Derek Smart and ex-Alganon employees butt heads

Ok ... i'll be short: People, you are putting your faith in the hands of a con-artist. This is the very same person who claimed had a PHD. HE WAS DEBUNKED time and time again. How can anybody expect honesty and good outcome from this guy?

Just because he openly said his criticisms and his thoughts,does it make it automaticaly right? Lol,i mean...people say "he was open and honest" as if this makes his words and claims valid. And besides that, he lied his way out in the past.He still is blaming others for his problems. Again, what can you expect from a person like this?

Unfortunately, Derek Smart's history is well documented. His forays in usenet are legendary, as is his historical twisting of

facts to suit his purposes. His usenet wars with Bill Huffman and the enormous number of space-sim and strategic game fans

that despised his ego-thumping antics, his use of sockpuppets WarHawk and SupremeCmdr on Wikipedia and his subsequent banning

from that site, his constant spewing of vitriol and hatred, and turning personal battles into public flamewars, is the

ultimate expression of infantile behavior.

His enormous ego (how many other game developers flaunt imaginary PHD theses to Boot Magazine as 'published and listed' only

to admit, years later, to Ed Bain that he got his degree from a diploma mill listed in Dr John Bear's influential book on PHD

Fraud?) is the root behind his statements about his bank accounts (BTW, he was wholly financed by his wealthy mother and

supposed 'consulting' assignments back in the 80's when he developed 'AILOG' for his Battlecruiser title. It should be noted

though, that Take 2 indicated in filed public SEC statements that they paid Mr. Smart's company 3000AD the sum of $618.000

towards BC3k, and his later deal with Interplay undoubtedly netted him some positive cashflow) and other 'chest thumping'

fantasies.

Derek is quick to bash the tools introduced by the Alganon team, but he himself harped for years about 'technologies' and

'tools' that were so super-secret that he wouldn't let Take 2 see his code or reveal his PHD thesis when challenged on it's

authenticity because it would impair his ability to cash in on these tools and technologies on future titles. He talked about

licensing these technologies in many a post, so his decrying of the possibility of monetizing tools designed for a specific

application is quite eye-opening.

Derek's lies, scams, and falshoods began in the mid 90's - the first one on record, for instance - he claimed that Take 2

released the game (BattleCruiser 3000) unfinished in 1996, and this was the reason for the fiasco of its release (voted one

of the dumbest moments in gaming, and quite possible receiving the worst review of a major release in computer gaming

history). While it is true in a 'literal' sense that Take 2 released it unfinished, what Derek does NOT tell you is that he

claimed, for about 6 months, that the reason for the disaster was that they released the 'wrong' version, and that he had a

fully playable version on his server. Of course, this was quickly exposed as the first of many, many falsehoods that Derek

promulgated onto the community. The fact of the matter was, that Derek, just like David Allen, promised for years that

'almost there almost there almost there' until finally, fed up with his inability to meet a production schedule, Take 2

released the steaming pile to the public. And Derek asked fans not to return the game, to be patient, that the 'wrong

version' was released, that the 'manual is ready, just going through some final changes, will be out in a month', etc etc ad

nauseum, and that the only way to save his reputation (though most would argue he failed) was to work tirelessly - for years

- patching and fixing the game.

A quick review of Google News, the repository at follies.werewolves.org, the wiki talk pages (for example,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Talk:Derek_Smart/Archive3 ) etc will show the levels that Derek's dementia has taken him. By a

conservative account, he has made about 50,000 posts to forums and usenet. Considering that each post takes him a few minutes

(lets say, 2 - some take longer, some are 2 liners, but this is probably a fair average) he has spent about 100,000 minutes

writing his diatribes. Now, thats something like 1666 hours - with that much time investment, perhaps he could have written a

respected title by now.

But all he excels at is his hate filled fantasy spewing.