Blow has every right to be mad at CVG for making a story out of his interview, but did he have to write a post insulting them? I'd say what CVG did is an exercise in creative writing. If Blow is going to lead a crusade against a gaming website he could do a better job at choosing a target. If I were a game developer I'd play nice with the people who have an ear to us gamers. Nobody likes an angry game developer.
I just can't get behind the idea that Blow is out of line here. If anyone's acting stupidly, it's CVG - a fact Jonathan Blow has demonstrated way better than I can on his site.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't really call Blow's post an act of anger. Frustration, maybe, but not anger. Further, I think it's unfair to say nobody likes an angry game developer because that assumes developers are at the mercy of the press, that they need to treat news outlets with total respect because the news sites can paint them as however they like, that devs never have a right to be upset.
It's probably true that Blow has hurt his relationship with CVG with his attack on them, but as Blow and I will both argue, CVG is legitimately in the wrong. Their headline boiled down the discussion too disingenuously, and that deserves to be called out. I think Blow has actually made the best out of this situation by being the one to call them out - he's shown that he's thoughtful about what he says in interviews and cares about his relationships with publishers, other developers, and the press (because he recognizes how the oversimplification of the headline hurts everyone involved).
So yes, his relationship with CVG is probably screwed, but is a site that crudely boils down your work to a headline about PS3 vs. 360 really a site you want to be associating with in the first place? What does Blow gain by maintaining a relationship at this point? By pointing this out, Blow demonstrates respect for his readers and players, building good will with them, rather than submitting to the churn of the media, who at times are more interested in generating page hits than earnest discussion.
For an indie developer, the relationship between Blow and his readers/players is more important than one with the press, I would argue. I'm not saying Blow should piss all over news sites any chance he gets, but he's totally justified in calling out someone when they've miscast him like this. The potential damage of readers getting the impression of Blow as someone who would spur the meaningless "360 vs. PS3" debate is much worse than the damage that calling out the bad journalism could ever do. In my mind, Jon Blow made the best out of a crappy situation by raising the standard for reporting.