Sarkus
5061
Having a PR person listen in is one thing, but I guess I haven’t listened to enough podcasts because the idea of one being actively present is new to me. Somehow I doubt that there was a PR person present the last time Ken Levine did GWJ, but perhaps I’m wrong about that. Maybe Troy can provide some more context since TMA has developers on almost every week. I’d like to know how often he thinks PR is sitting in on the recording or how often he’s even been aware of that happening.
A PR firm (or person) that is not sitting in and/or monitoring the representatives of the companies it is responsible for is simply not doing its job. That doesn’t mean it can prevent those same representatives from saying something stupid or bad, but yes they can and will impose on interviews, and cut them short. It happens. This goes for email interviews, text chats, phone calls, radio, TV, press junkets and even personal “one-on-ones”. That’s why you have them.
I’ve worked with, in, around, and against PR firms for a long time. This isn’t my first rodeo.
— Alan
Jarmo
5063
Sure, but consider the situation. The interviewees are not usually this known for their outspokenness and the game launch and especially the communication surrounding it are not usually this bad and fraught with risk of further escalation. They’re fighting PR fires now on every front, surely the presence of the official fire chief is required in a high-profile situation like this? Walking on eggshells must be easy compared to managing a PR situation like this. You’d want to do everything you can to make sure there are no further unpleasant surprises.
I’m under the impression that having PR people present in interviews is the normal way of doing things, it is actually these podcasts that have been bucking the trend. Often the developers speaking have been indies with no PR people and/or personal friends of the podcast crew and the corporate folks have surely been under strict orders on what they can and cannot talk about. I can recall no great unexpected revelations or blunders from those interviewed on Three Moves Ahead.
Teiman
5064
I am programmer, not game programmer, and I am not native english speaker.
But even wen I talk my native language, I don’t talk the same language the other people on my country. Also, theres something like a Uncertainty principle. The more precision, the less truth. If I say a project is 99% complete, most people will understand that is about to release and is almost complete. The truth is different, the truth is that these 1% is the most expensive, and will take very long to finish. The last 10% takes the 90% of the time.
IMHO, programmers talk from a very deep gnome cavern, full of gold mechanics. Since most people don’t realize that, wen programmers point left, people misunderstand right.
I can easily imagine how the PR job has to be a nightmare, understanding the programmers as a crazy inducing thing, talking to the unmature audience ON THE INTERNETS no less… another crazy inducing thing. And if your dev’s is talk directly to the gamers… then you have crazies talking to crazies…
The idea of what is a appropiate reply for a dev, can be different to the idea of a appropiate reply for a gamer. The appropiate reply will be rejected by the dev has “a lie”, while the truth and what the dev think is the honest reply, will offend the gamers as “a bunch of lies”. This puzzle me a lot, because if you are honest, no one trusth you (!). Maybe thats why politicians lie, and we can’t have nice things.
dbd1963
5066
That is pure awesome. If English is not your first language, poetry certainly is.
I made it to about the 18 minute mark before I stopped listening. My BS radar exploded at that point, because recreating all the memory or CTD problems with 1.0 code should be just too easy. So either Stardock has a completely broken and worthless Q&A process, and is thus pretty damn incompetent as a software company, or someone is lying through his teeth to avoid honestly answering why the game was released in such a state.
The word ‘creepy’ isn’t the superlative this statement implies. It’s just another adjective. I find Matt’s actions toward Brad creepy. That doesn’t mean I haven’t seen things that are MUCH creepier. I have. So what? It’s still creepy and it’s still a bit obsessive.
From my perspective, I also think Matt’s been a little creepy toward Brad (not that Brad’s behavior has been above reproach). Like Robert said, I’ve seen far worse. What’s more is that I don’t see the man himself and therefore I can’t get the context of his actions; I only see the parts of them which show up on the Internet. If we had to make judgements on someone’s character solely as they appear on a gaming forum or Amazon reviews, I’m pretty sure a very large percentage of us would be off the mark. That said, what Matt has done strikes me as highly unusual given the circumstances that I’ve been aware of, hence describing the actions as “creepy” is as good a fit as any.
I don’t really see her reviewing the book as anything distasteful or “a dick move”. She could have just read and enjoyed the book and wanted to share her opinion. I don’t think she has to be banned from expressing her opinion on anything related to videogames just because she is married to a guy who makes videgames.
And it’s certainly not “as much of a dick move” as personally attacking someone for the items on their wish list.
If I like something that my wife had helped to create, sure as hell I am going to state it. And sure as hell I am not going to add “but she is my wife, you know” as it’s completely irrelevant to my opinion about the subject.
JM1
5072
Did she actually write a review, or just post in the comments?
KevinC
5073
I know English isn’t your first language so I am not mocking you, but holy shit that is the best phrase I have heard all year. I’m going to print that out, frame it, and hang it on my desk.
Sepiche
5074
IMHO, programmers talk from a very deep gnome cavern, full of gold mechanics.
Finally this thread delivers something useful.
Talorc
5075
Having a large revenue from base the “non gaming” part of the company to prop up the business really worked well for various Microsoft Game Studios :-)
There’s a lot about Teiman’s post that’s curiously magical, poetic, and zen-like. Thanks for gracing this forum with your unique interpretation of the English language.
“Maybe thats why politicians lie, and we can’t have nice things.”
Andrew
5077
It might have been more effective if Bill Gates was publishing Age of Empires novels.
The Stardock PR person had been a guest on a previous TMA podcast, so having her back seemed natural to me.
I think this is one of the two fatal flaws in how Brad approaches his games. The first is that he prioritizes game engines over game design, by his own account. The second follows from what rezaf says above. Because his real passion is for coding AIs, whenever a feature comes up that would be hard to program AI for, he is reluctant to include it in the game, or inclined to remove it if it’s already in the game.
That could be a perfectly OK approach for many strategy games, but not for any game that wants to be mentioned in the same breath as Master of Magic. This is genre that needs spells to create floating cities, to stop time, to bring on eternal night, and to warp the very fabric of reality, as well as troops that can pass through mountains, create illusionary copies of themselves on the battlefield, and so on. If you’re going to say “whoah, kind of hard to make AI for that, let’s leave it out for now” to those kinds of features, you’re never going to make the spiritual successor to MoM. You’re never even going to make MoMs’ distant cousin twice removed.
Brad doesn’t sound interested in putting those kinds of features into his game, because it would mess with his chances to get reviewers to comment on how great the AI is… and that’s what really floats his boat. Maybe some third party will mod that kind of fantastic stuff into the game, but I don’t think we’ll ever see it from Stardock. Maybe in Elemental II.
PS: Teiman, please stick around and keep posting. There is simply no substitute for posts made of wild magic and gnomish gold.
I didn’t mean it in a superlative sense. Matt’s just doing normal human behaviour. According to him, he had a friend screwed over by Brad, and so he’s trying to tarnish Brad’s reputation. I have no idea if Brad actually did screw over Matt’s friend, but Matt believes it to be true. Given that, it seems an entirely reasonable tit-for-tat. When you consider how little effort Matt has had to put into his actions thus far, I don’t see anything creepy about it at all.
Sockpuppets are easy to create, and some people even find it fun. Matt hasn’t really gone to extreme lengths yet. When he shows up at Brad’s door, then we’ve entered “creepy” territory.
