In the eight years I've been online, I've never once went to a message board and spoke ill of a game or the company responsible for the game. Sure, I've been banned from boards for sticking up for a game (Such as my ban for defending Unreal 2 in their official forum) but I could never see any point in mouthing off at the people who made the game.

Case in point: Pool of Radiance 2 by Stormfront. I had high hopes for the game, after all, I'm one of those crusty golden-agers who still plays the old SSI Goldbox games...so POR2 meant a lot to me. First, I realized the game devoured your O/S and forced you to re-install it, then I saw that the combat was imbalanced and did not follow standard 3E rules...then I realized that I was playing a bug-filled piece of garbage that made me want to tear the manual up and use it for toilet paper.

So what did I do? I put it in my closet, uninstalled it for the final time, and moved on. "Let the buyer beware" they always say. Did I blame Stormfront? Not really, since from what I heard, they were pressured by the publisher to get the game out on time. Same thing with Lord British and Ultima ascension. It wasn't the game maker's fault...it wasn't even the publisher's fault...it was the industry and its thirst for money and "the next cashcow" that drove them to make a piece of garbage.

When I got into PC gaming with my lowly little C64 back in 85, things were different. The industry was driven by geeks who did it for fun...it was run by enthusiasts...

Now it's run by guys in $5,000 suits with a cell-phone grafted to their ear. Those idiotic posters in that HW2 forum (And I read all ten pages) should be ashamed of themselves. Don't blame Seirra, they are doing the best they can. Instead, blame the corrupting influences within our hobby, namely "Mr. Bottom line".

I'm angry that Gothic 2 was suppose to come out last year and is still getting pushed back...but I'm not blaming Piranha Bytes.