That review was written by "Jason Scott". Scroll down that review to post 41 to see what kind of person he is. I'm not saying he's factually incorrect (since I can't verify his claims), but he certainly does _not_ have an unbiased and objective view of the subject.
I don't see him as taking sides in the debate between Wiebe/Mitchell so much as refuting the way in which the events were portrayed, which, as pointed out elsewhere here, is a very valid statement.
Scott's opinions were clearly (and more intelligently) posted in his actual blog posts - what you quoted above is just him falling for trollbait, really. The previous comment (#40) basically calls him petty for pointing out that the film was heavily edited to show a story, not to provide a literal documentation of what happened. This just had the side effect of causing much of that particular community to shun other filmmakers interested in the subject, which effectively shut out unrelated works such as one Jason had planned, hence the professional vitriol.
I will say that the man prides himself on his documentaries (which are quite well made, with very careful documentation and respect for the subjects), and I can see how a work such as KoK might bristle him, especially with some (apparent) confusion on the part of some of his readers.
This wasn't so much a review as a commentary on what's wrong (in one man's eyes) with the work; I can't see where the bias is unjustified in that regard. If he said something like "Billy is my man, there's no way blah blah..." I could see the validity here.
All that being said, I enjoyed KoK for its story. Maybe it should have just waited for the movie script to be picked up, and run with the whole "inspired by true events" line that most movies use, but then some people take competitions like these way more seriously than I.
Actually, HotU is rather dilligent about enforcing it's policy of not offering games that are still for sale. They have removed all games currently held under copyright by the IDSA, to boot. While it tiptoes on the border of illegality, it provides a service for finding games that have slipped through the cracks over the years. If someone wants to enforce their IP, they need only contact the owner and the link disappears, replaced by a link to stores selling the title.
Unlike the warez sites out there, they really do try to be honest. Just try and request a game on their forum and see what happens if you don't believe me.:)
Quoted:
"Home of the Underdogs is a non-profit site dedicated to the preservation and promotion of underrated PC games (and a few non-PC games) of all ages: good games that deserve a second chance after dismal sales or critical reviews that we feel are unwarranted. By nature, our criteria for choosing games to be honored here are subjective. However, we believe that our collective experience (many of us started gaming in late 1970s) allows us to be confident of our choices: we've played many of the best and worst games ever made. Therefore, we believe that our "Top Dog" tag signifies a truly remarkable classic, while at the other end of the spectrum our "Real Dog" tag signifies marginal underdogs we think you really should avoid (most of them are here only because a number of visitors pleaded us for them, anyway [EG]).
Although the site is non-profit in that we will never charge anyone for anything, we do need to pay hefty server costs every month to ensure decent download and access speeds. To that end, we unfortunately need to place banners on the site to cover these costs. These banners are mostly pay-per-impression, so you don't need to click on them (although we'd appreciate any clicks as they lead to higher payout rates and better ad campaigns). We are sorry for this inconvenience, and we thank you for your support.
Home of the Underdogs, while not an abandonware site per se (since our aim is to pay tribute to all underdogs, both new and old), supports the abandonware idea. We believe that providing games that have been abandoned by their publishers, while technically illegal, is a valuable service to the gaming community because these games are in danger of disappearing into obscurity, and their copyright holders no longer derive any revenues from them. For more information on our stance on abandonware, please read this section of our FAQ.
One of the larger goals behind Home of the Underdogs is to make it a friendly and dynamic community of classic game collectors, oldies lovers, game designers, and anyone else interested in the history of PC computer games; to be a place for sharing nostalgia, ideas, and information on underrated games. To this end, everyone is welcome to interact with the site via the "Community" subsection in the left-hand menu bar, where you can sign our Guestbook, join in various discussions in our Forum, or contribute to the site.
We also belong to the group of "die-hard" gamers who long for the golden days of PC gaming, when games were more original and fun to play than today's hordes of mundane, "me-too" titles marketed by businessmen who abhors risking the corporate purse strings on innovative but unproven titles. We long for the days when designers were treated as "artistes" of their medium, entrepreneurial pioneers who worked without the fears of not meeting a Christmas deadline or making games that aren't compatible with 3D cards. We hope that games featured on this site will help inspired a new generation of game designers to reach back into the past and rediscover what great games are truly made of. To that end, we are honored to host the Scratchware Manifesto, a statement of purpose written by several designers who are dismayed with the state of today's gaming industry. We encourage everyone to read it and spread the word around:) "
Slashdot Mirror
That review was written by "Jason Scott". Scroll down that review to post 41 to see what kind of person he is. I'm not saying he's factually incorrect (since I can't verify his claims), but he certainly does _not_ have an unbiased and objective view of the subject.
I don't see him as taking sides in the debate between Wiebe/Mitchell so much as refuting the way in which the events were portrayed, which, as pointed out elsewhere here, is a very valid statement.
Scott's opinions were clearly (and more intelligently) posted in his actual blog posts - what you quoted above is just him falling for trollbait, really. The previous comment (#40) basically calls him petty for pointing out that the film was heavily edited to show a story, not to provide a literal documentation of what happened. This just had the side effect of causing much of that particular community to shun other filmmakers interested in the subject, which effectively shut out unrelated works such as one Jason had planned, hence the professional vitriol.
I will say that the man prides himself on his documentaries (which are quite well made, with very careful documentation and respect for the subjects), and I can see how a work such as KoK might bristle him, especially with some (apparent) confusion on the part of some of his readers.
This wasn't so much a review as a commentary on what's wrong (in one man's eyes) with the work; I can't see where the bias is unjustified in that regard. If he said something like "Billy is my man, there's no way blah blah..." I could see the validity here.
All that being said, I enjoyed KoK for its story. Maybe it should have just waited for the movie script to be picked up, and run with the whole "inspired by true events" line that most movies use, but then some people take competitions like these way more seriously than I.
Actually, HotU is rather dilligent about enforcing it's policy of not offering games that are still for sale. They have removed all games currently held under copyright by the IDSA, to boot. While it tiptoes on the border of illegality, it provides a service for finding games that have slipped through the cracks over the years. If someone wants to enforce their IP, they need only contact the owner and the link disappears, replaced by a link to stores selling the title.
:)
:) "
Unlike the warez sites out there, they really do try to be honest. Just try and request a game on their forum and see what happens if you don't believe me.
Quoted:
"Home of the Underdogs is a non-profit site dedicated to the preservation and promotion of underrated PC games (and a few non-PC games) of all ages: good games that deserve a second chance after dismal sales or critical reviews that we feel are unwarranted. By nature, our criteria for choosing games to be honored here are subjective. However, we believe that our collective experience (many of us started gaming in late 1970s) allows us to be confident of our choices: we've played many of the best and worst games ever made. Therefore, we believe that our "Top Dog" tag signifies a truly remarkable classic, while at the other end of the spectrum our "Real Dog" tag signifies marginal underdogs we think you really should avoid (most of them are here only because a number of visitors pleaded us for them, anyway [EG]).
Although the site is non-profit in that we will never charge anyone for anything, we do need to pay hefty server costs every month to ensure decent download and access speeds. To that end, we unfortunately need to place banners on the site to cover these costs. These banners are mostly pay-per-impression, so you don't need to click on them (although we'd appreciate any clicks as they lead to higher payout rates and better ad campaigns). We are sorry for this inconvenience, and we thank you for your support.
Home of the Underdogs, while not an abandonware site per se (since our aim is to pay tribute to all underdogs, both new and old), supports the abandonware idea. We believe that providing games that have been abandoned by their publishers, while technically illegal, is a valuable service to the gaming community because these games are in danger of disappearing into obscurity, and their copyright holders no longer derive any revenues from them. For more information on our stance on abandonware, please read this section of our FAQ.
One of the larger goals behind Home of the Underdogs is to make it a friendly and dynamic community of classic game collectors, oldies lovers, game designers, and anyone else interested in the history of PC computer games; to be a place for sharing nostalgia, ideas, and information on underrated games. To this end, everyone is welcome to interact with the site via the "Community" subsection in the left-hand menu bar, where you can sign our Guestbook, join in various discussions in our Forum, or contribute to the site.
We also belong to the group of "die-hard" gamers who long for the golden days of PC gaming, when games were more original and fun to play than today's hordes of mundane, "me-too" titles marketed by businessmen who abhors risking the corporate purse strings on innovative but unproven titles. We long for the days when designers were treated as "artistes" of their medium, entrepreneurial pioneers who worked without the fears of not meeting a Christmas deadline or making games that aren't compatible with 3D cards. We hope that games featured on this site will help inspired a new generation of game designers to reach back into the past and rediscover what great games are truly made of. To that end, we are honored to host the Scratchware Manifesto, a statement of purpose written by several designers who are dismayed with the state of today's gaming industry. We encourage everyone to read it and spread the word around