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Author Topic: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS  (Read 1175 times)

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Offline Matthew

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Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
« on: April 28, 2018, 07:56:47 AM »
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  • https://www.dangerous.com/43775/flopped-sjw-game-developer-laments-poor-sales-water-tastes-like-wine/

    The developer of one of the highest profile leftist and progressive-driven games of the year has revealed his project to be a complete flop, despite positive reviews.
    The invisible hand of the free market gave this “high art” product a knockout punch.
    In a recent post-mortem of the game, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, its designer and programmer Johnnemann Nordhagen, complained that the game’s $140,000 budget has resulted in a loss for his company, Dim Bulb Games.
    Nordhagen, a former Gone Home developer, says that his title sold fewer than 4,000 copies since its release a few weeks ago despite receiving a positive response from game journalists, who drove the game’s hype prior to its release slightly over a month ago.
    As detailed by One Angry Gamer, the game’s sales actually peaked at 6,200 but almost half of its owners requested refunds for the title after playing it for less than two hours, bringing the figure down to around 3,800.

    In the post-mortem, Nordhagen patted himself on the back for hiring a “fantastic crew of incredibly talented writers from a wide variety of diverse backgrounds,” failing to note that none of them were ideologically diverse. He noted that prior to its release, the game received a lot of attention from the press, and its presence at conventions and awards groups (including a nomination at the Independent Games Festival) put it on the path for commercial success.
    The game featured the writing of VICE Waypoint editor-in-chief Austin Walker, who infamously refused to allow his publication to cover Kingdom Come: Deliverance over ideological concerns.
    On Walker’s publication, Waypoint, its writers expressed their opposition to the conservative views of Kingdom Come’s creator, Daniel Vávra, who supported the GamerGate movement  for ethics in games journalism and shared viewpoints expressed by MILO. As DANGEROUS previously reported, sales of Kingdom Come are soaring despite the media boycott.

    Other contributors to Where The Water Tastes Like Wine include Kotaku writer Gita Jackson, ZAM editor Laura Michet, and former game journalist Leigh Alexander, whose 2014 article on Gamasutra kicked off GamerGate.
    “Gamers don’t have to be your audience,” she claimed. “Gamers are over.”
    Were that so, Where The Water Tastes Like Wine wouldn’t have been a commercial failure.
    Nordhagen bragged about the game’s positive reception from the Washington Post, whose writer Harold Goldberg called it a “giant leap forward for video game storytelling.”
    A further dissection of the game from Nordhagen reveals the game’s underlying issues—namely that despite all the hype, the game just isn’t very good. Numerous bugs stemmed from a lack of playtesting, a lack of expertise in actually developing and programming the game, as well as “forgetting that the PC uses a mouse and keyboard”—an issue that caused no shortage of user interface issues for players—contributed to the game’s overall mediocrity.
    It’s worth noting that while gamers who bought the title had few good things to say about it, the media, which hyped the title, failed to identify these issues. Reviews of the game were generally favorable. Several publications, including the Washington PostPC PowerplayGame Informer, and Hardcore Gamer gave the title near-perfect scores.
    Like many of the game’s cheerleaders in the media, a Rock Paper Shotgun writer eagerly promoted the game prior to its release, despite being “chums with several of these people, live with one of them, and am also very fond of wandering and hearing stories.” It wasn’t enough to prevent sales from floundering.
    Quote
    “[…] once you factor in the ~$140,000 I spent paying my contractors and collaborators for the game, you begin to see that maybe it wasn’t, financially speaking, worth it. I guess I will have to wait a bit longer to buy that Juicero.
    “Joking aside — that’s dismal. And terrifying. At the end of the day it’s astounding that a game that got this much attention from the press, that won awards, that had an all-star cast of writers and performers, that had a bizarre celebrity guest appearance(!) failed this hard. It scares me.”
    Following Nordhagen’s publication of the post-mortem, the creator updated the post to say that the game wasn’t a failure.
    “First, many headlines have said that the game was a ‘failure’ or a ‘flop.’ That’s not true, and definitely not how we feel about it,” he claims. “Regardless of sales, this is an amazing artistic achievement and we believe the recognition we’ve gotten proves that. Sales were disappointing, but sales are only one aspect of a successful game.”
    On the contrary, sales are the best indicator of a successful game.
    On Twitter, Nordhagen expressed anger towards the gaming crowd.
    “M***********, you won’t buy my game because its content and creation are the antithesis of everything you stand for. In fact, I forbid you from buying it,” he wrote.  
    Quote

    Johnnemann @johnnemann





    Gators have been digging up past tweets where I said nasty things about GG and saying "this is why I'll never buy your game!"
    Motherfucker, you won't buy my game because its content and creation are the antithesis of everything you stand for. In fact, I forbid you from buying it.
    7:22 PM - Apr 4, 2018


    Life comes at you fast.
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    Offline forlorn

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #1 on: April 28, 2018, 08:35:49 AM »
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  • Quote
    “M***********, you won’t buy my game because its content and creation are the antithesis of everything you stand for. In fact, I forbid you from buying it,” he wrote.  

    "W-what, you can't fire me... I QUIT."


    Offline TKGS

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #2 on: April 28, 2018, 03:24:01 PM »
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  • Just out of curiosity, what made it a "liberal game"?

    Offline forlorn

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #3 on: April 28, 2018, 04:46:00 PM »
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  • Just out of curiosity, what made it a "liberal game"?
    I haven't played it, but judging by the screenshots the characters seem to be socialists and anarchists. 

    Offline Matthew

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #4 on: April 28, 2018, 05:33:29 PM »
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  • Quote
    In the post-mortem, Nordhagen patted himself on the back for hiring a “fantastic crew of incredibly talented writers from a wide variety of diverse backgrounds,” failing to note that none of them were ideologically diverse. He noted that prior to its release, the game received a lot of attention from the press, and its presence at conventions and awards groups (including a nomination at the Independent Games Festival) put it on the path for commercial success.
    The game featured the writing of VICE Waypoint editor-in-chief Austin Walker, who infamously refused to allow his publication to cover Kingdom Come: Deliverance over ideological concerns.
    On Walker’s publication, Waypoint, its writers expressed their opposition to the conservative views of Kingdom Come’s creator, Daniel Vávra, who supported the GamerGate movement  for ethics in games journalism and shared viewpoints expressed by MILO. As DANGEROUS previously reported, sales of Kingdom Come are soaring despite the media boycott.
    Want to say "thank you"? 
    You can send me a gift from my Amazon wishlist!
    https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/25M2B8RERL1UO

    Paypal donations: matthew@chantcd.com


    Offline TKGS

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #5 on: April 28, 2018, 06:22:30 PM »
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  • So...it's not the game itself that is necessarily "liberal" but the writers of the game's storyline that are liberal?

    Offline forlorn

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #6 on: April 28, 2018, 07:26:13 PM »
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  • So...it's not the game itself that is necessarily "liberal" but the writers of the game's storyline that are liberal?
    The storyline is part of the game. 

    Offline TKGS

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #7 on: April 28, 2018, 08:15:07 PM »
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  • The storyline is part of the game.
    Of course the storyline is part of the game, but none of the posts give any description of the storyline which would make me think of this as a "liberal" game.  The last post from Matthew says that the writers are liberals and talks about a publication that refused to talk about a game because the creator of that game has "conservative views".

    I confess that I don't play any of these storyline video games so, perhaps, whether a game is conservative or liberal is determined by the political views of the creators and it really doesn't matter what's in the game.  I'm just trying to understand what makes this game a "liberal game" and that information, if anyone knows, has not been explained yet.


    Offline forlorn

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #8 on: April 29, 2018, 10:25:49 AM »
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  • Of course the storyline is part of the game, but none of the posts give any description of the storyline which would make me think of this as a "liberal" game.  The last post from Matthew says that the writers are liberals and talks about a publication that refused to talk about a game because the creator of that game has "conservative views".

    I confess that I don't play any of these storyline video games so, perhaps, whether a game is conservative or liberal is determined by the political views of the creators and it really doesn't matter what's in the game.  I'm just trying to understand what makes this game a "liberal game" and that information, if anyone knows, has not been explained yet.
    I already answered your question. The characters promote anarchism and socialism. You can even see that in the screenshots Matthew posted. 

    Offline TKGS

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #9 on: April 29, 2018, 12:18:33 PM »
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  • I already answered your question. The characters promote anarchism and socialism. You can even see that in the screenshots Matthew posted.
    Actually, you still haven't answered my question.  You're saying that's what you think the screen shots look like.  I'm seeing a character smoking a cigarette and that's no longer considered a liberal ideal.  
    I remember watching people play a game in which they were a car thief and all you did was steal and hijack cars, run from the police, and run over people and wreck the cars--then you got out and hijacked another car.  I thought it was rather stupid, but that was a game in which the character (i.e., the player) was an anarchist.  No one complained that this was a "liberal game".
    I'm asking what actually makes this game a "liberal game".  Other than the title being pretty hipster-ish, I haven't seen anything that makes the game itself "liberal".

    Offline forlorn

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #10 on: April 29, 2018, 03:55:50 PM »
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  • Actually, you still haven't answered my question.  You're saying that's what you think the screen shots look like.  I'm seeing a character smoking a cigarette and that's no longer considered a liberal ideal.  
    I remember watching people play a game in which they were a car thief and all you did was steal and hijack cars, run from the police, and run over people and wreck the cars--then you got out and hijacked another car.  I thought it was rather stupid, but that was a game in which the character (i.e., the player) was an anarchist.  No one complained that this was a "liberal game".
    I'm asking what actually makes this game a "liberal game".  Other than the title being pretty hipster-ish, I haven't seen anything that makes the game itself "liberal".
    Are you actually illiterate? Read the dialogue in the first screenshot. It's very very anti-capitalist and anti-authority. 


    Offline TKGS

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #11 on: April 29, 2018, 04:36:01 PM »
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  • Are you actually illiterate? Read the dialogue in the first screenshot. It's very very anti-capitalist and anti-authority.
    i wil just axsept yer gess wy its thot too bee a libral game sinse nobodie heer reely seems too nose,

    Offline forlorn

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #12 on: April 29, 2018, 05:46:52 PM »
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  • i wil just axsept yer gess wy its thot too bee a libral game sinse nobodie heer reely seems too nose,

    you are blind 

    Offline TKGS

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #13 on: April 29, 2018, 05:47:38 PM »
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  • Offline Neil Obstat

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    Re: Liberal game hailed by media COMPLETELY FLOPS
    « Reply #14 on: May 11, 2018, 08:53:07 AM »
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  • .
    Moral of the story:
    The next time you see a man gripping a pick-ax with two fists sitting in front of a campfire with tall weeds behind him and a goofy eye-sun-moon logo over his head, with cock-eyes and a crooked grin, wearing a brown coat and a red bandana, you should know he's a liberal.
    .
    No?
    .
    Oh, wait -- here's a big clue. In the SECOND image, the man isn't grinning anymore nor is he holding the pick-ax, but not only is he smoking a cigarette with apparent satisfaction, but the tall weeds are gone behind him and they're replaced with corn stalks but not very tall ones. He has removed his brown jacket, tossing it behind him, rolled up his shirt sleeves and raised one knee. The plot thickens!
    .
    :sleep:
    .--. .-.-.- ... .-.-.- ..-. --- .-. - .... . -.- .. -. --. -.. --- -- --..-- - .... . .--. --- .-- . .-. .- -. -.. -....- -....- .--- ..- ... - -.- .. -.. -.. .. -. --. .-.-.