GAME_JAM: how Polaris' 400-thousand-dollars reality show about indie game devs crashed and burned in
136 replies, posted
[url]http://indiestatik.com/2014/03/31/most-expensive-game-jam/[/url]
[quote]GAME_JAM didn’t start out as a reality show; I know that for a fact. The original concept work came from Indie Statik’s then-face Josh Mattingly and Game Jolt founder David DeCarmine, back before that ugliness back in January lost us half our staff and an EIC in around twelve minutes. By then, the natal idea had already been picked up by Maker’s Polaris vertical, which deals in gaming entertainment and editorial offerings for a mostly YouTube-based audience and was tossed into the hands of Aaron Umetani and Jason Serrato, two on-site producers who specialize in larger projects going back farther than I’ve actually been here (and I’ve been here a while).
That natal idea, and one of the themes central to all eleven developers agreeing to travel to Los Angeles for the shoot, was the production and filming of a game jam for a televised audience (or at least a YouTube audience) with the intent to document the ups and downs of actually developing a game – hopefully sharing that experience with a viewership likely ranging into the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions. More importantly, it would be an opportunity for the group to share the closely-knit spirit of togetherness unique to indie development, presented through the lens of popular YouTube personalities with massive, mostly younger built-in viewerships. A slam dunk, you might say, created in earnest to shine a kind of light into the often misrepresented world of creating… or, at least, that’s what everyone thought.[/quote]
[quote]Challenge two rolled around – an arts-and-crafts-style affair that would be judged by Joe, Kellee and Nidhogg creative director Mark Essen, and the toll began to sink in. The devs were tired. Their energy was quickly waning, and their ability to code well was being jeopardized by the excessive pageantry. There was will left to go on, but it was fading fast… then, once again, Matti.
“Two of the other teams have women on them. Do you think they’re at a disadvantage?”
Silence. It was like the wind was sucked out of the room behind the barrier, but the floor was so loud, only the two all-male teams heard the question. Mark answered diplomatically that the teams actually had a huge advantage by having more viewpoints, though everyone was strong regardless because of their skill. Matti cut him off, pulled back the camera, and coughed, “Stop filming. We’re not getting a story here.”
It went on down the line. Is Zoe off her game? Are women coders a disadvantage to their groups? Point by point, the questions were shot down, until he reached Adriel’s team and asked if they were at any sort of advantage by having a pretty girl with them.
I cannot begin to impress upon you the psychological effect this line had on everyone. The idea that these professionals, who stake their livelihoods on code and design, might be reduced to “pretty faces” and antiquated gender stereotypes, an idea perpetuated by the guy who was ostensibly in charge, was like hitting the biggest nerve in the history of nerves with a pneumonic drill. Adriel built shit that flies around in space. It’s probably flying around in space right now.
She erupted, and Matti once more pulled back his camera, making sure to privately half-apologize that he “marched with the women in the ’70s” with “flowers in his hair.” Finally, he cornered Zoe with a camera as everyone left for dinner, trying one last time to get a rise out of her. She told him to go fuck himself and marched off set. And that is precisely when everyone else realized something was wrong.[/quote]
Pretty insane story.
[editline]1st April 2014[/editline]
[quote]The backlash of Depression Quest appearing on Steam Greenlight is not lost on me, and it’s still a fresh wound to both Zoe (who had to change her phone number due to death threats and harassment) and many female game developers and journalists who call the industry their home. The potential backlash of being “the bitch with a beef against JonTron” was all at once shockingly real, and by even having it on film, the risk for a fight to be cut into the show began to grow on everyone’s mind. Jon didn’t want that. Zoe definitely didn’t want that. Serrato, Umetani and the many producers spectating didn’t want that, and it went against everything game jams stood for – but Matti pushed the angle. And as the challenge went on, we discovered that he had cornered Jon in a room to try and get him to speak poorly of Zoe, the only negative “story” they could muster out of all fifteen contestants[/quote]
Wow, this is such bullshit. Matti is a motherfucker and i hope he never gets a job again and you KNOW shit was going down when Jon started getting pissed. This is absolutely ridiculous. I don't even know if i can properly form more words to show how i feel about this.
I know this is kind of off topic but if you want to make a successful television show based off of gaming base it off for G4s program style.
My god, this is unthinkable.
Tormenting the developers like that proves how much of a monster Matti is.
Someone outta find Matti's phone number and fucking harrass and send him death threats
Then again I'm throwing fuel to the fire and being an idiot
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("How about no" - Orkel))[/highlight]
god damn dude what the fuck
[QUOTE=Ashes;44414560]Someone outta find Matti's phone number and fucking harrass and send him death threats
Evil mother fucker[/QUOTE]
This is exactly what we shouldn't do.
I'm sorry, but I'm kind of confused here. Is GAME_JAM just some show based around a game jam with popular youtubers and developers? And it mentions "Matti", is that Josh Mattingly? I've never heard of any of this before, and it probably doesn't help that I'm tired.
The idea and cast of the show sounds pretty great, it's a shame that it ended up like it did.
[QUOTE=Ashes;44414560]Someone outta find Matti's phone number and fucking harrass and send him death threats
Evil mother fucker[/QUOTE]
Glass houses, mate.
Wasn't the writer of this fired by Polaris after writing this article? I remember reading that, which makes me kinda sad; he was rather fair in what he said, yet they didn't want any negative feedback it seems.
As for the event, I'm a bit sad that the one guy screwed things up, but in the end the whole thing was kinda doomed to begin with. Unfortunate, but at least it had a few youtubers become closer friends.
-snip, whatever-
That is an impressive amount of bullshit.
Fucking cunt.
[QUOTE=Ashes;44414560]Someone outta find Matti's phone number and fucking harrass and send him death threats
Evil mother fucker[/QUOTE]
yep our response to this article that, yet again, makes the video game industry look like the most immature steaming pile of shit imaginable, should be to make it look even more immature
fuck off seriously
and after the response that zoe quinn got from her game, you think we should do the same to someone else? pathetic
Who is this Matti guy?
so did this ever air or what?
[QUOTE=General;44414679]Who is this Matti guy?[/QUOTE]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matti_Leshem[/url]
[QUOTE]I’d never met Matti prior to GAME_JAM, but I’d heard of him. Multiple central figures in multiple departments complained privately to me both before and after GAME_JAM about his conduct. He was apparently some kind of middle man between Pepsi and the branding teams, though not a full-timer, and was apparently very good at it.
Somehow, he had ended up as the most visible director on set, as well as what was described to me as a “Pepsi Consultant.” I quickly took from his posture and the way people were interacting with him that he would spearhead the tone, the filming and the brand-friendliness of the entire affair – but I was wrong. He ended up being a creative consultant who had somehow slipped into the project through his connections to the sponsors, the de facto “guy” by virtue of being the loudest.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Magikoopa24;44414631]Wasn't the writer of this fired by Polaris after writing this article? I remember reading that, which makes me kinda sad; he was rather fair in what he said, yet they didn't want any negative feedback it seems.
As for the event, I'm a bit sad that the one guy screwed things up, but in the end the whole thing was kinda doomed to begin with. Unfortunate, but at least it had a few youtubers become closer friends.[/QUOTE]
I just checked the writer's twitter feed, apparently it was just a rumor that he got fired.
Matti Leshem is like a cartoon character producer.
Why are there tensions between Jon and Zoe? Is there some history or they just weren't getting along during the filming?
[QUOTE=ChestyMcGee;44414672]yep our response to this article that, yet again, makes the video game industry look like the most immature steaming pile of shit imaginable, should be to make it look even more immature[/QUOTE]
No, it makes people who like video games look like idiots. We have nothing to do with the industry.
[QUOTE=Nerokhan;44414558]My god, this is unthinkable.
Tormenting the developers like that proves how much of a monster Matti is.[/QUOTE]
It's actually super motivating to know that these sexist douches are becoming actual liabilities instead of it "just being how it is".
[QUOTE=cdr248;44414578]This is exactly what we shouldn't do.[/QUOTE]
Because then [I]he'll see it coming.[/I]
:P
[QUOTE=Venezuelan;44414707]Why are there tensions between Jon and Zoe? Is there some history or they just weren't getting along during the filming?[/QUOTE]
[IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3797350/hosting/2014-04/2014-04-01_01-35-30.png[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Ashes;44414560]Someone outta find Matti's phone number and fucking harrass and send him death threats
Evil mother fucker[/QUOTE]
This is why the gaming community and industry can be ridiculous at times.
[QUOTE=revanade;44414610]I'm sorry, but I'm kind of confused here. Is GAME_JAM just some show based around a game jam with popular youtubers and developers? And it mentions "Matti", is that Josh Mattingly? I've never heard of any of this before, and it probably doesn't help that I'm tired.
The idea and cast of the show sounds pretty great, it's a shame that it ended up like it did.[/QUOTE]
-snip- Nevermind, it wasn't Josh Mattingly, he's not the kinda guy to pull anything remotely like this.
Regardless, the YouTubers and at least one of the developers decided to go to Disneyland afterwards, likely to get the bad taste of the debacle out of their mouths. Apparently Dodger's gonna put up some videos of their Disneyland trip later on in the week.
Still, this fiasco was such a tragedy.
[QUOTE=Banned?;44414711]No, it makes people who like video games look like idiots. We have nothing to do with the industry.[/QUOTE]
what? when you have reputable indie devs going on 'real'ity tv with mountain dew ads surrounding them then yeh it makes the industry look pretty terrible yes
[QUOTE=MaxOfS2D;44414726][IMG]https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3797350/hosting/2014-04/2014-04-01_01-35-30.png[/IMG][/QUOTE]
My day just got brighter.
[QUOTE=ChestyMcGee;44414672]yep our response to this article that, yet again, makes the video game industry look like the most immature steaming pile of shit imaginable, should be to make it look even more immature
fuck off seriously
and after the response that zoe quinn got from her game, you think we should do the same to someone else? pathetic[/QUOTE]
OK so maybe my response was was retarded, and even wrong by far
But I didn't know how else to respond to someone who just wanted to stir shit for attention and who obviously is anti feminist,
Calling me pathetic and to fuck off is just like FP, not wanting to do a damn thing yet look super cool and righteous
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