Pointo f fact, I play the game, and find it offensive. And I have one, the mordu's ships are not that great.Spartan448 said:
EVE Online, Monocles and Microtransactions: Who Really Wrote CEO's Apology?
- Thread starter Karloff
- Start date
Say, can I use this as cited prood that such groups as EA actually DO write their own stuff, hence why they're so crap?Karloff said:
OT: Well then, I guess he's not actually sorry, then, is he?
Not surprising? Maybe, except that they actually have a PR department, which could have handled something like this within the scope of their work, but instead it was given to the fiction writers. It may not be a complete shock, but it certainly is a bit curious that they bypassed the department that would normally be responsible for such things and instead went straight to the people in charge of "making crap up".Vegosiux said:
I think it comes down to intent. If it went like this:
PÉTURSSON: Wow. We messed up. Okay, guys, take a memo. Tell our players we fucked up. We went for cheap, easy cash and that was totally disrespectful and they deserve to be mad at us. Tell 'em we're sorry and we'll fix it.
GAME WORLDBUILDING STAFF:
...then yeah, the public relations guys were just doing their job in tidying up the presentation. And I get that they fixed things up so that EO is still a good game.
On the other hand if it went more like this:
PÉTURSSON: Those entitled ingrates! Those moronic bastards don't know what's good for them when good things smack 'em in the face. Take a memo: Tell 'em that if they can't appreciate fancy duds when I offer them they can all go fuck themselves. Tell them with fire.
GAME WORLDBUILDING STAFF:
...then yeah, the PR guys really bailed him out. As did his dev team. And maybe he shouldn't be the guy who runs EO unless he has really good handlers.
I suspect it's the former, though the latter tells a better story.
238U
EDIT: Corrected my scenarios regarding which staff write the apology.
PÉTURSSON: Wow. We messed up. Okay, guys, take a memo. Tell our players we fucked up. We went for cheap, easy cash and that was totally disrespectful and they deserve to be mad at us. Tell 'em we're sorry and we'll fix it.
GAME WORLDBUILDING STAFF:
...then yeah, the public relations guys were just doing their job in tidying up the presentation. And I get that they fixed things up so that EO is still a good game.
On the other hand if it went more like this:
PÉTURSSON: Those entitled ingrates! Those moronic bastards don't know what's good for them when good things smack 'em in the face. Take a memo: Tell 'em that if they can't appreciate fancy duds when I offer them they can all go fuck themselves. Tell them with fire.
GAME WORLDBUILDING STAFF:
...then yeah, the PR guys really bailed him out. As did his dev team. And maybe he shouldn't be the guy who runs EO unless he has really good handlers.
I suspect it's the former, though the latter tells a better story.
238U
EDIT: Corrected my scenarios regarding which staff write the apology.
EDIT: I had a big wall of text, but I figured a much more succinct way to put it which hopefully wastes less of your time. The old version is hidden by the spoiler.thebobmaster said:
tl;dr Do you think a professional PR department would be unable to write something because it wasn't true? =D
I can't imagine the CEO sitting at his desk and saying 'I want to write an apology, but it's not sincere. To the fiction department!'
He probably just knew and trusted the head of creative more than anyone else, and obviously the creative team is going to have good english skills.
Putting the stress on the 'writing fictional stories' was the biggest BS of the whole thing, it's just an ex-employee trying to look bad.
It's not like there's some mythical writing skill that specialises in fiction and can only be used for writing fiction. People who write fiction have good communication and English skills, people who write non-fiction have good communicating and English skills. Someone who spends their entire career communicating ideas in a simple and believable way can do that whether it's something fictional or not. The headline is basically 'SPEECH WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO HAS ALSO WRITTEN A STORY ABOUT WIZARDS AT SOME POINT IN THEIR LIFE'
I mean what is the ex-employee trying to say? That the CEO sat at his desk and said 'Hmm I need to draft a PR statement, but I don't actually mean it. To the fiction department!'
This is the actual truth. CCP is a relatively small company. It's CEO doesn't have to make a lot of statements and probably doesn't have a dedicated guy to write speeches for him. The fans were rioting and he needed to change directions, so he wanted to change that direction and write an apology letter to explain that change in direction. Because the internet rips people to shreds if they have less than absolutely perfect clarity and is fully willing to write headlines based off one misquote, he wanted to put the job of writing the letter in the hands of someone whose entire job is about communication. He turns to the person who he presumably has a close relationship with whose career involves writing things for the EVE fanbase and asks him to write the letter.
The letter is written, it's not misquoted, CCP change direction and everyone is happy. A few years later someone loses his job, probably isn't familiar with how corporations function or the power of a misquote and bigs it up as some evil thing, even though CCP did in fact do everything they said they would do in their apology letter.
It's not like there's some mythical writing skill that specialises in fiction and can only be used for writing fiction. People who write fiction have good communication and English skills, people who write non-fiction have good communicating and English skills. Someone who spends their entire career communicating ideas in a simple and believable way can do that whether it's something fictional or not. The headline is basically 'SPEECH WRITTEN BY SOMEONE WHO HAS ALSO WRITTEN A STORY ABOUT WIZARDS AT SOME POINT IN THEIR LIFE'
I mean what is the ex-employee trying to say? That the CEO sat at his desk and said 'Hmm I need to draft a PR statement, but I don't actually mean it. To the fiction department!'
This is the actual truth. CCP is a relatively small company. It's CEO doesn't have to make a lot of statements and probably doesn't have a dedicated guy to write speeches for him. The fans were rioting and he needed to change directions, so he wanted to change that direction and write an apology letter to explain that change in direction. Because the internet rips people to shreds if they have less than absolutely perfect clarity and is fully willing to write headlines based off one misquote, he wanted to put the job of writing the letter in the hands of someone whose entire job is about communication. He turns to the person who he presumably has a close relationship with whose career involves writing things for the EVE fanbase and asks him to write the letter.
The letter is written, it's not misquoted, CCP change direction and everyone is happy. A few years later someone loses his job, probably isn't familiar with how corporations function or the power of a misquote and bigs it up as some evil thing, even though CCP did in fact do everything they said they would do in their apology letter.
I don't understand what the big deal is. CCP tried to include micro transactions. Player base said no. CCP apologized and moved on. Then someone comes forward and says the apology wasn't written by the guy who signed his name to it and all of a sudden it's a big deal? Even though the situation in question was averted and just about everyone has moved on apart from one disgruntled former employee trying to stir up crap?
I don't see how this is news. I don't see how anyone could possibly be upset over this. My enjoyment of EVE has in no way shape or form come to harm over the veracity of a widely publicized apology that may or may not have been fake
I don't see how this is news. I don't see how anyone could possibly be upset over this. My enjoyment of EVE has in no way shape or form come to harm over the veracity of a widely publicized apology that may or may not have been fake
I literally do not understand why this is supposed to be a bad thing.
Yes, it's odd that a fiction-writing department would be put in charge of writing a public apology rather than a PR writer - but perhaps they didn't have a PR writer on hand and someone in the fiction writing department was trained in PR. It's fairly likely in fact - I went to college for a degree in Professional Writing, and I've had classes/training in everything from PR, to ethnography writing, to fiction writing.
Is this supposed to be a "ooga booga PR staff writing speeches is bad" piece? Because if so, let me pull you aside and remind you that in the outrage-laden culture that is the internet, allowing a CEO with no professional writing training to write ANYTHING is a major risk that could potentially sink your fucking company. People will freak out unless you word everything EXACTLY. Hell, some people will still freak out if you write everything exactly - in the wake of the apology a lot of people were still shitting on CCP (the Eve Online devs.)
Yes, it's odd that a fiction-writing department would be put in charge of writing a public apology rather than a PR writer - but perhaps they didn't have a PR writer on hand and someone in the fiction writing department was trained in PR. It's fairly likely in fact - I went to college for a degree in Professional Writing, and I've had classes/training in everything from PR, to ethnography writing, to fiction writing.
Is this supposed to be a "ooga booga PR staff writing speeches is bad" piece? Because if so, let me pull you aside and remind you that in the outrage-laden culture that is the internet, allowing a CEO with no professional writing training to write ANYTHING is a major risk that could potentially sink your fucking company. People will freak out unless you word everything EXACTLY. Hell, some people will still freak out if you write everything exactly - in the wake of the apology a lot of people were still shitting on CCP (the Eve Online devs.)