Is Matrix Games attacking Battlefront.com?

[mission41]

Hi everyone, my name is Craig and I do PR for a small mobile games publisher. Anyway, there is something that's been racking my brain lately.

There seems to have been alot of unwarranted attacks in the forums here against Battlefront.com recently. Is Matrix Games at all anyway behind these efforts? Im just wondering because Matrix appears to have been doing some unethical things lately. I got an email about a week or so ago from Curtis, the former editor of Wargamer. He said Matrix was doing some shady deals behind the scenes with a few gaming publications. He spoke about 1 secret group in particular which seems to have been labeled the Groginati? Does anyone know anything about this? Is this true? Found this logo...

http://bayonetgames.com/blogart/groginatigray.jpg

I have dealt with Slitherine and Matrix a few times in the past and my experiences werent always pleasent. Ive heard some nasty things about them from others concerning ugly business practices, so I wouldnt be surprised if this were true.

[Redwolf]

It's a bit hard to disect what's happening. I wouldn't blindly assume that the wargamer.com leadership is 100% aligned with Matrix leadership (yes I know about the people involvement).

Currently BFC takes from Flak because of the payed-for upgrade which is to be expected. It was bound to have some people not like it and they want an outlet. Since neither this forum nor GS had bashing of this going on they might all have arrived at wargamer.com's forum simply because there aren't that many forums.

BFC has a policy that you can bash matrix on the BFC forums and you can't bash BFC on matrixgames.com, but wargamer.com could have more of a free speech approach.

If you are talking about something specific I think you'd have to give a better link than that picture. What the heck, anyway?

[Mord]

BFC has a policy that you can bash matrix on the BFC forums and you can't bash BFC on matrixgames.com, but wargamer.com could have more of a free speech approach.

Where's that stated?

Mord.

[ChrisND]

Where's that stated?

Isn't it obvious? The mirror universe where Spock has a goatee.

[mission41]

BFC has a policy that you can bash matrix on the BFC forums and you can't bash BFC on matrixgames.com, but wargamer.com could have more of a free speech approach.

Where is this stated?

I think your mistaken about wargamer.com. That forum is censored of anything that criticizes Matrix or Slitherine products as far as what Ive seen.

[Yeknodathon]

Blimey, we are under the slavitude of Battlefreptiloids...

[Doug Williams]

Weak 1st post, Craig.

[Wodin]

Well I know enough..it doesn't take much working out what forum is associated with bayonet games (well one of their administrators runs baynot games) and I could name the handles of the main individuals that this could pertain to. Saying that this is the second attempt here to bring this up and as far as I know I'm the only person who comes here who has spoken out about this group and I have been told they've already petitioned in person no less for my removal from Matrix forum I wouldn't be surprised if the last two posts where actually trying to goad me into saying something so then I could be banned here. As for deals behind the scenes what business doesn't? As for the group, who cares about them..I don't and I no longer am bothered about what they say or do, when one says that Chris Ryan should come around and kick your head in you really can't take them seriously plus pathetic attempts at trying to get you done for piracy and banned from a forum they never post in themselves, they are children, naughty ones at that and I hope Father Christmas wiped them from his list..lol. Not that this really matters to most but they pounce the hardest if anything remotely anti Israel is mentioned.

[mission41]

Well I know enough..it doesn't take much working out what forum is associated with bayonet games (well one of their administrators runs baynot games) and I could name the handles of the main individuals that this could pertain to. Saying that this is the second attempt here to bring this up and as far as I know I'm the only person who comes here who has spoken out about this group and I have been told they've already petitioned in person no less for my removal from Matrix forum I wouldn't be surprised if the last two posts where actually trying to goad me into saying something so then I could be banned here. As for deals behind the scenes what business doesn't? As for the group, who cares about them..I don't and I no longer am bothered about what they say or do, when one says that Chris Ryan should come around and kick your head in you really can't take them seriously plus pathetic attempts at trying to get you done for piracy and banned from a forum they never post in themselves, they are children, naughty ones at that and I hope Father Christmas wiped them from his list..lol. Not that this really matters to most but they pounce the hardest if anything remotely anti Israel is mentioned.

Thats what Curtis said too. This group petitioned Matrix to get rid of him. I guess they threatened to do bad reviews of Matrix products if Matrix didnt remove the editor.

[Doug Williams]

Computer wargaming insider infighting politics?

It doesn't get any more weaksauce than this.

[mission41]

This is what Curtis' email said, for those who didnt get it. Also along with this came a notarized affidavit sworn statement of what he says here. He warns the next editor to be weary of this group. Am I the next victim?

My recollection of events as Editor-in-Chief of The Wargamer (www.wargamer.com)

My acceptance of the job offer as Editor-in-Chief of The Wargamer (www.wargamer.com) in early May of 2012 was an exciting moment for me. I had the opportunity to take hold of a community that cherished something I enjoyed. But the more I invested my efforts into the publication and the community the more I realized how much attention it deserved, as it was in great disrepair and the morale of its members was unsatisfactory. The Wargamer lacked an identity, and any identity that it had had was all but gone by the time I took the helm. I wanted to recreate this identity but fell just short of the goal when I was removed from my post as editor. My removal was a cover-up of the highest order, something the wargaming community has likely never seen before.

I immediately took action the day I was brought on. After an introduction to the small, but well experienced, writer team I began looking for more talent. I quickly began establishing an organized system of how to manage this writer team with schedules, assignments, due dates, improved game review copy access and other fundamentals. I’m sure the writers began to get a sense that I meant business—I had been warned by some not to work too hard as I may end up burning myself out. Some writers, who had remained dormant for quite some time, were again putting words on paper in support of a hobby they enjoyed.

During all of this, stories of The Wargamer’s past filtered in, and stints of previous writers/editors were told to me with an aroma of foul play on the part of Matrix Games/Slitherine. I refused to accept this reality, but soon found it to be so. This motivated me to, nearly simultaneously after my hiring, confront Matrix Games/Slitherine management concerning an issue I found to be a vital concern for any publication. It concerned impartiality and the censorship and screening of articles published by The Wargamer about Matrix Games/Slitherine products. This was a circumstance I refused to accept and, being an editor/writer of dignity and principle, disagreed with wholeheartedly. I requested that they discontinue doing any such thing. The answer to my woes by Matrix Games/Slitherine management was no better than a remark of them wanting to, “have one’s cake and eat it too.”

Matrix Games/Slitherine management refused any attempt by myself to maintain impartiality between The Wargamer and their products. I was required to submit every article about their products to both the Slitherine development department and the marketing department for screening and editing. All articles were stripped of criticisms they saw as “too harsh” and articles were adjusted for “fact checking.” My eagerness to immediately confront this unbelievable dilemma had subsequently led to me being called a “traitor” by members of management. My quest for honesty and impartiality led to me being labeled as “working for the other side”—the side of honesty and integrity I suppose. As an editor of a wargaming publication I did not see my willingness to prevent this censoring on the part of Matrix/Slitherine as an issue, as I saw it as a duty. I did not see myself as an employee of the game publisher, but rather an employee of The Wargamer community as much as the publisher tried to skew this.

The issue of impartiality was something I held dear. In all actuality, it (surprisingly) influenced and accelerated the departure of a few writers who had written for the publication for some time, but who dare not give an honest opinion about Matrix Games/Slitherine products. These few writers refused to uphold The Wargamer’s impartiality, folding to the will of management and the influence of Matrix Games/Slitherine. I also learned that strong avenues of communication were maintained by the management and these, and other various writers, within the wargaming niche, possibly to prevent poor reviews, or reviews of honest opinions. Perhaps these writers are successfully influenced in such a way for fear of retaliation by the company through various means and methods (which are many). Is a writer who writes a review of a game, under duress of a game publisher, actually reviewing it? No. Whatever the by-product is, it’s not honest and is completely unethical.

The knowledge of the above procedure I kept to myself, for the most part. I did not share it with the writers, moderators or other members of The Wargamer staff for one very important reason: morale. Morale and belief in the publication was low as it was, and the last thing I wanted to do was to make it any lower. I downplayed Matrix Games/Slitherine’s influence over The Wargamer to The Wargamer’s staff for the benefit of the community. What else was I to do? It was their way or the highway. I do want to apologize for withholding this information, but I saw it as a necessary evil at that moment and time. The censorship of the articles was something too unbelievable for me to bear, and I tried as hard as possible not to concentrate on it any further; I had already done what I could to prevent it. However, even considering this censorship, I was given much responsibility of the publication (rather, attained it out of abandonment by others) and this was shown through what I was able to achieve during my short tenure.

A few other unforgettable decisions made by the company concerning The Wargamer that are noteworthy were that Steam was not to be mentioned on The Wargamer’s homepage any longer. Steam is seen a direct competitor with the Matrix Games/Slitherine way of doing business, and its removal from The Wargamer’s news and articles entirely was something they did not think twice about—regardless of how many wargames are actually marketed through Steam. The fact that they own The Wargamer (a wargame publication) was something that obviously didn’t take precedence as concerns to Matrix Games/Slitherine’s business model, a shamelessness to sell products. Another decision I disagreed with was the non-mentioning of any FPS (first-person shooter) or TPS (third-person shooter) games on The Wargamer, regardless of the article’s content or the approach taken by the writer about the game. Board game/miniatures articles were to be scaled back to about one article a month (total) as well.

But the event of the past few weeks took this censorship to a new level after poor reviews were found about one of their most recent titles. Forum threads had been created by Matrix Games/Slitherine management with titles like: “Strange but true – we are under attack.” We were all told someone had created false accounts to berate the scores of a recently released title of Matrix Games/Slitherine, Commander – The Great War, on Metacritic and Gamespot. Unfortunate circumstances indeed as these were apparently false reviews, an immature act on the part of the perpetrator. But the announcement soon evolved into something I really don’t want to ever see again. This extravaganza quickly turned into a witch hunt of the highest order, not to be overlooked by CEOs who vowed to produce a bounty in the thousands of pounds for the head of the said perpetrator:

(HERE Post 22)

“All, some of you may have already seen posts on this bizarre affair, this malicious attack on one of the hardest working development teams in the business is both disgraceful and unfair. So, what can be done to balance the scales:-).Well here goes, If anyone can provide credible information, sent to me privately, that leads to the identification of this individual, I will personally pay a reward of £1000 and at no stage whatsoever will the identity of our aspiring Internet sleuth be revealed

Good Hunting

JD McNeil

Slitherine/Matrix”

Personally, I found the whole melodrama to be ironic: isn’t the perpetrator doing no worse than what Matrix Games/Slitherine has been doing at The Wargamer for the past three years? A false review, whether too good or too bad, is of poor taste nonetheless. As a writer, editor, an American and a proponent of free speech, such things within this small niche we call the “wargaming niche” really pinch a nerve.

Has it come to this? Has the niche become a place that welcomes the chastisement and hunt down, reminiscent of the McCarthy Era, of anyone who criticizes any product published by Matrix Games/Slitherine? It appears so; or it seems the circumstances prove that we are headed in that direction. The influence certain members of the company have over several publications that review their products is alarming to anyone who holds an opinion.

But it doesn’t stop there. I was promised the opportunity for a raise to a full-time Editor-in-Chief position, which would have occurred this Christmas, just two weeks prior to me being forced to resign. My termination came out of the blue, and the circumstances were even harder to believe.

I was told upon my termination that:

1) Management at Matrix Games/Slitherine had received emails from a “secret” group of aficionados at Grogheads (www.grogheads.com), explaining that I was the sole reason why they left The Wargamer.

2) Aficionados and members of the Grogheads community are customers, and potential customers, of Matrix Games/Slitherine.

For the people who sent these emails, I can therefore make these assumptions/observations:

1) They were either management and/or dedicated members of Grogheads since its beginning (members of Grogheads before my appointment as E-in-C, which was founded in Feb. 2012).

a. A number of them received warnings or were on the receiving end of forum disciplinary actions from myself for attempting to ruin the fragile The Wargamer community through the forums for using: foul language, personal attacks, trolling, duplicate accounts, etc… Or, they were friends of people who received such disciplinary action.

b. Having thrown in their lot at Grogheads, an active and productive Editor-in-Chief at The Wargamer would have not helped or encouraged their newly found community. I was a threat.

The motivations of the perpetrators are apparent, but were their actions fueled by grudges towards someone trying to rebuild a community that they abandoned months before? It’s difficult to diagnose for certain and I have no definite answer for this.

The “friend” aspect is one I found to be contradictory and alarming in many ways. A few of the people who sent the emails were indeed former The Wargamer forum moderators, from which I was told. Many of whom had issues enforcing forum rules against friends of theirs, regardless of the offense. A charming and friendly thing to do, sure, but crooked and unethical nonetheless: good friends, but poor moderators. This issue was much more profound and engrossing than I was comfortable with, and I actually found some longtime forum moderators claiming “we are the good guys”, as if the forum was split into cliques and divided by those who thought as the clique did or thought independently of the clique. I, of course, thought independently, and any attempt made to convert me to the clique in question I dismissed. I soon realized, after my appointment as editor, that this had created a corrupt and poisonous atmosphere within The Wargamer forums; one I was out to right. I wanted to rebuild the identity of the website, and replace the one that was lost or that had migrated elsewhere.

This wasn’t easy. I didn’t get any support from Matrix Games/Slitherine, as they didn’t understand my conundrum and were clearly focused on publishing games and publishing favorable reviews. I also received little support from the community initially. The support I did receive came from those who did not have power, but who gradually became influential over time. I suppose they were nearly frightened to speak out because of potential repercussions from those who maintained other wargaming communities. I did, however, receive much support from other gaming companies, as they noticed the work I was doing and the opportunities I was creating for them.

In addition to the unfavorable atmosphere in which I began my work, the moderators of The Wargamer that were running the show when I took the position didn’t really give me the light of day and resigned. It so happened that the two initial moderators of The Wargamer forums were also moderators over at Grogheads as well. It seemed they had thrown in their lot at the new Grogheads months before I became editor, and I would thus assume that rebuilding The Wargamer was simply contradictory to these efforts and interests. I was told by one of them about the existence of “private rooms” within the Grogheads’ forums and the nature of the communications within. I was also called several names and received threats that I was to lose my job as they were going to “go straight to Slitherine.” I thought nothing of the threats as I knew I was on the right track, and I had nothing to be ashamed of. But I didn’t realize at that time what these threats would materialize into. I didn’t understand fully the connection/influence aficionados of other wargaming publications had over Matrix Games/Slitherine and, thus, The Wargamer.

After I was told by Matrix Games/Slitherine management that they received these emails, and who they were from, I was then told that these are Matrix Games/Slitherine customers and potential customers. I was told that my work, of uncorrupting The Wargamer community, was “upsetting the Matrix Games/Slitherine customer base”. Whatever else was fabricated in these emails is difficult to tell, but one can assume it was quite substantial considering that it led to my dismissal regardless of the results I was producing.

Perhaps the afionados at Grogheads may have threatened to either not publish reviews of Matrix Games/Slitherine titles, or publish poor reviews of their titles? Knowing the obsession Matrix Games/Slitherine management has about favorable reviews and censorship, such a threat would be very influential and certainly encourage any decision by them to remove me from my post. Why would Matrix Games/Slitherine want an Editor-in-Chief that doesn’t want to publish censored articles? I was a proponent of impartiality, and therefore a direct threat to their advertising and product sales. But my quest for impartiality as a manager of a publication had little, if any, influence over my forced resignation. The impartiality issue, as mentioned previously, was discussed immediately after me being hired. Again, I did lose that debate.

I was hired as the Editor-in-Chief of The Wargamer, not the Public Relations Manager of Matrix Games/Slitherine—the current (as I write this memo) Editor-in-Chief of The Wargamer, to the best of my knowledge, is also the Public Relations Manager of Matrix Games/Slitherine. As Editor-in-Chief I did my job to the best of my ability, regardless of what I was up against (which happened to be more than I could have even imagined). After my termination I was/am deeply concerned about the many game publishers, designers and developers I had built connections with and made promises with for the near future. I am uncertain if these will be fulfilled or not. I am also worried about the writers: especially those who fancy board games, miniatures and FPS/TPS titles. I am also deeply concerned about the future of The Wargamer community as a whole, which happens to be the most paramount innocent victim in all of this. The future of the site seems uncertain. My suggestion is to those who assume my former position that: they should not use any sort of forum disciplinary action (under any circumstance) against those who have influence/control at competing wargaming publications for fear of severe professional retaliation.

Whatever happens, I hope this group gets whats do to them. I wouldn't doubt it if these people were part of the board of directors of Slitherine or Armchair General.

[Doug Williams]

Be "weary"?

Get's whats "do" to them?

[sburke]

I am still wondering what this has to do with CMBN, we getting a special ToE of infighting gamers? I don't recall any such group amongst the KG pulled together to counter MG.

[umlaut]

I really fail to see the point of this thread. I don´t go to either of the sites mentioned and I couldn´t care less about what happened there.

So why post in this forum? If BFC is "under attack" from someone I never heard of in a dispute I never heard about - what am I supposed to do? And why should I care?

[Redwolf]

Steve said several time that although mentioning competitor's products on the BFC forum is OK, trashing them is not.

If you younglings haven't been here long enough to remember one of those posts that isn't my fault

And no, I'm not the DOJ starting files with posts I need to keep for evidence.

[Redwolf]

This is what Curtis' email said, for those who didnt get it. Also along with this came a notarized affidavit sworn statement of what he says here. He warns the next editor to be weary of this group. Am I the next victim?

Whatever happens, I hope this group gets whats do to them. I wouldn't doubt it if these people were part of the board of directors of Slitherine or Armchair General.

Careful now.

There is at least one outright fake rant supposedly by some wargamer.com personality floating around.

[bayonetbrant]

He spoke about 1 secret group in particular which seems to have been labeled the Groginati? Does anyone know anything about this? Is this true? Found this logo...

http://bayonetgames.com/blogart/groginatigray.jpg

Uh yeah - as ill-informed conspiracy nutjob after ill-informed conspiracy nutjob has accused me and my friends of pulling the strings of the entire wargaming world, I thought it would be funny to create the Groginati logo. Glad someone was {redacted} enough to fall for it.

Well I know enough..it doesn't take much working out what forum is associated with bayonet games

Yep. Here I am. And here you are, slinking around the web spreading rumors and innuendo about me and my friends, again. And although I run BayonetGames (which hasn't really done anything in about 4 years) and I am a partner in GrogHeads. I use my server space to occasionally put some humorous images out there for the web.

Saying that this is the second attempt here to bring this up and as far as I know I'm the only person who comes here who has spoken out about this group and I have been told they've already petitioned in person no less for my removal from Matrix forum I wouldn't be surprised if the last two posts where actually trying to goad me into saying something so then I could be banned here.

There is not a single person in GrogHeads management, staff, or ownership who have ever done such a thing. No one is trying to goad you into anything. Quite frankly, we don't need to. Your paranoid ramblings have more than shown your inability to grasp basic facts and your constant "just kidding" or "I'm only saying what I heard" backpedalling demonstrate a clear lack of conviction to state a case and stand by it. I will admit, had I been so thoroughly filleted as you were on Boardgamegeek, I'd be gun-shy, too.

As for the group, who cares about them..I don't and I no longer am bothered about what they say or do

And yet, here you are, in yet another online forum, slagging on me and my friends behind our backs.

plus pathetic attempts at trying to get you done for piracy and banned from a forum they never post in themselves

Again, you have absolutely zero proof that any member of GrogHeads management, staff, or ownership has done any such thing. And I know you don't have the proof, because it never happened and therefore does not exist.

they are children, naughty ones at that and I hope Father Christmas wiped them from his list

Merry Christmas to you, too!

Not that this really matters to most but they pounce the hardest if anything remotely anti Israel is mentioned.

And this is relevant how?

Thats what Curtis said too. This group petitioned Matrix to get rid of him. I guess they threatened to do bad reviews of Matrix products if Matrix didnt remove the editor.

Nope. Never happened. No member of GrogHeads management, staff, or ownership ever said word one to Matrix about Curtis to remove him from Wargamer.com

Quite frankly, we just didn't give a rip. He did his thing. We did ours. We're still here doing ours.

But to suggest that we would ever jeopardize our editorial integrity for any reason, much less an inane one like Curtis's behavior at Wargamer.com is, quite frankly, ludicrous.

Am I the next victim?

Victim of what? Your own paranoid delusional fantasies?

Whatever happens, I hope this group gets whats do to them. I wouldn't doubt it if these people were part of the board of directors of Slitherine or Armchair General.

Really? You have no idea who these people are, what they do, how they earn their living, or what they do for the wargaming community as a whole, and yet you hope they get what's "do" to them?

And if you think any of our management, staff, or ownership are in any way related to Slitherine or ACG, then why don't you put your cards on the table, and name names, if you think you know so much.

But of course, I know you can't. And I know that because I know who they are, and I know that they are absolutely, completely, 100% not the same people.

I will say this about Curtis' rambling 'opus' -

He gets basic open-record verifiable facts wrong. If he's wrong about the stuff you can check through the public record, why would you trust him about the stuff you can't?

[Doug Williams]

This entire thread is.....

[thejetset]

I hope team BF keeps focusing on making great games and not getting involved in weird dramas.

[sfhand]

Just thought I'd get in before the thread is locked...

[Staggerwing]

This entire drama is the result of a disgruntled former Matrix employee who is trying to stir up sympathy for himself and is being perpetuated by some drama queens who have an insatiable need to make everything about themselves. I'm looking at you Wodin...

I have known Brant and the rest of the 'Groginati' (addressed to those who didn't get the joke) for quite some time and I can tell you that the GH staff was not involved with Curtis and his employers in any way. Anyone can log in to the Wargamer or Grogheads and what they read there out in the open is all there is to tell. At this point I'd take the advice of those posting before me and just move on. I have no doubt that once the Gossip Girls see this is no longer a hot powder room topic they will find new things to titter about whilst fixing their hairdoos. The rest of you have war games to discuss.

[sburke]

Just thought I'd get in before the thread is locked...

We keep hoping...... Too bad Steve is probably too busy enjoying Christmas dinner to bother. One hopes he feels completely sated soon and decides to peek at what kind of inane s**t we have come up with now. Boy won't he be surprised, it has nothing to do with MG fire, mortars or the price of an upgrade.

[bayonetbrant]

I hope team BF keeps focusing on making great games and not getting involved in weird dramas.

I absolutely agree. They make great games!

I wish everyone would focus on the games instead of lobbing random accusations around the web and creating drama where none is necessary.

[MikeyD]

It would be suicidal for one game maker to 'go after' another, especially when it come to niche markets. A rising tide raises all boats, you'd want as many people playing as many games as possible. You start souring people on you competitors product you''re likely to sour them on wargaming in general. And then where would you be?

[Redwolf]

Well just for the heck of it. I just remembered this other Matrix bit that once caught my eye:

http://forums.gamesquad.com/showthread.php?107470-Is-Matrix-practicing-competitive-release-timing