The End of an Era. A New Future Awaits.

Prior to acquiring Twin Galaxies, I spent a lot of time researching its past, the community, and its many prior achievements. I spoke with people, listened to numerous perspectives, and paid close attention to the all of the nuance of TG history that I could find.

As a long time participant of video game culture in general, and being old enough to remember the actual beginning of Twin Galaxies, I was very interested in trying to understand why Twin Galaxies never seemed to reach its full potential.

In my view, after 30 years, Twin Galaxies should have been a household name where video game players worldwide would unilaterally look to for challenges and achievement recognition for everything video game related. The vision of TG was so grand, the opportunities so vast…

When I acquired TG, it seemed to be in the most deteriorated state that it had been in over 10 years. Just about every aspect of TG that one can imagine needed repair of some kind. The work that lay ahead was tremendous…

However, when I addressed the TG community for the first time, I expressed my enthusiasm and commitment to the process of helping to restore TG to full functionality and to work to provide video game players around the world with an opportunity to be recognized and honored. The new TG wished to extend the hand of friendship to the community and offered a new chance to begin again.

And so the work began…

Now many of you are aware that the TG community is filled with long standing arguments, accusations, battles and controversy. People attack each other frequently and there are numerous grudges being held even as I write this.

Some people appear to be forever gripped in the same battle, locked in an infinite loop of righteous indignation. It’s the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s with a video game backdrop. The negativity can sometimes seem so overwhelming, it actually takes the fun out of the whole experience of participating in general for many people.

More to the point - The long memory past history of TG and the community has produced the feeling of everything being frozen in a circular battle, repeating itself, over and over. Negativity in an echo chamber, amplifying itself. For some people, preventing growth, preventing change, preventing fun and happiness.

There are people who are scarred from all the forum battles. There are people who are defensive. People have been lied to and promised so many things that they lost count and now all that is left is perhaps a deep inner skepticism about things in the community and potentially about TG. It’s completely understandable– because you can’t fault anyone for wanting to protect themselves if they feel this way.

Given all this emotional history, when the new TG was finally brought online, I made it clear that the new era of TG was leaving the past in the past, that all transgressions had been forgiven, and that we all collectively should try to move forward to build something great together.

I was serious when I said that. I meant it. I learned a long time ago that the problem with gazing too frequently into the past is that one may turn around to find the future has run out on them.

So great! Let’s just all forget the past! Let’s forget the things that happened! I wasn’t there. I didn’t have anything to do with any of it! I don’t carry the baggage and you now don’t have to either! Away we go to a new and brighter future! Wheeeee!


You see, I have come to realize that while I can be forward looking and positive about the future of TG and the community, many people can’t do the same easily. Not because they don’t want to, but because of old historical emotional reasons that they are reminded of (perhaps needing closure of some kind. – or fear of disappointment once again…)

I’ve further realized that when I stepped into Twin Galaxies, I became the focal point for numerous unresolved historical emotional issues between some members of the community. It doesn’t matter that I have had nothing to do with these issues; I am still the focal point.

Why is this the case? It is because many of these matters can be traced back to something related to the culture of the old historical Twin Galaxies itself in either a direct way or an abstract one.

So I feel strongly now that it is time to more directly address these unspoken issues.

Here is one issue: All kinds of various things happened in the past that ultimately resulted in many people’s feelings being hurt at one time or another. Even though everyone involved had the best of intentions, events happened that were not always positive.


The issue is that as far as I can determine, Twin Galaxies as a historical organization has not ever fully acknowledged its participation in contributing to this situation. Always knowing that it was approaching things with nothing but the best of intentions, TG has either denied, ignored, or simply did not realize it somehow could have had a hand in any of it. So for many people, proper and complete emotional closure has never been possible – and wounds have not ever fully healed.

I believe that Twin Galaxies’ historical participation in these issues primarily stemmed from the kind of system it used to adjudicate scores. Much like the famous Milgram experiment or the story “Lord of The Flies,” the function of a system and environment help to define the behavior of its participants. The very method Twin Galaxies used could definitely adjudicate a video game score, but it could also create unintended conditions for all the people involved to participate in.

Let me give an example:

The previous eras of Twin Galaxies had a traditional style referee system. This system was composed of numerous volunteers or minimally paid staff whose job it was to review thousands of hours of performances and adjudicate scores.

Many of these people were friends, or became friends. Many of these people spent time together at events, or on the phone, or in discussion forums. Communication was essential to adjudication and submission procedures. In fact, in the past, Twin Galaxies maintained a discussion forum just for the referees and site moderators to communicate with each other privately about outstanding issues and concerns. This was essential and camaraderie was built as the ever escalating demand for more and more score adjudication overflowed the Twin Galaxies’ submission inbox.

These dedicated people were all well-intended, hard working, passionate individuals, taking their responsibilities seriously and offering their viewpoints and expertise and cumulatively working together to help build the incredible database and information repository that is Twin Galaxies itself. Most were doing it as a passion without pay of any kind. The contributions over 30 years have been nothing short of amazing.

During its time, the above system of score adjudication was the most comprehensive and professional method of its kind – and until the recent rise of modern technology, it was the only true viable system of adjudication available.

Ok so what is the issue? The issue is that when you are talking about score adjudication being subjectively reviewed by single referees in private environments, and a score gets rejected, it is VERY easy for the owner of the rejected score to suggest that they are being treated unfairly/unethically. It’s also easy to make accusations about other scores that have been adjudicated previously. Lastly, due to the closed-off private nature of the old TG adjudication system, it was easy to accuse referee friendship and communication between refs as collusion or a private club that worked not for players but against them.

It doesn’t matter if a claim was true or not. The point is that the very nature of this type of adjudication system allows claims like this to be easily made at any time and this can undercut credibility.

A suggestion like any of the above of course would put ANY volunteer referee into an immediate defensive position, and depending on the personality type of that particular volunteer referee, numerous kinds of responses may take place. Since we are talking about volunteer human beings and their feelings, these responses could be all across the map, appropriate or inappropriate.

That of course begins a cycle of accusations going in all directions, and then at some point a decision is rendered with the losing party potentially carrying emotional baggage from the entire experience.

Wash, rinse and repeat this cycle in various forms for 30 years. Now add well-meaning Twin Galaxies senior ownership that just wants everyone to be happy and is willing to potentially placate, sometimes telling one person one thing and another person something slightly different which then creates an overall sensation of emotional and policy inconsistency for everyone involved. This was an unfortunate side-effect of just trying to do the right thing and help people get along in tough situations.

So clearly, while this older system was quite effective at adjudicating scores professionally, it could only be as unbiased and efficient as its human voluntary referee staff was collectively capable of managing while they also managed their own REAL jobs and lives.

It’s incredible when I think about it. Passion drove this process. Passion built Twin Galaxies. Every single ref that ever contributed to Twin Galaxies I personally greatly appreciate, honor and thank them for doing their very best under incredibly challenging circumstances for numerous YEARS.

This was the system that Twin Galaxies had, and despite its obvious flaws, it still was the best. It set the standard and the tone. It still does.

Clearly, a system like this, running for years, is going create some human issues. It is ridiculous to think that it wouldn’t. Every organization has issues. When you are talking about people, you are talking about issues.

One of the issues that I have found with Twin Galaxies is that it had a tendency to hide or downplay these issues. I have determined that it did not do this with any malicious intent – in fact it is the exact opposite – Twin Galaxies downplayed issues specifically to keep people from getting hurt or upset - At least in the short term.

The problem with that approach is that eventually the avoidance of confrontation and clear communication results in the creation of a culture and tone of more diffusion/denial and not one of inspiring directional leadership.

I have noticed a lot of conversations throughout the community that thematically revolves around this issue and it is one of the reasons why the community has trouble forgetting and forgiving the past and moving forward.

So lets get back to the referee stuff, because it is important.

As I mentioned, in the past, Twin Galaxies maintained a discussion forum just for the referees and site moderators to communicate with each other privately about outstanding issues and concerns. These forums are no longer in use for the new TG Era and they were last updated in 2012 during previous ownership.

The forums contain very candid discussion and debates about scores, variation tracking, events, records, abusive users, potential cheating, etc. All the stuff you would expect volunteer referees and mods to be talking about. Under the old TG adjudication system, referees and mods had to historically take a tremendous amount of verbal abuse and harassment from all kinds of external people who would have their own agendas. There are rants of frustration about things, and accusations and apologies. Free speech and all that. Pretty much just like our public forums now.

There is nothing particularly unusual about the forums or their content, other than the fact that the old TG kept them private as part of its more non-confrontational and behind-the-scenes style adjudication philosophy.

(In contrast, the new TG has no inaccessible active user participating hidden forums. All VERIFIED members can see everything. Everything is overt, deliberately.)

When I resurrected and restored all the old Twin Galaxies forum data, those old private referee forums were restored as well. These forums have been left closed, locked, and deactivated, as they serve no function at this time. There are no current TG referees.

Recently, I was informed by semi-panicked former referee that a certain member of the community with an axe to grind managed to acquire and copy these old referee forum posts and was threatening to release them to the world. OH NOES!

I found it very strange how concerned, upset this former ref was when he contacted me about it. My thought was, “So What? Big Deal.” There are no nuclear secrets in there. It is just refs doing refs work. The stuff is old and has no bearing at all on how the new Twin Galaxies currently functions or will function.

But then I started thinking about it more. I realized that part of this person’s panic was a byproduct of the general tone set by previous versions of Twin Galaxies itself. …Keep things quiet, downplay an issue, just try to keep everyone happy, etc. “If that information gets out, some crazy person will just try to use it against us!” Etc.. Fear and avoidance. It was the side effect of the old system I was bearing witness to.

Making matters worse, there have been many times historically that people have felt that despite their hard work, when some trouble came along, TG left them holding the bag and looked the other direction or acted like it had no idea.

No, this former referee was honestly reacting this way because that was the condition and environment he was brought into, that was his past – and this was an example in my face of why it is hard for many to move forward and break the cycle – because TG has not yet cleared the “air” of certain things. TG has not yet stepped forward in its own right and taken responsibility.

Anyway, back to the stolen forum stuff:

After I was able to verify that indeed this person was in possession of the old forum stuff, I investigated how it might have occurred:

But what we actually think is the likely scenario relates to the fact that we are currently and constantly working on this new TG site (fixing database, adding functionality, adjudication, etc.) and this particular user was in a very unique user account type, and somehow during our work on the site, that specific account type became able to view those archived, deactivated forums for a period of time. So when this user logged in, they just were able to see something that was not available to the public. This was a computer error. Eventually, through our normal work, it reverted back and access was restricted again (this is why when we initially looked at it, everything seemed normal.) We have since gone through and made sure that this situation could no longer be possible under any theoretical server state condition.

Ok, so with proof in one hand and a plausible understanding of how it may have occurred in the other, I called the particular user who had taken the information and listened to what they had to say.

They made demands. Wanted things. Attempted to convince me to do some kind of back room deal as if they were a kidnapper negotiating for a payment.

This got me thinking. Why would this person think that I would be calling them to negotiate anything? Once again, the bell goes off in my head. This is the kind of thing that must have transpired in the past. Placation. Submission. Just doing everything possible to keep things quiet and people happy in the short term when a big noisy problem happens. To be fair, this approach was always historically done with the best of intentions, certainly.

So here in my face is yet another part of that historic insidious aspect of the community culture behavior, weakly attempting veiled threats and manipulation to get what it wants. Ultimately, this is a byproduct of that old TG adjudication system that had individual volunteer moderators and referees infused with so much authority that conversations like this became possible. This method is being used on the new TG now, because it must have worked in the past.

No longer. Not in this new era. Please.

After listening to the demands and various justifications for why this person took the information, I explained to this community member that they were in possession of stolen data and they should delete it immediately. I explained that just because a systemic error granted them temporary access to that information, that data was not public and they are not granted any rights to use it or own the material. I additionally explained that in order to use the TG site every user must agree to the Terms of Service and that clarifies the matter even further. Lastly I explained that any release or unauthorized use of that information would be dealt with harshly in the appropriate legal manner.

Now what is interesting about this situation is that the new TG is under no legal obligation to keep the old adjudication and forum messages private in any way. The fact is that TG owns the messages outright and no privacy obligations of any kind were transferred in the acquisition agreement. So really, the new TG could publish a book with all the forum messages if it wanted to. However, those rights belong to TG and not to the user who stole them, and all of TG’s rights to own its own data need to be protected, regardless of what the data is. That is the primary point and issue at hand here.

When I think of the nervous referee who had contacted me about the matter initially, the primary concern was “OH NOES, people will see what referees discussed! They may take things out of context and use it against me!”

Let me be crystal clear on this matter:

THERE IS NOTHING INHERENTLY WRONG WITH ANYTHING THE REFEREES HAVE SAID OR DISCUSSED IN THE FORUMS. THE NEW TWIN GALAXIES STANDS BY ALL OF ITS FORMER REFEREES. EVERYONE WAS MAKING THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS THE BEST THEY COULD WITH THE TIME, PATIENCE AND SKILLSET THEY HAD AVAILABLE. EVERYONE WAS WORKING WITHIN A DIFFICULT SYSTEM AND EVERYONE WAS TRYING TO DO WHAT THEY THOUGHT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO FOR TWIN GALAXIES AT THAT TIME. THERE IS NO SHAME IN THAT KIND OF AMAZING EFFORT. PERIOD.

As I mentioned earlier in this long posting, the referees are human beings who have mostly volunteered their time do help support Twin Galaxies and give what they could to the adjudication process. This means they these people were spending hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of their limited free time watching video game performances. They were working within a TG system that was set up in such a manner that problems were going to happen no matter what.

But of course, as mentioned earlier, the system was not perfect, and claims of occasional wrong doings were made. Most of the time, these claims were flat out wrong, but sometimes the claims were in fact TRUE but never given much formal acknowledgement.

This is one of those things that has been festering for a long time and interfering with the healing process. So it is time for Twin Galaxies to acknowledge some things.

In the 30 year history of TG adjudication, depending on an individual’s point of view, did anything ever happen in one specific situation or another that could be construed or interpreted as:


YES YES YES YES to just about every normal negative social aspect of the human condition.
Did historical refs and mods and TG ownership sometimes get emotionally caught up in things? YES. Were some people’s feelings potentially hurt by it? YES

YES IT HAPPENED.

You will find that this message I am typing does not contain names. It doesn’t need to. Single individuals aren’t to blame for these historical issues. The cumulative effect of the historical Twin Galaxies was what set the stage, the “game” if you will and the resulting players just moved in that system doing their job. It’s not about individuals.

For example, imagine that Twin Galaxies invented Basketball. It set the rules, the goals, etc. Now the players move on to the court and play. While playing, player one bumps into the referee while going for the ball. This is what happens in Basketball. Although bumping into people and knocking them down is not the goal of Basketball, this unintentional side-effect is what the system of Basketball can produce.

So again, it was the nature of the system that created all the above effects – And it is the creator of that system, Twin Galaxies itself, that needs to step up.

We are all ultimately flawed and it will show itself in our work from time to time. This is not news. This is not surprising. We all learn from our mistakes, apologize and move forward.

It is important to also recognize that the door swings both ways. To wit:

In the 30 year history of TG adjudication, did anything ever happen that could be construed or interpreted as:


We are talking about nearly 30 years of people working together just doing the best they could (which was pretty damn great.) Were there mistakes made? ABSOLUTELY – but nothing can be perfect. There can be no reasonable expectation that normal human error and emotion hasn’t played a role within a large, ever changing, volunteer staff of passionate people dedicating their time, hearts and energies to adjudicating video game scores.

With that being said, the old TG ref forums are still a very positive thing. Why?

It is because:

THE OLD TWIN GALAXIES REFEREE FORUMS ARE PHYSICAL PROOF AS TO HOW HARD THE REFEREES AND EVERYONE ELSE WORKED AND DEDICATED THEMSELVES TO MAKE TWIN GALAXIES AS SPECIAL AS IT IS. THE INTENTIONS WERE NOBLE. THE VISION WAS INSPIRED. THERE IS NOTHING FOR ANYONE TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT IF PEOPLE SEE ANY OF IT OUT OF CONTEXT OR OTHERWISE. IT IS A GRAND BODY OF WORK EVEN WITH ITS FLAWS AND EVERYONE INVOLVED SHOULD BE RESPECTED AN HONORED.

A person can take anything and pick it apart to serve their own purpose. That’s easy to do. It’s always easier to destroy than create. Pay those people no mind as they are wasting your time and are bitter, emotionally challenged individuals.

I believe that in order for the community to really heal and move forward, Twin Galaxies must recognize its historic role in all things, not just the “good” things.

So here it is:

Twin Galaxies is stepping up. Twin Galaxies is admitting its historic faults up front right here and right now. Twin Galaxies wants to apologize to every single person who fell victim to some of the negative aspects of the community culture that Twin Galaxies helped to create through some of the very systems it used to adjudicate scores - which would invariably wind up creating interpersonal conflict from time to time. Twin Galaxies apologizes for historically attempting to placate people for the short-term dissipation of a problem instead of confronting and leading for the long term. Twin Galaxies apologizes to every ref that ever felt unsupported in really tough adjudication situations. Twin Galaxies apologizes to outside organizations or players for any mistreatment, lack of respect or attempt at stealing their media attention. Twin Galaxies apologies for any highly biased mistreatment that anyone may have ever received from the organization or system that it established for whatever reason.

These things DID happen. Twin Galaxies is standing before you and admitting it point blank and it is very sorry that any of it did.

I’m sure I’ve missed many specific things, but please understand the basic intention with this post. The new Twin Galaxies is not hiding behind anything. No secrets. It came right out of the gate telling everyone that it has forgiven everyone’s past transgressions. It only hopes that everyone will in turn forgive the historical Twin Galaxies.

As we look toward the future please know that the new TG era is working very hard to make sure that it does not create systems and situations that might accidentally reproduce this old issues. The new Twin Galaxies is incredibly aware and sensitive of the historical matters.

While Twin Galaxies is formally apologizing it also wants to make it crystal clear that all Twin Galaxies ever has done, is the best it can, given its resources. The growth, vision and ambition of Twin Galaxies would sometimes overwhelm and exceed its grasp. The intentions of TG and its volunteer staff were ALWAYS positive.

With everything that has now been stated, rest assured that there is now no need to try to prove some minor point regarding any individual’s past statements, behavior or decisions. It accomplishes nothing today and the past can be let go of. This posting is final proof and acknowledgement of all that historic stuff. Hopefully some closure can be found. Twin Galaxies has taken responsibility and recognizes that it may have inadvertently helped to set the stage that some of the historical community circus show took place on.


While this letter is an acknowledgement of the past, it is not intended to be an indictment of it or anybody. Former staff's cumulative accomplishments are nothing short of incredible and this new era of Twin Galaxies today is not implying that the previous eras were invalid in any way. TG only exists BECAUSE of its history. This posting is merely TG, a member of the community, publicly recognizing the reality of its historic existence. This is the end of the past being allowed to have any more negative life and it is being done as a once-and-for-all effort so that we can all together heal our wounds and finally allow ourselves to move forward toward positivity.

What about the people who hacked TG in the past and stole the database?
Forgiven.

What about people who tried to ruin the Guinness relationship?
Forgiven.

What about those people who just have tried to ruin and discredit TG in the past?
Forgiven.

If TG can forgive these things and offer people a second chance, then perhaps the community itself can do that too, and people can give each other second chances. We are all in this together.

Everyone is invited for an opportunity in this future. For those that wish to remain in the past, they can stay there. It is their choice. Just like Red said in the film The Shawshank Redemption, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

We are working hard here at TG to get the new submission and adjudication process complete. We are eager to start taking scores and recognizing achievement. We appreciate the community’s patience in all of this and we are taking everything step-by-step. Exciting times are ahead of us. Welcome to the new era.

If you made it to the end of this message you are a champion. Hopefully the biggest skeptics will be able to slowly find a way to continue to believe and support this renewed effort that is Twin Galaxies.

Humbly and respectfully,
-Jace