Dancey resigns as GAMA Treasurer

[Nisarg]

Hmm.. one of my posts seems to have vanished without being posted, so here goes again:

Regarding the "grumblings", its foolish to say they just came from "Dancey and friends". Unless you consider "Dancey and friends" to mean ANYONE who agreed with Ryan about needing to Fix GAMA and get the old board out... but then to dismiss those would be eminently silly, since they are the MAJORITY. The people trying to dismiss the need to fix GAMA are the MINORITY. They lost the election.

Regarding how good or bad the OGL has been: Someone mentioned the problem of "duplication", of the market being flooded by similar products. This is a problem that will fix itself over time. The OGL has revolutionized the industry. Of course, there are some people that hate the revolution; again, their side lost.

Someone also said that Ryan Dancey wants to "favour bigger companies" by wanting the Origins Awards to be "based on sales".

In the first place: The only people who could possibly convince themselves that there is NO connection between sales and quality are people who's products don't sell well.

If a product does sell well in the RPG industry (or any) its because its offering the public something it wants, it has some kind of positive quality.
Second, Ryan was NOT proposing to make the awards based on sales, he just wanted commercial success to be ONE of the qualities for nomination, not the ONLY. People seem determined to try to ignore that fact.
All Ryan was trying to do was drag GAMA kicking and screaming into reality, where the games nominated might actually be a game the GAMING PUBLIC actually plays, rather than obscure unplayable games that the critics like, or self-referential pats on the back by board members in the form of nominating their own games.

 

[Nikchick]

Rasyr, for someone who is constantly admitting he "doesn't know" what really happened, you certainly go out of your way to pick possible examples that make Ryan look bad.
Nisarg

Sorry man, I think it was Ryan's conduct himself that makes him look bad. As one of the parties whose privacy was systematically invaded by Ryan's actions over a SIX MONTH period while Dancey simultaneously launched public, personal attacks on my integrity and worthiness to hold the GAMA position I held... well, let's just say that I don't think Ryan comes out of this smelling like a rose.

I'm entertained by the idea that's been surfacing where Ryan Dancey is some sort of Game Industry Freedom Fighter, breaking the law for the ultimate good. It's an utterly ludicrous, but amusing, image.

 

[Viking Bastard]

Help for the uneducated.

Now, I know who Ryan Dancey is. He's the OGL guy. But he left WotC
and since then, I've not heard of him. What's GAMA? What's fixGAMA?
What did fixGAMA want to fix? Did they?

How has Dancey been earning a living since he left WotC?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Help for the uneducated.

http://www.gama.org/
http://www.fixgama.org/

 

[Rasyr]

Here is some food for thought....

Try reading between the lines, and seeing what is actually being said and what specifically isn't, instead of going on blind faith. I know you can do it. Just give it a little try....

The GAMA board could have just made a press release that Dancey had resigned for personal reasons, and saved themselves a whole LOT of controversy and trouble. But they did not. To me, this says that they could not, that there were other pressures being exerted, forcing this to become public. Why make a scandal public if you do not HAVE to?

When a company puts out a press release talking about something bad that has happened, it does so in order to put a positive spin on things in order minimizethe effect of the bad thing. Make sure to take THAT into consideration....

As for genius, the OGL is not genius. The GPL, upon which the OGL was based, however, was and is genuis (and the genius would be that of Richard Stallman). Taking another's freely available idea/business model (and a successful one at that) and adapting it to your own needs is not genius, it is merely smart business.

Also, you seem to be supporting the commision of criminal acts - go read the Electronic Communication Privacy Act - and that is totally bewildering. I don't really care how much you worship Dancey, a crime is a crime, and should never be condoned. There is no speculation on this point. Dancey admitted to "penetrating" a private email list server and reading confidential emails. The Electronic Communication Privacy Act says that this is a crime, period, end of story. The reasons for doing so are irrelevant.

 

[Viking Bastard]

http://www.gama.org/
http://www.fixgama.org/

Allright, I think I get what GAMA is, but the fixGAMA link was not of much
help. It only says they were elected, not what their problems were.

 

[Umbran]

Dancey's actions in regards to the "penetration" (the press release's word) of the GAMA Board's mailing list - that is not a rumor, that is established fact as Dancey has admitted to doing it. As to its legality, go look up and read the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. According to that, what he did was a criminal act. Whether or not he will go to jail for it is another matter entirely, but it IS a possibility.

Rasyr, perhaps you'vew forgotten that in the US, it's "innocent until proven guilty", and trial before a jury? We have a few lines of press release, a very incomplete description of events. That's not the same thing as the full details presented before a court, and the devil lies in the details.

While we might be in a position to call his actions unethical, we are not in a position to determine if his acts were criminal.

 

[Nikchick]

Rasyr, perhaps you'vew forgotten that in the US, it's "innocent until proven guilty", and trial before a jury?

I will grant that a court has not "proven him guilty" but neither has Ryan claimed he is innocent. Ryan has confessed to his actions, one can assume in the hope that by confessing he would be treated leniently. And while it's true that the bulk of the internet has not been graced with the complete details of the case, both the wronged parties and the GAMA membership have received enough additional information that it's becoming clear that the issue is not whether Ryan is guilty at all, but how guilty he is and what exactly will be done about it.

 

[Rasyr]

Rasyr, perhaps you'vew forgotten that in the US, it's "innocent until proven guilty", and trial before a jury?

Um..... He *admitted* he was guilty of "penetrating" their email list server and reading confidential emails. Reading the Electronic Communication Privacy Act, you can find that doing so is a criminal offense.

 

[Cergorach]

I'm entertained by the idea that's been surfacing where Ryan Dancey is some sort of Game Industry Freedom Fighter, breaking the law for the ultimate good. It's an utterly ludicrous, but amusing, image.

Sorry nicole, that's just the impression i have, that impression isn't going to change because of this thread, mostly because all the comments in it (whether positive or negative ar to suspect). There are some fanatical Dancey haters among the posters in this thread (your not one of them, atleast you don't behave that way), there are also some fanatical dancey lovers in here (some of it even made me reach for a barfbag ;-)

I don't know what Dancey said about you and why he said it, to be honest, i don't care. It's a problem that i have nothing to do with and shouldn't concern myself with, he could be right, he could be wrong. All i know is that what i've seen of you on these boards is that your a very pleasant and helpfull person, that's what i'll base my assumptions about you on.

I don't even really care what happened at GAMA (it's on the other side of the world). What i do find highly annoying is that certain people have been comming to these boards in the last half year (due to a number of industry 'problem' discussions), they've been circling like vultures, ready to rip the flsh from anything that's even remotely vunerable. I see a lot of comments here that don't have a thing to do with what Dancey did at GAMA, but a lot of old 'garbage' is being dregged up as if certain people where waiting for it to happen...