Jade Raymond wants to be left alone.

[Samwise]

Kids that were in the "they get it" category were given credit for short-handing a problem.  Kids that the teacher wasn't sure about weren't.

It was the exact opposite when I was in grade school.

[Venkman]

Grades are mostly objective in Education as far as I've seen, where the answers are absolutes (early math, spelling, multiple-choice knowledge questions, etc). It's the essay and creative stuff that gets wonky.

But for the games industry (and any subjectively-reviewed one), the numbers already set up a comparison. A 8/10 or 80% or 4/5 rated game is "better" than a 7/10 one. It's all subjective but that's where you get something like Metacritic. These numbers are for gamers and for businesses to incorporate to their review of a game's sales/performance, and the more people you have providing evaluation, the easier it becomes to notice the common threads. And those threads are very useful for assessing what you should do the next time.

I've heard often the call for a "design language" that allows for objective analysis of games in the same way as it apparently happens for poetry. But I've also long held that the closer we get to that point, the less the games become for the masses and the more they become for the critics. That's fine for indie stuff achieving an artistic pursuit. But critical-acclaim and mass-market dollars don't often line up, so you know where the efforts going to go.

[Samwise]

I don't know what happened, but whenever I see this thread title now I think of this.

Dammit.

[Azazel]

Um.. thanks for the link. I think.

That has got to be a fuckin' pisstake.

[schild]

God I love that video.

[schild]

oh man. bump.

I view Jade as a very skilled and creative producer, the success of Assassin's Creed leaves no doubt about that and the attention she received from the media is due to the anticipation, buzz and quality of the game. She's currently working on a new project but it's a little too early to share more about it.

That's from an interview with Yves Guillemot.

Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuularious.

[KallDrexx]

round 2.  FIGHT!

[NiX]

Which begs the question we've been asking for so long: Why the fuck does she get so much credit?

[rk47]

probably this

[Azazel]

Nod. Quite simple. She's a pretty girl, so the drooling games media latched onto her, and so Ubi is keeping her front and centre to keep attention and spotlight on whichever project they attatch her to.

Regardless of how good she is as a Producer, obviously a key part of her role at Ubi is now to be a public spokesmodel for projects.

[NiX]

It was more of a rhetorical question. I know exactly why the press puts her up front, but I still think it's stupid. I'm still bitter about the ending to that game.

[Lantyssa]

When your first introduction to the gaming community is acting as a booth babe, what can you really expect?  She wasn't in a suit, she was in camo capris and a torn, ratty shirt showing off cleavage.

[Azazel]

Really? Where are the pictures? 

Though Booth Babe to Producer seems to be a slight less traditional route to the role...

[Kitsune]

Sad thing is, even if she turns out to be a fucking awesome game producer, thanks to Ubi using her girl parts to attract the more wretched gamers there will always be a whisper in the gaming community that she's just a booth babe.

[stray]

When your first introduction to the gaming community is acting as a booth babe, what can you really expect?  She wasn't in a suit, she was in camo capris and a torn, ratty shirt showing off cleavage.

She started off doing bug duty at Sony, just like most developers do.

[Lantyssa]

Great for her.  If she wanted to be taken seriously then she needed to introduce herself to the fans in at least a semi-professional manner.  First impressions and all.

It's stupid and sucks, but people wanting public roles have to consider their appearance and actions.  So now she has additional hills to climb, but if the company has faith in her and her co-workers think she is a good producer, she'll get more game credits with her name and people might start to respect her for that.

[ahoythematey]

Uhh, what?  Not trying to join the White Knight Defense Force for random internet girls, but what on earth makes you think she had much choice in the matter if Ubisoft's intentions were to use her like that.  "You're a babe and our target audience is sad and pathetic.  You work for us, this means you are going to be the public face for the game."  What is she going to do, quit?

[schild]

When your first introduction to the gaming community is acting as a booth babe, what can you really expect?  She wasn't in a suit, she was in camo capris and a torn, ratty shirt showing off cleavage.

She started off doing bug duty at Sony, just like most developers do.

That's not an introduction to the gaming community. Not even in the LEAST.

she'll get more game credits with her name and people might start to respect her for that.

Gamers never forgive and never forget. Credits be damned, she's that hot chick with a stripper name.

[Venkman]

Uhh, what?  Not trying to join the White Knight Defense Force for random internet girls, but what on earth makes you think she had much choice in the matter if Ubisoft's intentions were to use her like that.  "You're a babe and our target audience is sad and pathetic.  You work for us, this means you are going to be the public face for the game."  What is she going to do, quit?

At the very least, that's an HR conversation right there. This isn't some small-time developer we're talking about, with that special brand of f-u that only small companies can treat their employees with. If anything, Ubi would be wary of pushing this too far, for fear of repercussion.

I'd be interested to see just how much she actually takes to the attention that have come since this all began.

[stray]

When your first introduction to the gaming community is acting as a booth babe, what can you really expect?  She wasn't in a suit, she was in camo capris and a torn, ratty shirt showing off cleavage.

She started off doing bug duty at Sony, just like most developers do.

That's not an introduction to the gaming community. Not even in the LEAST.

Oops, I read that as "first introduction to the gaming 'industry'". Or something.

That being said, I don't know what the gaming community is. Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me. She should present herself however she wants to whatever it is. Preferably as an even bigger whore. Because it doesn't matter.

[rk47]

It does. It makes people pay attention more to their interviews. It goes into the subconcious. At least the eyes are wide open.

[Lantyssa]

That being said, I don't know what the gaming community is. Sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me. She should present herself however she wants to whatever it is. Preferably as an even bigger whore. Because it doesn't matter.

Uh, the people who follow game development and learn about a dev solely because she's using her looks to get early press?  It matters if she wants to be known for making great games and not for being a tart.  That's not to say the cretins won't do that anyways, but pander to them and that's how you're going to be known.

I'm all for people presenting themselves how they want, but if people perceive someone the way they are purposefully trying to appear, I can't really see that party having much right to complain.

[stray]

Damn, yeah.. My bad. I somehow managed to forget that she complained (hello? thread title?). 

[Azazel]

She started off doing bug duty at Sony, just like most developers do.

That's not an introduction to the gaming community. Not even in the LEAST.

This is true. I've done bug duty at Beam Software. BFD.

Gamers never forgive and never forget. Credits be damned, she's that hot chick with a stripper name.

Negatory. Gamers as a whole are a large, seething mass of humanity. No attention span and little intelligence. Pockets of intelligence and/or bitterness like f13 or FoH are the exception rather then the norm.

[Azazel]

Damn, yeah.. My bad. I somehow managed to forget that she complained (hello? thread title?). 

Did she? Or was it just that Ubi's lawyers went after SA after some stupic webcomic?   

Which is rather different than complaining about a role of Producer/Spokesmodel

[UnSub]

I'm so glad that we can rehash the same topic from 6 months ago. And that everyone gets it wrong, again.

When your first introduction to the gaming community is acting as a booth babe, what can you really expect?  She wasn't in a suit, she was in camo capris and a torn, ratty shirt showing off cleavage.

Link to that video, please. Bonus points if the devs on either side of her are wearing suits while she isn't.

To sum up from before:

1) Jade got a lot of attention from certain male reviewers and that creepy section of the gaming public we don't like to talk about

2) Patrice Desilets, the lead dev of the project, is a handsome enough fellow, but speaks with a thick French accent, while Jade speaks in a nice, clear mid-west accent that all those US consumers have no issue in understanding

3) At the time, the fact that the gaming media were interested in talking about Assassin's Creed and kept wanting to do interviews was good for all involved because it made it more likely AC would be a success. It probably wasn't thought that Jade was going to become the main focus of that attention from certain sections; by the time it had, it was too late.

4) Some yambag makes a pretty offensive comic strip about Jade; it gets some attention; the legal action against SomethingAwful made it even more newsworthy and thus more widely distributed

5) AC launches to a relatively lukewarm critical reception but sells pretty well iirc

6) The computer game industry reminds all women involved that if you're pretty, you're only fit to wear the bikini out front of the booth and it's your fault for not being born a man if you wanted to get into video game design

But please, let's kick this ground over again, shall we?

[UnSub]

Gamers never forgive and never forget. Credits be damned, she's that hot chick with a stripper name.

Negatory. Gamers as a whole are a large, seething mass of humanity. No attention span and little intelligence. Pockets of intelligence and/or bitterness like f13 or FoH are the exception rather then the norm.

We don't need attention span or much intelligence when everything is one Google search away.

Our attention may wander, but our memory is flawless.

[ahoythematey]

mostly flawless.  wikipedia vandalism makes it wonky sometime

[Azazel]

Here's an old Wikipedia Bio. Sounds like it was written either by a drooling fanboi or Ubi promo. The grammar leads me to think the former, or the latter doing a stealth writeup.

Biography
Jade Raymond was born in Montreal Canada. She attended the Marianopolis private college in Downtown Montreal and after spending one whole summer playing video games it became pretty clear for her that she had not only to play them, but to make them.

As a teenager, she did night shifts working as a hospital switchboard operator. Part of her job involved calling "Code-Green" or "Code-Red" over the loud speaker and paging hospital staff when there were emergencies.

She later studied computer science at the McGill University in Montreal, and after graduating college with a degree in, Jade's first job was programming games at Sony. While at Sony, she founded the first Research and Development group within Sony Online. Her team was responsible for leveraging Sony IP across multiple platforms and ultimately building Sony Online's most trafficked offerings: the entire suite of Jeopardy games played by over 3,000 simultaneous users on a daily basis.

With a specialty in creating and designing online games, Jade began work at EA as a producer and went on to be the Producer behind one of EA's most popular online games to date, The Sims Online. She was directly responsible for all design and implementation of online game features and content for EA's highest revenue generating wholly owned property.

After seven years of working in New York and San Francisco she moved back to Montreal, her hometown, to make games at the world acclaimed Ubisoft Montreal Studio.

She is currently the producer of the highly anticipated title Assassins Creed, one of the most buzzed-about titles of 2007. As a video game producer, she is in charge of overseeing the development of the game regarding the creative and technical development of the game as well as maintaining schedules and budgets. She is also acting as a liaison between the development staff and the publisher or executive staff insuring the game will be delivered in time.

Her biggest break came at the 2003 Game Developer Award's Ceremony where she was one of the presenters. After the ceremony, Victor Lucas, the co-host and executive producer of the popular G4 TechTV's show called The Electric Playground came up to her and asked her to join the crew along with Tommy Tallarico, Julie Stoffer and Geoff Keighley. Although she never thought that I would be doing tv, she said it's a lot of fun and liked her experience very much. Because of this, Jade is now known to game fans throughout the world. As a result, she also gets to help out other game designers and producers by interviewing them for the show, which allows fans to put faces with names.

Once a person behind the scenes, Jade Raymond has advanced to a level many in the gaming community never see. Her appearances during gaming conventions such as E3 and X06 have made her popular amongst gaming fans. And while she is enjoying the fame that come with being on television, she still finds time to do what she loves most: Make video games.

Unlike many women working in the videogame industry, Jade Raymond is really a gamer, not a fake. She played Everquest 10 hours every day for three months when it came out. Her favorite video games of all time is Resident Evil 4, but liked alot Prince of Persia Sands of Time, Tekken 3, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, PaRappa the Rappa, Intelligent Cube and Incredible Crisis. She is currently playing Loco Roco on her PSP and has a weak spot for any game that involves monkeys, peculiar Japanese names or Zombies.

Raymond has a computer science degree from McGill University and her first job was programming games for Sony. A few years later, she moved into a producer role at EA, and she has since been producing games. Currently, Jade Raymond is the producer of Ubisoft's action-adventure game Assassin's Creed.

Not a Fake! She fo' reals!

[Margalis]

I'm amazed at the amount of loathing people can throw at someone for the dual crimes of being hot and somewhat competent.

Can't we all bash Cliffy B for a while? He's most famous for his "blue steel."

[Ratman_tf]

Not a Fake! She fo' reals!

I guess I should let the women I know in the industry that they're the fakers. 

[Tebonas]

The internets hatred for this woman could power a small country. I was then, and still am more disgusted by what those comic writer retards think is funny. Thats the true crime here, slaughtering the funny.

[Azazel]

I'm amazed at the amount of loathing people can throw at someone for the dual crimes of being hot and somewhat competent.

Can't we all bash Cliffy B for a while? He's most famous for his "blue steel."

I'm actually totally ambivalent to her as a person and as an individual in the games industry. My distaste is the way that Ubi has handled the promotion of Assassin's Creed Jade Raymond: Superstar and the way that the games media are all such desperado losers/percieve all gamers as desperado losers that they're either going along with it or fall for it, hook, line, sinker. Which is where the fanbois and slobbering bullshit such as the text in her old wiki bio came from.

I'm sure Jade herself likes getting paid well, and if Ubi asks her to do some interviews and take some photos, I have no issue with her choosing to do it. (and presumably, keep her nice job, etc).

I'm posting in this thread though, primarily because someone awakened it, and it's something to do for shits and giggles. Not because of a seething hatred for the hot girl who shouldn't be allowed to be a games designer.

[schild]

Can't we all bash Cliffy B for a while? He's most famous for his "blue steel."

Guys get a pass. Sorry.

[fuser]

Didn't all this hoopla happen already with Stevie Case?