Locking my BattlePack topic

[Mr.X]

I am very very irritated to see my topic locked because an anonymus weirdo named JoMac has claimed that I would sell any of my content of my coming BattlePack.

I don‘t even have a PayPal Account. 
Thank you Battlefront.com for this great reaction. This level of communication is shameful.

Mr.X

 

[Grey_Fox]

It's fairly unusual for somebody to ask for people to register for "pre-orders" of a player-made campaign.

Edited January 22 by Grey_Fox

[Commanderski]

Hope you got everything straightened out. I'm looking forward to its release.

[pintere]

It all sounds like a big misunderstanding more than anything else. I hope it can be resolved without issue, as it would be a shame to have the (up until now) biggest collection of fanmade Red Thunder content get derailed at the last hurdle .

[Vergeltungswaffe]

All of us that have communicated with Mr. X to receive his Battlepack know full well there is nothing monetary involved and I'm sure Elvis will get it sorted quickly.

[Aragorn2002]

1 hour ago, Vergeltungswaffe said:

All of us that have communicated with Mr. X to receive his Battlepack know full well there is nothing monetary involved and I'm sure Elvis will get it sorted quickly.

Indeed. Mr. X was even kind enough to send me one of his campaigns for testing. He never mentioned payment and from my contact with him I can say that he is a perfect gentleman who would never even consider charging money for his great work. All in all rather nasty and unfortunate that it has to be like this.

Edited January 22 by Aragorn2002

[ratdeath]

Same here, Mr. X hasn't asked for any payment or donation of any kind.

 

[Mr.X]

This will be my last comment on this topic:

1. I will not defend myself against accusations that are absolutely grotesque. What do you think? That I am selling Battlefront products illegally via their official forum? To earn what? 150 Dollars ?

2. I have invested a lot of time to create such a huge BattlePack. It was primarily for my personal pleasure. Why did I invest so much time ? I don’t normally post any personal backgrounds, but in this context let me give a short explanation: 

After working in Level A hospitals for 15 years, during the last year I was member of a medical intervention team. My job is to wait for emergency calls. Sometimes there isn‘t any of these so that you are waiting for endless hours. During this time, I am payed AND I can do what I like: sleeping, reading books or watching TV … or doing some PC game stuff like CM. For example: some month ago, last September I started my day and we had to resuscitate a three year old boy who had a cardiac arrest when suddenly stop breathing while he was sleeping. His diagnosis was a huge brain tumor and he passed away some weeks later. Some hours later, I had to open the chest of a 24 year old girl in the ditch who was trapped under her own car. 
Between these two rescue missions, I created CM stuff, as a form of relaxation. 
 

3. Of course, if one creates such stuff, it is nice to share the result with a community like in this forum. I did contact Battlefront in order to get (may be) some logistical support (especially for playtesting) and to offer them to use my work for their own - without any financial interest !!! I thought there was some enthusiasm there for such projects, but this idea was completely naiv. Did I care about that? No, I didn‘t. I continued with my project because it was my own pleasure.

4. Why did I go the way of „pre-ordering“? Sometimes, if you make content and it is placed on an uploading platform, it feels as if your content is swallowed by a kind of blackwhole. So, I have decided to make it this way, in a more personal form. When the content is ready, I will send it to all the guys who like to get it. Nothing more…no payment, no abuse of mail-adresses, only some harmless files of a OC game.

5. My personal happiness does not depend on such game stuff. I have enough real life, children etc.

If players like the content, it will be a pleasure for me. If they don’t like it, it is absolutely ok. And even if my computer should crash and all my stuff was destroyed - so what. It is only a hobby, little fun, nothing more. 
 

Mr.X
 

 

[Aragorn2002]

48 minutes ago, Mr.X said:

This will be my last comment on this topic:

1. I will not defend myself against accusations that are absolutely grotesque. What do you think? That I am selling Battlefront products illegally via their official forum? To earn what? 150 Dollars ?

2. I have invested a lot of time to create such a huge BattlePack. It was primarily for my personal pleasure. Why did I invest so much time ? I don’t normally post any personal backgrounds, but in this context let me give a short explanation: 

After working in Level A hospitals for 15 years, during the last year I was member of a medical intervention team. My job is to wait for emergency calls. Sometimes there isn‘t any of these so that you are waiting for endless hours. During this time, I am payed AND I can do what I like: sleeping, reading books or watching TV … or doing some PC game stuff like CM. For example: some month ago, last September I started my day and we had to resuscitate a three year old boy who had a cardiac arrest when suddenly stop breathing while he was sleeping. His diagnosis was a huge brain tumor and he passed away some weeks later. Some hours later, I had to open the chest of a 24 year old girl in the ditch who was trapped under her own car. 
Between these two rescue missions, I created CM stuff, as a form of relaxation. 
 

3. Of course, if one creates such stuff, it is nice to share the result with a community like in this forum. I did contact Battlefront in order to get (may be) some logistical support (especially for playtesting) and to offer them to use my work for their own - without any financial interest !!! I thought there was some enthusiasm there for such projects, but this idea was completely naiv. Did I care about that? No, I didn‘t. I continued with my project because it was my own pleasure.

4. Why did I go the way of „pre-ordering“? Sometimes, if you make content and it is placed on an uploading platform, it feels as if your content is swallowed by a kind of blackwhole. So, I have decided to make it this way, in a more personal form. When the content is ready, I will send it to all the guys who like to get it. Nothing more…no payment, no abuse of mail-adresses, only some harmless files of a OC game.

5. My personal happiness does not depend on such game stuff. I have enough real life, children etc.

If players like the content, it will be a pleasure for me. If they don’t like it, it is absolutely ok. And even if my computer should crash and all my stuff was destroyed - so what. It is only a hobby, little fun, nothing more. 
 

Mr.X
 

 

Impressive story, Frank. Thank you for sharing that with us. Can't have been easy. My advice would be to ignore this reaction, make use of this publicity and finish your work. Personally I would be disappointed if your thread will not be unlocked again soon.

Edited January 22 by Aragorn2002

[slippy]

Hi Frank

Hope this gets sorted mate.

I must apologize to you also though, as I posted somewhere about your release being payware, I can't find the post at present, but when I do I will link it.

This was a mistake on my part based on nothing else than 'assumption' as I took  JoMacs post for fact, when it quite clearly was not.

I should also say publicly that I have pm'ed Frank and registered an interest in this Battlepack some months ago, and not once has any mention of payment been discussed.

I really hope Elvis reads this and reconsiders Battlefronts position, and once again I apologize if my actions may have in some way been responsible for this.

 

Interesting to hear of your work Frank, has someone who has spent 30 years in the Fire Service, I can empathise with your need to 'switch off' to take your mind off the job.

 

Take care mate, look after yourself, and hopefully all will be resolved soon

 

Kindest regards

 

Slipper

[JM Stuff]

Hi Frank
Hope this will be resolve soon is really pity to arriving to this situation when all the hard job is all free and ins t nowhere a place to recieve one cent, one penny, one yen.. don t worry Frank you have some fans to support you, so please turn the page and talk with peoples that have full trust in you !

Edited January 22 by JM Stuff

[Vacillator]

11 minutes ago, JM Stuff said:

Hope this will be resolve soon

I think the only problem is that the thread suggesting people PM Frank to register their interest has been locked, but people can of course still do that.

I've also been in touch with John (Elvis) to clarify that it was never Frank's intention to charge for his work, and it seems the JoMac Paypal comment (nothing to do with Frank, and made in jest I assume) was largely to blame for the locking.

On a more positive note, I'm testing the Five Bridges campaign (albeit slowly, sorry Frank ) and would highly recommend it.

[slippy]

1 hour ago, slippy said:

Hi Frank

Hope this gets sorted mate.

I must apologize to you also though, as I posted somewhere about your release being payware, I can't find the post at present, but when I do I will link it.

This was a mistake on my part based on nothing else than 'assumption' as I took  JoMacs post for fact, when it quite clearly was not.

I should also say publicly that I have pm'ed Frank and registered an interest in this Battlepack some months ago, and not once has any mention of payment been discussed.

I really hope Elvis reads this and reconsiders Battlefronts position, and once again I apologize if my actions may have in some way been responsible for this.

 

Interesting to hear of your work Frank, has someone who has spent 30 years in the Fire Service, I can empathise with your need to 'switch off' to take your mind off the job.

 

Take care mate, look after yourself, and hopefully all will be resolved soon

 

Kindest regards

 

Slipper

Here's the original link where I mentioned it based on JoMacs comments. It includes Frank's and my own reply to it

 

Cheers

 

[JM Stuff]

...go do something for the community that demands again and again...but do it well, and above all within the rules, if you don't want to find yourself swept under the carpet and be demoralized, from the job that you share without asking a receipt, but also without asking yourself if there won't be a dark soul who will be behind your back or possibly who will take over your job and your ideas for their personal good!!

that's the story and difference between a modders or just a member, you do something for the community you receive goods but also above all from critics, who sometimes make you sink into despair,... you never do anything but you give criticism you are listened to, followed, and sometimes even cheered.

[Erwin]

6 hours ago, Aragorn2002 said:

Impressive story, Frank. Thank you for sharing that with us. Can't have been easy. My advice would be to ignore this reaction, make use of this publicity and finish your work. Personally I would be disappointed if your thread will not be unlocked again soon.

Couldn't have said it better.  Ignore the negativity.  You have a lot of supporters here.

[slysniper]

Mr X

For sure this is a mis understanding.

Just relax and it can and will be resolved, just reach out to BF.

The only thing that might happen is if your work is good and people like it, you might find you are being invited to be a tester  and help design projects for BF.

That is the biggiest punishment of all.

[BFCElvis]

2 hours ago, slysniper said:

Just relax and it can and will be resolved, just reach out to BF.

There is nothing to be resolved. A thread was locked. 

Intellectual property is probably the most sacred thing to us (and anyone that creates.....whether it's software or music or movies etc...). When there is even a hint that sumfink might not be right the red lights start flashing. I had a conversation with Frank a while ago about this and he told me he wasn't selling it. I believed him then and I believe him now. That said, the thread had things that could be confusing to people that haven't payed close attention to the project. The use of (certainly not trademarked) commonly used Battlefront phrases like "Pre-orders" and "Battle Pack",  and then someone giving instructions on a step to send payment can cause confusion. It meant the thread needed to be locked down. If you want proof that there can be confusion you don't have to look any further than @slippy's linked post above. Yesterday I got both a Help Desk ticket and a "Reported Content" post notfication about it.

That does not mean it can't be discussed. That doesn't mean that there can't be multiple threads talking about it. It doesn't mean it can't be hyped. There is nothing to be resolved because we haven't shut anything down but a thread. We love community made content. That's why we created such a powerful editor. We encourge it.  

[Centurian52]

It was probably a mistake to call it a "Battle Pack", since that usually refers to a form of official Battlefront sold content. Perhaps it could be called a "Pack of Battles"? The word reversal would allude to the fact that the content itself is very similar to what you would find in an official "Battle Pack", while also distinguishing it from any official content.

[Mr.X]

I will leave this madhouse

Sorry guys, but these ridiculous things are a waste of my time. 
I wanna say thank you for many interesting conversations with many kind guys. 
And thank you for your support with the [forbidden word ].
 

Of course, I will send my content to everyone of you, who asked me for There is a last small delay of the release date - so I think in mid February, my mail will arrive you
And for the last time: you will not have to pay anything for it
 

Finally, I wish you much fun in the future but be careful of Agent @JoMac. He will investigate all of your dark machinations … sooner or later

 

Best regards 

Mr.X

 

 

 

 

[David Jaros]

Hi Mr.X maybe Battlefront will hire you in the future . I can not wait for 1 February and hope you did not forget about me haha . 

[ratdeath]

I can understand Mr.X reaction, feels like he got thrown under the bus due to one post where someone claim that they should send $10 to Mr.X for further instructions. Mr.X has stated in the locked thread and the one from February that this is free. I haven't seen one post where he has hinted that he would like some $$ for his battle pack.

Battlefront could have earlier (or latest when JoMac posted) added a disclaimer at the top of the thread that this is a fan made battle pack, nothing to do with Battlefront and as long as everything is free it's OK, as it is against the EULA to charge for fan created content. This way I think a lot of confusion could have been avoided.

[Artkin]

What's up with the personal attacking? Not cool. 

[Aragorn2002]

4 hours ago, ratdeath said:

I can understand Mr.X reaction, feels like he got thrown under the bus due to one post where someone claim that they should send $10 to Mr.X for further instructions. Mr.X has stated in the locked thread and the one from February that this is free. I haven't seen one post where he has hinted that he would like some $$ for his battle pack.

Battlefront could have earlier (or latest when JoMac posted) added a disclaimer at the top of the thread that this is a fan made battle pack, nothing to do with Battlefront and as long as everything is free it's OK, as it is against the EULA to charge for fan created content. This way I think a lot of confusion could have been avoided.

I agree. It's all a storm in a glass of water, isn't it? A more elegant solution would have been to give JoMac a warning, although I agree with Vacillator that he probably meant well.

Anyhow, guys, that's how things are around here sometimes. We need people like you, Frank, so don't give up on us please. Start a new thread, mention that your work is FREE FOR ALL and let's concentrate on the future. I bet all this did draw the attention of a lot of people, so consider it to be free publicity.

Edited January 23 by Aragorn2002

[Warts 'n' all]

Calm down lads, we can work it out. As Macca often said to Jane Asher.

[slysniper]

Just asking you to re-word things would have been nice, but hey, jerk things happen, and you not being able to handle it is also a sign of your immaturity.

It is the times we live in, people cannot handle being misunderstood or repremanded when maybe they are not truly at fault. Their world has come to a end.

 

Well, on the internet where all you are being judged on is the words that you type, well guess what, its very easy to be misunderstood.

So put on your big boy pants, work through the issue and be vindicated, instead of running to your bedroom and slamming the door and not wanting to play anymore, thats what my grandchildren do. Not a person that has learned that the real world is not always fair.