Topic: Planetdescent.com?

[SaladBadger]

Nearly identical isn't the same. PD.com worked on ASP scripts originally written by Dave "Testiculse" Applegate (and later modified and added to by Thunderbird). Almost everything except for maybe a few frontpage elements were entirely custom, but designed to work mostly like the other sites.

And PlanetDoom is still around, so if it was really an exploit this big then it wouldn't be one of the sites using the "old software"

[Matthew]

Hmm, so it is. I didn't see it before, I had assumed the list was sorted alphabetically by column.

[Top Gun]

There are some rather big misconceptions floating around in here right now.  There was never any reference to the majority of the Planet Network being attacked via the same exploit that hit PD.  Instead, from what I've gathered after poking around GameSpy/IGN's sites, it seems as though all of the Planet sites dedicated to non-current game franchises (such as Daikatana, lulz) have been removed, and the entire Planet Network listing has been redesigned, with new URLs for most of the pages.  (In fact, if you follow this link, you should see the original, more comprehensive Planet listing before being re-directed to the new page.)  What it looks like to me is that GameSpy/IGN decided to redo the entire Planet Network concept, stripping it down to franchises that are still actively being pursued, such as Doom and StarCraft.  The real question then becomes whether or not they told anyone before doing so...

As for the original problems with PD, it was never a question of GameSpy actively working against the site, but merely a lack of direct support.  After the forum bugs started manifesting themselves, I tried to get in contact with GameSpy's support people, since Thunderbird apparently wasn't able to properly access the admin panel that provided direct contact.  After a dead end or two, I finally got in touch with someone who mentioned GameSpy's servers no longer properly supporting the ancient version of ASP the site was written in.  She provided me with the e-mail address of the Planet Network manager, but my attempt to contact him was unsuccessful.  In the meantime, some of the forum bugs automagically resolved themselves, the eventual exploit forced TB to take down the active database portions of the site, and presumably as part of what I mentioned in the first paragraph, the site eventually went down altogether.  I still intend to try shooting off an e-mail or two, just to see if I can get any more information on the status of the domain and/or database.

[D2Disciple]

Wait. There was a Planet Daikatana? People played that game?

Actually, I've never played it and have often wondered if it's really as bad as people claim it is. After all, I actually thought Shadow the Hedgehog was a fantastic Sega game.

[Thomas]

Another 3 days to go, then the month is over.

Bye bye, PD.com. Forever.

Most people after that won't even know that you have existed at some point.

It's a pity, but live goes on. I'll remove all references to PD.com on the weekend and hope that I won't forget any. 

[Kaiaatzl]

Wait. There was a Planet Daikatana? People played that game?

Actually, I've never played it and have often wondered if it's really as bad as people claim it is. After all, I actually thought Shadow the Hedgehog was a fantastic Sega game.

I loved Sonic Heroes...I've wanted to play Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic 2006 for a while, but alas, I don't have the consoles for them.

I only want to play Sonic 2006 because it has a cheezy story that is way too indepth, sort of like The Apocalyptic Factor, which I could never finish (game over on level 2, on Rookie.)

[Scyphi]

I have never played Sonic '06, but I have looked into it's storyplot very in depth, and personally think it's a lot better than people give it credit. In fact, there were a lot of ideas about that game were very good, and deserve more credit than it gets.

The reason it doesn't, is because the game is overall very poorly programed, very buggy and slapped together. I've heard several fans of the Sonic franchise agree that the game could've been one of the best Sonic games ever were it not for those two shortcomings in the programming department.

And while I'm on the subject...

Shadow the Hedgehog likewise had a good storyplot, but because it uses a gaming scheme where your actions in-game determine the game's final outcome, the individual pieces of the storyplot do not always fit together very nicely. And it has it's own fair share of bugs, but not as bad as Sonic '06. It also has a very different style of gameplay and feel that is somewhat foreign, or at the very least quite different, which is what most fans criticize the game for.

I believe both Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic '06 can be obtained for the PC now, but I have no clue how they would run, operate, or what system requirements there are. Downloaded a demo for Sonic Heroes once to my laptop, and despite running quite sluggishly (because the video card is crap) it preformed fairly well, so I imagine Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic '06 wouldn't run that differently.

Anyway, on the subject of PD.com, I've left the link in my favorites, and probably will leave there for awhile longer still. Whether it's out of pure stubbornness or as some kind of salute to the site, I don't know. 

[Matthew]

Anyway, on the subject of PD.com, I've left the link in my favorites, and probably will leave there for awhile longer still. Whether it's out of pure stubbornness or as some kind of salute to the site, I don't know. 

Same here, I don't clean out my favorites, like, ever.