July 2009 Posts

Update on the Sports Legends Challenge Spam Story

I have decided to update my earlier post on Sports Legends Challenge. After some careful consideration, I felt the need to drastically update and restructure the post, to better explain the situation and to give deeper, more elaborate answers as to what is being done wrong and how it is happening. I also wanted to speak to the responsibility I have in writing this and how seriously I take it. As such, I have rebuilt this post from the ground up. I hope that it provides a clearer picture.

Con Artist Games

I forget what pointed me to it, but not long ago I discovered Armor Games – specifically, the games developed by Con Artist Games. They’re all great. The Last Stand and The Last Stand 2 are my favorites with Warfare 1917 right behind them, followed by Warfare 1944. I didn’t really get into Sin Mark, but it looks like a cool game. And I loved Crush the Castle, a game he had a hand in, as well. He does great work. If you’re looking for some fun games to try out and play without getting bogged down for hours, check him out.

Sports Legends Challenge is Engaging in a Despicable Online “Marketing Campaign” Relying on Lies and Spam (Presented by PokerNews and Absolute Poker)

Update (July 18): After some careful consideration, I felt the need to drastically update and restructure this post, to better explain the situation and to give deeper, more elaborate answers as to what is being done wrong and how it is happening. I also wanted to speak to the responsibility I have in writing this and how seriously I take it. As such, I have rebuilt this post from the ground up.

I want to be really clear when I say that I take the responsibility of my words extremely seriously. Words matter. Writing is what I do, whether it be for books, online publications or forums. If my words are without meaning, my work is without meaning. For this reason, I am exceptionally careful about exposing activities that would place a company or individual in a negative light.

This sort of post isn’t my style. You have to push me pretty far to make me talk about this sort of thing in public, where I prefer to talk about it in private. But, I have had enough and people (from participants to sponsors) need to know about this.

Sports Legends Challenge is an upcoming poker tournament in the Bahamas. It is presented by Absolute Poker, and it has many noteworthy athletes and sports figures attached to it, including Michael Strahan, Gale Sayers, Jerry West, Jim Brown, Ozzie Smith, Mike Ditka, Joe Namath, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Troy Aikman, Richard Petty, Sugar Ray Leonard, Emmitt Smith, Reggie Jackson, Julius Erving, Bobby Hull, Brooks Robinson and more. Various professional poker players are also attached. I suspect that if they knew what I knew – some of them wouldn’t be.