Editors Get an Earful

Gamedrool.com (via Kotaku) has the text from a letter to Gamepro from 2001, sent by then-president of 3DO Trip Hawkins. It's a hilarious look at what kind of flack you can get for offering up an opinion in a public venue. From the article: "I would hope you can recognize that I do not love all my children equally and can be objective about both good and bad features in a game as well as games that are of quality and those that are not. I do not send messages like this to you after every review. But this happens to be a game that I have played all the way through and beaten on all difficulty levels and I know the game intimately. I also have seen the profound positive effect this game has had on my children. "

Comments

wanker publishers

[spir0]

You are so much better off if you do not bite the hand that feeds you. And do not patronize me by telling me the reader is the customer--your real customer is the one that pays you your revenue. And it is game industry advertisers. If you need to be able to be constantly negative you need to accept that you are like a parasite that is killing its host.

as far as I see it, gamers are the real customers. game developers and game magazines don't exist without the gamers.

I love the fact that GamePro did this. I tried at one stage to review a game for a really big online review site here in New Zealand. I wrote a review, had it read and was told, "that's great, but we don't have a good relationship with the publisher, so we don't print any reviews of their games." what? In other words, they don't get given freebies.

Stupid arrogant bunch of fucks.

Message to wankers like Trip - get over it. If you make shit games, then nobody gives a fuck about you or your whining. Just because you idiots spent loads of money and time developing it doesn't instantly make it worthy of everyone's praise.

Message to wankers like GamePlanet (oops, I mean, unnamed NZ review site) - all your reviews are now soiled. The gamers cannot trust your judgement any more. You are going to tell us all games by a publisher you like are good, regardless of whether they are or not. You don't gain the trust of your bread and butter (ie, the gamers) like that.

All of you cocksuckers think that the advertisers are the reason why the magazines and web-zines are alive. This is so far wrong that I propose you all instantly find work in another industry.