Mon, Feb 14, 2011 | 15:13 GMT
Bleszinski: “You have to be a little bit careful about joking”
Epic design boss Cliff Bleszinski has said that he’s learned to “be a bit careful about joking” in public to stop ostensibly inflammatory quotes being misused.
He made the remark whilst speaking to Videogamer at a recent Bulletstorm event.
When asked if his public battle with the press over selective quoting is likely to stop soon, the developer said:
“No… I now have the power of Twitter to interrupt them and stop something before it goes viral.
“I’ve had times when I say more or say less. It’s just a matter of being surgical with your words right, and making sure that if you say something it can’t be quoted out of context. You have to be a little bit careful about joking.
“I have done nothing but gush about Heavy Rain, but when I make one side joke about the fact I thought the kids were a little creepy, suddenly is becomes ‘Bleszinski declares war on France’,” he added, referring to a news story written last year by VG247′s Joe Anderson.
‘Hey, I heard you hate French children.’
“No, I want more games like Heavy Rain because I love them and want to see them.”
Bleszinski concluded by saying that his ongoing crusade has been “a fun battle.”
“The beauty of Twitter is that if an article like that pops up, one of my followers will alert me to it in minutes and I check it all and I can squash the story before it suddenly become the truth.
“What happens is one website picks up on it, the other website picks up on it, and it says, ‘Hey, I heard you hate French children’. So you can kill it and nip it in the bud immediately.”
Bulletstorm, developed by People Can Fly, releases next week for PS3, 360 and PC. Bleszinski’s main project, Gears of War 3, releases this fall for 360.
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Posted in: EA, Journalism
Tags: bulletstorm, Cliff Bleszinski, Epic Games, media, people can fly
19 comments
#1
EscoBlades
14/02/11, 3:18 pm
Douche.
#2
Hunam
14/02/11, 3:23 pm
Heh, subtle Johnny, but funny.
#3
ThePenta
14/02/11, 3:45 pm
lol
#4
Erthazus
14/02/11, 4:26 pm
Douchebag (and great game designer)
#5
Hunam
14/02/11, 4:40 pm
I wouldn’t say great. Epic have a fairly hit (Gears 1, UT, UT2K3) and miss (UT3, Gears 2 (except horde), some stuff in UT2K4) track record.
#6
LOLshock94
14/02/11, 4:51 pm
you guys are so fucking gay if you think he was taking it seriously when he calling pc gamers grumpy you guys really need to smell the ear and be sociable
#7
dfar80
14/02/11, 4:55 pm
I suppose that being “sociable” means “giving a free pass to everything coming out of his mouth”?
#8
LOLshock94
14/02/11, 5:02 pm
yes anyone would of known that it was a joke
#9
dfar80
14/02/11, 5:05 pm
Anyone that was a part of his clique, maybe. Unless being a repeated jackass is now universally funny and I didn’t get the memo.
#10
LOLshock94
14/02/11, 5:08 pm
i really dont get how everyone thinks hes a jack ass
#11
dfar80
14/02/11, 5:10 pm
You don’t seem to “get” a lot of things.
#12
LOLshock94
14/02/11, 5:15 pm
probs cause i have better things to do…
#13
Hunam
14/02/11, 5:19 pm
All I remember is that he had a 16 year old girlfriend in the Gears 1 documentary. That was kinda weird.
#14
xino
14/02/11, 5:21 pm
is the guy even polish?
I mean the son name Bleszinski doesn’t sound American or English.
#15
desadist
14/02/11, 5:25 pm
I actually wish there were more people in the industry like him. I bet if you worked with him, you’d know exactly where you stood with a guy like that. To be successful in a creative project with a large group of people, like game development, you need people to be honest and direct.
#16
Hunam
14/02/11, 6:11 pm
He doesn’t take criticism very well though.
#17
xxJPRACERxx
14/02/11, 6:24 pm
From what I’ve read in forums, people that met him IRL found him to be a real nice guy, even a little shy. I don’t know if it’s true.
Personnaly I don’t like how he act sometime, he can act like a douche, but I think he’s cool IRL. People that are shy sometime over-compensate to try to hide their shyness.
#18
MushroomStamp
14/02/11, 8:19 pm
@17 I met him and thought he was a really nice guy. Intelligent and pretty funny. I don’t understand where the hate for him comes from. I think anyone his age that hits it out of the park like he did is often hated because of jealousy. People just like to find flaws in others. He also doesn’t seem to take shit from others and has the skills to backup his attitude.
#19
TheWulf
18/02/11, 4:29 am
I don’t know why but he makes my skin crawl with every little bloody thing he says. But I think that’s because he’s good at scarring me, and right now my brain has him being on the same level as Kotick when it comes to slimeballs.
I think the thing that really knocked him down to that level was actually his Twitter! He’s going to use Twitter as damage control? Riiiight…
CliffyB sez: Hey guys, I wonder why my gay followers won’t stop hitting on me? Can you tell me why that is?
…unclean, so unclean…
If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go and take another shower at the very thought of that. Because again, he shares the same space as Kotick in my head, and that’s scarring that I’m just not equipped for dealing with.
And yes, I say this as a gay person, with all the righteous indignation that that deserves.