quote:

When Lionhead was developing the first Fable game back in the early 2000s, it attracted the attention of a determined group of trolls who managed to snag internal images and a list of planned future games that were never intended for release.

In a BAFTA Games panel discussing the impact of fan communities on the development process (reported by the BBC), ex-Lionhead community chief Sam Van Tilburgh recounted the time the now-shuttered developer fought back.

The person involved managed to steal a number of images, one of which was of the Fable hero stabbing a boy in the head. The image was never intended for release.

The person threatened to leak Lionhead's secrets in a post online. Van Tilburgh spotted the person's internet protocol (IP) address and used it to find out where he lived. It turned out he was 16 years old.

With the help of "a mate", Lionhead's community team obtained the person's schoolwork, including an end of year poem he had recited.

Van Tilburgh posted the first few lines of the poem online, and threatened to tell his mum what he had done.

"There was this little group, and they were called Kibitz," Van Tilburgh said. "They managed to get their hands on some screenshots, one of which was the hero of Fable stabbing a little kid through the head. It was never meant to be released for obvious reasons. But they managed to get their hands on more material unannounced to this day... and they threatened us, the community team, with releasing them.

"We knew where the guy was living and managed to get a hold of the guy's high school record through a mate, including the poem that he had recited at his end of year [class].

"We wrote a public message as Lionhead Studios to the group Kibitz and we started the message with the opening lines of the poem he had recited in high school, and we included the landmark he could see from his house where he lived.

"And I said, 'You have got to stop this now otherwise I pass all this information on to your mum.'"

You'd think Lionhead's anti-troll tactic would run the risk of causing a scandal (the community team only alerted the developer's lawyers to the incident after the fact), but it paid off.

"He kept quiet and he was a very kind polite boy after that," Van Tilburgh said.

"I met him many times after at community events."

Microsoft shut down Lionhead earlier in 2016 and cancelled Fable Legends. Eurogamer published Lionhead's inside story in May.

Foo Diddley posted:

"No really, where is the fun?"

I was baffled

A Neurotic Corncob posted:

A Neurotic Corncob posted:

Mirificus posted:

They managed to get their hands on some screenshots, one of which was the hero of Fable stabbing a little kid through the head.

they threatened us, the community team, with releasing them.

We knew where the guy was living and managed to get a hold of the guy's high school record through a mate, including the poem that he had recited at his end of year [class].

We wrote a public message as Lionhead Studios to the group Kibitz and we started the message with the opening lines of the poem he had recited in high school, and we included the landmark he could see from his house where he lived.

And I said, 'You have got to stop this now otherwise I pass all this information on to your mum.

peter gabriel posted:

Looking forward to 2.6 here gently caress yes!!

peter gabriel posted:

Looking forward to 2.6 here gently caress yes!!

ArfJason posted:

Just a small reminder that the cool chillaxed forum where you can compare subforum history with the latest episode of Luther decided it'd be a hellacious prank to buy me an avatar with an IRL picture of me. Doxxing is bad, and stalking people online all day because they like the wrong videogame (and also for pointing out how hosed up that is) is really really really messed up. Only a truly insane man would do those things.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

A Neurotic Corncob posted:

gumdrops posted:

Probated twice for getting doxxed + saying doxxing is bad.. just lol

gumdrops posted:

Probated twice for getting doxxed + saying doxxing is bad.. just lol

Truga posted:

hosed up if true

Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

Exactly. CIG is not a trustworthy company. Chris and Sandi are not trustworthy people. I suspect both lie to themselves more than anyone else, but they're still liars and frauds. Whatever Star Citizen ends up being, whether that's a lovely over-hyped game or a complete failure, it's not going to be what people want. That's why I requested a refund and finally accepted that there is no hope of anything worthwhile.

Tippis posted:

Can something be hosed down, though?

Tijuana Bibliophile posted:

I would no joke love this

A Neurotic Corncob posted:

Gwaihir posted:

I stopped following this and the previous thread about, like, 40,000 posts ago, but without the election I needed something new to kill brain cells again. Are we doing, like, retro posting or something? I swore you went through the refund saga literally a year ago Beer.

Also jabber misses you.

Beer4TheBeerGod posted:

CIG better have a contingency plan for when people like Erris finally accept that the project is irrevocably broken, that those in charge will never deliver the game of their dreams, and the entire phenomena has devolved into a massive scam. After all this is a guy who justified taking money from a business partner on the grounds that they were being treated unfairly so that they could create their own clone of the competing business. You think someone like that, someone who has literally dedicated their life to a massive failure, won't hesitate to turn around and allocate all of that effort towards vindication? Hell I've been out of the loop for over a year and I'm still willing to throw down to get what's mine.

As for Erris, this post is just another example of the kind of self-delusion that's necessary to maintain a positive attitude towards Star Citizen. Otherwise he'd look at precedent and the historical evidence and accept that CIG doesn't have anything, if they did they would talk about it, and that CIG doesn't do anything the last two weeks of the year so expecting that to change would actually be something new. Then again if he did that he'd also look at how they haven't even provided the SQ42 reveal that was supposed to be days away from release months ago for a game that was supposed to be delivered this year. And maybe then he'd have a bit more self-awareness and demand a refund.

A Neurotic Corncob posted:

D_Smart posted:

https://twitter.com/dsmart/status/809457050728198144

Eldragon posted:

Does this mean the extinction level even has a date and time? Because My "Derek was right" t-shirts are only going to be worth handing out if we can actually put a date on the tombstone.

nopantsjack posted:

I love this thread I'll never leave again