Full Bundle for Doomtown on OCTGN updated

May 7, 2011 Db0

Torrent has been updated with newest rules and more High Quality scans. Gogogo!

I’ve updated the torrent for Doomtown to include the latest version of the game definition and markers and also the latest versions of the sets, which I’m glad to say, have finally started including High Quality scans.

For those who do not know, the Bundle includes everything you need to play Doomtown on OCTGN but it’s not updated as often, as usually only the game definition is updated. Nevertheless it’s the best way for a new player to grab everything they need, without downloading all the files 1 by 1 from the repository. Inside you will find the game and sets, plus pdfs with the rules, faqs and so on. Once you’ve downloaded it, you can simply direct OCTGN to install the files from that the directory, and if in the future you download a newer version of the bundle, your game on OCTGN will be automatically up to date (( Usually you don’t have to reinstall the files, but one occassion you do. I will let you know when you have to))

So don’t wait up, download the torrent file here and you can find information about the bundle in the forums.

Once you’re done, hit me up for a game 😉

Doomtown on OCTGN

May 4, 2011 Db011 Comments

Doomtown on OCTGN is now very feature rich and playing it should be a blast for most. Here I explain how to set it up and why it’s so cool.

So my updated on the Doomtown engine for OCTGN continue at a rapid pace. I mentioned it before shortly but I thought I’d make a proper post about my progress with this and how to go around playing it.

EDIT @ 27/06/2013 : I’ve moved the installation instructions on to the dedicated page for this game definition. Please follow the step-by-step installation instructions for Doomtown there.

A Doomtown game in OCTGN in action. Currently in the middle of a shootout — A Shootout at High Noon

Not especially tricky as you can see. The trickiest is finding someone to play with. You can try subscribing to the Doomtown Facebook Group and see if anyone is available for a game. You can also create a game and hope that someone is online to join it since anyone who has Doomtown installed will see open game lobbies.

However I guarantee that if you like card or tabletop games, you will find this one a blast. In the recent weeks I’ve spent a lot of effort in automating away most of the more tedious stuff one has to do when playing card games online, such as modifying counters and typing each action that they do in the chat. I’ve literally spent the latter half of my vacation (while staying home sick) to code some pretty nifty stuff to use the powers that playing on a PC gives us in order to make the game easier to play.

For example, the game will let you know if you cannot play a unique card, because someone else has it in play (or it’s dead). It will automatically calculate your poker hand rank, taking into account jokers and what kind of poker you play. It will update your various totals (influence, control) as you play and lose cards and you can even force it to recalculate all your totals in case you lose track. It will pay your upkeep and receive your production at the start of the turn, and refresh your cards and hand at the end of the turn. It will even remember if you permanently modified a card before and add the same modifications in case that card leaves and comes back into play later on.

There’s still a lot of automation I’d like to implement soon and I keep thinking more as I work on it so I end up adding new features practically daily. You can follow the development in the forum if you so wish and I would really appreciate any feedback such as suggestions or problems you’re having.

Mortal Kombat is good fun, but oh my gawd the sexism. It burnsss!

May 3, 2011 Db032 Comments

The new MK is back to its roots, but their representation of females is patently absurd and the story needs a lot of work.

I was planning to write an incenced post about absolutely ridiculous the female outfits of the new Mortal Kombat game are and then I saw this comic and I just had to do it now.

Seriously, the mortal kombat clothes are DoA-level absurd (Did they take hints from Team Ninja?), not only are they practically pieces of strong but because of the cloth destruction that happens in the game, those must be literally glued to their bodies. I cannot otherwise explain how a “breast cover” (which is basically a glorified string), which is hanging destroyed on the right side of the body can somehow defy gravity in its quest to cover up those nipples.

And what is with the high heels? Would any woman in her right mind think that running around in high heels is a good way to fight in close combat? Most ridiculous of course is Sonya who is supposed to be a hardcore military person and is still running (literally running) around in high heels rather than jackboots.

Oh, and how difficult is it to come up with female outfits that are at least different than each other? Jade, Kitana and Mileena all wear the same string-outfit, only with a different arrangement of strings, while the men not only have varied ones, but if their main outfit is bare chested (I don’t remember anyone going bare-legged, except Goro) they have also been provided with a fully-clothed alternative.

As much as I love the new game, the absolute ridiculousness of how females are repressented is a complete turn off.

Given this new trend, I’m waiting now for Mortal Combat Xtreme Outworld Basketball to follow, where it will be just the women competing for the skimpiest outfit while dribbling.

And since I’m on the subject of MK, can someone please advise them to hire a competent storyteller? Cheezus fuck those people can’t tell a good story if their life depended on it. I honestly hope the next estabilishment of the series will be based on the lore of the excellent MK:Legacy…including outfits!

The Smurfette Principle and Sexism in PvPonline

April 26, 2011 Db09 Comments

As the feminist frequency brilliantly explains the smurfetter principle, Scott Kurtz apparently decides to remind us how sexist he is.

She says it much better than I could really.

And since I’m on the subject of feminism, can someone explain to me what is going on with all these old school webcomics starting to show more and more sexism? I was going through my PvPonline backlog of the last week and I came upon these two “gems”

Men who are afraid of scary movies are like women while screaming in fear is stereotypical of a married female in “hysterics”

“Women are competitive and catty and generally unkind to each other” (Said by the only main female character – i.e. the “smurfette” of PvPonline)

What the fuck is this shit people?

Blasts from the past

April 14, 2011 Db09 Comments

Doomtown is one of the best tabletop games ever and as always in this case, it’s defunct. However, I’ve just created a new way to play it online.

I always say that I’ve been very unlucky with the (non-video) games that I liked. I have a deep history of getting really into a game and then have it cancelled during its heyday due to some weird unfortunate circumstance, leaving me sad and looking for the next one that will “click” for me. Now I’m talking about the kind of games most of you have not ever even tried before, Collectible Card Games and Tabletop Miniature games primarily (Fortunately, RPGs cannot suffer this fate due to the inherent type of the medium, but they do suffer the Three Session Curse which is thing for another post)

At the moment, none of my favourite such games are in production anymore, most of them for many years now. In order of how awesome I find them, here’s a small list and what happened to them.

Doomtown: A brilliant card game with a very novel take on game design combining elements of traditional CCGs, Poker and Chess. Got cancelled because Wizards of the Coast egregiously dropped the ball/killed it.
Chronopia: A tabletop miniature game set in very grim-dark fantasy theme, when grim-dark was not yet in fashion. Killed when its company reconstructed, even though it had strong sales.
7th Sea: Another collectible card game with a novel ruleset and a fantasy-swashbuckling setting. Died due to a series of bad decisions from the publisher
Warzone: The brother tabletop miniature game to Chronopia which had a similarly grim-dark theme but in sci-fi. Killed for the same reasons,which was an especially sad fact as at the time it was a very strong opponent to Games Workshop’s exorbitant prices in the Greek market.
Mordheim: Because I’m a sucker for skirmish games with strong campaign elements built-in. Suffered the same fate all Games Workshop products which are not Warhammer or WH40k suffer.
Dune CCG: Yet another card game built on a rich sci-fi setting and with rules that fit brilliantly in the setting. Was just not popular enough to continue.
Legend of the Burning Sands: A card game similar to Legened of the 5 rings, but simply superior in gameplay.

And these are not even all the examples I can think of but they were definitely the ones who’s passing hurt me most. This occurrence is so common that it became almost a running joke in my gaming circle that any game that I started taking a strong liking to, would be inevitably doomed. The games on the other hand that managed to survive where those that I played just in order to have *something* to play, but never liked them particularly. Games like Warlord which I found had a very good setting but never really liked its rules ((Incidentally, liking only it half-way, just delayed the inevitable, as Warlord has been suffering a slow death for many years now))

The good thing is that because these games I listed are just so good, they tend to develop cult followings behind them which can keep their embers alive far into the future and sometimes this helps.

I recently discovered a little game engine called OCTGN which allows one to build card game definitions and then play their favourite games on it for free, and given that I’ve been itching to play doomtown once more, this sounded like an excellent opportunity. Unfortunately there was no game definition for doomtown available and I took this chance to build one.

Yes, I am aware that there is a plugin for doomtown on the LackeyCCG engine, but I’ve tried it once and I was left a bit underwhelmed. After experiencing OCTGN, LackeyCCG just felt clunky (the program actually strained my eyesight during play) and it didn’t really offer any automation. I’m guessing that one could theoretically code such automation in LackeyCCG just as one can in OCTGN but on the other hand, OCTGN just looks better and as a very big plus for me, it does its scripting in python, which I’ve been itching to start working with.

So OCTGN it was, and after a whole weekend of trial and error I’ve managed to make a working game definition which I’ve been refining for the last few days as well. At the moment I’m happy to say that the game is completely playable and this is where the aforementioned core community comes in, as it can provide the people and the excitement to spread the joy. You can find the game files for the Doomtown CCG here btw and you can also follow updates on the forum. Hit me up 🙂

Once I’ve brought the game into as good a state as I possibly can, I think I’ll start working on 7th Sea or Legend of the Burning sands.

As usually when I get into this mood, I also checked up on some of my other favourite games, but unfortunately, Chronopia has not fared nearly as well as doomtown. I keep hoping that one day, once 3D printing technology is cheap enough, the game will be revived via allowing the sharing of model schematics and terrain. Until then, here’s some concept art that a fan created in the fora of a company which I don’t think even exists anymore 🙂

Quote of the Day: Men's Rights "Activists"

March 29, 2011 Db043 Comments

man boobz exposes the truth about MRAs.

Quoth David Futrelle

At its heart, men’s rights activism doesn’t really seem to be about activism at all. What the movement has turned into is a strange parody of “victim feminism,” an endless search for proof that men (despite earning more than women, heading up the overwhelming majority of companies and governments in the world, getting all the best movie roles, never having to wear heels, and so on and so on and so on) are in fact second-class citizens.

A brilliant piece on a group of people who have recently become a significantly annoying experience online. It doesn’t help matters that their members all too often intersect with right libertarians and Randroids and White Rights Activists (you can imagine what the latter are about)

Unfortunately MRA, much like libertarians are far too numerous online and can easily focus their attention into succesful entryist attempts. MRA entryism is the primary reason why most feminists have abandoned /r/feminism in reddit and have instead migrated to /r/feminisms which has a far more strict moderation policy allowing for deeper feminist discussion without endlessly devolving into What About Teh Mens! arguments.

PS: man boobz has become an instant favourite of mine. If only he would move out of Blogger’s crappy platform…

Don't diss Che or vile Maoists may get upset.

March 21, 2011 Db013 Comments

The Angry Marxists are a group of ex-self-proclaimed-anarchists who turned Marxist-Leninist almost immediately after they were repelled from an anarchist space.

Broadsnark has recently written an excellent article on Che Guevara, and like clockwork, the vile Maoist “uber radicals” are striking back because Che was “one of the most successful and inspiring revolutionaries of the last century”. All that Mel did was to “twist the language of anti-colonialism to write up an a-historical and factually incorrect hit-piece”.

By Kropotkin’s beard, it’s like reading the Barefoot Bum all over again.

I am so glad that /r/anarchism resisted the sectarianism of their particularly toxic brand of “anarchism”. Their blatant authoritarianism and rhetoric of violence was warning enough and as soon as they were repelled, they turned into “Angry Marxists”. It’s a bit funny really, I’ve been following their blog since it started out of something like a morbid fascination to see just how rabid they can become. For example:

Lemme make something clear: we like firing squads. We are down with internment camps. We think working class and oppressed people have every right to shoot their class enemies in the neck and leave them in a ditch.

Given how they have labeled almost everyone who disagrees with them as a “class oppressor” this should send shivers down your spine if they ever come even close to grabbing any sort of revolutionary power. It would be the Kronstadt Massacre all over again ((inb4 the Angry Marxists come here to tell me how it was all individualist anarchists and thus deserved to be killed)).

I also find it quite fascinating of just how quick self-proclaimed anarchists who used to agitate quite a lot in an anarchist space for a very specific moderation policy (take a guess what it would look like), would almost overnight become completely anti-anarchist, and even espouse the same old tired strawmen against anarchism. This only reinforces my concerns that this group was part of yet another entryist attempt from Marxist-Leninists. And when it failed due to its inherent authoritarianism being anathema to an anarchist community, the masks fell off and those who were just masquerading assumed their actual beliefs and displayed proudly their ignorance of what Anarchism actually is.

This is only too humorous given just how often everyone else was dismissed as “Anarchyists” because we recoiled in horror at their violent rhetoric and suggested tactics.

If you thought S2's racist CEO was bad enough, wait until you see their community.

March 17, 2011 Db05 Comments

Big Surprise, Heroes of Newerth fosters a profoundly racist community as well

[Trigger warnings for extreme racism]

A few days ago, I mentioned how the CEO of S2 games seems to be a blatant racist, some people who see this information, react with a “who cares” attitude, as if the behaviour of the most important person in the company doesn’t affect anything else. Well, today I noticed a thread on the Heroes of Newerth fora, titled “This game needs a black hero” and I pretty much expected what I found inside. You can take a look for yourself but I’ll post some of the “best” comments to give you an example (and in case the whole thread is taken down)

Definitely Black: , and Kongor

Probably Black:

Black because they’re in the jungle:

Problem OP?

The small images here repressent different heroes. you can probably distinguish the “race” of each if you look closely ((if you can’t see, it’s not really that important, they’re all obviously caucasian except the last one)). The last hero on the top row is an anthropomorphic simian and “Krongor” refers to the “Big Boss” of the game who is a huge gorilla. I shouldn’t really need explain this.

Looks like some kind of ape and he always steals my kills….

Self explanatory

No thanks. I don’t like heroes with base speeds of 375.

But it would be balanced because the base int and int gain per level would be extremely small.

Again, pretty explanatory (“int” refers to “intelligence”)

If Empath isnt a negro, I dont know what to say.

For reference, this is what Empath looks like.

Whoever the new black hero/alt avatar is, he or she will be the bloodlust kill every single game.

Ha ha. Get it? Because the token black guy always dies first.

A true black hero?He would need shitty skills, and be totally worthless for a team, kinda like gladiator, succubus noobs, blood hunter Brazilians.

His skills and name would of course be somewhat along the lines of

Blackster

1. Poor- Blackster is from the inner city and gets no clothes until he levels this skill up, clothes grant him extra attack damage to creeps.
2. Jump- Blackster is able to jump huge lengths at a time, does no damage, and has a %chance to twist his ankle.
3. Blackwalk- everyone knows black people walk slow as **** for some reason, probably to piss white people off, Blackster can enable blackwalk to move 150ms slower and take 50% reduced damage for 4 seconds.
4. ULTIMATE ABILITY- RACK EM’- Blackster breaks into song and dance also known as the Funky Chicken, he becomes intoxicated and flops around helplessly damaging nearby enemies with holy spirit spit.

Wow, just…wow.

they play the most important role in hon already, they dont need a hero(arguably they already have some)

try playing a game without a courier and see how far it gets you

The “courrier” is a little monkey that you buy from the shop and it serves to bring you items you buy in the map.

Honourary mention:

Game needs a kitchen for all you ladies.

Because what would the HoN community be without at least some explicit sexism.

And then of course, we have the vigilant underdog fighting against political correctness.

The multicult is never satisfied, S2. If you added a black hero who fit in the game, he wouldn’t be black enough. If you added a black-enough hero, he would ‘racist’ and stereotypical. If you carefully added a Black Superstar who is acceptably not black enough, you would now a ratio of 1:hero-count, and the multicult will complain about tokenism. If you added black alts and voices for every single human hero, you would have trolling uses of these alts, the alts would have to be free, you would be racists for defaulting to not-black.

Slam the door in the face of this proposal, at least internally, or you’ll never hear the end of it. The most rabid will already be turned away by screencaps of Maliken’s ‘racism’. The real thorn in the paw of the multicult isn’t that you don’t have black heroes, but that you have any heroes who are white, and you neither can nor want to ‘fix’ that.

You know, because respect and repressentation of other cultures, skin types, and genders/sexualities is a slippery slope…or something. Those “multiculturalists” will never be content until the white race is extunguished. White Pride!

Oh sorry, I got carried over in my in-character sarcasm there…

Some egregious comments have been deleted now that I’ve reported them, several hours later after they were posted. Unfortunately, my comment calling out people on their racism and S2 for tolerating it has also been deleted. And naturally, the reactionary bullshit is still there, as are much of the egregious racist filth that I didn’t have time to report yet. So S2 is just doing the bare minimum on this issue, putting more effort into avoiding any criticism of themselves (they’ve naturally deleted any mention of Maliken’s racism), than preventing racist shit from fermenting in their fora.

The kind of filth posted in there rivals the bigotry one finds in 4chan boards but from what I’ve seen, it’s par for the course given the nature of S2 senior staff, the people they try to market to, and the environment they foster through their (lack of) moderation practices and implicit support.

Honestly, I can’t recommend this game to anyone anymore. If you are not a straight white cis male without disabilities, you will be insulted and marginalized routinely. You will be reminded constantly that most other players of HoN consider you a sub-human, while S2 will ignore you at best, or join in the denigration at worst. You have been warned.

Some reactions from HoN neckbeards. Racist Apologia Gallore!

March 14, 2011 Db02 Comments

Ah reddit combines with the HoN community. You can count on them to consistently defend bigotry

So my post about the racist CEO of S2 Games grabbed the attention of a lot of people in /r/Heroesofnewerth. Unfortunately, the reactionaries had by far the upper hand in the comments, forcing most of my comments to be downvoted to oblivion. The amount of racist and sexist apologia there was stupefying and betrays the classic shitty consistency of the HoN community. Below I’ve gathered some choice comments of the ShitRedditSaid for your enjoyment. I’ve compiled comments from the three threads on the subject. [1], [2], [3]

First of all, the argument that was repeated in some form over 9000 times: “He didn’t really mean it!”

EDIT: I also think maybe it’s worth acknowledging that using a racial slur, and being a racist, are two entirely different things altogether. Using a racial slur in a derogatory way is something entirely dependent upon context, that is, it must be used with intent and directed at somebody who can be demeaned by it, to be an act of hatred. Saying nigger, or kike, or spic, or any of these words, without context, and without this intent, is not a locutionary act worthy of being called a racist act, I think.

Now you know people, feel free to start calling black people “niggers”. If you really really don’t mean that they are an inferior race, it’s OK.

Racist? What has he done to suggest he’s racist?

NIGGER NIGGER NIGGER

There, I said that, does that automatically mean I think black people are genetically inferior to white people?

This is sensationalist bullshit.

People on the internet say shit like queer, nigger, fag, cunt, whatever; all the time. It doesn’t mean they’re homophobes, racists, or misogynists.

Ooh, that reminds me…

b.) Are you a minority or something man? I’m Hispanic too, and apparently we were raised differently. Everyone calls us spics and wetbacks all the time dude, they’re just words man. Half of the time, they don’t even mean what they say. Maliken calls this guy a nigger, does he really think that dude’s black? Or has nigger just become another insult in videogames like faggot and cocksucker.

Ah, another topic I need to write about. Apparently some think that because the insult has been trivialised by bigots, it’s not bigoted to use it anymore. And this is so frustratingly common too…

So when fighting the war against racism, fight the war against actual prejudice and actual discrimination. Don’t fight the war against people using words they don’t actually mean… fight a war against people using racist words when they do mean them.

Because, we all know that intent is fucking magic. (Funny trivia, the last comment was an actual response to the post I just linked)

And then, there is the “don’t you have more important things to talk about?” derailment.

As long as they dont fund or support gay bashing or hate crimes then who fucking cares? Chik Fil A funds groups who are anti-gay so I don’t eat there. S2 has an employee who is a nerd rager. Big difference.

Because racism is just about curbstomping PoC (or funding curbstomping groups) amirite?

Besides, the company could be doing much worse things, as I’m sure you know dbzer0. I prefer minor racism from the founder to Valve’s destruction of the concept of owning your games.

The comparison of implicit support for systematic racial oppression with questionable business practices is what really got me.

Precisely! These are the real concerns, not bullshit like him being a racist or homophobe.

That was in reply to someone reminding them that Maliken also abused his powers. That’s the big issue here people, not racism!

That’s true, I guess you and ysondre are both right. Raging is fine, racial slurs..meh internet. But banning someone to cover it up afterwards is just dirty. And I guess you’re right that it does drive people away from S2, and thus the success of S2. Mali’s a lil bitch.

Same as above, but more cringe-worthy (emphasis mine).

There’s the all too favourite: “We’re all racists anyway”

It’s not a false dichotomy. We are all racists in some way, but I don’t shun you because you’re not a perfect person. Obviously Maliken’s behavior is inexcusable in polite society, but out of all the bad things he could be doing, calling someone a few objectionable names in a game famous, rightly or wrongly, for its rage levels, is not really that severe.

Fuck you, speak for yourself.

Everybody on this planet is racist in some minor way or subconsciously, sorry you can’t defy human nature and you weren’t born color blind.

Fuck you, speak for yourself!

Right. So let me ask you this. In the middle of the night would you be more afraid if a black man in a hoodie and sweatpants came walking down a dark alley you were in or a White man/Asian man? Yeah…I thought so.

FUCK YOU, SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!

Of course, many were stumped on why we cared so much about racism.

Some asshole was being a douche so he was trolled by Maliken? Unprofessional but I don’t really care. It’s their game, their servers. Be an asshole in the presence of the developers, what a great idea.

It’s like hating a band because the lead singer punched out a drunk that got on stage. As if a single player can have any affect on my overall gaming experience.

Yep, like hating on a band alright…

99% of the HoN community is like this. Why do we care if Maliken does it?

Why indeed.

I’m pretty aware, i don’t care and i also find it amusing. I’d rather have a game developer that plays his game and is on the same mindset as 99% of the community.

Racism is amusing y’all!

Like… what does it even matter…

It seems like all people really want is for each member of the S2 staff to have a secret subaccount

Yes. That’s why people are annoyed. Damn those smurf accounts…

Racism happens ALL THE TIME, it’s just that people are making a huge deal about it because it’s S2. I really don’t see the rage about this, their job is to make video games, what they say in games is their own business.

That being said, stay classy, S2.

Racism is normal, people, why do you make such a big deal out of it?

I agree. People care way too much about this. I’m all for equal rights for everybody regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender, etc, but damn if you can’t have some fun.

Wait, wat?

And finally, honorary mention for the “But they make good games, so it’s OK” argument.

You are trying to take down an indie video game company. 😐

Because we all know that being indie absolves one from all bigotry.

I don’t really care. S2, founded by Maliken, makes good games. Having an abusive founder is pretty minor. He misuses his power once and there’s this huge of a furor? If he’s going to mismanage his company he can do it himself. I don’t need to help him along in his demise, which I don’t actually think will be coming; he must be somehow competent, considering that S2 has released three very good games.

Combining the “I don’t care” for a two hit combo. He proceeds to make a “Don’t you have more important things to talk about?”, and later on a “we’re all racists anyway” argument. Bingo!

It “doesn’t matter” because I don’t pay these people to not be racist.

It’s like how I don’t pay actors to not be against jews. It’s similar to how I don’t care that Britney Spears got married to whoever and is now pregnant.

If these S2 staffers were my personal friends, I’d care. If they were people who I paid to keep a good public image, I’d care. In this case, as far as I’m concerned, it’s just a bunch of random guys talking shit online. It doesn’t prevent them from making video games, and I don’t care what their personal beliefs are.

So unless we personally know the one being a bigot, we shouldn’t really mind. Got it.

Depressing ain’t it. Fortunately I wasn’t alone in the storm this time and there a few other voices speaking with me, but you just can’t get through the privilege denying white dudes like that. However this is a good example of the strong correlation between a game company with bigoted tendencies and the attitude of the people who play their games.

PS; Do make some privilege denying dudes out of these quotes and distribute them. Do it for the lulz.

The S2 Games CEO is a blatant racist?

March 13, 2011 Db017 Comments

Maliken, the CEO of S2 Games is caught red handed spewing racist bigotry and abusing his power. Please help spread the news.

Image via Wikipedia

I just saw this on reddit. Apparently the head honcho of S2 games (going by the alias of Maliken) has been outed as a racist with a trend of power abuse. The evidence is not certain but it is pretty damning.

This Teafragger character was playing with 4 other S2 employees but wasn’t an apparent S2 himself. That player has a history of playing with other S2 players, so it’s not a single coincidence of a pubbie.
His previous gaming stats were the same as Malikens (i.e. same choice of heroes)
Once he got upset by an opposing player, that player got mysteriously temp banned from the game.

Those by themselves are damning enough, buit the reaction of the company is the clincher. They have gone into full blown damage control. Threads mentioning this are being deleted. The name of the original player has been changed in the match stats. The Teafragger player has disappeared. It’s a fairly blatant attempt of DELETE FUCKING EVERYTHING!

Well, given their history of sexism, this isn’t such a great moral drop, but it is quite worrying that the manager of a whole gaming company would have no problems not only being a racist scumfuck, but use his power to cover up his tracks when he does. From what I saw before he’s fairly blatant in his homophobia as well so he seems to touch base on all bigotry.

Unfortunately given how this bigotry is not only tolerated by S2 staff, but actively perpetuated by their CEO, it’s no wonder that their community is full of the same bigotry. It’s fairly impossible to play Heroes of Newerth and not encounter insults (usually from teammates) that are at best ableist (“retard” or “tard” is extremely common) and at worst, racist (as you saw in the example above). S2 seems to be doing almost nothing about it and their “Report a Player” function seem to be kind of a joke as well (see second comment). Given the attitude from S2 senior staff themselves, this is not surprising.

At the moment, the only place you can discuss this is in reddit, given that threads on this subject are being deleted from their forums on-sight, so if you’re as dismayed by these acts as I am, come there to express it. I would also appreciate that you spread the news around, especially if you have any contacts within established gaming journalism. S2 needs to be called out on their shit and as long as it’s just a small subreddit that does it, S2 Games will ignore any dissent, delete all awareness in their own fora, and wait until the storm blows over. And then do it again and again. I hope we will not let this happen.

Aside from that, I’m seriously considering switching to DotA2 now because I refuse to support bigots. I don’t know if they will be better at it, but Valve has an OK history so I’m willing to take the chance. Sad things is that I am fairly happy with Heroes of Newerth as a game and wasn’t planning on switching, but I can’t just let this behaviour stand.

A Division by Zer0

A bug in the code of the universe

Category: The Undefined Remainder