Which you’d think the author had some authority to comment on.

I’d be more offended that someone didn’t read what I wrote before telling me what they thought I said.

Pat, we’re not in such a deep argument as you think. We’re just approaching the same thing from different perspectives and different appreciations.

If you’re not capable of understanding how that relates to what’s being discussed and the expense or availability of such resources then this sentiment I’m hearing boils down to romantic idealism.

Seriously guys, there as staggering whiff of “we’re victims” in all of this. You’re not. Just do your job. Everyone else manages it – they just don’t own the platform to preach from to suggest “woe is us” whenever it suits them.

The media needs to stop trying to BE the news all the time.

And pat, if you felt aggreived personally by that statement then perhaps you’ll put more care into how you phrase your own headlines and statements in the future. Maybe it’s fun for you to write a bit of sarcasm or attitude into a headline and think nothing of it – but I’m sure others can be just as affected by what you say as you appear to have been by what I have said.

This is precisley what I mean by an inconsistent and arbitrary attitude towards the industry. You feel aggreived if you believe you’ve been slighted by some words but I don’t see any evidence of you putting careful consideration into the people YOU talk about when you write your stories.

I don’t take it personally because I appreciate how this game works. Don’t try to make me be the bad guy just because I’m not afraid to say it out loud.

Morris, thanks for the invite, but I think I’ll pass. I know what side my bread is buttered on

Every (big) title has to go through an announcement and I think it’s not that presumptuous to state that each new game is supposed to amaze people when it is first shown to the public, isn’t it? Or at least that it should be made easy for everyone (not only journalists) to get that first intel which (partially) defines the game.

Is it really that hard to provide screenshots, artwork, background information, trailer(s) and a proper website at the same time? Just saying: Blizzard sits in an unique position indeed but I don’t see how others in the industry couldn’t do the same things for just an announcement like the DIII one (the splash page might be stretching it ). I prefer the ‘keep it secret till we got something cool enough to show’-mentality, and really, you don’t need to keep a title behind the curtains for four years or more to do it that way.

In general that’s even how it happens nowadays for most titles, but it’s all just not as centralised as with the DIII gig for example and that’s a big shame. It’s like some PR people would rather want to see exclusive preview deals, mass confusion over certain features, foreign magazine scans and odd translations show up on the net instead of actually giving a clear picture of a fresh game right away. Even a simple FAQ is asking too much sometimes.

Whether pat sounds too preachy in his advice isn’t my concern , his point in general is still sound. These kind of announcements could be improved, not just in the viewpoint of the press but also in terms of how the audience can become interested in a project.

And your definition of “wasting time and money” is not necessarily the same as others definitions of it. Just as your appreciation of an event may not be the same as mine.

I agree that publisher incompetence can be crippling. You’d be amazed how much the major ones fuck things up – the stuff that gets shown, sent, detailed or mismanaged by the largest publisher on the planet. One or two careless words honestly cost millions of dollars and other things that money simply can’t cover. Christ, the stories I could tell you would have you speechless. No need to gush when someone thinks of you “for more than two seconds” though. Personally, I prefer to read from someone with a higher purchase price than that.

I’ve never disagreed with what you’ve said. I’ve mainly stated that the notion that your 6 commandments should be adopted industrywide is said at the expense of almost total lack of industry context in favour of a rather narrower, self serving view.

Nothing I’ve said is personal so I sincerely hope you’re not reading it as such. After all, there’ll soon be a time when my title gets announced and I’ll be looking to see my publisher schmooze the press as much as the next developer.

I know you clearly don’t like the “press”, but I think causing people to waste time and money by behaving stupidly is not acceptable. Try to imagine the challenges of a UK website trying to cover an E3 press conference live. Just think about it for a second. Now, aside from the logistics, just imagine asking a company like Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo if there’s going to be a line at the event and being told, “Not sure.” Do you know how much flights to LA cost?

We don’t all work for huge companies. Publisher incompetence in this regard can be crippling. It was a pleasure to cover the Blizzard WWI because they’d actually thought about what the press needed for more than two seconds and didn’t treat journalists as though they should be honoured to watch a 10-second movie of the reveal game. Why is that so difficult to agree with?

However, having Diablo 3 in development for 4 years without anyone knowing is more of a luxury unique to Blizzard.

Pat, I’m not the one who wrote an article with the sort of headline that suggests everyone should be doing what this one unique developer is doing. It’s a very very narrowly viewed piece with leaves out far more information than it keeps in and it’s written, shamelessly, from one perspective.

This won’t become the norm because the circumstances are unique. Don’t demand totally unrealistic expectations from things and you won’t be disappointed.

Blizzard made it extremely easy for you to do your job. And they fed, watered and entertained you whilst you did it. One week we have journalists crying about embargos and spinning stories into david-and-goliath fables. A few weeks on and the same journos seem to LOVE it when they don’t have to do too much to get their headlines or web page hits.

Oh, I know it’s the way the game is played. Blizzard aren’t doing it out of love. It just seems shallow and superficial to me.

This is a better example, in my opinion, of journalists telling the industry how things should be done.

Still, that doesn’t give the other companies any financial excuse to announce their new games as they do now: through hideously overhyped (written mag) press exclusives, poor websites, announcements which are made way too soon, not showing enough real content, having the nerve to provide mock up screens and trailers, or only showing mini-screens in job ads… even if this WWI would have been ‘only’ a press event, with the announcement itself plus developer panels and the online extravaganza then it would still be one the best ways to handle a new game announcement as pat said. Of all these things, what is really that expensive for a PR department to handle? Isn’t most of it just common sense?

This weekend has been great just watching all the panels etc on the stream, and I can only imagine how cool it was to be there, but then I would never expect any less of Blizzard. We are really lucky to have them, and I don’t just mean PC gamers, I mean the whole industry.

I cursed the live stream to start with, but just as the D3 reveal began it suddenly started working for me and it didn’t give me any problems for the rest of the weekend.

I don’t remember the last time I was this excited by a game announcement, but it wasn’t in this decade.

If other companies had the sort of cashflow that Blizzard do then it would be a lot simpler. When your next 5 developments have already been paid for your view on things is quite different.

Choosing to ignore the wholly unique position Blizzard are in when asking why everyone else doesn’t do it like them is a bit short sighted really.