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Halo Creative Director Ryan Payton Leaves 343i, Starts New Studio

mkenyon said:
Holy shit. The name sounded familiar to me, so I look it up to see if it was who I thought it was. Ryan Payton is the older brother of my best friend in Jr. High. I lived down the street from him. Small fucking world.

Guy was an asshole back then, used to torture cats even.

His dad is the coolest dude ever though. Was my role model growing up.
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oh shit
 
mkenyon said:
Haha, I was just thinking I may have overdone it a bit. Didn't want to make him seem evil. There was good stuff there. He and his brother were the first time I got into console games after being PC exlusive from ~96-2000. He even hooked me up with a modded PSX and a ton of japan exclusive games. He did torture cats though.
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I'm sure he's a nice guy. One of my best friends ironically did torture a cat too. His cats had lots of kittens, and his parents were going to sell them all, so he decided to pick a single kitten and see how much he could drive it crazy in the few weeks before they'd be sold. His parents eventually sold all the cats, but they decided to keep one... 'Boots' was crazy for years, calmed down now though.
 
mkenyon said:
Holy shit. The name sounded familiar to me, so I look it up to see if it was who I thought it was. Ryan Payton is the older brother of my best friend in Jr. High. I lived down the street from him. Small fucking world.

Guy was an asshole back then, used to torture cats even.

His dad is the coolest dude ever though. Was my role model growing up.
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"Torturing small animals is the first sign of a warped mind, you know." MGS1, Naomi Hunter (IIRC)
 
I remember that name near the MGS4 time.

I thought he was just Kojima's bitch ... helping translate.

I doubt Kojima let him or perhaps anyone else in the team let him do anything to the core game other than check Translated grammar in sub titles.
 
Unregistered007 said:
I remember that name near the MGS4 time.

I thought he was just Kojima's bitch ... helping translate.

I doubt Kojima let him or perhaps anyone else in the team let him do anything to the core game other than check Translated grammar in sub titles.
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Are you kidding? The guy helped make mgs4 a game with better controls than 3. He was an intergal consultant to that project and all others he involved himself in. Why do you think this thread is so big?
 
Cat torturer? Come on, dude.

Since being back in America, I've adopted two FIV-positive shelter cats. They're pretty healthy right now. Mocha & Cocoa say hi:

x2_82cd413


I don't even know why I'm addressing this because this is completely slanderous, but just a few nights ago in Shanghai I found a dying cat on the street, gave it shelter and food until it regained its strength while everybody else just ignored the damn thing. Bob Barker's got nothing on me! I've given thousands of dollars to local animal charities (that Microsoft matched thanks to their Giving campaign).

MKenyon, the only thing I know about you is that you hop on GAF to tell people how crappy my website was when I was 17-years-old. (It was pretty crappy.)

Who's the asshole, man?
 
novery said:
Cat torturer? Come on, dude.

Since being back in America, I've adopted two FIV-positive shelter cats. They're pretty healthy right now. Mocha & Cocoa say hi:

x2_82cd413


I don't even know why I'm addressing this because this is completely slanderous, but just a few nights ago in Shanghai I found a dying cat on the street, gave it shelter and food until it regained its strength while everybody else just ignored the damn thing. Bob Barker's got nothing on me! I've given thousands of dollars to local animal charities (that Microsoft matched thanks to their Giving campaign).

MKenyon, the only thing I know about you is that you hop on GAF to tell people how crappy my website was when I was 17-years-old. (It was pretty crappy.)

Who's the asshole, man?
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Those cats look evil, they look like they would torture other cats FOR you.

Seriously, nice cats.
 
novery said:
Cat torturer? Come on, dude.

Since being back in America, I've adopted two FIV-positive shelter cats. They're pretty healthy right now. Mocha & Cocoa say hi:

http://c0013949.cdn1.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/x2_82cd413

I don't even know why I'm addressing this because this is completely slanderous, but just a few nights ago in Shanghai I found a dying cat on the street, gave it shelter and food until it regained its strength while everybody else just ignored the damn thing. Bob Barker's got nothing on me! I've given thousands of dollars to local animal charities (that Microsoft matched thanks to their Giving campaign).

MKenyon, the only thing I know about you is that you hop on GAF to tell people how crappy my website was when I was 17-years-old. (It was pretty crappy.)

Who's the asshole, man?
Click to expand...

Oh shit! XD

Cute cats btw.
And good luck with your new studio!
 
Gui_PT said:
Why are you wasting your time by responding to something on the internet?

You're good, man. Best of luck!
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You're right. I'm actually supposed to go climb Mt. Fuji tomorrow morning, and my friend here (incredible effects arts on Metal Gear) is getting pissed that I'm sitting here getting pissed about this and not packing.

If people aren't careful, I'm just going to start posting more pictures of my cats.
 
novery said:
If people aren't careful, I'm just going to start posting more pictures of my cats.
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Do it, you know as well as everyone else on the internet that cats are adorable and everyone loves them.

Seriously cute though, they remind me of our black cat who is really old now. Poor thing keeps on going.
 
MGS4 still stands as the only game ive fell asleep while playing, long ass cut scenes

Good luck ryan, shame you couldnt stick it out until the end but maybe most of your work is done by this stage!

the cat on the left is cute the one on the right looks kinda crazy :-)
 
novery said:
Cat torturer? Come on, dude.

Since being back in America, I've adopted two FIV-positive shelter cats. They're pretty healthy right now. Mocha & Cocoa say hi:

x2_82cd413


I don't even know why I'm addressing this because this is completely slanderous, but just a few nights ago in Shanghai I found a dying cat on the street, gave it shelter and food until it regained its strength while everybody else just ignored the damn thing. Bob Barker's got nothing on me! I've given thousands of dollars to local animal charities (that Microsoft matched thanks to their Giving campaign).

MKenyon, the only thing I know about you is that you hop on GAF to tell people how crappy my website was when I was 17-years-old. (It was pretty crappy.)

Who's the asshole, man?
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You know what, thats awesome cool mucho respect.
 
lockload said:
MGS4 still stands as the only game ive fell asleep while playing, long ass cut scenes
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Yeah, sorry about that. They truly weren't supposed to be that long...

lockload said:
Good luck ryan, shame you couldnt stick it out until the end but maybe most of your work is done by this stage! the cat on the left is cute the one on the right looks kinda crazy :-)
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You're right -- the cat on the left is the mom and pretty chill. Her baby is on the right and is absolutely insane. (Not due to any torture, I'm pretty sure.)
 
Deadly Cyclone said:
You're just asking for it now. :P

There are a good handful of us here in prime position to break into the industry, experience and all.
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I hope you're not talking about Dudebro.
 
novery said:
Cat torturer? Come on, dude.

Since being back in America, I've adopted two FIV-positive shelter cats. They're pretty healthy right now. Mocha & Cocoa say hi:

x2_82cd413


I don't even know why I'm addressing this because this is completely slanderous, but just a few nights ago in Shanghai I found a dying cat on the street, gave it shelter and food until it regained its strength while everybody else just ignored the damn thing. Bob Barker's got nothing on me! I've given thousands of dollars to local animal charities (that Microsoft matched thanks to their Giving campaign).

MKenyon, the only thing I know about you is that you hop on GAF to tell people how crappy my website was when I was 17-years-old. (It was pretty crappy.)

Who's the asshole, man?
Click to expand...

Thanks for curing my diabetes Ryan! ;) And very cool of you of saving those cats. Have you tried Interferon? PM me if you need any help...
 
EmCeeGramr said:
PO more like P-U!!! (because it stank!)
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Well, I agree it's crap.

I don't know why KojiPro are so stuck on making '3D' Metal Gears with one stick, the old style would have worked perfectly on PSP.

Ghost Babel is the best game on GBC.
 
Rodhull said:
So why exactly is he that?
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Like i said in my post before its pretty obvious what happened if you read between the lines. He lied to kotaku and other people to try to make buzz around his company.

So Ryan since you are reading this thread its great to hear that you dont actually torture cats but why did you lie about your role on Halo 4 in your announcement? Now everyone is saying the creative director left and the game is in trouble but you werent the creative director were you? Why tell everyone you were something that you werent and before you claim it was a mistake why didnt you correct the mistake instead of waiting for microsoft to make it clear what you really did on the game?
 
Hooray for cats :D

Sarah_Bryant said:
Like i said in my post before its pretty obvious what happened if you read between the lines. He lied to kotaku and other people to try to make buzz around his company.

So Ryan since you are reading this thread its great to hear that you dont actually torture cats but why did you lie about your role on Halo 4 in your announcement? Now everyone is saying the creative director left and the game is in trouble but you werent the creative director were you? Why tell everyone you were something that you werent and before you claim it was a mistake why didnt you correct the mistake instead of waiting for microsoft to make it clear what you really did on the game?
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The hell? It's been said multiple times in this thread that the game had multiple "creative director(s)". A "narrative director" would be a subset of that; and likely a position only defined well after the general creative direction/groundwork for the game was already laid. Relax.
 
Sarah_Bryant said:
Like i said in my post before its pretty obvious what happened if you read between the lines. He lied to kotaku and other people to try to make buzz around his company.

So Ryan since you are reading this thread its great to hear that you dont actually torture cats but why did you lie about your role on Halo 4 in your announcement? Now everyone is saying the creative director left and the game is in trouble but you werent the creative director were you? Why tell everyone you were something that you werent and before you claim it was a mistake why didnt you correct the mistake instead of waiting for microsoft to make it clear what you really did on the game?
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Geez, someone's uptight.
 
I understand you guys have a lot of questions, but there are NDAs and all that.

I did not lie to Kotaku. Not sure where that is coming from. I was creative director on Halo 4 until last summer, then worked as a narrative designer. Wish I could say more than that. Sorry, guys.

Going to bed now. Climbing Mt. Fuji on four hours of sleep tomorrow. Awesome!
 
A friend told me about someone she knew that had a cat with aids. Back then it was the most ridiculous and hilarious thing I had ever heard. This is the first time I've ever heard of the actual name of it. Pretty crazy to hear that it's real. When did this start popping up?
 
So Ryan, I haven't listened to the latest 8-4 Podcast but did you guys go over the type of Halo that you had envisioned before you left 343i? If not, will we ever read about it in the future?
 
novery said:
I understand you guys have a lot of questions, but there are NDAs and all that.

I did not lie to Kotaku. I was creative director on Halo 4 until last summer, then worked as a narrative designer. Wish I could say more than that. Sorry, guys.
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So you were the original creative director on the game? That wasnt clear from the article or statement you made. But maybe I went too far in calling you a liar but it seems like you could have made sure that was clear.

Well then can you at least answer the other question: is the game looking good?
 
Sarah_Bryant said:
So you were the original creative director on the game? That wasnt clear from the article or statement you made. But maybe I went too far in calling you a liar but it seems like you could have made sure that was clear.

Well then can you at least answer the other question: is the game looking good?
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Did you miss the part about the NDA? Are you for real?
 
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