Well, well, well.

I read a very interesting document today. It had sat in my e-mail box for almost a month; I already knew the main point of what it said, but I hadn't actually gone ahead and read through it. And when I did, I didn't know whether to laugh, be shocked, be offended or just shrug my shoulders.

I will say this once, because it should only need to be said once: I am definitely, positively NOT Bruce Ryder. I am Aaron Teplitsky and have been Aaron for all 22 years and (almost) 10 months I've been alive.

Now I'd like to make some statements to the Wolfenstein community, which -- it seems -- is still quite alive =) Some of this is probably already assumed by many people, but hopefully it'll add some credibility if I come right out and say it.

The name "Reuben Andajetsky" was, in fact, a fake name created by Bruce Ryder to help populate the WolfAddict roster in its early days. Despite the similarity between this name and my own (they're both Slavic), mine was given to me by my father. Anybody who doubts the fact that I exist can use the whole Internet as their resource. Dig around the CoRE page (link is in my Portal) and you'll see I lived in room 133 for years and managed the Pseudopod for five semesters. Go to ebay.com and search for auctions run by "yyr57695" in the last month, and you'll see stuff there with my name on it (and a nice feedback profile, too). A search for my name on Google turns up a letter I submitted to Pipe Dream, the SUNY-Binghamton campus paper, and the Dickinson Town Council page that lists me as Chief Financial Officer for the 2001-2002 school year. And if you still doubt, just consider all of what I've written on the Who I Am page. Would I spend so much time documenting my life if all I was doing was covering up something else? I thought not. Oh, and the picture on my out-of-date driver's license (which I scanned directly) is from the short period of time I wore contact lenses.

All of the scenarios on my page were created by me and ONLY by me, with some minor exceptions. These exceptions are 1) the people who helped me, all named in the ReadMe files, and 2) some of the graphics in Barneystein 3D were based on graphics in the original PC version. Through The Portal was conceived and designed solely by me. Hopefully my next scenario should more than prove that! If you want to see other things I've created more recently, check out my Games page.

My level design style, over time, was somewhat influenced by Bruce's, and his influenced by mine; this was because we played our levels, and enjoyed them! But once again, with the exceptions listed in the ReadMe files, we never actually produced a true collaboration.

I understand that for the most part, I've been horrible at answering e-mail in a timely fashion, and sampling levels that people have sent to me, and I apologize for that. But I've always tried to offer encouragement to budding designers and fascinated players, and of course, I've placed up for download absolutely all the work on the game that I ever did. This work encompasses literally hundreds of hours of effort, and I hope people have been enjoying it... but after receiving well over 50,000 hits to this page, I don't see how they aren't! =)

I did meet Bruce Ryder once. It was before I actually attended SUNY-Binghamton (I was touring it at the time), and we met at the Holiday Inn across the street. I was with my parents and we all had lunch, talked about Wolf and whatever. It was a nice afternoon, and I left hoping we could do it again sometime.

This is a direct quote, commenting on the "Who I Am" portion of my site: "Why would someone need to have such an extensive auto-biography unless they had something to hide?" To them I point to livejournal.com and xanga.com, two sites of many wherein people can express their feelings and emotions... and many spill everything they've got! In comparison to some of those, mine is quite tame! And personally, I like writing about myself. Reading something you've written some time ago helps remind you of who you are, so you don't lose sight of yourself. Maybe you understand what I say when I say that, maybe you don't.

As for Bruce's current whereabouts, I have absolutely no knowledge of them. I haven't heard from him in literally years, and since his AOL account disappeared I have had no way of contacting either him or his (ex-)wife(?) Jennifer. But I hope that wherever he is, he's doing OK, and taking care of himself.

And as for me, I'm going to continue working on my many in-progress projects, including what will be my next, final and hopefully best Wolf3D scenario, and continue working my Help Desk job in White Plains, NY.

To the Wolfenstein 3D community: Please continue to enjoy my scenarios, and the rest of my work throughout my site. That's why it's here. And thanks for making my Wolf page one of the most popular CoRE pages ever.