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by Joe Gandolfo-
jgand@pcfootball.net
10-10-02
Leave it to David Branda to throw
a monkey wrench into my plans.
I was all set to write about a
different subject this time. I was gearing myself up to comment
about online gamers who pause or quit games when they are
losing. I was browsing the boards to get reactions from people
about the subject, and I thought that I could find enough to
write a column on.
But noooooooooooooo, David has to
rear his ugly head again.
Recently another member of the
MaddenMania boards became fed up with all the politics that have
to be put up with as an admission price at that site. Imboden
made a farewell post to beat all farewell posts:
Well....I'm outta here
To all:
I joined maddenmania a little more than a year ago. I loved the
site, thought it was the best thing in the world. Great people,
great information. Nothin better on the web.
I'm sorry to say in the recent months my feelings about MM have
changed. A number of my online friends have been banned from
here, and frequent another establishment, and so I must do the
same. It's got nothing to do with anbody but Mr. BlyGilmore. Yes
you Bly....
While I understand I am only one, and many more will take my
place, I've also gotta stand up for what I belive is right.
And for Mr. Gilmore...... Hopefully someday you'll be able to
treat people with decency and respect. I'm not saying everybody
who has been banned was banned unjustly, I'm just saying there
are some who have been. It's absoulutly rediculous to come out
in public and ridicule people when they can't even stand up for
themselves. Yes in private, but here in the soapbox? Some have
deserved to go, but many have not. Well, who says who stays and
goes? I guess you do....it is your site....and that means run it
how you like.
What I don't understand is why there is such a war with the
sites? It could end, this could be the greatest site
ever.....from experience many would say it already is....but why
not make it even better? Why not cooperate with other admins? I
just don't get it. People like you need to learn how to play in
the same sandbox. At first I thought Bret started his site as an
anti-MM site...I was wrong. His site respects people for who
they are, free speech is the basis for the whole thing. They
don't need to sensor anything because we respect each other. We
can agree to disagree. Nobody kisses ass over there, nobody is
scared to be banned. Nobody spams to boost a post count.
Everybody is respected for who they are, not their join date and
post count. The people at Bret's site are decent. I can't belive
you've got some of them banned from here....what did phenom do?
Jstrap? Concussion? Like I said, I'm dust in the wind to
you....so I'm off to somewhere where people respect me for my
thoughts, not my ability to kiss ass.
Many will say I'm shootin myself in the foot.....to those I've
got this to say: I'm leaving here on my own free will. The site
does have some great information...but I can get the same
information other places on the internet. At the same time.....I
enjoy the games more by learning them myself, not gettin the
cheats from other people.
I read a quote the other day by Martin Luther King Jr. :
"Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere
ignorance and conscientious stupidity" "when we stop
fighting for what we belive in, we have stopped living"
If I know you Mr. Gilmore, this thread will draw a "lol"
so you can take you're attitude and stick it....or if you
actually care about how I feel, you can be a man and send me an
email.
If anybody has read this far...thanks, and see ya around!
Now, I thought he expressed his
feelings very well. He made some relevant points that I and a
number of other people on these boards have been making for
months now.
Well, predictably, Mr. Branda
responded in his usual
"I-am-good-and-you-are-brainwashed-by-the-devil" way:
ah, so you can make a post
lambasting me and this site, but for me to be a man i have to
email you privately?
I never had a problem with you until this post, and honestly its
a shame you're getting the wool pulled over your eyes.
the fact you think it isn't an anti-MM site when it was created
after bret was banned from here (for insessantly bashing other
members publically and privately and showing the maturity of a
12 year old on a pixie stick binge), there are more posts there
talking smack about this site or myself than actually about
football games, and they've got a special little club for those
banned here. but its not about being anti-MM or anything.
I think its telling that the only thing MaddenMania and
MaddenPlanet agree with is that bret doesn't deserve to be a
part of our respective communities. in fact I think he holds the
dubious honor of being the only person banned on two separate
occasions by both MaddenMania and Madden Planet. if anything
there's a chance the rest of the Madden community will unite
against bret and his band of toadies, since they're obviously
the black mark in the community.
I've treated everybody who's passed through these forums and
deserves respect with respect. and all of your cronies have been
banned for good reason. they might not think they have been, or
admit it, but i also think you'd be hard pressed to find
somebody in jail who didn't think they were innocent either.
Now, bear with me while I dissect
his response a little bit at a time:
" you think it isn't an
anti-MM site when it was created after bret was banned from
here"
Well in a way, no it's not. The
site was never going to be another Madden site. This site covers
all PC Football games that have ever been created. We talk about
FBPro, NFL Fever, NFL Blitz and if someone wanted to talk about
Backyard Football, we wouldn't have a problem.
" there are more posts
there talking smack about this site or myself than actually
about football games"
If we talk smack about someone at
this site, then we have good reason to do so.
The fact that we talk about you
and how you run your site is because you are the one who is
making himself look like the biggest ass on the internet right
now. You allow your mods to flame people and bully people on
your own site, and if they complain to you they are told they
have a bad attitude and that they need to straighten up or face
the consequences.
" they've got a special
little club for those banned here"
What, like you don't have your
own special little club that is open to a select few where you,
your mods and your "yes men" can go to flame us
without fear of discovery?
" if anything there's a
chance the rest of the Madden community will unite against bret
and his band of toadies, since they're obviously the black mark
in the community"
I am going to say this for what I
hope will be the last time - we are not part of the Madden
Community! We encompass the entire community of PC Football
games, which includes Madden. Do I see a forum for Maximum
Football on MaddenMania? No. Is there a space dedicated to Front
Office Football on the MM boards? Uh-uh. Are there downloads for
FBPro in the downloads section of MaddenMania? Are you kidding?
We have all of that, and we are
looking for more. The Madden series is only one of many games
that we cover on this site. So my friend, you are totally wrong
when you say we are a part of the Madden Community.
If anything, you are a
part of our community - and a pretty small part of it at that!
And for the record, I would
rather be one of Bret's "toadies" than one of your
sycophants any day of the week. Give me JacquelineStrappe,
Croydo, Nob22, Gunzlinger and Concussion over Mad_Scientist,
Facemask, rjltj55 and Hellisan anytime.
But it's nice to see that you
have chosen to share your misinformation about why we were
banned from your site with some community members, like mark27.
Mark27 made this post not too long ago:
"lol.....im still a member
and bly did tell me about why he banned yall.i know that all of
ya's had PUAB in your sigs and he got pissed off bout it and
decided to ban everyone.that was a bit harsh.....i dont hang ont
in the soapbox there anymoreI .just like all the info bout
madden 2003 that people give!"
That's very interesting
considering that you banned me before the whole PUAB signature
movement started.
To recap: the reason you banned
me was because you wanted to take the Instigators for yourself,
and announced your intentions to run the team yourself and cut
me out. I told you that the team was not yours to do with as you
pleased and you banned me shortly thereafter to get me out of
the way.
"...for insessantly
bashing other members publically and privately and showing the
maturity of a 12 year old on a pixie stick binge..."
Good lord, talk about the pot
calling the kettle black. How many of your posters over there
engage in name-calling and character assassination instead of
constructive criticism with someone they disagree with? I
guarantee that the percentage of posters who act in this fashion
at MM far outnumbers the percentage of posters who do it here.
It does continue to fascinate me
however, that you continue to call PCFootball.net a
"bullshit site". I've noticed that you have never
expressed the same opinion about our partner, Brian Hitterman
and his site at football-gaming.com. I wonder why that is? Like
this site, he also talks about NFL2k3, NFL Fever, Maximum
Football and the like. I notice you never refer to him and his
site. Why? Because his is not a "bullshit site" and
everyone knows it that's why! He knows that we are not a
"bullshit site" either, that was why he chose to
partner with us. So does Paul Gleason over at Madden Guides, he
sees what this site has the potential to become and he is
willing to support us.
David, you are hurting no one but
yourself. You are allowing your mods to act like the
12-year-olds that you accuse Bret of acting like and it is
turning people off. Imboden was just the latest. How many more
PC users do you want to drive away from there before you become
a console only site that caters to 10-year-olds that should be
doing their homework?
Like Bret has said many times,
all are welcome to come and post here if they wish. All we ask
is that you conduct yourself like an adult. We are good at
policing our own here, so if someone steps out of line we will
let him or her know. We encourage the free exchange of ideas
here, even if those ideas are what someone would consider to be
"politically incorrect". We feel you should have to be
able to take the good with the bad, and if you disagree - say
so, you won't be slapped down for it.
We do ask that no racist or
sexist comments be made here and that no porn be posted here.
You want to see porn? There are plenty of other sites on the web
where you can get it. We do not insist that you be exclusive to
these boards, and we ask that you read every word of someone's
post before you respond to it. If you have a league here and you
wish to move to another host we will not be insulted to the
point where we ban you. We will be somewhat hurt and only
massive amounts of chocolate will be able to help us recover
from the shock, but we will always welcome you back.
Does that sound like a
"bullshit site" to anyone?
Speaking of bullshit…
I've been browsing the boards
lately and I've become aware of a growing problem in the gaming
community. It is the issue dealing with online gamers who quit
or pause a game they are losing so that the loss will not count
against their stats and reduce them in their online rankings.
This is starting to become a huge issue over at EA's boards, and
I imagine it is an issue with those of you who are playing
online as well.
Quitting or pausing a game in the
hope that someone will quit so you won't take a loss is the most
bush league thing you could do online outside of cheese. If you
suck, then quitting a game isn't going to change that. If you
are losing that particular game then sack up, be a man and take
your loss like a man!
I would like to help out those of
you who play online who have experienced this. I will keep a
running list of those online players who either pause their
games or quit them outright when they are losing. I will make
sure that this list appears at the end of every column I write
from now on, and I invite all of you out there to inform me as
to who belongs on this list.
That being said, here is the
initial list of those that have quit games or paused them for a
length of time on a regular basis:
maddenxking
ramaway2
tnthnicm
Domination
Jaraineyo
Mueller20
Kimble
Ref
CHEAPSUIT
THOMAS#35
Texas
Touch
There is a bright spot to all of
this however. Remember that when the patch finally does come
out, EA has promised this will be fixed:
- For online play, a timer has
been added that will force an opponent back into play when
the timer expires.
So it looks like steps will be
taken to ensure that the pausers at least come back to the game.
Now if only they could do
something about David Branda getting some common sense.
Oh well, one thing at a time I
guess.
Until next time…
Update...
(10/11/02)
I
want to thank JoshShainin over at the EA
boards for his own list of pausers. You can find his list of
pausers as well as our list above at http://www.joshshanin.com
which I will list here as well. I have compared his list to mine
and I found a couple of duplications that I have edited out.
Here are the new additions to the list:
tabindexday
airitout2k3
temirtx69
xicebeamx
Austinisgooder18
dirtbag10
gangaman24
SUPABOATS
Again,
many thanks to Josh for his hard work in putting his own list
together.
Its
good to have friends that you never knew you had.
Until
next time...
Update...
(10/14/02)
More
additions to the list:
snick
bobcen65
Until
next time...
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