Henroid

Oh yeah. So "Spot" being kicked around, probably a bad idea.

This really glosses over Molyneux's bungling of answers given. He swears to Walker time and time again about an employee's time started, and then right there next to him someone at 22 Cans corrects him on it. That's not smooth.

Is there any higher expression of being a baby that can't take what he dishes out?

As far as general philosophy / general conduct goes, I totally agree. In the case of Molyneux giving answers though, I don't think that approach would have worked. As in, we wouldn't have gotten information. His initial answer to why the prize winner has been ignored was, "Sometimes things fall through the cracks." Should that have gone unchallenged? Because that answer is ridiculous. One of the biggest publicity highlights of Godus was that prize, and it "slipped through the cracks" according to Molyneux. A question I asked Sean, poorly worded and explained due to Twitter's limits, was about how this is enthusiast-press. Meaning, people come into stories like this with at least some understanding of what's going on, if not knowing everything there is to know so far. Limiting everything VG journalists write to just information does play into that weird Goobergate stuff. I definitely think there's room for people to express their opinion or show their emotion in things. As far as Walker goes, again he blundered this and took it too far, but he at least went in the direction of not letting Molyneux slide on this. A lot of people I know in England have very strong negative opinions about things like Kickstarter, Steam's Early Access program, etc, and if I remember right Walker is definitely one of those folks. A lot of where he was coming from is probably rooted in that criticism of what can go wrong with crowdfunded projects. And he's not necessarily wrong - Molyneux, as a high-profile person in this game (of games) has extra responsibility if he's going to use that resource. Look at how Tim Schafer handled things about his KS. It was more straight-forward, no bullshit about avoiding responsibility, and that blew over within a week. Molyneux trying to wiggle around and avoid the consequence of less trust form consumers is really just making it worse.

There's definitely something to be said about the internet being used to burn a strong hatred for people, like witch-hunting. People who care about video games so much are definitely using this time to really dig at Molyneux.

Counter point: Relaying something you went through in life isn't publicity. It's being a human wanting to make a connection / provide a cautionary tale, etc. "Publicize" is a very aggressive word that means an agenda is in play.

The trumpets will be replaced with bird noise.

This popped up in my Twitter feed, as a reminder that Milo whats-his-ass is continuing to be exactly that - an ass.

Okay, so the RPS interview thing. I would rather have a bad attempt at not-softballing an interview than a bunch of glad-handing "hey good times" when it's appropriate to dig in that manner. What's going on with Godus does warrant that kind of digging. As far as hostility goes, I don't think John Walker was as bad as people were reacting. He had two questions that were super out of line, both as far as decency toward other people goes and in the way of digging toward an objective in an interview. (The opening question, and then a question about Linux support in which he said it was "shitty" of Molyneux to promise) I listen to a lot of radio and TV interviews, beyond the realm of video games, and this was really 'normal' to me. That is, it isn't some new, outrageous thing. I've seen it before over and over again, and most of you have seen it before too if you're avid fans of The Daily Show - you just probably don't recognize it because (I'm stereotyping here) you probably agree with Jon's position to begin with. Walker's interview with Molyneux was really 'off the cuff' with how they both spoke to each other too. It wasn't a formal "Here we are on ABC news!" affair. It was a moment of, say, Jon Stewart having Bill O'Reilly on his show. Part of the reason I'm okay with what happened is because there's a sort of "politician personality" that happens in interviews where people give non-answers, even on easy questions, even on questions that everyone in the world knows the answer to but the one person involved won't own up to it. I expect it from politicians, not to say it's okay for them either, but what the hell does it actually serve anyone else in any field, any level of fame, to engage in? To be clear, Molyneux was not an innocent in that interview that got blind-sided. Walker caught him in some BS answers, and a guy on Molyneux's end of the phonecall even corrected Molyneux at one point. It's not what the misinformation or derailing answers are that get me (like the issue of when a particular guy started working at 22 Cans isn't THAT big of a deal), it's why he's giving them in the first place that matters. He really loses nothing in saying the truth, or if he doesn't know just saying, "Hey I don't know." I probably wrote this out like I care so much about it. I don't. My fascinations in this are 1) seeing what people think about a guy who fails to deliver on a contest prize and 2) learning a bit more about Molyneux, as his ass is now closer to the fire than it's ever been (regarding popular opinion). He should be held accountable, and Walker blundered that interview, but he was at least going in the right direction rather than playing the game of always-neutrality in an enthusiast press.

The Soundcloud link doesn't seem to be working, just a heads up.

Keep in mind, this doesn't mean they will actually push out new games for those IPs. They may reject all ideas for any (or all) of them.

I'm okay with the explanation behind lightsabers because it still seems pretty vague. It's the explanation about what the Force is that drove me crazy. Lucas got some Star Trek all over Star Wars when he did that move.

Actually,

Back in the 90s something was actually going on regarding Japanese cars being sold in foreign markets (or maybe it was foreign cars being sold in Japan). I'm not sure exactly what though, I heard vague talks about it from an old clip from a radio show I listen to. I mean, being a multi-national business is tricky, that's for sure.

"This is the fault of journalism somehow!" And not the writers and producers of the TV show in question right? Jesus jumped up Christ.

One of my favorite new-things for Star Wars was in the "Hope" trailer for TOR, when you see a Jedi holding back against a lightsaber. Hey, if Darth Vader can deflect blaster bolts with his palm, why not a Jedi concentrate really hard on a lightsaber?

If someone goes down the route of all the Metroidvania games, I would suggest that Order of Ecclesia be the last played. It cut a lot of the fluff and useless crap from the formula and reduced it to making the game more skill oriented. It may spoil all the other games. SotN is definitely the sloppiest of all the Metroidvania games, so play it first. It'll be a good introduction for what to expect. as for the other games... Circle of the Moon has a weighted, NES feel to its controls. Not to say it's bad, just saying what to expect. Great soundtrack filled with lotsa remixes of classics. Harmony of Dissonance is the weirdest of all the Metroidvania style games. It's the most confusing regarding navigation of the castle, but will make sense. Aria of Sorrow kind of established that the SotN formula was what's best for the series, so they just improved on it. Dawn of Sorrow was more of that, only more anime-bullshit (again, lovingly saying "bullshit" here). Portrait of Ruin is my favorite of them all. A lot of that has to do with the soundtrack (Yuzo Koshiro AND Michiru Yamane? YES). Also it legitimizes the Sega Genesis game, Bloodlines, which I liked. OoE, as I said, should be the last played because it is so good gameplay-wise.

I don't mind there being variations of the lightsaber. The only one I don't like is the whip. That literally doesn't make sense. But I mean, they're called Jedi Knights and Star Wars is a fantasy setting / story with sci-fi dressing. Show me some lightsabre-axes and polearms. The tonfa is a pretty great idea. Also love the implied light-daggers in the kids toys picture. We all have to remember that there are practical versions of all of these in Star Wars. The "light" stuff is for the Jedi and Sith. For commoners, they use "vibro" weapons.

It wasn't rhetorical. Metroid was a series that was always strongest in its fandom (and business) in the USA, and it was ho-hum in Japanese reaction. Other M was the only remaining series' creator's attempt to make Metroid a Japanese favorite. It resulted in alienating the western audience.

Two things. First, this is a great post. Second, to the bolded: Oh god is that where Mike Huckabee got the idea for his latest book's title? "God, Guns, Grits and Gravy"

It's definitely something going on, but I dunno how universal it is. And even in the cases where it's going on, it's expressed in either a soft or aggressive manner. Korea is doing it too. Look at how Nexon does business vs. NCSoft, for example. The former embraces its foreign markets, or at least is willing to give them a handshake, while the latter made drastic measures starting in 2012 to close up to only its native market (the exception being Guild Wars 2; though I suspect when GW2's time comes it will be abrupt and early and make no sense) (that's a topic for another time). Sega specifically played to the wrong audience with Valkyria Chronicles' sequels. The first game was beloved in both east and west markets, but for different reasons. Rather than continue with the same formula though, they made the sequel cater to what the Japanese market wanted (maximum anime-bullshit, rather than the subtler anime-bullshit that was acceptable in the first) (I say "bullshit" lovingly). Plus, they put it on the PSP, which was a WAY smaller market. Granted the first game didn't sell like gangbusters, but word of mouth would have carried its strength. When the 2nd game was described as a big let-down, the swung the pendulum back too far with part 3 - but it was still a PSP title, and they released it in Japan first, giving that market what it didn't want. Which they then used as an excuse to never localize the game for the west (it would've been better received than part 2, ironically). Another example of weird business from the east is something I think I brought up here before a long time ago, which is how Square handles its sales expectations. When one of their titles fails to meet their insanely high projections, they add that defecit to the next big title. So while Tomb Raider (the remake) for example got some pretty damn good sales, in Square's eyes it was a failure because it didn't sell 7 million in its first month - a figure that was high because previous Final Fantasy games failed to sell well. TR was on the chopping block instead of FF because, again, native market > foreign market. Why do you think Other M totally destroyed Metroid?

I wasn't there to hear their logic. The guy who got assaulted gets timid around authority figures so I'm figuring he didn't press the issue at least hard enough to get answers. Neither of my bosses were at work today (WEIRD) but given that tomorrow is Monday they should be in, so I'll know more then.

So today my local police department decided to demonstrate how incompetent they are. This past week, a drifter that swings by our store often was caught using our restroom as a bathing facility, which is grounds for having him removed from the store. One of my coworkers told him he had to go. He argued about it all the way to the entrance, where one of my bosses had joined in asked him to leave. It escalated. Yelling, cursing, then the guy got physical with my coworker, shoving him around and trying to gouge his eye out, then yelling out death threats before running for it (I only personally saw this last part, though I came running). The guy has drifted in and out of my job a couple times since, but today we finally had an honest shot to get him. One of my coworkers allowed him access to the restroom, fully aware of this guy being on our "call the cops ASAP" list. It bought the cops enough time to get to the building, and minutes later I saw them leading the guy out in handcuffs while getting the statement from my coworker (the one that was assaulted by said drifter; my coworker was pressing charges). Then, after the cops leave, my coworker comes to me looking upset as hell. They let the guy free in the parking lot, no intent to hold him, claiming there's no grounds to. What? Except that the assault is on fucking film and we have that queued and ready for the cops at any time. But they still declined to hold the guy in jail even for one night while we got all our papers in order. So now we face to big problems. First is the immediate one; this dude is not afraid to get physical and now he has a revenge angle to take in escalating it. The second one is more damaging. My coworkers, all present, were freaked out that the guy is free on the streets. I had a really hard time, being the eldest person present (by a long shot) trying to keep morale up and dispelling their fears. But I was really goddamn mad and I know it was showing. The only thing the cops offered us is having our boss arrange for this guy to be considered 'trespassing' for being on our property, but it's like... they let a guy who committed a violent crime go! What the actual fuck! So the best I could do is leave a note to my boss about how we need to have a security meeting (our head security guy is out due to an injury). I've gotta figure out our legal recourse in defending ourselves and each other, and what the company allows for. Given that my boss is a putz, though, my hopes aren't high. Given that I just turned 30 a month ago I have been freaking out about my mortality and this isn't helping. Our neighborhood isn't exactly of high moral fiber.

What happens next is pretty much what will determine if what he had to say is true or not. I predict with 99% certainty that 22 Cans will have its major focus put back on Godus, but the end result can vary. If any features get cut, Molyneux will catch even more hell, doubled since even in this John Walker interview he's swearing up and down the wall that Godus will be completed with all features intact. People who don't like Molyneux to begin with will metaphorically crucify him. Which is taking it too far. But if the game does get 'finished' without all its promised features, yeah, Molyneux has to just own up to it. Again I've never had a strong opinion about Molyneux one way or the other. I'm just fascinated with what's happening in the moment.

To be honest most of my interest in what's happening has to do with the conduct of interviewer and interviewee. Like I asked Sean via Twitter if members of enthusiasm based press should leave their convictions and/or feelings at the door when doing interviews (I should have included "passions"), but maybe I should've made it a question for the podcast (via email). Like I said with aggression / hostility, for me it's a fine line to walk. But I'm on my way out the door to work so I can't elaborate atm. Oh I should post Sean's answer. Keep in mind it's in Twitter (140 characters) format.