Pete does the dance

[Odin]

We here at NMA contacted Pete Hines, Bethesda's PR honcho, and asked some questions about this Fallout 3 they're making, but got the regular PR dance:<blockquote>We certainly have ideas, but nothing concrete. The only reason we made this announcement was to announce the deal. We had no intentions to talk about specifics because we're not ready to do that yet, and to do so now would be fruitless. We have a lot of work to do and things to accomplish before we start talking to Fallout fans and the gaming public about the game itself.

We have some ideas. We have folks here that have been thinking about and talking about it, some longer than others. But, we're not announcing something we've been working on for two years. We're simply announcing a licensing deal that was recently signed.

It will be a while before we start talking about the game. It should give folks plenty of time to calm down a little and stop killing us and what it is they think we're doing before we've even gotten started.</blockquote>Well...

 

[Darque]

Smartest thing they could do (in my humble opinion) is find out exactly what fallout is (by playing the games and reading the bible) and then asking the fans what they want... then factoring all that into their design decisions.

 

[Death_Claw]

So, why did they gave all those interviews saying "We're not going to go away from what it is that we do best. We're not going to suddenly do a top-down isometric Baldur's Gate-style game, because that's not what we do well" if they don't know anything concrete?!?!

 

[Role-Player]

Again, why i think mouthing off was a wrong idea. Even if they do take a while before they start talking about it, the above won't however prevent many people from still posting at the Bethesda forums.

A more moderated attitude could probably have avoided all the chaos. Perhaps they should consider telling folks that they'll be unable to comment on feedback, and that until they can pay attention to us and the game's development, that feedback is largely useless. This, i think, would calm people down.

 

[God is Dog backwards]

So he's asking for some slack. Fair enough. But the comments about no isometric, 'current tech' and so on really need to be justified - were they just idle speculation, misquotes, or something?

EDIT: and he also has to remember, we've been hurt many times in the past over FO, so as soon as someone announces FO3, we're going to hammer home the turn based combat (no hybrids either), isometric viewpoint, SPECIAL so at least we can say, 'this is what we want'.

 

[victor]

Maybe they realized they fucked up badly with those statements, and won't admit that they took a wrong turn. Maybe they're really changing all plans into sonething we want, but don't want to give us credits for it.

 

[Wild_qwerty]

..... It should give folks plenty of time to calm down a little and stop killing us and what it is they think we're doing before we've even gotten started.</blockquote>Well...

I did tell the guy that some Fallout fans are a little fanatical....The worst part it this is only the start of it, it's going to be a long next few weeks for Pete

 

[SumsoluS]

i hate PR guys..theyre liars and patronising..

 

[Xax]

It should give folks plenty of time to calm down a little and stop killing us and what it is they think we're doing before we've even gotten started.

I agree with Pete 100%. The insane and fanatical fear-mongering that's been going on around here about a game that has barely started the pre-production phase is ridiculous.

 

[Darque]

It should give folks plenty of time to calm down a little and stop killing us and what it is they think we're doing before we've even gotten started.

I agree with Pete 100%. The insane and fanatical fear-mongering that's been going on around here about a game that has barely started the pre-production phase is ridiculous.

 

[Xax]

I should add that I'm not shaking my finger at everyone who's expressed concern or skepticism over what little information has been released... I have a fair bit of skepticism myself... but the extent that some people have gone to curse BethSoft out of ignorance and presumption is idiotic.

 

[murdrax]

seems to me most of the community needs to take a ice cold shower and calm down and just wait and see. be ciuvil with thweir ideas if you give someone nice friendly ideas they are more likely to bite but if your rude yeah right.

basically feed them honey you pay off give them vinager and your screwed!

 

[Roshambo]

OR, you could be like some people, and keep playing along with the hype machine. I know this is a moot point to many who have actually been keeping up with this, but they already have decided what the basic plans are for Fallout 3. They have been toying around with it for some time. To announce that they have it and aren't going to talk factually much about it probably lends to the same evasive game Chuck and crew decided to play.

Kissing their ass at this point only begs for shallow fanservice.

 

[Dark0ne]

massachu

ненела додате
кидимо бибики culver
коната татати

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Some of you should check out this comic at Penny Arcade. You really think that's how this all happened?

 

[Sander]

You folks have been waiting for FO3 for goodness knows how long now? A week ago you didn't even know FO3 was even going to be made after Interplay let you down. Surely you folks must have developed some form of patience during this idle period?

No.
1) We knew for a while now that Interplay was going to give an outside developer the contract.
2) We've been waiting for Fallout 3 since 1998 and we've had a lot, a LOT, of false hopes and announcements. We don't have any patience left, just cynic rage.

It just seems strange that you all jump on top of everyone of Pete Hines words when he literally states that nothing is final and everything is to play for.

You would. When you're such a big fan of such a great fan you want it to have a great and worthy sequel, not in the least to play it. So we try to make this obvious to every developer and we try to make it clear what it is we do and do not want.

Bethesda will listen to the fans, just like they did for the Elderscrolls series. I waited 4 years for Morrowind - and Pete and the Bethsoft crew DID listen to us. Just be patient - I've had the priviledge of being in communication with Pete during Morrowind's release period for my site, http://www.mwsource.com, and the guy is great. Cut him some slack, sit back and wait...please.

This is contradictory. First you say that communicating works, and then you say we shouldn't say anything....
You're not making much sense.

Everyone understands that the fans of the Fallout series have expectations and are skeptical of where Bethesda can take this series - but give them a chance at least, rather than being negative from the offset.

We have a right to be negative. We really do. Look at the history of Fallout development from Fallout 2 onwards and you'll realise why.

 

[Roshambo]

You folks have been waiting for FO3 for goodness knows how long now? A week ago you didn't even know FO3 was even going to be made after Interplay let you down. Surely you folks must have developed some form of patience during this idle period?

Patience for someone to make a game faithful to the CRPG design of Fallout and what the name Fallout infers. No patience for useless media tripe and evasiveness.

It just seems strange that you all jump on top of everyone of Pete Hines words when he literally states that nothing is final and everything is to play for.

Do you seriously believe everything people say, or just because they are nice? It also doesn't take much imagination to see the designs of Fallout and TES are vastly different. I don't know what the characters mean in your native dialect, but my sig has it pretty firm in itself. They already have had designs for it, which explains the money spent on it and admitted time drooling over it, which is pretty much needed before they just go and blow a wad of cash on a name.

If that is what they did, and if they can't figure out if they do or do not want to adhere to Fallout's core design, then that paints a pretty clear picture as to their attitude towards the title, regardless of what they say about how they are Fallout fans and such.

Bethesda will listen to the fans, just like they did for the Elderscrolls series. I waited 4 years for Morrowind - and Pete and the Bethsoft crew DID listen to us. Just be patient - I've had the priviledge of being in communication with Pete during Morrowind's release period for my site, http://www.mwsource.com, and the guy is great. Cut him some slack, sit back and wait...please.

Pffft. Just because they did well for their own IP, that doesn't mean that they can develop in a style that is quite diverse from their own. So you were able to talk to him about Morrowind, a sequel that was likely to come after Daggerfall and the abyssmal Battlespire. I should care about that, why? How does it have some relevance to this, when the same guy you're phrasing has verbally buttfucked the respect some of us had for Bethesda.

Everyone understands that the fans of the Fallout series have expectations and are skeptical of where Bethesda can take this series - but give them a chance at least, rather than being negative from the offset.

"Just believe in them! They can do it!"

Where the hell do you even presume to flaunt this kind of empty defense in support of Bethesda doing design that is in many regards much more complex than they've ever developed? Especially in terms of Morrowind. It's pretty hard to believe some of the optomists when they have shown little understanding of why game series fail, and how it's pretty asinine to say...expect a revolutionary RPG from id. Or Molyneaux, for that matter. Fallout was designed to be a P&P RPG on computer and it had better stay that way and not lobotomized as Pete Hines has already said. (Ooooh! There goes the brown-noser perk! You failed!) As long as you understand that, there shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

[jr.]

It just seems strange that you all jump on top of everyone of Pete Hines words when he literally states that nothing is final and everything is to play for.

right, with the exception that he's stated alot more than that, which is why Bethesda is being "jumped on". Pete being their mouthpiece and all. did you not bother to at all read up on why the hell people are worried about this, or are you purposely naive?

Bethesda will listen to the fans, just like they did for the Elderscrolls series. I waited 4 years for Morrowind - and Pete and the Bethsoft crew DID listen to us.

did they tell you Elderscrolls fans that if you don't like where Bethesda is taking the series, you'll probably be ignored? they've told Fallout fans that.

Cut him some slack, sit back and wait...please.

i've heard "shut up and coddle us" before, under bad circumstances, from the producer of FO:BoS pretending not to be the producer of FO:BoS. why am i hearing it again from Pete? why the fuck am i hearing it from you?

but give them a chance at least, rather than being negative from the offset.

have you read anything? do you see why this is going from "let's be optimistic" to "fuck optimism"? Bethesda has a nice shiny chance, and what're they doing with it? talking about vocal minorities and information-blackouts. the exact same bullshit that went with FO:BoS. and just like the bullshit with FO:BoS, they could fix it so, so easily. instead, what's this communal hug-parade about them being delicate flowers and be nice or they might cry and go home? jesus.

i really hope you people "defending" Bethesda are wrong about them being a bunch of utter wieners.

they've gotten off to a dodgy start, but they can still very well do good by us. however, if people don't point out how they feel, why they feel it, and what can be done about it, then Bethesda won't know what Fallout fans want or don't want. our responsibility is to -not- go easy and lay off. they listen to fans? right, then how about ending the word-for-word similairities to the FO:BoS disaster that this situation is starting to draw?

i won't be taking that counsel, by the way. i have more faith in Bethesda than to give up on them just yet.

 

[MrMarcus]

*sigh*

Is it just me but is the board becoming flooded with the mighty and clueless drones since bethesda's announcement?

 

[4too]

Agent Provocatures

Agent Provocateurs

D-0ne:

... It just seems strange that you all jump on top of everyone of Pete Hines words when he literally states that nothing is final and everything is to play for. ...

Perhaps, if, this text venue were abandoned, for this instant, and each individual met Pete Hines on the road to ... "Tomorrow"...

In this presumed context, the conventions of face to face contact, 'might' be more civil, depending on the social conventions of ones' regional-social traditions. Face to face could be less 'in your face'. The 'broadband' of full sensory communication would take precedent, with, full frontal, body language, and all the cultural clues and cues of dress, deodorant, and what one recently had to eat, drink, chew, or smoke. The B.O. factor.

Those with a confident eye contact might "see" even more, in a wink and a blink, then the diviners and surgeons of autopsied text.

Many might use hand gestures, but I doubt the word for word analysis of the "news" would engender unit digital gesticulations. And if it did, this intimate exposure could be rebuffed or ignored as per the spirit of the moment. The Ol' Zietgiest for you philosophical punters.

And maybe, if Pete found out what you or I have done for a living over the years, he might be pumping us for information.


Back to this 'sterile' text medium.

At this point, the energy released by the press releases and introductory interviews can be seen as POSITIVE evidence of vitality. This LIVING runaway horse that Bethesda has found themselves astride may not be
'of the color' they first imagined, but these details shouldn't throw them, or hobble their reputed 'horse sense' in communicating with gamers, the consumers of their wares.

Back to this 'sterile' text medium.

It has a unique 'fertility' in which the seeds and weeds of opinion can take root, and cross pollinate in the 'birds and the bees' of ideas. (*)

[(*)("'birds and the bees' ", I trust that I do not offend the Darwinists when I cater to the Social Darwinists of Kansas in this 'tasteful' and polite reference to social INTERCOURSE while teasing the latent Freudians with illicit illusions of sexual INTERCOURSE.)]


The immediacy of time and place buffers the charismatic, and shields the shy and withdrawn.

Face to face identity and face to face responsibilities are not primary,
in the leveling out of this social, playing field.
Into this playground comes the universal intensification of verbiage.
And, those seeking the immediate gratification of ""stirring up the sh't"".

Agent Provocateurs ...

Is there a larger agenda for all this emotional venting? Maybe those skilled in the art of misdirection can evoke the aura of "conspiracy theory" and the "emotional synergy" can run wild in forests of straw men beyond the rivers of red herrings.

MAYBE, there are individuals with personal virtual vendettas that surface when ever the activity of the fan forums gets hot,
and Pete Hines happens to be in the cross fire, of another FO food fight.

"Duck And Cover" Pete!

Agent provocateurs, ... , maybe we could think up many motivations for this behavior. Maybe we could dwell on why the children of Darwin will fling their virtual feces. Maybe we could conjecture on the transient and titillating behavior of the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve, if that's the prevailing epistemology in your jurisdiction. Your commonwealth, or utopia, must reside somewhere east of here and west of there, but I am sure that the social conventions are more universal, and time honored, than many of us imagine.

This river of opinion will take it's course and we can fish through the jettison of 'floaters', or wave at the passing 'show boats' as they steam
confidently on the waters of experience.


4too