Brian Crecente "Interviews" Bobby Kotick

[LK]

http://kotaku.com/5559201/a-delightful-chat-with-the-most-hated-man-in-video-games

I want to go all Rude Pundit on this but the analogies I could derive would upset Lantyssa.  

I'm sure he has positive qualities. It's an interesting story. But it also shows how... unhinged? unrealistic? I can't come up with a good word to define his perception of the world compared to the average gamer. He's rich. He's rubbed elbows with industry titans. His story STARTS at a Cattle Baron's Ball.

And Brian, wow. That's just a fuck ton of softballs being lobbed up for this guy. This article cements an already irritable opinion of him.

Edit: Comments are pretty good too.

[Lantyssa]

"I always said I don't want to do what was done to me," he said. "Where I'm beholden to the publisher. So part of the whole philosophy of Activision was whether you're owned outright or not, if you're a studio you have control of your destiny, you could make decisions about who to hire, flexibility on what products to make, how to make them, schedules appropriate to make them, budgets.

Unless they produce one of the best selling games ever, then they'll shit-can the people responsible.

[Paelos]

Smart move. Schedule an interview, change the location spontaneously to something really laid back, pile on the shtick about being one of the guys, take the extra time, upset the corporate "handlers", use some casual profanity, speak "off the record", talk about your roots.

It's like a page out of the manipulator's playbook.

[Ironwood]

I dutifully order a slice.

There wasn't much call to read further.  I did, but I was still right.

Pussy.

[LK]

Smart move. Schedule an interview, change the location spontaneously to something really laid back, pile on the shtick about being one of the guys, take the extra time, upset the corporate "handlers", use some casual profanity, speak "off the record", talk about your roots.

It's like a page out of the manipulator's playbook.

Post it right before E3 so any negative fallout gets overshadowed...

[Flatfoot]

I'm sipping on water, gently crushing ice between my teeth...

What the fuck - this is journalism?

[Paelos]

I'm sipping on water, gently crushing ice between my teeth...

What the fuck - this is journalism?

Nothing involving gaming counts as journalism.

[Lantyssa]

These days, nothing involving journalism counts as journalism.

[Ingmar]

I'm sipping on water, gently crushing ice between my teeth...

What the fuck - this is journalism?

A particular style of it, sure. Gaming isn't the only place you'll see that style of interview/article where the author involves themself personally rather than just being a passive voice asking questions - in particular you see interviews like that all the time in Rolling Stone (or used to, I haven't read it in ages.) I seem to recall a fair amount of celebrity interviews in magazines like Vanity Fair or Esquire coming across that way too. If I had to guess this guy is just trying to write in that style.

[Engels]

fucker thinks he's Ira Glass or someshit

[schild]

More likely he idolizes Tim Rogers or something.

God, Crecente is just a terrible disgrace, but I've only been saying that for like 4 or 5 years now so this doesn't surprise me at all.

[Hoax]

A particular style of it, sure. Gaming isn't the only place you'll see that style of interview/article where the author involves themself personally rather than just being a passive voice asking questions - in particular you see interviews like that all the time in Rolling Stone (or used to, I haven't read it in ages.) I seem to recall a fair amount of celebrity interviews in magazines like Vanity Fair or Esquire coming across that way too. If I had to guess this guy is just trying to write in that style.

This. Here's a very big example from Esquire where the interviewer doesn't know who Gerard Butler is and the "interview" is basically a string of first impressions about how he's pretty cool.

[IainC]

It's not even that, it's all about how Gerard Butler is amazed that the guy interviewing him has no idea who he is or any apparent interest in movies.

[Strazos]

I think the key difference is that Gerard Butler IS cool, whereas Kotick...

[Azazel]

Smart move. Schedule an interview, change the location spontaneously to something really laid back, pile on the shtick about being one of the guys, take the extra time, upset the corporate "handlers", use some casual profanity, speak "off the record", talk about your roots.

It's like a page out of the manipulator's playbook.

100% correct. I agree with everything you said here.

[LK]

At least their profile on John Ricotello, EA CEO, didn't come off as a blowjob that was as methodical as a prepared statement. Crecente not being the writer may have had a lot to do with it.

[NiX]

Tim Schafer calls Bobby Kotick a prick in an interview.

[LK]

I wonder what the difference between "He doesn't have to be a prick about it" and "He's a prick" is.

[schild]

I wonder what the difference between "He doesn't have to be a prick about it" and "He's a prick" is.

Not much, that was fairly straightforward.

The real dig was the weapon manufacturers bit at the end though.