Friday, February 20, 2009

JAFFE/MYSTERY JOURNALIST

Hey- just got done chatting with reporter in question from a few posts down.

I'm gonna answer his questions because he has agreed to resubmit them without the negative slant.

Then, he and I are gonna do a podcast together and talk about this issue and the PS3 and games in general.

Should be fun! It ain't FROST/NIXON, I grant you, but hell, we'll get a kick out of it!

I'll post the conversation once it's done.

David

ps. and I heard the new 1up podcast show tonite- or whatever they are calling it now. If you guys are reading this, would love to go on your show for a few minutes to have a chance to explain myself and defend myself. If not, no worries...I don't have a game coming out for a while and it prob makes more sense to bring folks on with specific games to talk about. Maybe as we get closer to release. Either way, glad your show is still around- I thought it got lost in the layoffs. I love 1upyours!

32 comments:

grasshopper said...

Ahh I love the 1up podcast...hope you get on there dude! I thought the show was toast...glad its still around. I just started listening to todays...guessing your mentioned in a unpleasant way.

David Jaffe said...

no- not unpleasant. Just they make some comments I would love to rebut or discuss. The main issue being that they seem to forget that my shit is taken out of context so fucking often that I have every right to be defensive and protective when someone calls me for an interview, especially when the questions coming at me are very slanted in a way that no matter how I answer them would give them an opportunity for a headline that would not be accurately reflecting my stance on the subject.

Anonymous said...

I'm a huge 1up fan- met up with Garnett in NYC a few weeks back. I'm glad they're still doing what they do best. I don't tend to appreciate their light badgering of you once in a while, but they've got to keep the show "interesting" I guess. You certainly should hop on, maybe they'd get you to slip and confirm what you're working on.

Gazzo said...

I'm really glad you decided to talk to the guy, Dave. I really am. You were in the right to be defensive and hesitant to respond, though, I think.

Lookin' forward to the full conversation.

PAYBACK-joker said...

Yo Dave, that journalist must have seen the errors in his ways and I'm glad he's come back and tried to somewhat rectify the situation with you. I'd still be way cautious and require some sort of editorial privileges on his story. You never know, he might just be trying to appease you with non-slanted questions to get you in there and the pull the switch-a-roo on you when it comes time to publish the story.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the podcast and the interview!

~PAYBACK-joker

simon said...

see this was the perfect solution, can't wait to hear the interview

Gazzo said...

Oh, and David:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353101

What in the world have you done, bro? :)

I about laughed myself silly at that 2nd screen shot. I'm sorry you lost a customer on a game you really have nothing to do with. :(




Or maybe he was just being sarcastic. I think he's really just a dumbass. I imagine that post will probably be deleted pretty quick. You may not even get a chance to see it.

Anonymous said...

I don't really know what NeoGaf is (I'm browsing it now) but that link Gazzo posted is.. very odd. I can't believe someone would message you to try and get a response and stir you up just to post a thread. Why? Seriously, how immature do you have to be to do that?

In response to this whole bias mystery;
I agree that those questions were bias. There's no denying it. After reading the comments in your post, it's really stirred the hive of fanboys from either side. Some people saying if you own a Sony console and believe it's better than the 360, you're a fanboy. That's just stupid. What is a fanboy anyway? There's no actual definition.
Going offtopic. You were right to say what you said, and I'm glad you're resolving your issue with this journalist. I'm surprised he/she even expected you to answer the questions.

Best of luck with the game and all this nonsense with the media Dave.

Anonymous said...

I used to listen to 1upyours every week until the merger and lay offs. Those guys dissected games in an interesting way that even developers would enjoy listening.

As for people quoting you out of context. Dont worry too much about it. Its normal for outspoken guys like you to be used by the media to get attention towards their magazine/site. Its really pathetic sometimes how some of these so called "professional game journalists" are just a bunch of amateurs who write whatever the childish gamer inside them tell them to.

I guess thats why game journalism is sometimes so despised. Yet, we developers cannot live without them since they hold some sort of power when it comes making or breaking a game.

Looking forward to the podcast with Mystery Journalist :)

Anonymous said...

Just something I thought of, about company owning company, while browsing around.
Thought I would share.

Ahum.....

Today, it's not really a matter what company own what.
It's what influence one company have on the other.
For an example:

Company A, used to own company B and then later sold company B.
However, company A could be the largest client/partner of company B, or even the ONLY client/partner of company B, depending on agreement.
So, company B have exclusive access to company A's fiscal reports and news, for example, which could be hard cash for other companies.
Company A gets in return, advertising, service reports like news and weather for online information syndication systems among other things.

After all, companies in monopoly position on the market, are not able, to the same extent as before, to own too much of competitor's shares, without intervention from the legal ways.
Which, regulate and limit companies that are close to become too dominant on the different targeted markets.
So parterships between companies, sharing resources and funds is largely common today, even between independant corporate parties.

So, today it's really hard to know who is in bed with who, and it creates a feeling of insecurity, lack of trust in business realations with media and corporations, where trust is/should be one of the most important corner stones.

Sure, investigating journalists/reporters are supposed to ask the tough questions, and investigate. But can anyone trust their intent?, their purpose with their questions?.
Who will investigate and ask the tough questions to the journalists/reporters?. Themselfs?, nah. So I think it's good that someone have the balls and do ask and wonder, like Jaffe.

Then:
With companies seeing opportuneties in blogs on the net etc., for their advertisements, marketing, to get closer to their consumer bases, can anyone really trust the writers?, or information in general?.
Even if the person posting, is supposed to be a highly regarded news reporter for an established paper or whatever media he/she represents?.
Just because someone flash a nice badge that says "trust me" on it, does it mean anyone should?.

Anyway, english is not my first language and it's complex to express my thoughts in a good way.

However, It feels like that the media, at the moment, seem to be focusing on creating consumer doubt in the PS3, or even in Sony's products in general.
For whatever reason?, who knows. Maybe to test the strength of the product(s) and consumer base?, or just a part of a greater corporate scheme?.
But I am sure, that in the long run we all lose if only one would be the winner.

Last thing to whoever reads:
To really listen and take part of an opinion, doesn't mean you have to agree with it.
It's so obvious that alot of people think one have to agree to listen, which is a bit stupid.

grasshopper said...

Ahh gotcha...finally got around to listening to the part.
Seemed odd...like they said they were crap questions yet were still giving you a hard time

You ever gonna start up a podcast yourself, maybe with some ESP stuff or anything else. Think you could make a pretty interesting one.

Anonymous said...

One comment on your exchange with Cheebs regarding MSNBC. AFAIK it's still owned in parts by MS, mostly through online partnership.

But dude, even if it was owned by MS, think for a moment. I'm sure people said in the past that "Sony pays you to talk positive stuff about PlayStation platform". Was that claim true?

Of course not! You were paid to do your job which involved making ass-kicking games, not to poop rainbows about Sony! You expressed your concerns about certain decisions in the past in interviews.

Now tell me, do you really believe that even if MSNBC was 100% owned by MS, this guy would have been held by his hand by some PR-scums to write shit about PS3? Were you ever instructed to market Sony cameras?

Just because company A is on your payroll doesn't mean you're going to be all-positive about it. You know it from experience so I'm really surprised this was your angle on the questions submited.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

He's the fucking man after all. Wow.

Anonymous said...

The 1UP podcast is called "4 Guys 1UP" and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Wow Jaffe, your a better man than I am. I say this because your open, honest, and you believe everyone deserves a fair shake in life, which you don't see that often coming from today's society.

Personally I view the first impression to be everything. You can learn alot about a person from that initial impression. If someone sent me an email, followed by an interview, I would of told them to piss off. But not you man.

Hopefully these people won't become dicks and waste your time with biased questions to lure you into something they want you to say. Just like that email.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jaffe, I heard them say you had a meltdown on 1upyours. I couldn't disagree more. Garnett is an idiot altogether and he usually slants things completely out of proportion. I thought you posting the questions was entirely fair. They could you sensitive for doing that and stated you should've done something to "show" the journalist. Easy for them to say since they work as friggin journalists. Anyway, I look forward to you going on there and setting them straight.

David Jaffe said...

kv- I don't think my assumption is so far fetched. It could happen. Not saying it did but it could.

In the same way that Howard Stringer/the board/whomever is running the ship at any given time hands down mandates that trickle thru all of the companies Sony owns. Back in the 90's it was all about 'synergy' and making all the pieces of the massive Sony machine work together. You may or no be surprised to know how pervasive the desire was among many within Sony to push that agenda even tho they had never met the guy who was running the ship of Sony at the time.

In the case of today, it seems- and I don't know- but it seems that Blu Ray is a big deal for Sony and all hands on deck in whatever department you work for to push that agenda. I am not saying each individual employee gets a memo from Howard Stringer saying,' Here is how you will run your work life"...but I am saying there is a person or group of people at the top who make high level decisions that trickle down to every nook and cranny of the company in some fashion or another.

And so in the case of Msoft- assuming that they still owned a large part/any part of MSNBC- I don't think it's an insane leap to assume that it was POSSIBLE that one of the mandates handed down from on high was to promote MSOFT products and tear down the competition- within reason and as long as it looks on the up and up within reason. Remember- this is Microsoft we are talking about. I like many of the MSOFT products- including the 360- but it doesn't take that much research to know that they are called the EVIL EMPIRE for a reason in regards to business practices that many considered borderline illegal (and some folks DID consider illegal which is why they were taken to court in order to break up the Monopoly they once had...don't recall if they won or lost). So to act as if Msoft (or any corporation) is always some bastion of good and angelic intentions and would not 'stoop' to using every gun in its arsenal to build itself up as a company is- to me- naive.

And this doesn't just go for Microsoft- but any company. Companies try to win. Some of them do it on the full up and up, some of them do it with less scruples.

And yes, I don't really think this guy- even if MSNBC were owned by MSOFT- was taking his marching orders from the 360 division. But do I think it's possible that people try to impress the bosses and paint themselves in a good light by towing the company line? I do. I don't think that is that big of a leap. And agian, I think it's POSSIBLE. Not saying he did that or was doing that. But that is one of the reasons my guard went up: because it was a possible scenario in this situation.

David

David Jaffe said...

Yes that was full of typos- I'm rushed- gotta run! :)

David

Anonymous said...

David,

Glad you were able to work it out with the reporter. I still do not believe the questions were biased...the style of questioning is pretty common...but you were right to not answer the original questions if they made you uncomfortable. That being said, even with more passive questions, the article could still turn out slanted. The type of questions used do not necessarily indicate bias.

Good luck with the interview.

TrevDogg said...

i hope u really set the record straight david. ppl misunderstand u too much. everyone has there opinion but i guess ppl take urs seriously :-P take it as a compliment that ppl obsess over what u say ;-)im just ready to hear about ur next game...cause right now all i do is EAT, SLEEP, and PLAY xD im soo ready for K2 its killing me, i want my copy NOW. but be careful how this reporter portrays u david cause this seems like a article that is trying to put down the ps3 and sony. anyway keep us updated, time to play some street fighter 4! peace dude

Unknown said...

Sounds awesome, David. And what you said about corporations is right on. I'd also add that it isn't a stretch to imagine a person who is a Microsoft fan-boy from the start getting a job for a Microsoft-affiliated company, and continuing to be a fan-boy. It only makes sense.

I have seen this happen. Someone is obsessed with Microsoft's products and Microsoft's "vision" for the future. They join the bandwagon at every step of the way and, one day, actually manage to land their dream job working for "the corp"... and there you go. A great source of so-called unbiased propaganda.

Of course, this isn't to say that any other corporation is immune to this. This is why I only pay attention to hard-core facts without emotion or opinion to skew it. First, I take the raw numbers. Then, I look at the trends. Then, I take my years of experience as a Statistical Analyst and apply reason and logic and there you go. You end up with reasonable information rather than the FUD that others spew out.

It's almost amazing these days to see how many arm-chair analysts there are in the world today, predicting everything from the stock market crash to the bankruptcy of corporations. If anything else, at least it's entertaining, if not annoying like those who always predict that TODAY will, for certain, be the day of a "big earthquake." One day, they will be right... and the other 1000 times they were wrong will be forgiven.

Unknown said...

They said they wanted to rename 1UP Yours to Four guys 1 UP

Luka said...

I have been following your blog since the begining and this is what amazes me.

You could possibly be the only developer I have seen that is completly un-biased.

Wich is strange to be honest, I guess people forgot the days when the rivlary between games and consoles wasn't the only important thing.


The main mistake the "Mystery Journalist" made was that the only thing he focused on was bashing on the PS3 and quoting certain sources who also Aren't fond of the Playstation (reasons unknown).



Anyway, keep up the great blog brother and looking forward to seeing you more.


Luka

Gazzo said...

Jaffe - That post from the other day about the Atari reminded me of old game systems and whatnot...and in doing so, made me curious. Do you have a particular favorite game generation? Or do you think (as a whole, not just technologically) games get better (again, better. Not more complex, but actually better) as time goes on?

One of my favorite game systems is/was the Genesis. So, I'd kinda like to know your thoughts.

If, ya know, you can be bothered to answer. ;)

Anonymous said...

mate please forget about that show. The individuals who make alot of sense have been kicked out, it's only the pretentious ones left.

Anonymous said...

Just came to read and felt like giving a comment again, eventhough it may not be much of a comment, this topic is a bit over my head.
So it wont contribute any great wisdoms.

However, it is a interesting topic, especially as a bystander to see how you see it and draw a few parallels to how I, myself see things.
As you said, companies want to win, and should make the effort to do so.
But at times, it feels dirty when the medias start going along with it, and nobody seems to care.
It's business yes sure, but still a bit of effort of the medias to think before they ask questions, seem a bit on the fair side to ask of them.
And eventhough they wouldn't be "unbias", at least could make a bit of an effort to be informative.

What I am saying is, that I agree with you on this "incident" (do not know what to call it hmmm), as a consumer and supporter of great games.

Just got thinking, maybe it was all about to lure you out, for you to take your time for an interview heh?.

Anyhow, do not know what else to say or contribute with, so "keep doing what you're doing until you are too old to remember".

Anonymous said...

Jaffe, I appreciate what you are doing with this particular topic on the PS3. Sony has taken way too much heat this gen. The bottom line, the PS3 is a nice piece of hardware, you can't take that away from Sony even though they have made some mistakes along the way. Let's all stop bashing consoles and just be happy that we have the selection of consoles and games that exist. Competition is good, but lets not hate on other consoles, because other consoles make your favorite console better.

Alfred P McLovely III said...

I visited your site for the first time after listening to the 1up podcast yesterday. I really hope you guys get to do a show together. I too met Garnett in NYC during comic con. Hes a really really nice guy who I found super easy to talk to even though I'm socially retarded. Anywho, cool site, now bookmarked.

Anonymous said...

Hey Jaffe I work for a site called
hiphopgamershow.com

Please check it out. We would love to get an interview. We are an up and coming site.

Vitter said...

can´t wait for this podcast haha!

Anonymous said...

Well both things sound like good news. But I'm more glad that he's removing his negative slant in his interview.

As for the 1up show, I'll be sure to check it out.

Julia said...

Hey David.. I was hoping You and Sony could offer a Gamers contest for twisted metal.. The winner wins some cool cash.. I think that would be so cool.. Plus I want to be a contestant. Julialindsay93@gmail.com