Texas Justice

I knew I forgot something in that story.

I asked BAB about him telling us he didn't get the job when we asked if he got hired by Cryptic and he gave a good explanation.

He had told us the truth. He DIDN'T get the job he wanted. He got a different job with the same company. And that's what I got for assuming he was hired by a different company.

I don't remember if I asked what job he had wanted.

Several times I had seen Tic-Toc talking in a global channel about a game he was working on or had worked on (after it launched he generally used the past tense). He mentioned one night that he was thinking of applying for a job with Cryptic (still Dev team of CoH at the time) and that he'd worked on another game for NCSoft. He had mentioned applying with some other studios as well, although I don't recall if he ever named them.

He later told us he was moving to California at which point someone in the channel (possibly me) asked if he got hired to work on CoH. His answer was that he didn't get the job he wanted but he did find some work while he was out there for the interview. I, and likely some others, assumed he didn't get the job with Cryptic and got hired by someone else.

When BAB was introduced I saw the name Christopher Bruce in the introductory post, but never tied it to Tic-Toc. When I went out to the M&G in 2007 I asked if he'd be there since he lived in the area. His answer was that he had to work that weekend.

I met BAB at the M&G and got to talk to him at one of the after-gatherings in one of the hotel rooms (before the Assistant Manager threatened to throw us all out and everyone on the CoH booking) as well as pohsyb. Something was said by BAB that I missed but Abraxxus quickly jumped in with either a change of subject or saying something related to what he'd just said. I didn't catch what was going on at the time, but later it made sense. I didn't get to chat much more with BAB that night since I followed Neutra and pohsyb to the room they wound up in after the AM threatened eviction due to noise.

Saturday evening I decided I'd drive up to Davis to Redrum Burger to try it out since I'd heard so much about it. Manoa and Teh Boyfriend (Somber Traveler) were going to meet me there since they lived there. While getting ready I was chatting on the forums and mentioned my plans and issued an open invitation for anyone that wanted to join me. Tic-Toc replied and said it sounded good, when was I leaving, and a few other questions. After a bit he came back in and said he wasn't going to be able to go because his wife wanted him to stay home with her and his kids due to having worked so late the night before. Understandable. I went solo to Davis and had a good meal and a good visit.

I began to wonder after I got home what the quick exchange between BAB and Brax was about, and got curious as to whether or not I knew BAB by another name, but thought it was just my imagination. There was some conversations going on in a global channel that kept my mind returning to that point, but I still blew it off. Also, there was a picture from the M&G of BAB and Abraxxus together with either swapped name-tags or something similar.

Then BAB started talking about having teamed with someone from Justice. And then another person, and then another and most of them were names I knew. He said something about teaming with a lot of the Justice players, and several of us started asking if he'd teamed with us. When he said he'd teamed with me more than once, it got the wheels turning again and I started suspecting BAB might be Tic-Toc, but had no proof and wasn't going to just ask, even in a PM or tell. This was back in the days when I still teamed occaisionally, especially at Hami Raids.

Later in the year or early in the next year I was puzzling over a name I'd seen and thought sounded familiar. I did a Google search and one of the links was to the credits for Auto Assault. Since the person I was thinking of has nothing to do with computers or games I thought it an odd coincidence since I knew Tic-Toc had worked on the game. I was scanning through the credits when the name Christopher Bruce caught my eye. He was listed as a Special F/X Artist and I immediately made the connection. I also made the connection to the fact that what Abraxxus had done in that hotel room was to keep BAB from outing himself as Tic-Toc by covering for him. That was also the point of the photo and the rumors that started on Justice that BAB was Abraxxus. Abraxxus made a comment that he'd gotten someone to be his "beard" at the M&G. Now I knew better.

I just kept the information to myself, but when I got to HeroCon that year and saw BAB at the Justice Japanese Junket, I thought I'd let him know I knew. I kept holding my wrist up to my ear like I was listening to something and commented that it was making strange noises. Of course, I wasn't wearing a watch. BAB caught it immediately and let me know he understood what I was saying. I let him know later that I'd not be saying anything about it. I also helped with spreading the picture from HeroCon of the two of them together pointing at each other and their ID badges. I started helping to cover when someone started getting close to who BAB was by commenting that people believed all of the rumors we started about Brax being BAB, Tic-Toc being BAB, Con being BAB, Smoke Signal being BAB, and just about anyone we could think of.

When a specific someone started trying to out Tic-Toc as BAB, I worked hard to try to get the info removed from the forums or spread disinformation in the game. Ex Libris recently commented that every time it started it put a lot of work on the Community Team trying to keep it under wraps. I'm still not sure if the MA arc by that player ever got changed.

It seems it was a better kept secret than BAB thought, or at least that fewer people believed the "rumors" that he was really Tic-Toc.

And that's the really long version of how I found out who BAB was.

I know for a time pohsyb played a bit on Justice as well. I saw him join a few teams created in the Team Awesome channel (whichever one was active at that time). He also played a bit on Virtue IIRC. I remember giving him grief about that.

I don't recall mentioning anything about Liberty. If I made a comment to someone that "you'd be surprised who plays there" it was mostly a joking reference to the fact that several of the devs have said they keep a character or two on each server just for random teaming and to see what the players are saying.

But honestly, I can't even recall saying that.

Why do people keep saying this?

I buy stuff in the store as a test every time someone says it.

I just bought something from the store on my Premium Account again.

THE STORE IS NOT SHUT DOWN.

You just can't buy more points.

*covers eyes*

Some things you just don't want to see.

Sounds more like he's putting together a video and wants to populate it with forum posters instead of just randomly built costumes.

Hooey. Hooey. Hooey. Your post is full of it.

The market is definitely NOT offline. I bought items on my Premium account just before posting this.

I had bought some things this weekend on my VIP account as well.

Since I didn't see anyone else answer that, here's the entire quote from a rumor thread in the Justice Server forums. Only fitting that BAB/Tic-Toc answer there. You'll see a few posts by him in that thread.

EDIT: Also posted here in a different thread discussing that rumor.

I think it means you came in second.

EDIT: Not sure why the link isn't showing up right in this post. It shows fine in the original and is clickable here. Ah well, I still posted the link prior to you posting it.

They closed Paragon Studios, not the entire NCSoft staff.

NCSoft still has plenty of programmers in their employ. Not only in their Korean offices but also in their Austin, Tx office where the billing system is.

We didn't always see eye to eye on things, but I always respected your skill as a player.

Fair winds and following seas.

EDIT: I've seen posts by 2 players that expired on September 1 and are still VIP. Let's hope it's not just keeping that status until Billing gets in on Tuesday. Perhaps they set it so that if you were VIP on August 30 you will remain VIP. Here's hoping.

Oh, that one. I'd forgotten you were listed there.

Not what I was thinking of.

Not that it did me any good anyways.

EDIT: For some of those people this was my first confirmation that they were no longer working on the game.

Can she reach that high?

















Aw c'mon Keetsie, you know I love you. Don't give me that look. Wait .. what are you ... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhh hhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bah. Now I'm going to have to start scouring that credits page to figure it out.

I hope I got the chance to meet you at one of the Pummits or the 2010 Bay Area M&G.

Even if I didn't meet you, thank you for your work on the game we both loved.