Maximum PC

In your March issue you named Dawn of War 2 the best Blizzard Ripoff. The author of the spot then went so far as to say that Blizzard came up with the "Space Marines vs. Space Elves vs. Space Orcs setting". I find this hard to believe since Games Workshop was founded in 1975 and the Warhammer 40k universe was created in 1988 some 3 years before Blizzard was even founded. I LOVE your magazine and I am a loyal subscriber, but the fact that this made it to print before even a quick fact check is a bit disturbing. Anyway I will continue to subscribe and still LOVE the Magazine. Just please in the future do a quick fact check first. Thanks.

sorry... had to

your right though, MPC made a mistake

The only mistake we made was assuming that our sarcastic tone would come across in print.

Maybe you should use emoticons in your text then.

Facinating.

We probably *should* have used a winking face or something. Anyway, James and others, we do know Blizzard was, uh, inspired by Warhammer (and Warhammer 40K); we were making a joke.

Nice statement at the end of the podcast.

n0b0dykn0ws

Oh, I had a whole statement ready with a some: links, copy writes, minor insults (yeah I was mad) Then reading this thread. Seeing that some one actually thought sarcasm would work over text. OH what a laugh that was. I guess this might have avoided the issue "(we're kidding. By the way.)" Might wanna address that in the next issue.

Heh, same here. I just registered on the site to RAGE about this.

As difficult as it is to infer the author's tone from text... sarcasm does not work well as printed humor without preface. I know this because I am very sarcastic and people are quickly incited to anger by my comments, similar to how I've completely missed out on your "joke." Over the course of writing this response I feel like I've gained some real insight. Or HAVE I? /sarcasm

As many others have , I read the article then went to wikipedia, if you wish for the exact links you can find the information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000
here^

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
and here^

I was deeply surprised that someone had already made a thread about it!
Glad to see some other Warhammer fans in the forums

No comment. Just that Gailem made coffee shoot out my nose. Tried to hold it in, so some just drooled back into the cup.

The Cuisinart was set to hot too, so that was an S&M moment. I now need a new screen and a cup of joe...but that laugh was worth it.

Really guys? Really?

" ... and absolutely didn't rip anybody else off. At all."

That doesn't read as sarcasm to you?

It was pretty clear to me.

You know .. ever since Gutenberg put his little machine together, we've done a pretty good job of distributing mass communications in text. Sure, there've been some misunderstandings from time to time .. but for the most part, it has worked out pretty well.

Now, though, if you don't have an emoticon it seems that people are unable to interpret text. Short, terse phrases mean nothing anymore. Repetition? Nope. Completely unnoticed.

Misuse a couple of punctuation marks, though, and everyone 'gets' it.

Literacy be damned, eh guys?

That's because people are more obviously stupid in the internet age. Some even deliberately.

If the tone of the rest of the article had been the same, more people might have caught it. Especially since that's how this mag USED to write. Now it's as bland as anything out there.

But hey - you keep floatin' on that cloud of yours, looking down on us primitive saps, correcting us when we've strayed, and basking in the accolades. We wouldn't want you to sully yourself dealing with us menials.

I don't think you'll need an emoticon in this case, either.

No, that's true. Sadly, my commute to work is filled with teenagers going to school so I'm very aware of the emo-martyr tone.

On a less antagonistic note, I'm glad we have so many Warhammer fans in our audience.

Man, I wish I still had my copy, I sure don't remember seeing the "and absolutely didn't rip anybody else off. At all." part. I was quite surprised at the statement myself, but if I had seen that last bit I would have definitely known it was sarcasm.

No emoticon. I have no idea what you just said without them.

Seriously. If the mag starts putting them in, it'd would stupify the entire editorial staff. It may even make Gordan's head explode. Not good.

Seems strange to myself that so many have argued this, when I read it I laughed. JUST reread the statement, it's quite funny.

Magazine page 52, PDF page 33:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/pdf_ar ... ever_heard