Derek Smart Is A Very Original Writer

Not Derek Smart, 2008:

Traditionally, massively multiplayer online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder and General Manager/CEO of BioWare and General Manager/Vice President of Electronic Arts Inc., “In Star Wars: The Old Republic, we’re fusing BioWare’s heritage of critically-acclaimed storytelling with the amazing pedigree of Lucasfilm and LucasArts, and adding a brand-new fourth pillar to the equation – story. At the same time, we will still deliver all the fun features and activities that fans have come to expect in a AAA massively multiplayer online game.

Derek Smart, 2010:

Traditionally, massively multiplier [sic] online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars – combat, exploration and character progression,” Derek Smart continued. “In Alganon, in addition to these we’ve added the fourth pillar to the equation; a story. We delivered a fun, immersive adventure that gamers expect in a top quality massively multiplayer online game.

Whoopsie. Hat tip to f13, from where it has spread elsewhere.

No word on if Smart plans to add Bioware or Dr. Muzyka to his pile of pending lawsuits for the offense of plagiarizing his future self. Oh wait. What the hell, this is Derek Smart. OF COURSE we have word. Many words, actually.

So on Sunday morning when I opened up my email, it was like a bomb had gone off in there. And that was even before I saw the "Alganon" Google alerts.

It started with an accusation of plagiarism by a little known blog site. Then it got picked up, completely and unprofessionally transformed by Massively in a news (!) bit no less and accusing Alganon of stealing a press release. Yah.

The rest is history.

Practically, every game related press release reads like the next one. Whether they're pushing an MMO, an FPS or an RTS game, the gist and context are the same - only words are mangled in order to avoid sounding like a broken record. For example, the reference to "pillars" is a commonly used phrase in various structure driven disciplines (e.g. the government).

So that single referenced line that the PR Sirens used to precede my commentary was chosen as inspiration in order to convey the premise of my quotes that followed. In truth, the reference should either have been reworded or credited and sourced. As I understand it now, that was the original intent; but they failed to make the change in their draft and which was to become the final version that went out on PRWeb. And since Quest Online - like most companies that hire outside PR firms - don't have to fact check press releases, we clearly had no idea what had happened until my inbox started lighting up on Sunday morning.

This was clearly an unintentional oversight and shouldn't even be news; but here we are. Just another glorious day in the gaming industry. It's all about hits and giggles.

Note to Experienced Developer And Owner of Intellectual Properties Derek Smart: word-for-word plagiarism isn't 'clearly an unintentional oversight'. But wait! Smart's final defense - Bioware stole it from John Smedley! Unfortunately, unlike the Bioware PR, Smedley's speech, convienently, isn't online. Maybe Bioware DELETED IT FROM THE INTERNET TO MAKE DEREK SMART LOOK BAD.