I won't get involved, but I think it's interesting that the one person to defend Finlay has chosen to remain anonymous.
Pffssh! I
always post anonymously on the Internet. Even when eventually I'm going to register on this forum, you'll still just get a pseudonym. Heck, how many people here are actually using their real names in their forum username anyway?
And you guys have no subtlety. I'm hardly defending Finlay if you read my post. All I said was that I think this matter is
way overblown. I can understand Mike getting furious about this, and although I'd rather wish he keep his language when he rants to a level without using words like "hell", so be it. However, there is absolutely no need for this topic to drag on with everyone else continuing to post about their views on spelling. I'm sure Finlay felt bad enough with the very first post Mike made in reaction.
Honestly, if you were in school and your teacher gave you a bad grade on your paper because of bad spelling, do you expect all the students to revolt and rant back at the teacher? Everyone comes from a different background and in some cultures/environments spelling might be seen more importantly than others. Finlay's mistake was ultimately in expressing his prejudice that the inability to spell lead to the inability to design levels, and I think Mike's response did more than enough to make Finlay realize the mistake. And contrary to some other people's interpretation nowhere did Finlay made any attempt to "force Mike to his standards". Rather he only said that he wasn't impressed with his spelling, which I hate to say but is factual. Mike himself had not denied that there are many spelling errors in his posts. That in and of itself does not and should not insult Mike; if spelling doesn't matter, then pointing them out means nothing to Mike. Rather, Mike was only angry about the comment that someone who couldn't spell couldn't design levels. Most people who posted afterwards instead seems more focused on the spelling aspect.
So let's make this the last topic on it okay? It's bad enough that we hear one person's opinions about spelling, we don't need to hear about 300 other people's, at least not on this thread. What's said is said, what's done is done, it's not going to make a big difference to anyone to have 300 more people talk this thing to death. (Except maybe for Finlay to apologize for the "I don't think Mike could've been a level designer" comment.) Move
on.
P.S. Conway if you truly don't want to get involved, you shouldn't have posted!