April News

[Ross Scott]

Here's some news on what's going on this month:

 

APRIL FOOL'S DAY

 

I seem to have disappointed more people than usual this year, and I admit, this might be the meanest AF joke I've done. Sorry about that, my intent wasn't to make people feel bad, this was just the only idea I was able to come up with in time. I had some other ideas, but they were more elaborate and I didn't think I'd be able to do them this year. I literally thought I wasn't going to have anything this year, which would have been a first. The fundraiser was a huge morale boost however, and after I finished the last FM episode, I had the Freeman Across The Universe idea and decided I had enough time to go through with it. To be clear, I'm not planning on making Freeman Across The Universe. It's not that I want to disappoint people, it's that I REALLY want to make the machinima movie idea I have. I have confidence the movie will be the best video I've ever made and top Freeman's Mind AND Civil Protection. It's still going to take a long time however, and it's just not feasible if I'm busy expanding FM to other games as well. Also I wasn't lying when I said I forgot what game that screenshot is from. I think it's from a zombie survival mod for Unreal Tournament 2003 or 2004, but I COULD NOT find it again, I tried. Whatever mod it was, it came out no later than September 2004 if anyone wants to try and find it.

 

 

DOTA 2 VOICE PACK

***

EDIT: Below is the original post I made on this, but you can call off the dogs. Since my pack was rejected, Valve has since updated their guidelines (which they KEEP CHANGING) so that mine is no longer applicable. I'll re-revise it to their current iteration and try again. This will likely take a few weeks.

***

A few people have asked me what the status on this is. The answer is sadness and frustration. As stated before, Valve sent me an email months ago saying "the developers of "Dota 2" had to flag it as "incompatible", so it cannot be used within "Dota 2", yet the entry on the Steam Workshop is still pending. This is frustrating me to no end, because I can not get an answer WHY it is incompatible. They may be rejecting it based on the name, which is an easy fix, but it could be other mystery reasons also. I tried to follow the guidelines to the letter. The fact that they can't give me a REASON as to what's wrong with it I think is very unprofessional. Since then I have tried emailing [email protected] twice, [email protected] once, and made two separate posts in different DOTA 2 dev forums with NO REPLY. I honestly don't know what to do next. The only thought that comes to mind next is to resubmit the pack as the "Ross Scott Voice Pack" instead of the "Freeman's Mind" one (the pack doesn't contain overt Half-Life references). My guess is if I do that, I'll get another rejection notice, months from now, with NO REASON given again either. Frankly, I think this is bullshit. I spent months working on this, if someone actually did look this over, they could at least pick from some pre-selected reasons as to WHY it's not compatible (improper database format, audio quality, etc.). If Valve doesn't want my voice pack, I can live with that. But not even giving me a REASON so I know how to FIX it feels very dysfunctional and passive-aggressive from my perspective considering how much time and work I put into it. I feel like if they can't even give an honest reply why they reject a pack with thousands of votes, maybe they're not really ready to be operating the steam workshop for voice packs, or else they're understaffed. Since I've tried doing this cordially with no results, I'm thinking my next step is to gradually get more obnoxious about it. Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions how to contact SOMEONE at Valve about this, please let me know, or feel free to make noise about this to get their attention on my behalf.

 

 

GORILLA GONG

 

We have a BIG redesign coming to Gorilla Gong soon, it's going to add a bunch of new features, have a better layout, I'm really looking forward to it. I should have another post on that in a few days.

 

 

MORE VIDEOS

 

I plan to keep moving forward with more videos, but it may get held up a little bit as I have to do my taxes for two different countries, and the person who was going to send me the 500GB SSD says it broke in transit from Fed Ex, so I may end up having to get one myself afterall. Regardless, my plan is to get to a certain point in the game for Freeman's Mind (I think it's 2-3 episodes away), then do a small Game Dungeon spree afterwards, so I'll be alternating between those two series for the near future. I have some other things planned, but those are less definite at this time.

 

 

REPLYING TO PEOPLE

 

I am still WAY behind on replies, but I do still intend to reply to all emails. I kind of put that on hold so I could make the last Freeman's Mind episode and April Fool's Trailer. If I haven't replied to you yet, it's not me intentionally ignoring you.

 

- - -

 

ADHD version: Ross isn't making Freeman Across The Universe, he wants to make a badass movie instead, sorry. Valve isn't replying to Ross about the DOTA pack and it's kind of pissing him off. More videos coming!

 

LINK TO FORUM COMMENTS

[MrOpposite]

Man, you give better status updates than valve, and you're ONE PERSON...

[VeryShyPerson]

That is very rude not to give a reason to incompat the thing. But yay videos!

[danielsangeo]

I didn't think that the April Fools joke was mean-spirited in the least, and voicing "Freeman" in "every first-person game" would be too large of an undertaking. I thought it was hilarious, though.

[LSD]

The only thing i can imagine being wrong with it is that it uses the name "Freeman", and if that is the case, the fact they won't just say that is ridiculous.

Still, great to see dev.dota2 is the same circle-jerk filled joke of a forum it used to be.

[Xalder]

Well, I actually submitted a support ticket to steam support, but got some weird generic message. Probably because there was no selection for support with Steam Workshop items so I selected the community market.

 

I only sent my second response today but here's what it looks like so far.

 

Now we'll just have to wait and see if anything ever comes from that, either. I dunno. If we all organize to have everyone email Valve front desk with "Ross Scott 'Freeman's Mind' Announcer Pack" or something as the subject, that should cause some interest.

[Ross Scott]

Thanks a bunch, waiting is no problem as long as I feel like there's a chance of a reply.

[ScottD.Betson]

Thanks a bunch, waiting is no problem as long as I feel like there's a chance of a reply.

Ross you make me sad that you wont do Freeman Across The Universe since that would have been cool and would have been a cool Beatles Reference while you were at it too, but honestly I would love to see it in the future if you had some people do some voice work with you, since it would be kind of cool to see it happen, since it would be like a Meeting of the Minds but in a video game

I think if I could Ross, I would totally make the Freemans Mind Announcer Pack official for DOTA 2 since you sir made that a badass announcer pack from what I saw from the trailer and I love the references to old movies, you sir are fucking awesome, if you were a Movie Director you would be #1 in my books

[Xalder]

Thanks a bunch, waiting is no problem as long as I feel like there's a chance of a reply.

 

Well based on what I've heard about Valve and seen in terms of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 / Half-Life 3 and in regards to how they haven't responded to you, either, I don't have high hopes of getting a satisfactory reply from this.

 

I'm hoping at the very least it might start to get their attention so if other people do the same thing... yeah, who knows.

 

Ross you make me sad that you wont do Freeman Across The Universe since that would have been cool and would have been a cool Beatles Reference while you were at it too, but honestly I would love to see it in the future if you had some people do some voice work with you, since it would be kind of cool to see it happen, since it would be like a Meeting of the Minds but in a video game

I think if I could Ross, I would totally make the Freemans Mind Announcer Pack official for DOTA 2 since you sir made that a badass announcer pack from what I saw from the trailer and I love the references to old movies, you sir are fucking awesome, if you were a Movie Director you would be #1 in my books

 

Lolwut? What is sucking up to Ross going to accomplish for you? Besides making yourself look quite silly indeed.

On further note, your sentence structure is very poor. Periods never hurt anyone. Except boyfriends and husbands.

[DoNotRemoveBeforeFlight]

and the person who was going to send me the 500GB SSD says it broke in transit from Fed Ex, so I may end up having to get one myself afterall.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/02/singapore_data_storage_institute_a_drive/ I'm getting you this as soon as it's out in the market. A*STAR is still looking for mass-production lines, I think. Oh, I'm gonna send you some HDD before that. Maybe we can talk about this in my email I'd sent you.

 

I only sent my second response today but here's what it looks like so far.

A template reply. That is very unprofessional.

 

What is sucking up to Ross going to accomplish for you? Besides making yourself look quite silly indeed.

Agreed. Hey people, Ross has a life to lead like you and me. And he's a working adult, he can't rely on our donations alone.

[Will]

You did a great job on this year's "prank" video hilarious as usual.

 

Regardless, my plan is to get to a certain point in the game for Freeman's Mind (I think it's 2-3 episodes away), then do a small Game Dungeon spree afterwards, so I'll be alternating between those two series for the near future. I have some other things planned, but those are less definite at this time.

 

I assume this certain point will be the beginning of Xen? Either way, I'm really looking forward to these next couple of FM episodes, and RGD, and this movie, and whatever else you release in the future.

 

Honestly I really enjoy hearing you talk. Maybe you could release a weekly podcast? It probably wouldn't take as much precious time as any of your other projects, you could make money off of it through (hopefully minimal) advertising, and I'm 98% certain most people here would listen to it. Just had to throw that out there.

[DoNotRemoveBeforeFlight]

Honestly I really enjoy hearing you talk. Maybe you could release a weekly podcast? It probably wouldn't take as much precious time as any of your other projects, you could make money off of it through (hopefully minimal) advertising, and I'm 98% certain most people here would listen to it. Just had to throw that out there.

This.

 

EDIT: It's cool for the fans, but although Ross has a never-ending stream of ideas, he would have to plan on what to discuss on a podcast. iirc Ross did once with a bunch of other Mind series (hosted by IRAMightyPirate)...

[BTGBullseye]

Well, if you ever need any northern midwest American male voices with just a touch of southwest for any of your videos, I'm your extraterrestrial!

 

The FM voicepack would be enough to get me to play DotA2 again, so it looks like I won't be playing any time soon.

 

It would be nice to see you do a few other games' "minds" after you finish FM, but don't feel obligated...

[Will]

EDIT: It's cool for the fans, but although Ross has a never-ending stream of ideas, he would have to plan on what to discuss on a podcast. iirc Ross did once with a bunch of other Mind series (hosted by IRAMightyPirate)...

 

FM/CP/RGD/whatever news, gaming news, machinima news, LP news (kind of stretching it there), world events, random things. Collaborating with the rest of the gaming and machinima related podcasters and general community would be good idea. Either way it's rampant speculation at this point.

[SuperSexySniper]

Jesus $%^&ing Christ Valve.

 

My idea about that is to ask your fans to send a small email to valve. If one thousand people email them about the same issue, surely they can't ignore it. I've already emailed them.

 

Here is my email if anyone wants to use it as a template.

 

 

A voice actor named Ross Scott submitted a voice pack for Dota 2 named "Freeman's Mind" several months ago.

 

It's been flagged as incompatible, but the developers have given him no reason why it is incompatible despite numerous emails and posts on the forum.

 

He makes top notch quality videos and as I'm a large fan of his I am petitioning you to at least let him know what the problem is.

 

Sincerely,

 

-John

 

 

Formatting got lost but oh well.

[ShockSlayer]

[VeryShyPerson]

 

 

[NightMoves]

It's good to see Ross working on his movie project again. I know he took a break from it for a while during the whole machinima fiasco.

[ShockSlayer]

 

 

 

I can't blame them, it was my fault for not being more clear.

 

That said, the more upvotes we can get the better off we'll be, probably.

[realAniram]

So with the Gorilla Gong update will they finally fix their registration issue with the birth years? I know it's probably silly but after years of putting an earlier year when signing up for accounts after I turned 18 a while ago I really really don't wanna do it again because I should be damn well old enough for a site that doesn't sell anything.