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When it comes to talking about videogames, guys like me have it easy. I can say "Call of Duty 3 sucks" and "Oblivion rocks" without getting called into my boss's office. I just have to be sure to spellcheck first and I'm good. But the people who make Call of Duty 3 and Oblivion don't have the same luxury. They have to be careful when they're talking about other game makers. They actually have to behave like gentlemen.
So when Bethesda producer Ashley Cheng said he was disappointed that Blizzard wasn't taking more risk with the sequels for Diablo and Starcraft, there were a few efforts to kick up a tempest in a Horadric Cube. Check the usual suspects for the story. Let's hope the attempts fail. Cheng's observation is perfectly reasonable and he makes it clear he's a big fan of Blizzard. It was a respectful and constructive comment.
But then you have Activision's producer for the next Call of Duty, Noah Heller (pictured above). He spoke a little too candidly during an on camera interview with Eurogamer, who put him off guard by having a German call him out for supposedly comparing Japanese people to aliens with acid for blood. It must be pretty unsettling for a guy named Noah to be interrogated by someone with that accent, but he's pretty quick on the uptake. Heller's supposedly controversial comments about the competition were innocent enough, and it's far more illuminating when he admits to blanking on the names of other games. What's more, he probably didn't expect a throwaway line about a Brothers in Arms trailer would get its own entry on Kotaku under the TRASH TALK tag. TRASH TALK! Like what wrestlers do! An apology was later issued (i.e. Heller's boss told him to shut up and someone else issued a statement).
So there you have it, game developers: how to talk about the competition and how not to talk about the competition. Because you can bet your bottom dollar some yahoo with a blog is going to try to blow it out of proportion.
Frakjack
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By obonicus at 11:31 AM ON 07/02/08
It's somewhat amusing when people say that D3/SC2 HAVE to be like the previous games so that the fans will buy the games. I mean, c'mon.
It's Blizzard, if their next few games exploded your monitor it'd still take a few years before people caught on and stopped buying them.
By Troy Goodfellow at 11:49 AM ON 07/02/08
Every day, the gaming media becomes more like the rest of the journalistic world, manufacturing conflict wherever they can. The Cheng thing is such a non-story that I can't believe anyone even picked it up as controversial. He's simply saying what a lot of gamers are thinking - D3 will be great, but can't Blizzard leverage its power to do something truly original?
This sort of stuff is probably why it's getting harder to get developers to say anything interesting about games they had nothing to do with. Because we both know that, off the record, they are full of opinions.
By obonicus at 12:03 PM ON 07/02/08
And, I think the Heller thing was actually inspired off a nice froth-fest over at NeoGAF, Kotaku just picked up on the outrage.
Which is a pretty good way to do things, I guess: lurk on NeoGAF, notice what 'news' topics incite the best nerd-rage and then submit that story to Kotaku.
Lately I've noticed the foreign Kotaku'ers are releasing the more inflamatory posts -- could it be the fault of the weak USD? So global socio-economics DO affect the gaming industry, afterall. Whodathunkit.
By Ralod at 10:55 PM ON 07/02/08
The reason the comment by Ashely Cheng got pointed out in the first place was not so much the dig at blizzard, but the hypocrisy in the statement.
His comments on Starcraft 2, and Diablo 3 state he thinks they should go the "first person" route. Which is exactly what his company is doing to the derision of many, if not all, of Fallout fans.
It is the implication of his comments that if its not first person, its a relic of a game. Which is frankly so untrue it is sickening. It sounds like he is butt hurt over a company making a game that is a sequel to a isometric game that will sell millions, and will still be PC and mac only. While his game will get the console kiddies only, and be lucky to top a million across all 3 platforms.
It's not so much the dig at blizzard, but the idea that it seems everyone at Bethesda things if it's not a first person shooter style of a game it's a dinosaur. So the outrage, I don't think has been really understood.
By Tom Chick at 11:02 PM ON 07/02/08
"It is the implication of his comments that if its not first person, its a relic of a game."
There is no such implication in Cheng's blog, Ralod. You career Bethesda detractors are going to have to try a little harder than that. :)