Sat, Jul 05, 2008 | 15:36 BST
Denis Dyack says NeoGAF is hurting the videogame industry, demands reform
You may remember a certain irate comment made by Silicon Knights President Denis Dyack on popular gaming forum NeoGAF. Well, as it turns out, the whole thing was just an experiment.
“I was basically calling out people who had no way of assessing the game,” Dyack told 1up. “All I wanted to point out to people is that this is so ridiculous.”
Later on, he revealed the method behind his madness.
“I went through all of this for two reasons… If you’re going to look at the NeoGAF forum as a non-profit organization, if it does not reform itself, it’s eventually going to crumble,” he said. “There’s going to be a point where they step over the line where someone’s going to shut them down. That would be a loss for everyone… The question I have to ask the moderators of GAF: Are you going to follow your own rules? With people making GIFs of myself that are, I would say, attacking me… Why haven’t 180 people been banned now? If I wanted to move in and shut that place down, do I have grounds under their own forum policy?”
Finally, Dyack concluded by demanding that NeoGAF’s moderators instigate some kind of reform “before people stop listening to [NeoGAF],” saying that the forum and others of its ilk are “hurting society and hurting the videogame industry.”
All of this has us wondering, is any publicity – negative or positive – good publicity? Too Human will certainly give us some kind of answer.
20 comments
#1
morriss
04/07/08, 7:19 am
omg.
We need to send him a message about beating the internet.
#2
Vahn16
04/07/08, 7:24 am
That it can’t be done or that you can be sued for that kind of thing?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
#3
Hunam
04/07/08, 8:11 am
Dennis Dyack once again proving how right I am. He is such a small petty man, how is a forum hurting the industry? We all know what goes on the Internet forums has no real say in how a game sells what so ever.
The only person hurting the industry is Dyack as people like him just make me hate developers.
#4
morriss
04/07/08, 8:25 am
Vahn:
#5
Blerk
04/07/08, 8:26 am
What a complete cock-socket.
#6
Hero of Canton
04/07/08, 8:28 am
This is just getting more and more embarrassing. I wonder how many Silicon Knights employees just want him to shut the fuck up now. This sort of thing is only going to make the backlash worse (and from what I hear, that’s definitely going to happen).
#7
Shatner
04/07/08, 8:29 am
Misinformation, misrepresentation and poor communication are hurting the industry. Anyone who reads those Daily Mail pieces can appreciate that.
NeoGAF is fine. They’re a big forum of gamers that think they know it all. To take them seriously in relation to anything the industry does is a severe error of judgement.
#8
Psychotext
04/07/08, 9:12 am
I really don’t think this is going to help anything… in fact I know that NeoGAF is probably going wild about this right now.
(It’s further down my links… haven’t got to it yet!)
#9
Psychotext
04/07/08, 9:27 am
…and yup, the place is firing off “500 – Internal server error” messages which likely means there’s an insane thread on the subject right now.
Or some megaton news, but it seems unlikely.
[Edit - Yup... here it is ]
#10
Spiral
04/07/08, 9:36 am
Sometimes the wisest thing is to know when to keep your damn mouth shut.
#11
CastellanSpandrell
04/07/08, 9:36 am
“They’re a big forum of gamers that think they know it all.”
There’s a large contingent of games industry people on there as well as the frothing fanboys. There are also quite a few more casual gamers on there. Straight-out spamming is frowned upon and people have been banned for posting mindless criticism which is more than can be said for other forums/comments sections.
When Dyack first posted his thread about “for or against” I thought “fair play to the man, he’s putting his money where his mouth is”. This changes everything;I think the development of Too Human has snapped his mind,he’s bonkers!
#12
morriss
04/07/08, 9:41 am
It’s a horrible forum full of horrible people.
#13
Psychotext
04/07/08, 9:44 am
CastellanSpandrell: The reason he complained in the first place is that rather than the usual “banned for posting mindless criticism” rule for other games it was a free for all on his, with the mods joining in, and even encouraging people to ridicule the game.
But once that kind of thing has started you aren’t going to be able to stop it. It’s not the first game NeoGAF have done this to.
#14
pleasant_cabbage
04/07/08, 9:48 am
I think releasing shite games hurts the industry more.
/looks at wii sales
eh… nevermind
#15
CastellanSpandrell
04/07/08, 9:52 am
The thing is he responded badly to the initial negativity when the game was first shown so the mods must have thought “Fuck this, have at him lads (and lasses)”.
#16
Spiral
04/07/08, 9:52 am
Morris is right. Although I think morons is more accurate than horrible people.
#17
SticKboy
04/07/08, 12:07 pm
Dyack has gone maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
“Shatner: NeoGAF is fine. They’re a big forum of gamers that think they know it all. To take them seriously in relation to anything the industry does is a severe error of judgement.”
I actually really agree with this 100%.
#18
Rhythm
04/07/08, 12:19 pm
Heh, just listening to the episode and the article posted here a few days ago (“worst game I’ve played in 5 years”) is the reason for him going ahead with this interview at all
#19
deftangel
04/07/08, 12:22 pm
For someone who comes across as a pretty smart guy in interviews I fail to see what he thinks baiting an internet messageboard will achieve. If he spent less time gobbing off, he might get a better game on the shelves and more people talking about it rather than him.
If he puts a game over a decade in the making out on a pedastal as a masterpiece he’s got to take the flak if it falls short. Less dick waving on the internet, the quicker the consensus reaches a likely equilibrium, a solid diablo-esque dungeon crawler with a decent story and fun co-op. Whinging and taking his ball home is only going to deflect from that.
#20
Tonka
04/07/08, 1:45 pm
I like GAF for the info that trickle out of it. I tried to hunt down some on my own once and that was quite shocking.
I’m allergic to footers and avatars.
and animated gifs