Hello everyone. I'm not sure how many of you still browse Warfish, but I officially announced my retirement today from online gaming. I wanted to come here and say some final farewells to my friends.

I regret the rift I caused back during the beginning of the Warfish demise. I stubbornly sided with Steven and held to the belief that Warfish would regain its former glory... and it has not. I feel I lost friends during those days, and I have yet to come across another online group of individuals as amazing as all of you.

It brings a smile to my face to see how far WarGear has come in time since, and I only wish the best for its future. Tom has created a wonderful website here, and is lucky to have the best online community I have ever been part of.

Looking forward to any opportunity to meet you all again.

Cheers,

Greg

If you are interested in the WF thread, read it here: http://forums.warfish.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=974

good luck. if you do decide to start reaping again, feel free to stop by here...well stare the grim reaper right in the .... hood?, smile and say "bout time."

Why not just join us over here?  We miss you, Doom.  We actually have more than one forum about how we want to rip you off, but would rather you join us.

Bummer to see you go Doom and glad you came back here to post and to sweep all that under the rug!  I'm glad your boards are making a transition over here, but would love to see them transitioned by you even more!

I still remember being introduced to WF by looking at one of your maps (Galaxy I believe) and being hooked ever since!

Good luck in everything and God bless!  Definitely stop in every now and then!

Thanks for all the great games!

=Yertle

Thanks for stopping by to say goodbye Doom. It was a great shame the rift came about but good luck in the future with everything you do.

all the best

Tom

Blessings Doom

I am indebted to you for bringing me in from the outskirts of the WF community into the center, and for the tips, inspiration, and encouragement in map making. Thanks.

Farewell, Jigler

Sorry to see you go Doom.  Thanks for all the great maps. 

I tried to take a look at the WF map, but since I am no longer a premium member I can't see the design page, and can only read the about & see the 250px preview.  Is there a way to see a larger image?

Check the Warfish Forum thread, he posted a big image there.

It just says 'image' for me, but no actual image.   I'll try again tomorrow after I reboot into windows.

Doom's LOTR map was the first map I played on WF and I was 'hooked'.  Of course, I branched out to his other maps - I particularly like the Sorcerer's Duel for BAO play.  Doom has offered me several map-making tips and encouragement over the last couple years and I'm very apprciative of that, although I'm still a relative newbie on the map-making scene.  The online risk community will greatly miss him, though his boards will live on.

Ozyman wrote:

It just says 'image' for me, but no actual image.   I'll try again tomorrow after I reboot into windows.

Still just says 'image' for me.  When I right-click on 'image' and say copy-image-location, I get this:

http://warfish.net/war/design/mapimg?bid=6252747

Following that link says 'premium only', so I think you need to be a premium member for the image to show up in the forum thread also.

Here's a smaller image of the board:

Thanks Yertle.  Looks interesting.

Doom was the first person to stand out on warfish, inviting me to one of his LOTR games cuz he somehow came across my game name. And then he sent me some awesome images for profiles too, which I have used both (one here and one there).

Thanks for the generosity in those terms, and in sharing your time and effort with your great boards. Still few approach the artistic aesthetics your board has. It would be cool if you came by after a rest, even if only for a few games to just say "hey".

i'll repost what i wrote over there, so maybe more eyes will see this bs-

In regards to the map posted above:

LOL

Are you serious man? Is this a joke?

Do you realize that I made this exact board in JANUARY 2008, except I took the time to at least make the fill ins for the countries? It is the same exact bonuses, regions, territories, borders etc. I at least changed it and made it free, because it is a Direct Replica from the Hasbro Lord of the Rings edition of Risk. http://warfish.net/war/browse/board?bid=1375237

Yet Doom just copied the screenshot of the game, claim it as yours, and charge for it, three years later? LOL

http://images.funagain.com/photo1/huge/14448.jpg

What a hack.


And he even put this on your map:

"AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This is the map that I first sought out to create from the moment I bought my Plus Membership. Essentially, this idea is what caused me to become a Warfish Cartographer. But in earlier times Warfish design limitations coupled with my inexperience severely put my dream on hold. Now, with everything that the New Warfish has to offer, I resurrected this project and spent months (I took my sweet time on this one) perfecting every graphical and gameplay detail for this Warfish map adaptation. I am extremely pleased with the final product and I hope that you enjoy playing it. If you took the time to read this far, thank you for the continued support and please leave a board review!

Regards,

Doom

*This board is under Copyright Protection by its respective owners. All credit for theme, setting, and character go to these individuals. This board is strictly released only for fair use on Warfish.net. Please support the official owners."
================

Nice authors note on the map. I'm sure hasbro will love to read that one. Months of design? More like minutes to copy an existing board game you mean? 

Maybe it was Doom's intention to blatantly copy Hasbro's LoTR game, and then charge for it to get warfish in big copyright trouble??  Sorry but this is pure BS

I don't think Doom claimed that he made it up or that it was original.  I think he used the Hasbro version and either cleaned it up graphically or completely redrew it.  I do know he's had it in progress for a least 1-2 years, I believe his claim in his Note.

Besides, it could be argued that your "free" map makes money for the site (Steven) through Plus memberships. So I really think anytime board designers (whether on WF or WG) use material from existing companies there is possibility for shaky ground.  Any designer not doing an original board idea is at some risk of the board being pulled from the site if a person/company approached WF/WG and yelled copyright claims.  Not to mention if Hasbro really wanted to, I'm guessing they could possibly look for some copyright infringement over the whole site.

Yertle wrote:

Besides, it could be argued that your "free" map makes money for the site (Steven) through Plus memberships.

well that argument seems a bit silly because then every single design would fall under that category.

Him having it in progress for 1-2 years is totally irrelevant.  It's not our fault it takes that long to copy-paste. 

Regardless, to specifically charge $ to purchase a direct replica of a product, and then put your own copyright notice on the board like you invented it... come on now lets get real.  Just cause he makes a lot of good maps and is a notable guy on the site doesn't mean he gets a free pass imo

yeah bro, lots of designers use existing games and boards and images. He's talking about the graphics, not the game itself. And his graphics look really good. Nothing to get worked up about.

what graphics?

His "copyright notice" is in regards to Hasbro/LotR, not himself.

Tickleboy wrote:

well that argument seems a bit silly because then every single design would fall under that category.

Not really, there are a lot of boards that Board Designers have completely made up out of their own heads.  I'd say a lot of designs do fall under that (again, yours included), but not every single one.

Tickleboy wrote:

Him having it in progress for 1-2 years is totally irrelevant.  It's not our fault it takes that long to copy-paste.

You had just said that he did it "in minutes", I was just pointing out that he's been working on it for a while.

Not to mention the board is free to play for Plus members on WF anyhow, just like your World of Fishcraft (which has probably a very similar "copied" theme).  This doesn't have anything to do with Doom's other boards or that he is a notable guy it's just what WF/WG has done for handling board designs.