Sacco-We want an apology (updated)

Other
Feb 13, 2010
6 Comments

Sometimes it sucks to suck Rawrcast.com does its best to only break news that we deem reliable. Not only that, we tell everyone that listens to our podcast that we are not a news source, so when do break something, it is because we have done our research, and we know what we are writing about is fact.

We broke the WoW TCG breakup on November 13, 2009. Now I can understand that there are people out there that won’t believe much of what we, or anyone else writes when it comes to WoW. We are not upset about any of that, we have thick skin. What is unprofessional is Sacco stating that we started a rumor and even wrote about it on wow.com.

We just want to state the facts. We knew about this 3 months ago and broke the story. Wow.com chose to believe the “everything is fine” line from Upper Deck without doing much digging on their own. We protect our “reliable sources” just like any other organization would. We now have been proven right, and wow.com gets to publish the story as if nothing happened 3 months ago? We just don’t feel like this is right. We would like an apology for saying that we started rumors Sacco.

Thanks to all of you, our readers and podcast listeners for sticking with us! Without all of you, none of this is worth anything. Remember to listen in live, Sundays at 1PM Central Time for our podcast.

**Sacco, the writer of both articles linked to above and editor of wow.com has responded with this from his twitter page:

Fansite competition is such a needless cutthroat business. All it does is cater to the immature and create hostility where it need not be.

I agree, and this isn’t about competition. I don’t get paid to edit this website. Nor do we have the money or the resources to compete with wow.com. This isn’t about competition. This is about you essentially calling us idiots and me sticking up for Rhebella, one of our writers. This isn’t personal, but what’s right is right.

The Rokk

Amen to that. Credit where credit is due.
Domilol

At least take a step back here, say there was another fansite that also said something similar then a managing director of what they were talking about comes out and says otherwise, WHO do you believe?

I mean READ what the guy said

“Plans for future sets have been moving along as normal and we even announced a good chunk of the 2010 product schedule a week ago. Just recently the Upper Deck team was at Blizzard to discuss plans for 2011 and just today we were at Blizzard to get a sneak peak of Icecrown Citadel, to help in the development of the 2010 Raid Deck and Treasure Packs. We have lots of great plans for 2010 and beyond and look forward to another great year for the WOW TCG. Thanks for your enthusiasm and support! ”

How can anyone find validity in your claim after reading just that? A response to the “Rumor” YOU started? When all you have is “Reliable Sources”? Any aggregation website would of got shot down the same way (I can already see the headlines “WOW.COM MISLEADS US AGAIN”), if they said the something you said only later to have the SENIOR DIRECTOR contradict them, no you are not being singled out because you are a small fish, it’s because all the evidence pointed to the contrary.

Get off your pedestal, subdue your sense of self importance and actually approach this issue in a RATIONAL manner. It’s fine to feel wronged but you cannot seriously put the blame on anyone here.
HolyMoley

Domilol

Your comment is ridiculous. Rawrcast is owed an apology for being called out by that pathetic stunt by Sacco. More importantly though Mike Sacco is owed an apology from Upper Deck for looking like their lackey to misinform the public.

Who does Mike Sacco think he is, that he can run to Upper Deck and say ‘Is it true that you guys can expect to lose millions of dollars due to Blizzard canceling the TCG contract?’ and get a straight answer. Upper Deck’s first thought on losing the Blizz contract is definitely ‘’We better let Mike Sacco know! He has to break this story!’

If you see undisclosed sources meaning the same as ‘rumor’, you better stay where you are, protected by big corporations like AOL (who owns Wow.com), Upper Deck and Blizzard . They will make everything okay and tell you what the truth is.

Overall, just really ask yourself, what does Rawrcast have to gain by starting a rumor out of no where?
Ozimandias

I couldn’t have said it any better. Sacco is a victim just as much as all the people who believed that we were wrong. It’s just too bad that sometimes people are used and don’t realize it.
Rhabella

Just to set the record straight, evidence has not pointed to the contrary for quite some time. The entire Upper Deck relationship has always felt a odd (but only in my opinion). Blizzard has always had a dictarorial hand when protecting their intellectual property and seem to have taken what they know from the entire relationship and look poised to capitalize on the acquired knowledge. Blizzard may be a phenonmenal company who is great at what they do, but what they do is take other peoples ideas and give them polish until they shine until everyone forgets it wasn’t ever theirs at all. Sacco, a former Blizzard employee of all things, should have at least been conscious of such an company encompassing philosophy.

In response to the sources, there were 3 in multiple regions of the country who were in sales of the product and avid card gamers or organizers. One came to us with the information, and the other 2 confirmed what we were already told when we contacted the others. Being proven right is apology enough to me, but the idea there is fansite competition is about as ignorant a statement as the assessment of the Blizzard/Upper Deck relationship is stupid.

Stompalina has worked tremendously hard to foster community camaraderie with work on Azeroth United, many other podcasters in the community including the very classy Mike Schramm, formerly of wow.com, and Child’s Play. There is no competition fostered at this website and that comes from the VERY top of that power pyramid. Evaluate the history of the rawrcast, and I am sure you would agree.
E Hatch

The way Sacco dealt with it was super douchey. The sarcasm, smugness, and arrogance in his “voice” in his post about the “rumor” was obnoxious. I don’t know where he gets off lecturing others about “fansite competition” when he’s the one who made it confrontational and insulted another fansite.

Sacco doesn’t have to believe Rawrcast. There’s nothing wrong with posting whatever info he was able to get. But he doesn’t have to be dismissive about it, either. And he doesn’t have to respond to the egg on his own face with a petty, hypocritical tweet. He should – pardon me – “sacc up”, admit his mistake, and apologize. That would have nothing to do with “fansite competition” and just be a classy, mature move.