Look, you may not take my words as wholly objective and you don't have to, because I've been an intern at Bad Brain and worked closely with Wolfgang for months. I've been reading a lot of opinions on him in this thread, he's been bashed and defended, I laughed my ass off with the David Brent strip because I saw exactly where it was true and where the comparison was false. Let me give you my take on Wolfgang.
The man is fantastic. He's an outrageous, funny, healthy person. I think it says a lot about the industry that everyone's getting so excited because a CEO is just saying exactly how it is in a blog. Bad Brain deceiving? Sure, that's why he's putting it there in a blog. If you ask me, Wolfgang is just saying it as it is. Bad Brain isn't a huge publisher, they're a little company that have a massive job to do. Let me put it like this: do you honestly think that the little companies can be just as professional and machine-like as the big ones? I think you will find that a lot of the smaller companies are exactly like Bad Brain (maybe without a baby-eating CEO), they're just pretending they're more professional than they really are. That's a choice they're making, and Wolfgang obviously has chosen a more controversial route: being a bit more open about the inner workings of the company.
I'm not going to defend the mistakes that were made. Hyping up Sam & Max was not the wisest thing to do, but I wholly believe this was not a foil to get publicity. I know Wolfgang and I know of his peerless enthusiasm for the game. If anything, this sort of thing came from inexperience, not out of scheming. But what I don't understand is why he is being totally flakked all the time. Aren't we all despising publishers like EA for not having a heart for gaming and pooping out uninspired sequels? Then why the hell aren't we supporting a company that -if still finding its way- is extremely enthusiastic and genuinely caring about games (i.e., NOT in it for the money)?
Don't come to me with tales of who and who 'deserves it more'. I don't blame people for saying these things, but Wolfgang has built up everything he has with his bare hands and he works like a madman. And please don't stop making David Brent jokes because they're very funny and I know Wolfgang laughs as hard as us all about them. But also cut the man some slack. If you want every decision tippy-top and churned out by a board of executives -if you want professionalism to the point that it loses every charm- then by all means, go to the hojillion-dollar megacorps. But if not, if you can see the distinct charm of imperfection and beginning enthusiasm, you may want to give Bad Brain a tip of your hat instead of wiping your feet on it.
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