Frictionless Insight is reporting that Raph Koster who used to frequent here until SWG’s release drove him off has been promoted to the official position of Big Wig. CCO of SOE!!! No wonder he quit coming through to speak to the rabble. I knew the constant bitching about his game was not the thing keeping him away. He was just busy stepping on people. :wink:
Tyjenks, I have noticed that you never miss a chance to take a swipe at developers. What would be the reason for this? Do you think we are all worthy of your scorn?
Glad to hear he survived SWG…
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I saw that, doesn’t change my question.
What they don’t tell you is that being Chief Creative Officer simply means he’s in charge of the Soundblasters and the crappy DVD hardware decoders.
I take swipes at developers, Canadians, morons, and John Q Poster. If it seems as if I am picking on your profession, group or motorcycle gang, I apologize.
Raph was here. It then either got too hot or he got too busy and left. SWG had some problems that took him away, he had no time to give us hourly progress updates, and/or he had real work to do and could not come back. I am glad he contributed when he could, but I am not surprised he has not posted. The documented SWG hiccups at launch and missing content combined with the hyper-critical group we have gathered here would keep most sane developers away (Just a joke Dave. I do not think you are completely insane :wink:). I also would not be surprised if he still read the forums here since most are very knowledgeable about games and what makes them entertaining. Developers should listen to folks like that.
FWIW, I think Koster may just know what he is doing and seems to love games. People like that moving up the ladder is fine by me. He has met with good fortune and he simply needed a little jab in the ribs to let him know we are watching him. Hell, one day when SWG has vehicles, space flight and Jedis, I might even give it a try.
As for you, like Brett Todd ( :wink: :wink: just in case his Canadian butt is reading ), you seem kinda thin skinned and ragging on him for being Canadian or Bioware and by extension you for making loads of cash off poor little consumers like me is just fun. In fact, most times all is needed is the smallest hint of a joke buried in a post and people’s hackles will be raised.
As added clarification: I do not like opening lots of containers. I loved NWN. I did not like the Witch’s Wake series being halted and then expansions being announced soon after. I think crazy, made up names on PC games are silly. I made fun of Undrentide. However, once the price drops, I will most likely pick it up, too.
Does that help?
Yeah, they’re shipping him off to San Diego. Bye-bye, Raph. Austin’s gonna miss ya.
We like to read thoughtful, well-informed criticism. Lately this place has swung away from that, and become a bit heavy on the overblown, breathless denunciation/exaltation. Edging towards “YOU’RE A SHITHEAD BLAH BLAH YOU RUINED XYZ BLAH BLAH WHY DON’T YOU LISTEN TO US!!!”
Most of these conversations proceed in more of an argumentative fashion than a proper discussion. Also: criticizing a game != designing a game.
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What’s this “we” crap? Speak for yourself dude…I for one like to read thoughtless uninformed criticism.
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No it hasn’t.
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Actually, criticizing a game properly is harder than designing a game. There was a whole thread in which everybody and their damn brother swore up and down that coming up with ideas was easy as pie. Several industry insiders confirmed this.
Apparently, it’s getting shit from paper to the screen that takes effort.
But we all know that writing game reviews is extremely difficult, since Tom and Ben and everybody are always reminding us of that. 
So in conclusion, you are wrong.
:D
We game developers. Ye olde Derek Smart seemed to enjoy vitriol more, but I think this is a safe enough thing to generalize about.
I’ll agree to disagree.
High concept != designing a game. Designing a game is grinding out all the nitty-gritty details, the implementation. It’s a hell of a lot of work to do it well.
But you make it so easy!
What would be the reason for this? Do you think we are all worthy of your scorn?
I’m thinking that Tyjenks figures that pretty much everybody is worthy of scorn. Just a guess.
Anyway, look…Raph obviously is an affable genius that just happened to design a game that has a few flaws. While he was hanging around here, some people said to him “Hey! What’s the deal with these flaws?”
And Raph was like:
“HAPPY SMILE FACE PRETTY TALK FUN! KEEP UP YOUR HAPPY ATTITUDE EVERYTHING IS A-OK NUMBER ONE TOPS! MAKE FRIENDS WITH A JEDI! I LIKE PIE!”
So some people, namely me, were like “Hey Raph, um, maybe you shouldn’t respond to criticisms if you aren’t going to respond to criticisms maybe.”
And then Raph was gone and the SpoofyChop doctrine was formed:
“If you are a developer or a designer, be careful if you’re planning to talk about your current project.”
Then Brian Koontz said some stuff and a few days passed, Tyjenks got his own board rank, Ducks were posted and here we are!
So don’t get too worried DaveC, we love you guys!
Just don’t blow sunshine up our asses when your Star Wars game has bugs or design flaws and we’ll all get along just fine.
:D
I’ll have to remember to add extra winks to my posts. I’m surprised that you took my “theory” about “reviewing > designing” as if it was some kind of scientific thesis.
:(
First Tyjenks can’t mock Raph, then Jakub can’t slam Planetside, now you’re mad that I’m being sarcastic about game designing.
Man…you developers are getting a bit touchy.
I’ll try to limit my posts to compliments only for a while.
I think more to do with Raph going away is the “Fuck Star Wars” crowd that never tried SWG out went on and on about how much it sucked - and then badgered him when he wouldn’t give them a straight answer.
Shrug he probably shouldn’t have responded to those threads, but probably felt obligated to since they were about his game. And contrary to what a lot of people on this board have said - a lot of people I know like the game.
Same thing would go for what’s his face from 3DR - after all the shit he’s gotten about D4Ever on these boards would you come back (and he hasn’t been back for a while either)? Why communicate with people that can’t be civil?
I don’t think the problem was people being uncivil to Raph…I think the problem was that he was answering peoples’ questions with irrational exuberance.
:D
There are other forums on the Internet.
Heh, I didn’t go anywhere, I’m still here. I’ve been here since the boards first opened lo these many moons ago. I’ve never posted that frequently here…
I’ll take the “affable genius” bit and ignore the rest of the thread. ;)
PS, very nice and fair review in PC Gamer, Desslock… enjoyed reading it.
Crap. Wanted to get another post in before Raph replied. Now I am going to look like a kiss ass, but so be it.
I really posted this initially as a “Hey look! Raph done good!” thread. A little sarcastic slant infects all of my posts and this one was no different. I have no ill will towards anyone. I love Gladguy, and Derek Smart, and Raph, Xemu, Brian Reynolds, Adam at Sierra and even DaveC. Sorry if I left you out, but I love you, too. I have copies of games most of those mentioned worked on or are connected with accept Harbinger which I am waiting to hit $9.99. :wink:
All I usually do is post what I am thinking regarding a game or circumstances surrounding a title. A slightly harsh bent gets discussion moving. All I did here was say Raph doesn’t post anymore and KaPoweee we have a nice chat going on.
Plus, if little ol’ Tyler is thinking it, you can bet there are a few hundred or thousand others thinking the same thing. If developers do not want to know what their audience or target audience is thinking, they are missing the boat.
I am sure I can ramble on some more, but that’s about it. I guess I could go back to the initial post and edit it to say:
Congrats Raph :!:
Do I mean that? Yes. Is it interesting or discusion worthy? Not really.
I caught the “just funnin’ ya” tone in your first message, Tyler, and I didn’t think you were really criticizing Raph at all.
I don’t think it came across as negative towards developers to most readers. I just think DaveC was being sensitive because of your commentary about the NWN expansions over the in the Planetside topics. :)
DaveC has been overly touchy in many threads. His response is no surprise.