Reputation Assassination

[christian]

HipHopGamer's discussion on Bloodborne's success - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fByHry1nPA

He's more than a little disturbed by the game's glowing praise despite it sharing many of the same defects which many a previous game had been crucified over. As well he might be! Weren't those faults all supposed to be deal-breakers? Unpardonable sins? If you were to go by the words of the reviewers and Internet mobs, these flaws were nothing less than a concentrated, personal attack against the consumer himself.

So what's going on here?

He also makes a good point about people claiming that Bloodborne is a killer app. Killer app? Excuse me, but where have you people been for the past year and a half? There's been a veritable torrent of killer apps for the PS4 since day one! Even more so if you don't already happen to have a powerful PC.

[christian]

People going easy on Bloodborne, saying, Well at least there aren't any non-progression bugs in it. That's really the most important thing.

But there are!

http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/27/830082 ... um-key-bug

From Software and Sony Computer Entertainment say they've identified a fairly serious progression bug in Bloodborne, one that could impede your progress in the game — or at least cause you to miss out on a boss fight. A fix for that bug is incoming, Sony said in an email to Polygon, but for now it seems pretty easy to avoid it.

Notice the language used. Every attempt is made to diminish the severity of this bug. Fascinating, isn't it? And why do they do this? From a site that has no problem plastering inside-out AC: Unity faces all over the place, why is Bloodborne spared from their cruel, merciless blade?

[christian]

Literary critics used to pounce on syntax errors and go on and on about them in much the same way that game critics today do bugs.

The Author's Craft - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/12743/1 ... 2743-h.htm

I remember once, in the days when observation had first presented itself to me as a beautiful pastime, getting up very early and making the circuit of inner London before summer dawn in quest of interesting material. And the one note I gathered was that the ground in front of the all-night coffee-stalls was white with egg-shells! What I needed then was an operation for cataract. I also remember taking a man to the opera who had never seen an opera. The work was Lohengrin. When we came out he said: "That swan's neck was rather stiff." And it was all he did say. We went and had a drink. He was not mistaken. His observation was most just; but his perspective was that of those literary critics who give ten lines to pointing out three slips of syntax, and three lines to an ungrammatical admission that the novel under survey is not wholly tedious.

Bennett doesn't impute any sinister intent on those critics. To him, they're simply myopic. But the question to ask today, is it self-inflicted?

[christian]

Watch Ubisoft own up to the mess that was Assassin's Creed Unity - http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/12/859335 ... reed-unity

What a title! The linked article also comes with a video, which is worth watching. And here's the result:

It can't have been easy for a major publisher to admit to a black mark on its flagship franchise, but it was a refreshing bit of honesty that has us feeling more optimistic about what Ubisoft has in store for Syndicate.

Hopefully this will go some ways towards healing the cold bitterness most Internet gamers feel toward this series.

[christian]

Another shocking and highly inappropriate headline from Polygon's Ben Kuchera.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/29/868778 ... itions-omg

Batman: Arkham Knight is the latest release to give the finger to people who buy at launch

Disgusting.

[christian]

http://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/ ... on/cs9d67r

I am Gilles Matouba and there is a thin chance of you knowing me. Still, I am a veteran french game developer with 15 years of experience in the industry. Mostly at Ubisoft and Eidos Montreal.
Until september 2014 I was the Game Director of DXMD at Eidos Montreal.

3 years ago Andre Vu, the Brand Director of the DX franchise, and I coined the term 'Mechanical Apartheid'.

Thing is... I am Black (& French...). And Andre is Asian (& French).

When we decided to go all-in on delivering the experience to play as Adam Jensen, an Augmented, in a world agressively segragating his own kind, we actually wanted to offer to our audience something unique. Something that was close and very personal to us: The experience of being torn between 2 worlds and 2 identities. Augs calling you the 'uncle Tom' of the non-augs, non-augs always insecure when you're around, always deeply being scared or appaled by your mechanical body.

Somehow, it was our own individual stories... We wanted to share a little part of our own life experience (on a super dramatized degree, of course) as visible minorities in a world of prejudices sometimes not well tailored for us.

We also used the reference of south africa, israel, even brasil, french and american ghettos and any country ressorting to walls in order to segratgate a part of their own population. We meant it. This was important to us to not half-ass these analogies. BECAUSE THIS IS DEUS EX.

Deus Ex is a very mature and thoughtful franchise that wants to hook gamers on essential questions and considerations: power, control, species, science, sociology, singularity, etc.

Racism is a ey dark part of our human nature and we wanted to treat this subject. It was especially important for ME to treat this.

So it makes me sad and angry that these ignorant people just ASSUME that everyone behind this game is ill-spirited, stupid, and more importantly for me, that they that they are all WHITE. (For them devs==white, gamers==white)
What these bloggers and tweeters did to me here is beyond mere insults: They have degraded me and have literally erased my identity as a black developer and as a black creator that just wanted to share a piece of himself with this game.

I wish that they will feel bad about it. I wish they will have the decency to apologize of their gross false assumptions and accusations. To apologize to all the people back in Quebec that have been working hard FOR YEARS to make this game to happen. But since they have no spine, no shame and no self respect they will simply ignore this post (once again denying me voice, legitimacy and identity) and will at best move on another AAA target to toss their freshly defecated shit at.

They don't deserve anyone's attention. They don't deserve our industry, our games and the dedication we put into them. They disgust me.

TL : DR Asian guy and black guy came up with the term Mechanical Apartheid 3 years ago. Black guy not happy about the SJW shit tweets and wants to call them out and expose their stupidity. Black guy is not their shield.

[christian]

Shenmue III's Placeholder Box Art is Hilarious - http://kotaku.com/shenmue-iiis-placehol ... 1715660719

That the box won’t actually look like that is immaterial. For now, this ridiculous picture of a bargain bin-looking game is Shenmue III to me.

[christian]

videoGaiden Christmas Special - Mass Effect - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocCVfCCrrs0&t=9m32s

One of my very favorite Rab and Ryan sketches.

[christian]

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford on gamer criticism: 'some people are sadists' - http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... -criticism

[christian]

An Hour with Randy Pitchford - http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015- ... -pitchford

"Typically, it doesn't matter what the game is, the usual ratio is about three love letters for every one hate letter," Randy continues. "The scale's different. Volume relates to impact. So Borderlands, we get a lot more mail than, say, Brothers in Arms. But it's usually about 3:1 positive to negative."

Even for Aliens?

Even for Aliens, Randy says.

The one exception to this ratio, Randy says, is for Duke Nukem Forever, a shooter universally panned by critics. 6:1 positive to negative for that one, apparently, which surprises me. It seems to have surprised Randy, too.

"It exposes how myopic we can get," he says. "Those of us who read the gaming websites and are super tuned into everything, we think that's the centre of the universe. But in fact it's like, here's the world, and it's like a pinprick of the actual people who are affected by interactive entertainment."

Eurogamer: I'm just trying to get to the truth of why it didn't turn as good as we'd hoped.

Randy Pitchford: I liked it. And it frustrates the people who didn't to hear me say that.

Eurogamer: Yeah.

Randy Pitchford: It's almost like they want to hear me say, yeah, it was rubbish. But it would be a lie for me to say it. I actually like, f**k, I like Duke Nukem Forever. I thought it was brilliant. I did! I know I'm not objective. But when I say that you should go, that guy's clearly not objective. Why would you expect me to be objective? Have you ever seen weird, bizarre art you don't even understand? The artist who created it clearly did it for a reason and loved it, you know.

And we're a collective. There's a whole bunch of us and everybody's trying their hardest. The notion of trying to get someone who created something they loved, when you don't, to try to have you... that to me is a dismal failure of human rationality. Look at how flawed our human reasoning is: I think this is true, therefore everyone else should also think this is true. But that doesn't make any sense, especially if the thing we're saying is true is either subjective, or completely unverifiable.

Eurogamer: As you've said, your opinion will frustrate people.

Randy Pitchford: They're welcome to be frustrated. What do you want from me?

Eurogamer: I know. But we've heard a lot about the development of the game, and it does sound like it was a difficult development. It had been in development for a long time. There was various outsourcing going on.

Randy Pitchford: All of our projects involve outsourcing.

Eurogamer: I know that, but -

Randy Pitchford: When you say you've heard a lot about it, don't forget you've not actually heard anything, because you've heard speculation and noise.

Eurogamer: We've seen 343 apologise for f**king up Halo. We've seen Ubisoft apologise for f**king up Assassin's Creed. Have you ever considered apologising?

Randy Pitchford: Apologising for what? Because I think earlier in the conversation I said I'm sorry if you didn't like it. I want you to like it, and I failed if you didn't.

What an outrageous question! How much of a jerk do you have to be to demand that a studio apologize for making a videogame that didn't meet your expectations? I can't even begin to fathom the spiritual death lurking behind such a question. No wonder there's been such a massive reaction against gamers lately.

It was funny, some guy on Twitter said, 'I just want the truth.' I said, look, you're not accepting what I'm telling you, because I've already offered you something, and you're not accepting that, you're also not accepting what the court said, I don't know what I can do for you. Because if those things are the truth and you're not accepting them, then you don't want the truth. You just want me to say what you want to hear. And he said, just because a court decided something doesn't absolve you of any accountability. Actually that's exactly what that means. You don't get it. This has been litigated. It's over.

Here's the thing: there are going to be folks for whom it doesn't matter what is said, it doesn't actually matter what the truth is. There are people who have decided I'm a villain and they're going to continue that narrative. And that's fine. They're free to do that.

There are other folks who maybe can see it for what it is. We should always be sceptical about offerings. But I hope when we make entertainment in the future - because we're just going to keep making entertainment, that's why we exist - and I hope when we make entertainment in the future that should be the kind of entertainment some of these people like, that they actually give it a chance. And if it's worthy of their joy, they give it that opportunity to create the joy for them. Because that's the only purpose we have, is to try and make joy and happiness and to create entertainment for folks who like video games.

We will keep going and sometimes we'll have good stuff, and sometimes we'll have those weird tracks on the b-side of the White Album.