Thursday, May 13, 2010
The gaming world was stunned today as 40k Radio has announced that Scott and Chipley have been kicked off the show.
Evidently Spencer is the boss over at 40k Radio and according to the forums it was his decision to kick them off the show for not playing enough 40K. His argument was that the two had not played a game of 40K in six months and he wants hosts on the show that play the game regularly. Spencer slammed them with an ultimatum. In his words...
"Shit or get off the pot."
Ouch.
I got one question though...
Since when do you have to actually "play" a game to be knowledgeable or experienced at it?
I'll use myself as an example.
I think I've played a total of twenty or so games of 40k in my entire life over a span of about fourteen years. My first game was at a mall in Phoenix Arizona back when second edition was around. After that I bought the boxed set when third edition hit, played it once and didn't play again until 3 years later when fourth was out. I bought a Necron Army, played about fives games with it and sold the army on ebay for more than I bought it for (I had painted the army). A few years after that I got into it again with Tau at the tail end of forth and...
See the trend?
Now during that span I had always kept up with rules changes, watched games at game stores, got into conversations with players, read forums and kept a watchful eye on the Games Workshop website. Just because I wasn't playing the game regularly did that ever mean I wasn't able to talk intelligently about it?
Lets face it. 40K is a hard thing to get into in the first place and it's an even harder thing to maintain. This is not just a game, it's a hobby and to a lot of peeps, a way of life. The headway to get into this game alone is enough to scare off most people from playing it. When I'm on full blast with 40k I don't really do anything else hobby wise because putting models together, painting em up and reading rules and codices takes a ton of time.
I don't get it. Scott and Chipley obviously had the experience to do what they were doing. Chipley even had his "Newbie Corner" segment that was informative and entertaining. This move seems like cutting your nose off to spite your buddies.
That's right I said buddies!
I always got the impression when I listened to the show that this was a tight nit gaming group that had decided to do a podcast cuz it would be fun. They appeared to enjoy one another, riff on each other in good fun and produced an awesome, informative and funny show. Now because you want to be "the best" you kick two guys off the team that had helped you get the show to where it is now? You just don't do that to your buddies. Some things are way more important than a blog or podcast or (dare I say it) your gaming.
What Spencer just did is like if I told Opie-Wan and JubieX that I didn't want them on my blog for whatever reason. Who gives a damn if they've been my friends for fifteen years. These jerks are getting in the way of my blogs vision!
See just how ridiculous that sounds?
Now there is this whole mess Spencer has to clean up right before his audience. Instead of hearing about gaming in the next show we probably get to hear the whole thing played out again, a ton of justifiable claims and Spencer saying that this move is for the best for his vision or direction or whatever.
You know what? There isn't going to be a "next" show for me. I'm done. I was endorsing 40K radio on my blog but after I got wind of this I removed it. I'm so tired of gamers, GAMERS, acting like jerks to each other and this has jerk stink all over it.
You never roll over on people just because you want to be "the best." Much less your friends. Geeze, Scott just had a kid for crying out loud. Nice going Spencer, you kicked off a guy who hasn't played 40K in six months, who just had a kid. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see he's been a tad busy over the past, um... nine months.
Thank goodness for "Minions Of The Monster Master." These are some good guys right there.
Hell, maybe Me, Opie-Wan and JubieX will start up our own podcast.
I feel bad for Scott and Chipley. For them to just decline everything in the face of Spencers "ultimatum" just tells you that this went over bad.
At least Spencer is willing to say that "He is the problem" in the whole FUBAR situation. Only I wonder what this will do to their listeners?
Do you really want to listen to a show that dumps on people like this?
Now as a way of disclaimer I could be totally off and if I am I offer my sincerest apologies to Spencer and 40K radio. However when you go and read the forums about all this gamer drama I think you'll find I'm not far off the mark.
13 comments:
I agree that this seems like a really crappy thing for Spencer to have done. I had the same impression as you listening to 40k Radio, that it was a group of friends mostly just having fun. Regardless of how often one plays the game, there's much more to this hobby and Scott and Chipley still contributed a lot to the show. I have a hard time believing there isn't something more personal going on here. This strikes me as a very petty and shortsighted decision and is a real turnoff.
Good point there Papa JJ. It does look as if something was going on "under the bleachers" so to say. I dig your word choice too. "Petty, shortsighted, turnoff..." equals me turning off the show for good.
R.I.P. 40K Radio
Heya, thanks for the Minions plug! Our motto is "bros before hoes", and in this case the "ho" is the "serious, business side of gaming". For better or worse, what you hear is what you get with us!
Jeez...I was mystified when Phil left, and now this. I havent listened to the last two episodes as I've been busy...looks like I have some serious catching up to do to see what all the fuss is about!
Are we really sure that they have been dropped permanently? My boota membership has lapsed (and I'm not renewing for reasons I can discuss later), so I'm not up on the news.
I was under the impression that they were taking some time to play the game.
In terms of why I chose not to renew my membership fall on Spencer alone. I won the top freeboota spot during their World Wide War 2 and Spencer never gave me the Battlefoam prize (nor did he give the 1st prize player his as well). After 8 months of waiting and hearing the same story again and again, I called battlefoam directly and now their taking care of me.
9 months for a prize!?!
It makes me sad because the Bootaz are a great community.
Never mind the portion where I asked if there was a misunderstanding. I jsut read the thread you linked.
@ Crispy.
Nine months for a prize??? That deserves a huge...
WTF!!!
Man no wonder you dropped the freebootaz thing. That's some serious bullshit. It seems to me if your going to do something where you have contests and such you do whatever it takes to make your listeners happy and the least you can do is give the contest winner their prize in an timely manner. Damn.
I think the most damning thing of all this is Spencers response to the flood of objections he's gotten from his own listeners. here I'll quote it...
Oh wait I can't! That damned coward shut down the comments and "deleted" them.
What a friggen chicken hawk.
Unbelievable.
@ Gyro
That is an awesome mantra to live by if your podcasting. If I ever do one myself I'm totally ripping that off man.
Oh and I'll plug you guys forever yo! I really dig the show and the atmosphere you guys create. Way to set the standard!
25mm, i think you're jumping the gun a little bit...and to be honest your reporting bad news...if this is an opinion blog thats one thing, but in your headline it says 40k radio fires scott and chipley...I'm a boota and we're really not 100% certain on how things went down, or exactly whats going to happen...Lets be patient and just wait and see how things pan out before we start crucifying the best damn show and the best damn radio host in our hobby period hands down.
I think for the hours of entertainment this team has supplied us we can at least give them the courtesy of giving them a little space though this time of trouble, and do what Spence has asked us to do and Just be Patient.
I'm really hoping you didnt write this blog in a desperate attempt to be the center of attention of the wargaming world for a snipit of time...that my friend would be incredibly lame...but if you did congratulations you made it on librarium online...
@ Kenny
I don't know if you caught the forum before Spencer "deleted" it but he was quite clear on what happened. The quote "shit or get off the pot" is directly from Spencers own fingers. That kind of language alone speaks volumes.
As for my statement about 40K Radio "firing" Scott and Chipley. That is my personal interpretation of the matter. I think when your able to stand back and be objective on the matter you can sift through the spin a bit better. That is akin to a company stating "hey were gonna change your job. If you don't like it there's the door." It appears to be a very underhanded way to get rid of someone. Just because that isn't the most direct way of "firing" someone the spirit is the same.
Now I'm not Spencer. I hate censorship and as such I won't be deleting your comment even though you disagree with me. Heh, you actually went a step further and accused me of doing this whole blog to get everyones attention on me. First if your a regular around here you'd know I don't do that. Second, my blog is whatever I want it to be and third I am a Chipley fan. I did this because I felt they guy I identified with and enjoyed the most on the show just got the shaft by his own buddy. Someone should say something.
If your going to blog or podcast your putting yourself in the limelight a bit and as such you are more open to public scrutiny. Commenting on anything whether it be good or bad is fair game and 40K Radio is no exception. I welcome both sides because I understand this. I was even fair to Spencer offering an apology just in case I was off in my interpretation of this whole mess. I don't believe I am but again, that was fair to do.
However when you have a guy who offers ultimatums to buddies who helped him with his show, uses language that is harsh in regards to them and then says "I am the problem" (a comment he deleted by the way) it's clear whos being lame here
Crispy thought I was jumping the gun too... until he read the forum and then he retracted his "misunderstanding" statement (which was way cool of him. I dig the fairness Crispy). If you had read what Spencer had penned and more importantly the flood of objections from his own audience that followed, I think you would have a different opinion on the matter.
Thanks for the comment :)
@ Kenny
Below are just some of the comments that were deleted by Spencer. I got a hold on these because someone cool over at librarium-online.com posted them in regards to my blogs here. You stated that you guys over at "the bootas" for 40K Radio are
"really not 100% certain on how things went down..."
Well here ya go Kenny, right from Spencers own fingertips.
"Neither Scott nor Chipley have played a game of 40k, in 6 months. I have been harping on them about this for a long time now.
It finally came down to shit or get off the pot.
They were given the option to either start playing or leave the show. They decided to leave. I gave them the option to come on the show and say their farewells. They both declined.
I also gave them the option to be on fewer shows to allow room for playing, they also declined that."
hey 25mm, First i didnt accuse you of doing it to get attention, i really havent followed your blog much, i'm not being a jerk, its really hard to sense emotion with typed words, i was simply saying i hope your not doing it for attention because it would be lame...
second...after looking into it more with the bootas, and seeing what you just posted, i still stand bby the fact that he didnt fire them, yea he gave them an ultimatium and they chose to leave.
Trust me dude, i'm a HUGE 40k radio fan, i think Spencer is fantastic at what he does, Chipley REALLY came to life with the newbie corner stuff, and Scott is also very entertaining with his calm attitude and quirky puns...
Just to play devils advocate, we're dudes, sometimes we can be harsh to our friends, we're allowed man...we should have thick skin...we should be able to take our friends opinions un-sugar coated and as "harsh" as the shit or get off the pot might have been...it was how spencer saw it at the time. Maybe he was trying to inspire Scott and Chipley to step it up to a higher level...i mean i'm just speculating, i'm not spencer and i dont know how he was thinking or feeling. I'm just sayin man...Lets wait a little longer to Crucify the guy...like i said before for all the hours of entertainment hes given us, we at least owe him time to process this and wait on the official announcement he said he'll give us.
I do apperciate you not deleting my post, i give you credit for that.
and please believe i'm really not trying to be a jerk to you, just trying to give an opposing opinion
Thanks for hearing me out
Kenny
P.S. I think one thing we CAN agree on is that we would love to see the cast patch things up over a beer and return with a great show
Agreed. It would be nice if Chipley and Scott got back on the show and the hatchet was buried.
I didn't think for one minute you were trying to be a jerk at all. We all have our alliances and it's cool that you go to bat for what you stand by. I'm the same way and that's what makes this country great. We can both go to bat and hit each other with our bats as well... j/k
Just to show you there's no hard feelings I checked out you blog (awesome painted minis btw) and I'm gonna feature it in my "Sundays Top 5 Blogs That Need Followers." I'll even put you first in the listing.
I just wish Spencer would be a more mindful of what his audience liked and got attached too. Believe me, I'm not the only one who was miffed. There comes a point in every show (if it's good) when the audience begins to take ownership of it. If you screw with that it's your peril.
So here's hoping it all ends well. I'll catch ya around the Warp bro!
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