Wherever Derek Smart goes, trouble soon follows. Don’t know who Derek Smart is? You’re lucky. Derek Smart is a game designer and producer, known more for his self-deluded impressions of his own abilities than any actual product. He has long been known for writing barely readable rants that attack players, the industry, co-workers and investors. He is constantly being sued by someone or something and despite it all, seriously believes he is infallible and that all of his troubles are the result of other people and not his own failings as a person. Derek Smart was responsible for one of the worst games of all time, Battlecruiser 3000, a game that shipped in the 90s that literally did not work, despite years of hype and promises.
Derek Smart is a joke, perhaps the least liked individual in the industry, so it was with great shock and liberal doses of amusement that I recently noticed that Quest Online hired Derek Smart to be their new president, which has to rank up there with BP’s decision not to install safety valves. Quest Online is behind the MMO Alganon, which in its own right is an industry joke because the game was found to be stealing art assets from World of Warcraft, including elements of the interface, with plenty of indications that specific pieces of art had been literally copy-and-pasted. So Derek comes in as president, immediately gets into pissing match with David Allen, then president, which leads to Allen’s firing with Smart assuming the command chair. That was only a few weeks ago.
On April 19th, Derek Smart posted one of his typical rants on his blog, directly aimed at David Allen, who he eventually replaced at Quest Online. I’d post some of it here but Derek is already threatening to sue people who repost it, so follow this link for a good laugh.
So what’s happening now? Now it has been discovered that Quest Online is stealing Press Releases and not even bothering to re-write any words, as discovered by F13 and KittenRats.
Remember this statement from the Alganon press release? Note it is dated Wednesday, April 28, 2010.
“Traditionally, massively multiplier 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. To top it all off, we’re not done yet. A whole new adventure with new updates will follow soon, starting with a consignment house, new classes, PvP and much more.”
Now check out this statement from the SWTOR folks, dated October 21, 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. To top it all off, Star Wars: The Old Republic is set in a very exciting, dynamic period in the Star Wars universe.”
Derek Smart has this to say: “While I’m certain that there is a reasonable explanation for the similarities in the releases, I simply do not want to speculate but only to say that we are going to investigate this tomorrow.” Smart says he will issue an official statement sometime next week “once I have all the facts.”
Keep on keeping on, Derek, at least your behind-the-scenes antics are more entertaining than your games. A couple more failures under your belt and you’ll be ready to transition into banking, where you’ll finally be richly rewarded for incompetence.
