Back in early August, I (Brother None) was approached by GFW's Julian Murdoch to discuss Bethesda and Fallout 3 in a short Q&A with him, in response to the reactions on Jeff Green's lightly controversial blogpost. It's always nice to get the chance to react publicly in a media that pretty much turned against us over the past few years. So I co-operated in the hope that we'd end up with a fairly balanced story presenting both sides of the argument. Judge for yourself if that's the case.
The story (called "My Precious" and using Gollem to represent the fans) is about interaction between fans, the industry and the media, using BioShock and Fallout 3 as test cases. It opens with "Bethesda has a crappy gig." You'll have to buy it to read it, but to facilitate, some quotes:<blockquote>That's when the postnuclear turds really hit the fan.
Within days of the announcement that Bethesda would pick up where Interplay had left off, the largest and most vocal fansite of the game, No Mutants Allowed (wwww.nma-fallout.com), worked itself into a frenzy.
Thomas (known as Brother None on the forum) posted the news on July 12, 2004. A casual observer might have believed that the resurrection of a beloved world by a dedicated, respected RPG developer would be a good thing. But the relationship between Bethesda and the fan community got off to a bad start, to say that least.
"This is possibly the worst news I've heard since FOBOS [Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel]," posted forum user Spazmo, (...) "Bethesda is crap." The community divided into two distinct groups: those preaching the apocalypse of postapocalyptic gaming, and those - like forum moderator Bеекеrs- who pled for rationality. "I refuse to judge this," he later wrote. "Bethesda has done some pretty good games... It's a matter of wait and see."
(...)
While commenters on his [Jeff Green's - NMA] blog (and in Bethesda's own forums [this is actually simply untrue - NMA]) were overwhelmingly excited about the developments shown at E3, the hardcore Fallout fansites fired invective, arguing that Green (and the gaming press in general), were incapable of objective opinion, often using language not fit to print.
On No Mutants Allowed, the first response to Green's blog post was a simple one-liner from user Sorrow: "That's fucking pathetic." Again, forum moderators and many community members pled for rational discussion, but the angry few overwhelmed the conversation. "We're an abrasive community with some bad elements, which is not really unique in how the Internet works," explains Bеекеrs.
Todd Howard, the executive producer on Fallout 3 for Bethesda, has become inoculated to this kind of controversy, because he understands it. "I remind my guys that nobody works up the energy to get on the Internet and write 'Everything is fine,'" he explains. "If people aren't writing about it, what's up with that? Either they don't care, or we're playing it too safe."
(...)
"Reinvention is one of our core philosophies. Sequals aren't 'plus ones'- this old thing with a new change." So instead, his team started with what they liked best about the old games - the setting, the humor and the ink-black irony of the world - and started making a new game. A Bethesda games. "That's just how we work."
But they continue to face heavy pushback from the community. The lead developer on a competitive class-of-2008 RPG put it this way: "There's no fucking way I'd want to be in their shoes. No matter how great that game is, they're screwed. The Fallout guys are nuts." Needless to say, this person asked to remain anonymous.
(...)
As for Bethesda, they've been listening. Pete Hines, vice president of PR and marketing, lives at the bloody front of the Fallout 3 battle. From his perspective, despite the noise, the job is pretty simple. "It doesn't take all that long to figure out what it is people want or don't want," he claims. "We've known what they've wanted since 2004, and I don't think anything that they want has changed."
(...)
"If you go too easy on a game and don't approach the article with any real questions...then what the hell are you, other than a free ad for the product?" Green says. "It's a tough, tough line."
(...)
But both sides of the dialogue recognize the value of the medium, even with its opportunities for miscommunication and heartache. "It's message boards, blogs and niche run communities that are changing the dialogue," argues No Mutant Allowed's Bеекеrs. "One journalist coming over to interact with us on our forums is 1,000 times more valuable than the 50 uninformative, bland previews we have read." And Green agrees. "I like the interaction. I think it can help make us more vital and dynamic and honest," he says. "Community is a good thing."
(...)
"If you don't want us to make this game, you're going to be disappointed, because we're making it," concludes Bethesda's Hines. "And if you're willing to give it a shot - well, then we appreciate what you want, but we're going to move on."
2K Boston's Levine puts it a little more bluntly. He has no interest in making games to serve a sequel-starved fan base. "Games take three or four years. I'm almost 41 years old. I'm going to be dead soon. I don't have 4 years to toss into being a human Xerox machine."</blockquote><center>
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Ever noticed how when people set out to prove NMA's bad behaviour through forum quotes, they always end up quoting the same user, namely Sorrow?
Here's two examples of bits of the Q&A Julian Murdoch did not use:<blockquote>JM: What are you hoping for in Fallout 3? What's the ideal?
BN: A game that takes the core design of the originals, a darkly ironic retro-50s PnP-emulating cRPG, and moves it into the new era of gaming technology. What the series needs is evolution, as opposed to reinvention.
JM: How do you think bethesda should/shouldn't be interacting with the existing fan base?
BN: "At all" would be a great start.</blockquote>Thanks Killzig.
The story (called "My Precious" and using Gollem to represent the fans) is about interaction between fans, the industry and the media, using BioShock and Fallout 3 as test cases. It opens with "Bethesda has a crappy gig." You'll have to buy it to read it, but to facilitate, some quotes:<blockquote>That's when the postnuclear turds really hit the fan.
Within days of the announcement that Bethesda would pick up where Interplay had left off, the largest and most vocal fansite of the game, No Mutants Allowed (wwww.nma-fallout.com), worked itself into a frenzy.
Thomas (known as Brother None on the forum) posted the news on July 12, 2004. A casual observer might have believed that the resurrection of a beloved world by a dedicated, respected RPG developer would be a good thing. But the relationship between Bethesda and the fan community got off to a bad start, to say that least.
"This is possibly the worst news I've heard since FOBOS [Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel]," posted forum user Spazmo, (...) "Bethesda is crap." The community divided into two distinct groups: those preaching the apocalypse of postapocalyptic gaming, and those - like forum moderator Bеекеrs- who pled for rationality. "I refuse to judge this," he later wrote. "Bethesda has done some pretty good games... It's a matter of wait and see."
(...)
While commenters on his [Jeff Green's - NMA] blog (and in Bethesda's own forums [this is actually simply untrue - NMA]) were overwhelmingly excited about the developments shown at E3, the hardcore Fallout fansites fired invective, arguing that Green (and the gaming press in general), were incapable of objective opinion, often using language not fit to print.
On No Mutants Allowed, the first response to Green's blog post was a simple one-liner from user Sorrow: "That's fucking pathetic." Again, forum moderators and many community members pled for rational discussion, but the angry few overwhelmed the conversation. "We're an abrasive community with some bad elements, which is not really unique in how the Internet works," explains Bеекеrs.
Todd Howard, the executive producer on Fallout 3 for Bethesda, has become inoculated to this kind of controversy, because he understands it. "I remind my guys that nobody works up the energy to get on the Internet and write 'Everything is fine,'" he explains. "If people aren't writing about it, what's up with that? Either they don't care, or we're playing it too safe."
(...)
"Reinvention is one of our core philosophies. Sequals aren't 'plus ones'- this old thing with a new change." So instead, his team started with what they liked best about the old games - the setting, the humor and the ink-black irony of the world - and started making a new game. A Bethesda games. "That's just how we work."
But they continue to face heavy pushback from the community. The lead developer on a competitive class-of-2008 RPG put it this way: "There's no fucking way I'd want to be in their shoes. No matter how great that game is, they're screwed. The Fallout guys are nuts." Needless to say, this person asked to remain anonymous.
(...)
As for Bethesda, they've been listening. Pete Hines, vice president of PR and marketing, lives at the bloody front of the Fallout 3 battle. From his perspective, despite the noise, the job is pretty simple. "It doesn't take all that long to figure out what it is people want or don't want," he claims. "We've known what they've wanted since 2004, and I don't think anything that they want has changed."
(...)
"If you go too easy on a game and don't approach the article with any real questions...then what the hell are you, other than a free ad for the product?" Green says. "It's a tough, tough line."
(...)
But both sides of the dialogue recognize the value of the medium, even with its opportunities for miscommunication and heartache. "It's message boards, blogs and niche run communities that are changing the dialogue," argues No Mutant Allowed's Bеекеrs. "One journalist coming over to interact with us on our forums is 1,000 times more valuable than the 50 uninformative, bland previews we have read." And Green agrees. "I like the interaction. I think it can help make us more vital and dynamic and honest," he says. "Community is a good thing."
(...)
"If you don't want us to make this game, you're going to be disappointed, because we're making it," concludes Bethesda's Hines. "And if you're willing to give it a shot - well, then we appreciate what you want, but we're going to move on."
2K Boston's Levine puts it a little more bluntly. He has no interest in making games to serve a sequel-starved fan base. "Games take three or four years. I'm almost 41 years old. I'm going to be dead soon. I don't have 4 years to toss into being a human Xerox machine."</blockquote><center>
Ever noticed how when people set out to prove NMA's bad behaviour through forum quotes, they always end up quoting the same user, namely Sorrow?
Here's two examples of bits of the Q&A Julian Murdoch did not use:<blockquote>JM: What are you hoping for in Fallout 3? What's the ideal?
BN: A game that takes the core design of the originals, a darkly ironic retro-50s PnP-emulating cRPG, and moves it into the new era of gaming technology. What the series needs is evolution, as opposed to reinvention.
JM: How do you think bethesda should/shouldn't be interacting with the existing fan base?
BN: "At all" would be a great start.</blockquote>Thanks Killzig.
.
