JD
3221
Did anyone mention the ‘Chet vs. Brad incident’ already?
Tom gave Matt Gallant a 9.5, though. And that was on the 7-9 scale. He even said that Matt was “fun.”
Welcome to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.elemental
lessons learned:
-
Unless you’re a one-man shop, keep your mouth closed and let your patches do the talking.
-
Don’t disappoint folks expecting MoM2 or you WILL get a ration of shit.
-
Internet manifestoes are a bad thing.
Lorini
3224
So is RPS the TMZ of game sites now?
Just curious, as I’m not a journalist of any kind whatsoever (the closest I got was taking a couple of communications classes when I was an undergrad):
Did any of the reporters and/or editors ask for comments from Brad or any of the other parties involved before they published? It’s quite possible this happened, and also quite possible that various “no comment” responses were received. I just haven’t heard about it and I was wondering if that’s part of gaming journalism or not.
Nice. That would be funny if it wasn’t so true.
Oh wait I pay those guys $2 a month. Well consider that cancelled!
The RPS article notes or noted that they were awaiting comment from Brad. They ran the story anyway, so I’d hope that they waited a reasonable passage of time for him to comment.
Leinad
3228
I’m one of those “silent” members who read this forum regularly (and enjoy it) but don’t really post. In this case however it’s even for me hard not to comment on it.
I respect Stardock and Brad for their past work and always used Stardock as devs as a great example for good support and a good/close relationship to the community (I ran a fansite for Sins of a Solar Empire for example).
I also like Tom as a poster and a game critic and have also a huge amount of respect towards him.
But in this case, even if it saddens me, I’ve got to say that both, Brad and Tom, were (are) simply out of line here.
Brad for making a statement which is simply a no go and it’s not excuse that he said it just on some internet forum. Either you say something that has value or you don’t but you can’t go around and advertise the game in a thread like this and then act like it was some kind of private talk.
It is absolutly ok to “advertise” your game and post/discuss it (that’s actualy what I always liked about Stardock) but this can’t be totaly one sided. You can’t collect only praise and have all the advantages that the internet brings without having the disadvantages.
Brad also made his very own thread about the gamers bill of rights and is often around in this forum to promote his products/company so I fail to see why his words in this thread shouldn’t be taken as an “official” response.
I don’t even understand how anything he says in regards to Elemental couldn’t be official, he is afterall the CEO if the company that created the game.
I run a few gaming projects myself (one is a big/popular mod) and whenever I talk about them I do this of course in an “official” role. I mean how couldn’t I as I am the one involved/running the show.
And what really worries me is that the wrong people are made to look like victims. The “victim” here isn’t Brad or Stardock, the victims are those who state valid critics and get attacked for it as well as the customers who pay the full price to get yet another game which isn’t of release quality.
In another forum I posted pretty much the same as someone else in here did and said that Elemental is in a state that I’d expect from a game in a beta (and I play a lot of betas or even alphas and I am used to a lot of testing pain => hello Hellgate:London).
I have simply no sympathy for companies which release a game in such a condition and I don’t believe Brad if he says that he actualy thinks the game is worthy of a release product.
If that is really his opinion then one must wonder what kinda standards he (or Stardock) has on their products and that’s why I think it’s absolutly ok to make a news about it which brings me to Tom…
You of course don’t know me and I am no internet troll (one reason why I dont post much) and like I said previously I respect you and your work but in this case I am really surprised by your reactions and posts here.
You always seemed to be a very reasonable person and a nice guy so I’m actually surprised to see you posting like this and I have the feeling you might regret some posts later on (maybe just like Brad did).
It is ok to defend someone you consider to be a friend but especially you as game journalist should also try to be objective.
I can understand why you don’t like the RPS article based on a personal view but Brad said what he said and there is really no context that changes the meaning of the statement he made.
I know that people say sometimes things they didn’t want to say because they were angry or whatever but you can’t blame RPS for it.
I can also just repeat that I find things like this newsworthy and I as a gamer WANT to read such stuff.
What I don’t want is game companys/devs going around and bragging about their games and support in game forums and pages (I can just repeat that Stardock got A LOT of positive publicity to due all this “internet stuff”) but as soon as they can’t deliver in that department complain about the “evil internet”.
You simply can’t have it both ways especially if the negative critics are absolutly valid and not just random internet bitching.
I actualy think you are further escalating things here and thus don’t really help Brad’s case and I hope you don’t get my post wrong. It saddens me to see how this whole things evolved and that you also got into this but I think this is something you simply shouldn’t get involved into at such a level.
P.S.: I’m not a native english speaker so bear with me in that regard. :)
Thanks, trig, I missed that (and I likewise hope so).
If you don’t consider RPS to be the finest in gaming journalism, then don’t buy it.
Lorini
3231
What RPS did (and now I’m probably in hot water) is the same as Fox News taking a single statement out of an Obama speech and running with it. Same thing. I have the same reaction.
Cubit
3233
Are you people insane? Are you guys really ready to completely trash, question the integrity of, and go nuclear on RPS just because Tom is doing it? Lorini and Richard’s comments make me sad. :(
Is there a Godwin’s law for journalism arguments?
Lorini
3235
hehe my first troll! :) :)
Not really. But I don’t like news which takes one sentence and then turns it into this big huge deal. I do consider that shitty reporting.
Congratulations. You have made the dumbest comment of this thread!
What RPS did was take what Brad posted on a public forum and quote, link to it and link to the information regarding why it was extra dumb. If you can’t see the difference between reporting FACTS THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED and Fox News, er Fake News, I shudder for you.
RPS is easily the informative site on the internet when it comes to games that others miss and a lot of big game stuff. I love those guys and all of the work and effort they put in.
I’d hit that, but I don’t know who I’d want to portray as Goebbels
Lorini
3238
Wow, I like that! We should call it Beck’s law.
If they included Brad’s political view in an article that would be unfair, but they didn’t. They included his comments about the Elemental in article about the game. They contrasted it with his well thought out often repeated gamers bill of rights. Somehow this is bad??
If Brad runs for Mayor than his political comments on QT3 are fair game by the local paper. I am not sure his game comments are although they undoubtedly would be used if there was political advantage.
Both you and Brad have choices here. If you want to make this an invitation only forum, that isn’t accessible by search spiders you can do this.
If Brad doesn’t want stuff he says on the internet quoted than don’t say it in the first place.
But by far the most important thing is this: if Brad, doesn’t want to get flamed for releasing a bug ridden game that crashes and has major sections nonfunctional than he is the bloody CEO. Stop selling it and promise refunds for people who are unhappy while working hard to fix it. It seems like pretty fundamental part of the gamers bill of rights and basic business 101. On the other hand I don’t have to met payroll and he does.
And for you Tom, when you are in hole quit digging.
Therlun
3240
Heh, funny. As that’s almost exactly what happened to Elemental.
