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Interview Matt Chat 248: Robert Sirotek on Stones of Arnhem and Cleve Blakemore!

Infinitron

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Tags: Brenda Brathwaite; Cleveland Mark Blakemore; DW Bradley; Robert Sirotek; Sir-Tech; Stones of Arnhem; Wizardry 8

Oooh yeah. The last episode of Matt Barton's interview with Robert Sirotek is here, and it's a must watch. Robert finally lets loose in this one. He talks about Wizardry 8, and Brenda Romero's role in its development (which he's very eager to clarify that she was not in charge of). He talks about Sir-Tech's falling out with DW Bradley, and the drama that surrounded it. But the highlight of the interview is Robert's extensive description of the Stones of Arnhem fiasco and of his interactions with the Codex's own Cleveland Mark Blakemore (whom he refuses to address by name, referring to him only as "the crackerjack programmer").

You may be alarmed to learn that Mr. Sirotek is very much aware of Cleve's activities on this forum, and that he's quite furious over what he views as an unwarranted trashing of his reputation. He makes an effort to explain why he paid Cleve such a meager salary for his work on Stones of Arnhem, and expresses his horror at the nature of the artwork that was produced by the game's art team. He also admits that, as many suspected, he too was involved with bringing about the sudden cancellation of the Sir-Tech auction that revealed the wonders of the penisaurus to the world back in 2012.



At the end of the interview, Robert talks a bit about his involvement with Brenda and John Romero's Facebook game development company Loot Drop, which he apparently terminated due to being "uncomfortable with their direction". He also reveals that he's considering making a return to the game development industry in the wake of the recent resurgence of PC gaming. Although in his case, it'll probably be more like a return to the "product development industry". Yegad.
 

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(which he's very eager to clarify that she was not in charge of)

He must be pretty upset that his sister Linda Currie doesn't get the credit that she legitimately should be getting, instead of Brenda "Did Some Scripting" Romero.

I also like how Matt apparently had no idea who was actually in charge of the project. Couldn't he have looked it up beforehand, at least? Goddamn game journalists.
 
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Kalin

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Awesome interview! Robert confirms just about everything Cleve said, and I really like how it makes the various lieberal scumbags on this forum look even more stupid for having doubted him.
 

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product product wonderful product product bellcurve of the product product
 
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Daemongar

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For those who can't be bothered to watch the whole thing, skip to 9:50 or so when it gets good. Also, its pretty interesting that Sirotek obviously did his homework, so he may not be as big a rube as others make him out to be.

Also, he does come across as every boss I've ever had: you do the little things, I make the big, big decisions. Yes, he's a businessman, I get it.
 

Abelian

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At the 10:00 mark he actually says "why don't we take a chance so we don't lose a fortune in this debauchery" :lol:

Congrats to felipepepe for getting promoted by Matt.
 

Morkar Left

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The Cleve and the Stones of Arnhem Saga finally found it's conclusion. Now somebody needs to make an adventure out of it.
 

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So, check out the comments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS2GCyI9v7w

Ron Stevens

Delivered nothing of substance? He released a demo (20% of the game) that is larger than most RPG's today. By now the game is finished and he is working of the last remaining bugs (63 as of now). Obviously, it's a one-man operation to produce something bigger and probably better than Wizardry 7. So no wonder he lost the will to work on it several times.

Ron Stevens

You should be glad that there is a possibility of a true spiritual successor to D.W. Bradley's Wizardry 6 & 7 coming out soon. Cleve is down to 60 bugs now. Instead, you spew your hatred and falsehoods, such as your claim that he delivered nothing of substance. He IS over a year late on his Indiegogo campaign promise, yes, but just look at how many other games get pushed back again and again.

I guess we know the real name of the one the Kleve Kult members now. Also, lol at "Texas Arcane" pretending not to be Cleve.
 

Darth Roxor

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"He currently holds the record for the longest vapourware in the history of the video game industry, so I think my point was proven at the end of the day" :lol:
 

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I just wanted to point out the biggest omission of them all by this dickhead.

I was running a full demo of our work in Australia at E3 which looked beautiful, was shown to numerous members of the press and full functionality was demonstrated from character creation right through to combat, spell casting and lock picking in an 8 way environment exactly as described in the specification when it was given to me. It had NPC interaction, several dozen mapped areas, full turn-based combat and the works. To the naked eye it looked like an almost finished product if you ignored the strange tranny character portraits and handful of bizarre pornographic monster encounters.

So Rob's cheesy allusions to me showing up simply to be told the project was canned left out the whole part where the game I had written was demonstrated before numerous members of the press and widely regarded as a very good looking sequel to Wizardry 7 that was a lot more than an alpha version. Stones of Arnhem was running side-by-side by Jagged Alliance and both "products" looked to be around the same stage of completion. Except JA was an 8 man team with a million dollars behind it and the SOA demo was a largely one-man job in a couple of months on zero pay.

He posted this in the Grimoire thread instead of here for some reason.
 

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Ooh, there are also comments by Robert himself:

Robert Sirotek

NegatsuSan, you're reading to much into my calling a game a "product." Admittedly it's a bit antiseptic, but many people call games products.

About Brenda, I've paid her plenty of tribute. As I said in the interview, many people were involved in designing & building Wiz 8; it was very much a "collaborative" effort. It would be grossly disrespectful to single out Brenda without mentioning the others at Sirtech Canada. Brenda's role was characterized very appropriately and I have no regrets for anything I said.

Robert Sirotek

+NegatsuSan That is correct. She was not in charge of the team. That responsibility fell to the feet of Linda Currie.

Robert Sirotek

Matt, after plenty of requests, this was the first interview given in about 15 years. I thought you did a great job with the interview. Pleased so many people found it informative. Thanks for the opportunity to speak my mind to your fans.
 

Cleveland Mark Blakemore

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"With the industry going one way," (profitability) "and our company headed another way," (penury) "we decided to shut it down." Good call. But you failed to bring good product to this country. Is that America, where Wizardry started, or Canada you fled to in order to avoid paying Greenberg royalties? Not sure which country you are a super patriot in.
 

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He must be pretty upset that his sister Linda Currie doesn't get the credit that she legitimately should be getting, instead of Brenda "Did Some Scripting" Romero.

I also like how Matt apparently had no idea who was actually in charge of the project. Couldn't he have looked it up beforehand, at least? Goddamn game journalists.
I guess he bought into whatever Brenda Romero told him without question and didn't bother to check whether that's even the entire story. Just Matt being Matt, essentially. Heh.

Kudos to him for conducting this interview and bringing up SoA, though. This should be entertaining.
59 BUGS REMAIN, ROBERT SIROTEK AND NOW THE COLD CHILL OF FEAR IS SWEEPING OVER YOU AS THE MIND -NUMBING HORROR OF GRIMOIRE'S RAPIDLY IMPENDING RELEASE APPROACHES. CAN IT BE TRUE? CAN A SINGLE NEANDERTHAL BY HIMSELF DO WHAT SIR-TECH'S ENTIRE COMPANY COULD NOT ACHIEVE IN 12 YEARS? IS IT POSSIBLE?
:lol: :salute:
 
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Wild Slop

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It not like it's supposed to be hard hitting journalism rather talking about games with the people involved with making them, so isn't fair to assume he bought into whatever she told him without question. Just a casual conversationally toned interview where something made his guest uncomfortable and asked to be removed, so he accommodated (a bit of my own assumption).

But whats the deal with "I have a question here from our ...." "...from the RPGCodex"? Is "our friends at" really so hard? Don't deny your love!

Haha Sirotek was really stuck on "Cracker Jack" too, the invocation of Blakemoore's name really struck a nerve (well, he said as much) and that smug look of satisfaction after referring to the greatest game that was, and is not, and yet is as "vaporware"... oh my.
 

Cleveland Mark Blakemore

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I keep imagining Norm and Rob like Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels at the end of DUMB AND DUMBER.

"OMIGOD! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?!?"

(Runs to catch up with software developer bus until it stops and opens the doors)

"My brother is a LITTLE SLOW! The town … IS BACK THATAWAY!"

(Programmers grimace, then the bus pulls away)

"Boy, some lucky games company is going to have it made when they get that guy working for them."

"Oh, don't worry, our luck will change at some point. We'll get our big break one of these days ..."

Dumb_Dumber_To_37992.jpg


(The two of them walk down the road optimistically)
 

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