A View From The Other Side

Day 2,425, 18:36 • Published in Canada United Kingdom • by Leo Balzac

I was going to do this, then I wasn't going to do this, now I'm going to do this. What is this you ask? This is a direct challenge to DMV's article from early this morning. Why wasn't I going to do this? Simple. What had happened between Dennis and I (indeed it was only between us, until he brought it to a wider audience) was old news, it happened and was dealt with. What is 'it' you ask? Well, I was going to leave 'it' out but after his latest comments and PMs to me, I feel I must go one with my message.

Before I get to far into this, I want to say to Bruce that I am indeed sorry for making you feel vulnerable and uncomfortable in this game. I feel like I must explain my actions. Your twitter feed was discovered late last night when Muglack did a Google reverse image search using the photo you had posted to the eCan forums. While reading through your twitter feed I saw lots of poetry (some good, some decent, some downright bad but no different than if someone was to go through my personal writings) and many mentions of eRepublik. I took this, obviously erroniously to mean that you weren't trying to keep the two exclusive. I then selected the passage that I liked best (my comment on your article) and posted it as a comment. Had I known that this was something that you wanted to keep private (even though it was on a public twitter account) I wouldn't have done what I did.

In the end, the error was mine and this is my mea culpa. Bruce, I am truly sorry for my actions, especially since they have caused such pain and turmoil for you. Please accept my most sincere apology, not as Leo Balzac the player but as Nick Wallace the family man.

The situation with DMV3 or Dennis McVicker or DMV is much more convoluted. I feel it is necessary that I explain my side of the story; for the final time.

Around 6 months ago, Dennis was a newcomer to eCanada, he was throwing his money around buying friends and campaigning to run the country fresh from a 2 month wipe. I, naturally opposed Dennis and back his opponent in the CP race, a legendary eCanadian Acacia Mason. Not one week prior, I had the privilege of eating a delicious lunch with Acacia, MaryChan and JBdivinus. As a bit of a backstory, Acacia had always been a fiercy private man, leaving the game for 6 months at one point after a particularly nasty player exposed his RL name, address and place of business.

Acacia had chosen to be eCan's natural champion, Dennis was the foreign challenger, throwing around CC and gold like no one before. Acacia had been leading the race in all the polls I and other had conducted. I arrived on IRC the fateful night to find Acacia an absolute mess. When I questioned him about what was going on, he proceeded to tell me that Dennis, that is Dennis McVicker AKA DMV3 had threatened to expose his RL information again, unless he withdrew from the CP race. I'm not going to lie, I was livid. Here was a player I had the upmost respect for, one of the first players to speak to me in #eCanSP (if you know what this is, then you are truly an oldfag), a man I had recently met and gained even more respect for as a result of our RL meeting. I knew Dennis was hanging out in another channel, I sought him out and in a moment of extreme emotion, a moment that I regretted until very recently I said "Dennis, How's your mom?". Now, I had heard his mother was sick, I had heard rumour that she had passed, none of this mattered in that moment. In that moment I was protecting a man I knew, from a faceless internet persona who was attacking him on a very personal level over a browser game.

Almost immediately after typing those words, and seeing the reaction of others in the channel, I felt sick to my stomach, I realized what I had done. Dennis quit IRC almost immediately as is understandable. When he finally came back on, I immediately apologized. I knew, in the heat of the moment, in a fit of passion that I had crossed a line that should never, ever be crossed. He did not accept my apology, he doesn't to this day. I can't blame him for that and I had felt badly about it until recently.

The first indication I had that Bruce was upset over what I had posted in his article wasn't a PM from Bruce saying something akin to "that's personal, remove it." (a request I would have immediately agreed to). No, it was an article from Dennis, calling me out for being a CyberBully. In looking back, my actions could certainly be construed as that of a bully. In this case, however, I must defend myself. I apologized to DMV for my insensitive words ages ago, even though he did not accept my apology (again, understandable) he went into very deep detail about his tragic personal life incident, extreme detail. I could do the same, I have had tragedy in my life as well. From a sibling lost, to my own mother, to an aunt who was like a mother. I don't though. This is none of you people's business. I have grown to despise DMV based upon his willingness to use his personal tragedy to curry favour and sympathy. In a Pathetic. Browser. Game. Later on in the day, DMV decided that turnabout was fair play (which it is) and offered a bounty on the names and school location of my children. I guess in a way I deserve that. They do not.

Dennis will tell a different story. He will tell a story of him showing an old article to Acacia to 'educate' him on what would happen if he opposed him (is this not also bullying?). A story of me attacking him from out of aboslutely nowhere, invoking his deceased mother simply because I knew it would get to him. His version of events were strongly refuted by Acacia himself after the fact. When faced with having to believe a man I had known for years, respected and had met in RL; against someone who I didn't know, who had swooped into eCan like a vulture I made the best choice I could with the information at the time.

I have proof of everything I say, I am meticulous in keeping screenshots and IRC logs. I will not be posting them here, because I will consider this matter closed one I post this article. I have had many many political opponents over my 4 years here, from funkyhum24n, addy lawrence even to crisfire at one point. All of them will attest to the fact that I may fight hard, but I fight fair.

With all of this said, my side of the story has been told. This will be my final comment on both matters. In summation, to Bruce: I am again truly sorry that I made you feel uncomfortable it was never my intent. You also have a couple good lines of poetry going, hone it, you may have something there.

To Dennis; you are a sociopath. I have apologized to you for my lack of tact those months ago, you haven't let it go; that I understand. Your immediate attack against me last night was unwarranted, the whole situation could have been solved with 1 private message. Your threat against my children is a level I would never even think about sinking to. Your continued parading of your personal tragedy into this game, in order to garner support and sympathy is particularly disgusting. I hope you get help, I hope you can find peace with yourself. I know it took me a while to achieve, so I don't expect you to find it soon either. I still wish you well.

To the rest of eCan, I also apologize for this distraction, it hasn't been productive or even remotely related to the game. I only hope we, as a collective, can move on together.

Leo