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Hadrian

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Ok recently there seems to be a fight of words between John Romero and Mike Wilson of Gamecock:

Started by John Romero:
"I got a chuckle out of reading the reader's comments on the article. People are now starting to get a clue about how Mr. Wilson operates. Hey everyone, he hasn't changed in over 10 years — these are the kinds of jackass stunts he pulled at Ion Storm with Daikatana. Remember the bitch ad? Yeah. He also ran ads ("image ads") that just had pictures of Ion Storm founders, himself and our COO. That was just the beginning of his madness.

It got much worse at Godgames where he pretty much just partied all the time and after the whole thing got reined in by Take 2 he went underground for a while, waiting for his next victim/investor so he could go hogwild all over again. And thus was born Gamecock."

And the response from Mike Wilson:
"Dear John, I'm writing this letter from Moscow, having just read your lovely post about me, which a good friend forwarded me and implored me to reply to. I really never thought I would relive the joy that was Ion Storm, circa 1997, or that the memories of those times still troubled you so 11 years later. Then again, I would guess you live in the memories of your twenties as much as you can, given the reality of your thirties. Glad to know I'm still in your thoughts.

I enjoyed your comments very much, but several of my friends (especially those that were around for those heady time to witness the truth of it up close) did not find it quite so funny, and thought that I should take the time to set a few things straight as publicly as the flame you chose to randomly launch my way.

While I am not at all interested in reliving those days, I will also not allow you to rewrite the history of it all, more to your liking and to my public detriment, and I will in no way take the rap for what you did (or didn't do)with your dream company. So here are just a few reminders to jog your memory.

While my job title (which you gave me) was CEO of your company, I was one of two "junior partners" in a partnership of 6. I made about 1/3 of what the 'big boy partners' (as you liked to call yourselves back then) did and owned less than five percent of your company. I wasn't awarded a 250k signing bonus like you were for signing up to your own startup and I didn't have a personal assistant like you, nor occupy one of the 4 corners of power in the original Ion Storm building. And unlike you, I didn't get to file a federal trademark for my own personal catch phrase," Suck it Down." I remind you of these things only to remind you that there was absolutely nothing done by me or Ion Storm, including the advertisements which bore your name and which you happily posed for, that didn't require your full approval and grand signature.

And while I did think that famous Bitch ad was pretty funny, I'll remind you that you signed that one too, and I'm fairly certain I wasn't holding your hand or using a Jedi mind trick on you when you did it. I'll also remind you that the whole reason for running the teaser ad was that we felt we should be starting to advertise the game since it you said was shipping so soon, for Christmas in 1997. Even though we had nothing but a logo and that signature promise to use for an ad 6 months before you promised Eidos and your partners that Daikatana would be ready to redefine shooters on shelves worldwide.

Our former employee also reminded me that I fought on a daily basis to try to save that company from the poison which you had invited into it (and watched spread like a cancer while you kept your head in the sand), only to find myself ushered out the door, since it was such a buzz kill to hear my incessant complaints about the way things were being run, which were really those of the 80 or so young fresh faced developers we hired in the 10 months I was there. But hey, it was clear that I was the problem there, as you guys really took off the year after I left. Or, more accurately, nearly every one of those 80 hires did.

I do owe you a thank you for that little shove to get me started on Gathering of Developers, a company that I was an actual partner of, and which Take Two 'reigned in' buy buying for 30 million dollars, two years after we opened an office, which resulted in no less than eight million unit selling PC games and over 350 million dollars in revenue for TTWO (my investors) during roughly the same amount of time that it took you and the remaining 'big boy partners' to shit away Eidos' (your investors) 30 million and deliver one of the biggest heaps of dung ever put onto a CD Rom, just before being foreclosed on. Thank god for Warren Spector, who was also made a 'junior partner', and later delivered Eidos Storm's only salvation in the form of Deus Ex.

And please don't be too concerned for the independent developers I work with... just like with GodGames, and like the deal I struck for you with Eidos, Gamecock owns their IP and is branded above the publisher on everything, and has a great royalty rate. Royalty rates are what you make if you actually make a game that is good and sells. Remember Quake one?

I'm also grateful for your concern over my incessant partying, which has somehow led me to be married to the same beautiful woman for 17 years now, while raising two incredible daughters together. You should maybe try the partying, since your unparalleled work ethic and strong character has (just in the time I've known you) left only a bloody trail of ex-wives, fatherless kids, and ill advised breast implants strewn across this fair nation, even before you flew all the way to Romania for your latest wife. If she's not still around, let me know, and I'll see if I can pick another one up for you here in Russia.

Its been great catching up, but I'm off to dinner now with Harry Miller, my best friend and business partner for the past decade (ever had one of those, John?), and our very happy new investor, followed by some crazy partying to keep it real, just for you.

You take care now, and remember just because id, Eidos, and then Midway fired you doesn't mean you're not still awesome!

Suck it down,

Your pal Mike"


Wow burn! So just out of interest any other fights of this kind that anyone has enjoyed reading?
 

VmprHntrD

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Hooahh heehehehahahahaha awesome. Romero always to me came off as a nitwit even back in iD's glory days for sure. The true early 90s computer game braggart douchebag type trying to live a rep off a successful game and it's buddy sequel (DOOM) and so forth. I recall at Midway remembering vaguely a few comments on that guy being a bit of a douchebag, flake, and not completely in control of would be considered normal (even normal for gaming people.)

Nice burn there seriously. I mean what the hell is Romero doing much anyways today? That ass tried to slam this guy who appears to have been the one sense of balance that was at Ion Storm saying 'do not do this and that' and numbnuts and crew just blew em off, happily acted like idiots, ignored reality and then well Daikatana hit.
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Good for this guy getting away from this moron and building up so many contracts, relationships and companies.

I do think gold old Rick James said seems to fit Romero perfect: "Cocaine, it's one hell of a drug."
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CockroachMan

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OWNED!

Romero hasn't done anything good since he left iD.. today we can see that Carmack was the real genius there (and still is).

And for Mike Wilson, well.. Gamecock is making some decent games and there are some promising ones in the horizon.. what the hell is John Romero doing!?
 

Hadrian

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Romero is doing mobile phone games like Orcs & Elves 1 & 2, Doom RPG and his next game is reimagining of Wolfenstein for the mobile phone and DS so erm living off past glories! Though I do admit that on the mobile they work well but on the DS Orcs & Elves fell a bit short.

I have a lot of respect for Mike, because of him and his hype machine Dementium: The Ward did extremely well for a M rated DS game, much more than the likes of Res Evil & Dead 'N furious and Insecticide looks like its gonna be a damn fine game too plus his company seems to give developers the respect and their games get a chance to get known.
 

VmprHntrD

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^^Hey now don't give that shitstain credit for that excellent game that is Orcs & Elves. That was the work of his old partner in crime back in the 90s John Carmack.

Doing as fast peek at Wikipedia that loser Romero he's had quite the checkered past loaded with semi-varying levels of failure going on for a time now. Summarizing starting with leaving iD he went into Ion Storm to make the ever delayed, panned, and barely ever broke even on losses Daikatana. Then onto his company before failing into closing put out Anachronox which was from his old partner from iD days Tom Hall. Then into the 00's it gets worse...with trying to comeback with Monkeystone Games and his one hit wonder Hyperspace Delivery Boy(I played it, was decent) and then two pieces of shovelware one for N-Gage. Then he was melded into Midway Games, then gobbled up axing business #2 and in that time worked on an Area 51 game and then Gauntlet which he quit on like 3mo before it went to stores. Opened up business #3 Slipgate Ironworks and promises some amazingly massive multiplayer online game and snarked on Midway saying he was better off w/out them. He promises for 2 years (05-07) not to release info about the MMO until 07...well it's 08 now. Along side that in Dec06 goes public about some new FPS game that's a multiplayer FPS and built off tech from the still not a joke like him iD Software.

That's where he stands today... 2 failed businesses since leaving iD, multiple failures in gaming, and then now into making promises and delivering dick in return from 2005-present. Yes he is one we should all look up to.
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Hadrian

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Yeah I was just thinking last night that it was John Carmack behind Fountainhead.
 

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