Hm? Oh, right, there's supposed to one of those infernal blog entries today. Dammit. I guess I'll have to do something.
No, I'm not Storm. Mei killed him after Tuesday's entry, remember? Thursday's entry was already scheduled, but I guess a buffer larger than one entry was too much to expect from him. Lazy ass...
Anyway, Storm's regenerating over at his phylactery over there. I think it's the jar with the Hello Kitty stickers on it. If I had to guess, I'd say he'll be fully recovered by... Monday?
Oh, right, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Sesh. I'm one of the personality fragments that floats around Storm's mind making him look insane when he talks to me. Don't confuse me with Janie, who is one of Storm's alternate personalities. I'm only attached to the 'Storm' personality, which is why I'm not in Janie's head. Maybe I should move over there; probably more interesting.
Basically I hang around and comment on just about everything, when I'm not napping or something. Storm claims this is proof that he's insane. Between the two of us, though, the reality of it is that I got tired of how many times he used me as a roleplay character and killed me anticlimactically, so I decided to hang around inside his brain. Dirty place in here.
Oh, and yeah, I'm female. This is probably a sign of some sort of deep-seated emotional problems. Or insanity. Don't ask me; I'm not a psychologist. I mean, I have enough problems figuring out if I exist or not. I bet you don't ever have to wonder if you're actually alive or simply a piece of someone's mind...
So, anyway, you're stuck with me for this entry. If you don't like it, then you probably shouldn't have killed Storm. Although he totally deserved it. But still, I'd prefer not to have to type this. I mean, these keys are near-impossible to press without fingers...
Let's see what he had planned in his notes. Hm... 'Call users useless furzombies'. Whatever those are. I don't think so. 'More dead pedophile jokes'. Ugh. On second thought, it's better he's dead. Really. I promise I'll find something, alright?
Guide Info, Screenshots, Neverwinter Nights 2, Blackmail, Giraffes, Media... Ah, there we go, Blog Topics. What's he got in here... XP Removal, Communist hats, Customs, Facists Hats, Curse of Band, Numerals & Names... Dangit, I don't know about any of this stuff! I can't write about this... I don't pay attention to any of this.
I don't see the latest copy of Evil Hats Weekly around. I guess he was right when he said I'd regret not reading it. Although I don't see any hat overlords around here. Gah, maybe there's something else in these files...
Hm... art theft? That sounds simple enough. I'll try that. I hope these notes are complete.
Alright... apparently back in December there were some art theft issues with a staff member known as 'Phoenix'. The image for her quest, and the ISE page (which was apparently very frequent?) turned out to be traced from a well-known artist's work. Phoenix claimed that this was apparently a tribute; she didn't seem to have permission, though. Click for image comparison.
Something here about the site being hacked before any of this was resolved... apparently this 'Phoenix' person disappeared, and the image was removed. Most people forgot about it. I guess you people have short memories? Not that it makes a difference to me or anything.
Apparently, though, a group of players listed here only as 'the unnamed' did a bit of research on the rest of the art work, though. I guess they thought this could get them in trouble or something; apparently they made Storm delete all records of their conversations and then sent him these links via an email from Belgium? I'm starting to think this wasn't the best idea for an entry after all... I hope Storm doesn't get mad at me. More than usual, I mean.
This group of players determined that the art theft wasn't just limited to that one image, though. There were more. A lot more. Take a look at a few.
W-H Image | Original Image | W-H Image Placed On Top Of Original
Those are just a few of the images on here. Apparently the images were also uploaded to megaupload. Go ahead and download it; it's just images. I checked. Nothing nasty in there. Although apparently there were one or two more pieces that weren't put in there. Space, maybe.
The file says all these images were found using Google image search, within the first page. Most of these images also aren't in the public domain, especially that quest wolf up there... whatever public domain means. I don't keep up with terms like that, alright? But from the sound of this, it probably means that the artist wasn't supposed to use it.
Storm made an extra note that while the file specifically implicates this Phoenix person, some of the pictures are from earlier than when she was on the staff, not to mention that there are a few varying art styles. Apparently this means it's unlikely that Phoenix was the only artist who did them.
There's also something here about it being 'goddamn fucking impossible for Karl not to have noticed. Why the hell didn't anyone pick up on this before?' I guess he wasn't happy about this. Not sure why. But whatever. There's also notes on Phoenix's disappearance being part of a conspiracy to keep this quie- Actually, let's stop there. When he gets into conspiracy theories, reality starts bending to his ideas. You don't want to go there. We'll just stick with it apparently being obvious that the people in charge had knowledge of this.
What else... Oh, yeah. Apparently several staff members were informed of this previously, but it was kept quiet. Supposed to be blackmail material if they object to this info or dispute the evidence. Dammit, why didn't I write about hats?
So, uh, I think I'll just summarize this and get out of here. Do they have a witness protection program for personality fragments? Anyone know?
Somebody called Phoenix, likely in addition to another artist or two, used a whole bunch of material they weren't supposed to, so that almost every enemy added in 1.1 and several of the original enemies are stolen. The head staff was apparently complicit in this. So... the vast majority of enemies on W-H are stolen artwork. Not just one quest image, like everyone thought.
8 comments:
Another form of Art Theft would be the new template that Innocenzia "made." It's a rip-off from the movie Alpha and Omega. Don't have any images for comparisons sake, but anyone can go and take a look for themselves.
Where do you get that idea?
I did take a look for myself and maybe we're not looking at the same thing, but I see no significant resemblance between the new template and any of the Alpha and Omega art or characters that I can find.
Good entry- thanks.
Thank you for bringing this issue to light.
Ohhey there, Sesh. :'3 I'm sorry about killing your... other part? Main part? Host, mrrhaps?
Hmm, he's coming back Tuesday? I guess I'll have to get together with the Cult of the Legendary White Taco tomorrow to-- oops! I've said too much.
Have you noticed Phoenix's quest in the desert no longer is there?
I'll have to look into the Alpha & Omega issue.
As for Phoe's quest, it's still present, as far as I can tell, although the image was removed back when the ISE image was deleted as well. If you can't see it, it's probably because it's got like a 65ish requirement.
Oh, wow. It's back. I swear, it was gone for a bit. I was on that square and it came up with that about three times. I've already done the quest, the requirement is 55
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