Quoted from harryhoudini:
Now that I'm unleashed, I'm going to unleash in my own thread. After getting poked so many times, the bear gets pissed. Grab some popcorn and a drink.
Don't I feel like the biggest farking moron on the forum right now, eh?
Let me clarify... that was 2 nights ago. When I was being all cuddly and warm in this thread. Barely calling anyone out, barely trying to dissuade the people who keep posting in this thread (the thread ABOUT THE PROBLEM) that it isn't a problem, it's over reacting, only a few people have it, no one has it, it's a mirage.. whatever. I thought, "Man... I would feel weird buying mods from someone else if I made all these things, I should offer up some stuff to this dude because he's a nice community guy who helps out and makes fun crap and if he had just made the window mod that I suggested to him I wouldn't even be in the mod business." (Thanks btw) Some of the stuff we are making is not in what seems like the standard wheelhouse for ModCouple, like the chest open mod which jpinball made and we are packaging up as a kit. So like, I'd send him some free junk.
So not only that... but 22 day ago or so, after weeks of people asking for someone to make the Devil's Triangle rocks, I took up the challenge, posted a thread, commented that I'd do it, etc. For 22 days or something, among all the other fun stuff we're making, we took the time to model some rocks to make a cool upgrade or add-on that doesn't copy the original and has some added benefits and features. It takes like 6 hours to print the damn thing and I've done it a few times now. (Btw, ModCouple must have some serious damn printing power to whip those things out like they seem to claim because even farming this stuff out takes a week or so to get back any decent quantity and you'd need a farm of printers to churn out a whole buttload of these but I'm sure I'm missing something).
Not once do I recall, nor can any amount of searching reveal, when anyone else said they would do this. Because what kind of moron wastes 22 days of various time while trying to own multiple businesses, cook some dinners, play some pinball and you know, make a bunch of mods with a known fact that someone is already doing this work? I could very, very, very well be wrong. I can't remember shiz. But as far as I can tell no response to any post I made about our intentions told me not to do it or even said hey, we're going to do that too! Not one post I can find or recall since I started participating in any POTC conversation said someone was making a rock upgrade. Yet, yesterday (now at 2am or so writing this) yelobird announced their "JJP Pirates of the Caribbean "Devil's Triangle" custom rocks mod!"
So you know, all's fair in business. Although I really just wanted to make mods I wanted, other people seemed to think they were good ideas so yea, we started selling mods. Brilliant. My wife loves me, apparently, because she's been downstairs soldering like a madwoman. Someone else made a mod I was working on. Must be a coincidence, must be miscommunication, right? Or they don't want to share what their mod plans are, ya? Smart, right?
It was dismaying, sure. But then I took a look at the pictures of it and damn, that looks pretty similar to the original on my game. I don't have the original memoized, so I went downstairs, grabbed mine off the game and held it up to the computer screen. So I asked if this was a copy of the original? I was told no, this was designed by ModCouple. I snapped a photo of mine at roughly the same angle and tried to lay them over each other as close to proportion and angle as I could.
[quoted image]
The front-most image with the red halo (and some sort of marble base or something it was photographed on) is from The ModCouple website. The rear image (with the background green chair) is the original I just pulled from my game. I mean.... it has an extra peak? Sure, it wasn't molded from the original part.. but.. I mean... huh?
Ok, so I'm just not a savvy business guy... or forum poster.. or customer relations expert... and I can't comprehend posts, I get it. So I went and posted in my own 22 day old thread about the fact that ModCouple released their own version so we would hurry up a 3D rendering of what we have been working on so those who have been following my continual posts could decide which one they want. I mean, I basically advertised THEIR product in my own thread. I called it a copy of the original. Dave was very quick to correct me that it wasn't a copy:
He advertised in my own thread? Yeah he did. Cajones! He advertised his product, in the 3 week old thread where I was prototyping and announcing our product and its development. Ok, no worries. But really if anyone frequents the Merriam-Webster's website you'd know that it IS a copy. A COPY is "a thing made to be similar or identical to another"... so not only was I called out in my own thread, he was WRONG. But you know, I apologized... I removed the word and I went on.
Then someone asked in my thread if we had pics, I said I would get the render posted soon and I didn't want to post pics of the printed ones because they are shells and barely held together and look horrible. It's just a test print, no reason to make it nice. I mentioned how we designed this to be unique, it's an upgrade and original design with some mods to it that sort of add some cool function/design and interactivity. Just trying to explain what we set out to do.
11 minutes later. In the ModCouple's product thread this is posted:
This was a reply to someone who mentioned BATMAN mods and asked if there were pics of the rocks installed, who doesn't own a POTC. He asked NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF THIS but Dave offered it right up on a silver platter.Now, I'm not a rocket doctor or brain scientist but I can smell a duck pretty good if it's all waddling all over looking like a dumb duck. 11 minutes later. I mean, this is pretty genius.
I'm sure the "original designer" is overjoyed to have his work COPIED and printed on a 3D printer and sold for a fraction of the cost.
But apparently, I'm so dumb that ModCouple had a BANNER SALES MORNING in the 5 hours since he posted and so they have to work the late shift and make more. But massive sales are probably due to the fact that this part is so cheap. I mean, what do the rocks cost from JJP? Like $100+ or more, right? So like $45 or something for the knockoff is a HUGE bargain. Also considering the fact that this is by far the LARGEST 3D printed mod they sell for POTC, yet is around the same price as the fairly small lock bar coins? I mean, if I go price some 3D printed stuff of similar size and density comparison to a batch printing website I can tell you, without any question in the world, that the rock mod will cost a TON to print. A TON. Like, I could barely print the actuating chest mod bracket that is SOLID for what they are selling the rock mod for and it's gotta be hollow as all heck. It sure isn't solid resin cast like the original. It took 6 hours in DRAFT mode on my printer to print the SHELL. Print time is money. But...they are also unobtainable from JJP... from about oh, 2-4 weeks ago? So if you've been clamoring for one of these for a while and a $45 pops up then you'll jump right on that poop. Smart move.
So whatever... beat at a game that wasn't even my own, I'm just dumb . So I'll just leave this festering turd here for everyone to read and make their own informed decisions. You can go find the product threads pretty easily. You can look at the timelines and posts I've made. And I still am VERY accepting of the fact that maybe, maybe Dave posted that he was doing this and everyone was overjoyed and happy and stopped asking about it over and over, but heck if I can find it. Even so.. even if I was just dumb, it's still a peepee move.
I didn't post this bunk earlier because I was being all warm and fuzzy and using these big boxing gloves that are all soft and padded so I didn't hurt anyone's feelings. I told myself, "nope... not going to crap all over his thread, not going to post a new thread, not going to call anyone out because it's pinball and it's fun and we have enough feces with this thread. If people want to buy, let them buy." Jack sure didn't say doodoo about copying the stuff JJP made for the game themselves, right? Just don't copy licensee based IP dung.
I'm pretty sure I got virtually kicked in the pelotas today, err yesterday, and that's not right.