Nuclear Dawn accused of edited media

[mabufo]

The increasingly popular Nuclear Dawn has been caught in the act using pre-rendered scenes in a magazine spot. The mod was accused of this by a Dr. Strangelove - with the release of a blog posting.

The post claims that the mod had used photoshop to create the illusion of it's art assets being fully implimented into the game. These art assets range from character models, the HUD, and an RTS overview feature.

Undoubtably this came as a shock to the mod community, especially the community of the mod in question. So with great haste DaveL, leader of Nuclear Dawn, came back with an explanation to these seemingly outrageous claims. He explained the situation in this forum post, a snippet of this is below:

These are shots of the first “outside” area of Nuclear Dawn. The map was built during the two week period before the magazine deadline in March. All props and components of the scene were developed by Sa74n, PhilipK, and SJ during this short period. The troopers were in fact placed because there wasn’t adequate time to compile the player models into the game and arrange the scene in a testing session; however, the models are in fact real and they are currently in-game, animated and playing as they are seen in the magazine screen shot.

It seems that the accusations launched at Nuclear Dawn were not only true, but completely acknowledged by one of the mod's leaders. It would also appear this act on the mod's part was done in order to create the illusion of progress for the magazine Computer Gaming World. What message will this send to the Half Life 2 community?

[Generalvivi]

get the fuck out nuclear dawn

All daveL does is go to existing mods and trys to recruit people from their teams. Its very unprofessional
and it shows what kind of person he is.

-VIVI

[Stratos]

lol, this like the ashely simpson thing. Bad move on their part. Hope it doesn't back fire too much. I'd still like to play this despite whatever people say about daveL

Edit: Hmm now that I've actually read Dr.Strangeloves blog, I'm very suspicious

[Generalvivi]

Dont' get me wrong , it will still be a nice mod. i just wish they didn't steal people from current mods .

[simon.Wt]

You got to be fucking joking?

[Creatus]

yeah! I'm not getting this mod now because they put two in-game pictures together! Thats like SO cheating!

[AndrewCharron]

So I care? Nope. If they have the models, and the levels, who cares weither they go ingame to make the scene, or quickly PS them in? As long as the game plays out that well, who the fuck cares?

[Stratos]

Yea I guess your right. Most professional devs do some form of this too, so I guess its forgivable as long as they deliver the goods in the end.

[Generalvivi]

agreed

[Farles]

lol. professional gaming insdustry does this all the time, its a normal promotional/marketing technique. the only problem here is that ND is among the few who does that, and that is demotivating other mod teams to see a mod stealing part of their community or even team members.

[YokaI]

lol its kinda lame, but its only a fucking hud. Some things, like the "prop_static" models may or may not be true. It just looks like they are aiming and walking imo.

Now they just need to release a movie to prove they really have that shit in.

[Pax]

Mmh; well. The blog seems to be filling rapidly with that they nowadays call 'ND plants'.

There even is a guy claiming to be a tester and saying that ND has been playable for 'perhaps' over a year.

I for one know thats bullshit and after checking DaveL's reply on this matter I'd just have to say that although he says that noone has left after january 2006 he does not speak about the time before that.

And that is what interests me. It's clearly nice and political speech here. Why tell the truth when you can sculpt it?

Did you have sexual relations with that girl Mr.President? "I did not have sexual relations with that girl after january 2006".

What I don't get is why so many people just do not get the point. It's not about ND, it's not about the community. It's about a couple of people who seem to have a 'do or die' attitude about making ND a success and trying to take the world with it in it's wake.

Senseless overhyping and useless advertising. Let me allow myself to quote someone on halflife2.net:

For all the PR savvy, you might have realized by now that your goal of being media darlings is counteracted somewhat by your acting like the amateur corporate version of Chairman Mao?
There is a massive difference between fame and infamy.
Do you understand this difference?

DaveL doesn't seem to understand it, given that he's "promoted" your mod with the following.
Repeatedly. Continuing even today:

-Legal Threats Against Critics.
-Non-Legal Threats Against Critics.
-David Manning-esque Fraud.
-Large-scale and Clandestine Censorship of Criticism.
-Doctored Screenshots.

Is this your Public Relations?
The only relation I'm seeing is your foot stamping on the public's voicebox.

Was the utterly shameless self promotion not enough?
Seriously, it wasn't enough to actually go to the magazine and say "please write about us", so you needed fake screenshots to seal your iron grip on your customers?

It's not enough to hire a dozens of people to say they love you, but you need to sue and delete everyone who isn't a whore?

Besides this I would just like to add that alot of other mod teams are against ND. Mainly because of it's recruitment policy and the way how it tries to go on and 'corner' the market.

We are talking a bout modification here! Not a real game! Why would you deploy full fledged game development advertising and propoganda posts besides rumour marketing for a non-profit game?

Isnt it a 'tad' overkill?

It just seems that someone dared to speak up; and now the real world has shown itself. The ND plants, the anti-DaveL and Crispy people, the anti-ND people and the people who just don't care.

As I said before some time on halflife2.net (before crispy decided to attack my posts) "the halflife 2 mod community has lost all of it's innocence with the arrival of ND".

To make things clear; even though I work at a mod (forsaken) I do not speak in it's name and this post has nothing to do with the mod or the rest of the team. Just incase someone will try to point a finger at a possible 'dev team grudge'. Because this is MY opinion; and I have already experienced DaveL, Crispy and ND propoganda to the fullest. And I would like to save the community we still have; from it's shameless advertising tricks.

I would want to wish the best to the people who actually make the magic happen behind ND. To it's mappers, it's modellers, it's animators and it's texturers. And I am saddened by the fact that the team lead has decided to go this far.

- Pax

[reeke]

Arghh, it just goes to show the mod community is getting to big for its boots.

Now i wouldnt say anything bad about ND as the art assets are simply awesome, and i worked with one of the animators and still talk with him on a regular basis.

But, I still think its god damn lame to fake screenshots and then try and pass them off as REAL images. Yeah, sure this goes on in the comerical games industry.. where its all about MONEY. The quote about mods loosing their innocense is pretty true, and i think its real shame to see mods trying to act like the Pro's.

[Kelikan]

Yes, the wait is finally over! The exclusivity period has terminated and the scans you've been waiting for are here!

Could it be said that these scans are old then?

[KILLA-COW]

Let the judge be time and let the defendant be the final product.