
After a colourful rant towards the development practices in games such as No Man's Sky and Cyberpunk 2077, director of the Ori series, Thomas Mahler, has apologised for the comments he made.
In the lengthy post, Mahler compared certain developers on games such as the original Fable and Cyberpunk 2077 as being "snake oil salesman", who have lied to consumers about the games they are crafting. While Mahler's stance on the position appears unmoved, he's since apologised for his "aggressive tone" and has said he's "really sorry" - especially to those he mentioned by name.
https://twitter.com/thomasmahler/status/1357445038142324737?s=20
The initial thread drew criticism from the gaming community, most notably in the replies, which felt Mahler wasn't in a position to attack his peers. However, comments to the apology seemingly connect with Mahler's sentiments more.
What are your thoughts on Mahler's opinion? Let us know in the comments below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 19
He means the original Fable right? We don’t even know how the new one looks and plays yet lol
@xMightyMatt14x Yeah he does
Apologies like this are kinda pointless. He either meant it or he didn't.
I just think his team should try and make a game on the same kind of scope as Cyberpunk before he criticizes them. He might start to understand that big games of that type can't just neatly follow a prior plan in the same way an Ori game can. They're constantly evolving by their very nature, and it's basically impossible for them to have the final version be exactly the same as the initial idea.
He's definitely got a point, just needed some tact 😉
Over hyping games past their capabilities on release isn't cool at all. No Man's Sky has improved over time, as will Cyberpunk, but that doesn't excuse the fact that hype before release wasn't applicable with the product at the time.
@Dezzy It was clear from the way he wrote his first post that he was in a bad mood and wasn't thinking straight and now he wants to own up to it. Give the guy a break, we all make mistakes. How are we supposed to get through life if we can't make mistakes and learn from them? Nobody's perfect.
Someone was on the juice and went online for a rant 🤣 made himself look a bit stupid but hopefully no harm done.
@LtSarge Sorry, I was in a bad mood. I take it back. I'm not perfect
Edit: Sorry I couldn't resist. In such a happy mood today as managed to beat the scalpers and finally get my order for a Series X through. It's been almost 15 years but I'm finally back to the MS ecosystem.
Person makes valid point, but (inadvertently) ***** on others as they do so. The story of the Internet. But hey, I'm glad a rant brings it to light - the industry is rapidly running towards constant disappointment, as the expectations they set are too high, and we are all too eager to buy into it.
Seems like he's just jumping on the bandwagon for extra publicity. Notice how he wants his name, his company, and his franchise to be front and center? Seems pretty tacky and obvious.
@StonyKL You're oversimplifying a lot. This is a person with a significant role in the gaming industry, not some random person on the internet who's looking to troll others. You do realise that he could've been in a lot of trouble just by calling out industry names? Not to mention that this would ruin his reputation as people in his network wouldn't want to be associated with a person who calls others out. What would he possibly gain by writing a post like that and then retract his statements immediately afterwards? Nothing. That's why I believe this is a genuine apology because he made an honest mistake. Sometimes your emotions get the better of you.
His points were valid, just a bad idea in the position he is in.
I missed all this yesterday. His first post was not without merit, there was a lot of truth in there. However the tone, method and platform used were not great and deserved far better. He is 100% right to apologise.
Original post: https://www.resetera.com/threads/why-are-gamers-so-eager-to-trust-and-even-forgive-the-snake-oil-salesmen.372420/
That said it IS an issue that needs to be addressed. The flagrant lies and continued bullshots coming out of some devs and studios really need to reigned in.
Personally I feel Sean Murray is in a slightly different camp, he was suddenly thrust into the limelight with no media training or Sony handlers and was making wildly excited statements as a dev on what he HOPED the game would be. With a tiny development team that was never possible in the timeframe given, the game was already wildly ambitious.
I'm not absolving Murray of any blame, but I do think it is a different case, he was in way over his head, and it's more of a cautionary tale for other developers. I feel more Sony should have stepped in and helped on this marketing side, particularly setting expectations, but didn't want to upset the golden hype goose. I hope they, and others, have learned from this too.
@Deadcow Social media is key for my job, but I try and actively choose to be an observer rather than a participator.
Some of the console war stuff I come across on a daily basis just makes me want to go on a very long rant!
He had some valid points, just the way and platform he made his points could have been handled with a bit more class.
He's right. People are too soft on this.
@FraserG
Sounds like a future soapbox article!
@Dezzy oh he meant what he said he’s really apologizing for the way he said it....and the guy is correct on his point....its fine to have a bug here and there but its not cool when there’s a million bugs so many that i can still after the updates play for 30 mins and come across a handful, like my character sitting. In a invisible sidecar to my vehicle, yes my characters sits outside the car sometimes while I’m driving on the series X
Calling out names like that on one hand, was wrong for an industry insider in a high profile position. And yet, there's something wrong with the world of PR where individuals can't be named for their actions. Especially when it's a truth in plain sight everybody knows.
He's right about Molyneaux, who is the master of it. That's why Lionhead was shut down by MS to begin with, and why he was jettisoned from EA before that. That's public knowledge at this point, part of gaming history, and it's silly to pretend it's not, by name or not.
CDPR....I mean they're being sued to death for deceptive practices. It's not an accusation, it's a trade violation. They're the beacon of how low can low go.
NMS....that had it's own circumstances and if anything crossed the lines, maybe that was the one only because that wasn't a flagrantly broken or falsely advertised product so much as one that completely underdeveloped on fulfilling hype (hype, not promises, like Molyneaux.) and not a faulty product like 2077.
It makes Moon look bad, and yet, it shouldn't. There's no secrets or offensive behavior here, he's stating the truth as is already publicly known.
I think it was very stupid of him, it makes Moon Studios look childish and immature. By talking like that about others he just make people associate his attitude with the studio he belongs to and to the wonderful (two) games that they have made.
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