Wed, Nov 05, 2008 | 06:54 GMT

Playing betas is like saying, “Yeah, I fucked her,” says Bleszinski

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Speaking to GamePro, Epic dev boss Cliff Bleszinski has reasoned that a Gears of War 2 beta may have put some players off buying the game as getting a taste is the equivalent to having sex with a woman. And then discarding her. Like a used glove.

“A beta is like hooking up with a girl just to say, ‘Yeah, I fucked her,’” he said.

“I know that sounds crude, but it’s the honest-to-God truth. Once you play a beta, you can check it off your list – you can say, “Yeah, I played it.” Then you might not feel motivated to get that initial cherry popping from the proper, final game.”

And don’t get him talking about demos.

“Honestly, we could make a demo, but Gears of War 2 wouldn’t be out until February of 2009 [if we did],” Bleszinski added.

“That stuff takes times to put together.”

More sexual analogies in games, please. There’s a full interview through there.

19 comments

#1

morriss
05/11/08, 7:24 am

It’s like he’s intimating that there’s some kind of other way to deal with girls. Strange.

#2

Smartypants
05/11/08, 7:30 am

Letting the full game leak onto teh internet almost an entire month before its release is probably far worse than a beta for ruining that ‘cherry popping’ feeling.

#3

Esha
05/11/08, 7:32 am

This. Cliffy, this is why I think you’re a bilious dialectic, a man who prefers to spew verbal tripe thahn actually work on his games to make them better.

I played the Red Alert 3 beta, and bought Red Alert 3, and I thought the beta was fantastic. The same is true of LittleBigPlanet, and I’ve enjoyed myself so much in the Resistance 2 beta that I’ll be picking up that, too.

If Gears of War 2 is decent in the beta, then people will like it and pick up the game. However, there’s one Universal truth to consider: A game doesn’t change that much between the beta and the full release, some fixes to a couple of niggling issues, sure, but nothing monumentous.

If people really are saying that Gears of War 2 is so uninspiring (and I don’t even know if they are, other than Cliffy seems to think they are), then they might want to have a good talk with their community about the bad points, then pull the game back into production for a while. This has helped many games in the past become real gems.

But the thing is, this kind of spin-doctoring always makes me think a game is much worse than it actually is. If it wasn’t for the Dog in Fable II, I doubt I would’ve picked it up. And I have absolutely no interest in Gears of War 2, because my interest has been killed by Cliffy doing what he does best.

And the sad part is is that I’m probably the only one who feels that way.

And demos? A demo can also show how good/bad a game is, this I know. Ex: Mirror’s Edge.

#4

morriss
05/11/08, 7:57 am

-_-

#5

Blerk
05/11/08, 8:11 am

Step away slowly, morriss. I’ve got the door.

#6

Tonka
05/11/08, 8:12 am

Good work on making the game industry look …

#7

Psychotext
05/11/08, 9:04 am

In the old days, we used to have these things called demos rather than being graced by developers who have us do their load / balancing testing for them.

#8

scratchy69
05/11/08, 9:37 am

I wish I could hook up with girls to say that :(

#9

patlike
05/11/08, 9:39 am

You’re married, you filthy man.

#10

sickpuppysoftware
05/11/08, 10:19 am

“Speaking to GamePro, Epic dev boss Cliff Bleszinski has reasoned that a Gears of War 2 beta may have put some players off buying the game as getting a taste is the equivalent to having sex with a gruff man.”

Fixed

#11

Quiiick
05/11/08, 11:42 am

What a stupid analogy!
Ever had sex with a girl, Cliffy?
Oh, I get it, you always pay 60 bucks for it …

#12

Tonka
05/11/08, 11:58 am

I just played it for a bit. I don’t remember the first one being this sluggish. It’s like wading through mud.

#13

pjmaybe
05/11/08, 12:56 pm

There is a man who plays too many betas and doesn’t…ahhh you know where this is going.

Anyway, small town weed dealers usually don’t do that well with the opposite sex.

#14

tony412
05/11/08, 5:26 pm

See people were upset with cliff when he didnt put out a beta. ohh well.. you’ll get over it. I dont blame him for not putting out a beta I mean for a game as highly anticipated as this one do you really think people are gonna need a beta to be interested in it? go out spend ur money you greedy sons of bitches and have fun with the game

#15

No_PUDding
05/11/08, 5:50 pm

This comment section has given me so many ‘lol’s.

Thanks.

#16

Tonka
05/11/08, 5:52 pm

After playing Gears of War 2 all I can say is that it is definitely not art.

#17

No_PUDding
05/11/08, 5:59 pm

That’s not a bad thing at all.

All I want is in on the KZ2 public Beta, I can play GeoW2 at my mates next week, when it’s his brothers birthday.

#18

Syrok
05/11/08, 6:06 pm

You might want to have a look at your inbox then, chances are you just got a key.

#19

mortiferus
05/11/08, 7:08 pm

@tonka, 2 questions. One, how can you have played an unreleased game? Are you an “early buyer”, an authorized reviewer or… a pirate? Two what makes you an expert on judging what art is? Art is an individual form of expression, no one has the right to make that kind of determination.

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