Sunday Supplement – 25th September

Comic courtesy of Fat Gamers.

PR madness…

I often think game industry PRs live in a constant state of fear, moving from one lunchette to the next, eyes twitching as marketing speak and press releases fire across the World Wide Web. They must live every minute of every day in absolute horror, terrified something bad will be said about that stupid game they’ve been charged with representing. The product, the brand, the ethos and the philosophy are key. Geeky gamer passion is not.

Developers, as far as they are concerned, should be locked in the office 24/7. They should never leave, never speak to others and certainly never express an unapproved thought. After all, who knows what they may say to some lecherous game hack, salivating over the prospect of tying an honest developer in knots.

Instead we’re left with PR released Q&As (much safer of course). No unexpected questions. Each answer lovingly crafted with all the skill of a fake-plastic airhostess. When a journalist manages to accost a developer face-to-face, all interviews must take place in the presence of a PR, who sits, eyes peeled, claws out, ready to interject the moment the beaten path is strayed from. In short: it’s rare to find an honest, informative interview with a game developer these days. We all live with it though – and take much of what we read in the gaming press with a pinch of virtual salt. It is an unfortunate fact of life – a bit like traffic.

But something I saw on the web this week took the traditional PR controlled Q&A to a whole new level – and I’m not talking about a fun, bonus level full of power-ups either. I’m talking about the game interview from hell.

A while back, Slashdot asked readers to submit questions they were under the impression members of the World of Warcraft Blizzard development team would answer. Sure, scandalous questions wouldn’t work – but you would expect some honesty from a bunch of people who are not unlike you and me: they are gamers first and foremost and love their fans.

But somewhere along the line a PR got wind of this dangerous liaison. Here was an opportunity for fans of World of Warcraft to get some honest answers about a game they love from the very people they idolise. This just wouldn’t do! What if one of those non-media savvy developers admitted mistakes had been made? Or suggested there was room for improvement? Or perhaps inadvertently revealed details of the much-anticipated expansion, the result of which would have surely caused a chain reaction ending life not only on planet Earth, but the entire universe? No wonder they can’t sleep. Just read:

Question

“It’s the biggest MMORPG to date in terms of number of subscribers. It’s easy to guess that you’ve encountered challenges due to scale that no other developer has before. Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently, and when?“

Response

“Oh yeah, there were definitely things we wished we could have done differently during the development of World of Warcraft. But we learned from those challenges and used that knowledge to improve the game at every opportunity. All of us at Blizzard strive to study the challenges of development and apply those lessons to our next project. It helps us to refine our development process and make each game better.“

Hmm, as far as I can tell, the guy asked: “What would you have done differently?” and the answer was: “No comment.” But that’s just one example – let’s try another:

Question

“Let me be up front: I don’t play any MMORPGs… probably never will. I’m sure WoW is fantastic, but I generally stick to console games. Which sort of leads to my question. How in the world did the decision for a Warcraft MMORPG get made?“

Response

“Well, we hope that you’ll try out the game. You might be pleasantly surprised. World of Warcraft was designed to be easy and inviting for non-traditional MMORPG players to try. It has an intuitive interface, stylized and familiar settings, and very easy-to-accomplish quests for the casual gamer. As for why we decided to make World of Warcraft in the first place, well, many of us loved playing MMORPGs and we wanted to make one that had all the features we wanted to see and experience ourselves. Since no one else was making the exact MMORPG we wanted to play, we decided to design it ourselves.“

In other words, the guy asked Blizzard to convince him to play the game and to explain how the original concept was achieved (a really interesting question I might add). And the answer was: “Go read the back of the box.”

For Slashdot’s part, they realise how ridiculous the piece is and how disrespectful the answers are to fans of WoW. They warn readers that the answers are not what they wanted:

“Any ‘answers’ you read here are completely devoid of real information or insight, and instead read like press releases and FAQ-style form replies. As I am a huge fan of this game, I was really disappointed by this. We promised to print their answers, so here they are.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

No, don’t, no… nooooooooo!

Well, it sounds like EA will buy Ubisoft. CEO Yves Guillemot told French newspaper Les Echos this week: “We are not safe from hostile action from Electronic Arts, which would be difficult to block if they make a genuinely interesting offer.” When your CEO admits a take-over could happen, that’s usually code for: “fans, prepare for a new publisher symbol on your favourite franchise game box.”

So, Splinter Cell enthusiasts, expect the next Sam Fisher adventure to come with that standard EA sheen and shine. How strange it will be – a bit like seeing Michael Owen in a Newcastle shirt. There’s just something wrong about it. Not saying it can’t be one hell of a match though – as I type, Mr Owen has just notched his second goal in three games for the underachieving Magpies.

But don’t despair. I doubt EA will fire Ubisoft’s considerable development team and all that stealthy experience. More likely much of the Ubisoft resistance will be assimilated in the vast EA collective. Cynicism aside, it’s not safe to say EA might ruin the franchise if the deal goes through – just look at Burnout and Criterion (although I hated that cheesy US DJ guy that popped up).

But the case reinforces the view that the biggest players will continue to eat each other. A few years ago a wise man said it wouldn’t be long until there were only five or so mega-corporations ruling the world. What price EA will be one of them?

Getting left behind…

Real life has an annoying habit of getting in the way just when things start to get interesting. This week I haven’t had a chance to exhibit my mad skillz in World of Warcraft at all, due to meeting new people and getting drunk in the pub. It’s a strangely subdued process, and slightly confusing. I’m still not sure why people threw garbage at me when I asked if there were any priests around to join a raid to Orgrimmar.

Apart from that, I missed a curious little anomaly that made the BBC News website. Apparently Blizzard’s recently introduced instanced dungeon Zul’Gurub contains a well ‘ard boss called Hakkar – the god of Blood (sounds like a bloke I once had the pleasure of meeting in a Streatham pub actually) who infects players with a deadly plague called “corrupted blood” when he is eventually killed.

Usually these things aren’t too bad, and once you leave a boss area or dungeon they disappear, but not “corrupted blood.” Hakkar’s filthy unhygienic sneezing is made of sterner stuff.

So clever hunters got their pet infected with the pox, dismissed their poorly sidekick, then summoned the bemused beast when near a computer controlled player – thus infecting the NPC with Hakkar’s skank. Hilariously, all the low-level players who trotted within an armpit smell of the NPC would contract the plague and die within a couple of laughable seconds.

Absolute genius and something I would have loved to see. Damn real life – virtual devouring plagues tend not to impress the ladies quite as much as they do Scandinavian guild mates.

This week on Pro-G

If you’ve been away, living the high life, then you may have missed our two-part interview with the producer on Pseudo Interactive’s Xbox 360 title Full Auto. While no longer set to launch alongside the new Microsoft console, the vehicular combat game looks like it could be a nice tonic for post Christmas doom and gloom.

We’ve also reviewed Atari and Quantic Dream’s supernatural adventure game Fahrenheit, the surprisingly good Total Overdose from Eidos and Deadline Games, plus the brilliantly addictive Meteos from Q Interactive.

This week’s new releases

The end of year crazy season is definitely upon us. This week saw high profile releases on almost every platform, including Burnout Revenge, Heroes of the Pacific and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Winter Assault. The usually unfortunate GameCube and DS even received a new release each. If I had to choose one title, it would be the awesome Burnout Revenge from EA and Criterion. It’s simply one of the most fun and polished titles to be released on this generation of consoles.

• Burnout Revenge (PS2 and Xbox)
• Dynasty Warriors 5 (Xbox)
• Heroes of the Pacific (PS2, Xbox and PC)
• Meteos (DS)
• Myst V: End Of Ages (PC)
• Twisted Metal: Head-On (PSP)
• Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War – Winter Assault (Expansion Pack) (PC)
• WWE Day Of Reckoning 2 (Cube)

Next week on Pro-G

Expect plenty of reviews on the site next week, including Burnout Revenge and Legends, Heroes of the Pacific, MotoGP: URT 3, Dynasty Warriors 5 and Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 Remix.