Now that we know the company is gone it’s easier to do this. I’m going to avoid some names and non-Netamin contact information. I will also explain a few things that were never released to the public. These were old files we often received in our e-mail inbox and had to review the documents.
Most of the files I retrieved just before leaving Netamin. I knew they would be useful for the community after Netamin was no longer a business and the address is owned by a different company now. It’s much different for me now that I no longer live in California but Netamin hasn’t had their business in that office for a very long time.
I think at one point the other office was a law firm, and various other companies came and went over the years. I no longer have Netamin on my resume but I wanted to wait until after last February or March to respond with more details. While I may have worked for Netamin it was actually owned by Cal Ripken Jr. around that time and it’s been over 10 years.
They can’t legally do anything against me since they no longer exist and any contract I had with Netamin is officially expired (it’s between 7 or 10 years but I decided to wait over 10 just to be sure). It was one of the most unprofessional companies I’ve worked for and if you ever saw videos of the inside it almost looks like a conference room but we had rented multiple rooms which also had office rooms inside.
I’ll only mention Andy, Bobby and Burt, the rest of the community should know a few others who worked there. Andy wasn’t a bad person but he was more style over substance because he did carry himself well. Burt looked like a mad scientist but rightfully so because he was very smart. Bobby was a fat guy that we all knew about who ruined the game.
I mentioned most of what happened already that Bobby never did his job then took over customer support and had the UBOPRESS guy fired. What I didn’t mention was that Bobby spread a few rumors that Burt was a methamphetamine addict but was secretly making him check everyone’s Netamin associated e-mail accounts to spy on everyone after they caught him not working and boosting player accounts. We knew about it the entire time and were upset because we just wanted the game to be completed.
We were afraid of being sued after finding out that Bobby tampered with player accounts when the prize tournaments began. The game already had it’s problems not being complete with plenty of bugs that needed to be fixed. When the game got patched it was never tested properly so we had plenty of users complaining and pointing out all of the flaws or exploits (which got worse each time the game was patched).
The other problem was Bobby hired a felon on our payroll and apparently knew about it the entire time. He hired him from another state but at the time it was more of a concern that we thought someone in the office was a felon (for the safety of some of us and it’s expected but Bobby clearly has a mental disability). Had any investors found out about it we would have been in trouble because not only did Bobby and Andy have a bad history of what is close to fraud but the person he hired had a felony for check fraud.
What the players didn’t know:
Parameter points only unlocked pitching abilities and most features didn’t do anything. I didn’t play the game much but the developers (Netamin Communication Korea or NCK) only implemented a few attributes. In most patches of the game stamina did nothing.
Catching was going to be a huge factor in the game. Your player may drop the ball or have an animated jumping or diving catch that may miss. This was removed because the client was never configured properly due to poor internet connections with the server and was eventually abandoned so there was no point to upgrade catching.
Your player’s batting strength could be compromised by the different color (or correct me please but I want to say smaller cross hairs?) to hit the target. The batting zones you upgraded also never worked.
With pitching arm strength was originally designed to be the tough pitching style to face that stamina was going to be a huge factor. This included throwing wild pitches for base stealing if your stamina or accuracy was too low for your strength or if you missed the meter how pitching was designed to throw an accurate pitch. You can thank Bobby for being too stupid and never testing this properly and caused fielding to be neglected from this attribute.
There were hit by pitch and pitcher hit by batter planned. It would be impossible to add the batter rushing the mound but it was planned that the pitcher could be hit by the ball and this also included an infield fly rule. There was also going to be a ground rule double and a missed foul catch but it was never tested due to all of the other delays with actually testing the game because Bobby was too busy eating on the company’s dime.
Speed was the only attribute that was actually worked on. It was tested more for the batters who were running to each base but was later tested for fielding.
The turbo feature for outfielders was only added because it was declared a “hitter’s game” within the community after players would quit the games. We had complaints of players making fake accounts to pitch and boost teams (along with a complaint that some of the teams were exploiting this feature and deleting their pitcher characters).
Throwing (was it throwing or arm strength?) was designed for fielders to have 3 throwing styles depending on where they throw the ball. Underhand (or a quick toss style of throwing), regular overhand (if with fully upgraded would be a regular looking throw from a far distance) or a delayed step before you throw (if low strength would make you have a delayed throw very short even from second base to throw an out at first).
The catcher position was never configured properly (also the pitcher position depending on the connection between them and the batter). The catcher position would often cause more problems because it was simply another position that could stand, throw and wasn’t configured with the batting and pitching systems designed for the batting cursor and pitching features that factored in strength and accuracy.
Team experience was designed originally if the pitcher did poorly the entire team would suffer along with the pitcher. Instead of the pitcher only having negative experience it would be factored into all players, also adding a 10 (or more) mercy rule where the game would end at the bottom of the inning if one team was losing by over 10 runs.
When players were replaced by “AI” (or computer) players they were dumbed down because Netamin wanted more people to replace them in the game. The original design was declared too difficult and right clicking would have them throw the ball to human players after making them too easily fooled in the game.
Personalized characters were going to be designed. It would be items you would purchase (batting gloves, chain necklaces, cleats, eye black, hair styles, home run celebrations, etc.) but after the game was properly tested.
Full 9-player team games were the goal. Both teams having a full roster was the intention all along but we knew it was impossible. The game would experience too many bugs due to poor connections between each players.
We were aware that some players cheated and almost banned a term used about “team practice” games because of it. Their own players later confessed to allowing players to get on base and tag them out to boost their stats on the main website or run up the scores to level up. The main argument from the community was how poorly the players did in actual tournament play compared to pick up games.
We were aware that some players hacked the game. There was an attempt to install an “anti-hack tool” and have the players banned but it never worked properly. We were never sure because the players who were actually caught and confessed claimed that various players did it but may have made up false accusations.
We had to investigate a team before and some players admitted to exploiting bugs (glitches) and hacking after players submitted videos (various websites like YouTube but others that no longer exist). I don’t remember the names because everyone had silly account handles but one of them tried making a new version of the game. It’s obvious at that point if you can steal the coding for a game you can likely hack a game and the community wasn’t quiet about it well before their “Big League” attempt and yes the team associated had players caught who hacked the game.
Sliding was never designed properly. This was a stamina and speed feature that would have your player slide appropriate (also designed for the original version) when if timed properly your character would get to the base faster if you executed it right. If you did it wrong your player was intended to fall short or have a slower animation that could get them tagged out by the defender but less common if you upgraded stamina and speed.
Graphics were intentionally lowered. This was an attempt to remedy having 9-player teams playing in the game. The graphics were going to be updated and tested during the last few months but the game was never developed properly (expected to be similar to MLB The Show). This was intended to be a surprise for all of those who tested the game and it was planned for the 2006 version.
Final thought.
To those of you who played the game well you may be aware that I shouldn’t know about most of these things. It’s why we were so upset when we found out that Bobby NEVER WORKED ON THE GAME. I went through my older e-mails and found most of these ideas, complaints, plans and suggestions.
I really wish I had those several other e-mails from years ago about the complaints. To some degree the community was full of people sending screenshots to have players banned from the game over comments. Some players cheating and some were actual links to videos of players cheating during tournaments.
We often would get a list of rules that all of the teams would agree to before the tournaments began. It’s sad to say that some of those winning teams were caught cheating but won anyways while we looked the other way. To be fair I don’t remember the names anyways because it wasn’t my problem but I should have spoken up instead of being told what to do all the time.
It’s why I was so angry with Bobby when he was clearly caught tampering with player accounts then after he was caught he tried making it sound like a good thing to add to the game instead of being punished for obviously doing something wrong. It’s also why I think that Andy was an idiot for not firing him or understanding how obvious that Bobby didn’t know how to do his job because he never did it and barely knew how to play the game he was supposed to be working on.
After Bobby was caught doing it he took over customer support then had the in house testers make tournaments for players to gain more experience points to cover up his lies. He made the entire office paranoid to say anything after he was able to get someone fired.
I will end you with this, proof of the Best of UBO tournament and a few other documents but I will keep the personal names and phone numbers private. It may give you some insight on how the game could have been great but turned out to be a waste of time in the end. Andy Wang may not have been the problem but I guarantee that Bobby “Robert” Baker and a few others ruined something great that was backed by Cal Ripken Jr.
Yes it was that bad. And yes I worked for the company to those of you who claimed I didn’t here’s some screenshots of a couple documents. I censored out the PR guy (and no it’s not me) just because I don’t want to publish his name and phone number.
The Truth About Netamin 