http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Fries
Hmm... something to do with Microsoft and gaming...
What did you hear, Bjyman? Now I'm really curious!
Hmm... something to do with Microsoft and gaming...
What did you hear, Bjyman? Now I'm really curious!
Well, there was the time when we fans sent Ed Fries a petition to encourage the production of a new Tex Murphy game. Ed, when he received it, sent it to Chris Jones & Aaron Conners, pretty much told them nice try, & virtually forbid us not to do it again.
Is that the incident to which you refer?
Hammerhead
Is that the incident to which you refer?
Hammerhead
Last edited by joliet_jane on September 21, 2008 • 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
What the ****?Hammerhead wrote:Well, there was the time when we fans sent Ed Fries a petition to encourage the production of a new Tex Murphy game. Ed, when he received it, sent it to Chris Jones & Aaron Conners, pretty much told them nice try, & virtually forbid us not to do it again.
Is that the incident to which you refer?
Hammerhead
Am I reading that right? He FORBID it?
This is an unofficial site, and the USA is a free country. People here can say whatever the **** they want, he cannot FORBID anything done by this community.
I hope he loses one of his testicles in a minor athletics accident. I'm not even kidding.
I wanted to get back on this earlier but was a bit fuzzy on the details. I've just finished going through about 7 years of e-mails to find the specific messages concerning this incident as well as some info to refresh my own memory. BTW, I found some really funny or interesting mails over the years concerning the community, including the project we were working on led by Jim, the aborted game with Fred, old speculations about the identity of Coach DV 
and much more.
Anyway, back to the actual question. Like Hammer said, you probably recall all the efforts deployed when we were asked to petition MS and get our message heard. Among our vain attempts, I had managed, through MS tech support, to get a letter forwarded to Ed Fries, letter that had been approved by many old timers around here. Considering we didn't know Mr Fries' e-mails, this was the only channel I found to get things done.
According to the last e-mails I got from Krys over at Microsoft, the letter was forwarded on Christmas day of 2001. On January 7th, 2002, still according to emails, I received a letter from Aaron which implied, although carefully worded, that he had been asked to tell me off and that perhaps, after all, petitioning MS wasn't the right way to do things. This email was also CCed to Mr Fries and CJ.
The fuzzy part which I guess I'll never know concerns a mistake Chris M and myself might have done around the same time. I seem to recall one night trying to figure out what Mr Fries' email was (not being sure my letter would get forwarded) and so along with Chris we sent messages to random combinations of first and last names with a @microsoft.com. With most of the messages bouncing back we got a bit impatient and started writing silly things in the tryouts we were making, and it's entirely possible that one of them actually made its way to his real address, which turned out to be [email protected]. I don't remember what we wrote in those test e-mails but it's possible, although improbable, that something insulted him. This is all very hypothetical because the only thing I officially know is the actual letter, commandeered and accepted by all, made its way to his desk and I was told off about 10 days later, including Christmas holidays.
Either way, I think this thing was blown a bit out of proportions. Although it is to be mentioned that not long after this incident, Fries' office and HQ cut the Salt Lake branch off, and I guess we'll never know if it was related one way or another.
Long story short, I still feel bad for getting a bit too close and possibly hurting their chances, and a tad insulted that instead of replying to our letter, Mr Fries asked Aaron to tell me off
and much more.Anyway, back to the actual question. Like Hammer said, you probably recall all the efforts deployed when we were asked to petition MS and get our message heard. Among our vain attempts, I had managed, through MS tech support, to get a letter forwarded to Ed Fries, letter that had been approved by many old timers around here. Considering we didn't know Mr Fries' e-mails, this was the only channel I found to get things done.
According to the last e-mails I got from Krys over at Microsoft, the letter was forwarded on Christmas day of 2001. On January 7th, 2002, still according to emails, I received a letter from Aaron which implied, although carefully worded, that he had been asked to tell me off and that perhaps, after all, petitioning MS wasn't the right way to do things. This email was also CCed to Mr Fries and CJ.
The fuzzy part which I guess I'll never know concerns a mistake Chris M and myself might have done around the same time. I seem to recall one night trying to figure out what Mr Fries' email was (not being sure my letter would get forwarded) and so along with Chris we sent messages to random combinations of first and last names with a @microsoft.com. With most of the messages bouncing back we got a bit impatient and started writing silly things in the tryouts we were making, and it's entirely possible that one of them actually made its way to his real address, which turned out to be [email protected]. I don't remember what we wrote in those test e-mails but it's possible, although improbable, that something insulted him. This is all very hypothetical because the only thing I officially know is the actual letter, commandeered and accepted by all, made its way to his desk and I was told off about 10 days later, including Christmas holidays.
Either way, I think this thing was blown a bit out of proportions. Although it is to be mentioned that not long after this incident, Fries' office and HQ cut the Salt Lake branch off, and I guess we'll never know if it was related one way or another.
Long story short, I still feel bad for getting a bit too close and possibly hurting their chances, and a tad insulted that instead of replying to our letter, Mr Fries asked Aaron to tell me off
Part-Time Nomad
...and from that point forward Frank was never allowed inside the US again.
...all games stores endorsed by Microsoft now carry a "do not sell to his man" poster.
...and Frank now carries the scar of shame, branded onto his right cheek.
Blown out of proportion you say? Hardly.
And yes I remember the incident well... including a post from Chris Marsland urging all TM members to write letters to Mr Fries if they got the chance. What was the punchline I came up with for the whole campaign back then... oh yes: "It's either Tex Dies or Ed Fries!" ...ahh good times.
-Cub. =o)
...all games stores endorsed by Microsoft now carry a "do not sell to his man" poster.
...and Frank now carries the scar of shame, branded onto his right cheek.
Blown out of proportion you say? Hardly.
And yes I remember the incident well... including a post from Chris Marsland urging all TM members to write letters to Mr Fries if they got the chance. What was the punchline I came up with for the whole campaign back then... oh yes: "It's either Tex Dies or Ed Fries!" ...ahh good times.
-Cub. =o)