Sandy Nipples
Banned
Tell me something, how much does astroturfing hurt your knees exactly? I heard its way more painful than real grass.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Jonathan Blow : "doing a deal with MS is an existential risk for your company & game"
- Thread starter maquiladora
- Start date
Tell me something, how much does astroturfing hurt your knees exactly? I heard its way more painful than real grass.
It's really interesting to see indie developers come out and talk about MS because the majority seem to say they have been treated poorly, but a couple praise MS for being nice and supportive. I wonder if it is a difference in treatment or a difference in outlook by the developers.
NoirVisage
Banned
Miles Quaritch
Member
Incredibly strong. I hope it does just as well as PC on release.
Anyway, I was talking in more general terms. Blow makes a sweeping statement that dealing with MS means you're risking your company, when it appears that isn't the case for a a lot of developers who have found success (In varying degrees) on XBLA.
They way he describes it, it's like dealing with MS is like dealing with Bethesda and that simply doesn't appear to be true.
Funny how you decide to come here and post about it. But seriously, Microsoft gave him a shitty deal. He is allowed to express his opinions WHEN ASKED FOR it by the interviewer. If his deal with Sony is more favourable doesn't mean he's suddenly in their pocket now.
Ploid 3.0
Member
Think of it as a spread out Junket. The closest thing to a junket for gaming is after a event like E3 press conferences or whatever they are called. Different interviewers will ask the same questions over and over, reporting on the same answers, and if someone is following that interviewee it will get repetitive. The best you can do is wait for answers to the questions you have. The thread title wasn't a good starter for the questions you may have about his new game. Maybe in a few more days he can and will start talking about it more freely. Cross your fingers.
All I have to say is whoever invented that stuff sucks. Sure it's usually green but it's not even close to being soft or skin/flesh friendly. Sure there's traction and maybe it's easy on joints, but I'd probably rather fall on pavement than that stuff.
Very, very suspicious I'd say...
ReturnOfTheRAT
Member
This is odd? Everything Microsoft has done since the explosion of 360's popularity has been much odder.
Zombie James
Banned
It's an interview? People usually talk in these things.
Didn't Blow start outing Microsoft policies that were part his contract in public? Then he got into a semi hostile row on Giant Bomb E3 podcast with E and Stepto. Hard to judge the tone of that one though. MS probably just said "enough of this shit" and stopped giving this guy the extra attention and leeway he wanted. I love Braid, and I'll probably love The Witness, and it's possible that he's a game designing genius, but it's also seems like he's ego gets the better of him.
I was making a joke post, that's why I wrote it that way, stop being so defensive people, calm down...
Anything is a risk. The fact you cited a success inherently suggests you agree with his statement really. Everything would be a success if there was no risk.
All the big hit indies appear to have made much more on PC, and had a much better time doing it. That will probably be true of SoD too, we shall see.
I don't see this as him pitching Sony, just pitching against MS.
Sweet Aunt Nancys Panties
Banned
What are you accusing him of exactly?
finowns
Member
You got all that from "He sure likes to talk" ?
Sweet Aunt Nancys Panties
Banned
That's why I said he's not a company hater. Just a guy that likes to talk about being jilted. Next company he feels treated him badly, he'll do the same thing.
Everyone has an opinion but to continuously bash a company and their policies is unprofessional.
AppleSmack
Banned
Yeah he does, because people want to hear what he has to say as he is a credible figure in the industry. Posts like this are so self righteous. You are very full of yourself.
SMT
this show is not Breaking Bad why is it not Breaking Bad? it should be Breaking Bad dammit Breaking Bad
I believe it is shilling, as they say.
Sandy Nipples
Banned
Co-worker of yours? You better listen to your boss, fancy pants, or I'm going to go walking in the moonlight with you.
Angry Fork
Member
The people in here 'annoyed' by Blow are funny. How about you get annoyed by people who post his quotes/interviews? The only reason you even know what this guy is saying is because there are a lot of threads about him on gaf. Unless you actively search for Jonathan Blow interviews?
There are so many people who don't seem to want developers to have opinions and I don't understand it. Everyone should be more forthcoming on everything. Why are you concerned about them burning bridges? That isn't your problem. It's your job to ignore things you don't like, not endorse self censorship because you have hurt feelings.
There are so many people who don't seem to want developers to have opinions and I don't understand it. Everyone should be more forthcoming on everything. Why are you concerned about them burning bridges? That isn't your problem. It's your job to ignore things you don't like, not endorse self censorship because you have hurt feelings.
Maybe you should talk about your own shit rather than criticizing someone else.
The hypocrisy of this post is stupid. You are critical of someone else for being critical of someone else.
Lambda Pie
Banned
SMT
this show is not Breaking Bad why is it not Breaking Bad? it should be Breaking Bad dammit Breaking Bad
I modified my post to reflect this.
Edit: aha, caught before your edit.
But, chilling would go well with the astrosurfing context.
maabus1999
Member
Sony doesn't have their policies for self-publishing developers set up yet? That is a bit strange. Getting close to the finish line to have so much still undecided on the developer front.
This interview recent?
Miles Quaritch
Member
I can believe his ego might have got the better of him, but at the same time, it definitely feels like there's more to his overly critical view of MS.
True, I just find his comments at odds with the reality of the situation. I'm not really talking about games doing better on PC nor about him pitching for anyone, just his comments.
They seem incredibly exaggerated and don't really reflect the reality of the situation. If it were like Activision or Bethesda with a lot of studios closing down after dealing with them, then I could believe it, but that hasn't happened to developers dealing with MS to the best of my knowledge.
Sandy Nipples
Banned
I did see pictures of promotional T-shirts which colluded to the fact that Sony will be heavily prioritizing developers and their collective delivery mechanisms?
Somebody should photoshop the Braid guy running across.
And Ballmer on the far right side with a blow torch.
DC1
Member
Lol!.... and
Sweet Aunt Nancys Panties
Banned
Ballmer's too busy counting all the profits to care about an indie program. The guy setting all these bridges on fire with anti-dev policies is Mattrick.
Nostalgic Nightmare
Member
I was playing some Donkey Kong Country the other night on the ol' SNES. I got to thinking about Rare and what they had been reduced to since going to Microsoft. It made me tear up a bit.
I did see pictures of promotional T-shirts which colluded to the fact that Sony will be heavily prioritizing developers and their collective delivery mechanisms?
The blue one is just a PlayStation t-shirt, nothing out of the ordinary.
The black one just looks like it is reinforcing what they have said before, get rid of all the hurdles devs have to go through to get a game on a Sony platform. Wasn't it like 53 stages before or some shit?
I think their aim is to go more like this
Developer: Howdy Mr Sony, we would like to self publish this game on your device.
Sony: Certainly, need any help?
Developer: Why thanks, that would be useful
Sony: No problem.
...
Profit.
Getting rid of all that doesn't really mean they have sorted out how the actual publishing will work yet.
Well they announced that they've been revamping the process to make it easier for devs, they might still be taking in feedback before they set things in stone. The certification process for example was still being worked on as recent as late March.
yeah and in spite of the success Braid achieved, his experience with Microsoft soured him so much that this is the end result. So I don't see how it is odd.
For people interested, Blow was a guest on Giant Bomb's E3 podcasts either last year or the year before, and shares a ton of insight about how terrible it was to work with Microsoft, and what kind of insane requirements they have for indies. The dude is pretty well spoken and comes off as a reasonable guy who was stuck in a bad situation with MS.
BruiserBear
Banned
Kind of like a lot of people on this forum.
Unreal Champ
Banned
And Braid wasn't even a good game.
Andrew Korenchkin
Member
I think is really going a bit too far. Come on Blow, there is no need to use such hyperbole, and calling it an"Existential Risk" is just silly. Just warn other developers about your negative experience, and how it may impact them like it did with you and Braid. Business isn't really that hard to deal with emotionally.
maabus1999
Member
Don't tell him that, he'll go off on some wild tangent how gamers don't understand his game, etc...
he went into depression for four months over some criticisms. Guy is almost bipolar IMO.
Na Braid was excellent
Madden/Road Rash/NBA Live on Genesis was the reason EA came into relevance on consoles and it didn't stop them from boycotting Dreamcast to its destruction.
VGChampion
Member
And now we put the two together and get what it was. An okay game.