NO ONE out-trolls me!
One of the things that I really enjoy doing is posting Stardock’s dirty laundry. This is the kind of thing that only a private company can really do.
I don’t really look at it as “bashing” Stardock when I post critics and admissions to the imperfections of our products. Rather, I look at it as a type of transparency. It lets people know that we see a problem and are aware of it.
Of course, the downside is that you occasionally get haters who see our admissions of foolishness, stupidity, weakness, and general imperfections as opportunities to smear either me personally or Stardock in general.
I lurk on more sites than I care to mention. And so I’ll read some post that paints me or Stardock out as “the devil” but those people don’t usually realize that the reason they know this “evil” is because we freely divulge it.
Someone in the media recently asked me how I feel that there’s people who won’t buy our products because I switched our shipping company from UPS to Fed Ex (Same cost) because UPS had annoyed me. I said “Good for them!” because I support that.
If a company annoys you for any reason, you should feel free to not buy from them. If I was funneling revenue that Stardock gets to killing baby seals for my video amusement, wouldn’t you think twice about buying something from Stardock? I would. Mmmm. Baby seal.
Anyway, my point is that if someone gets annoyed with something I do or that Stardock does and chooses not to buy our products then I say: Good for them. Market forces will sort it out and nothing keeps corporations honest than users making informed decisions on their purchases.
So whether I’m trolling our WindowBlinds technology or pooping on the Galactic Civilizations backstory or the evil corporate overlording at Neowin you can be assured that as chief troll, my job is to make sure that we’re staying honest, transparent and answerable to the customers.
Transparency in corporate America? HERESY!
Mmmm. Trolls
So I'm curious, what did UPS do that annoyed you enough to switch? Because in my experience, UPS has always been better. Not that I would not buy a certain companies products just because they use one over the other.
UPS is fine. But they made a big thing about boycotting Fox News (not a particular program but all of it). When it backfired, they recanted and said "Oh no, we're not boycotting anything..."
So I made a comment on Facebook that it annoyed me that UPS was using their business as a political tool. This got reported in the media as me supporting "Glenn Beck" (who I've never watched before) which in turn got a bunch of people really ticked off that I was getting political.
I didn't view it as such but if people want to boycott us or anyone for any reason, I actually support that -- even if I think it's dumb.
Pooping on the GC story? How was that pooping? It was awesome! Go the flipping Yor! So these abilities you speak of at the end there...are we talking Elemental style mage-like destruction in space?
Ah man GC3, it's so nice to know that it's waiting there in the future.
I will bash you on in demigods trolling community, I am king troll here
Ah, ok. I obviously missed the whole "UPS boycott Fox" thing. Just want to know, thanks
Please don't ever take Stardock public.
I dont think capatalism is ready for that yet anyway. If everyone did that could you imagine what would happen?
The system might actually be benifitial to the consumer. In which case the universe would fold in on itself. Better to wirte a book on it and wait for a nation to pick it up years later and try it first.
Being critical of something is not being a troll. Being critical for no reason other than to illicit a reaction is being a troll.
Being able to step back and look at something objectively is a good thing. Self criticism is an important step on the way to improvement.
Keep doing what you are doing - it works.
I don't like UPS. Kudos for switchting to Fed Ex!
Oh great the trolls at it again... Someone forgot to feed him... Now bad things are gonna happen...
Now why did you say that?
i want proof!
this is the 3rd or so post of this nature i've read recently and i'm yet to see any of these comments you're talking about.
bring on the laughs i say.
That's because secretly Brad is a Canadian! ...and he can't fight it any longer...hehe Out with more secrets.....
The first nasty PM I got was regarding Elemental. The user accused me of being a troll and "anti-Stardock" for trashing the Elemental beta as "sucking".
I PM'd back and said I am the CEO of Stardock but I couldn't prove it other than trying to show my account #. Unfortunately, my account # doesn't show up on JoeUser.com where this user came from.
The second nasty PM I got was from a user who accused me of being (to quote) a "Steam fanboi" because I said Steam's community features kick Impulse's community features's ass and if Impulse wants to be a major player they need to address that. I think this user came from ImpulseDriven.net who, again, didn't see the Stardock badge like you see on the forums.
MOST of the time I get in trouble for simply not being professional in the forums.
What people don't understand is that I got started in this as a one of those nutty Usenet people who complained about other games and someone said "If you think you can do it better then what's stopping you?" and so I bought Teach Yourself C in 21 days and well, 15 years or so later here I am.
I WANT Stardock's stuff to be the best and work hard towards it. But if it's not, screw them then. Too bad. I'll use Steam or play HoN or flame Elemental. I have no shame about that. I want good stuff.
Hahahaha That's awesome! You totally just made my day by posting that. You should change your user name to "Steam fanboi" but mispell it even worse. St3am F4nb0i
"You heard it here first: Stardock CEO spends company funds to kill baby seals. PETA demands answers. Story at 11."
On a side note, it does make a fun song.
Just to give my own view on this, it seems to me UPS was just making a bid for liberal customers. By boycotting Fox News, they figured that people on the left would prefer to buy from them over their competitors, thus giving their revenue a net increase. They wouldn't be the first - Fox News itself certainly caters to the right wing of the political spectrum.
You could say the same thing about Stardock, making a bid for the right wing crowd I mean. I think the whole thing was silly. If i didn't buy a game or console or even a product every time some idiot from management opens up their mouth and says something I don't like, I'd be living in a bare house watching and playing aboslutely nothing.
Is calling someone an idiot for boycotting a station based on erroneous information about a particular show really playing to a crowd?
I'm thinking of comparable acts, and I just can't see myself playing to the crowd when I decide someone's an idiot for boycotting Mass Effect because it's pornography, boycotting Stardock because they've broken their word by creating GOO, or any other moronic reasons I've decided were entertaining enough for me to personally insult people for.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
