Typhoon-Rising.com Is No More - Shocking Revelations

[DevilDog#1]

Haystakk and I have decided to no longer continue running a fansite for Joint Operations. The main reason that we are shutting down is because we feel the Novalogic PR department backstabbed us. We feel that we can no longer support a software company that treats it's fansite like the way Novalogic PR treated us.

We created a map contest to help advertise the release of Escalation. We did all the hard work designing and making it and Novalogic repayed us by encouraging and aiding a larger fansite to completely duplicate it. For the sake of sales they stabbed us in the back. We will no longer be chumps putting money into the pockets of Novalogic. Novalogic has a large PR department that gets payed well and there is no reason why they must steal from a fansite that works for free.

What's the big deal you ask? Are we overreacting? This is a bit of a long story and the best way to explain it all is to show emails between Novalogic PR and us:

Back on Mon, 26 Jul 2004 we first contacted Anthony Newall (Marketing Coordinator) at Novalogic UK and asked him this question:

From Slippery Jim (admin at Typoon-Rising.com): "Has any fansite contacted you yet about holding a mapping contest for when the official map editor does come out? We would love to hold a mapping contest at Typhoon-Rising.com and are wondering if there is anything that Novalogic can do in the way of prizes? What are your thoughts on the matter?"

Here was Anthony Newall's reply on Tue, 27 Jul 2004:

From A. Newall: "With regard to the map making contest, you are the first site to contact me and it sounds like a great idea. However, it is all dependant on whether we decide to do an official map making contest or not. Let me get the lowdown on where our US office is regarding this and I'll get back to you ASAP on this..probably early next week."

After checking with Novalogic USA, here was Anthony Newall's reply on Mon, 02 Aug 2004:

From A. Newall: "With regard to the contest, we have no current in-house plans yet and it would be great to do something with you guys. I would like to wait until the map ed is out and see whats its capable of before we decide on anything."



The above emails took place when we were a new fansite and I really do feel Novalogic did not want to supply us with prizes because we were just one fansite out of many. In time slowly our website grew and became more popular. When we won first place in the Novalogic fansite competition in Europe on Fri, 20 Aug 2004 things changed.

In that fansite competition we won several prizes that neither Haystakk or myself really wanted. We decided that we would hold our long desired map mapping contest and put up some of those prizes. I contacted Novalogic and once again let them know we were interested in doing a map making contest and hoped that they would also supply prizes too.



Slippery Jim on Fri, 08 Oct 2004:

From Slippery Jim: "Some of the prizes we are thinking of putting up in a contest (the prizes we don't really want). We were thinking of holding a mapping contest or perhaps a "design a new banner" kind of contest."



After several emails back and forth it is decided that Novalogic would throw in some prizes for the contest and Typhoon-Rising would throw in several more prizes to make the contest even larger.



From Slippery Jim on Mon, 18 Oct 2004:

From Slippery Jim: "We are still hoping to have that map making contest and in your previous email you mentioned prizes that you could provide us.

If we move quickly setting up the contest I think it would be great to hold the contest so that it ends the same day that Escalation is in stores in North America (November 16th) or possibly Europe (November 18th).

Our plan is to have a contest to make the best AAS map. The top 5-10 maps would be included in a map pack from Typhoon-Rising.com at the end of the contest. If you do supply us with prizes of course we would mention all over the place that Novalogic supplied the prizes.

I am working on writing up rules now but would need to know exactly what prizes you could provide us for the contest."



After working a whole week on the contest I emailed Anthony Newall to show him the contest design. I spent many long hours making graphics and writing up the rules of the contest so that it was as professional as possible. Below was his reply when he saw the hard work that we had done.

Anthony Newall on Mon, 25 Oct 2004:

From A. Newall: "Heya, Wow, what can I say... that is absolutely brilliant, its obvious you guys have put so much effort into this comp, expect a couple of copies of escalation to find its way to your door upon release. Timing sounds great."

(On a side note I never received a copy of Escalation like Anthony promised me in his email above. I called this to his attention and he still has never sent me a copy. - Slippery Jim).



Below is the key email that shows Novalogic's interest in our contest and the main source of our anger. Once I received this email I knew we were in trouble and feared what the PR department would do. We got this email from Novalogic PR a day after the contest started.

Anthony Newall on Tue, 26 Oct 2004:

From A. Newall: "Our US office love what you guys have done (and are now quite jealous that they decided to put off an official map making comp!). Would it be ok with you if we knock up a little press release and post it up on novalogic.com + perhaps other general press sites. Naturally this is still completely your baby, and will treated as such in the press release."



Novalogic did NOT do a press release like they promised in the above email.

After our contest had been running Anthony Newall inquired how the contest was going. We let him know that that the mapping contest wasn't as popular as we hoped. Shortly after (in an amazing coincidence!) a duplicate version of our contest magically appeared on the larger fansite Nova-Inside.com. We were completely pissed off needless to say! It was an identical copy of what we worked so hard to make. In my opinion Novalogic PR decided that they would give a larger fansite our mapping contest just to increase their sales of Escalation. They back-stabbed the fansite that won first place in their own fansite competition just to increase their sales.

Now some of you may say all contests are the same. However the design of this contest is almost identical. Not only did they steal the graphics from us but they stole the layout of the contest. There are thousands of different combinations they could have done but they decided to directly copy our mapping contest.



After much complaining to Nova-Inside they have since realized that legally and morally they were wrong so they have mildly changed the contest photos on Nova-Inside. However the contest is still almost identical and was obviously taken directly from ours. Novalogic has played a part in helping Nova-Inside completely duplicate our contest.

We have run fansites for many games in the past including Swat 3, Enemy Territory, Raven Shield, and others. We doubt very much that we will ever run another fansite again after being screwed over by Novalogic. We will not put ourselves in a position to be screwed over by PR types again. How can any fansite trust them when all they care about is profits? Fans are just sources of cash to them and they have absolutely no loyalty.

I urge all Novalogic fansites to remember this. All future webmasters should think long and hard about starting a Novalogic site. Let the PR department earn the money they get payed for and make the buggers work instead of us doing the work for them.

Shame on Novalogic, shame on Novalogic PR, shame on Anthony Newall and Marcus Beer, shame on Nova-Inside.com.

At this time we would like to thank all of the community who supported this website. You guys are the best. Novalogic needs to get it's head out of it's ass and start treating the commmunity with respect. We would also like to take this time to apologize to the people who participated in our mapping contest. We are so sorry that we could not complete it but we could not continue to be a fansite for Novalogic. Sorry guys but we are sure once you release your maps to the community they will get the appreciation they deserve.

- Slippery Jim and Haystakk
Former Typhoon-Rising.com Admins

[Steve]

pretty bad stuff.
at least they got email replies from Novalogic. i just get blanked.

[DevilDog#1]

Originally posted by Steve
pretty bad stuff.
at least they got email replies from Novalogic. i just get blanked.

Atleast you get Blanks? I can hear mine being clicked to delete world!!

[Hellfighter]

Nova-Inside did they ripoff in the pass?

anyway have to say it really sorry shit i ever seen a site do.

in the pass i seen Novalogic.Inc do some shitty thing this has to take the cake. man they must really suck.

[DevilDog#1]

Originally posted by Chief ADFP
Nova-Inside did they ripoff in the pass?

anyway have to say it really sorry shit i ever seen a site do.

in the pass i seen Novalogic.Inc do some shitty thing this has to take the cake. man they must really suck.

Now now be nice. They'll get their share sooner or later. I believe in that.

[Dr. Bullet]

I think that too DD. Anyone who treats the people that keep them afloat like Novalogic does is bound to die, especially in such a rough market as gaming. If you'll remember, they almost killed over after DFLW. They barely made enough on TFD after their flop with Urban Warfare to fuel their last ditch effort, BHD.

What I don't understand is just where they think they can treat people like that and the people will still keep buying the games.

[DevilDog#1]

Originally posted by Dr. Bullet
I think that too DD. Anyone who treats the people that keep them afloat like Novalogic does is bound to die, especially in such a rough market as gaming. If you'll remember, they almost killed over after DFLW. They barely made enough on TFD after their flop with Urban Warfare to fuel their last ditch effort, BHD.

What I don't understand is just where they think they can treat people like that and the people will still keep buying the games.

Personally, after reading that story, am having second thoughts about buying the next version of DF game.

I know that would prolly mean one less complaining person to them, but I believe if enough of us switch to other games they'll prolly won't break-even next time they screw up.

[Dr. Bullet]

Who knows, maybe. I just don't want to move to a different community. Jeeze, I've been here for 6 years and I've accumulated lots of people I enjoy owning.

O well...

[DevilDog#1]

Originally posted by Dr. Bullet
Who knows, maybe. I just don't want to move to a different community. Jeeze, I've been here for 6 years and I've accumulated lots of people I enjoy owning.

O well...

I agree with the accumulation of friends part. But is it worth the hassel if they walk over the "community" everytime they screw up and people end up complaining how bad the game is? I don't think it is.

[EDGE]

Originally posted by Steve
pretty bad stuff.
at least they got email replies from Novalogic. i just get blanked.

Yeah, I have emailed Novalogic asking them possibly about any prizes for our tournaments.......all I get is crickets. No replies, no nothing. The only time I ever get a reply from support is if I threaten to stop buying their games.

It just goes to show you how bad Nova's PR department really is. I always thought marcus beer had a bad attitude and wasn't too good of a guy, since I always got smart remarks from him when I emailed them about gaming issues. But, none-the-less, there is always someone worse than others.

Novalogic is a great game provider, but they need to take their fans and customers into consideration more. I wonder why everyone is leaving JO/E for CS and BF? Gee, Nova should really get their heads out of their asses and pay attention to the community around them.

On an off-note, Nova-Inside has always been up for ripping peoples work off. Take NovaHQ for example...

[Dr. Bullet]

I've never screwed with their PR. I have had to use their tech support on quite a few occasions and was pleased in that department.

I did once bring to their attention a thread with desired additions for games, and they said something like "we are aware of forums like df3.net and try to watch them as much as possible with regard to our customer's wishes."

It only took them 3 freaking games to get the wish list into a game, but hey...

[Trojan]

I have nothing to say other than they should have toughed it out. Why give up? I've never expected anything from NovaLogic except game developement and NovaWorld.

[Hellfighter]

DevilDog#1

i flame to Novalogic.inc in a nice way, they said they had no hand in it www.nova-inside.com who rip-off your theme and ID you need to go after them, they don't have anything to do with www.nova-inside.com at all

"e-mail reply back to me"
Dear NovaLogic Customer,
support811@novalogic.com


Please pay attention to the entire string of emails. Nothing was ever “promised” in any of them, but suggested that they would try to do certain things. As for “NovaLogic” stealing their art, that is not once the case. NovaLogic never used the art, it was another fan site that stole the artwork so it is that other fan site that is at fault. The creators of www.typhoon-rising.com need to contact the creators of the www.nova-inside.com to figure out why it was that they stole the site design.

Thank you for contacting NovaLogic Technical Support. If you need any further assistance please feel free to contact us again.

Greg
NovaLogic Technical Support
NovaLogic Inc.

i send a copy of your post up top to Novalogic and Novaworld.com so get a feed back from them. basic they had no hand in this at all. jerks at nova-inside.com is the ones who rip you off.

nova-inside.com has done this before riping off other site to draw people to them. sorry they did it to you but their track record is will known to others on ripping item and themes off from others sites.

i say stick with Novalogic.Inc guy they hand no hand in this at all. sick-o at nova-inside did this to you.

and all so Novalogic.Inc is backing you up on this one guy.

do not close your site down do to jerks at nova-inside did to you, you got to fight them and keep your site going guy or they win over you get last laugh at all your team/staff hardwork on it.

"By Novalogic.Inc
Greg
NovaLogic Technical Support
NovaLogic Inc.

it was another fan site that stole the artwork so it is that other fan site that is at fault. The creators of www.typhoon-rising.com need to contact the creators of the www.nova-inside.com to figure out why it was that they stole the site design.

look if you close down the no#1 great site down all your saying your a loser and can't take it, man get up and stand up like a man and fight back. your no small boy now are you don't even think about closing down typhoon-rising.com do to another site rip you off. i bit the staff here be more then happy to help you get this right, you have history here guy.


don't let them take that away from you ether. keep the site up i say.

to bad you all don't have what it takes to keep it going:

Haystakk and I have decided to no longer continue running a fansite for Joint Operations. The main reason that we are shutting down is because we feel the Novalogic PR department backstabbed us. We feel that we can no longer support a software company that treats it's fansite like the way Novalogic PR treated us.

We created a map contest to help advertise the release of Escalation. We did all the hard work designing and making it and Novalogic repayed us by encouraging and aiding a larger fansite to completely duplicate it. For the sake of sales they stabbed us in the back. We will no longer be chumps putting money into the pockets of Novalogic. Novalogic has a large PR department that gets payed well and there is no reason why they must steal from a fansite that works for free.

i say you all have no balls you let nova-inside.com do this to you man? stand up and fight back. they rip you off and no other gave your things to them they rip your site off.

[DevilDog#1]

Well,

I stumbled across the site while searching for news on DF:NG, and, since, I had not seen it posted anywhere else, figured I should post it. I believe it was my responsibility to do so, being a part of this "community". The community should know who they are dealing with.

Now that we have both sides of the picture, thanks to you, it's up to the members of this community to decide as to which course they want to take.

As for me, I'll prolly continue posting "news" I find over the great Internet.

[~MOUSE~]

I have seen this issue posted on both sites.

My understanding of the situation is basically, novalogic gave the same prize's to both sites and both sites used the same stock images.

Surprise, surprise they both look the same.

It is now ancient history.

[Hellfighter]

Originally posted by DevilDog#1
Well,

I stumbled across the site while searching for news on DF:NG, and, since, I had not seen it posted anywhere else, figured I should post it. I believe it was my responsibility to do so, being a part of this "community". The community should know who they are dealing with.

Now that we have both sides of the picture, thanks to you, it's up to the members of this community to decide as to which course they want to take.

As for me, I'll prolly continue posting "news" I find over the great Internet.

will i would vote to keep www.typoon-rising.com going. it really a good site all should know what the best is.

to Slippery Jim
by chance if you read this and his staff keep the site up and going.

to: ~MOUSE~

by Novalogic.inc:
The creators of www.typhoon-rising.com need to contact the creators of the www.nova-inside.com to figure out why it was that they "stole the site design".

even they said that nova-inside.com did steal from www.typhoon-rising.com. they are backing up www.typhoon-rising.com and not nova-inside.com

By Novalogic.Inc
Greg
NovaLogic Technical Support
NovaLogic Inc.
reply: support118@novalogic.com

novaloic.inc check it out and found nova-inside.com did infact ripoff www.typhoon-rising.com site.

[atholon]

Sounds like Novalogic to me. Peice of crap company.

I don't see why all nova sites are called "Fan Sites," they should just be called resource sites. I am sure not a "Fan" of novalogic. I just want programs to help fix their screwed up games. (Something they are too dumb to do).

[BADDOG]

As I've said before...nothing Nova does surprise me anymore however, I think they do take their public for granted and don't have a very good reputation as a result.

It's up to us we don't have to buy their games aqnd there are a lot of other games out there but the sense of community on Delta Force games is the best I've come across Nova not with standing.

Regards

[KU43]

their support is a joke .when i had a problem they e mailed me back and told me to 1] update directx, 2]update drivers, and 3] update game. i e-mailed them back telling them i had tryed 1, 2, and 3 with out any solution. so they sent me another e-mail saying update diretx,drivers, and the game,???? i think it'sd a form letter and they just change the words aroundi

[KU43]

their support is a joke .when i had a problem they e mailed me back and told me to 1] update directx, 2]update drivers, and 3] update game. i e-mailed them back telling them i had tryed 1, 2, and 3 with out any solution. so they sent me another e-mail saying update diretx,drivers, and the game,???? i think it'sd a form letter and they just change the words aroundi