX3A
That took awhile, and it became an art form -- an art form I was looking forward to sharing with others who played CE. Believe me, if this C&D were fake, I would be rather angry that my work was trashed along with everyone else's. There were also a number of other contributors (sprite artist extraordinaire Darkken being one, he did the portraits) whose work didn't see the light of day in playable form, and I'm sure they'd be a bit miffed too. Again, faustwolf@yahoo.com
Now, let us begin.
Zeality and co. have been working on this game for 5 years. They managed to get everything in place, so to speak... the only problem? The game was bugged-up beyond any form of hope. Zeality just couldn't get his stuff together.
You know all those betas coming out and how each time the team is like, "oh, this is the incomplete version, like, only 75%, it's more like an alpha!" Pure baloney. You really think there's some kind of God-like nigh-perfect uber beta out there? Well there isn't, this is as good as it gets. Rather than admitting that one of these bugged-up betas is the real deal they're just calling them "alphas" while pretending that some mystical near-perfect super-beta is out there to cover up their real reasons behind the cease and desist, and to pretend that the actual quality of what they produced is of much higher than what it really is.
The lack of new techs and missing portraits, combined with the CE Memorial videos, are proof enough that what's circulating and what's shown at CEMemorial are very different things. Compare what you see in the leaked alpha with what you see here, esp. 2:38 starting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fH_uz1Qrd4
If you can get Robo to do VulcanPulse or Frog to do Nirvana X in your copy of the ROM; and the new portraits are in, you're looking at the bona-fide 98% beta in all likelihood. Simple as that.
Furthermore, why is it that whoever's releasing the "alphas" isn't releasing the "more complete" beta as well?
Just stop and think about that for a while.
For that to be true Zeality and co would have to have given one set of fans the first beta, and then only a second "more trusted" set of fans the "nearly complete" "98% beta" or whatever they're claiming it is or are calling it.
Correct. The last beta circulating within the beta tester pool was dated April 23 IIRC. That would have played out like a mostly bug-free version of the alpha now in circulation, but didn't even have the new techs inserted. Take a look here at the Compendium forum, where at least one member of the beta testing squad was completely unaware of the new techs even being in (this was one of the surprises reserved for the final release):
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,7608.msg166224.html#msg166224
That is circumstantial evidence suggesting the separation of the beta tester pool from the 98% complete version. Obviously a good idea in retrospect, as it decreased the risk of leaks (at least of the final version).
Truth is, Zeality and co were bad at fixing all the bugs- it was too much for him and his group. After 5 years he wanted to give up. But he didn't want to give up his fame and prestige for this or have to lose face. Instead, that's where all this C n D baloney originated.
Serving as a beta tester myself, I can attest to Agent 12's excellent bug-squashing skills. We actually made a list of all the bugs we encountered as we played through, and Agent 12 crossed them out as he squashed them. Having played through the game two and a half times, plus the 98% complete version you can see at CEMemorial, I know for a fact that numerous, numerous bugs and glitches disappeared with each rendition. Plus, Chrono'99 added a lot of polish, which kept my interest despite the possibility of playthrough fatigue.
And that is why I've been so "gung-ho" about CE as you call it, Prince: it was an excellent product. I've had a lot (and I mean a LOT) of hands-on time with the full game's various iterations. It was truly astounding, and I will never back down from that claim as an end-user of the product. You'll notice that the core CE team itself has been extremely humble about its quality. Nearly every claim of "oh, CE is sooo awesome!" will come from my username. And I'm not a bit ashamed, because I feel it's true. CE wouldn't have done it for everyone, but it did it for me.
Moving on...
Yet, through this all- notice how cool and calm and collected Zeality and the group has been? Almost too quiet if you ask me....
It's called "maturity," Prince. You realize that the CE team is composed of grad school students or people with working lives, right? Adults, not acne-ridden 13-year-old hacker wannabes with hormonal imbalances.
And really- five years of their life down the drain. FIVE WHOLE YEARS ON A PROJECT? And you REALLY think that in response to that they'd simply maintain their cool throughout all this implicitly like they were all a bunch of extraordinarly mature mini-Obamas?
Care to read or listen to Agent 12's explanation of the situation?
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Agent_12_Radio_Interview
The core CE team led perfectly normal lives during this process, which is part of why it took that long. Also, I am pleased that you approve of President Obama and consider him a mature leader. I do as well.
Most people would fight that- or at least, they wouldn't immediately give up. And even IF they gave up, they'd be mad as HELL about this, they would not be as "Joe Cool" as Zeality and co have been.
Again, it's called "maturity." I'm actually pissed as hell at you right now, Prince, but have I resorted to name calling and posting in all caps? No. Instead, I'm determined to break down your feeble tirade that substitutes quantity for quality of information.
Also, as far as the CE team not taking this to court, think about this for a second. When you walk in for a job interview, do you really want people to know you've gone to court over a fangame? Fans would understand, yes, but not your typical job hirer. In this economy, people are looking for every reason to a.) fire you, or b.) not hire you. I once made the mistake of mentioning anime, manga, and videogames on a job application, and I feel the employers thought less of me for it. That's the kind of thing the CE team is concerned about here. Additionally, I've made my own opinion clear: fan activity needs to earn its right to exist via precedent and not in court, for the aforementioned reason and also financial considerations.
SE ALREADY ISSUED A CEASE AND DESIST FIVE YEARS AGO FOR THE MOD CHRONO RESURRECTION AND MADE NO ATTEMPTS AT THE TIME OF DENYING THEY HAD DONE SO AT THE TIME?!
What on earth would change so much over the course of 5 years to make Square-Enix so much more shy and uncomfortable about doing the exact same thing over again? And bear in mind this IS a giant, wealthy, multi-national company we're talking about?
The answer? Nothing.
Correct. Well, almost. First, Chrono Resurrection was not a mod to my knowledge, but a freshly-coded and designed fangame.
But you're right, nothing has changed in the past 5 years (except the quality of the C&Ds they issue nowadays apparently). Square Enix sent Chrono Resurrection and Chrono Trigger Remake Project C&Ds back around 2004 or 2005, and then remained silent. Same deal with Crimson Echoes. Or do you have an official public statement issued by Square Enix on the previous C&Ds?
But what does Compendium man FaustWolf have to say about this?
"It's really a comedy of errors any way you slice it. The closest thing to the truth as far as we know is that a new hire in Square Enix's legal department decided to start out his job by writing a C&D, apparently the first he'd ever written, or at least he didn't bother to make it high quality (a la the well-drafted C&D received by Chrono Resurrection) because that reflected the amount of respect he had for modders of an SNES-era game.
Add to that the fact that the project may or may not have been brought to said lawyer's attention by a would-be modder/fangamer who felt jealous about the fact that he couldn't get whatever projects he had in mind off the ground while CE had reached fruition.
Add to that the fact that Square Enix refuses to make an official statement about all this, possibly because it's simply embarrassed at the poor quality of its own C&D.
My take on the situation, anyway."
Notice something in the above? For starters, how FaustWolf is already making up excuses for some of the shoddy quality of the so-called Cease and Desist such as, I don't know, maybe the lighting?
I'll give you points for not calling me "FalseWolf" again.
As I said, my take on the situation. If you compare the C&D received by CT:Resurrection to the C&D received by the Compendium...
http://www.chillingeffects.org/derivative/notice.cgi?NoticeID=1416
http://www.crimsonechoes.com/letter.pdf
I don't exactly have to point out the difference in quality there *aside* from lighting issues. Where did you pull that explanation from? Can you show us where there's Photoshopped lights or sparklies on the Compendium's C&D?
It's laughable that you feel you need lighting issues as evidence that the C&D has been falsified. The C&D's shoddy quality all around is what other skeptics have focused on, and I respect that. I also felt that it was suspicious at first, and grilled the core CE team, cross-referencing what they told me with what I knew shortly after this all happened. As I've stated before, I'm not interested in losing my work on the project toward the end of its development cycle, and I'm not interested in seeing people like Darkken and nightmare975 lose their hard work either.
That said, aside from the quality of the C&D, everything checks out. CE was extremely playable -- better than a lot of professionally developed games IMO, and I say this as an end-user who had extraordinary access to the project. There was simply no motive to fake the C&D. It wasn't maimed due to being fraught with bugs or anything. As for why I've been subsequently convinced that the C&D is real despite its quality, you can review my opinion on that in detail over at the RPGamer forum:
http://board.rpgamer.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?act=ST;f=10;t=19433;st=89
But in short, I feel the shoddy quality of the C&D can be explained by the fact that it was produced in-house (the C&Ds given to the earlier projects were produced by third-party contractors to my knowledge); and that the guy who authored the C&D PDF according to its metadata had only worked for SE less than a year. He's either inexperienced in writing C&D orders, or the quality of the letter showed his personal disdain for game modification -- maybe both. That's my theory right now, based on actual evidence. It's more plausible in my mind than the CE team just throwing away their work and everyone else's to advertise the project. You might think that because all you've played is the shoddy bug-ridden alpha, but as someone who's played the 98% version, I can safely say that the conspiracy theories just don't make sense.
And really- doesn't it seem odd he was "clever" enough to "trick" SE but too danged stupid to cover up his own tracks enough to avoid a banning pwnage from his name obviously connecting together? Why couldn't he just make up a fake name that couldn't be traced when bragging about "causing" the cease and desist. That seems pretty stupid and yet, his original actions seem very sneaky and clever. But these aren't traits which tend to mix together well, nor would an extremely sneaky person be too dumb to protect himself from being caught.
The point of trolling is to get attention, right? Sometimes people will settle for any attention, even the negative kind. It's always been my opinion that Alienat0r wanted to be outed for the thrill, given his careless blacking out of one of his other aliases on the supposed defamation letter.
Everytime there's a point made that makes them and what they're trying to do look bad or wrong and that has been made public they always have some convenient new excuse to make it look otherwise.
An excuse for the shoddy quality of the Cease and Desist letter.
An excuse for SE "refusing" to make a public response and trying to be secretive.
An excuse for the released beta being of such terrible quality, with them quickly giving it a catchy new nickname ("alpha") to dispel the belief that their beta was actually a piece of crap and not the work of art perfection that they claim.
And an excuse for giving up 5 years of their lives immediately with no hesitation and not a single bit of fight or anger in them. Really- does the person have such a great job or are they just lying and is it a crappy job or is he/they just a basement dweller? Whatever response to this will immediately deny/counter this as much as possible with an opposite claim.
At least we back up what we say with evidence. It's better than what you're dishing out. I could be persuaded otherwise, perhaps, if you invite the beta testers your friend is speaking with to shoot me an email so we can discuss whatever "the big gun" your friend referenced earlier is.
An excuse for not fighting this even though they think they might probably win it.
Care to produce a post from anyone in the CE team making this claim? As you've noticed, I'm producing actual evidence here, even if admittedly circumstantial at times. I expect the same of you.
Also there'll be an excuse for this topic too and every single point I have raised in it.
I'm sure I've missed numerous points in your multi-post tirade for fear of losing my entire Friday morning to this effort. At least I'm providing explanations and not just pulling unbacked claims out of thin air.
That is the whole story- there is no magically perfect "beta" and there never will be.
Certainly not "perfect" but I...sort of played through it in early May and recorded just about every second of the playthrough. Please re-examine your claims after watching through some of what's been uploaded so far.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSTpkMB9kNk
Or are you just going to poo-poo on that too, and call it fake footage whipped up in Dreamweaver as part of a huge grand conspiracy to cover up the bugs that you think would have been in the final version?
And for Zeality and co, well... oh boy! This is lots of fun for them.
I can't speak for ZeaLitY, but I'm not having too much fun right now. If anything, we've gotten just as many negative reactions from this as supportive ones. Oh, and did I mention that the C&D hit just before finals week? *Grad school* finals week, at least at the colleges ZeaLitY and I attend? If this had been faked, you'd think we would have picked a slightly more convenient time.
And so, they are posting their carefully, carefully, heavily and extremely micromanaged youtube videos in a manner to avoid all their multitude of bugs and make the game look decent and playable.
...Did you even watch the Youtube videos? This is the best concrete proof we have against claims that the C&D letter was fake, or that the game was fraught with bugs. As you can see, there are a still a few bugs that pop up. Take, for example, 00:33 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vKuU8zu5bs
...or 02:04 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIwJi3kLSbg
Not exactly avoidance playing there, Prince. Really, try watching these. The developer commentary actually pokes fun at the few bugs left in the game.
And if there were really that few bugs left in the footage shown, do you seriously think Agent 12 was incapable of squashing any in areas not shown?
And so, they are posting their carefully, carefully, heavily and extremely micromanaged youtube videos in a manner to avoid all their multitude of bugs and make the game look decent and playable. Then when it's done, and people are worshipping this thing like it's Jesus Christ reborn or, for us gamers, Chrono Trigger 2, some hapless fans who actually KNOW what they're doing with mods and who already have come to worship the thing will fix all the bugs and pimp the game out and make it shiny and new and sweet, thus fulfilling their desires and finishing the product for them.
That's what Faustwolf's post on this board in which he said seems to allude to I think. (NOTE- he may delete that post later. Janus deleted one of his and Faust deleted one in his topic and redid it to change something, they're probably make up some bogus excuse for what they edited so anyway, here's the post in full detail)
"This is not a struggle the CE team will win or lose for us; it's a torch that we must take up and carry on into the future. For the Chrono franchise, the next phase of the struggle will have to be completely underground; yet we can take some pride as fans in knowing that by the time any new Chrono project were to see the light of day..."
That's pretty much it- other fans do all the heavy lifting for them and make an exceptional project and then Zeality and co. get their egos stroked as they get to be heroes and the whole Chrono fan community just leaps up and rejoices at the "great" deed that has just happened. I doubt Zeality and co. ever planned it that way from the start- but with the entire way their game has magically been transformed into a symbol for something it's totally not, of it's course it's absolutely feasible and more than likely that this is what is going to happen. And it's shame because it really is **** ****.
I have no reason to delete that, especially since I'm not finding grammatical errors in it
In fact, I'm rather proud of that one. Trying to finish CE is something fans might want to do, but bear in mind it's already been C&D'd and that endeavor carries extremely high risk. What I was referring to was the future of fangaming in general; I do hope it continues, and that the fan communities carry on as they have up till now.(and you'll also see many more bannings there aside from the ones which have already taken place on Chrono Compendium against certain people who've been outspoken against them- obviously that is NOT the place to discuss the real stuff happening behind the scenes because of Zeality and co's influence there, ergo why I don't post there)
What a rotten set of accusations. The Compendium is a place where freedom of speech is incredibly encouraged, outside of leaking C&D'd work, obvious trolling like the stunt Alienat0r/Dark Serge pulled, and posting pr0n or something. A number of users questioning the happenings have not been banned, though they've been argued against vigorously. For example, take phelph here:
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,7437.msg161506.html#msg161506
Or Meol:
http://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/index.php/topic,7636.0.html
Neither has been banned. Any Compendium users who've been banned recently were either responsible for the alpha leak, bots advertising Viagra, or Alienat0r.
"If your friend is really in contact with beta testers who have proof that the C&D was made up, Prince, I welcome you to tell your friend to forward my email (faustwolf@yahoo.com) to the beta testers he's in contact with. As an interested party who plunked dozens of hours into the development of CE, I would love to examine any real evidence your friend and these beta testers have turned up.
Furthermore, even if those beta testers are merely suspicious that the C&D was fake, I'd welcome a discussion with them as another interested party who's also helped tangentially in the development of this mod."
Wow really? You sounds so helpful and eager to be of assistance despite everything negative that's been said.... maybe I was wrong about you. You know what, I'm going to e-mail you everyone I've spoken to you so you can help sort this whole thing out for all of us.
..... yeah right, think I was born yesterday? Nice try acting all nice, but you really think I'm going to be tricked that easily by you? Or that I don't already know how you guys really act behind the scenes as opposed to the public "mature, friendly, nice guys" routine you always pull and are easily able to do since other fanboys automatically do all the bashing that's needed?
My offer stands despite your obvious mistrust of me. What more can I do? As I've said before, if the C&D is fake, all this went to waste:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnw9KH_WnfI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE5ZZvwy_bg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtCSpxPoX3A
Do you know how long that took? Do you really think I'm not angry that others didn't get to enjoy that work as part of a feature-length mod? I have a legitimate interest in the truth here, and I assure you I'm not trying to launch a one-man sting operation against beta testers who have legitimate concerns. If you or anyone else has solid evidence (the "big gun" as you've called it), by all means reveal it. The beta testers your friend is in contact with don't have to do it over email if they're that worried I'll forward a private conversation; they can do it through an off-the-record chat or something. I'd be happy to set one up with them. You have my email, and I'm patiently waiting.
Anyway, let's assume two different scenarios since there are basically two scenarios to this. The first scenario- being that you're telling the truth. I already know personally that you're not so let's just skip that one and look at the second scenario- that you're lying.
If that's the case then you already KNOW that everything I've said so far is true. If that's the case then your claims that you would "love to examine any real evidence your friend and these beta testers have turned up" and that you would "welcome a discussion with them as another interested party who's also helped tangentially in the development of this mod" are utterly false.
Wow. Way to engage someone in a position to investigate further on your/the beta testers' behalf and maybe find evidence of discrepancies they've noticed. Again, my offer stands; if you've got some real solid evidence, I want to hear it. I wouldn't be afraid for a second to launch an investigation that could save my own work and see the release of CE. I've made this clear to both Agent 12 and ZeaLitY previously. It's a bit jealous perhaps, but the truth ultimately takes precedence over their interests and mine -- ff the C&D was fake, then there's no risk of Agent 12 and ZeaLitY having to go to court over it, obviating that concern.
@SuperSaiyanTien
Secondly, is it that far-fetched that Zeality and Co. couldn't handle it, so they just said F* this, I mean rom hacking isn't the easiest of things, not hard, but not easy either, bugs DO pop up, some more damaging than others, and sometimes you do need to restart over or what not. As for the "proof" that it was real, by the videos on youtube, I've seen those videos..it's called artful dodging, where you don't show anything BIG you show little things, to fill up time.
80-odd videos showing all the major game events without breaks is...artful dodging? Artful, maybe.
Dodging, not quite.45
Site Updates / "Crimson Echoes: The Month that Could Have Been" starts NOW!
« on: May 30, 2009, 12:50:38 pm »
We are aware that there is a purported leak of the 98% beta of Crimson Echoes, and have started "The Month That Could Have Been" a day early to utterly crush that rumor. The "leak" apparently made it out of the beta testing pool in early February, before beta testing had even really begun. Thus it is nothing more than an alpha fraught with over 2000 bugs and furthermore lacks most of the new techs, portraits, and even the endings, which hadn't been coded yet. If you are one of the unlucky fans who've been jipped into believing that you have a real beta of Crimson Echoes, you will be sorely disappointed when you see the footage of the real 98% beta below.
The Compendium is making a good faith effort to have all torrents and uploads of this alpha removed in compliance with Square Enix's Cease and Desist order.
Throughout the month of June, keep an eye on the Compendium news page or subscribe to the CEMemorial Youtube account to watch a playthrough of the 98% beta. The first three videos are linked below:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Rest assured that any other Youtube videos you're seeing are not leaks of the 98% beta, but rather the obsolete alpha that must have leaked well before the C&D even arrived at the Compendium's doorstep. Keep an eye on the CEMemorial Youtube account throughout the month of June to see a full playthrough of the 98% beta! Try watching it anywhere else, and you're just gettin' jipped.
The Compendium is making a good faith effort to have all torrents and uploads of this alpha removed in compliance with Square Enix's Cease and Desist order.
Throughout the month of June, keep an eye on the Compendium news page or subscribe to the CEMemorial Youtube account to watch a playthrough of the 98% beta. The first three videos are linked below:
Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Rest assured that any other Youtube videos you're seeing are not leaks of the 98% beta, but rather the obsolete alpha that must have leaked well before the C&D even arrived at the Compendium's doorstep. Keep an eye on the CEMemorial Youtube account throughout the month of June to see a full playthrough of the 98% beta! Try watching it anywhere else, and you're just gettin' jipped.