Brad Wardell of Stardock is making legal trouble for the original creators of Star Control (settled)

flyinj · Jun 12, 2019

blackw0lf48 said:
Honestly this sounds pretty good. They're even going to support each other in future games development. From Ford and Reiche

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/06/12/star-control-lawfight-settled-by-bees/

Also people should really get Origins, it has some great writing.

Honestly I won't buy anything created by someone who is a proud member of an anti-woman hate group and the fact that Rieche is volunteering his writing talents to help bring profits to a despicable shit head like Brad Wardell gets a serious side eye from me.

Shaneus · Jun 12, 2019

BetterOffEd said:
While I hope Reiche's contributions are minimal, it would not surprise me if he'll be adding aliens (or allowing the use of some UQM species) and writing the tie-ins that explain how SC:O and UQM are parts of a single multiverse or something, which could be an entertaining read. I don't doubt that Reiche enjoyed many aspects of SCO

All of this is literally covered in the link I posted directly from Paul and Fred's blog a few posts up. It addresses things some other people have mentioned too, I don't know why no one else seems to have read it :/

Adree · Jun 12, 2019

It is beyond strange hearing all the bee talk when one of the first instances I heard of Wardell being an utter shit was him bringing drone bees into the workplace and throwing them at allergic people.

Dandy · Jun 12, 2019

blackw0lf48 said:
Also people should really get Origins, it has some great writing.

I was planning on getting Origins prior to all this nonsense but even then I had serious reservations because of Wardell's past behavior and affiliations. After this? It's almost guaranteed I can't every bring myself to buy it or any other Stardock product again.

blackw0lf48 said:
I understand and sympathize with your anger. But there's a lot of talented people that worked on that game. And I'm not sure it's fair that they suffer for the sins of Brad.

It's a tough call though.

I mean... Talented people work everywhere. I choose to support those that don't work for an absolute asshole.

spman2099 · Jun 12, 2019

blackw0lf48 said:
Honestly this sounds pretty good. They're even going to support each other in future games development. From Ford and Reiche

It benefits a monster, and encourages him to maintain his current shitty behavior. So, in my eyes, it is very far from being a good thing.

blackw0lf48 said:
Also people should really get Origins, it has some great writing.

Provide me with a way to purchase it that will guarantee that Wardell doesn't receive a single hay penny (or an ounce of satisfaction) and I will consider it. Until then, there are few games that I would avoid more thoroughly. Maybe once Wardell dies I will give it a go...

Shaneus · Jun 12, 2019

spman2099 said:
Provide me with a way to purchase it that will guarantee that Wardell doesn't receive a single hay penny (or an ounce of satisfaction) and I will consider it. Until then, there are few games that I would avoid more thoroughly. Maybe once Wardell dies I will give it a go...

One of the laughable things is that they were giving keys away for it (choose betweein SCO and two others) with AMD cards last year at some point, and even that didn't show an uptick in online players or average playtime.

Frankie Williamson · Jun 13, 2019

blackw0lf48 said:
Also people should really get Origins, it has some great writing.

As someone insane enough that throughout my life I've owned 3 separate models of 3DO so I could play Star Control 2 whenever I wanted when each previous model broke or died, I didn't like Origins at all.

It took every gameplay beat from SC2 and made them clunkier, more cumbersome and a complete chore to play. The planet landing stuff is fucking egregious and motoring around the surface of worlds is almost on par with the MAKO from Mass Effect in how little fun it is to get caught on ever bump on the planet. The fact that no species has unique weapons and they all pull from a pool of different samey weapons is really bad too.

That's without how much I dislike Brad Wardell and in proxy, Stardock on top of that. I hate that I was a founder for that game and I didn't like the result.

garion333 · Jun 13, 2019

Adree said:
It is beyond strange hearing all the bee talk when one of the first instances I heard of Wardell being an utter shit was him bringing drone bees into the workplace and throwing them at allergic people.

Jeez, that's one I hadn't heard yet.

Shaneus · Jun 15, 2019

Finally some visible results that stem from the resolution:

https://www.reddit.com/r/starcontrol/comments/c0snuv/fwiffo_is_a_free_spathi/

Herr Starr · Jun 20, 2019

I just got an email from Stardock about a new patch to their Star Control: Origins game. Among other things, one of the changes in the patch is that the Observers race is now called the Arilou and is getting their ship names changed to reflect this, which I assume means they'll be called Arilou Skiffs from now on.

It's starting to sound like the two companies have made some kind of lore change to make both games officially exist within the same setting, perhaps as alternate universes.