UPDATE: Kevin Siembieda has apologized; you can read his apology in the comments section. Thank you, Kevin.
In my recent Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles Review & First Impressions, I basically said the book looks good, the new art looks good, the rules have some welcome tweaks on one hand but don’t come close to genre emulation on the other, briefly discuss the “G.I. Joe rule change” and conclude by saying that the source book is still "the best you will have in North America as far as source material goes".
So, apparently there’s this clownboat that has a hate-on for me—he’s sniped at me before in stupid little forum posts over the years—and decides to “report” the post to Palladium—apparently trying to say that my quoting from the rule book verbatim in one paragraph is tantamount to reprinting large chunks of Palladium intellectual property. Blah blah blah fair-use-cakes, right?
So then I get a forwarded e-mail from said online loser entitled “Suck It, Hater!”. And that email contains a forwarded message to said clownboat from Kevin Siembieda himself! Here it is, in all its glory:
“Thanks for alerting us to this website. From what I could tell, he's a nasty critic/hater who is slamming us and tearing about the product, but I didn't see him using or reprinting our rules, stats, etc. Did I miss something.
Can't really do anything about jerks spreading lies and flaming Palladium and its products. Try not to let guys like this get to you.
Thanks again for the heads up. I appreciate your support.”
Wow.
So, apparently because I wrote a review of a product that said I liked some parts of it, but not other parts, the CEO OF PALLADIUM says I am a nasty critic/hater. And a liar.
Never mind that one of my roommates is a Megaversal Ambassador, that I practically drool with anticipation when our GM decides to run a Heroes Unlimited game, or that that I’ve played in a little over half a dozen RIFTS games run by fellow RPGX.org member Wraith. Who knew that all this time, I was actually a Palladium hater?
Can you imagine the CEO of any other company acting like this?
E-mails sent to staff last week asking for a comment were not returned.
5 comments:
Wow. In the parlance of kids these days, Siembieda needs to CRY MOAR. What you said was absolutely not out of line, and Siembieda apparently just let himself be manipulated by someone with an Internet grudge. Amazing.
Par for the course with Palladium nowadays; if you aren't with them, you're against them.
Wasn't nearly the implosion as last time, where he went crazy because someone was asking why it was so damned expensive to ship stuff overseas.
Dear Shawn and People,
Let me point out that, first and foremost, my response was a PRIVATE MESSAGE sent to one individual. It was not a public post nor ever meant to be one.
It was a quick, flip response sent to an individual who seemed quite concerned about what he perceived as wrongdoing, of which I saw none. (What his beef may be with you, I have no idea.)
Having reread your review of Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® RPG, I realize that when I responded to the concerned fan a day or two after I saw his initial message, I inadvertently combined your review with a truly vile and outrageous hatchet job on the game. Hence, my response about “nasty critic/hater” and “jerk.” While there were points in your review I didn’t agree with and aspects we plan to cover in other books (like spaceships), your review wasn’t all that negative and was ultimately your first thoughts about it. Besides, a review is somebody’s personal opinion.
I’m sorry you were sent my response by the fan. It should never have happened, and I regret that I had confused your review, in part, with this other truly vile attack I had seen, going beyond the measures of a review, and prompting my response.
As a rule, I try to avoid referring to anyone in a negative way, but I am human, and like I said, it was a quick, flip response that confused you with this other guy (who, in my humble opinion, really was a jerk).
I apologize for any consternation or undeserved hard feelings it may have caused you, Shawn. I hope you accept my apology and hope this incident hasn’t soured you on Palladium Books or our products. I’m just glad one of my freelancers pointed this out to me so I could send this to you.
Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher
Kevin,
Thank you very much for a gracious apology. Yes, it does go quite a long way to smoothing over how I feel, and I accept your apology in the wholehearted spirit in which it was given.
I'm sorry you ended up getting dragged into some stpud petty internet grudge someone was pulling to try and hurt my feelings.
Thank you.
Hi,
Does this mean I'm famous?
~Other Nasty Hater/Critic/Jerk/ Person with an opinion that does not taste like Kev's taint.
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