Late Night Fiction

Most remember a few months ago when the ones in charge of Facebook were forcing us all to go along with the drastic design and functionality changes they were making to the site. There were those who liked it, and those who strongly resisted it (myself included). Us members even went so far as to dig and find the few work-arounds to get to the old Facebook (note: they don’t work anymore!). But it seems there has been less commotion nowadays, now that we’ve all settled in with the new Facebook environment that we were so lovingly forced to live with.

So, as some predicted and some refused to believe, we have all grown accustomed to the new changes and still use the wonderful social-networking giant that is Facebook. I know there were threats, but did anyone follow through and actually leave Facebook when the changes were forced upon them? That’s a good question..

Internet facebook, People

After sending chesse111 a comment about how I know he stole my work and how I’d please like him to remove it, I revisited the site today to see if I, perhaps, had a response. Turns out he deleted the comment I left and then “muted” me (which, I take it, is the same as blocking someone). I looked into it a bit more and flagged both The BUTTONS and Kill the Fireflies as “inappropriate” (which could mean “stolen” as well, I’m finding).

I won’t go into how stupid it is that he would do that. But we’ll see if it really does get removed; I’m hoping the moderators over there pick up on it soon enough.

Internet internet, People

After a recent check to my Mochibot account, I realized that The BUTTONS was getting some hits from a site that wasn’t FlashStuf, Newgrounds, or some proxy site. I checked out the link and it showed me that another site was hosting my game, but after some Googling discovered the page it was (and is) on. It turns out someone submitted the game to the website Kongregate, and is taking full credit for creating the game.

While I don’t have much of a problem with people hosting my work on their site, it is completely different to blatantly claim ownership of the game, and post a comment like this in response to some criticisms of the game on that site:

chesse111 Jun. 01, 2008

i put a lot of work in to this game plase dont critisise me

This is just ridiculous. I can’t even explain to you how much this blew my mind that someone would be so dumb as to upload my work as their own, obviously thinking I wouldn’t find out, and then complain when people started criticizing them about my work! It just makes you ask what the hell was going through this person’s mind.

I know this isn’t new to some people but this is my first encounter with this kind of thing and jesus, it makes me glad that all my work isn’t that popular. I just couldn’t take the stupidity of some of these people. For those who don’t know, I was the sole creator of The BUTTONS and clearly indicate that in the credits on the game, and by submitting/displaying it on three sites (two of which are my own): FlashStuf, Chicken-Cheese.com, and Newgrounds.

Note to people who want to steal my work next time: I (and many others) use Mochibot in my flash, which is a service that allows me to track who hosts my work and how many views it gets, etc. If you see that I’m putting Mochibot in my credits, that means I am tracking that game or movie. In fact, you can even see the stats on The BUTTONS for yourself. Please, please don’t be such a dumbass next time!

But in all seriousness, chesse111, you should’ve contacted me, and suggested that I submit my game(s) to Kongregate myself. It’s a simple courtesy to the creator and the work he did. If you enjoy my games so much, let ME know and I can take the action to submit it to more sites or even let you host it as my work on your site (assuming you had one). The internet isn’t some place you can walk in and simply take what you please. There are people like myself who put time and energy into creating content like these games so that others can enjoy them, only asking that they receive the credit they deserve in return. It’s just nonsense to think you’d claim the game as your own and steal it when I don’t even make any money off it. This isn’t music you’d normally pay for. This is free entertainment. Don’t claim my (or anyone else’s) work as you own because it’s simply idiotic. However, I hope we can resolve this and it won’t happen again. I didn’t mention specifically, but Kill the Fireflies is mine as well.

Internet Flash, internet, People

More and more I’m figuring out what it is that just bugs me about Myspace, and Facebook– the social networking types. And it can’t be explained in a short bare-bones basic explanation, so I’ll put it this way.

I don’t like constantly being obligated to talk to people, or make them feel better. An example: I like my cell phone– it’s an easy way for anyone to reach me, for any reason, at any time. They call and I generally pick up since it’s not, ya know, ringing non-stop. However, if I’m busy, I don’t have to answer. And that’s the beauty of it all. They have those 30 seconds to try and talk to me but once that window is up, they have to continue on with life. Of course, they can keep calling back; not so annoying, because I can always wait for it to stop ringing. They can leave a voicemail; I’ll know why they had to call me, and I can get back to them on my terms (depending on the urgency, mostly).

It’s a whole ‘nother story with these social networking sites. People leave you these proverbial voicemails that you can’t ignore, and that stay with you. Not only that, there’s usually no urgency. It’s to pull up some kind of self-confidence! And automatically there’s an obligation you have once someone decides to leave you one of these pointless messages of the public kind. Because if you don’t do it once, you hear about it afterwards. Maybe they don’t try to do it, but they put some kind of weird, needy obligation on you to comment them back; to leave them some love, to make them feel better. It becomes an unspoken rule when people get like that– and it only takes a little time in the Myspace world to catch the “I need attention”-bug.

Internet People