01.18
I don’t like to talk about my personal life on this blog aside from gaming, but once in awhile something happens which I need to speak about. I am a forgiving DM, but if there is one thing I cannot stand, it’s people spreading lies about me. ^^*
A few months ago I wrote about a filmmaker I encountered who wanted me to help him make a “Dungeons & Dragons documentary.” I declined because it was obvious that he didn’t know anything about D&D and I thought he would misrepresent the RPG experience. However, what I didn’t mention is that I was also approached, around the same time, by a writer — I won’t mention his name, just as I didn’t mention the filmmaker’s — who said he was doing a book on roleplaying. He asked me for a series of interviews about gaming and the experience of being a Dungeon Master.
Let me tell you — this guy knew *nothing* about RPGs. He thought that elves were a class, not a race. He thought that the dungeon master was somehow the ‘enemy’ of the players and not the creator of the whole world, benevolent and malevolent alike (on a side note: I’m so relieved that the designers of 4e decided not to re-craft D&D in a ‘players vs. DM’ model, as they mentioned they’d considered in the 4e DMG!). He thought lead miniatures were just two-dimensional ’standee’ cutouts. o_0 He even used the phrase “cast a saving throw.” (＃ﾟДﾟ) He said he had played RPGs ‘years ago’ and he was one of the “‘74 generation” so I thought statistically he might be telling the truth. But upon reflection I think he may have been lying. Hobgoblin, Mazes and Monsters… there was a lot of misrepresentation about RPGs in the early ’80s, and I think he was just drawing from the vocabulary of common stereotypes of the time.
I talked to him for awhile and signed a contract which he said his publisher had required him to get interviewees to sign. I am always eager to spread the word of RPGs so I gladly allowed him to use my name and likeness. But, unfortunately, I was not omniscient ._. and apparently the “contract” allowed him to use a great deal more than that. This “writer” has now come out with a book about RPGs which uses my likeness and those of the people in my gaming group. I am not so concerned with the matter of money and royalties, but I *am* concerned with the way gamers are depicted. There are 28 depictions of gamers committing violent acts upon others in connection to games. The RPG-playing characters are depicted as cowardly and oblivious and willing to turn upon one another at a moment’s notice. Most irritatingly, he presents my games (DMed by me) as a sort of rinky-tink operation in which everything is shabby and dilapidated. >_<* I *ALWAYS* clean all my gaming equipment between games and I would bet that NO ONE has ever found a piece of Smartfood or Pirate's Booty sticking to one of my books or miniatures. Furthermore, there is the implication that I mistreated one of my pets, making me a sort of Michael Vick of gaming. I would *NEVER* do this as I value my beasts dearly. The overall impression is that gamers are incompetent, unstable, dangerous and barely able to muster the energy to crawl to the door to answer the pizza delivery man in between rounds.
Anyway, I will not give this "writer" the satisfaction of linking to his book, but I wanted to make the record clear that the whole thing was a breach of trust and a major distortion of what actually happened. I have again learned an important lesson to make my Sense Motive rolls (3e reference, nostalgia ^^ ) when dealing with people who profess an interest in RPGs but in fact know NOTHING about them (and may even share a family relation to anti-RPG interests... I couldn't help but notice that the author shared a last name with the infamous anti-gaming crusader Jack Thompson. Neither have returned my emails asking for comment.) To paraphrase Edward Said, RPG players have to be allowed to represent themselves, not be represented by others who present them as ‘exotic’ and primitive! RPGers are not orcish demihumanoids who are prone to erupt in savage violence, nor are they fanatical obsessives unable to see past their cherished books. And now back to reading Primal Power.
I have no such qualms. Here’s the link:
http://www.kingofrpgs.com/
I gotta tell you, this doesn’t seem to clear up a lot. I’m not one of the guys that says anything terrible was done by you, no matter what the allegation, so in essence I am on your side, but there are still a lot of things that need to be cleared up before this explanation will fly.
1) Your avatar art is remarkably similar to the art in the manga. This is really curious.
2) The phone number listed in your bio is actually for a business, not you. Strange.
3) Theo Dudek actually sounds like a made up name. One that is just a modified The Dude. Fun. Slightly creative. Under the circumstances, it is very suspect.
4) The fact that you are were not the valedictorian of Glendale High. Kinda kills your bio, and makes you really seem like an outright liar. Fudging is one thing. Immersive role playing is a similarly benign thing. Many people will see this as neither, but as an outright lie.
There are probably some others, but really, these will cast serious doubt on what you are saying here. Since it is not likely that the author of the manga will just admit to ripping off your likeness, and that any claims that the two of you are different people will just seem like a publicity stunt, you will have to resort to other means to get your point across. In the court of public opinion, guilt is determined by the predominance of the evidence, with sensational evidence weighing heaviest.
If you are Theo Dudek, a nice short youtube clip explaining this would clear a lot of things up, or at least lend some serious credence to your story. I would suggest that you do this.
If you are not actually Theo Dudek, then I would say the most prudent course of action would be to admit this. Your credibilty is pretty low right now, and a confession would get you some cred. There are a lot of gamers out there who read your blog that would find it amusing, and would hold no grudge. They might even think that it gives you extra cred for pulling the wool over so many eyes. There are some that will hold it against you no matter how squeaky clean you come, but the interwebs are full of bastards, and someone hates you no matter what you do. They can take a long walk off a short pier.
So in summary, you got a lot more ’splainin’ to do before you quit looking like a liar out to make a buck. It looks even worse, because it looks like you were caught. Brandish the proof, or look like a failed manipulator with some identity issues.
If you are Theo Dudek, this should be really easy to clear up.
http://www.critical-hits.com/2010/01/15/king-of-rpgs-king-of-viral-marketing/
Read the end of the post.
Having reread the post and explanation over at Critical-Hits, I can safely redact my previous post. An explanation here would be even better, but since the conversation has mostly been had over there, I can see how you feel done with it. It might still be viewed as misleading to not fully address it here, but you are a big boy, and can make whatever call you want.
All in all, very creative.
@Lee — !!???! （・Ａ・）Thank you for pointing out the phone number issue. I cannot believe that my phone number on my resume has been wrong for the entire time that I have been running this website. No wonder I haven’t gotten any calls from people saying they were referred to me by ultimatedm!!
@everyone else — Thanks for the support. I’m sorry if anyone has been taken in by this character’s deception (even his initials are the same as Jack Thompson… curious…).
Thanks for humoring me, and good luck with everything.
Hahaha! ROFLMAO :D
Dear Author,
I wanted to inform you about a rather lengthy post in reply to your column “Oldschool Saving Throws in D&D 4e” (http://ultimatedm.com/?p=529), which I hope won’t get overlooked. I am looking forward to an interesting discussion. ^.^
Patrick
The writer was correct and has revealed a chink in your armor as the “Ultimate Game Master!” Ha Ha!
Any Game Master of moderate level, 225 sessions or higher, experience knows that Elves have indeed been classified as a Class!!!
Some might forgive your oversight as “having merely overlooked one insignificant and obsolete rulebook,” but you will find no such coddling from me. There are no fewer than 6 OFFICIAL rulebooks that have this classification of Elf published as rules for the Dungeons and Dragons Game.
You should be banned from wearing a twenty-sided die around your neck, and limited to a d6!
You’ll have to do better than that if you want to challenge me at GameCon 500 and earn the title of Ultimate Game Master.
@B.N. Nemecz — Well, of course I wasn’t going to go by 1st edition rules in which race and profession (i.e. class) are inextricably tied together. >_< The point is, this person was attempting to write a book about gaming. It should have been his responsibility to keep track of CURRENT information about Dungeons & Dragons and not to use his 30-year-old 1980 red book Basic misinformation. This is like if I asked someone “So, what do you think of the president’s first year in the White House?” and they said “Oh, you mean Millard Fillmore? He was the last president I paid attention to!” I am almost inclined to *CURSE* I am so annoyed at this and the other bits of sloppy research and blatant stereotyping in this book.
“Limited to a d6″ ^^* If you consider yourself a superior gamemaster, you are welcome to sit in one of my games sometime. There are many chairs at my table. All you have to do is accept the truth.