thedereksmart🕹️ Profile picture
Sep 16, 2020 13 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Epic Games lawsuit is just a publicity stunt, says Apple 9to5mac.com/2020/09/16/epi… via @benlovejoy
lmao! I doubt that very much. Despite my misgivings about how Epic went about this lawsuit and which was only revealed via Apple's filings (emails), Epic could have more publicity impact by putting money for these legal bills into worthy causes - or even marketing.
Generally, a company that has traditionally supported devs the way Epic has over the years, aren't likely to put those same devs at risk by engaging in a protracted publicity stunt like this and which has severe consequences.
I don't think any sensible person thinks that Epic stands a ghost in hell chance of winning this - on any merit - but as I said before, they were the perfect company to bring this fight and to see where it goes.
If nothing else, precedents will be set by this lawsuit. In fact, we already saw something like that when a judge prevented Apple from taking disastrous retaliatory action against Epic and which would have affected devs.
Though the damage cited in this action is self-inflicted (by Epic), and Apple were well within their rights to boot Epic right off the AppStore for intentionally violating a ToS they **agreed** to, a judge saying :
"Nope, you can't take retaliatory action just because you can" isn't something that should be overlooked. Hence the reason why I think that we may end up seeing some other unprecedented rulings in this case as it runs its course.
Most lawsuits against Apple - of which there are many - generally don't make the news, nor remain in the news cycle for long, but this Epic one has the sort of attention that's going to keep it in the news cycle from start to finish - and that's the important part of this.
Primarily because it shines the light on Apple's abhorrent business practices over the years, and which tend not to catch the attention of the mainstream for long.
Reading these excerpts from Apple's opposition, especially their analogy about pouring gas on an open flame, they are spot-on. Like it or not, Apple is 100% correct because Epic did this - intentionally - and only they can fix it if they so choose.
The caveat is that the minute that Epic remedies this action by complying with the ToS, the lawsuit goes away because Apple will just file a motion to dismiss because there won't be any cause of action for it to continue. Then we're back at square one.
What remains now is to see if the judge agrees with Apple that the harm Epic is claiming is self-inflicted and that it has nothing to do with them.
All we should be interested in here is how Epic gets to litigate the unfair biz and monopolistic practices. So far, I just don't see how they get from where they are today to there because if they make one mistake, this all goes away and we never get to those important parts.

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More from @dsmart

Oct 13, 2023
I am back to writing aggregated blogs again because I have found a new worthy cause that's filled with intrigue, corruption, abuse, racism, and plundering of a Web3 DAO that went from a $1b cap to $300M in less than 1yr amid a cratered token.

Once again, I have the receipts.
As with the Star Citizen (that's still not a finished game btw - 11 yrs + $600M later) blog series that hit all the headlines and which sparked a media frenzy, including from Forbes and others, my series on @apecoin DAO will take the same periodic format.

dereksmart.com/2015/07/star-c…
@apecoin This time around, instead of starting from the beginning and rolling down to the last blog where I was proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the project was FUBAR, I am going to start from present, roll through the history, identify all the players involved, and connect all dots.
Read 47 tweets
Oct 12, 2023
And so it begins.

Days ago, the Special Council decided to - against procedures and in a blatant conflict of interest, decided to create an interdependent set of AIPS involving the creation of ApeChain via Polygon.

1/
The Special Council is never allowed to do this. Ever. Instead, not only did they author a bidzdev AIP to fund the Polygon AIP, but they're literally pretending that they aren't connected - despite irrefutable evidence.
Here is the first AIP, the Polygon one authored by @sandeepnailwal

forum.apecoin.com/t/aip-idea-ape…
Read 19 tweets
Jun 15, 2023
Always amuses me that, almost 30 yrs since my first game, Battlecruiser 3000AD (aka BC3K), was released by Take Two, that it's still the go-to comparison for any team making an all-encompassing massive scope space game. Graphics aside, they ALL hit the same wall that I did.
When you build a massive space game, your #2 problem (with #1 being the tech to power it) is going to be how to populate it; and not just because you can, but because of what the game requires. And content repetition is the primary problem.
Every single massive scope space game that has attempted anything of the sort, has run into the same problem with content creation. No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous, X series etc. all ran into the same thing because procgen can only go so far.
Read 16 tweets
Oct 10, 2020
Well don't look now, but SQ42 no longer has a release date. Wait till you see Chris's response in an AMA on the game's 8th (it's actually 9, but whose counting?) anniversary.

robertsspaceindustries.com/spectrum/commu…
As Star Citizen turns eight years old, the single-player campaign still sounds a long way off

eurogamer.net/articles/2020-…
But wait! Are you old enough to remember this 2014 interview?

gamespot.com/articles/star-…
Read 7 tweets
Oct 8, 2020
So there's a new Star Citizen controversy brewing and which various parties are diving into. I haven't done much digging, so I will just provide some of my own thoughts.

First of all, I want to make this clear - again...
Star Citizen devolved into an absolute scam years ago. The basis for the scam is that the creators and primaries were busy focused on unjust enrichment by taking money out of the project, rather than putting money into it. This has gone on for years now.
To the extent that not only have they done shady financial things like building a corp with backer money, then selling back that corp to themselves, but also taking out large sums from the venture, even as they run out of money year after year.
Read 28 tweets
Sep 29, 2020
For context, you'd have to do some catching up on my tweets since this fiasco started. To be clear, as a veteran game dev for 30+ yrs, as I see it, this battle was a long-time in the making, and needed to be waged.
Though some of my peers & colleagues in the biz are hesitant to publicly opine given the parties involved, my view is that with all the confusion as to the merits of the matter and what it means to gamers and game devs, this discussion is worth having cuz feelz aren't relevant.
To get started, this is what I said on 08/13 when news of the lawsuit went public, and which goes back to what I just stated in the first tweet of this thread.

Read 46 tweets

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