What does that mean to you? If you’re a hobbyist programmer who dibble dabbles in the world of game development you know all too well. Some random pimple faced tween has just got the best idea ever for a game that is so super awesome you will want to work on it exactly as he dictates how it should be.
Odds are the game is an MMO, a suitable rip off of WoW usually with some ‘awesome’ or ‘unique’ idea that has been done to death a thousand times over in many games. No doubt this pimple faced kid was banned from playing WoW by his parents who were desperate to get their kid to face reality. Unfortunately for the parents the kid found a new imaginary world, a world in which he can create his own game by finding people who are in love with him and his ideas and are willing to work for him without questioning his genius.
Normally I wouldn’t care, kids will be kids and the desire to make the next big game would probably be forgotten with a new episode of Pokemon. However today, of all days, when I’m down with the flu, worried about my cat who has been out for a really long time (come back MishMish!) and just generally feeling down and out, some kid passing himself off as a serious game dev had contacted me asking for me to join his team.
Before I go on let me just say that I have nothing against this kid, it was entirely my fault for not figuring out he’s a 14 year old pursuing a dream he’s going to forget before the weeks out. What fooled me? He linked to concept art, and 3D models and basically said they were made by his own team. I later checked on the details, a lot of the material he provided was actually not done by his team, he was ripping other people off.
At first I didn’t know this so I thought ‘OK, at worst he’s some 14 year old kid but perhaps his age betrays him, considering he’s found all this talent to help him’. The discussion I had with him over IRC did not start well, from the beginning I had the feeling that I was dealing with an idiot kid, but for some reason or another I decided to press further with him to see if I may be wrong.
After discussing the basics of the project, the technical details, I as a programmer would have to pick up on I found a distinct lack of content in what he was saying. He did talk about some problems his programmer(s?) faced which I found to be quite basic issues that anyone with even a bit of experience would not have encountered, so clearly his programmer(s?) were not that experienced. I asked who was helping him code the game, some dude who is still in college… well OK, I don’t know much about this guy but maybe I can talk to him later, perhaps he’s like me, really dedicated to game dev and doing some in his own time.
He talked about his general ideas for the technical development of the game I gave my take on how I would solve some of the challenges his team was facing versus what they were doing. It was just a casual remark, I tackle problems different to other people, everyone has their own take on a matter. This kid however, being so emotionally invested in his own perfection snapped back with some random blurts about how my idea could not work and how he knew what he was talking about ‘thx’.
Well maybe he’s having a bad day I think to myself, and besides, the technical details is not his business, so I ask him what role he plays in his team, his answer just crushed my heart, he could have just as well come out and admitted how he wanted to play WoW again but his parents had banned him. He said ‘I’m the team leader, designer, writer and recruiter’. Right. From this moment on it was my fault for giving a damn and continuing, I should have just said ‘well thanks for the chat, good luck on your game I’m sure you’ll do really well’ and just left. But no, see, I still was dumb enough to think those links to concept art he had shown me were of the real deal, so surely there’s something about him I’m missing?
Continuing from this, he’s the designer and, as I’d like to call, the conceptualizer, he has this idea for the game he wants to run with. So I ask him about his ideas and raise some concerns I have with the general direction he wants to take the game. Unsurprisingly I get the typical defensive rhetoric in response, which as always, evolves into contradictions, upon pointing out the contradictions it ends with ‘you just don’t get it’ or some variation of that.
Well I did finally end the conversation, but still, the talent he claimed to have, can’t be real, can it? So I Google to check some of his claims about his supposedly developed art team. Wait what’s this? The 3D model you claim your ’senior modeler’ had made is actually hosted on a blog which has not been updated since 2007 run by a man whom you did not even name on your teams roster. That can’t be right, can it?
At this point it started becoming fairly obvious, this kid had been treating me like the gullible fool I am. What really got to me however was the fact he was ripping this one person, and possibly many others off. What about the other people on his ‘team’? I Googled their names, the coders brought up some random semi-related results, the 3D modelers, no verification whatsoever, concept artists? well I could only verify one was the real beyond reasonable doubt, some have no internet presence, some had simply donated concept art from previous work but not actually committed to the team and some were not even a part of the team nor related to the team in any way whatsoever but their work was featured as concept art for this game.
Clearly he was just lying to me the whole time.
It was still my fault, I should have read the various threads this kid had made, on more than one occasion his character and teams integrity were called into question. His overly defensive attitude was also on full display, even passive comments about his project were met with defensive words.
His smug arrogant attitude should have been enough to warn me, still I’m glad I looked into his little scheme.
***DISCLAIMER***
What I’ve written is based on three separate experiences I’ve had with these sorts of kids, I’ve deliberately joined them together and changed some basic details to maintain their anonymity. If they were over 20 I’d be more than happy to publicly humiliate them but a 14 year old is just a 14 year old and there is no good that can come from embarrassing a sensitive kid. I have notified a few artists whom I suspect were ripped off by these kids so it’s up to them to take appropriate action if they see it fit. Besides that, let this just be a reminder for us to be careful, ask for examples of their work but verify the work is real.
And yes, again, the real idiot here is me, not those kids.