Give credit where credit is due

Some precisations are due after I claimed that Mythic "stole" my idea.

To begin with, I wrote it in a somewhat ironic tone, because I'm definitely not furious about that. As I wrote, the expansion actually looks better than how I expected and I'm glad that they added something interesting into it beside the usual rehated food. Some new design, new ideas. Not just the cow to milk.

So I'm glad. I was waiting for the announce of the press release and I was expecting it to be totally deluding to the point that I wouldn't even have bothered to write about it here. Instead I'm writing and definitely not in a negative way.

Now what's important to consider is that whether Mythic really stole my idea or not is... completely irrelevant. There are two reasons:

1- It's not possible to demonstrate in any way that Mythic stole that idea directly from me
2- I lose EVERY right to complain about my ideas being stolen the second that I write them here publicly

Still, I think i have the right to point this out. I mean, I'm one of the most snubbed and scorned blogger about these games. Still my ideas prove to be valid, eventually. That's what I'm pointing out.

Let's take a look at this expansion. One new race, one class, some more skills, items and a dungeon. If the feature list stopped there we would have the death of the game design. There is absolutely NOTHING that would tickle the interest or draw the attention of a potential player. Nothing to talk about because it's just the same reheated food, the kind of stuff you pull out of the hat when you have absolutely no idea about what to fit in an expansion pack. Like if the expansion pack was more a inconvenient obligation to fulfill instead of an opportunity to realize better the potential and ambition of a game.

The death of game design because it's a total abdication to develop and improve the game, and just milk the cow till there isn't nothing left.

So. Honestly. Give a look at that feature list. Read it and then tell me if the idea that they supposedly stole from me isn't the ONLY ONE that makes that expansion pack at least slightly more interesting. That's the point.

That's MY OWN IDEA. There isn't any fucking doubt that the idea is my own. Then, MAYBE, someone else could have had it in the exact same way I had it. I doubt it, because it looks like it's EXACTLY the same, applied in the exact same part of the game, with the exact same purpose and mechanics (and maybe the designers read it here, forgot it and then thought they had it themselves...). There are a bit too many coincidences, but let's still assume that Mythic didn't deliberately stole that idea. And that they had it entirely on their own.

Let's take the Mozart example. Mozart composes some of the most incredible songs ever, in Austria. Then, at the other side of the world, at the same time, there is someone else who composes the exact same songs. It is an absolute coincidence but this doesn't change anything about the validity of those songs. One will become famous and popular, the other not. That other guy at the other side of the world can still do what Mozart did.

Now I'm definitely not Mozart and that idea is just a small one. I don't care if Mythic stole it from me or if they had it entirely on their own. But it was still my own idea, that I defined in detail, examining and explain all its design implications. An idea that I developed entirely on my own and that maybe was then imagined by someone else entirely on his own. The point is: that idea was valid.

See, in a couple of months this site you are reading will be forgotten. When Mythic will release the expansion everyone will recognize that type of PvP design as their own. Yes, I'm glad when I see my ideas being actually put into use and turn into practice. Because if I write them then it means that I believe they are valid and that people would enjoy them. So I'm glad if this happens. But I think you can also understand how this is terribly frustrating for me.

It is frustrating because I'm always mocked and laughed at. "Haha, look. Another idiot with a blog who thinks to be special". And I will be laughed at RIGHT NOW because I believe to be so special that a Mythic employee read that idea here and then decided to steal it.

Ryan "Nerfbat/Blackguard" Shwayder wrote a while ago that he wasn't going to write his own design ideas on his website because he hoped that eventually he could use them in a game. Well, instead I do write those ideas for a similar reason. I write them because I know I won't have that opportunity, no matter how much I want it.

I know that those ideas I have will never see the light of the day. I write here for that reason. This site is "the ladder to see the stars". Because I love that world, be part of it, contribute, to discuss things, analyze, examine, find solution to problems and dream of (im)possible things.

I couldn't be more happy if someone sees how these ideas are good and put them into use. Because that's ultimately what I would like to do. And even more than that: the opportunity participate. See, it's the completely opposite idea of feeling like a genius above everyone else. I don't feel like that, instead what I dream of is being there and do these kinds of things. Work with people who I have esteem for and share that kind of passion.

If I'd know for sure that Mythic came here and stole my idea I couldn't be more happy. Because it would be a demonstration and a confirmation that those ideas have some worth. And that they aren't just words wasted on the internet by yet another idiot. But that's also what it is frustrating. Because I will never be sure if I actually had contributed to that idea or not. And, in the case I did, Mythic will never even turn in my direction to give me credit.

Instead I will continue to get ignored and mocked, by Mythic in the first place and RIGHT NOW. That's what's frustrating, when you do something and it's valid, but never recognized if not when someone else takes it and takes all the credit. It's a feeling of impotence that even grows when you see how what you do could be, in fact, valid.

And IN PARTICULAR when you always searched a more direct dialogue and all you got was being ignored. And ignored after your ideas are taken and rebranded without even glancing back.

See, I have NO PROBLEM to say that the great majority of the design ideas I have at an high level were inspired by what Dave Rickey was doing on "Wish" before he was kicked out and the project killed (one year later, but it died the one before). I have no problem to admit that without this community, other bloggers, the message boards and all the rest MY HEAD WOULD BE EMPTY about these things. I'm the first to draw from everything I see. Use everything as a source of inspiration. From comics, to books, to movies, to games I play and the ideas I get while I play them. Nothing is original because one things flow after the other and it isn't even possible to remember what were all the influences. We all contibute to a discussion, a line of thought. Everyone is a source of inspiration. But I DO give credit to all that. And I would give credit back to Mythic itself because DAoC is still the game I loved the most and that inspired me the most.

I started to write exactly a few months after "Wish" as a result of that frustration. See a game with a great potential being driven to the ground. So this site came as the result of a *need*. Because in the month and half that I've been involved with the beta of the game I was totally absorbed by it and when I saw everything thrown away, I felt the need to continue along that path. And save something. Let it continue. Put it into use.

So the purpose is about making the ideas flow. Work together because that's what I do. I don't just write here and "enlight" the readers with my superiority. Instead I read every other blog, I participate in message boards and I go deep into everything I see. This because the ideas come from there.

The real point is that I just don't belong where I'd like to be. I'm just an anomaly. This site and all the rest are a way to deal with all that even if I know the way things work, and that it's not my place.

So the frustration is the essence of it all. I know it well and some more of it doesn't really change much things. I'm happy that Mythic is going to use a valid idea for the expansion pack.

At the same time you can understand the frustration because I see something to which I dedicate myself, taken away. While I'm still the idiot of the village and have to swallow it.

So I'm not saying "You bastards, that's my idea and I want it back NOW." Instead I'm saying "I think that's a good one and, if well executed, can improve the game. So go on and do it. And maybe go read all I write about it so that you could find suggestions to avoid making some mistakes and better realize it."

But also remember that I was here and made that work entirely on my own. I don't have a team to work with and, without that one idea, the expansion would have been quite forgettable.