Brad Wardell sets the record straight
This response to a multi-faceted attempt at character assassination is one of the reasons it is so important to support #GamerGate even if you are not a hardcore gamer:
Because if the pinkshirts haven't come after you and yours yet, they assuredly will so long as you have not submitted to them. Consider these tweets from Chris "Sparklepunter" Kluwe in which he announces a personal boycott and tries to threaten Brad Wardell's employment due to his support of #GamerGate:
Recently game designer Damion Schubert wrote a blog criticizing some recent reporting by Breibart regarding how sloppy reporting had hurt my career. In his criticism, Damion had used a hit piece Kotaku had published on me as evidence that the reporting done on me had been reasonable. In response, I went through his blog to point out the various factual errors the Kotaku article had made by relying on only a single, biased source along with carefully selected court documents to create a narrative that had nothing to do with reality.At this point, #GamerGate is about more than games now. It is a Schwerpunkt in the ongoing cultural war for the West. And the gamers of #GamerGate are the only defenders of freedom and Western civilization who are counterattacking and causing enemy casualties. That is why it is more than important, it is vital to see non-gamers joining the cause rather than sneering from the sidelines.
Damion and I got talking after my post and in which I was able to show him more material that demonstrated how ridiculous the original Kotaku article had been. In the 2 years since the Kotaku article, no one who has gotten to see some of the actual details of the frivolous lawsuit that had been filed against us has not been convinced that the original case and the reporting of it was a travesty.
Damion has followed up with this post retracting his original blog.
Out of respect for Damion, I’m going to update this article to be a more generic response to those who continue to harass me or my employer regarding the unsavory lawsuit that was inaccurately reported on back in 2012.
A brief recap
Stardock is a consumer software company that was founded over 20 years ago. For 20 years we’ve made award winning games and software used by millions of people. I incorporated the company in 1993 as a college student to help pay for school. Eventually, it succeeded beyond my wildest dreams and became my full time career. Today, it is possibly the oldest independent game company with more than 50 employees.
In 2012, I was best known for things like:
Gamer’s Bill of Rights
Designer of Galactic Civilizations
The publisher of Sins of a Solar Empire
The CEO who had promised (and delivered) the sequel and its expansion to Elemental because we were disappointed that a Stardock game was released in a poor state.
The designer of programs like Start8, ObjectDock, WindowBlinds, DesktopX, ModernMix, etc.
In short I had a good reputation.
Because if the pinkshirts haven't come after you and yours yet, they assuredly will so long as you have not submitted to them. Consider these tweets from Chris "Sparklepunter" Kluwe in which he announces a personal boycott and tries to threaten Brad Wardell's employment due to his support of #GamerGate:
I will no longer be purchasing anything from Stardock due to their CEO @draginol's stance on #Gamergate and "SJW"s.As a longtime game reviewer, I already have copies of Sins of a Solar Empire as well as Galactic Civilizations, but I will commit to buying Sorceror Kings when it becomes available. If you are a gamer, I would encourage you to buy a Stardock game today. I can attest that they are good, solid strategy games.
Which is a shame, because I REALLY like Sins of a Solar Empire. Sorry, Stardock. Get a CEO who understands empathy, and we'll be friends.
Labels: Clash of Civilizations, games
77 Comments:
Damion Schubert tries to come across as reasonable and fair. but if that is the case he is a piss poor investigator. because it seems like there were a lot of facts about this case available in the public domain but he chose to rely on the kotaku article. now his blog post is exposed to be a tissue of lies, he pretends as though he was acting in good faith and it is not his fault if kotaku were biased.
Thanks for the head's up on Sorcerer King -- looks freaking awesome.
Sins of a Solar Empire is absolute heroinware and I have finally broken the cycle of addiction.
Still I'll buy them, so long as I don't have to play them, I only have forty or so years of life remaining to me.
"Get a CEO who understands empathy"
A keen insight into his understand or lack thereof. A CEO is hired for his understanding of Business
And, if you aren't a gamer and use Windows 8, go buy Start8 today. Fantastic add-on that makes using Windows 8 a 1000x less painful than it needs to be.
GalCiv and Sins are excellent games. Sins is, in my opinion, the best RTS game out there, even if it shares some commonalities with the 4x genre. I left the hardcore gamer demographic some years ago, but I still play a few games here and there, and Sins is one of them. Well worth your money, even before their take on gamergate.
Someone doesn't understand empathy. At all.
I'm not a gamer, but the fight is unlimited.
.
Whether it's GamerGate or an individuals unencumbered right to their property and opinions (thoughts) the SJW's must be fought and pushed back at every instance.
.
As a non gamer who supports this fight, and understands some of the concepts, the biggest problem that I can see elsewhere is that nongamers are not understanding WHY they should support this fight.
All they see is "gamers" as the subject and their eyes glaze over. Maybe if the gamer industry and the players would start telling nongamers why they too have a dog in this fight, it might help to rally more support to the fight.
There are a lot of people out there just spoiling for a good fight. Why is the gamer industry letting all that go to waste?
Social justice warriors for cultural Marxism base their tactics on Saul Alinsky, whether they know it or not. Most of their rhetoric comes down to in-group signaling, aggressive condescension and rage. The condescension and rage are operationalised tactically as ridicule, slander and intimidation, the usual strategic reward being to disqualify dissent and through silencing create a false consensus to which intimidated, outmatched and seemingly friendless individuals will feel forced to conform their opinions. In sum, this is a system of tyranny. And that's before we get to cultural Marxism's uniquely perverse and evil aims.
Anyone vague on the "slander" part needs to follow the links in this post, read carefully, and think about whether this is the sort of thing that should be encouraged by passivity. Because passivity does encourage it.
Get a CEO who understands empathy
Of course it's not the practice of empathy he requires, but merely the understanding of it, and the proper public parroting required by the pinkies (I could have used pinko just as easily, but don't want to confuse the comment).
Stardock not only has games but they also have stuff for Windows that looks marginally useful. I no longer use Windows full-time, although I should get back to doing it.
Anyway, their Sins of the Solar Empire or whatever looks interesting enough and it is only $40.
SINS was and is a great game. It is on my rotation of go to games. GalCiv is good, and I logged a lot of hours on it in the past, but don't play it as much now.
Stardock is a good company. Makes games people want to play. Honestly, I have never seen any sort of sexual stuff in any of their products. So why are they being attacked?
And, if you aren't a gamer and use Windows 8, go buy Start8 today.
I don't know if it is a comparable program, but Classic Shell looks like it does the same thing, and it's free. My wife really likes it.
Twas arguing on this the other day, and sometime later a RageContempter showed up.
Now I try to be a nice guy (not AWCA) with a senseof humor, and so it was a bit eye-raising to be accused of supporting rape.
Stardock is a good company. Makes games people want to play. Honestly, I have never seen any sort of sexual stuff in any of their products. So why are they being attacked?
Because Brad, their CEO, chose to publicly express a *gasp* bad-think opinion about #GamerGate.
Kluwe is again showing how uninformed he is. How and why would Stardock get another CEO when Brad is sole owner?
I'll buy a Stardock product today... and I don't even need one.
SoSE was pretty good. I'll haven't played it in a while, but I guess now is a good time to pick up the latest expansion and try it out again. I'm burning out on D3. I need to switch to something else.
On the recommendation of Adam Baldwin, I actually have that Colbert interview a listen. My critical thinking professor from college would love it as example after example of logical fallacies. "There's an ad hominem. That's a red herring. Who saw the straw man? Very good. Now, who can point out the question begging in this statement?" Other than that, it was about 5 to 6 minutes of pure unadulterated horseshit.
OT... shorting AAPL is looking like a lock.
Check out Drudge... "iGay".... classic.
I emailed Industrial Toys yesterday because as a medium core gamer, I honestly find John Scalzi's anti-gamer association with them to undermine their credibility of developing a core mobile fps that is fan friendly.
"we'll be friends"
Heh - that's not happening. Faking it, but not making it.
So...empathy is an important quality in a CEO?
What about Steve Jobs?
Titus,
"Social justice warriors for cultural Marxism base their tactics on Saul Alinsky, whether they know it or not"
Not sure if it's an allergic reaction, or intentional subversion on the part of TPTB that promote it, but SJW actually works against the original goal of Cultural Marxism, which was to weaken other identities (family, church, nation) that were precluding class consciousness. SJW creates new identities (gender, race, LGBT) that do the same thing.
Pathos of any kind is deadly for a CEO. Similar to Vox's distinction between martyr and warrior.
One of the most entertaining things about GamerGate has been the way the hard-left just showed thousands young men (and not a few women), who are generally sympathetic to their cause, exactly how horrible they are.
I hope this revolts expands and I live long enough to read a history book about the entire media elite losing a socio-political battle to young men (and let's be fair, not a few women) who just want there hobby left alone. What will they do when they're really threatened?
I will no longer be purchasing anything from Stardock due to their CEO @draginol's stance on #Gamergate and "SJW"s.
Which is a shame, because I REALLY like Sins of a Solar Empire.
Stardock's founder and CEO opposes SJW's, and the company is highly successful. Could there be a connection?
Kluwe doesn't seem to understand that Wardell is responsible for Sins of a Solar Empire. If he were to be replaced, there's no guarantee that his replacement would be able to create products of similar quality, especially not if his understanding of empathy is valued over his understanding of business and technology.
"One of the most entertaining things about GamerGate has been the way the hard-left just showed thousands young men (and not a few women), who are generally sympathetic to their cause, exactly how horrible they are. "
...They try to shut us up...
...We try to keep them talking...
Why did I write that twice? That's what happens when you write half a comment and get distracted.
Hey Vox, you have been reading a lot of 4G and you have observed it being utilised by GG. They aren't conscious of it for the most part but elements of the right have certainly taken notice. Have you given any thought to a pamphlet or manual of their tactics being applied to wider society? I've made some notes myself but I'm not well educated on this sort of thing.
I'm still mad at Stardock for Demigod. But this will convince me to buy their games again.
"Get a CEO who understands empathy, and we'll be friends."
Is this the same Chris "Sparklepunter" Kluwe who was laughing and joking on Twitter about statutory rape?
A CEO is hired for his understanding of Business
No they're not. Not anymore.
The same. That tweet seemed to be saying that he was the Vikings Paterno, who knew with certainty that criminal action had occurred, and he wasn't naming names. Because morals or something.
Vox should send a tweet suggesting that all GamerGaters should purchase a Stargate product every week for the next four weeks!
Watching the MSM show their uglyness as the agenda-driven liars that want people to go back to treat TVs like religious altars has been amusing.
Ah yeah, the Editor in Chief on Kotaku managed to sit at the dialogue table:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpmIrWqEUUU
Discussion thread: https://archive.today/Lzptm
He admited several things, like that he basically doesn't give a shit about what his writers do as long as the clicks get coming, and that his side only see apologies are "just a way to publicly shame someone". The best thing that GamerGate has done is to let the SJWs talk, they manage to fuck it up every time that they do. And, unfortunately for those that bought the SJW's narrative, some lessons have to be learned the hard way.
So I have a choice to listen to the CEO of a somewhat successful independent game company or the author of "Beautifully Unique Sparkleponies". Who to listen to?
I think I will be buying Sorcerer Kings when it comes out.
Honestly, I have never seen any sort of sexual stuff in any of their products. So why are they being attacked?
I think you answered your own question.
"A CEO is hired for his understanding of Business
No they're not. Not anymore."
They are for companies that are growing or remain competitive. Where they aren't you will usually note many indicators of stagnation and the use of connections in government to maintain there place in the scheme of things.
Got a copy of the first GalCiv game from a coworker after Master of Orion series went off the deep end. I though it wasn't a bad start. The Ultimate edition is quite good.
Been using ObjectDock for years, fantastic docks software for PC.
Oh and for anyone thinking of buying into Sins, just pick up SoaSE: Rebellion. It is standalone expansion yet has all the content of the previous iterations. Buying all the titles at once would have a lot of redundancy.
Galactic Civilizations is one of the few computer games I have played. It is quite good. I am not a "gamer". But I have an affinity (more like an addiction) for good strategy/simulation games such as Galactic Civilizations, which is why I usually avoid them like the plague.
As I alluded to in another thread, once upon a time two friends of mine and I started a little game company. It failed, we went on with our lives.
Today, one of those friends works for Stardock. The other just started his own game company - funded by Brad Wardell.
The second friend... his group is going to be VERY hard to ignore in the game industry in a year or two. Nobody who plays serious games will be boycotting them, I promise. If you play games, you will almost certainly be making Brad Wardell money in 2016.
So yeah... anti-gamergate guys... good luck with that. You'll need it.
The LUBE movement will stand. And the anti-GGs will fall.
Only 1 of the 12 leader avatars in Galactic Civilizations 2 was a female. When will the sexism end?
"Get a CEO who understands empathy, and we'll be friends."
Very illustrative. First of all, in order to be Sparklepunter's friend, you have to do something nasty, like Eich a coworker. Second, after you've done the deed, do you really think you'll be actual friends with Sparkles, or will there be demands for further nastiness down the line to prove your worthiness? I think you know the answer.
Looks like someone missed their true calling as a mean girl.
One of the most entertaining things about GamerGate has been the way the hard-left just showed thousands young men (and not a few women), who are generally sympathetic to their cause, exactly how horrible they are.
These people will not be able to 'un-see' what they see and having seen it here, they will notice it elsewhere. By not backing down and winning here, they will not back down and win elsewhere.
Sins of a Solar Empire is a game I should have enjoyed, but it just never did it for me. But I'll give their next game a try.
Frankly, the suit against Stardock ought to be the most recent Exhibit A in the case against "hostile workplace" lawsuits.
Frankly, the suit against Stardock ought to be the most recent Exhibit A in the case against "hostile workplace" lawsuits.
And for tort reform that eliminates all the incentives to bring frivolous or harassing lawsuits just because you can and there's no downside.
OT: One of the better things about hanging out with people smarter than me is not feeling like I have to dumb down my communications. Thanks, Vox, for the vocab lessons! http://wordsmith.org/words/schwerpunkt.html
"At this point, #GamerGate is about more than games now. It is a Schwerpunkt in the ongoing cultural war for the West. And the gamers of #GamerGate are the only defenders of freedom and Western civilization"
And now if we can only get an army behind the GamerGaters, they can be ISIS.
Good lord!! The GamerGate supporters have jumped the shark.
I bought the Beta for GalCiv III recently and I am following its development. It may be awhile before it is done but it is playable now and you can help make it better.
"These people will not be able to 'un-see' what they see and having seen it here, they will notice it elsewhere. By not backing down and winning here, they will not back down and win elsewhere."
I, a non-gamer, was compelled to defend GG on Facebook, lots of AJW there you know. The last comment I had to make before it died was- "Many of the gamers have worked with the AJWs in the past. They also are not bothered by the threats and name calling them 'rapists and woman haters' If you're not guilty, you can't be shamed so they answer back 'so what, When are you going to leave us alone,'and keep fighting. But for us libertarians (small l) we see you making more Libertarians every time you do so. So keep it up." Not a peep afterward.
Good lord!! The GamerGate supporters have jumped the shark.
As if SJW-ism hasn't done so decades ago... (rolls eyes)
"And now if we can only get an army behind the GamerGaters, they can be ISIS."
By this time, you're only the hundredth person to compare Gamergate to ISIS. Do try to keep up.
Not only are they excellent games, they run stupendously on older laptops. This is shocking - especially in Sins, the graphics are nothing short of awe-inspiring. The polish on that game is superb. Anyways, I will be purchasing GalCiv3 and any other Sins add-on, update, or sequel, in the future and recommend them all to the Ilk.
"I bought the Beta for GalCiv III recently and I am following its development. It may be awhile before it is done but it is playable now and you can help make it better." ugh just saw the trailer, maybe this is just me but I like games with graphical rewards for my micromanagement. Otherwise just play a board-game
"And now if we can only get an army behind the GamerGaters, they can be ISIS.
Good lord!! The GamerGate supporters have jumped the shark."
Heh, you know that ISIS has released tweets promoting the anti-gamergate folks right?
http://blogjob.com/oneangrygamer/2014/10/gamergate-isis-spambot-offers-unlikely-support-to-stopgamergate-hashtag/
Also, for those interested in Sins, get the Rebellion version and look up the Star Trek Armada 3 mod for it or "Sins of a Galactic Empire" (star wars) mod on moddb.com. There are a lot of very good mods for the game.
OT: One of the better things about hanging out with people smarter than me is not feeling like I have to dumb down my communications. Thanks, Vox, for the vocab lessons! http://wordsmith.org/words/schwerpunkt.html
Even better:
<a href="http://strategicscience.org/top-ten-strategy-tricks-10-schwerpunkt/> top-ten-strategy-tricks-10-schwerpunkt </a>
(I have solved your feeble captcha. You WILL be assimilated)
top-ten-strategy-tricks-10-schwerpunkt
Ok then. Just a small bug there. You will not be assimilated.......TODAY!
I will no longer be purchasing anything from Stardock due to their CEO @draginol's stance on #Gamergate and "SJW"s.
Which is a shame, because I REALLY like Sins of a Solar Empire. Sorry, Stardock. Get a CEO who understands empathy, and we'll be friends.
I recommend the chick from Mozilla.
Yours etc.,
Sparklepunter
Check out their desktop software while you are there for the games. You easily find something you like.
And maybe the CEO would not be interested in selling a game to someone who is not interested in buying the game due to the would be buyer being a bigot?
Sparkles lacks the traits to be in Stardock's game demographics in the first place. He couldn't possibly play any sort of strategy game that requires a demonstrated knowledge of situational punting.
Apparently from the TotalBiscuit interview of the kotaku editor (via 8chan linked earlier):
"The interview makes it more obvious than ever that they legitimately do not feel like they did anything wrong, going as far as to say that apologizing was never going to happen because "it's just more shit to deal with" and "just a way to publicly shame someone.""
So here you have a SJW confirming what Vox has said for years now, never apologize. Go black knight.
If Sparklepunter is agin' it, I am for it. I'm nowhere near what I consider a gamer, but I hereby commit to buying at least one Stardock game simply because of these assholes.
Better yet-- I will buy it for my nephew. He and his weird buddies are true gamers and getting a game for him will likely lead to plenty more purchases from him and/or his guys.
Stardock is the best. I'd purchase their games purely out of principle (I liked the Gamer Bill of Rights that much). They're seriously good games though. I bought two copies of Gal Civ 2 and Sins. And I still can't believe they gave a free copy of Elemental: Fallen Enchantress to everybody who purchased Elemental since the original game wasn't on the level of a normal Stardock product. Very cool.
Gal Civ 2 is still worth it and is very cheap. It can be run on pretty old hardware and it's worth picking up a copy (or three) if you have an old laptop or two around and want to play a 4X game.
Any comment handle with "game" in it can be read as "gay" from here on out.
If you are a gamer, I would encourage you to buy a Stardock game today.
I'm not, but I'll buy one anyway.
I really like their Fences program too. I run a pretty minimalist desktop, but sometimes even I get icon creep and need to organize them. Fences is a program to corral icons on your desktop into logical groups. I recommend it. hmm, looks like I just stumbled upon my next couple re.co entries.
Holy mother of God.... I'd tried to stay away from Sins and GalCiv because those kind of games are blackhole-level timesinks for me, but now I'm going to buy copies just to support Brad and to spite Kluwe. Good grief, I can't stand Kluwe.
Actually, it's about ethics in video game journalism.
Kotaku never did print any kind of retraction or apology after that lawsuit got dismissed. One of the many reasons I will feel no pity if a bunch of their staff, even the ones who had nothing to do with the article, get laid off thanks to GG getting advertisers to leave Gawker.
That entire place is nothing but hypocrisy and evil. How else could they justify taking the stance that Zoe Quinn's sex life (which no one actually cares about) is off-limits but it's okay to post (a) an article about the creator of Cards Against Humanity raping a girl in college based entirely on heresay with no police report filed and (b) an article containing private Facebook messages of an indie games journo gamma meant to paint him as a creep?
On a much brighter note: old school 90s PC gamers can rejoice as Good Old Games has released X-wing and TIE Fighter for $10 apiece. They've got the DOSBox config already done if you want to play the original and have included the Windows version that came a few years later with updated graphics from X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter.
Going to buy one of his themes, looking at the Dragon theme http://goo.gl/nac2SG or the Vintage theme http://goo.gl/KU3gfE . Also have a new blog to follow.
@Red Comet, GOG.com just came under my radar recently, I didn't do too much gaming in the 90s, I see quite a few I would like to try.
I was looking for an excuse to pick up Sins of a Solar Empire. This will do nicely.
Castro Punter strikes again, feeling a need to stick his nose into places he simply isn't meant for. The sparkles be blinding him, seems.
Dropped Stardock's address on my blog, and tweet-bombed it to #GamerGate supporters. Sent some traffic his way. Hope we helped!
SJWs call you a terrorist when you use their own tactics against them.
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