Best of NoWayJose

Well, it’s been a while, folks, and NoWayJose is still working on his act. I thought I’d take the opportunity to let us give some feedback on how he’s been doing. (I’d also like to slip in a kind word or two for the uniqueness of Qt3 in giving us, the gaming public, a chance to read the opinions of acclaimed developers like NoWayJose.)

I present to you NoWayJose’s 9 most recent P&R posts, and invite you to vote on which you think is the best. I know the competition will be close, and I apologize for only allowing you to vote for one, but I’m afraid this poll is just going to have to demand a pale shadow of the hard decision-making that has stood NoWayJose in such good stead in the cutthroat but wonderous field of games design.

Option #1: “Did we get any updates…”

A strong contender. Very topical, asks incisive questions.

Option #2: “Everyone knows that anyone…”

In his condemnation of humorless idiots, NoWayJose finds room for some refreshing wit – which will probably be lost on them, but not (thankfully) on us!

Option #3: “I’m also pretty sure…”

Here NoWayJose gets serious for a moment, and it’s an unalloyed, virtuous seriousness that reminds me very much of Keith Olbermann. Although a respected designer has to know how to play, this steely side of NoWayJose is also very appealing.

Option #4: “So far I’m able…”

NoWayJose has always been ready to clarify previous posts for us, which speaks well to a developer/fan culture of openness and information. It’s also good to hear that NoWayJose hasn’t let the long hours that dominate the industry spoil his healthy marital relationship.

Option #5: “Funny, I carry 70 cents…”

A sublime blend of the personal and the political.

Option #6: “Is it true…”

Despite his achievements and his stature, NoWayJose is a man unafraid to admit that he doesn’t know everything.

Option #7: “Ted Haggard went…”

Some developers are arrogant. They don’t have time for fans or forums. Not so with NoWayJose! Here he is closely following a fascinating P&R thread and priming it for brand-new revelations.

Option #8: “Never mind.”

Brevity comes only from those who choose their words with exceptional thought and care. I don’t think there was any doubt about where NoWayJose has stood on that spectrum, but this post demonstrates it with eloquence, style, and irrefutable substance.

Option #9: “So I assume…”

This one is kind of a dark horse. It’s timely, it’s insightful, it’s as brief and brilliantly written as any Roman epigram, but the contest is just too tough. I don’t see how it can compete with gems like “Funny, I carry 70 cents…”, or “Is it true…”, or “Never mind.”

Option #10: SHIT, BONERZ
I include this option out of tradition. I’ve said in the past that every poll should have an abstention, and I stand by that general rule, so I won’t break it. But if I could countenance an exception, it would be here – this is a topic that everyone can follow and have an opinion on. You can, and you should. But I’ll leave SHIT, BONERZ in, in case anyone here isn’t a NoWayJose fan yet, in which case my message to them is “I’m sorry… and you should really check out Interstate '82.”

I am fine with all of these. I also like this one, where he’s giving advice to Brian Rubin about what to do when a girl dumps you.

When everyone votes and we have a winner will we give him some sort of memorial award? I am also fine with that.

Rude, but I can dance to it.

My favourite recent series of posts wasn’t even in P&R - it was in the Love Guru thread where he name-drops Jay Roach* and claims his wife is “better” than Suzanna Hoffs.

  • The mediocre director of the Austin Powers movies, among others.

You know, if someone brought up my day job as a game designer when being snarky about my more argumentative P&R posts, with the extremely thinly veiled subtext that I had no business commenting on current events, I’d be pretty freakin’ pissed off.

In fairness, NWJ tends to bring that up himself a lot of the time and also name drops to suggest he has a lot of Hollywood connections.

That said, I think both this thread and the one in EE are complete whiffs by UMcG.

Oh what, you’re so Hollywood you are just using acronyms like k-fed, j-lo, and UMcG?

And in any event, the proper acronym is “UMac.”

I concur. The best “best of” threads involve examining back in the poster’s history, and not just posting the most recent points. These threads do Qt3’s subtle quasi-troll a disservice.

What looks like a rare miss for everyone’s favorite fantasy flavored corporate breakfast sandwich, is actually a brilliant trap.

Umac, knowing what the Qt3 hivemind reaction to his weaksauce would be, (derision and mild support for NWJ) and knowing that a NWJ is a helpless contrarian who’s every instinct is screaming at him to go against the flow and support the OP, but he can’t because the OP is about him being an inane contrarian dick.

Umac has deftly locked NWJ into damaging logic-loop like the robots in the “I,Mudd” episode of Star Trek.

Curtesy of IMDB:

Captain Kirk: Harry lied to you, Norman. Everything Harry says is a lie. Remember that, Norman. Everything he says is a lie.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd: Now I want you to listen to me very carefully, Norman. I’m… lying.
Norman: You say you are lying, but if everything you say is a lie, then you are telling the truth, but you cannot tell the truth because you always lie… illogical! Illogical! Please explain! You are human; only humans can explain! Illogical!

That, or he was drunk.

UMcG’s been off his game lately. So much so, that I’m surprised to see UMcG make a thread about NWJ show up before we had an NWJ thread about UMcG.

Lum… the beauty of this thread is that UMac isn’t picking NWJ’s more argumentative posts… he’s picking all of his recent posts. And they’re all argumentative. And it’s not like this selection is unrepresentative of the dude’s entire post history.

If you were pretty feakin’ pissed off, that would be the idea. It’s taking the ball of sourness that is NWJ and doing something pretty amusing with it. And hopefully, while doing the amusing thing, the poster in question would learn a valuable lesson: leaving your attitude permanently on hostile, and being contrarian with almost every single post is rather silly. And doesn’t contribute to the forum (or anything) in the slightest. I myself have contrarian tendencies, but compared to NWJ I’m small potatoes.

Mmmm… potatoes…

Of course, this doesn’t answer why anyone would go to such lengths to talk about another poster. Still… at least the style was amusing.

You got that right. But don’t take my word for it, ask his number one fan.