Sawyer on vacation?

[MotelOK]

Not trying to be a creepy stalker, but I've been following Mr. Sawyer's twitter feed for about half a year now. I noticed he hasn't posted anything in about a month. I see Avellone and Adler are still active, so I'm kinda curious what PoE's captain is up to.

DID THE WENDERSNAVEN GET HIM?

[archangel979]

A permanent one. The game didn't achieve a 95 metacritic score so they needed to find someone else. I heard someone from Bioware might be coming.

[FlintlockJazz]

 I heard someone from Bioware might be coming.

*Backhand slap*

Don't even joke about something like that!  *Grabs archangel's lapels and pulls him face to face*  I came here to escape them and their BSN!  I won't go back I tells ya, and I won't let them turn this into another BSN!  I'll blow us all up I will!  I swear it!

 

*Suddenly the ground starts to rumble, and off in the distance can be heard chanting.  You can make out some of it as "Tali! Tali! Tali!"  from the Talimancer contingent, but you can hear other chants too, equally blood curdling chants*

 

Oh god, it's too late, they heard you!  *Pulls out detonator* I had prayed this day would never come...

 

*Someone suddenly bursts in*

 

Bioware Fan: "Can I romance Durance????!!!!!"

 

*Flintlock Jazz pushes the button*

 

Narrator: "In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."

 

 

[archangel979]

 

I heard someone from Bioware might be coming.

*Backhand slap*

Don't even joke about something like that!  *Grabs archangel's lapels and pulls him face to face*  I came here to escape them and their BSN!  I won't go back I tells ya, and I won't let them turn this into another BSN!  I'll blow us all up I will!  I swear it!

 

Who is joking?

This game seriously lacks some flag planting and big horned companions of undecided sexual preferences.

Edited May 1, 2015 by archangel979

[TheisEjsing]

I have been thinking the same OP. Maybe he has been told to stay low until the rage he unintentionally caused is over. More likely he just needs some time to relax and take a vacation after two years in production with everything on the line and at the same time be in the public eye with the community and press. 

[FlintlockJazz]

 

 

I heard someone from Bioware might be coming.

*Backhand slap*

Don't even joke about something like that!  *Grabs archangel's lapels and pulls him face to face*  I came here to escape them and their BSN!  I won't go back I tells ya, and I won't let them turn this into another BSN!  I'll blow us all up I will!  I swear it!

 

Who is joking?

This game seriously lacks some flag planting and big horned companions of undecided sexual preferences.

 

*Blows us all up*

[Concordance]

The game is released and in a stable, 100% playable state. If there's a good time to take a month-long vacation in PioE's development cycle, this is it.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Concordance

[barakav]

I have been thinking the same OP. Maybe he has been told to stay low until the rage he unintentionally caused is over. More likely he just needs some time to relax and take a vacation after two years in production with everything on the line and at the same time be in the public eye with the community and press. 

Rage?

 

Care to elaborate?

 

OP I think that his brain parasite is starting to make him Schizophrenic so he is probably at home worshiping his cat ...

Edited May 1, 2015 by barakav

[Luckmann]

I have the same feeling as TheisEjsing, really. I think he had a talking-to regarding jumping when the twitter mob snaps at him, and is thus pouting in a corner somewhere on sheer principle, because his silence pretty sharply corresponds with the ridiculous SJW-induced debacle.
 

The game is released and in a stable, 100% playable state. If there's a good time to take a month-long vacation in PioE's development cycle, this is it.

 
Eh.. depends on what you mean by 100% playable. When someone says 100% playable, I'd say that it's actually, y'know, 100%. And it's not really 100% as long as it's still possible to break questlines and such.
 

Rage?

Care to elaborate?

OP I think that his brain parasite is starting to make him Schizophrenic so he is probably at home worshiping his cat ...

It a nutshell, some hambeast with an identity disorder (or merely yet another that insists on taking offence by proxy) threw a bitchfit on Twitter over a harmless limerick that was included in one of the more fitting backer memorials (which otherwise are more or less 800% condensed rubbish). Sawyer immediately threw himself on the case to appease the lunatics, and the memorial was changed in the very next patch without even being included in the patch notes.

Caving to the pressure wasn't very popular amongst the more reasonable people, and the no-thing quickly became a thing-thing.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Luckmann

[Oasx]

He started posting in the thread over at the SA forums again recently, so i assume he just came back from a vacation.

[barakav]

Oh this crap again?

 

Please don't talk about it again or else I will have to troll the life out of this thread as well.

Edited May 1, 2015 by barakav

[Elerond]

He is still posting something awful, so it may just be that he don't like twitter.

 

And I would also guess that they are currently having their hands full with expansion pack, so they don't necessary have that much free time in their hands.

[Luckmann]

He is still posting something awful, so it may just be that he don't like twitter.

 

And I would also guess that they are currently having their hands full with expansion pack, so they don't necessary have that much free time in their hands.

 

I think he feels safer on SomethingAwful. It's behind a paywall, he gets the kind of feedback he wants and doesn't have to deal with criticism or the drama of the real world. I bet it's cozy.

[Yellow Rabbit]

Why is that some people (hey, Luckmann!) fixated on mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing so much? I mean, is there some particular comprehensible reason for it or it's just, like, irrational?

[Elerond]

 

He is still posting something awful, so it may just be that he don't like twitter.

 

And I would also guess that they are currently having their hands full with expansion pack, so they don't necessary have that much free time in their hands.

 

I think he feels safer on SomethingAwful. It's behind a paywall, he gets the kind of feedback he wants and doesn't have to deal with criticism or the drama of the real world. I bet it's cozy.

 

 

I don't think that answering feedback is part of his job description and on his free time he probably uses only services that he likes. But I am pretty sure that he get most feedback that there is given in this forum and other places that Obsidian's QA people read, as they are ones whose job is to read feedback and report it to other members of team. If you look back how PoE's team has answered towards feedback and questions in forum in past you can see how in beginning of project when PoE's team consisted only couple people you see they were ones that answered to all questions in here, but when they started to grow their team you see that people answering things here changed to people whose job description actually included answering those questions and rest of team become less active here.

 

Twitter for example can become very deafening when you get lots of messages that are addressed to you, as it don't as default offer any tools that could be used to sort hundreds/thousands messages. Often all messages that popular twitter accounts get become background noise that just get ignored, if there isn't some sort social media team behind that account.  Addition to that twitter messages are very short which make them very poor to answer questions and feedback and answers often are taken out of context and understood incorrectly which cause need to correct people.

 

But if you want ask Josh something and don't want to buy SA account I would recommend to try sent question to his tumblr account. Some codex members seem to get answers to their questions by doing so. 

[Luckmann]

Why is that some people (hey, Luckmann!) fixated on mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing so much? I mean, is there some particular comprehensible reason for it or it's just, like, irrational?

 

I don't think anyone is fixated on Mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing. He's got some unusual hangups and ideas that have affected the game on a fundamental level, despite the issues. It's not so much a fixation as it is criticism, and I think it rubs people the wrong way that he tends to either dismiss or "misunderstand" the criticism, if he doesn't avoid it completely.

 

I think he also lost a lot of people by then suddenly jumping at the command of crazy people. You could probably write a thesis the size of a large dictionary based on the issues examined in detail on the forum, which has gone completely unheeded or simply ignored, while he is quick to lick the steamy bootheels of the most unreasonable clique of the psychologically deranged.

 

So it's no surprise he's not the most popular man in the world. Come to think of it, I can't think of anyone that's lead such a successful high-profile game development project yet managed to maintain significant impopularity. Most others end up with veritable cults, like Avellone, Urquhart, Fargo or Cain.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Luckmann

[Prime-Mover]

 

Why is that some people (hey, Luckmann!) fixated on mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing so much? I mean, is there some particular comprehensible reason for it or it's just, like, irrational?

 

I think he also lost a lot of people by then suddenly jumping at the command of crazy people. You could probably write a thesis the size of a large dictionary based on the issues examined in detail on the forum, which has gone completely unheeded or simply ignored, while he is quick to lick the steamy bootheels of the most unreasonable clique of the psychologically deranged.

 

So it's no surprise he's not the most popular man in the world. Come to think of it, I can't think of anyone that's lead such a successful high-profile game development project yet managed to maintain significant impopularity. Most others end up with veritable cults, like Avellone, Urquhart, Fargo or Cain.

 

 

My impression is that it's mostly a very small, but quite vocal group of people who seem to share the same ideological outlook, who really have anything against Sawyer. You actually being one of the most vocal of the group. There were e.g. many charitable ways of construing the events that followed the backer incident, but your group were hell bent on one particular interpretaion, which you rehash in this thread. And that interpretation may certainly be the correct one, and it may also be wrong. However, to make a strong judgment either way, is not at all indicative of reasonableness, which you seem to suggest. Quite the opposite.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Prime-Mover

[Amentep]

 

 I heard someone from Bioware might be coming.

*Backhand slap*

Don't even joke about something like that!  *Grabs archangel's lapels and pulls him face to face*  I came here to escape them and their BSN!  I won't go back I tells ya, and I won't let them turn this into another BSN!  I'll blow us all up I will!  I swear it!

 

*Suddenly the ground starts to rumble, and off in the distance can be heard chanting.  You can make out some of it as "Tali! Tali! Tali!"  from the Talimancer contingent, but you can hear other chants too, equally blood curdling chants*

 

Oh god, it's too late, they heard you!  *Pulls out detonator* I had prayed this day would never come...

 

*Someone suddenly bursts in*

 

Bioware Fan: "Can I romance Durance????!!!!!"

 

*Flintlock Jazz pushes the button*

 

Narrator: "In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."

 

 

 

 

"They will dissect you! And they will kill you! In that order!"

 

Hmmm, I have a weird desire to watch "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" now.

[Yellow Rabbit]

I don't think anyone is fixated on Mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing. He's got some unusual hangups and ideas that have affected the game on a fundamental level, despite the issues. It's not so much a fixation as it is criticism, and I think it rubs people the wrong way that he tends to either dismiss or "misunderstand" the criticism, if he doesn't avoid it completely.

 

I think he also lost a lot of people by then suddenly jumping at the command of crazy people. You could probably write a thesis the size of a large dictionary based on the issues examined in detail on the forum, which has gone completely unheeded or simply ignored, while he is quick to lick the steamy bootheels of the most unreasonable clique of the psychologically deranged.

 

So it's no surprise he's not the most popular man in the world. Come to think of it, I can't think of anyone that's lead such a successful high-profile game development project yet managed to maintain significant impopularity. Most others end up with veritable cults, like Avellone, Urquhart, Fargo or Cain.

Ok, I'll try to be short on limerick topic to not provoke barakav to show his worst yet again: "suddenly jumping at the command of crazy people" looks pretty much like an exaggeration to me. SJW loonies ar well capable of making problems for business entities due to all that political correctness stupidity going on. It doesn't look unreasonoble to me to get rid of a little backer written poem which ISN'T DAMN WORTH MINDING WHATSOEVER to remove such risks for your company from the table before they shoot. Providing you have permission of backer who wrote it, of course, which Obs asked for politely enough according to Firedorn. Everything would be calm and quiet if not for overreaction of some... members of the community.

 

As for Sawyer's communicating qualities... I agree in general that he might not be the best person to design succesor to IE games due to his unpopular opinions about pros and cons of those, but neither he's the worst one. And let's face the fact that community criticism isn't all that often worthy of answering to rather than dismissing out of hand, especially if the only answer possible is "well, I want to try to do things differently and I estimate that it'll work out well". Community's harsh and not every person has inch thick carapace on his nerves even being project lead in game development.

 

Long story short, I see why people would question his actions, but I don't agree that he deserves the bile addressed to him personally so often.

[Starwars]

 

You could probably write a thesis the size of a large dictionary based on the issues examined in detail on the forum, which has gone completely unheeded or simply ignored, while he is quick to lick the steamy bootheels of the most unreasonable clique of the psychologically deranged.

 

Yeah, if I was a game dev I knew I'd be jumping with joy to interact with people who say things like that about me.

 

I know people love to cover up things with similar tone as "constructive criticism". But there is also a social aspect of things like that. If some guy sells me a product that I'm not happy with, I don't say "you're a bootlicker, now listen to my complaints and do something about them". That's probably the most basic lesson in social interaction. If you want someone to listen to you, then try not to insult them first you know?

 

It's apparently a very hard-learned lesson on the Internet.

[Luckmann]

 

 

Why is that some people (hey, Luckmann!) fixated on mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing so much? I mean, is there some particular comprehensible reason for it or it's just, like, irrational?

 

I think he also lost a lot of people by then suddenly jumping at the command of crazy people. You could probably write a thesis the size of a large dictionary based on the issues examined in detail on the forum, which has gone completely unheeded or simply ignored, while he is quick to lick the steamy bootheels of the most unreasonable clique of the psychologically deranged.

 

So it's no surprise he's not the most popular man in the world. Come to think of it, I can't think of anyone that's lead such a successful high-profile game development project yet managed to maintain significant impopularity. Most others end up with veritable cults, like Avellone, Urquhart, Fargo or Cain.

 

 

My impression is that it's mostly a very small, but quite vocal group of people who seem to share the same ideological outlook, who really have anything against Sawyer. You actually being one of the most vocal of the group. There were e.g. many charitable ways of construing the events that followed the backer incident, but your group were hell bent on one particular interpretaion, which you rehash in this thread. And that interpretation may certainly be the correct one, and it also be wrong. However, to make a strong judgment either way, is not at all indicative of reasonableness, which you seem to suggest. Quite the opposite.

 

 

"your group".

 

 

 

 

[FlintlockJazz]

 

 

 I heard someone from Bioware might be coming.

*Backhand slap*

Don't even joke about something like that!  *Grabs archangel's lapels and pulls him face to face*  I came here to escape them and their BSN!  I won't go back I tells ya, and I won't let them turn this into another BSN!  I'll blow us all up I will!  I swear it!

 

*Suddenly the ground starts to rumble, and off in the distance can be heard chanting.  You can make out some of it as "Tali! Tali! Tali!"  from the Talimancer contingent, but you can hear other chants too, equally blood curdling chants*

 

Oh god, it's too late, they heard you!  *Pulls out detonator* I had prayed this day would never come...

 

*Someone suddenly bursts in*

 

Bioware Fan: "Can I romance Durance????!!!!!"

 

*Flintlock Jazz pushes the button*

 

Narrator: "In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead."

 

 

 

 

"They will dissect you! And they will kill you! In that order!"

 

Hmmm, I have a weird desire to watch "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" now.

 

I know right?  I hadn't even thought of that film for years and all of a sudden that quote popped into my head as I was writing that and now I have the urge to go watch it heh.

[Prime-Mover]

 

 

 

Why is that some people (hey, Luckmann!) fixated on mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing so much? I mean, is there some particular comprehensible reason for it or it's just, like, irrational?

 

I think he also lost a lot of people by then suddenly jumping at the command of crazy people. You could probably write a thesis the size of a large dictionary based on the issues examined in detail on the forum, which has gone completely unheeded or simply ignored, while he is quick to lick the steamy bootheels of the most unreasonable clique of the psychologically deranged.

 

So it's no surprise he's not the most popular man in the world. Come to think of it, I can't think of anyone that's lead such a successful high-profile game development project yet managed to maintain significant impopularity. Most others end up with veritable cults, like Avellone, Urquhart, Fargo or Cain.

 

 

My impression is that it's mostly a very small, but quite vocal group of people who seem to share the same ideological outlook, who really have anything against Sawyer. You actually being one of the most vocal of the group. There were e.g. many charitable ways of construing the events that followed the backer incident, but your group were hell bent on one particular interpretaion, which you rehash in this thread. And that interpretation may certainly be the correct one, and it also be wrong. However, to make a strong judgment either way, is not at all indicative of reasonableness, which you seem to suggest. Quite the opposite.

 

 

"your group".

 

 

 

 

 

Yes that's cute an all. But it doesn't really support your viewpoint, or suggest why people should consider it "reasonable".

Edited May 1, 2015 by Prime-Mover

[GrinningReaper659]

 

Why is that some people (hey, Luckmann!) fixated on mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing so much? I mean, is there some particular comprehensible reason for it or it's just, like, irrational?

 

I don't think anyone is fixated on Mr. Sawyer as the Ultimate Enemy Of All Things Breathing. He's got some unusual hangups and ideas that have affected the game on a fundamental level, despite the issues. It's not so much a fixation as it is criticism, and I think it rubs people the wrong way that he tends to either dismiss or "misunderstand" the criticism, if he doesn't avoid it completely.

 

I think he also lost a lot of people by then suddenly jumping at the command of crazy people. You could probably write a thesis the size of a large dictionary based on the issues examined in detail on the forum, which has gone completely unheeded or simply ignored, while he is quick to lick the steamy bootheels of the most unreasonable clique of the psychologically deranged.

 

So it's no surprise he's not the most popular man in the world. Come to think of it, I can't think of anyone that's lead such a successful high-profile game development project yet managed to maintain significant impopularity. Most others end up with veritable cults, like Avellone, Urquhart, Fargo or Cain.

 

 

You're definitely fixated. Maybe someone with more energy or interest than I could make a wordcloud of all your posts here, so we could all see the big, bold Sawyer front and center.

 

It a nutshell, some hambeast with an identity disorder (or merely yet another that insists on taking offence by proxy) threw a bitchfit on Twitter over a harmless limerick that was included in one of the more fitting backer memorials (which otherwise are more or less 800% condensed rubbish). Sawyer immediately threw himself on the case to appease the lunatics, and the memorial was changed in the very next patch without even being included in the patch notes.

Caving to the pressure wasn't very popular amongst the more reasonable people, and the no-thing quickly became a thing-thing.

 

That's an interesting version of events. I wonder if your mind is so warped that it skews reality to convince you that that's exactly what happened, or if you know that you're seriously twisting the story and you just don't care because you want to convert another mindless drone to your cause. It amuses me how sure you are that you and that group of raving lunatics that would not (and still won't, apparently) shut up about the insignificant, benign memorial incident are "the more reasonable people."

 

Well, at least you're consistent. Carry on.

Edited May 1, 2015 by GrinningReaper659

[Jasta11]

 

 

You could probably write a thesis the size of a large dictionary based on the issues examined in detail on the forum, which has gone completely unheeded or simply ignored, while he is quick to lick the steamy bootheels of the most unreasonable clique of the psychologically deranged.

 

Yeah, if I was a game dev I knew I'd be jumping with joy to interact with people who say things like that about me.

 

I know people love to cover up things with similar tone as "constructive criticism". But there is also a social aspect of things like that. If some guy sells me a product that I'm not happy with, I don't say "you're a bootlicker, now listen to my complaints and do something about them". That's probably the most basic lesson in social interaction. If you want someone to listen to you, then try not to insult them first you know?

 

It's apparently a very hard-learned lesson on the Internet.

 

 

Definitely this. If I spent all my time on a game, I would welcome criticism, but I would not welcome people making snide remarks and borderline insulting comments all the time and hide behind ''constructive criticism, grow a spine'' when called out on it. 

 

At some point, some people have to recognize there are human beings on the other side of their forum posts. Humans who just might (and brace yourselves, I know this will hurt) not agree with their viewpoints, and who have no obligation to answer one particular criticism over thousands and thousands of others, nor to cater to a particular group if they don't want to.

 

The more I look at the sort of virtual lynch mobs that form as soon as something they don't like happens, the more I understand why developpers increasingly seek a more controlled environment for their feedback. Some might call it isolating themselves or censorship or whatnot, I call it being able to keep their sanity in an era where you can get death threats for changing the stats of some guns in Call of Duty. To say nothing of cluster****s like the recent controversy about paid mods on Steam.