Epic's Mark Rein Apologizes to Insulted Indie Dev

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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Epic's Mark Rein Apologizes to Insulted Indie Dev



Epic Vice President Mark Rein says that he had been a "jerk," but that he'd only been trying to help.

Last week Rein upset [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102135-Indie-Dev-to-Epics-Mark-Rein-F-k-Off] Positech Games' Cliff Harris by interrupting him during a panel at the Develop conference when the topic turned to communicating with fans. Harris said that Rein started to lecture him about what they were doing wrong, and was of the opinion that Rein had attended the panel just to sneer at the "humble indies." But Rein says that his comments were made with the best of intentions, but said that interrupting the panel was "completely rude."

In a letter to Harris, Rein said that his point had been misconstrued, and that he hadn't meant to imply that he thought that replying to fans' emails was a waste of time. His outburst had been motivated, he said, by the idea of sharing important details about games in emails and on message boards. He said that he believed that that could actually make things more difficult for an indie developer to get its work noticed.

Rein said that he wasn't speaking as an executive of a major studio, but was instead drawing on his experiences from Epic's early days. He said that when Epic was getting started in the early nineties, it made shareware titles with a distribution model similar to those of Harris and Positech, and by being careful with how it disseminated information, it was able to get its games featured in "top gaming magazines" alongside much bigger titles.

Epic was very keen to support independent developers, he said, and cited the "Make Something Epic" contests it ran for indie and aspiring developers, and the release of the UDK, which let people work with the Unreal Engine for free, and then pay a small licensing fee if they then made a commercial product. He thanked Harris for calling him out on his behavior, and said he realized that it was something that he had to curb in the future. He apologized again at the end of his letter, saying that his intentions didn't excuse his bad manners, and that he hoped that the experience had taught him his lesson.

There are a number of ways to interpret the letter, and they largely hinge on how genuine you think Rein is being. It certainly sounds like an honest, heartfelt apology, but it could just as easily be some PR spin. It will be interesting to see what Harris himself has to say about it.

Source: Develop [http://www.develop-online.net/news/35418/Exclusive-Mark-Reins-indie-apology]



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Cherry Cola

Your daddy, your Rock'n'Rolla
Jun 26, 2009
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Whatever happens, Cliffy B will still be hawt.

On a more serious note, I believe he's being genuine on this. I'd probably backpeddle faster than something fast backpeddling fast if I was in his situation.
 

MrPop

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May 14, 2009
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I like it how he said he misconstrued which is kinda of like apologising to someone but then digging a tiny bit deeper again.

Meh. Doesn't sound like there was much of an issue to get flustured over. Good he's apologised.
 

GiantRedButton

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Mar 30, 2009
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Yeah hes right, Epic does support indi devs. alien swarm was a Ut 2004 mod for example and it was made for the "Make something unreal" (later epic) competition Mark mentioned.
Those devs then got hired by valve, worked on Left4dead 1 and l4d2, the As remake
(no wonder it wasn't called Alien Swarm Source like all othe sourceports)
and now portal 2.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
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Looks like a lesson to be learned there...don't make comments you might regret later!
 

Andronicus

Terror Australis
Mar 25, 2009
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GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND BEG FOR FORGIVENESS!!

Nah, he seems genuine enough, although if what was written in last week's article was what he actually said, I'd think it would be pretty hard to misconstrue something like that. It'll be interesting to see if Harris forgives him.
 

Loonerinoes

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Apr 9, 2009
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He should've done the Shepard I think: "I've had enough of your disingenous assertions! *FALCON PUNCH*"

Nah...fair enough apology really. Could've been genuine, could've just been PR spin, but we'll see what effect it has.
 

UnravThreads

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Aug 10, 2009
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Loonerinoes said:
He should've done the Shepard I think: "I've had enough of your disingenous assertions! *FALCON PUNCH*"
I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite post in the topic.

It was only fair he apologise. Interrupting a panel to be a bit of a twit generally doesn't make you look good.
 

Blue Musician

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Mar 23, 2010
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At least he tried to apologize. Most devs do not do this lately *cough^*Bobby*cough*cough*Kottick*COUGH*
 

fulano

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Oct 14, 2007
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If Harris has any sense he'll keep mum.

Any kind of response can be misconstrued by the total groveling of Rein's letter; if he smashes him he'll be thought of as an explosive asshole, and if he doesn't it could easily be made to appear that they've both kissed and made out, and everything is fine (which you cannot know as the letter could easily be taken as a PR saving face stunt) which in the End benefits mostly Rein.

In the end, silence seems like the best option in my oppinion.
 

oranger

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May 27, 2008
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Insulting another person like that is not just unprofessional, its a sign that maybe the dude has a serious disconnect going on between himself and other people.
Which does not bode well for his future as a content creator.
 

gilthanan

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May 25, 2008
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oranger said:
Insulting another person like that is not just unprofessional, its a sign that maybe the dude has a serious disconnect going on between himself and other people.
Which does not bode well for his future as a content creator.
I somehow doubt that. I think someone working for Epic since it's launch "in the early nineties" would have a pretty comfortable position. No little gaff with some no name developer won't threaten that.
 

oranger

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May 27, 2008
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gilthanan said:
oranger said:
Insulting another person like that is not just unprofessional, its a sign that maybe the dude has a serious disconnect going on between himself and other people.
Which does not bode well for his future as a content creator.
I somehow doubt that. I think someone working for Epic since it's launch "in the early nineties" would have a pretty comfortable position. No little gaff with some no name developer won't threaten that.
"Threaten"? I meant the guy is showing signs of dysfunction.
 

Crimsane

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Apr 11, 2009
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Personally, I don't see where this 'incident' should've ever been in the media. The guy should've contacted Epic/Mark, who could've apologized in private. End of.
 

gilthanan

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May 25, 2008
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oranger said:
gilthanan said:
oranger said:
Insulting another person like that is not just unprofessional, its a sign that maybe the dude has a serious disconnect going on between himself and other people.
Which does not bode well for his future as a content creator.
I somehow doubt that. I think someone working for Epic since it's launch "in the early nineties" would have a pretty comfortable position. No little gaff with some no name developer won't threaten that.
"Threaten"? I meant the guy is showing signs of dysfunction.
You did say it "did not bode well for his future as a content creator." Suggesting that his job, which as a member of the video gaming development world, is creating content. Or did I misread? I was saying that his job position was pretty secure.