Sep 28 2012
The Final Countdown: Three Stooges, Product Rip-Offs and Bioware Drama
Go here to see the best of the Three Stooges.
“The Three Stooges were a comedy act that lasted from 1925 until 1970 (!), and yeah, while the majority of their act was showcased in theatrical shorts, their lasting cultural relevancy comes from a television revival, so we’re counting them as “TV”.
The Countdown
Famous products that are rip-offs – [Cracked]
Why the founders left Bioware: The fans? – [Insert Coin]
How Parks and Recreation out Officed the Office – [TVovermind]
Nick Fury cat cosplay – [GeeksAreSexy]
Scary movie 5 looks terrifying in a bad way – [FilmDrunk]
Names you should avoid for your child – [Holytaco]
A gallery of Darwin in action – [theChive]
Nicky Minaj may get a reality show – [theBlemish]
The best TV theme songs – [Ranker]
The best photos according to Google – [WWIW]
When you fire a gun underwater – [Neatorama]
Today’s girl is Rachael Taylor – [Maxim]
Guy paying $65M to marry his daughter – [Heavy]
Weird cliches from Star Wars comics – [ToplessRobot]
SNL covers awkward girl at party – [BroBible]
More Unreal Posts
You take away the fans might have driven them off, I agree, but not in the same fashion
I take away that EA wasn’t letting them do their thing (despite them saying otherwise, you don’t bite the hand that feeds you,) and the fans just constantly reminded them of this. They left because they didn’t want to make bad/’soulless’ games and they probably have a non-compete clause in their contracts, so it was salvage whats left of your once lauded reputation, by leaving the industry, or sticking around and continuing to disappoint everyone.
Like most situations i imagine a lot of these factors have at least a bit of truth or plausibility to them but of course it’s all just speculation.
“Guy paying $65 to marry his daughter” is an incredibly misleading headline. Though the real story is totally absurd.
I don’t know how much time you spend in cesspools like /v/ and gamefaqs, but I’ve got to tell you that the Bioware thing is a sign that these entitled autists that are taking over gaming culture can and will literally drive off the most innovative and passionate creators in the industry based on one underwhelming cutscene. It’s a disturbing sign of things to come that a game like Mass Effect 3 draws fans’ ire. And they even mostly fixed the ending FOR FREE. How often does any other company do that? The result to this unprecedented gesture that pretty much gave fans everything they asked for (except a bizarre metafictional conspiracy) was a resounding “that’s all?”. Can’t comment on TOR, but it’s pretty much a fact that if it isn’t WoW, it isn’t going anywhere as a MMO. I’m pretty bent that Bioware’s founders have left the industry, and now I think I understand why Valve hasn’t put anything out in years other than Portal 2. My guess is that the next time they try to make a Half Life, Left 4 Dead, or Team Fortress game they will be met with RAGE for changing some tiny detail and they are putting it off as long as the can.
@trashcanman
This assertion is baseless. People are critical so it’s going to scare people away?
You’ve described something every artist needs to deal with. If they can’t handle criticism then they are in the wrong profession.
Mr. Tassi recently released a book, if a bunch of people showed up and started shitting all over it, and he decided to quit over it, then chances are he really wasn’t cut out to be an author.
That’s alright though, you bought into Osters ‘blackmail’ hook, line and sinker. (be nice to us or else)
I think Ray response on twitter shows that it really is a straw-man, and puts the nail in the coffin for me when it comes to these quotes from Oster.
“I respect/revere fans, because they speak with deep, honest passion. Journalists speculating on ill-founded rumors should reassess approach.”
@trashcanman
to add to my comment, in response to, “I think I understand why Valve hasn’t put anything out in years other than Portal 2″
If you think its because of fans are critical then you are drunk at the wheel.
Valve hasn’t released anything in ages because they are a privately held company with loads of money, so they’d rather dink around and try new things until they find something cool they want to put out, instead of worrying about farting out drek to keep quarterlies looking nice for the stock-holders. It’s not something every developer would be capable of, they are in something of a unique situation.
Art takes courage. If critics are enough to stop you, then I don’t think you’ll be missed.
You should go read into the way valve operates and you won’t be surprised at all why they take so long to put things out.
Either way, trying to blame it on the fans is really laughable. Especially so when the person they are saying left because of the fans said otherwise.
Non-compete clauses seem like the most plausible, but Oster can’t say, ‘they left the game industry because they were sick of working for EA, and we will sue their ass if they try to start a game related company in the next 5 years.’ /speculation