ORIGINAL: elmo3
Never heard of Mr. Smart but maybe we will hear from him if your theory (or what I'm guessing is your theory) turns out to be true.
Ha ha ha ha!!
Very astute, very astute.
Yes, there is a theory that he uses a search engine or a robot to find referances to his own name, and then goes to find out if it is being taken in vain. I've never dealt with him, even by email, but what I have read - from him and about him - makes him a major target of ridicule by anyone that knows about him. He recently threatened a site with legal action because of a parody review they wrote about one of his games, and about him at the same time.
Which is how he came into my mind.
Derek Smart is a legend in his own mind. He always places 'PHD' behind his name, despite the fact that no one is sure what exactly he has a PhD in, or where it is from. He runs around threatening lawsuits over the most trivial of matters. He has the distinction of being involved in the longest running flame war on the internet (apparently started in - IIRC - 1996 and still going 8 years later).
And, oh yeah. He wrote a computer game.
In theory all the flaming and fighting is over this computer game - now an in its fifth (?) version (under a new name, first release and the start of the flame war was around '96) - but in truth it is about his ego. If he was half as smart as he thinks he is, he would know better than to get involved in a flame war. I read portions of the main one, and I couldn't really decide who was more pathetic, the guys flaming him ('baiting' would be the more accurate term), or him for taking the bait, and then absolutely refusing to walk away from it.
That is apparently how it has lasted this long, he absolutely won't drop it. His opponents cycle in and out, pick up the thread and carry it on, and he just keeps on flaming right back.
If he had spent as much time and effort working on his game as he apparently does searching the net for fights, and carrying on those fights, his game would be as good as he says it is/ will be (depending upon whether it is before or after a release - if its after the release, it 'will be perfect' just as soon as he can finish it).
Anyway, I've decided that he cannot possibly be so pathetic as to come here and flame me just for saying some nasty things about him, and that is also not the sort of crap the good folks at Matrix need on the forums, so I'm explaining myself. In the unlikely event he did come here, he should hopefuly read this and go away without proving himself a jack ass.
So with that, I've moved far enough away from the topic that I think I should shoot myself and let the real topic - GG WaW, and whether it is a rehash of HoI - be discussed some more.
Although I think that topic is pretty much dead too.
BANG!!!!