15 years of reviews!

General and high profile video game topics.
Gentlegamer1
Posts: 687
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby Gentlegamer1 » June 21st, 2014, 11:35 am

One thing about this site that is very cool is that it is itself "retro," having started in 1999, and using relatively simple html and layout. Fitting, given its subject matter.

Was your site ever in a webring?

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VideoGameCritic
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Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 21st, 2014, 12:52 pm

Another low point I should probably mention is when I was tipped off that some guy was plagiarizing my reviews by the dozen around 2008 (if memory serves).  It turns out that Ebay's newsgroups had run some kind of video game review contest and some guy (alias Brian Wurmy) was systematically entering my reviews and winning cash money. 

It was especially upsetting because I discovered this just before Christmas and could not get in touch with anyone at Ebay to remove them.  I was miserable.  My wife still remembers it as the most depressing Christmas ever.  After the holidays I finally got Ebay to remove the reviews, but the onus was on me to track down every URL, and it was a time-consuming chore.  No word about how they handled the perpetrator.  I wrote a formal letter to the head of Ebay informing her of what happened but never received a response.  When stuff like this happens it really makes me wonder if running the site is worth it.

I think there was a time when people naively thought it was okay to cut-and-paste whatever from the Internet - just because it was so easy to do.  Now I think people are a little more sophisticated and have come to realize it's not right to take credit for someone else's work, and the fact that it's easy does NOT justify it.

On a positive note, I guess you can call my reviews "award winning", even though I've never personally received any awards.


Astrosmasher1
Posts: 1107
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby Astrosmasher1 » June 21st, 2014, 3:24 pm

For me this is the go to site on the internet.  I am here once or twice a day.  Before I discovered the boards I just used to look at the 2600, 7800 and Jaguar stuff and say here is a guy who played the same things as me.
It is not like IGN where I take every thing with a pinch of salt. It is quite frankly the best site on the net.  I must have been coming here for at least 14 years.... only posting for the last 4 or 5 I think...

Ken1
Posts: 345
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby Ken1 » June 21st, 2014, 3:39 pm

Congratulations! Here's to (at least) 15 more years!  [smile]

wur1
Posts: 948
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby wur1 » June 21st, 2014, 5:46 pm

Congratulations, Dave.  It's been 10 (!!!) years since I started reading this.  Stopped reading it the last few years but have been back lately.

Made a few internet friends on here that I emailed occasionally:  notably, Atarifever whose Canadian wit was always entertaining, that conservative guy Feilong who was the only person who appreciated my nerdy epiphany that Strider was the only extant intersection of 1980's cyber-ninjas with 1980's Reaganesque anti-communism.  (Of course, I tried to email Dave, but his responses were never more than two lines.)

This is a bit morbid, but:  remember that guy who was pertutually going die from cancer in 2 months that people kept sending stuff to, whose self-pitying everyone got tired of?  (Sorry if this is morbid, but was that guy for real?)   I feel bad for him and his family if he actually passed away.


Gentlegamer1
Posts: 687
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby Gentlegamer1 » June 21st, 2014, 8:41 pm

I remember the plagiarism scandal. I think your reviews were also copied on amazon. I remember going through hundreds and using the report feature.

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]
I think there was a time when people naively thought it was okay to cut-and-paste whatever from the Internet - just because it was so easy to do.
[/QUOTE]Ironically, you have cut and pasted copyrighted images and trademarks from the various systems as graphics in your review sections, and all of your banners have copyrighted images of game characters.

Gentlegamer1
Posts: 687
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby Gentlegamer1 » June 21st, 2014, 8:43 pm

[QUOTE=wur]
This is a bit morbid, but:  remember that guy who was pertutually going die from cancer in 2 months that people kept sending stuff to, whose self-pitying everyone got tired of?  (Sorry if this is morbid, but was that guy for real?)   I feel bad for him and his family if he actually passed away.

[/QUOTE]Alienblue?

pacguy191
Posts: 201
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby pacguy191 » June 21st, 2014, 8:48 pm

[QUOTE=Gentlegamer]Ironically, you have cut and pasted copyrighted images and trademarks from the various systems as graphics in your review sections, and all of your banners have copyrighted images of game characters.[/QUOTE]
That's different. He's using it for review, which is fair use, and they're plagiarizing, which is illegal and not fair use.

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VideoGameCritic
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15 years of reviews!

Postby VideoGameCritic » June 21st, 2014, 8:54 pm

Gentlegamer,

Yes the system logos are trademarked but these fall under the "fair use" provision of the US Copyright Office.  That's why if you look up Apple on Wikipedia you will see their logo.  Same with the screenshots (which are also distributed to the press).  It's a lot different from plagiarizing copyrighted intellectual property as was the case with my reviews.

I think you're right about Amazon though.  Thank you for helping me sort out that mess! Without the support of people like you I would not have lasted this long.
   
Dave

wur1
Posts: 948
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

15 years of reviews!

Postby wur1 » June 21st, 2014, 8:55 pm

yeah, that guy was Alienblue.  I talked to him a bit on email but just the self-pitying was too much.  I mean, I have a litany of problems in my life, but I don't bring them to a classic gaming website--this is to lose myself in something else, to take my mind off such problems.

I'm not trivializing such matters as cancer, but I have a family member in that boat who's certainly not putting on that sort of behavior. But I have sympathies for him and his family if he wasn't embellishing, and I don't know what else can be said.


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