Salute All,
I'm sorry to inform everyone that the good people at the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, through no fault of their own, have been forced to cancel the scheduled RB3D LAN event in late September as part of this years Dawn Patrol Rendezvous in Dayton. It is also unfortunate as the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous won't be back to the museum for another two years.
We had agreed to simply bringing and setting up about 12-24 computers in a tent on a LAN network and running RB3D for the players and the public to play and enjoy by giving everyone the chance to at least virtually fly and dogfight in their favorite WWI airplanes. The museum agreed to supply us with the tent, tables, chairs, and power needed, and we were to be given a prominent location up front right next to the flight line so you could hear the engines and the smell the castor oil as you flew with your friends and virtual nemesis's on a LAN network and so we could share our interest and enjoyment of this game and WWI Aviation with the public.
This was our agreement with the Museum and explicitly what the good folks at the Museum asked us to do this year and what we were planning on and promising to make happen for all of you in the RB3D community. The event was set, the majority of the details and arrangements hashed out, the hotel rooms and LAN room booked, with players having already put in their vacation requests from work, making plans to attend, and with player registrations for attending and helping out with the event already coming in.
We had an agreement and a simple plan to run a simple LAN event for the folks at the museum who were not only ecstatic about us doing so, but who were going out of their way to let four grown men come to one of the largest and most famous aviation museums in the world to play RB3D while watching real biplanes fly over head.
As some of you may be aware there was also the possibility of setting up a permanent LAN site at the Museum, as well as running these type of LAN events at other air museums, events and venues and setting up possible permanent LAN's there as well. This opportunity could have been and was viewed by different members of the WarAces group as being strictly for fun, as a non-profit venture, or as a potential business venture.
Of the members of our group, Pickett was in it simply to have a good time with his RB3D friends. Tiger and myself were in it for the fun as well, but we were also open to the possibilities of where this might lead as a non-profit or business venture. Ernest, or our own RB3D Swamp Fox, was the one most keen on seeing what the potential business applications could be as he has been playing with this idea of setting up permanent LAN sites for several years, part of which included last years Rhinebeck RB3D LAN party where Swamp Fox was allowed to use the event to help gauge the public's interest as to the feasibility or marketability of the idea.
In his eagerness or his desire to peruse his own personal business interests in the idea, Ernest was looking farther into the future than either Pickett, Tiger, myself, or the good folks at the museum were comfortable with or interested in doing for this years first LAN event at the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous. The explicit agreement between WarAces and the museum was to keep things simple for this year and if all went well the coordinators of the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous at the museum, being a non-profit entity itself, would gladly give us their recommendation in approaching the museum directors as to a permanent LAN site at the museum and as a referral to use for our running similar LAN events for the public at other venues.
As such Pickett, Tiger, myself, and the folks at the museum began to have a difference of opinion with and were growing uncomfortable with Ernest's views and positions in regards to his desires, his reasoning, and his intent to try and take this first LAN event at the museum beyond both what we agreed to amongst ourselves and in our agreement with the folks at the museum. While planning for the future is prudent, as Ernest was looking at taking the potential business applications of LAN events such as this one to a higher level and beyond just the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous, his personal decision and choice to do so without the approval or even consultation of the other members of our group, and being contrary to our agreement with the museum, raised increasing tensions between us personally while putting at risk our ability to realistically deliver as a group what Ernest was hoping to do instead of what we agreed we would do. This also was jeopradizing the LAN event itself by his pressing the folks at the museum for more than we all agreed upon, or, what they had asked for.
I do not fault Ernest for looking ahead to the future while also looking out for his own business interests, which by necessity includes some of his unilateral dealings. That is both sound thinking and understandable to a point, but not when those dealings directly effect the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous event itself. On one side Pickett, Tiger, and myself were trying to simply set up the basic LAN event as agreed to with the museum. They had taken the "Let's wait and see what you can deliver and how this works on a smaller manageable scale for both you and us first." approach, while on the other side Earnest kept pushing for not only expanding the size and changing the nature of this years event, but was also asking for, and then demanding, commitments and guarantees from the museum now and before the event, for use after this event.
This difference of opinion was discussed and to no avail other than that we now had two groups with distinctly different approaches to this event. As a result, Pickett resigned from the project since it was not what he had signed up for, and so we lost both our LAN technician and the LAN server equipment. In speaking with Tiger, he and I were still intent on delivery to the museum and to the players the LAN event we had all agreed to and promised them. I inquired with Pickett if he would be interested in rejoining the project if we just got back to basics and he said yes. That left Earnest, with whom the three of us agreed that none of us could continue to work with on this project if he persisted in his present course, which he insisted he would do, and he has done.
In short, the three of us decided to stick with the original plan as agreed upon with the museum and we voted Ernest out, informing the museum of our decision, which they said they understood, and they simply wanted what we had agreed to. Tiger then informed Earnest by telephone of our decision and he was obviously not happy. We expected to hear something from Earnest and we were not to be disappointed. He threatened Tiger with a law suit and, just as before, he took it upon himself to contact the folks at the museum to try and get himself reinstated to the project. He asked to take over the entire event himself, hastily set up his own website claiming to be the "official" website of WarAces which we had already moved, and when he was told "no" by the museum, he then threatened to also sue the Air Force Museum or embroil them in his threat of law suit against Tiger, suggesting that they don't need the negative publicity. At this point the museum understandably cancelled the LAN event altogether as they cannot afford to involve the Dawn Patrol Rendezvous or the National Museum of the United States Air Force itself in a mess created over a simple agreement to put on a free RB3D LAN party in a tent hosted by volunteers from our community.
Contrary to Ernest's comments, Pickett is of extreme value and importance to this project through his knowledge, dedication, and desire to make sure the players and public enjoyed themselves. As for who's ego was in the way, I don't know many more people more humble than Tiger who set aside his own ego and personal feelings to include Earnest in this project. As for me, well I'm not a "commie" who despises business being in business. I just have little use for those who would use poor and disingenuous business tactics as a means to bully others to front their own self-indulgence of their ego's and over inflated sense of importance.
I wish to thank Earnest for ruining the chance of a lifetime for many of the players here, including myself, by refusing to think of anyone or anything else other than his own interests and work with our group and the museum to simply do what we all agreed upon to do.
S! Murph
