Adventure Gamers - Forums

I think the racist part had more to do with the avatar pic, which could be read as a racist caricature. I’m not sure that’s right, though.
Dozens of tweets of this kind came before, so my guess is that Tim was already pissed off by then. Yes, I read most of them, because his replies were witty quite often.

Jim Purcell - 12 April 2014 08:44 PM

I really love how needlessly negative people have gotten over Broken Age. Like it or not Broken Age part 1is a ‘complete’ game. That’s the game the backer money bought. We didn’t have to get part 2. We certainly didn’t have to get it for free.

Not that I agree with the trolls and their methods, but you’re putting a pretty generous spin on the situation, I’d say. 

You’re right that technically, we only paid to have one single graphic adventure game (and the documentary) made.  There were never any guarantees that it would tell a complete story.

However, the idea that people have no right to be pissed or disappointed at the many strange twists and turns of this project is ridiculous.  People have every right to be irritated.  There is plenty of valid criticism to be leveled at how this project was handled from the very beginning.  To say otherwise is to demonstrate willful ignorance.

ozzie - 12 April 2014 09:21 PM

I think the racist part had more to do with the avatar pic, which could be read as a racist caricature.

No, “coon” is used as a racial slur in America.

Ah, now that makes so much more sense, thanks for the clarification!

Karlok - 13 April 2014 12:32 AM

This might be the first time I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion. I also agree with OrionO. I don’t see Schafer handling criticism from *backers* like me very well either.

I knew you’d come around, buddy! 

I backed the project, too, though I haven’t been keeping up with it for quite a while—never even got around to downloading and playing Part 1, even though I paid for the right to do so.  I can’t really comment on the game itself, but I’m certainly disappointed with the way the project was organized financially (from what I’ve read anyway.)  When high profile projects like this one turn out to be less than what people expected, or even worse, when it seems like the money was so badly mismanaged, it reflects negatively on crowd-funding as a whole.  I think people started to become a lot more skeptical of the process as a result of these kinds of perceived failures.

Karlok - 13 April 2014 12:32 AM

I also agree with OrionO. I don’t see Schafer handling criticism from *backers* like me very well either.

What? You agree with this ludicrous statement???

OrionO - 12 April 2014 04:30 PM

Pathetic to see Schafer dismiss all the criticism directed at him as “hate.”

Tim Schafer has not dismissed ALL criticism as hate - indeed, as the newest documentary shows he addresses some of the specific criticism of Broken Age, even if I don’t agree with all of his conclusions. But tweets such as the one posted by Ozzie seem to fit much better in the “hate” category than the “criticism” category to me - there’s a difference. Every single OrionO post seems to purely slag off a game/game designer - he/she’s done it with Moebius/JJ/Phoenix Online, now it’s Tim Schafer’s turn.

As for criticism from *backers* like you Karlok, you’d have to let us know how it’s been handled for us to comment…

I do agree (also rare for me ) with Lamb that Jim’s portrayal of the situation was pretty generous. And his comments re Kickstarter funding/budgeting issues in general are also reasonable. Nonetheless it’s also true that the game we’re getting (as backers) has actually a far greater level of financing than we actually put in (thanks to the funds Double Fine are putting in themselves) so it’s hard to understand what backers actually have a right to be angry about…and as for non-backers, they’ve no right to be angry (critical is something else)...yet it’s non-backers where (as confirmed by Tim Schafer) the most “hate-filled” posts seem to come from. What, Lamb, they did was go over-budget (hardly a 1st in project management)...and found a solution which meant backers got a bigger game than they’d actually paid for/financed - hard to see what’s so terrible in that? The only real thing to complain about as I see it is splitting the game in two.

Karlok - 13 April 2014 04:31 AM

@DaveyB. Please don’t try to start another discussion with me. You and are are through talking.

 

YOu’ll still get an answer when you agree with a statement like that lol. Whether you want to follow up on it is up to you.

Didn’t we cover all this already in this thread? twice?

Just read the whole thread and you’ll find all the info you need to draw your conclusions about what double fine and Tim schaffer did right or wrong.

P.s. Caliburn, thanks for bringing the amnesia fortnight documentary to my attention, I had totally missed it.

Davey, we should criticize what deserves criticism, and praise what deserves praise. It’s called being honest. I’m not interested in pretending garbage isn’t garbage, but I believe equally that real talent and accomplishment should be commended. And Schafer is a man of immense talent and accomplishment.

Regarding Schafer’s comments, I usually find him agreeable, so it was disappointing to see him go the “haters!” route. That someone was able to find one tweet (out of how many?) doesn’t mean the negative reaction to his October announcement was based on “hate”, as the article “Schafer: How to stay afloat in ‘a pool of Internet Twitter hate’” suggests. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-21-tim-schafer-how-to-stay-afloat-in-a-pool-of-internet-twitter-hate

Fortunately, the fierce backlash against the Double Fine announcement may well have been a good thing, if it had the effect of scaring other Kickstarter-using game developers into being more responsible with donations so generously provided by us fans.

OrionO - 13 April 2014 05:08 AM

That someone was able to find one tweet (out of how many?) doesn’t mean the negative reaction to his October announcement was based on “hate”, as the article “Schafer: How to stay afloat in ‘a pool of Internet Twitter hate’” suggests. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-21-tim-schafer-how-to-stay-afloat-in-a-pool-of-internet-twitter-hate

Oh, there were plenty more tweets and comments along that vein, and generally people eagerly trying to discredit DF’s work out of ignorance or misinformation and I believe these are what Schaffer is referring to. But I’m curious why would you assume that he’s referring to constructive criticism as hate?

Schafer:

“...And it was like being dumped from that into this cold pool of Internet Twitter hate. And that was crazy. It was like, ‘Oh yeah, right! There’s a bunch of people who hate the idea of what we’re doing and are waiting to pounce on us if we make a single mistake.’”

He says there are a bunch of people who hate the idea of what he is doing. The implication is that he made a single mistake and all of these hateful people, who had been waiting patiently in silence, finally got their opportunity to pounce. Nowhere in the article does it quote Schafer as acknowledging the validity of any of those criticizing him.

Of course, maybe he said much more to the reporter and admitted deserving much of the criticism, but those quotes didn’t get printed. Who knows. It is good to know that, at other times, he fessed up to many mistakes.