{"id":520,"date":"2008-03-01T13:13:20","date_gmt":"2008-03-01T19:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/2008-03-01\/the-microsoft-gamer-dad-incident\/"},"modified":"2008-03-01T13:13:20","modified_gmt":"2008-03-01T19:13:20","slug":"the-microsoft-gamer-dad-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/01\/the-microsoft-gamer-dad-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"The Microsoft Gamer Dad Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"xboxgamerdad.jpg\"I’ve been feeling retrospective about GamerDad lately. Spending 4 years of your life doing something as tirelessly as I have tends to make things blur – so I thought I’d share my lowest moment with you, in case you were’t around to see it. WHAT HAPPENED? Xbox.com launched a Gamer Dad column, thus trading on all my credibility and accomplishments and creating confusion over who Gamer Dad really is . . . .<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was despondant for an entire weekend, feeling like the little guy. I had the law on my side but it takes a lot of expensive lawyers to get that done and – Microsoft seems to have a lot of cash. Also, have you heard about the Digital Diva? Her mark was taken by MS and they still use it to this day. Never paid her a cent. Evil, evil thing to do.<\/p>\n

On Monday I was prepared to talk to my lawyer, even though I knew I’d never be able to afford to win when suddenly my own readers began crowding the Xbox Community message board. Joystiq picked up the story, which then got Slashdotted, and then Tycho of Penny-Arcade offered to help and all of that made Microsoft suddenly rename the column Xbox Dad.<\/p>\n

Then Andrew Eisen of GamePolitics (owned by the Entertainment Consumer Association) printed the following story:<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in a name?<\/a><\/p>\n

Many GamePolitics<\/strong> readers will recognize the name GamerDad, aka Andrew Bub. For the past several years Bub has provided parents with reviews and other game-related articles aimed at families rather than hardcore enthusiasts. . . Late last month, Xbox.com unexpectedly launched an unrelated \u201cGamer Dad\u201d column.<\/em><\/p>\n

Without the support of the grassroots I wouldn’t have been able to protect my mark. I do own GamerDad\/Gamer Dad fair and square and it cost a lot of money. I’ve been offered cash money for the IP but have never sold out. I’ve built this name on radio, in newspapers, speaking at PTAs and Conventions, and on television for 4 years. All promoting the name GamerDad.<\/p>\n

Microsoft threatening me like that caused me to lose sleep and it adversely affected my health. Microsoft sent a PR rep to apologize (but so far nobody who runs Xbox.com has done the same) but the trauma was still there.<\/p>\n

I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.<\/p>\n

Aside from the heart attack, this was the worst time in my life.<\/p>\n

Hey, at least I won right? Yes, but it hurt to have a company that knows me, that’s worked with me, and that I considered an important ally – effectively try to steal or at least marginalize my very identity. Our relationship is good now, but I admit, when I hear about Microsoft – a bitter taste hits my mouth (it doesn’t stop me from playing my Xbox360 though) – and when I ran into a few of them at PAX last year (and they said nothing about it) made me lose even more respect for “Admiral Nelson” and the team he’s employed over at Xbox.com.<\/p>\n

It’s something I’ll never forget. Feeling small and powerless and among giants who step clumsily, despite the fact that they know for a fact that your down there.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, the fallout. I still get mail from people thinking I’m this guy. I never got an apology from him or anyone who was in on the decision – I did get an apology from one of their PR bloggers. And in the trailer for an upcoming documentary called “Nerdcore” I’m credited as … this guy. They googled GamerDad after talking to me and that’s the name that popped up.<\/p>\n

So, it’s hurting my livlihood and it was only up for 3 days total! Imagine if it’d been up longer. I shudder to think of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been feeling retrospective about GamerDad lately. Spending 4 years of your life doing something as tirelessly as I have tends to make things blur – so I thought I’d share my lowest moment with you, in case you were’t around to see it. WHAT HAPPENED? Xbox.com launched a Gamer Dad column, thus trading on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}