Open Retirement Letter To The Scene by Origin (OGN)
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1999 October 8
Blitzkrieg retires from the scene. He gives a good, long account into the running of Origin and it's politics.
- Text / Announcement
- Blitzkrieg, writer credits
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OPEN RETIREMENT LETTER TO THE SCENE
Hell, where to begin? It's been over a year since my return to the piracy
world, and a lot has happened. I guess we'll start out at the begining and
just let the story flow. I guess the prelude to all this happened when I
downloaded Baseball Mogul '99 (PDM beta =P) from a banner click site. I was
completely out of it, with no contacts at all. I had tried my best to find
Bluewater or someone I knew from the old days, but to no avail. I was reduced
to banner click and 30 user cable sites. This was bullshit heh. I needed
better. I emailed the imonkey team and got myself a beta for Football Mogul. I
randomly started messaging people I knew from the old days until I finally
found Butcher. Butcher remembered me, and was extatic to hear that I was
around again, and started telling me all about DVNISO. I didn't even know what
an ISO was back then, but I didn't have a cablemodem, and I sure as hell
wasn't interested in downloading a gig of crap when I could just get the rip.
I asked him about Razor and he explained that Razor was dead and if I wanted
0-day stuff, he could introduce me to ][ce. I'd never heard of the guy or this
group Origin, but I figured if he was gonna stick me on a site that was good
enough for me.
I got on a little site called Biohazzard. Which was cool. I didn't have to do
shit, and I just downloaded from this place as much as I wanted. Around this
time I started hanging out in the #dvniso channel listening to all the talk.
One day I heard someone talking about some old Razor stuff, and being wrong
about it. I corrected him of course, and he asked who the hell I thought I
was. I informed Shinobi that I was Blitzkrieg, at which point we both
remembered each other. I got invited to the private razor "friends" channel,
where most of the group treated me like a lamer and I didn't know anyone at
all. Shinobi got me on TTD which was a really cool site, so I was happy again.
But then the bug bit me. I went to Toast in Razor and told him about the beta
for Football Mogul I had. He got kinda exited about it, and started asking
more questions. He found out that I lived in Vancouver and asked if I knew
anyone who worked at EA. I talked to my friend, and he said there was a chance
that he could get golds for me early. Well when I heard this I told toast and
he was really pleased, but he wouldn't let me into Razor until I produced
something. Well I have to tell you... hearing that from an upstart who wasn't
even in Razor when I was didn't really please me in the least, and besides,
this ][ce guy was calling me like every second day with Butcher (a guy I DID
know) on three way. When The Renegade Chemist popped up and started talking
about how Razor screwed him (his words), I made up my mind, and told ][ce I
would join Origin.
The next day, Origin released Sim City and I got to pre it to Biohazzard. I
liked the way my name looked on top of the weektop. So I started uploading to
all the Origin sites using my leech account on Origin's WHQ. Most of Origin's
sites sucked ass, so I was able to backfill the shit out of them like crazy.
This propped up my stats a lot, and soon ][ce (who knew jack fuck about sites
and still doesn't) figured I was the best courier since Hoppermania. Well I
slowly taking over the site/courier coordination in Origin, and I was put in
charge of packing a lot of the releases. Well actually I pretty well elbowed
my way into both those areas. I don't think MrPumpkin was too pleased at my
attempts to wrest control of the sites and couriers away from him, but at the
time he was a little too idle to do much about it. Eventually I had control of
all Origin's sites and couriers, plus I got to do all the nfo files as well. I
liked doing the nfo files, because I was able to get my name and message out.
It was a good springboard to bigger and better things.
][ce started giving me more and more to do, because basicly I got shit done.
I wasn't afraid to piss off people, be it someone in my own group, or anyone
else. When I started the remake of our sites, we had BHZ, DLD, and TV. When I
finished, we'd picked up FH and E, as well as DF3, TR, and SOD. All these were
amazing sites in my opinion, and to this day FH and E are still in their same
positions within the group. I fucked up a few packing jobs, but I also
oversaw the release of more than a few big games. Origin was starting to move
from the UK-only group that it was when I joined to the global competitor you
see now. The courier team started to take shape as well. I rescued Nailz from
the clutches of the evil Razor (<NailzRZR> Origin sucks, I'll never join that
crappy group), and added a few other key guys, while weeding out the bad
apples.
All this was fine and good, but what I really wanted was to run my OWN site.
When Butcher asked me to start sending 0-day files to a little windows
platform warftpd site, I noticed that this place had a DAMN nice link. I was
intrigued, and every day as I backfilled this little hole in the ground I
grew more and more impressed. One day, the siteop of this little site came to
me and announced that he wanted to run Linux. I'd always wanted Origin to have
a USA WHQ, because I could care less about the euro sites and scene, and most
groups had their HQ's out there. When TV went down, I went after TOS with the
Origin WHQ lure. Only SJ could tell you how close they came to accepting our
offer, but they did think about it at least. Obviously, TOS never left CLS,
and there was no USA site other than it really worthy of a game group WHQ. I
decided to make my own.
I had always been impressed with Mgoh's skills on TV and DF3. He seemed to
really know his shit when it came to running a good USA site. When this new
box came available, I told Butcher that I was going to have mgoh and Gotan
help out on this new box. ATX was born, and the trouble in Origin started.
Once mgoh got his hands on the box, things started to happen fast. I knew
nothing about linux or glftpd, so I had to have someone do the dirty work for
me. Mgoh set up ATX and ATX-ISO in a matter of hours, and we opened for
buisiness the same day I learned the box would run linux. Since it was in my
power to give away Origin HQ's at will, I wanted to give this site a real kick
in the ass off the start. Origin WHQ was bestowed on the site, and I don't
know if a USA or any other site has had a more spectacular start.
We quickly picked up two other WHQ's for the site, leaving utils open. Well
Lester from DMS had been asking me to come work my magic on the utils side for
a while, and I siezed this chance to grab a top utils group WHQ for the site
as well. When I joined VGC, ATX was given that group's WHQ as a condition. I
managed to have IMHO the best four sites possible for that group. We had a 6
month 0-day archive, ATX, and TWO euro ISO/VCD sites. We even had an euro MP3, w
which as you probably know is not especially common. All this on only 4 sites,
and none of which was a real threat to ATX. Our cracking group PHS started
releasing like crazy, and we were literally their only site. Add to that my
odd -ATX release and we had more than enough exclusive pre's to make the site
home to more than one top "euro" trader.
But then the trouble started. Butcher and ][ce started adding every lamer
under the sun to the site with leech. Mgoh was forced to open up a third copy
of the daemon just to serve the OGN/DVNISO leech machine. Speeds started to
lag, and still they wanted more people added. I tried to explain that 50
leechers was already an insane number, and that adding more was simply
impossible... but Butcher and ][ce said that since ATX was "their" box, they
would add as many as they damn well pleased. I started to get really pissed
off. Back then (I cannot speak for now), the productive members of Origin were
periodicly given gifts of cash or hardware. I never asked, and in fact refused
a few offers of this nature. All I wanted in return for the weeks of 10 hour
days I spent working to help get Origin to the top was to run my little site
undisturbed. Well this wasn't going to happen. When I got a phone call from
Butcher screaming about not being able to add people, I quit the group the
next day. Three of Origin's sites left the group the same day... fearing what
an unchecked Origin would try to add in the way of leechers to their sites no
doubt.
This was quite a shock to Origin, but I don't really understand why. I fought
for them when I was a member, but when it became apparent that all my hard
work for the group was to be rewarded with nothing... I said fuck it. I left
Origin still siteop of their WHQ. I decided to keep my membership in DVNISO
because I was still enjoying the leech accounts I had there (hypocrite ain't
I?), but for all intents and purposes I did nothing for them anyway. I threw
myself fulltime into my utils group, and we were releasing like mad. It was
shit webware for the most part, but I never gave a shit about utils in the
first place, and megs were megs... it was only a way to help the site out.
Of course, the problems with ATX only got worse. I knew that ][ce wouldn't
allow me to run their WHQ for long after I quit the group, so I started
looking for other options. I found a little Canadian site called Basilica. It
was a true pile of junk, really slow with plenty of lamers on staff. Since I
still didn't (and don't to this day) know my head from my ass about linux, I
went back to mgoh with this new project. We started flipping around ideas and
the siteop was really impressed... but one day I had no more connection with
the box owner I had "found". 3 weeks later mgoh put up a site on the link
called "BMX". I was furious that he had gone ahead and done it without me, and
swore I would never work with him again.
Around this time, I started talking to Drizzt about joining PDM. I was
upfront about my lack of supplying ability at the time, and the response was
lukewarm at best. Drizzt kept telling me that he would be able to get me into
the group, but it never happened. I kept asking about it for a few weeks, but
dropped it after a while. To this day, PDM is the only group that has ever
turned me down.
The situation on ATX had gotten really bad. The leechers were out of control,
and the admin on the network firewalled the ip at one point. We had to do
something or the site would die. I called butcher about the problem and he
started accusing me of selling leech accounts on the site to make money and
hardware. This burned me and I showed him that on the site *I* ran, only
Bluewater had a leech account of my friends. Butcher started accusing me of
using *his* site to get myself into PDM (BW was a member as well as my oldest
friend in the scene). I explained that the ATX box owner had added 20+ leech
accounts on his own, but butcher refused to believe me, and taunted me by
saying that he knew all about how I'd been begging PDM to let me in and that
he was sure quitting Origin was the worst thing I'd ever done. Well I don't
beg anyone for anything, and though I freely admit that PDM wouldn't let me
in, I knew damn well that it was their loss. Butcher and ][ce started
spreading tall tales about my pay users on ATX. I think anyone with an account
on either of the other sites I've run since then can pretty well see that I
don't sell a damn thing on my sites. It was pretty funny to hear the
accusations of money making from the kings of cash. As site Coord in Origin,
it was my job to find leech accounts for a number of pay users. I on the other
hand never sold an ISO nor a leech account in my life. As for my friendship
with butcher? He tried to bury the hatchet, but the damage was done. I never
spoke to him again. We had been friends before, we discussed real life stuff
that we didn't talk about with other people... but he was convinced that I had s
somehow used ATX to make money (and I guess not given him a cut). Even after
he realized he was wrong, I didn't want anything to do with him ever again.
Mgoh and I decided it was all or nothing at that point. To save ATX, we had
to get rid of Origin/DVNISO. There was no way we could run anything resembling
a site with them on there. The powerplay failed, and instead we were both
removed from the box that night. Seems butcher fed the box owner a pack of
lies. Although we were pissed off that the leechers were killing bandwidth and
slowing down our top site, we were also concerned that the box would get
busted with so many lamers on it. Less than a week after we were removed from
staff, the box went down forever. Apparently the box owner was caught and lost
his job.
Well around this time, Resist from Razor (who was also in Vengeance) decided
to recruit me into that group. I had my reservations, because Razor was at
that time basicly a dead group, and I had said so publicly many times. I
wasn't really interested until I chatted voice with The Punisher one day, and
he convinced me that Razor was back on track and ready to compete. I really
didn't believe him, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. Razor did have him
and Beowulf, and as long as they had that, they were going to be able to do
something at least.
Unfortunately, it was evident from the start that I wasn't going to be able
to do much at all in Razor. I wasn't given any power to make decisions or take
action without first checking with 15 other people. That wasn't the way I
worked. I don't want to have to explain shit to 9 different people. Judge me
by the results, not the means. I don't think my whole time in Razor
accomplished a damn thing. For a while I did my best to get releases out
(read: lots of patches), but for the most part, I wasn't really given the
chance to organize much of anything. Apparently I was supposed to coordinate
the store team, but seeing as how an east coast EB opened 3 hours after I got
off work, that wasn't such a good plan after all.
After a while I was given the role of courier coordinator, but it seems that
nobody told anyone about it since two other people seemed to think they were
in charge. The whole ordeal was really taxing. I tried to convince some other
members of Razor that it was time to call it quits when we released Tiberian
Sun... but they rightly pointed out that if Razor died, some lamers would just
resurface calling themselves Razor 1911, and then where would we be?
Writing for NWR was great. I got the same kind of platform that I used to
have in the origin nfo files to speak to the scene as a whole (who didn't read
NWR?), without having to answer to anyone at all. The collumn was extremely
popular, and I like to think it was the fairest scene chart we've seen to
date. With Razor unable to compete at all, we only had the Total Annihilation
Kingdoms debate to worry about. Everything else I called as I saw it... and
actually on TA:K, I still think the rip we did looks just fine =). Of course
Origin continued their propaganda campaign against me (I hear I was accused of
packing fake -TK4 releases recently), and I guess I became a symbol of the
world vs origin bullshit that I was so sick of hearing even as a member.
Mgoh had decided to give me BMX back, and I promptly renamed it RFO and
started working solo. I feel that bringing this obscure Canadian site burdened
with an ISO section... on a 10bit link to the top of the USA scene during the
summer of 1999 was probably the accomplishment that I am most proud of. I
worked hard trading all day to keep the site fast, and I was rewarded with
top site honors for a few weeks in USCR, the weekly USA site ranking journal.
The site was so good, we even picked up a courier group WHQ. I still think RFO
at it's peak last summer may have been the best Canadian site ever, and until
we get a new backbone, we may not see another Canadian site do so well for a
long time. Especially sweet since some people in Origin liked to think that
the only reason ATX did anything was their affil on the door. Sorry guys, it
takes a lot more than that.
So after all that, what do I leave the scene with? Two sites, some back
issues of NWR, a bot relay channel, and few alup records on USA sites that
will surely fall someday. I'd like to think that when people think back on the
late 1990's, they will remember me 5 years from now. You would be surprised
how short memories are in the scene. If you are a siteop on a USA site, please
have the courtesty to leave my account active. I worked for those credits, and
I intend to use every last one of them... someday. I'll finish with a few
greets... and I'm sure I'll forget a ton of you if I make it long, so I'll
just name the biggest contributors to my scene experience.
Beowulf - The best I ever worked with. Maybe you aren't up to speed on the
best protections, but the fastest and most professional cracker I ever saw.
Bluewater - Maybe the only person to ever delete me off a BBS for being lame.
I wouldn't have ever gotten anywhere without his support over the years.
Brutus1 - A constant presence on my sites, his group pHASE has been WHQ on ATX
and now RFO.
Citizen - My RFO cositeop, and another protector of the USA scene. Don't let
it die when I go.
DaJackal - Aside from Beowulf, the best I worked with. It's just too bad he
never gave himself the credit he deserved. Everyone else had respect for him.
He had as much to do with Origin's rise as either ][ce or Cypher individually.
Devestator - You shoulda taken that WHQ man! =P
Genesis P'Orridge - The first of my two Canadian cracker friends from Origin.
It's too bad he's dissapeared lately, I always enjoyed working with him. Oh
by the way... this schmuck packed Lander and left my name on it. You can all
shut up now.
Guerro - I wish things had worked out better than they did... but I can't help
that you listened to the wrong people. A harsh price you paid for your trust.
][ce - The little English enigma. I probably owed him more than anyone else in
the scene, but the debt has been paid in full. Some day you will grow up and
realize that it's better to have the respect of your rivals than to beat them
every time and be thought a poor sportsman.
Lester - The two of us were in more groups together than I can count. (Well
actually it was just Origin, DMS, and VGC), but that's as many as anyone
else... plus he put out a damn fine scenemag. Don't let ttol do my collumn
dammit!
Lord Xar - The best box owner ever.
MarkGoh - The best siteop ever.
Nailz - My little project worked out pretty well. Oh, and Nailz. I noticed
your ratio on Falsehood. I bet yer still thanking me for that leech account
today =P
Ndetroit - TMS will be up tomorrow, we swear! Yeah whatever man, but you
rocked anyway.
Prozac - The consumate professional, I doubt there's anyone in the scene
without a healthy respect for this man.
Redman - Damn and to think I kicked you out of Origin. Just another example of
my hard approach to my jobs. Sorry about that man I was wrong about you.
Silent Joe - Nice guy or massive prick? I'll let you in on a secret. SJ is a
girl... it's the only explanation for his dual personality that seems to
change one week of every month.
Toast - Razor's last hope. Keep the faith man, and don't let the naysayers
get you down.
The Renegade Chemist - How does someone change so much over 5 years? A
completely different person from the guy I knew in 1994. Still, you have to
respect the man who ran the most dominant group in scene history. He was the
leader. I was a courier. Need I say more?
The Resistance - See toast.
Zip - Canadian cracker number two. If he ever decided to do this full time, he
could be one of the best ever.
And of course there were a few assholes who made my life annoying, but this
isn't the time for old grudges. All that will be forgotten in time. The
internet goes off forever this haloween, so say your goodbyes while you can,
because I am gone. I was going to include a pic of myself with the reason I
was leaving... but I decided nobody would believe me anyway =P. I'd still like
to meet Zip and Beowulf sometime, and maybe I'll bring her over. I'd like to
wish the scene the best of luck and remind you all of the risks that are out
there.
Peace.
Blitzkrieg
Razor 1911 (1992, 1993, 1994, 1999)
Fairlight (1993, 1994)
Origin (1998, 1999)
Rise in Superior Couriering (1993, 1994)
Dimension (1998, 1999)
VICE (1999)
Vengeance (1999)
Deviance ISO (1998, 1999)
pHASE (1998, 1999)