Tommy Tallarico tweets, deletes, legal threat toward Ars Technica.
Continue reading “Intellivision Tweets Legal Threat At Journo”
Tag: Threat
Earth 2 Dev Calls Tanner Rozankovic A Liar
Steam Brulee: Cenokga Entertainment and Copyright Abuse
Time to put the torch to another dirty developer.
Continue reading “Steam Brulee: Cenokga Entertainment and Copyright Abuse”
Minecraft PvP Feud Results in 24,000 Bomb Threats Against 400 UK Schools
Sky News reports this week that hundreds of UK schools had to evacuate in response to 24,000 emails sent out carrying fake bomb threats, due to an apparent feud between Minecraft communities. As reported by Alexander Martin, Sky News was able to get in touch with one of the perpetrators who had deliberately falsified the emails so that they would appear to be from another community, VeltPvP, to schools demanding ransom payments of thousands of dollars with the threat that a bomb would be detonated inside the school if the ransom wasn’t paid. The intent, according to the participant, was to get the VeltPvP domain shut down.
We have had a number of calls this morning about a bomb hoax at many of our region’s schools. All of the schools have been spoken to and there is not believed to be any viable threats #ProudToProtect pic.twitter.com/iGafyMfAvx
— Northumbria Police (@northumbriapol) March 19, 2018
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Another of the alleged perpetrators attempted to justify the bomb threats as a response to allegations that VeltPvP had been attacking other servers and when asked if he felt remorse, another responded “I’m not going to lose sleep over it.”
We have nothing to do with the bomb threats that were sent out to the 400+ UK schools.
We’ve been being harassed by a group of cyber criminals that are trying to harass us in anyway possible.
We’re extremely sorry for anyone who had to deal with this, but just know it’s fake.
— VeltPvP (@VeltPvP) March 19, 2018
[NM] Sorry, ODD Games, Retroactive Defamation Isn’t Real
Here at MMO Fallout, I have always taken the position that a developer’s previous work does not prohibit them from fixing what is broken or improving in future products. While we would like to see a world where games stop launching in a barely functional state, it stands to reason that any game can go from a failure to a success with a simple series of patches.
Nevertheless, it is a new day and that means another independent studio dead set on dragging their reputation through the mud by threatening a member of the games media. ODD Games has been making headlines with the news that the studio threatened Youtuber Nerd³ over his review of Monster Truck Destruction, a $5 mobile port currently sitting at a “mostly negative” rating on Steam with a peak of six users over the past month. Not a single person is playing it right now. The review video has been accused of making false statements about the game, at least in a manner of speaking.
Where the case gets interesting, and where the line gets drawn, is in timing. Factually speaking, nothing said in the original Youtube review was incorrect. Since the review was posted, however, ODD Games has patched Monster Truck Destruction and fixed several issues that were present in the build reviewed. In their threat, ODD Games demands that the video be taken down as the review “can be interpreted as defamatory.”
The letter goes on to give a 48 hour deadline before the issue is “escalated to the relevant authorities.”
Unfortunately for ODD Games, defamation doesn’t cover statements that were true at the time they were said but were later invalidated. It does, however, leave a mark on your company as being that one that uses threats and intimidation in order to get your way, and unsuccessfully at that. Just imagine how different these events might have played out had you simply sent an email asking for a fresher review? I can’t guarantee that your request would have been answered, but you can hardly do worse than this.
Lessons From 2013 #7: Taking Threats Seriously
Am I the only one who has noticed that stupid people have a habit of doing stupid things? Case in point? Back in 2007, teenagers on Long Island started a fad of running into fences to knock them over. Every once in a while you hear on the news that someone called a bomb threat to a school or business as a joke. Stupid? Yes. Dangerous? Maybe. Liable to ruin your future? Absolutely.
Earlier this year, a gamer in RuneScape learned just that lesson when police showed up at his house to arrest him over a threat made in-game. In addition to multiple anti-Semitic comments, Thomas Frongillo reportedly also said “I’m shooting up my school tomorrow.” Frongillo was arrested and charged with threatening to commit a crime and threatening a bombing or hijacking. He contested that it was just a harmless jest.
The moral of the story is nothing. The people who need to be told that saying “I’m going to shoot up my school” is a stupid idea aren’t going to pay attention anyway.
Lessons From 2013 #4: Threats From Devs
Despite some of the criticisms I make here at MMO Fallout, I have a decent relationship with most developers that I talk about. I don’t water down my editorials and for the most part they are fully aware that anything negative is said with the best of intentions. That out of the way, MMO Fallout has received several threats of defamation and slander lawsuits, all of which disappeared when pressed to explain precisely what was said that was false or published with the intention of damaging said company/individual. Over at MMORPG.com, however, 2013 saw the delisting of two games due to the actions of their developers. Back in March, WWII Online was removed completely after Cornered Rat Software threatened to sue over comments made by users in the forums. Just a month later, Jason Appleton threatened the website over comments made about Greed Monger, resulting in the game also being removed.
Forums for MMORPG.com and big video games are often toxic pools of hatred, but a place where someone is allowed to vent their frustration, even if it is poorly worded, incorrect, or agenda-driven, is always preferable to one where the developer has a strangle hold and silences any criticism. The unfortunate side of the MMO genre is that as the market continues to push itself far past the saturation point, with games shutting down left and right, the very developers who can’t afford to push their customers away are doing just so, and they are the same people who will be sitting alone, wondering where everyone has gone and why no one returns their calls anymore.
This lesson of 2013 is that websites are not responsible for the statements that their forum users make, although if you want to shoot your potential for publicity in the head, you should target the largest MMO websites first to convince everyone else to stop covering your game.
Reloaded Productions Overhauls APB Threat System
You have to stand in awe at how much Reloaded Productions has done with All Points Bulletin since they took over the property just a few short years ago. With the release of version 1.11.0 today, players in APB will find that the manner in which they gain or lose threat will be much different than it was before. The previous system works pretty simply: If you win a match, your threat level goes up. If you lose a match, your threat level goes down. The system makes sense in theory, but once you put it into practice it tends to fall apart at the seams. What if a player performs exceptionally but loses at the last second because of one reason or another? What if a player dominates the match but loses anyway because his team is terrible? What if a player AFK’s through the match and his team wins without his help?
With 1.11.0, APB: Reloaded’s threat system is moving toward a more participation focused scoring system. Everything you do in a mission counts toward your score, which in turn counts toward your threat. Kill enemies, complete objectives, provide cover for your teammates, everything is counted. At the end of the mission, the system tallies the scores and counts players against each other as if it were a free to play match (ie: you don’t get the #1 player’s bonus because you were on his team). Players below a certain participation threshold (AFK) will have their rewards nullified.
You can read the blog post at the link below.
(Source: APB Reloaded)
Reminder: School Shooting Threats Are Illegal
There is a special level of stupid that describes a person who thinks that it’s funny to make public threats to shoot/bomb a school, whether they make them in offhand comments on online games or actually contact the school via phone/online/mail to make the threat. Eventually you have to ask yourself how many people need to be arrested and charged with making a threat before the other idiots get the clue and keep their unique sense of humor private.
I don’t know when that will happen, but I do know that 18-year old Thomas Frongillo of North Oxford has likely ruined his chances at a decent career. According to Telegram, Frongillo was arrested after he allegedly made the comment “I’m shooting up my school tomorrow” on the online game RuneScape. The incident was reported to Jagex by players, who presumably used Frongillo’s account information to identify him, and the evidence was sent to Oxford police, who in turn alerted the campus police. The transcript also included anti-Semitic comments and Frongillo drawing a swastika in-game.
Frongillo has been arrested and charged with threatening to commit a crime and threatening a bombing or hijacking. The kicker in this story? Frongillo is in the police academy studying criminal justice. According to Frongillo’s defense attorney, the comment was “a harmless jest,” and was not meant to be taken seriously.
What is it about RuneScape and real world violence?
(Source: Telegram)
Greed Monger Threatens MMORPG.com With Lawsuit, Game Unlisted
Greed Monger has been completely unlisted from MMORPG.com following a request from Electric Crow Games. According to Managing Editor Bill Murphy, the MMO news website was contacted with a request to remove negative posts, with legal action against the website threatened if the requests were not made. MMORPG.com’s policy is to completely remove a game’s listing when such a request is made.
Bill Murphy commented:
In case this hasn’t been answered yet, yes. He emailed me directly and asked us to remove the negative posts about the game. He also hinted at taking legal action if we didn’t remove the posts of our users, and we decided we didn’t need a baseless lawsuit.
If you want to blame someone for the removal of the game listing and forums, blame Jason Appleton. But when someone threatens us with legal action, we can either a.) ignore it or b.) react with what we think is appropriate. In Greed Monger’s case, it’s probably just better to igore its existence as a website.
I wish the Greed Monger devs well, but I’m not too thrilled with how they handled the negativity our forum users tossed their way. If they can’t take the criticism and claims of trolls, they’re in for a rude awakening in this industry.
Maybe one day we’ll re-add the game to our list, but that depends on whether or not our users are allowed to post about it without the site being under threat of legal recourse.
This is not the first time a game has been unlisted from MMORPG.com. World War II Online was removed at the request of Cornered Rat Software just recently, and Mourning was famously removed in response to Loud Ant Software abusing MMORPG.com staff.
(Source: MMORPG.com)
MMO Fallout 