Talk:Scott Jennings (game designer)

Good Authority
I have it on good authority that Lum is actually a gay midget rodeo clown. This article is tagged as disputed until such sources can confirm or deny this.

I am a source and I deny this. Also, there are pictures of Lum which clearly show he is a grumpy old man who left his care for the world long ago. If I can get over my high-horse on wikipedia's policy on needing to register to put in pictures, there is a particularly nice picture of him sitting on a throne at some convention or another I would upload. 71.113.30.183 14:45, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

VfD
On April 9, this article was nominated for deletion. The discussion can be found at Votes for deletion/Lum the Mad. The result was keep. &mdash; Xezbeth 13:22, Apr 24, 2005 (UTC)

Cleanup
As an article referencing an individual for having a specific point of view, it is telling that there is no attempt to describe that point of view, merely biographical information (presented in a congratulatory style that may be responsible for the initial VfD).

The article needs a substantive rewrite to remedy this. At the same time, it could also benefit from removal of what I can only assume are in-jokes (and "famous words" that actually aren't). These are probably what (rightly) initiated the vanity complaint. &mdash; B Dobilina  Feb 20, 2006
 * Agreed. --Elonka 05:21, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
 * The full body of the article was written well after the vote to keep. I do agree that it could use a re-write, if only to make it look more appealing and to eliminate some of the "in-jokes" (some are well known among MMORPG enthusiasts, who number a few million thanks to World of Warcraft). As for the lack of describing his point of view, that would take quite a while to write up, because a lot of his ranting was about issues which only existed on a per-game basis. In my opinion, you have jumped on a non-issue a little too eager and grandiose. 71.113.18.51 22:31, 27 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Really, it's one thing to have NPOV bitchwars over Hitler or Bush II or Microsoft, but a guy who wrote mostly gaming satire? At moments like these, I think it's telling that Wikipedia, a supposed repository of human knowledge, has no entry for Sense of Humor. --70.108.77.205 15:14, 14 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Err, doesn't this seem like a lot of effort for what's basically a vanity article? Still, one of the more entertaining talk pages.  Agreed that there should be a decision about the cleanup tag. 205.206.94.135 09:18, 27 September 2006 (UTC)


 * If contributors can take the time to tackle a dense subject like Roland Barthes (for example) so succinctly, is it really so much to ask for a paragraph or two on Lum in reference to view point or MMOG design philosophy? It does seem to be the significant reason to include the article over the myriad of other ranters/bloggers out there, and without it the article is basically a timeline & recent employment history without much context.  &mdash; B Dobilina   Mar 9, 2006
 * Roland Barthes has been an entry on wikipedia for three and a half years. Lum The Mad has only been on for a year and a half, of which most of the article you see now was done last June. Maybe your point would have meaning if this article has been around three or more years without that kind of detail, but if Mr. Barthes didn't need a NPOV warning a year and a half after creation, neither does Lum. You have mistaken the lack of detail for the simple fledging of an article mid-construct. 71.113.18.51 12:47, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I believe I have added enough "context" to unbunch dobilina's panties, but I am reluctant to omit some of the famous phrases. The taxi one I still occasionally see on some MMO boards today, and that other one about the bagel I think is important to emphasize the attitude going on at that time. Can we remove the cleanup sign now? 71.113.30.183 14:41, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Update
A few days ago, Lum announced that he left Mythic Entertainment. Somebody should update the biography. --Furism 13:48, 21 February 2006 (UTC)
 * It was immediately. See the opening and closing paragraphs. RasputinAXP   c  [[Image:Gadsden_flag.svg|25px]] 14:26, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Clearly a vanity article. The facts are actually half truths.

Major changes
I have re-written the article to try to make it more encyclopaedic. It was probably more colourful and fun to read before than it is now. However it was not written in a style suitable for an encyclopaedia. I have also tried to remove the more blatant POV statements. Other than that, I have tried to keep information in the article rather than removing it. However I think there are still major problems with this article. There are no citations at all. I am a MMORPG player and used to read Lum's site regularly, and I'm pretty sure nothing in the article is wrong. However, that's clearly not good enough for Wikipedia. I don't know if any of the editors who originally inserted the material can provide citations. Also, I'm not certain Lum's opinions of old video games are particularly notable. A couple of specific points - I have removed information about DM Darwin. He is an identifiable real person - I don't know his real name, but there will be people who know who he is. Allegations about him shouldn't be in there without cast-iron verification. Also, I have changed most references to Lum (or Scott) to Jennings. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Hobson (talk • contribs) 23:30, 17 April 2007 (UTC).

I have also removed two links, which were in the main text of the article. One didn't lead directly to relevant content - the other led to a story about a named individual who was entrusted with some money and raises questions about where the money is. Hobson 00:05, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Full disclosure
This article is a mess. I am going to work on cleaning it up. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I am hereby declaring that I am heavily involved in the online game industry, so there is a potential of conflict of interest. I have met the subject of this article at conferences, and I have occasionally read his website, though I do not recall if I have ever participated at his website.

If anyone feels that any of my edits are out of line, please feel free to bring it up here at talk, or to change my edits directly. I have no intention of engaging in any edit wars here, I am just trying to clean up an article that badly needs it. --Elonka 17:45, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Overhaul completed. Here's what it looked like before I started: and here's what it looks like now: It could still use a few more citations (I've marked places accordingly), but I think that overall it is much improved at this point.  As I've mentioned above, I encourage review of all my changes. --Elonka 19:22, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

This article tainted by Lum's brown nosers (Hobson et al)
They fervently monitor it like Scientologists for anything negative, and quickly remove anything even remotely accurate to appease their Master. I can only assume Lum pats them on their heads and gives them a cookie.

I've added accurate information with sources--such as Lum taking down Slownewsday.net. This is cited on Brokentoys.org in Lum's own words. It is also saved on numerous locations on the web. Also added the documented rash of bannings of anyone who criticized Lum's new company or Dark Age of Camelot. Not trying to slam Lum, just tryng to keep the article grounded in reality. I'm afraid lum can't walk on water and his piss doesn't taste like wine--despite the gallons of it his followers love to drink. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Froglok (talk • contribs) 09:56, 8 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Please try to be civil, and assume good faith. As I pointed out in my recent edit summary, a self-published Geocities site is not a credible cource by Wikipedia's standards. Even if a source is found, the article needs to be written in an encyclopaedic manner. Your edits read like a personal attack. Hobson (talk) 11:24, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Update please.
I've never contributed to wiki before, and don't really want to mess with learning all the guidelines right now. I just wanted to point out that a quick glance at Scott Jennings' facebook page shows he currently works at Portalarium, which is the company making Shroud of the Avatar.

https://www.facebook.com/sjennings https://www.portalarium.com/

I imagine a more credible source might need to be found, but just thought you people might be interested in the news update - especially since Shroud is pretty much the spiritual successor to UO.

Klaste (talk) 18:52, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Taxi to Victory
I can't speak to it becoming a favorite saying of his fans, but it was certainly a favorite saying of several of us, the devs, at WWII Online, in part because of how some of the other devs on the team hated it so much (in particular, the dev responsible for the mind-bending decision that firing a weapon should require you to press ctrl, shift, x to draw your weapon, raise it, aim it and finally fire the shot). You can see me mention it on my blog, c.f. http://kfsone.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/someones-been-busy/#more-2276 and assorted other occasions.