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Does this mean MMORPG.com will not feature any more puff pieces by Michael Bitton?

noncleynoncley Member UncommonPosts: 718

His last one was only a couple of days ago:

"Why This Game Is Not A Single-Player Game And You Are Stupid to Say It Is'.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/367/feature/6589/SWTOR-The-Singleplayer-RPG.html

And he hasn't finished the class guides either. i hope he hasn't given up. Only six more to go.

 

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Comments

  • Got_Game_TVGot_Game_TV Member UncommonPosts: 262
    Originally posted by noncley

    His last one was only a couple of days ago:

    "Why This Game Is Not A Single-Player Game And You Are Stupid to Say It Is'.

    http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/367/feature/6589/SWTOR-The-Singleplayer-RPG.html

    And he hasn't finished the class guides either. i hope he hasn't given up. Only six more to go.

     

    lol

  • Crazy_StickCrazy_Stick Member Posts: 1,059

    LOL. Ouch. Even old grudges against the peoples in blue are coming out tonight. *Pops the top off another brew.* It's like I am trapped in an episode of the Drunk and on Drugs Happy Fun Time Hour.  Everybody is high on forum fumes and and spitting fire at their disagreeables. But... at least watching all the wounds get salted has been fun.

  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,843

    Nowhere did he say the game was not extremely boring. He simply said it is not a single player game ;)

  • pharazonicpharazonic Member Posts: 860

    That's a rather rude and antagonistic title for an article. 

    "Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

    I need to take this advice more.

  • Crazy_StickCrazy_Stick Member Posts: 1,059
    Originally posted by pharazonic

    That's a rather rude and antagonistic title for an article. 

     

    *PSHHHT!* O’er here and keep ye head low lest ye lose it.

     

    Me thinks he meant it matey and we’re waitin on the swing back from the boy in blue. He been called out to man up and some one's fingers are dry.

     

    See, lookie what the almighty wiki say: Puff piece or fluff piece is an idiom for a journalistic form of puffery; an article or story of exaggerating praise that often ignores or downplays opposing viewpoints or evidence to the contrary.

     

    Just keep ye self takin a good sip of the hard stuff here n there and it’ll all pan out peachy fun. *Nods*

  • ignore_meignore_me Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 1,987

    guess I'm stupid then.

    Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 6,057

    Pretty much all of their articles are designed to push advertisers to the site.  They really have no harsh criticism for ANY MMO.  But at least they allow the discussions to be critical.

  • AhnogAhnog Member UncommonPosts: 240

    I happen to believe his articles are very good, and are not puff.

    Ahnog

    Hokey religions are no replacement for a good blaster at your side.

  • FdzzaiglFdzzaigl Member UncommonPosts: 2,433

    The game still isn't a singleplayer, and you're still stupid to say it is.

    How F2P changes anything about that is beyond me.

     

    And btw, I just unsubbed, so it's not like I'm in a terribly good mood when it comes to TOR.

    Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!

  • Crazy_StickCrazy_Stick Member Posts: 1,059

    I was kind of sympathetic to the boy in blue until this morning's article which IS clearly a puff piece. I don't mind strong favorable opinions but they shouldn't be posted as news they should be posted as opinions in blogs. As it stands, it hurts their professional credibility.

  • WickedjellyWickedjelly Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 4,990

    Well to be fair. He did write an earlier article stating why SWTOR going f2p would be a good thing. Still, the amount of articles he writes about SWTOR is pretty obnoxious overall.

    1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.

    2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.

    3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.

  • WhiteLanternWhiteLantern Member RarePosts: 3,319

    Can I jump on the "I hate it when people like a game I don't like and get paid to write about it" bandwagon too? image

    I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil

  • LoktofeitLoktofeit Member RarePosts: 14,247
    Originally posted by Crazy_Stick

     *Pops the top off another brew.* It's like I am trapped in an episode of the Drunk and on Drugs Happy Fun Time Hour.  Everybody is high on forum fumes and and spitting fire at their disagreeables. But... at least watching all the wounds get salted has been fun.

    I get the feeling you're one of those guys that tends to crack up your guild in vent during late night gaming sessions. :)

     

    There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
    "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre

  • TyvolusNextTyvolusNext Member Posts: 192
    Originally posted by noncley

    His last one was only a couple of days ago:

    "Why This Game Is Not A Single-Player Game And You Are Stupid to Say It Is'.

    http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/367/feature/6589/SWTOR-The-Singleplayer-RPG.html

    And he hasn't finished the class guides either. i hope he hasn't given up. Only six more to go.

     

     He will finish the class guides just as soon as EA can afford to send him the checks to fluff up their game with his fox news style coverage of SWTOR.

  • WickedjellyWickedjelly Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 4,990
    Originally posted by TyvolusNext

     He will finish the class guides just as soon as EA can afford to send him the checks to fluff up their game with his fox news style coverage of SWTOR.

     Meh...I simply think he genuinely enjoys the game.

    Although it does cloud his opinions on matters relating to it.

    Plus, I don't think anyone can deny debating this game is simply a polarizing topic. The amount of hits he gets for those articles is probably astounding.

    1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.

    2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.

    3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.

  • tawesstawess Member EpicPosts: 4,227

    well it is not a single player game... and it is kind of silly to suggest it is. It would be like calling Pac-Man a multiplayer game just because you can have more then one person yanking the stick.

     

    But no it will not stop what you call "puff pieces" so saddly you are stuck with them.

    This have been a good conversation

  • tiefighter25tiefighter25 Member Posts: 937

    Considering the new Free players can't really do Flashpoints, Operations, or Warzones; not seeing how the "myth" of SWTOR being a single player game is going to be "debunked" any time soon.

  • BigRock411BigRock411 Member Posts: 299
    Originally posted by tawess

    ........ because you can have more then one person yanking the stick.

     

    Sometimes pac man can be more than just a game. In that case, yes it is in fact multi-player

  • noncleynoncley Member UncommonPosts: 718
    Originally posted by TyvolusNext
    Originally posted by noncley

    His last one was only a couple of days ago:

    "Why This Game Is Not A Single-Player Game And You Are Stupid to Say It Is'.

    http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/367/feature/6589/SWTOR-The-Singleplayer-RPG.html

    And he hasn't finished the class guides either. i hope he hasn't given up. Only six more to go.

     

     He will finish the class guides just as soon as EA can afford to send him the checks to fluff up their game with his fox news style coverage of SWTOR.

    Bingo!

  • MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
    Originally posted by Crazy_Stick

    I was kind of sympathetic to the boy in blue until this morning's article which IS clearly a puff piece. I don't mind strong favorable opinions but they shouldn't be posted as news they should be posted as opinions in blogs. As it stands, it hurts their professional credibility.

    It was posted as a column -- which is an opinionated piece. I don't pass my opinions off as fact. I make my case and if you want to agree with me, fine. If you want to tell me I'm completely off base and why, that's fine too.

    @Wickedjelly -- I've been doing our weekly SWTOR column for upwards of two years now. Now that I have my own general column, I'll be writing about (and have already) other topics and games as well. There was no way I could ignore yesterday's announcement, however. And yes, I like the game, but no, it's not remotely all I play. I play Mass Effect 3 (MP), MechWarrior Online, League of Legends, SMITE, The Secret World, Guild Wars 2 (when they let me), Battlefield 3, random RPGs/little games, Skyrim, basically all sorts of stuff. I like to keep things varied. I enjoy SWTOR, but I don't marry my videogames. They're just games.

    It's easy and convenient to paint a picture, as some have, of a blind fanboy that can see no wrong with his favorite game, but really read my pieces and you'll notice I often level criticism where I feel it's due, and have for the entirety of my SWTOR column's run. Even today's column rests my ultimately positive point in an accusation of arrogance and failure on EA's part. I just try to keep things balanced. IMO, EA screwed up for the reasons I mentioned, but they're also taking the right steps to reinvigorate a service (SWTOR) that clearly still has quite a bit going for it.

    I simply don't see the game as deeply flawed as most. There are issues, sure, but I think it's pretty obvious to anyone that they've been blown far, far out of proportion. My contention today was not that anyone was wrong in their criticisms, you're free to have them, whatever they are, but that I see the primarily culprit of what we've seen unfold as being a business related issue more (as in, not exclusively) than a design one. The two just happened to merge in the worst possible way (poor endgame hold + a business model that can't sustain the game as a result). I think you'll find a lot less people arguing the game was shoddy on the way to level cap (the 'singleplayer' crowd will disagree, of course). Most of the people that played that far mainly left because it "ends".

    Not having the foresight to see this issue and still attempt to charge a full sub fee in an environment that is increasingly friendly to quality F2P games was the biggest mistake here. It wasn't because BioWare gave Darth Malgus a voice and a Republic Trooper a storyline to follow.

    That $15/month subscription often failed to attrition or collapse more often than it didn't even before the F2P wave in the West, and the environment as it stands today is more unfriendly to that model than it ever has been before. Now it isn't only, "Is this really worth $15/month to me?" but "Is this really worth $15/month to me when I can play X Y Z awesome games for free?" It's a completely new era for MMOs and this era makes the viability of an already disadvantageous business model that much worse.

    EDIT: I also never wrote the class guides. thanks though!

    EDIT2: Bunch of stuff added. I'll re-open the thread for now, despite the silly title. I don't write puff pieces and I'll let my writing stand on its own to prove it.

  • MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555

    Responded and unlocked thread. Keep it civil and it may stay that way.

  • GorillaGorilla Member UncommonPosts: 2,235
    Stupid (in the title of the piece) is one of those words that puts people's noses out of joint, there's a 101 ways to call people stupid without calling them stupid. One has to wonder how a thread that a member started " you are stupid if...." would be moderated?

    I am interested that you consider most MMO's more deeply flawed than ToR, we are talking AAA's right?
  • JounarJounar Member UncommonPosts: 142
    Originally posted by FrodoFragins

    Pretty much all of their articles are designed to push advertisers to the site.  They really have no harsh criticism for ANY MMO.  But at least they allow the discussions to be critical.

    +1

     

    This site as far as I'm concerned is only about the forums. The reviews at best are a joke (SWTOR MMO of the year lol) and the colum peices I just ignore out of hand just like the game reviews for being nothing more than paid advertising for the most part.

  • tiefighter25tiefighter25 Member Posts: 937

    "How is it possible to have a civil war?" - George Carlin.

  • ignore_meignore_me Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 1,987

    First off, I'm jealous that you get to play Mechwarrior online.

    Second, with not being married to games I can see how it's not that big of a deal for endgame to be a gaping chasm, for space to be a silly gamecube game, or for the crafting system to be simplistic. With all the games that you play and adding a journalist's perspective on top of that, I can understand your viewpoint.

     

    However, I was married to this game, and now the divorce has become ugly.

     

    I had decided to play SWTOR before they announced the forthcoming death of SWG, and realized I had only one choice for a Star Wars MMO. I have never purchased a CE, but I forked out the outrageous cash for SWTOR's box set.

    I talked friends and family into playing the game, and devoted hours reading about the game. Built a new computer to handle playing at max settings.

    I had a clock on my desktop counting off until release.

    Then the game came out.

     

    Got to about level 32 on my first character when the wheels started to fall off. Like many I figured, "this can't be the whole thing, they are going to add to it." Months go by and still there is little change other than the UI. My friends left first, then the guild began to dissipate. Then new friends on a more populated server began to leave, and that guild melted as well.

     

    I started to wonder, "How could this have happened?"

     

    Then I noticed that I wasn't the only one, and I became angry. Big money, amazing IP, supposed great developer. This whole thing is one big broken dream.

     

    I can be put in a box as a SWG Grogniard, a "didn't do the research" fool (I did the research but could not conceive that the finished game would not be a full-blown game able to sustain life for years), or a Forum troll. Doesn't matter what anyone calls me, I feel that a great wrong has been done here by people who should have known better.

     

     

     

     

     

    Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011

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