Thank heavens for 1Up writer Shawn Elliott, who provides an intelligent, succinct counter-argument to all the stuff Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights, developer of soon-to-be-released Too Human, has been yammering about for the past few weeks. (Note: click the title of this post to read Elliott's blog I'm referring to)
While I admire Dyack for being so high-falutin' with his ideas and ideals, I can't help but feel he's putting way too much time and effort into worrying what critics and message board denizens have to say about his game. It feels like he's trying to use all kinds of philosophical/social concepts to try to dismantle how both function, forgetting that message boards are basically the modern day, mass equivalent of a bunch of people getting together to talk shit and when you use the Internet you sign up for this kind of thing (and need to develop some thick skin and a sense of humor), and that critics should have no basis on your "art" whatsoever. I'm sorry you don't like that they are putting criticisms into their previews, but we consumers find those kind of things useful. All kinds of movies that get bad reviews from critics still are blockbusters and loved by many, so why worry about critics ruining the reception of your game before its release?? You're doing more harm than good to public perception of your product if you spend most of its ramp-up-to-release making yourself look like a pompous ass.
In the end, I really wish Dyack could keep his mouth shut and let his game speak for itself. Almost everyone else manages to do it. But I suppose if I had spent way too long developing what amounts to Diablo II with a cyber-Norse reskinning, I might be more defensive, too.
And yeah, I haven't played the game and I said that to be a jerk.
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