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Studio changes policy after dev threatens to kill Gabe Newell
In October, after discovering issues with his game Paranautical Activity on Steam, independent developer Mike Maulbeck published a series of angry tweets that concluded with, "I am going to kill gabe newell. He is going to die." Newell is the founder of Valve, the company that runs Steam, the internet's largest gaming digital distribution hub. Because of the threat, Valve pulled Paranautical Activity from Steam and cut ties with Maulbeck's studio, Code Avarice. That same day, Maulbeck announced he was leaving Code Avarice entirely. Today, Code Avarice announced that Maulbeck is back with the studio. "Mike couldn't commit to his decision to leave Code Avarice," reads the studio's blog post. "[Co-owner Travis Pfenning] publicly denounced his departure, and in the weeks following his official stepping down Mike had second thoughts. Looking for a new source of income was extremely overwhelming and when it finally came time to put pen to paper, Mike and Travis agreed the best thing to do would be to have Mike return to Code Avarice." Maulbeck and Pfenning are taking a step back from the spotlight with a few changes to company policy: "The second half of this announcement is that we're taking steps to make Code Avarice more about the games and less about the people making them. From now on rather than blog posts being written and signed by one of the developers, they will all be co-written by Mike AND Travis, and written from the perspective of the company rather than an individual." [Image: Code Avarice]
Drama Mamas: 51 more things you should (probably) never say in game
Attention, literalists: As you probably noticed from the comments on last week's column, these are not things that should never never be said in game. They're more things that should probably never be said in game. Or sometimes just not said in game until you've thought about them first. Or maybe only said in game if there aren't other extenuating circumstances or unless common sense would dictate something completely different. Context is king, right? Here are a bunch more things you should (probably) never say in game. Robin's even brought in a fresh take on the infamous #7 from last week. (It's at #7 this week, too.) Click the links on each entry if you want more context. Click, click. "Well, maybe we should give her another chance or three -- after all, she's gay/young/old/single/a parent ..." Your fellow players are real people with real lives and real problems, sure -- but at some point, inappropriate or downright bad behavior is simply not cool. "It's just a game. Real life should be separate from a guild." Are you guilded with real people? Then it's real life. The game is just the medium you are using to interact with them. "I just think everyone/another party should know about the bad things that this person is doing..." Big yellow caution flag. Nothing good can come from butting into a situation in which you're only a bystander without complete information. Appropriate action -- then back off! "It should be a rule that everyone has to say hello to guildies when they log on. And they need to grats everyone too." Gosh, wouldn't that be sincere and meaningful. /sarcasm "What I said was only words -- and besides, he deserved it." That's what an online environment is, "only words." Those words and their effects are still quite real. Don't take an eye for an eye in WoW. Nobody deserves poor behavior in return for mistakes of their own.
Drama Mamas: 40 things you should never say in game
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. When Lisa and I started to tackle this list, we thought we'd come up with 5 or 10. But after looking back over the advice we've given since we started this column, we discovered that there are many more un-smart things to say that are almost guaranteed to cause drama. Captain Obvious helped with many of them as usual, but some of these no-nos are not so apparent. "Yeah, I know the requirement is 18 years and up -- but everyone says I act mature for my age." If you have to excuse your age, you won't fit in. Find a guild or group that won't be making exceptions even to simply include you. "But Mooom, you SAID I could play an HOUR!" Don't whine for more. Tell Mom how much time you need and why: "I can zip through all my dailies and banking – those are the chores my character uses to make money and maintain her stuff -- in about an hour and 20 minutes." "Yeah, baby, I love you too – oh crap, sorry guys, I'm on the phone here and I didn't see that one from the side coming towar – yeah, baby, I heard you! Sure! We'll leave in 20 minutes!" If you're going to play with the group, turn off other distractions. If your girlfriend won't leave a phone message, perhaps you should be spending that time with her instead!
