Interview Spong interviews the Father of Lies

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks

<a href=http://spong.com>Spong</a> has posted an <a href=http://spong.com/detail/editorial.jsp?eid=10109516&cid=&tid=&pid=&plid=&page=1&cc=t>interview</a> with Bethesda's Pete Hines, who was happy to provide informative answers.
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<blockquote><b>With that in mind, on the one hand there are numerous pretty good websites and blogs out there… and plenty of good, so-called citizen journalists and whatnot, but then on the other side you have loads of far less reputable sites, dressed up as 'professional' journalism…</b>
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Absolutely. It is a problem that we see a lot. Folks passing themselves off as journalists, who don't act as journalists. ...
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And it doesn't seem to matter in many cases whether they've taken the words out of context, or twisted somebody's meaning or just completely missed the point altogether. So, y'know, it is an issue and - going back to my previous point - <u>you have to take pretty much everything you read on the internet with regards to what's actual and what's the reality</u> with regards to this game, or this platform or whatever with a pinch of salt because of that.</blockquote>With you, Pete, we had to learn this the hard way.
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<blockquote><b>Which must be infuriating for companies such as your own, that have legions of hardcore fans, who are keen to know the latest news?</b>
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Yeah, well, mostly you know it's just difficult. You could spend your whole life doing nothing but dispelling rumours and squashing misinformation.</blockquote>A few months before the official announcement: "Shivering Isles? <a href=http://www.rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=15230&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=50>Lies and RPG Codex propaganda.</a> We don't have any expansions, go away."
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<blockquote>You know, the humour in Fallout 3 is that you can get a weapon and blow a guy to a bloody mess, then when you pull up your interface, you see a little smiling cartoon character holding his thumb up. Like that's funny… </blockquote>?
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<blockquote><b>So, more like Terminator style humour?</b>
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Yeah, exactly, that sort of stuff. It's just on how you present the game and the content and the setting.</blockquote>Fallout 3 will be the most violent game ever - <i>Todd Howard prophecies, volume II</i>
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Thanks, Jiujitsu
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[Jasede]

"Father of Lies"
:D
VD = love!
I might be a VD cocksucker, but don't you just love him?

 

[Brother None]

I really think they need to drop the "bloody mess PLUS vault boy = humor" line of thinking already. From the sounds of it we'll get a pop-up of vault boy holding his thumb up after every crit in Fallout 3.

Also, the Spong guys sure are a good example of actual, non-so-called "citizen journalist", reliable media, huh? Good line of questioning, really. "How badly do these sites suck?" "Does that make you feel bad?" "How much more awesome are you, exactly?"

 

[The Idiot]

FOBOS artwork? Why? Several hundred years? At least read the fucking timeline, Pete.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Well, yeah, not everyone can read and, like, understand stuff, y'know. Let's be sensitive to people's handicaps.

 

[taxacaria]

You could spend your whole life doing nothing but dispelling rumours and squashing misinformation...

...and you would end like me.

 

[Chinese Jetpilot]

Every time this guy brings up Fallout 3, my stomach churns.

 

[jiujitsu]

Good grief, that's depressing.

 

[spacemoose]

well well, it seems that whining on the internet can have an effect. even if they're not changing what they're going to do with the game, they now have to defend themselves in interviews, which should make some of the unwashed masses wonder about whats going on

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

Pete Hines: We're not big fans of jokes… developers that try to tell jokes, it tends not to work very well.

Wait, what? But Shivering Isles...

 

[Vault Dweller]

I thought Pete has made it clear already: they are not working on any Oblivion expansion. Stop repeating lies reported by people pretending to be journalists.

 

[Jaesun]

Thank gawd sprong is TRUE reputable and HONEST website:

http://spong.com/game/11039368

Immersive is an overused word in the world of videogames, but it is the most apt to describe this game. Oblivion combines a powerful combination of freeform gameplay and sublimely beautiful graphics. The game is immense – 200+ hours of gameplay is estimated for the average player! You can also play it at your own pace and in your own way.

You get to pretty much create and play almost any character you can imagine, from the sneaky wood-elf thief, to the noble warrior to the sinister assassin to the wizened sorcerer. Oblivion also features over 1,000 non-player characters who come to life like never before with facial animations, lip-synching, and full speech. They even engage in unscripted conversations with each other and you.

The game also boasts an an all-new combat and magic system which brings first person role-playing to a new level of intensity where you feel every blow. The combat and magic systems are very intuitive too, and you will learn as you play. No need to get lost or confused by long, tedious tutorials with this game, which is great news for ‘casual’ RPG’ers.

I can't stop laughing.

 

[Bradylama]

Yeah, well, mostly you know it's just difficult. You could spend your whole life doing nothing but dispelling rumours and squashing misinformation.

Bethesda pays this man to do their PR? Clearly the best way to maintain your company's image is to let half-truths and falsities circulate unchecked.

 

[FrancoTAU]

Every time this guy brings up Fallout 3, my stomach churns.

More please.

More than the TB or isometric issues, Bethseda's lack of understanding of subtlety and irony scare me the most about Fallout 3.

 

[taxacaria]

The game also boasts an an all-new combat and magic system which brings first person role-playing to a new level of intensity where you feel every blow. The combat and magic systems are very intuitive too, and you will learn as you play. No need to get lost or confused by long, tedious tutorials with this game, which is great news for ...

... illiterates and the weak minded.

 

[MisterStone]

Every time this guy brings up Fallout 3, my stomach churns.

You, sir, are my new god. This pic deserves its own thread. More photoshopping!

 

[Shannow]

You know, the humour in Fallout 3 is that you can get a weapon and blow a guy to a bloody mess, then when you pull up your interface, you see a little smiling cartoon character holding his thumb up. Like that's funny...

now, is he trying to be sarcastic, making fun of the way critics expect FO: BOS 2 to be? the "like that's funny..." line would suggest that. otherwise the government of bavaria has suggested a ban of all "killergames" for all of germany, so they'd be quite fucked here *g*

cj: stop spreading misinformation. that is the reason everybody hates the codex /sarcasm

it's not funny (well, actually it is hilarious )

 

[Chinese Jetpilot]

I'm sorry, but maybe I don't get it. Who the fuck remembers Terminator for its humor? I mean of all the movies you can choose to select for having subtle humor, TERMINATOR is the one that comes off the top of his head?

Pete: You know, the humour in Fallout 3 is that you can get a weapon and blow a guy to a bloody mess, then when you pull up your interface, you see a little smiling cartoon character holding his thumb up. Like that's funny…

Question: So, more like Blade Runner style humour?

Pete: Yeah, exactly, that sort of stu--HUH?!

And why does that site put up images of FOBOS's CYRUS (and WHY isn't he wielding a sledgehammer while holding some cornbread in the other hand)?

 

[YourConscience]

Absolutely. It is a problem that we see a lot. Folks passing themselves off as journalists, who don't act as journalists. ...

I like that quote. It tells me that as a journalist you have to "act somehow". But how? At least in Europe "acting as a journalist" pretty much means to be critical about everything, question everything and try to bring truth to the masses. So what about that, Pete?

I guess you mean "acting as a journalist" means that even if you do criticize something, you should dress it up with two or more praises just so that the truth isn't all that gritty, right?

@Chinese Jetpilot: Man, that screenshot is wonderful! I like how many raiders you can kill there. Basically it means that you can use nukes to wipe out entire planets in that game! Winderful! Whenever you do that, you get one Spaceballs thumbs up!

 

[serch]

Just use Babelfish. Petehinian--->English. Acting as a journalist---->Cocksucking random people.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

Absolutely. It is a problem that we see a lot. Folks passing themselves off as journalists, who don't act as journalists. ...

I like that quote. It tells me that as a journalist you have to "act somehow". But how? At least in Europe "acting as a journalist" pretty much means to be critical about everything, question everything and try to bring truth to the masses. So what about that, Pete?

I guess you mean "acting as a journalist" means that even if you do criticize something, you should dress it up with two or more praises just so that the truth isn't all that gritty, right?

@Chinese Jetpilot: Man, that screenshot is wonderful! I like how many raiders you can kill there. Basically it means that you can use nukes to wipe out entire planets in that game! Winderful! Whenever you do that, you get one Spaceballs thumbs up!

Would you vice versa say that journalists should not be held to certain standards of veracity and research? The question is rather: whose standards should this be? Here actually, neither the question nor the answer make much sense to me. If you have something to complain about, name it, pete.

 

[Bluebottle]

With that in mind, on the one hand there are numerous pretty good websites and blogs out there… and plenty of good, so-called citizen journalists and whatnot, but then on the other side you have loads of far less reputable sites, dressed up as 'professional' journalism…

Why is it that film, music, food and art all have critics, but gaming has journalists? Now I've always seen the journalist (at least in the ideal world) as the factual, objective assessor and the critic as the opinionated, subjective reviewer. It seems pretty definite which bracket the game 'journalist' fits into.

So why the double-think word choice?

 

[dagorkan]

When I hear 'journalist' I think about somebody who does a ton of research, never takes something for granted and actually investigates what the facts are. Simply parroting press releases and recieved wisdom is not a job.

 

[peak]

Spong is retarded. Stop giving them hits, for christs sakes. "Citizen journalism"? For fucks sake. "Terminator style humour"? Yep, definitely Spong... In a sad and funny way, they seem to be the perfect people to cover Bethesdas games/dicks.

 

[dagorkan]

Pete Hines: Yeah, it was a pretty small company back when I joined in 1999. Now we have a team of seventy plus, or over a hundred if you include QA. It's been an impressive rate of growth and we're now at the point where the team is capable of taking on two projects at the same time.

OK liar, then why the fuck did you say "apart for four or five people, everybody who worked on Oblivion worked on Morrowind. They're essentially the same people"?

10 vs 70. The math does not add up.

(Actually there were ~30 people working on Morrowind)