Well Duck and I weren't really buddies. Duck was starting AOG so he hired me to write reviews and put me in charge of forums etc. Hey may have designed the website, but I wrote most of its content and got it most of its traffic. The IGN exodus happened and it was a good time to take advantage by inviting all of my buddies at IGN.
The problem with Dick was we disagreed a lot. Most of the disagreement was on design and promotion, and I was pretty straight forward with him but always patient.
However it started happening far too often, and he would always get ridiculously upset at any suggestion. I told him I didn't want to be in charge of the forums anymore because of that and other reasons.
I still loved the site despite my hatred for him, and he was recruiting new writers. Unfortunately he picked some who couldn't put a sentence together. When he asked my opinion he asked so that I would agree with him, otherwise he'd whine like a child. It was as if he wanted me to be a yes man. One smart thing Duck did was to make Cobra the editor, which was pretty cool because Cobra did that really well.
Anyway some guy e-mailed us regarding a review I wrote, and how he thought it could use some work. He proceeded to point out some flaws in grammar and some humorous sentences that could have been better structured to be even funnier. I read all of that smiling, because I just got a nice vibe from this 'fan'. It was also quite apparent that he could write really well, and I thought we really needed him to get the site to be classier. Basically our staff really sucked, and I had desperately wanted a co writer that could
actually write and help put us in the big leagues... especially after the poor writers Ducky hired.
As you may have guessed, this fan was Que. I remember writing back asking if he would like to write for us, to which I remember getting an enthusiastic reply. Next I e-mailed Ducky, and explained Que's skills to him, and immediately got a flat no. Apparently our staff was 'full' now. I insisted and e-mailed Cobra asking him to insist so that Que could come on board.
The funny thing is that a lot of those horrendous writers Ducky had picked up seemed to disappear anyway so it all worked out, especially since Que liked to write and was fantastic at it.
Around that time I had some false alarms with my health. To make a long story short, I was short on money, in a third world country for the first time and had some sort of a cyst that a hack doctor told me was probably cancer. I was pretty frightened and depressed and just stopped coming to AOG for a few days. People on the forums were wondering where I was, and Ducky sent me an e-mail saying that that people had been asking him if I had left because of him.
I told him I couldn't come because of some personal stuff, and he sent me back a nasty e-mail accusing me of leaving because of our issues. So I wrote him a long reply explaining my false cancer situation, the depression it caused and explicitly asked him to keep it under wraps for a while.
He naturally went ahead and posted it for everyone to see, despite my having told him not to. While I got warm responses, I was really pissed off that he would do that just to protect his own reputation. It made me realize what a snake he was and I just stopped writing for the website, though I maintained my presence in the community.
I think a year later, Que was burned as well. I wanted to warn Que about Duck's behavior, but I didn't know him that well, and thought maybe it was just Duck and I that didn't click. I was wrong.
Duck wanted to turn the site into some extreme political gay website for some time. In the earlier days of AOG a few forum members decided they wanted to leave because of Ducky, and I made a big deal of it on the forums and insisted everyone stay. At that time I was pro Ducky, and thought any issue could be sorted with words. I was wrong.
A few years later he went to some popular gay gamers website and bad mouthed us on the forums just to gain sympathy from them, and that didn't work and he asked to leave.
Some of the people from the gay gamers website started posting at AOG. A couple of them who I call S&M were really rude and argued with a lot of us. Duck rewarded them by making them moderators, because he wanted us out.
Well there was a massive argument, and we left to another free forum. Meanwhile the gay community left as well, though a couple came with us (Folk and Schlotzky5) and Duck was left with nothing. He ended up closing AOG down.
Antares was good enough to buy a new home for us, and put it together with Scottws's help.
By the way, where the heck is Folk?
It is funny how a Virginia Massacre thread has turned to a thread about AOG and DuckFat.
Anyway NatchDan welcome to our humble community. We have plans to get a website going, but most us don't have the technical skills or the time.
But it will happen one day.
