It Came From…Beyond the Pale!

If you’ve missed the recent shitstorm of a badly-considered April Fools Day prank involving a little known game designer, his new product, viral marketing, and the social train wreck that is RPG.net, fear not, I have the summary for you!

It all started on March 13th when indy game designer Jared A. Sorensen posted on his LiveJournal about issues revolving around his new game, Lacuna. Jared self-publishes under the studio banner of Memento Mori Theatricks and has a small, yet loyal, fan base. These posts to the journal started getting stranger and stranger, until the point where Jared confessed that his site — in fact his very existence — may well be in jeopardy.

Enter a kind soul posting about Jared’s problems on RPG.net.

In this thread, waaaaaay before April 1st, a kind poster tells all on RPG.net that Memento Mori could be in dire legal and/or financial straits. This isn’t anything we haven’t seen time and time again, so when the little guy is put down by “the MAN” it’s time to rally the troops!

Right?

Theories fly and assumptions are made, but it’s only until Jared himself steps in and helps fuel the flames with his own cryptic wording, that people start to get really incensed. And then enters the stroke of brilliance, the appearance of John Wick, in a fairly atypical “balls out, flame on” posting format sure to incite the masses. So now Jared’s business partner can step in and “spill the beans” as to what’s up with Memento Mori. Heck, the Wick’s flame fest was so good he even got a 3 day suspension for it!

It doesn’t take long for mentions of “legal defense fund” to be made as well as buying any MM products while they still can; after all, the end is near! It’s at this point that the wheels fall off this train wreck and Jared asks to have the thread closed. Only later, after Jared confesses to his prank, does this story really get interesting…

First, a bit on the viral marketing for Lacuna. This is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that the hobby and game industry needs. In fact, Jared went so far as to create a fictional website for “The Nasrudin Institute” — a component of Lacuna — to sub in for the MM homepage on April 1st, completing the “absorption” of MM and Jared A. Sorensen into their collective. The web site is pretty basic but helps fuel the questions that apparently Lacuna asks: do you play the game, or is the game playing you?

But mostly, it’s using the Internet for more than just a communication and distribution medium, but also as an active marketing tool to drive interest and sales. Cheap. It’s something we haven’t seen before, or at least not with this degree of forethought into how it works with the product. (The only other example that springs to my mind is White Wolf’s website for Hunter: The Reckoning and Hunter.net.)

So, Lacuna’s viral marketing plan good, Jared’s prank bad. Got it?

After the reveal in this thread, emotions range all over the map. It’s at this point that the heavy-handed moderation of RPG.net once again rears its ugly head. Immediately, without discussion, any further topics that reference Jared or the MM “prank” result in a 2 week suspension. Whoo hoo!

But no, it gets even better when the suspensions are handed out to Sorensen and Wick. In fact, I’ll quote directly; it’s too good not to. (Source)

This whole business is beyond the pale.

Understand that what you do on your own websites is your own business. If you do something there that causes discussion here, well, that’s inevitable, because you’re both relatively big names in this community and so whatever you do, it’ll cause discussion here. However, in this case you went beyond that. You deliberately used rpg.net resources in order to further the deception that Memento Mori had been stolen by a third party, without informing moderators and admins. This was outright trolling, and would be rewarded by a permaban if it wasn’t for previous contributions to this forum.

At one point, RPG.net moderators spent time quashing a rumor that Mr. Wick had died in a car crash, which was eventually identified as a vicious hoax. That hoaxster was permabanned. To have Mr. Wick turn around and use the same method to promote a new RPG is particularly offensive.

We are suspending both of you for six months. This is most assuredly not an April Fools prank.

“Beyond the pale?” Good stuff, this!

Eventually, as conversations tend to do on RPG.net, a discussion crops up not on “the prank,” but how mods can instaban someone by just talking about a subject. Of course, wink-wink, nudge-nudge, we all know what’s “really” being talked about. This is RPG.net civil disobedience at its best — now RPG.net is “the MAN!”

As you’d expect, things don’t end well. Thus far you’ve seen no mention of the RPG.net God-figure, Cessna. Well, wait no more. In his trademark fashion of meting justice with a bazooka, he posts this darling little tirade (Source):

This has gotten ridiculous.

Here’s my perspective. My work has gone from a 12 day rotation cycle to a 6 day rotation cycle to a 3 day rotation cycle – in other words, my work load has quadrupled. Instead of being able to while away an afternoon here and there goofing off on rpg.net I’m out in the field taking environmental samples. I just haven’t had have time for this stuff lately.

I’m not fully informed on the minutiae of the situation, but here’s how I see it. John Wick and Jared Sorensen played rather mean-spirited practical joke on their fans. Rather than give the staff here a bit of a heads-up through a PM, they played us for suckers as well.

Naturally we’re all a bit ticked off at this – staff, users, everyone. But it’s a situation where all of the facts just aren’t known yet. Each of the Mods has their own opinion on what’s gone down, and how we should respond to it. Personally I favor kicking both Sorensen and Wick off of the site for quite a while – a year at least – but I’ll admit I don’t know the whole situation.

And no one else does either. The Mods are trying to figure out exactly what happened and how to deal with it.

In case you hadn’t guessed, this is going to take a bit of time. We’re still learning more information on a daily – if not hourly – basis. We’re getting all sorts of PMs and e-mails and PMs from users claiming to be “in the know” who just have to give their version of the situation – who then demand that things be done their way for the Good of The Forum.

Then as a result of this confusion we get the usual round of complaints in Trouble Tickets. People are demanding to know what we’re going to do about the situation. People are using this situation to push their own personal grudges – for more moderation, for less moderation, you name it.

And, of course, the whole situation is continuing Backstage. The Mods are fighting amongst each other, in a way that makes Trouble Tickets look well behaved.

Of course the Mods are confused – they haven’t settled this yet amongst themselves – and is a bit much to expect them to do so. Give them a chance to figure things out.

So here’s what’s going down.

1. Wick and Sorensen are suspended – for how long will be decided.

2. No more threads about this for one week. Period. I’m going to ask nicely – let the Mods figure out an appropriate response to Wick and Sorensen. They’ll post it, then reopen the discussion. Until then, I’m imposing a “cooling down” period. If you can’t respect my request, then the next person who starts a thread gets a permanent ban and an IP ban.

3. Ptevis – you asked the Mods to ban you – fine, you’re gone, for good.

4. Dave Turner – you’re getting a month off. Call it Rule #11 and Rule #0. Civil disobedience doesn’t work here.

5. I am posting the New Forum Rules and Guidelines immediately. They will take effect immediately.

6. No threads about the New Forum Rules and Guidelines for 24 Hours. Breaking this will result in a 1-month ban. I want everyone to read them over and let them settle in a bit before the inevitable Trouble Tickets Rules Lawyering.

We will answer questions about the New Rules starting tomorrow. We will also answer questions about the Wick/Sorensen situation within one week.

Until then, I’m putting the lid on this one so that everyone can calm down a bit.

To this date, any user discussing “the prank” receives a permanent ban and an IP ban, unable to visit RPG.net again.

So, that’s pretty much it. Sorensen and Wick, to my knowledge, are sitting on 6 month suspensions currently, and a handful of users have been banned for discussing “the prank.” Apparently Sorensen and Wick can get off with a 3 month suspension for a public apology, but both, thus far, have declined. Good for them.

Make no mistake, I think the prank got way out of hand and both deserve their suspensions — in fact, given Wick’s history a permaban should certainly be on the table — but the escalation of the entire issue, and their bad taste in jokes, doesn’t merit any apologies on their behalf to the users of RPG.net.

In any event, if you subscribe to the theory of their being no such thing as bad press, MM and Lacuna may be the real winners here; I’d certainly never heard of the game until now. Of course a large number of previously loyal fans have said, post prank, that they’ll no longer support MM. Guess they weren’t that loyal to begin with?

(Edit: I neglected to mention that Jared has even offered to refund anyone who feels duped by the entire affair for MM purchases during that time.)

Oh, and it’s worth mentioning that I started the April Fools hobby and game industry tradition when I shut down Last Unicorn Games in 1999. Go me!