Something dramatic is going on between Zynga CEO Mark Pincus and one of his old employees at Tribe.net, a company he cofounded in 2003. Pincus has obtained a temporary restraining order on Darren McKeeman, formerly the IT Director at Tribe. Cisco acquired the company in 2007.
Pincus hasn’t returned a request for comment, but the TRO was filed in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.
McKeeman is prohibited from contacting Pincus at all, and must stay at least 50 yards away from him. He is also explicitly prohibited from any of the following to Pincus: “harass, attack, strike, threaten, assault (sexually or otherwise), hit, follow, stalk, destroy personal property, keep under surveillance or block movements.” He is also restricted from purchasing guns or other firearms, and must sell or turn in any guns that he owns.
McKeeman’s only response so far: “Note to everyone: don’t lie in things you file in court! It will come back to haunt you! I’m quite happy these morons did lie, though.”
Someone pass the popcorn.
funny, given that zynga’s most popular game is mafia wars
yeah. you’d think they could just settle it there.
how? you need to buy weapons to arm your mafia
actually, their most popular game is farmville.
http://www.deve...id=102452128776
Darren McKeeman: He founded the online webzine/community Gothic.Net Webzine,horror convention Spookycon in San Francisco
That’s a scary looking man
“It will come back to haunt you” sounds like a threat to me.
Pincus has many many deep rooted issues: paranoia and pathological dishonesty being the two that pop into mind. I have gotten to know him quite well over the years and have always hoped, even suggested to him that he really needs to take an exhaustive look in the mirror. There is no way that he would like what he sees. He is a greedy, self serving little boy in a little mans body. Not many people trust him and those who do end up getting burned. I honestly think that he needs to put a restraining order out on himself.
…says the anonymous coward.
…says the antagonistic reporter looking to cash-in.
Hey Pinky! Ask me what are we going to do tonight.
To take over the world.
Duh, it’s always entertaining when you are not Michael Arrington. So pass the popcorn and Purell.
Fantastic.. this is better than soaps.. all we need is a devilish looking blond… there is such drama in the web world… dreams made and broken… sanity lost… restraining orders…
Re: McKeeeman- Don’t let looks fool you and never judge a book by its cover. Re: Pincus- a diabolical and conniving bastard and has proven it time and time again. I made the mistake of trusting him and doing business with him a few years back, a mistake I will never forget. The lesson learned- his words mean nothing, they are only spoken to achieve a self servng outcome. Stay clear, beware, and run away.
Not interested in passing judgment & don’t really care which one’s the psycho.
Gonna supersize my nachos now. It’s been a while since OJ was on.
All this hate for talking on the phone with his lover?
C’mon boys! There’s plenty of fish in the sea. Yeah, I know…not everyone has a rather swell pad in Nob Hill….but hey, there’s always Napa!
Peace, my septa-pattern multi-spectral brothers!
My interaction with Mark consists only of listening to him at a Startup2Startup dinner and chatting with him in a hallway briefly. Seemed like quite an amicable guy, though hard to tell in an interaction that brief.
Those of you who are slamming him though, consider one thing: He is killing it with Zynga. Period. You can dislike him and call him whatever names you want, but he’s getting shit done.
I started Tribe.net with Mark. He’s a great guy on both a business and personal level. This crap he gets about being paranoid or dishonest is complete B. S.
If this situation came to a TRO I am sure there was a very good reason.
Paul Martino
CEO
Aggregate Knowledge
Paul
You are so far out of the loop that nobody gives two shits about your opinion.
Anon
CEO The Internet
Can you do a followup based on the information in the “Declaration of Mark Pincus”? It’s listed in the court docket but unavailable on the web.
Dude, hit me up, I’ll buy you a beer!
I read the TRO.
Take a look at #15. The TRO service fee was waived because of a “credible threat of violence.”
So, there that.
How long before Zynga gets charged with breaking online anti-gambling laws?
Here’s a post from his LiveJournal account urging a boycott of Zynga:
http://tjcrowle...com/651389.html
I’m so glad that the government was engaged to handled this
does it need such an order, in order not being allowed to attack, assault, etc.? I hope not. and then does it only need filing such an order, in order to having to turn in your guns? not that I’m much a fan of people being allowed to own any. am curious what the story behind might be.
In my life I have never met a more egotistical ahole than Mark Pincus. He is greedy, sneaky, dishonest, and a back stabber whose bad karma will catch up to him in a big way. He has screwed more people than Madoff just on a lesser monetary level. On a side note, he and his wife had monumentally bad taste, Someone sent this link on to me the other day. Tooting there horn about their recent remodel. Be sure to read the comments section. http://www.sfex...e-52038762.html
I’ve worked for Pincus, and it’s not an experience I would care to repeat. He’s incredibly self-centered, dishonest, and not terribly pleasant to work with. The person who described him as a little boy in a man’s body is spot on.
How about Marks other lawsuit, the one against him and Zynga for stealing people artwork from the internet and their wen sites to use in games?
How about Marks MO for not actually paying people for work?
Funny, Darren posts about the above artwork lawsuit and two days later Mark files this bullshit with the courts.
Oh, just stay tuned folks. I’ll keep @arrington informed. First court date is on Friday. And yes, this is all in response to telling them to take down some artwork. They did, which seems to insinuate some guilt on their part.
This week on “When Internet Nerds Attack”
Mckeeman is no virgin to TROs.