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Thursday, August 15, 2013

August 9th ~ August 15th

So from this batch of comments, it seems Kickstarter has been contacted by Mr. Decker but has not responded. Majugi also gives his own update on the happenings with the poker sites. And then, a new Joystiq article on the whole thing!

First, it seems at least primerlabs.com is no longer the poker site. Only codehero.org redirects to there, the rest seem to still be that CheckandRaisePoker page. According to the article, Mr. Peake couldn't afford the hosting.

Why didn't Mr. Peake just use a free host temporarily, rather than let the site go blank and fall into his whole poker mess? Surely he, or one of his many programmers, are knowledgeable enough to have done that? The domains were under Godaddy, not the host (Linode), so he should have had easy access to them.


Up on the page that's under construction, there's links to download a "beta preview." What is that? I'll find some time to try it and find out.

There is also part of the article dedicated to how Mr. Peake has run his company. Besides bounced checks, it's been terribly unorganized.
Lopez described the working conditions at Primer Labs as unprofessional. Peake didn't have a game design document – an essential aspect of development – and would change mechanics or the art style without warning, after the team had already drawn up concepts for another approach, he said. The team was never the problem.
It's impossible to get a game or any computer program done if one keeps moving the goal posts and throwing out chunks of it to be replaced with something different. Seriously, this sounds reminiscent of the setup of a death march project.

To quote Wikipedia:
Death marches of the destined-to-fail type usually are a result of unrealistic or overly optimistic expectations in scheduling, feature scope, or both, and often include lack of appropriate documentation or relevant training and outside expertise that would be needed to do the task successfully.
Granted, I don't know how hard he is actually pushing the programmers to be truthfully considered a death march, but it sounds like the project has at least some of the big components of one. As I said before, disorganization and constant changes make for a project that is really difficult to finish, with time and efforts wasted.

I suggest that Mr. Peake read Software Engineering: The Current Practice by Václav Rajlich for how to properly run his project, should it continue. Dr. Rajlich had run his own death march project in the '70s but learned from it, so perhaps that would be a bit inspiring.

Once again, in this article Mr. Peake complains about the negativity of the comments getting him down and that's why he's so silent. I don't think saying it a second time made it any better of a reason, truthfully.

Also, the biggest thing here: Mr. Peake once again spoke with a news site rather than directly speak with the backers. No new updates are on Kickstarter, nor are there any comments from him either.

Admitting your problem is the first step, but it's not the final one. This game will never speak for Mr. Peake, as much as he wants his work to, with the way things seem to be going. At this point, any positives will be outweighed by the negative actions he has taken. He will be labeled for his failure in this project (as well as past ones, as they are brought to light), especially if he does nothing to improve the situation. There's always a chance, though.

Everyone falls. It's how you handle the fall that matters.

Nearly forget! Here's the comments:

Urutsini (August 9):
I realise it's not Kickstarter's responsibility but has anyone even discussed this with them?
Dustin Deckard (August 9):
Kickstarter has not returned any of my messages, tweets, etc. Not really surprising, but it is unfortunate. Their support team doesn't have the best reputation.
 Brandon Robinson (August 10):
I'm never going to back another video game kickstarter again. Sigh.
 Majugi (August 10):
Quick update on primerlabs.com: it's still under development, recent changes include the addition of a "bitcoin accepted here" banner linking to bitcoin.org and a "GetChipsNow" page with the following message:

"Deposits- BTC spot value is determined by when it ARRIVES. Minimum Deposit 0.20 BTC(20% of a Bitcoin). EMAIL support@checkandraisepoker.com RIGHT AWAY with: The pokername to be credited,The deposit amount,(in BTC) and The BTC address to confirm. Chips are credited immediatly after confirmation.

Withdrawls- BTC Spot Value is determined when you submit your withdrawl.Support will email back with approved price and chips. Minimum Withdrawl= 0.5 BTC(half of a Bitcoin). Email support@checkandraisepoker.com to request a withdrawl through BTC. CheckandRaisePoker.eu chip value is $0.01 USD per (one cent) PLEASE NOTE WITHDRAWLS CAN TAKE UP TO 8 HOURS FROM THE TIME CHIPS ARE REMOVED(you will be emailed) DUE TO SECURITY SCREENING FOR FAIR PLAY.WE BELIEVE THIS IS THE ONLY WAY TO PROTECT ALL PLAYERS.We also suggest for the casual player using trusted Bitcoin wallets such as Coinbase.
Address for deposits:1Hb4akrka3h4x9etAfaxQgbsYmQ6Wn2xgH"

The copyright info on the page has been changed to read "Copyright 2013 Las Vegas Productions LLC." There's also an "Affiliates" page describing a convoluted affiliate advertising program.
Alan Dang (August 15):
Joystiq update: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/15/code-hero-one-year-later-money-lawsuits-and-poker/

Shoutout to Dustin!

1 comment:

  1. I made a couple edits for clarity. I hope that's better now.

    ReplyDelete