14-Bis asked me to relay this message.

PLEASE STOP SENDING HIM DEVIANTART NOTES
He can't answer them because (surprise surprise) he's banned. He can read them, but he can't reply them.



That is all. Have a nice day.

Hello peeps, I got in contact with Richard Gray, he's allowed me to post the chat transcript here so that you can have a heads up on the situation.


Richard: thanks again for understanding, others have caused me real pain
me: others?
Richard: there have been others, with webpages or going around pretending to be me, they weren't as understanding
me: yeah about that
i had time to give it some thought
I wasn't going around pretending to be you though :S
Richard: I know
these guys would go on game pages and such
me: i made a journal post about what's going to happen, but not a lot of people actually know about the game designer levelord, and some of them are planting doubt into my decision to change my name :S
Richard: it really needs to be done, especially on the big sites like deviant and blogspot
me: would a simple solution be to plant my actual name below the Levelord tag so that they don't confuse me as Richard Gray?
Richard: I'm a professional, with the name trademarked, and there could be big trouble for me when you use copyrighted material, AND do the sex/nudity thing
that won't do much good, do a Google search for the name, you'll see you come up as often as I do
me: not arguing to keep my name, im just probing for options
Richard: I understand
me: hm
i could disable my blog to turn up on google search, that's one site solved
Richard: if, sorry, when you become a truly famous artist, and getting paid, you won't want someone else's name, either
me: turn off i mean
lol nah, art's just a hobby. Im not earning money at the moment.
Richard: it would be liek me being an actor and calling myself John Wayne
you should, you really are good, I'm from a family of artists
me: well if i do get out earning money, i dont think i have a need for Levelord, professionally i'd just use my actual name :S
Richard: that's my point, so right now it's not doing good, but doing bad for me
me: can you tell me what's been going on?
im a bit of in a hard place at the moment. the moderators aren't being very helpful and my viewers aren't taking this lightly :S
Richard: first, just using my name is not cool, MOST people can easily make the mistake of thinking we're the same people, I make games for children-adults, male-female, here in America, the wor you do is not good image
wor = work
me: have they accused you of drawing? O_o
Richard: I won't know, they will see "Levelord Games" on my game, do a search, then see you art
I trademarked (expensive) the name for this very reason
me: but i thought people referred to you as 'The Levelord'
Richard: I can fix the moderators, if I need to, they are both American companies and I can send my lawyer after them, but that is ugly
me: oh god please do, they are always giving me a hard time
Richard: dude, Levelord is a very unique name
me: I can place a very large disclaimer that I'm not Richard Gray. I suppose that can clear any confusion.
i can turn the blogspot to be invisible to google searches
Richard: that won't do much good
me: hmmmm.. what else can i think of...
Richard: you're doing contraversial work, and edgy, plus ave to enforce the trademark for such cases
ave = I have
me: but we're not in the same field O_o
Richard: it's close enough
again, I could be using your skills in my games, your art looks like story board art in my games
maybe it helps to pretend you're me and this is going on, it's not cool
me: in that sense I only use my real name in the credits. I never use Levelord when I'm hired for anything. It's odd that anyone would use their internet aliases to work though :S
Richard: you have a big presence online, as Levelord, most people will not know that you are not me
again, what if you had a career, trademarked your name, and then someone was doing this sort of thing
me: not a lot of people are familiar with the name Levelord unless they are a big fan of Duke Nukem and such
Richard: my company is called Levelord Games
me: if my presence is big, I can make even bigger announcements that I'm not Richard Gray
Richard: it's new company I'm just starting, my audience will be offended if they even see some of your stuff
me: but they won't be confusing identities if i just add a large announcement on my front page. and it'll be a permanent one too, in large text
Richard: many won't even get to your page, they will your work on Goggle, etc
please just change the nick ;(
me: that's the thing, I cant change it, the mods dont want to work with me.
best i can do is simply abandon it and that's it, i wont update anything on it
i've tried everything with that site
Richard: you said you coul start a new LemonLord and transfer people over to that, then aandon levelord
me: yes
i already started a new name under LLToon
im just saying that the old Levelord site will still be there
i cant remove it on my own
thats why I've been trying to tell you if I can try any other thing since that's the case
Richard: I will have to take care of that then, I have already read the sites' copyright and trademark infringement rules, they are American companies, too, so the law effects them
me: i wish you luck on that
Richard: I do want to give you time to get your audience moved over
is a few weeks cool?
me: how many?
Richard: how many do you want?
me: 3 weeks? O_o
if i feel comfortable about the move i'll let you know earlier
Richard: do what you can, I'll write the letters to the sites
your audience seems like a bunch of cool people, and I do see a few of them that thought you and I were the same person
me: yes but only briefly.
i'll let you know if the change over takes longer or shorter
im going to transfer my really early and crappy drawings over too
they are actually source of inspiration for the other artists. after seeing the crappy ones i once did and what I can do now, they will feel that they can accomplish the same thing too
Richard: don't forget levelordgallery blogspot, too, please
I really like the LLToon name
me: i'll try change the name there
if i can't i;ll disable it to be found by Google
Richard: they are owned by Google, another American company
me: yeah i know
there's an option in the blog to make it not show up on the google search results
Richard: Google, as you type in "Levelor..." in the search box, your stuff fills the list
the suggen list that pops up as you type
suggn = suggestion
there are many other search engines, does this cover all of them? like MSN's, etc
me: that's a little extreme. it's only one small site I have after my DA's gone
and almost nobody goes there
Richard: dude, if ANYONE goes there, like right now, it's not just the raunchy sexy stuff, it's even worse that it is copyright material from CHILDREN'S cartoons
...and Disney, too, I'm suprised you haven't been shut down already
me: lol i havent
a Disney Director actually saw my art.. he was impressed by it... O_o
Richard:
me: weirdest moment in my life
Richard: seriously, though, imagine a person's child has played my game,then looks up "Levelord" online
there goes a customer ;(
me: [link]
there we go
allow me a few weeks to post on the original blog to divert traffic to the new identical one
Richard: will do
let me know when you're done. check further with Deviant, too, explain the situation, I really don't want to spend money on a lawyer
me: i'll send another query. but they keep telling me to go back to the FAQ which says that they cant do jackshit about the account
that's the annoying thing about this site.. and the mods themselves aren't particularly polite people either
Richard: doesn't make sense, but let me know when you've done what you can and then I will go after them if I have to
aain, mention the trademark issue when you query them again, that is in their FAQ too
me: it doesnt make sense to me either
they said their site doesnt support the coding necessary to delete an account
Richard: that is not possible, I'm a coder
me: you tell them, i have no idea how coding works :S
anyway, mind if i post some of this chat onto my DA journal so that people can have a heads up on the situation?
Richard: sure, thanks for asking
me: thanks

I recently got an e-mail from THE Levelord. The level designer I've been a fan of when I was an 11 year old kid.

The notoriety of my DA site as come to a point where I think it has clashed with the original Levelord and he's emailed me to change the name because of it. I certainly don't want him to be confused for an artist who draws really sexy images.


...dude, I'm not sure why you chose to use my nickname for your art work, but I'd like to ask you to change it.

I have had a trademark on the name for 11 years now, here in the USA. I'm a professional game developer and need to worry about my image online and the use of my trademark here in the States.

You, btw, are a great artist.

~ Richard 'levelord' Gray



Here's the story on how I stumbled across this name
I've used that name ever since I first found it playing Duke Nukem back in '96. I thought the name was pretty badass and I've used it ever since, for all my game aliases when playing Counterstrike, Doom, Quake, Red Alert and more. Since I got onto the internet, the name naturally spilled over to using it for my e-mails, my contacts and even my payal.
It never occurred to me that he had a site of his own until about 2006, but until then nobody has confused me with him, even until this day. I can't say the same in reverse for Levelord, he probably would have got people asking him why he's been drawing fanart.

I'll be working to change the name of this page, or if not, open another one.

Plus he thinks my art is awesome, so hah!

Happy Birthday to Mr. as he turns a year older!

When you become more cosmic with age, your art remains timeless!

Please drop by his page and give him your best wishes

I officially turned 23 today. I haven't updated my DA age which is still set at 19, but I keep it there to remind me of when I picked up a pencil and decided to draw KP.

I've requested for some art from some really great artists, they might be done by February/March.

So yeah... that's about it really...

Happy Birthday to meee......