Tim Schaffer calls Activision's boss "A Total prick"

[DrJones]

It seems that adventure game designers really, really hate the kind of people that manage the industry these years. After Al Lowe stated that these people were destroying innovation in the industry, Tim Schafer comes up and says that Activision's boss is a total prick for halting the development of Brutal Legend, and later sueing Electronic Arts for trying to continue it.

It's funny when the spanish press talks about the videogame industry news, because Richard Garriot's travel to space became "a person travels to space" and Tim Schafer became "a videogame designer says that..." in the headers. Maybe they don't think people in our country knows about them?

[Blackthorne519]

I still find it ironic that Activision is the "Evil Empire". If you know your video game history, Activision was founded by expatriates from Atari - programmers who felt that the game quality sucked and were sick of not getting credit for their games. They were the rogue company, leaving the big bad company.... now, they ARE Atari....


Bt

[gamecreator]

Activision has since replied and Schafer has stated that he regrets saying what he did.

[pbpb33]

Where did Al Lowe say this? I haven't read any new interviews with him for a while. I always wished he would one day design another game. He is one of my favorite designers.

I think Tim Schafer is brilliant and one of the best game designers of all time, by the way. It sounds like he regrets the fact that his comment was broadcast/printed (and that he "got caught") more than anything. Perhaps he thought his comments were off the record. It reminds me of the General McChrystal situation: http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.acti ... 4978320811

[MusicallyInspired]

Al Lowe was working on an action game a few years ago called Sam Suede. The game was canceled and then, without Al Lowe's knowledge, the developer picked it up again and decided to finish it off. Such a great injustice.

[pbpb33]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! I remember being pretty thrilled when I read about Al's "comeback" several years ago. Talk about adding insult to injury! First LSL: MCL excludes him (and wasn't a great game), then Sam Suede was cancelled, then LSL:BoB was one of the worst games of all time, and now this! That's awful.

Btw, I think Al Lowe could do with an updated website redesign. (http://www.allowe.com) And fast! Honestly, his current website seems straight out of the 1990's. I can almost see the virtual cobwebs hanging from the menu bar. If someone wasn't already familiar with Al Lowe , I don't think they would take him too seriously after a quick look at that website.

[MusicallyInspired]

I think that might be a conscious decision to keep it that way. His content is a lot from the 90s anyway. I kinda like it. And it's not like he necessarily wants to garner more attention than he has.

[pbpb33]

I personally don't have any problem with the look either. But I think that from a professional standpoint, and given that he is older than most in the industry, he might not want a website that reinforces the idea that he is dated or a thing of the past. Maybe he doesn't plan any kind of future in game design, but who knows if he's still keeping open the possibility. Seems like an updated website (at least one that doesn't look like it was designed in the 1990's) could help him be taken more seriously by people who aren't familiar with his work.