The Championship Gaming Series is making great efforts to make professional gaming a reality. Their players and website readers are exactly the right audience for my book, Playing to Win.

It looks like 18-year-old Avtar "Paddaman" Padda, an official writer for CGS, felt the same way. Here you can read his sloppily written rehash of my book/articles where he attempts to define the word "scrub," the concept of cheapness, and asks how far you should go to win. I wonder if he got that last question from my chapter of exactly the same name, or if he just saw it in one of my urls:
http://www.sirlin.net/ptw/intermediates-guide/how-far-should-you-go-to-win/

The cherry on top? He didn't even change the title (Playing to Win), created an image banner with his picture and the words "PLAYING TO WIN," and now the Championship Gaming Series makes ad revenue off this. The author doesn't seem to realize that he's done anything wrong. Let's see what Wikipedia has to say:

Plagiarism (...) is the practice of claiming, or implying, original authorship of (or incorporating material from) someone else's written or creative work, in whole or in part, into one's own without adequate acknowledgement. (...) In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination.

This is hardly the kind of thing CGS wants to be known for. I mean, what if the gaming press picks up this very post and links it all over the place, putting "plagiarism" and CGS in the same sentence? It's a shame since my content is such a great fit for them.

The best solution would probably be to replace the offending article with a written apology and a link to www.sirlin.net/ptw. Another acceptable remedy is simply giving proper credit. The author could have been much more effective in the first place by starting his article with an explanation of my works and then giving his own spin on how this might apply to certain games or tournaments. This would have allowed him to achieve his goals while still following those pesky standards of journalistic integrity.

In closing, I'll just say that I'm almost as flattered as when my friend asked me if I applied to his World of Warcraft guild, when in fact a Sirlin-impersonator applied, trying to spice up his application with a little internet fame. The lesson to be learned from all this? Don't apply to my friend's guild using my name, and don't rewrite my articles using only your name.

Thanks,
--Sirlin

Update 1: The article in question appears to have been removed. That was fast.

Lots of gaming sites are still linking to my articles on Playing to Win, but as I keep saying, the book is so much more carefully written, better organized, and contains several new topics. Now you can point your links to www.sirlin.net/ptw which now contains the entire book as well as links to my original articles.

It might be a good idea to link to the Playing to Win Index in the beginner section of whatever gaming community you're a part of. I know how tiring it can be to say all that stuff over and over to new (or old!) players, which is why I wrote it down in the first place. Incidentally, the book has beginner, intermediate, advanced, and elite sections, so you could also post it in the elite part of your gaming community's forums, if you have one. ;)

Yes, it's all free. If you find it helpful or interesting, I hope you'll either leave a donation and/or buy a physical copy of the book, too. Writing a book--even a short one--is hard and time-consuming. If you got any value out of it and you take that extra step to support my efforts we'll call it a fair trade and it will give me some encouragement to write another book.

Enjoy!

--Sirlin

Today two different interviews I did about Playing to Win went up.

One is an audio interview as part of Bridger's show on tsncentral.com. The show is about the real-time strategy game Company of Heroes, and this particular episode covered the concept of approaching the game (or any game) from the right mindset. My part appears about 43 and a half minutes into the show, I think.

The other interview appeared on Gamepro.com, conducted by World Forms.

As always, some people think it's super great, and I put into words what they always wanted to say. Other people hate it and think it's a stupid mindset. I'd say most of those people are not really listening very closely. Perhaps it came as a surprise that in the tsncentral interview, I said that playing to maximize your ranking is something I mostly look down on, and that playing exclusively to win is a barrier to your own improvement. Anyway, you can listen to it yourself if you care.

Thanks to both Bridger and World of Forms for being thoughtful interviewers who did their homework and asked great questions.

--Sirlin

Gamasutra.com has my book excerpt up. Thanks guys!

I guess I should set up some distribution with a traditional book publisher as well, perhaps MIT Press or Paraglyph Press or someone. Too many things to do, I need an agent!

--Sirlin

Clint Hocking is Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal. You may know him from a little game series called Splinter Cell. I've seen Clint in three different Game Developer's Conference sessions over the last two years, and each time I was impressed with his thoughtful, analytical approach.

Anyway, after his latest lecture, I handed him a copy of my book, Playing to Win, and it looks like he liked it and got a lot out of it. Here's what he had to say.

Thanks Clint, I appreciate it. Writing a book is hard and it's nice when someone notices.

--Sirlin

I can't even update my website anymore. Hopefully servercentral.net will straighten this out soon.

I appear in the Fall 2005 issue of Game Developer Magazine's Game Career Guide. I wrote an article on "A Day in the Life of a Game Designer." Check it out, it's dangerously close to the truth.

I'm going to the Evolution Fighting Game Championships tomorrow, both to compete and help run the event. www.evo2k.com. NOTE: I am brining somewhere near 100 copies of my book, Playing to Win, to sell. This is a special print run, individually numbered and signed, with the Evolution logo on the cover. The regular run of the book won't be available for another 60-90 days.

Ok, see you guys later.
--Sirlin