Hillside Games vs. The Wyvern's Tale: An Update

Morrus · Mar 7, 2012

If you missed our story about the unethical actions of Hillside Games, Asheville, you can read that here.

The Wyvern's Tale, which is the new, soon-to-be game store opening in the Asheville NC area, has posted an update on the situation:

We want to thank everyone for their support in this time, it has meant a lot to us. The past week has been difficult, but being able to come here and see everyone's supportive messages has made everything all the smoother.

But now we'd like to take the time to say that it's time to move forward. We have received no further communication from Hillside Games. We are abandoning any hope that the do...main will be transferred to us. For now, Hillside has redirected www.thewyvernstale.com to www.wyvernstale.com, a site dedicated to a professional miniature painter. She does great work and if you're in the market for that sort of thing, we urge you to go take a look. If nothing else has come of this affair, at least she has gotten some new traffic, and hopefully new business. As long as the domains stay that way, we're content to leave it at that.

After researching the costs involved in disputing the domain, we determined that it would be pointless. Filing a dispute with ICANN is $1300 for 1 domain (and even more for all 6), and a lawsuit is even costlier, let alone the time involved. To pursue those avenues just to get a domain would be an absurd waste of our resources. We have better things to be doing. This game store needs to be open, and that's not going to happen if we waste all our time and money trying to get a domain. Yes, we goofed in not initially registering our domain. Lesson learned. Still, we believed the information should have been brought to light, and we did. But the public eye did not seem to sway Hillside's decision, and now it's time to move on.

We have registered www.thewyvernstaleavl.com and we intend to use that for all purposes going forward. For now, it just redirects to this Facebook page, but we'll have an actual web site in the future, so go ahead and bookmark it!

We've also contacted both The Deck Box (Fletcher) and Gamer's Haunt (Weaverville) and we are, and intend to remain, on very good terms with them both. We're more than happy to cooperate with them and you may even see jointly-sponsored events from us in the future. Please, if you're looking for Magic or other CCGs, check these guys out. They're both very friendly and very helpful!

And don't forget, you can always come join us at Firestorm Cafe and Books every Wednesday at 6pm for board game night! We will be giving demos of games every week, and you can always bring your own!

Now, we do have a game store to be getting open. The experience points have been doled out and dutifully marked on the sheet. Let's go find that next encounter! =)

frankthedm · Mar 7, 2012

redacted

DM Howard · Mar 7, 2012

I actually hadn't heard of this. Hillside Games should be trying to work with the community, including other stores not practicing underhanded business tactics. But it seems like their own store service and atmosphere will drive away business by itself, let alone this.

Sunseeker · Mar 7, 2012

It's pretty sad to be sure, I don't know why but I often find both the best and worst business owners tend to be in the CCG/TCG, board game and RPG markets, there is almost no middle ground. It's a really weird duality.

kitsune9 · Mar 7, 2012

It's clearly a tactic that's backfired on Hillside Games, particularly since it got aired public.

Well, glad things worked out for Wyvern's Tale.

Kobold Boots · Mar 7, 2012

It's hard for me to summon more than a general "meh" regarding this whole thing.

There's no doubt that the owners of Hillside were not being gentlemanly and I'd be annoyed if they treated me that way. But I'd also just roll with it and go about my business without publicizing it. Simply put, you need at minimum, two jerks and a receptive media outlet to create something like this.

Were I in NC, I'd not patron either side simply because I wouldn't want to support either behavior pattern. Seeing this spread on enworld took my opinion of the management of the site down a few notches as well.

Good thing that much like the people and stores mentioned in this ongoing saga, my opinion matters very little in the grand scheme of things.

MatthewJHanson · Mar 7, 2012

Kobold Boots said:
There's no doubt that the owners of Hillside were not being gentlemanly and I'd be annoyed if they treated me that way. But I'd also just roll with it and go about my business without publicizing it. Simply put, you need at minimum, two jerks and a receptive media outlet to create something like this.

I don't see how pointing out somebody else's jerky behavior makes somebody a jerk. I'd consider it a public service.

Aberzanzorax · Mar 7, 2012

Kobold Boots said:
It's hard for me to summon more than a general "meh" regarding this whole thing.

There's no doubt that the owners of Hillside were not being gentlemanly and I'd be annoyed if they treated me that way. But I'd also just roll with it and go about my business without publicizing it.Simply put, you need at minimum, two jerks and a receptive media outlet to create something like this.

Were I in NC, I'd not patron either side simply because I wouldn't want to support either behavior pattern. Seeing this spread on enworld took my opinion of the management of the site down a few notches as well.

Good thing that much like the people and stores mentioned in this ongoing saga, my opinion matters very little in the grand scheme of things.

Yellow part is highlighted by me.

If I could give this post negative xp, I would.

Being buillied and then publicizing the facts about it is hardly "jerky". Someone committed a crime here, and the other party merely mentioned it publicly.

Or perhaps you're accusing them of "tattling"? I.E. telling on someone just to get them in trouble out of spite?

Too often people confuse any admoishment of another publicly as "Tattling" or "ratting them out". In this case, Hillside Games appears to have done not only very jerky behavior, but illegal behavior (that's too costly to pursue justice for) as well as somewhat incompetent inflammatory behavior (i.e. "we'll sue you for libel for pointing out facts").

Sometimes, pointing out when someone is being a jerk is warranted. I certainly believe it so in this case, and I believe Wyvern's Tale has been fairly responsible and "rising above the crud" whenever possible.

Kobold Boots · Mar 7, 2012

MatthewJHanson said:
I don't see how pointing out somebody else's jerky behavior makes somebody a jerk. I'd consider it a public service.

I guess I expect irrational behavior related to things that happen within a very limited geographic scope with nearly trivial financial effect and high school like personal implications to be evaluated by those of a rational mindset before becoming global news.

FLGS have a host of real issues facing their business model. Losing a domain name to a d-bag doesn't necessarily warrant outrage, IMHO.

Nuff said here because your opinion certainly is just as valid as mine.

Kobold Boots · Mar 7, 2012

Aberzanzorax said:
Yellow part is highlighted by me.

Sometimes, pointing out when someone is being a jerk is warranted. I certainly believe it so in this case, and I believe Wyvern's Tale has been fairly responsible and "rising above the crud" whenever possible.

1. I'm sorry I offended your sensibilities Aberzanzorax.
2. "Rising above" means ignoring the idiot and dealing with things constructively. It does not mean "feed into the drama, complain to the public and turn a seven-dollar issue into a news story."

If we were talking about things that really mattered to the benefit to society or even to a large part of the audience of the site, I'd agree. Anyone not in the triangle or NC proper, really doesn't have a tangible reason to care about this.

Now if the purpose of enworld in part is to be much like bullshido.com was to the martial arts community (before it went to heck) then I recind all of my posts in this thread and apologize for the stance.