Monday, November 30, 2009

Two Hour War Games: Bad Plagiarist, No Donut

So it seems some staggering genius named Ed Teixeira of "Two Hour War Games" decided to rip off a friend of mine.

A friend of mine that used to own a machine gun store...

So Ed, you're theoretically a wargame designer right? Would you describe that as a tactical error on your part?

It seems that the mental midget in question decided to lift a little content...
"Origins - All Things Horror

Vampires terrorizing your town?

Call us!

It's been almost twelve weeks since your own personal nightmare took place. Looking back, it's hard to believe it really happened. When most people come face to face with a supernatural creature (we call them monsters) they run. They also die. Not you. For some reason you fought back. Fought back and killed it.

I guess you could consider that your interview.

Anyway, it was only a matter of days before they approached you in the hospital about working for the Company. Smooth talking operators, with money to burn, you fell for their pitch. After all, did you expect you'd be able to return to the nine to five grind once you found out that nightmares are real?

...

You're a highly trained monster killer. You work for a high paying, highly secret private company, whose job it is to kill monsters. Vampire terrorizing your town? Call us. Bad case of the walking dead? We're on it. Get the idea? Good? Now grab your gear and get going "newbie". "
Sound familiar to anyone?

It should, it's the plot of (and some direct quotes from) the first eight or nine chapters of Larry Correias best selling book "Monster Hunter International";

As it happens, the first seven of those chapters are available online for free, from Baen.

So not only did they plagiarize Larry, but they may not have even had the courtesy to buy his book to do it.

However, it seems that Ed has discovered his tactical error:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/twohourwargames/message/58321


" "Ed" Message #58321 of 58321
Tue Dec 1, 2009 12:57 am

There has been an issue with some of the content of ATH and of this moment it
has been pulled from circulation."
Let's just see if this guy does the right thing by Larry. If not, we googlebomb his unoriginal, thieving, plagiarizing ass back to the stone age.

Update:

It looks like Mr. Teixeira has done the right thing. He pulled the game, and has worked out an agreement with Larry, and will be working with Baen to deal with the copyright issue.

A comment from Ed Teixeira:
Ed Teixeira, on December 1st, 2009 at 1:00 am Said:

Larry,
Can you email me so I can talk to you. Seriously man, there was no offense intended. I’d like to show you what I have an get your opinions.

Ed
From Larry:
EDIT: Okay, before reading forward, everybody can relax. I spoke with the owner of the Two Hour Wargames after I posted this. Yes, he was inspired by the first part of MHI. He will be putting up a thing on his page about that is where he got the idea. He apologized, and will be linking to where people can get my book. Ed apologized, said that he read that bit and got fired up, and should not have used my stuff like that. I respect that he contacted me so quickly to apologize and to try to make things right.

I don’ t mind fan fiction, in fact I love it and there is some great MHI fan fic on the internet. I know of at least a dozen different gamer groups that are running their own MHI based campaigns and I think that is awesome, but when someone uses a writer’s creation to make money, then that is different. Baen Books owns the rights to MHI, and anything that ties in there needs to be cleared through them through proper channels.