Sam & Max, Freelance...Wankers?
First, a little backstory: A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, LucasArts made a game called Sam & Max Hit The Road, and it was good. And then there was to be a sequel, Sam & Max: Freelance Police, and it was also good. But then LucasArts woke up on the wrong side of the bed and cancelled Freelance Police, and it was not good. Rioting in the forums and the streets occurred, petitions were signed, etc. But things slowly settled down...until along came Bad-Brain Entertainment, a German publisher/developer which popped up out of nowhere and began throwing about rather specific hints that they were in negotiations with LucasArts for the Holy Grail of Adventure Gaming Freelance Police. And some of the fanboys thought it was good, but some did not.

And then a few days ago BBE announced that negotiations had failed. Whereupon the shit hit the fan, big time.

It all starts with a thread created by BBE at the Inventory's forums (which was officially endorsed by said forum in a mass-e-mail sent out by the admin) asking people to post and ask Steve Purcell to give BBE the rights to Sam & Max. In between the whining and pleading, some infighting begins as the anti-BBE folks show up. bigj unintentionally sets off a BBE vs. TellTale Games wank and also insinuates that the folks on the TellTale forums eat their own on a regular basis (he must have them confused with F_W). TellTale supporters are not happy.

But as if a bunch of bickering fanboys wasn't good enough, the press gets involved. It seems that both GameSpot and Aventura y CÍA were led by BBE to believe that negotiations had concluded positively. BBE denies this, repeatedly.

kelmer, who is apparently somehow affiliated with Aventura y CÍA, starts claiming that BBE called them five times and said they'd secured the rights. When people rebuff said claims, kelmer responds with appropriate maturity in a well-thought out post: "Whatever. Keep living in Happy World."

To counter kelmer's claims, d.manos, the Inventory's site admin, makes a lengthy post highlighting Aventura y CÍA's misdeeds. Conspiracy theories are invoked:

"They even came up with some kind of conspiracy of mine, which involved me making advertisement deals in Spain out of which the translators would get no money. Since the day I stopped providing them with the Inventory issues, there were a lot of 'strange' events that took place oh that site."

The thread quickly devolves into a caged death match between d.manos and kelmer...and currently ends with some guy named Lehmen, apparently also affiliated with Aventura, calling d.manos a liar and telling him, "Obviously, who's not continuing working for The Inventory is me, and you can take your magazine and put it in your ass, you who are calling us hypocrites and who are giving us lessons of profesionalism must think about your own proffesionalism starting this thread. And, please, retire also from your web site the numbers of The Spanish Inventory that you have uploaded, take them and put them in you ass too."

Mmm. Ass.

d.manos, who apparently refuses to quit making himself appear unprofessional, then proceeds to post a thread entitled "Adventure games should die a slow and painful death," in which he tells everyone that they suck for all the arguing going on over the past two days. That thread quickly becomes Udvarnoky against everybody.

The insanity is discussed more rationally at the Adventure Gamer forums, where you can witness kelmer's initial posts about the negotiations, which get ignored as the shit continues to hit the fan, and some relatively sane "what the shit is this, BBE?" discussions.

I believe The Silent Dude at Adventure Gamers said it best: "Internet Drama at its best." My baby fandom's gone and gotten spooge all over everything. I'm so proud.