MUCHO «HAMOR» EN LA DEVELOP CONFERENCE
Les presento mi camiseta para la próxima e inminente quedada ajariana
Vamos con un poco de gossip en la mañana del martes;
Recientemente en la Develop Conference, una serie de aguerridos desarrolladores indies estaban hablando de lo humano y lo divino; siempre relacionado con el desarrollo indie. Llegado el momento de hablar acerca de la «comunicación» entre el desarrollador y el fan; el bueno de Cliff Harris, un desarrollador independiente que tiene un estudio propio en el que trabajan él, el hermano gemelo de su hermano gemelo y uno de los hijos de su padre que atiende al nombre de Cliff y cuyo palmarés les pego más abajo; dijo que lo ideal era contestar a los mensajes uno a uno, y tratar de acercarte a cada persona que te envía un mensaje con la idea de que esa persona en un futuro se convierta en un futuro cliente.
Cliff harris is a 38 year old Game Designer and programmer from the UK. In previous lives, he worked as a Boat-Builder (yes really), a guitar teacher and on stock market trading floors, where he got shouted at by city traders. He also worked as a game programmer for Elixir Studios, and then as an AI programmer at Lionhead where he worked on ‘The Movies’. For the last few years, he has worked from home for his own one man company – Positech Games, making quirky and original strategy and simulation games.
En ese momento el kraken fue liberado por una persona de la primera fila que dijo algo así como:
¿Uno a uno? Menuda pérdida de tiempo.
A lo que le siguió una explicación de cómo eso era una tontería y que era mucho mejor bla ble bli y «corporative management»; «micropublishing»; «conference call» y esas cosas que dice la gente que es MUY gilipollas.
Entre ellos se miraron. Miraron al onvre de la primera fila. Miraron al «Old Spice» Guy. Miraron a su novio. Miraron al «Old Spice» guy de nuevo. Se miraron entre ellos de nuevo.
Por último alguien dijo: ¿Y tú de quién eres?
Y resulta que era Mark Rein; de Epic. LOL.
Ayer, Cliff Harrys, ese onvre; le respondía en su blog
Mark Rein is a jerk.
Now I suspect this is not groundbreaking news, although it is to me, because I’ve never met him or even seen him before. However, this experience seems to confirm my opinions on Epic and companies like them in general. Now Mark may well look down on humble indies like me. He may well think I’m doing it wrong. he may laugh when me and Mark discuss the pitiful money our companies make, and giggle at the fact that we reply to gamers on a one-on-one basis… But fuck him. I would rather earn minimum wage making indie strategy games for the PC, as my own boss, with an original game, satisfying a hardcore niche of friendly customers (the one-thousand-true-fans-philosophy), without a publisher telling me what to do, and without having to leave my house to go to work, without having to do ‘crunch time’ (because, dude… its like so macho to work until 3AM and never see your family)… Than I would work at epic for megabucks. The sheer overwhelming stench of testosterone would probably give me a headcahe, combined with the dizzy excitement of exactly what shade of grey our next game’s space-marine would wear as he kicked alien butt. (I feel bad working on Gratuitous Space Battles for almost 2 years, but it seems like that old ‘wisecracking space marine with big muscles and chisel-jaw’ idea has been stretched out longer than the hundred years war).
I have absolutely no doubt mark would just naturally assume me feeling like that is jealousy, which, as anyone who knows me personally would testify, is just fucking funny. I really don’t care about Epic, and their games, as they are way way too macho and ‘dude’ for my liking, and don’t have demos, so I just assume they haven’t changed since Unreal Tournament. I try not to comment on games I don’t like, as each to their own tastes etc. The only reason I’m moved to give a damn enough to state my opinion, is that I resent having some triple-a studio jerk come and tell someone whose run a microstudio for thirteen years that he is doing it all wrong. If Mark from introversion suggests I’m doing it wrong, thats cool, he does what I do, and has some serious experience, ditto anyone on that panel, or anyone with long indie experience. And I listen carefully, often over lunch.
But Triple-A studio bosses trying to lecture me on how to communicate better with gamers? Fuck off.
Traducción Ajare: Manda cojones que un desarrollador de un estudio enorme cuya única preocupación reside en saber qué tono de gris va a usar para el próximo título de marines super machotes le diga a un fulano que tiene su propia empresa en la que trabaja sólo él mismo y hace pequeños proyectos, cómo tiene que llevar el «marketing» de su empresa. Es un imbécil. Que se joda.
¿Lo ven? Cuanto amor.
La respuesta de Mark Rein; leyendo el resto ajare.
First of all I want to apologize. It was completely rude of me to interrupt your panel with my opinion no matter how well intentioned. I’m supremely passionate about the plight of indie developers, and game developers in general, and I heard something I thought was incorrect advice and I just couldn’t keep my big mouth shut. But there’s no excuse for bad manners. You called me on it and it made me realize that it is a behavior I need to try and change for these types of events in the future.
It’s not like some great injustice was being done and needed commentary from me. I was just being a jerk.
But I did want you to understand that it was not my intention to criticize the fact that you reply to your fans’ emails or discourage anyone from doing that. What caused me to speak up was when I heard you talk about revealing important news items about games through 1-on-1 emails and in forums. My opinion is that doing so runs the risk of these things no longer being ‘news’ when you need to use them to get publicity for your game.
Traducción Ajare: Persón y tal. Soy un bocazas. Además, me refería a otra cosa.
