Mark Kern Is Offering Em-8ER Credits To Firefall Players
The entire saga of Mark Kern has been an odd one. First, the man was removed from his own company. Then he starts a tabletop gaming project. Then he decides that the tabletop gaming project isn't good enough; he's going to take the universe he's built and create a successor to the game he was creating at the company that he was removed from. Then he hires on one of the programmers behind the infamous vanilla World of Warcraft private server, Nostalrius.
Those interested can find a more complete recounting of the Mark Kern saga here.
Now, he's convinced that players of the game he was previously creating, Firefall, need compensation. A recent newsletter that was sent out states the following.
Firefall Founders and players: We are offering you a full credit on your original Founder packs for Firefall towards Em-8ER. Also, any Firefall player prior to the end of 2015 can receive a $10 credit by verifying their account here:
The whole concept of this "full credit" amuses me. As the one blamed for most of what happened to Firefall, one would hope that Kern's attempting to make amends for the unmitigated disaster that was Firefall's development, to win back some of the fans that he had perhaps lost. But somehow, I doubt that. This is probably much more simply a way for Kern to look good in the face of a very large amount of bad PR surrounding him while simultaneously subtly subverting the legitimacy of Firefall as he sets his own project up. After all, to successfully push the successor to a game that still exists, one has to make it look as if the original isn't worth playing anymore, right?
Regardless of the actual motives behind this move, it is an odd one. Given the small number of people that actually ask for refunds for games that they hate, I'm inclined to say that not many will take Kern up on his offer.
