need to break this trend

[jmbstephenson]

i was searching SMR on google and came across this
Inspector Fitch’s Space Merchant History
This writer has learned that the legendary player of both Space Merchant & Space Merchant Realms, Inspector Fitch, has some time ago gone into permanent retirement as far as both of those games are concerned. This means that his long unupdated website will never get done. Inspector Fitch has kindly allowed that the text from his website, as incomplete as it is, be reproduced here in the Nexus. http://www.angelfire.com/space/inspectorfitch

Here it is:

Inspector Fitch’s Space Merchant Realms Help & History Website

Welcome to the Space Merchant Realms Help & History Website! I am Inspector Fitch, a long time Veteran player of the game who is well-equipped to help you with your SM/SMR needs. Not only am I player of both the original Space Merchant (SM) and also Space Merchant Realms (SMR), but I was also an alliance officer, and in some games an alliance leader. You will also find the History of the game, which should provide you with vaulable lessons from the past on how you should conduct yourself.

In addition, there will be a Biography section where you can read about the players of the past & present so that you can emulate the deeds of the great players while avoiding the errors of the not so great. There will also be an Alliances section where the histories of the most important alliances in the game will be recounted. If you are interested in one day becoming an alliance leader yourself, you should find this section most useful. Finally, I have conducted interviews with some of the most noteworthy players of the past. These luminaries include StarBlade, -=WarZone=-, Ozymandous, Thermopyle, Northern Warrior, jadn, and Brooke the Blue Falcon. You should find these interviews to be both interesting and informative.

This website concerns 2 somewhat different space strategy browser based games: The original Space Merchant & the unauthorized “close clone” Space Merchant Realms. Space Merchant began in March, 1998 as the first webgame version of Trade Wars 2002. Since it was effectively a monopoly on web-based space trading strategy games, SM’s playership grew by leaps and bounds and it quickly became one of the most popular games on the Internet. Its parent company, Shareplay, reaped huge profits from advertising both from SM, and from its other two games, Monarchy and Panumbra. Everything looked fine and dandy for both the game and the company. Indeed, Shareplay in the spring of 1999 initiated two ambitious projects: a space warfare strategy game called The Magellan Conflict and M.A.C.E., a game involving robot gladiators.

However, there was a serious defect that in the late spring of 1999 almost destroyed SM. It is generally well-known by gaming administrators that one of the keys to success in online gaming management is that you must be scrupulously neutral amongst the players and players’s groups. If anything, you must lean over backwards to avoid even the appearance of favoritism. However, the Shareplay staff failed to do that and that failure resulted in a large number of players leaving the game in a very short period of time. There was even an organized boycott with the websites of several alliances changed into Internet billboards advertising the game’s shortcomings. It was a dark time for SM, during which the game and company teetered on the edge of failure.

At this critical juncture, Jonathan Manton, the owner of Shareplay stepped in and seemed to fix things. He expressly forbade the staff from playing SM. This appeared to fix things especially since the staff had all been playing the game as members of the same alliance. This same alliance had received huge favors from the admins and that alliance’s opponents had been unfairly penalized by the admins. Following this decision, the admins became scrupulously neutral and the majority of the game’s players literally turned on the formerly favored alliance and smashed it. This led to changes in the admins’s former alliance. The leadership of this alliance resigned and was replaced by new leaders who promptly changed its name. The combination of the end of the brazen bias, coupled with the infamous alliance’s new leadership and name helped cause many SM players to believe that the old ways of doing things were over and that a new era was beginning. It appeared that the problem had been fixed for once and for all.

However, old habits died hard. And so did the staff’s loyalty to the SM alliance that they had formerly played with. After a period of strict neutrality, the admins eventually slid back to their previously biased behavior. However, this was bias of a more subtle nature. This kind of bias took the form of taking the side of their former alliance in practically every in-game dispute while at the same time muting its impact by making changes after every serious dispute that did not appear to give their former comrades everything that they wanted.

One such incident that sticks out in the memory of old-timers like myself is the “Catronia Incident.” Catronia was the alleged real life wife of the leader of the alliance that the admins had formerly played SM with. She was caught by a Shareplay intern being a multi. Specifically, she created an account to map the universe with, then when that account had run out of Newbie Turns, she deleted it and then played SM with her regular account so that she could use her Newbie Turns expoiting the knowledge that she had gained with her temporary account. Well, the intern upon catching her, froze her account and posted on the SM Webboard about the incident. That brought down the house. The members of Catronia’s alliance claimed that they were utterly unaware that doing as Catronia did was considered multi’ng and hence cheating. That being the case, they demanded that Catronia be reinstated or else they would boycott the game. The admins then announced that they would forgive Catronia on the grounds that they had come to believe that she really did not think that she was cheating. Furthermore, the admins decided that in the future, interns would not be able to make decisions about cheating on their own.

This result was most unsatisfying to the players of SM. However, there was but little appetite for a renewal of the players boycott. Those of us players who still believed in ethics and morals eventually quit playing the game. We moved on to other, honestly run games, and left SM behind to rot. However, SM did not start rotting right away. Shortly after the Catronia Incident, SM instituted separate Newbie Games for beginning players. Also, Shareplay started a massive advertising campaign for the game that reportedly cost $50,000. Additionally, a major computer magazine, in January 2000, published a review of SM that gave the game a high grading. All this publicity had the effect of causing a flood of new players to try out SM.

Having said that, there is a serious problem with lamers in the SMR community. SMR is possibly the single most lamer-infested space trading strategy game there is. While the admins have been fair in their dealings with the players, they have also been remarkably lenient with players who harass others in the SMR IRC Chat and who send harassing msg’s to others in-game. The same is also true for the SMR Webboard where trolls with names like Blum & Elvis Fett who rarely, if ever, play the game routinely trash those who do. This situation has resulted in a steadily declining player base. If the SMR admins don’t get a handle it, they could see all the hard work that they have put into the game go down the drain.

[Siege]

I have read that before..Almost everything written there is a lie from a guy who is far from having ever been an experienced vet...

[Baalzamon]

I've seen it too.

That guy came from an alliance that played multiple games. His alliance decided to come and make an impact on SMr and got their faces kicked in. Inspector Fitch (known also as Crector) stuck with it for a while longer then others from his alliance, thinking that he could become a great player, and considered himself a vet, and was teaching newbies how to play when he himself couldn't trade a 4x without dying. If you look at when that was written, you'll see that it was at least 6 or 7 years ago. The guy is a ;) off player who sucked and blamed everyone other then himself for it.

No, I never played when Inspector Fitch played, this is all info that I've gained over time...i like reading up on how SMR and SM used to be, including trolling old alliance websites.

Edit: moved to general discussion

[Blade]

crector use to write for a games review place and pretty much crapped on SM, saying how horrid it was community was bad, no game play and such, but the guy played for years, possibly one of the most hated players in SM history.

I have seen this write up before too, though did not know this Finch person was crector, he still plays now and then, so with all his anger towards the game, he cant hate it that much.

[DWill]

Long long time ago.

[Siege]

I think that that is him in DWill's avatar.

[seldum]

The same is also true for the SMR Webboard where trolls with names like Blum & Elvis Fett who rarely, if ever, play the game routinely trash those who do.

lol

[Chocolate Bunny]

*Reads Crector/Inspector Finch's "history" and shakes his longears in disgust*

It was many years ago but it still amazes me how distorted and biased Crector/Inspector Finch could be in his "interpretation" and "analysis" of SM. Anyway, at least it was fun flaming him while he lasted

The only issue here is that new people reading Crector/Inspector Finch's "history" without previous knowledge could think his "history" is the real thing. Memories fade away, web sites and emails are lost, people forget, and perhaps soon or later Crector/Inspector Finch's "history" will be the official one.

Well, probably it doesn't really matter anymore, since SM is long gone for good and everybody moved on in life. Anyway, I will put my grain of sand and will try to set the record straight in some issues, for whoever may care about it

Thus, let's sit around the fire and bear with me. If I commit some mistake in my recollections, take into consideration that my memory is frail. In any case I suspect that even if I am wrong I am still a little less biased than Crector/Inspector Finch

*The “Catronia Incident.”
The funny thing here is that Crector/Inspector Finch uses some real facts to build a ridiculous boicott tale. So let's set the record straight on what truly happened:

a) First some backgound info: Catronia was a well known veteran in SM, who was married to Montana Mike, another well known veteran (by the way: they met and became a couple while playing SM). Toghether they set Horsemen of the Apocalipsis (HoA), one of the most feared SM alliances.

b) At the beginning of a game (Big Bang?), Catronia was set as the alliance's "newbie mapper" using his 500 newbie turns to explore the universe, while everybody else was trading. Once her newbie turns were done, she deleted her account, created a new one and started trading using her new 500 newbie turns.

And YEP: what she did was wrong. Interpret it as you want (honest mistake/loophole/cheating), but let's not make excuses, OK?

c) Catronia got caught by the game administrators and her account was suspended. She lost her experience, cash, ship, planet, etc.

So, as you can see, the initial part of Crector/Inspector Finch's tale is more on less accurate. However, from this point on he goes in a very bad trip. After Catronia got caught and punished what happened was:

d) Catronia and MM complained to the game administrators to get her account reinstated and her experience, cash, etc. back. The game administrators denied their requests. Apparently Catronia and Mike felt insulted/disrespected/aggraviated by the administrator's treatment and refusal. Additionaly, a lot of controversy rose at the SM webboard, with accusations and charges flying back and forth (boy, those were the days! )

Finally, Montana Mike decided that he and Catronia have had enough. Overnight, Montana dissolved HoA and deleted his account, leaving the game.

f) Now, here comes the interesting part. Regardless their mistakes and faults, Catronia and Montana Mike were a part of the SM community. Mike in particular was one of the main movers and shakers and very commited to the game (and also a little hothead ).

g) However, one thing was to see Montana Mike and Catronia penalized, but to see them leaving for good was another thing. Thus, several players wrote Mike asking him to reconsider his decision and come back to the game. No "boicott" here, just people asking an old game buddy to reconsider and come back out of friendship and esteem.

g) Some days passed by, tempers chilled out, Mike and the administrators talked things down, and peace was restored. MM and Catronia decided to come back. However, the HoA alliance was not re-installed for that game; Mike and Catronia joined a new alliance and decided to take it easy for a while. Everybody moved on. End of story.

That is my take in the "Catronia Incident". Perhaps somebody has something to add/rectify/clarify.

[Freon22]

Chocolate Bunny to bad Ardbeg not around anymore, I know you two got along very good.

But your count sounds about right, I had just started playing SM back then. It was also my second round before I visited the web board and remember reading some of the post on it. But by that time it was old news and HoA was back up to their full ownership of the game. I did have fun fighting them when I moved into vets. I was with tls and I forget what alliance you were in but tls and spb had fun trying to bring them down. We also had a war with your alliance but sorry just can't remember the name, I know Ardbeg was with HoA.

Anyway it was a good fun time, and good to see you around again.

[Chocolate Bunny]

Chocolate Bunny to bad Ardbeg not around anymore, I know you two got along very good.

But your count sounds about right, I had just started playing SM back then. It was also my second round before I visited the web board and remember reading some of the post on it. But by that time it was old news and HoA was back up to their full ownership of the game. I did have fun fighting them when I moved into vets. I was with tls and I forget what alliance you were in but tls and spb had fun trying to bring them down. We also had a war with your alliance but sorry just can't remember the name, I know Ardbeg was with HoA.

Anyway it was a good fun time, and good to see you around again.

Hey Freon22 I remember you too. I think we were even together in some alliance (Anla' Shok? SPAM?)

heh!! don't worry for not remembering my alliance. We were KAOS : Kill All On site

Memories fade for all of us. Funny thing is that now that you mention Ardbeg, I was trying to remember his name but to no avail... it was such a long time ago