Tweet
And I feel fiiiiiine....
Ok, so settle down, and hear the long-butt story of How The Poop Is About To Hit the Spinning Air Circulation.
So in this industry that I, well, dominate, there's a marketplace where people sell their script engines for setting up this one type of website. Throughout the years, five to be exact, I made friends of sorts with one, and threw my support behind them.
My influence carries a LOT of weight in this industry, and literally, every competition they had crumbled as people started flocking to this script, because I made a lot of special things that only worked with their script. They did a lot of improvements to their own script and system that helped them leap ahead of the competition, but even still, when you have a huge influence directing people to buy your stuff, and recommending you constantly, and featuring products/games that ONLY work with your script....it helps. :P
So, recently, Script Company sold to new owners. Said new owners have, within a week, practically destroyed the company. ALREADY. Support has gone down the tubes, they moved everything over to new servers, and in the process, destroyed ALL the data for everyone's emails! They gave everyone a very short notice, and them BAM.
People are FURIOUS about it! Understandably, though!
As icing on the cake, they have been ignoring emails. An issue cropped up last week where I noticed that a website was stealing images from me. Since the owner of the site refused to take it down, I sent a DMCA to Script Company, and it took TWO of them to finally get them to remove the image. I could've legally sued them after they ignored the first. The very next day, another stolen image was put in its place. DMCA'd again. Then another. Two more DMCAs to get that one taken too!
At this point, you'd think they'd either shut down the offending account or give them an extremely stern lecture about the potential for lawsuits, right?
Nope.
They told them, and I quote "please don't do this again, going forward."
...That was it. Four copyright violations, and "please don't do that again".
And now to the crux of the poop.
As some may know, I was partner in a business that marketed games specifically for Script Company. In fact, Script Company got a cut of our profits, just for having to keep one file on their servers that allowed our games to communicate with theirs. So they got a cut for basically....doing nothing.
Until last week. Last week, a couple of our games mysteriously stopped working. But only partially! All the data was lost, and basically, nothing could be saved. Sound familiar?
I and my partners have been sending emails, calling, etc etc to see what exactly happened with Script Company, and why this wasn't working. No responses, of course.
Finally, Ex-Coder stepped in. (collective gasp, eh? Just keep reading) He checked things out, and deduced that, as expected, Script Company's servers were simply...blocking us. Since we couldn't get a response from them directly, ExC got a customer of theirs to submit a support ticket, with the technical details, etc.
And here is their glorious, unabashedly backstabbing reply:
Wait, what? Who's that?
Turns out, Script Company CLONED OUR GAMES, and is specifically blocking ours to force people to buy THEIRS.
Absolute. Backstabbing. Bastiges.
Five years of supporting them, and giving them a ridiculous amount of business. FIVE YEARS.
In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny: "Of course you know, this means war!"
I am promptly moving my support to another new script, who I happen to know that Script Company sees as a threat, due to their low cost, and much more customizable interface.
Several of their larger clients have been rather troubled by their recent behavior, and they're also very, very good friends of mine. They've actually been discussing moving to a new script.....I have a feeling this little tidbit...will push them past the edge.
Ok, so settle down, and hear the long-butt story of How The Poop Is About To Hit the Spinning Air Circulation.
So in this industry that I, well, dominate, there's a marketplace where people sell their script engines for setting up this one type of website. Throughout the years, five to be exact, I made friends of sorts with one, and threw my support behind them.
My influence carries a LOT of weight in this industry, and literally, every competition they had crumbled as people started flocking to this script, because I made a lot of special things that only worked with their script. They did a lot of improvements to their own script and system that helped them leap ahead of the competition, but even still, when you have a huge influence directing people to buy your stuff, and recommending you constantly, and featuring products/games that ONLY work with your script....it helps. :P
So, recently, Script Company sold to new owners. Said new owners have, within a week, practically destroyed the company. ALREADY. Support has gone down the tubes, they moved everything over to new servers, and in the process, destroyed ALL the data for everyone's emails! They gave everyone a very short notice, and them BAM.
People are FURIOUS about it! Understandably, though!
As icing on the cake, they have been ignoring emails. An issue cropped up last week where I noticed that a website was stealing images from me. Since the owner of the site refused to take it down, I sent a DMCA to Script Company, and it took TWO of them to finally get them to remove the image. I could've legally sued them after they ignored the first. The very next day, another stolen image was put in its place. DMCA'd again. Then another. Two more DMCAs to get that one taken too!
At this point, you'd think they'd either shut down the offending account or give them an extremely stern lecture about the potential for lawsuits, right?
Nope.
They told them, and I quote "please don't do this again, going forward."
...That was it. Four copyright violations, and "please don't do that again".
And now to the crux of the poop.
As some may know, I was partner in a business that marketed games specifically for Script Company. In fact, Script Company got a cut of our profits, just for having to keep one file on their servers that allowed our games to communicate with theirs. So they got a cut for basically....doing nothing.
Until last week. Last week, a couple of our games mysteriously stopped working. But only partially! All the data was lost, and basically, nothing could be saved. Sound familiar?
I and my partners have been sending emails, calling, etc etc to see what exactly happened with Script Company, and why this wasn't working. No responses, of course.
Finally, Ex-Coder stepped in. (collective gasp, eh? Just keep reading) He checked things out, and deduced that, as expected, Script Company's servers were simply...blocking us. Since we couldn't get a response from them directly, ExC got a customer of theirs to submit a support ticket, with the technical details, etc.
And here is their glorious, unabashedly backstabbing reply:
I'm really sorry, but we're actually not going to be supporting <Seraph's game company> any longer - I would definitely suggest getting games from <New Game Company>.
Turns out, Script Company CLONED OUR GAMES, and is specifically blocking ours to force people to buy THEIRS.
Absolute. Backstabbing. Bastiges.
Five years of supporting them, and giving them a ridiculous amount of business. FIVE YEARS.
In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny: "Of course you know, this means war!"
I am promptly moving my support to another new script, who I happen to know that Script Company sees as a threat, due to their low cost, and much more customizable interface.
Several of their larger clients have been rather troubled by their recent behavior, and they're also very, very good friends of mine. They've actually been discussing moving to a new script.....I have a feeling this little tidbit...will push them past the edge.
Comment