Fighting Game Community (FGC) General - The history of FGC drama, general FGC shenanigans, and directory to more eccentric individuals and subcultures within the community

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AutoGuyNoFile said:
Cripes it never ends with this fucking game. Thanks for the update as the Skullgirls saga is both gripping and depressing. Doing some research for another project, I found footage of the Pre-Pre-Alpha version of Skullgirls, when it was JUST Alex Ahad and NO ONE ELSE. It was jank as heck but I never realized Skullgirls started as JUST Alex Ahad's project. I bring that up because whenever I mentioned that the main people behind Skullgirls got booted from the project, people give me shit and say "ACKCHUALLY, Skullgirls is the product of many many people who all worked on the game and is not the product of just one or two people" and while technically true it really downplays the fact that it really did start as just one dude's dream.

I'm also reminded of the number of times I had been told that "the Skullgirls artist" was a woman.

The whole thing is a mess and just kinda disgusting which is why it's super weird that the game is continuing onwards. I mean Umbrella comes out soon and Black Dahlia is set to be revealed at the end of the month. That's what really bothers me. Who is in charge of the game now? Who is adding all these characters? Do Mike Z and Alex Ahad have ANYTHING to do with the game anymore? ANY input? It's just sad to see a game be ripped away from the people who made it. Even moreso to see a fandom that just...accepts it and makes excuses for it.

...

...OH YEAH THAT'S RIGHT! Skullgirls is getting into EVO this year so there were jokes that something stupid would happen to prevent its EVO apperance again. Well I guess some of that is in motion now.
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Because of all that, it's even funnier to see this curse over the game. It's unfortunate the trial will happen late in the year but still.
 
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Luigi said:
Because of all that, it's even funnier to see this curse over the game. It's unfortunate the trial will happen late in the year but still.
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Well, even if the trial isn't happening until later, any drama over the documents will likely overshadow discussion of the game at EVO in general.
 
AutoGuyNoFile said:
The whole thing is a mess and just kinda disgusting which is why it's super weird that the game is continuing onwards. I mean Umbrella comes out soon and Black Dahlia is set to be revealed at the end of the month. That's what really bothers me. Who is in charge of the game now? Who is adding all these characters? Do Mike Z and Alex Ahad have ANYTHING to do with the game anymore? ANY input? It's just sad to see a game be ripped away from the people who made it. Even moreso to see a fandom that just...accepts it and makes excuses for it.

...

...OH YEAH THAT'S RIGHT! Skullgirls is getting into EVO this year so there were jokes that something stupid would happen to prevent its EVO apperance again. Well I guess some of that is in motion now.
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It is a shame to see. I don't know that much about Ahad so I can't say much. But Mike Z seems pretty talented and really does some top-notch working making stable and smooth foundations when he gets his hands on projects, and at worst he just seems like a sperg. It just sucks to see anyone lose control of their passion project.
 
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A bit more info on the Mike Z lawsuit from an Orange County newspaper:

tl;dr:
Mariel Cartwright/Kinuko and Francesca Esquenazi sued Mike Z for wrongful termination after he was forced to fire every remaining employee since Lab Zero didn't have the money to pay them. They're claiming that he fired them in retaliation for them being brave and standing up against his sexual harassment of workers and that his 2020 "I can't breathe" George Floyd joke "sparked an internet outcry" and brought embarrassment to other Lab Zero members (I honestly don't fucking know what effect that second part about a George Floyd joke has in court).

Mike is countersuing on the grounds of intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic relations, defamation, breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, and unfair business practices or acts in violation of California's Business and Professions Code.

Mariel and Francesca filed a motion to dismiss Mike's countersuit by claiming that they were using their First Amendment rights when plotting against him in their private Slack. Even if this were effective, it would only challenge one out of the eight grounds Mike is suing them on.

Mariel and Francesca's lawyer seems to be just as incompetent and downright braindead stupid as his clients, because he ACTUALLY compared Mike Z to Donald fucking Trump, saying that the Judge ruling against the dismissal motion "would be akin to saying the allegations of Stormy Daniels against President Donald Trump were a private matter." Really trying to paint mike in the worst light possible by any means possible.

The judge really isn't having any of their bullshit, this is what she said in regards to their resignation letter:

Cartwright and Esquenazi alleged that the Lab Zero resignation letter that Cartwright wrote with Esquenazi’s help involved sexual harassment, a topic of public interest. But the judge said the letter only referred briefly to sexual harassment and largely dealt with a frustrated employee who talked about her plans to leave the company.
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Kinuko and Franci must've really thought they'd have it easy since the judge is a woman lmao. They're trying to pull out as many emotional cards as possible, calling on the names of Donald Trump and George Floyd to paint Mike Z as some kind of cartoon villain, thinking she'd fall for it because she's a woman. This shit is like a bad joke, I almost feel bad for this clownshow of a case (Just kidding, I fucking don't feel even the tiniest bit bad LMAO).

I hope Mike ruins these two.
 
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Ceral Funt said:
I'd argue MK9 was reasonably decent, but you have a point.
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Clayfighter: Sculptor's Cut is underrated but the real gem is Primal Rage 2 had it actually been released (go grab a ROM and a specialized version of MAME. It's worth it.). Somehow though we're still talking '95-'96 though. And yeah MK9 was decent.


Getting back on topic of the Skullgirls rollercoaster ride: I know a Skullgirls fanboy and no matter how much I try to explain the situation he just won't stop raging about what an awful person Mike Z is and how he won't give up on the game. But at the same time he plays entirely for the voice actors.

Gotta feel bad for this mess though because Skullgirls is basically the kind of dream game that the universe doesn't let exist. MvC2 but more balanced with high-res sprites with 3rd Strike level animation? No one can do that. Heck when they were doing the Kickstarter to finish some characters, folks at Capcom even said "That's too cheap. We could never afford sprites like this at that price." Basically for the game to happen, everyone had to be underpaid. Even Mike Z and Alex Ahad. They had to do a lot of this shit out of pocket and out of passion for the project. Which, again, makes it getting stolen from them so sad. I mean I really wonder if the modern version of the game still even functions right what with them adding in all these new characters. I also wonder if they're gonna stop being stupid and add in Minette (she came in second on BOTH character polls).
 
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Someone should've saved all the footage of this girl. I think shes autistic.

salmon.jpg
 
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AutoGuyNoFile said:
Getting back on topic of the Skullgirls rollercoaster ride: I know a Skullgirls fanboy and no matter how much I try to explain the situation he just won't stop raging about what an awful person Mike Z is and how he won't give up on the game. But at the same time he plays entirely for the voice actors.
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Even people that worked for Mike are quick to take Kinuko's side. Brady Hartel worked on Skullgirls and he also does anime stuff for Discotek. He regularly hires Kinuko to do cover art for their releases. When the allegations happened, Brady announce that he left Lab Zero and stands by his colleagues. That tweet was soon deleted, but it has been archived. I still have the original release of Skullgirls on my PS3. I know they added characters and removed fanservice, but are there any significant changes or upgrades in the other versions that were released?
 
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The Token Ethnic said:
Even people that worked for Mike are quick to take Kinuko's side. Brady Hartel worked on Skullgirls and he also does anime stuff for Discotek. He regularly hires Kinuko to do cover art for their releases. When the allegations happened, Brady announce that he left Lab Zero and stands by his colleagues. That tweet was soon deleted, but it has been archived. I still have the original release of Skullgirls on my PS3. I know they added characters and removed fanservice, but are there any significant changes or upgrades in the other versions that were released?
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Thanks for the further information on the other side of this thing. I'm still trying to piece together exactly what the crap happened and it's still confusing.

Aside from that I'd say adding characters and stages alone is a pretty significant change/upgrade but I'm sure there have been balance adjustments too.
 
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Neil said:
A bit more info on the Mike Z lawsuit from an Orange County newspaper:

tl;dr:
Mariel Cartwright/Kinuko and Francesca Esquenazi sued Mike Z for wrongful termination after he was forced to fire every remaining employee since Lab Zero didn't have the money to pay them. They're claiming that he fired them in retaliation for them being brave and standing up against his sexual harassment of workers and that his 2020 "I can't breathe" George Floyd joke "sparked an internet outcry" and brought embarrassment to other Lab Zero members (I honestly don't fucking know what effect that second part about a George Floyd joke has in court).

Mike is countersuing on the grounds of intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic relations, defamation, breach of contract, misappropriation of trade secrets, and unfair business practices or acts in violation of California's Business and Professions Code.

Mariel and Francesca filed a motion to dismiss Mike's countersuit by claiming that they were using their First Amendment rights when plotting against him in their private Slack. Even if this were effective, it would only challenge one out of the eight grounds Mike is suing them on.

Mariel and Francesca's lawyer seems to be just as incompetent and downright braindead stupid as his clients, because he ACTUALLY compared Mike Z to Donald fucking Trump, saying that the Judge ruling against the dismissal motion "would be akin to saying the allegations of Stormy Daniels against President Donald Trump were a private matter." Really trying to paint mike in the worst light possible by any means possible.

The judge really isn't having any of their bullshit, this is what she said in regards to their resignation letter:



Kinuko and Franci must've really thought they'd have it easy since the judge is a woman lmao. They're trying to pull out as many emotional cards as possible, calling on the names of Donald Trump and George Floyd to paint Mike Z as some kind of cartoon villain, thinking she'd fall for it because she's a woman. This shit is like a bad joke, I almost feel bad for this clownshow of a case (Just kidding, I fucking don't feel even the tiniest bit bad LMAO).

I hope Mike ruins these two.
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what are the allegations when it comes to trade secrets and unfair business practices?
 
After seeing how hard Gootecks crumbled, It's good to know Mike's stuck his landing. I guess he's working as a bartender now from the few clips I've seen floating around.
 
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