Yes, many of the graphics are images taken from or based on images created for a commercial game called \"Descent\". Naturally.
Because the DBB was always meant to be a \"Descent\" themed board, and we wanted to give the fans of the game a place like a \"Descent\" theme park for their community.
Other images used the \"Descent\" font in unique ways, using effects and original concepts that fit the theme of the board. I'm pretty sure Verran of the Wildcards was the one we ended up going with to do most of the custom graphics. He worked really hard on it, and I remember we ended up being a bit of a pain in the ass about it, because Mike and I were really particular about the look. We kept sending him back to do revisions
The copyright owners of \"Descent\" - Interplay, Parallax / Volition - had absolutely no problem with us using images from the game; in fact the developers loved the place and were frequent posters on the board. They valued having a clean, together looking place themed around their game where the majority of the community were reading and posting on a regular basis.
Because we were meticulous about the design, and equally as meticulous about the rules and moderation, the board grew into the hub of the community. It was instrumental in the design of Descent 3 - because our ideas had a direct pipeline to the development staff.
This board was instrumental in enabling LAN games all over the world. It was instrumental in bringing players together and keeping a game and community alive that might have died years earlier.
Actually Mike and I had not done this board the way we did it, most likely none of the people that ended up stealing the board and doing a knockoff would have ever met in the first place.
Other sites had boards, but they didn't gel into what the DBB became. This board became what it was because of the concepts we came up with, and because we sat behind our computers and put the hundreds of hours necessary into it, to make it work out for everybody's benefit.
And just to be clear about the division of labor: Mike (KB) generally did most of the actual pHp hacking and code work. The color scheme, the forum divisions, the titles of the forums, the layout, and the copywriting, and the original moderation was done by me. There was a certain amount of crossover, and we both had final agreement on the decisions, but to a large degree what you are looking and talking on and talking about was my baby personally.
The DBB wouldn't be here if it weren't for me. And neither would that other clone board. We wouldn't be having this conversation right now.
Honest if you knew me you would know - I'm not letting any of this be known because I have some need of personal glory. Or because I want to get props for something I did over 12 years ago.
For the most part I took personal pride in the work we did and the success of the board. That was enough for me, and most of the people around at the beginning knew what I did. I didn't need to announce it all the time. That's not my style.
But yeah, I think if any one of you were me, in my shoes - you could see exactly where I'm coming from on this. Someone told me who the guys that came up with the idea to steal the board and did it are. I forget who. At the time when I went after them and called them out on what they did, they tried to weasel around it - lied about the design, got their friends in on it to back up the lies so they wouldn't lose face.
Anyway I can picture the two of them exchanging numbers and talking on the phone about what they could do back when they were fighting with people here on the board ...I can almost hear the conversation:
\"I dunno, why don't we just copy it out right\" - \"Ya think?\" -- \"Yeah... I think we can download a lot of the code and port it over to UBB\" -- \"Hell yeah that would be awesome ... will we need to hack into the server for any of it\" -- \"... well I know this guy ... lets ask him\"
It's like weird reflection of me and Mike talking on the phone 12 years ago when we did this. But they are like some cheezy, lazy douchebag imitations of us. Stealing what we did outright because they didn't have the creativity or decency to just come up with a new concept and design.
So when I use the word \"pathetic\" in describing \".com\" and the people behind actually doing that?
I mean it. It fits. They don't have any defense for it. The evidence of their douchebaggery is staring everyone in the face. It's called \"DescentBB.com\"
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