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NO MAN'S SKY DELAY BRINGS THE DICKS OUT OF THE WOODWORK - by Mr Biffo

28/5/2016

59 Comments

 
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Years ago, I was - briefly - semi-hot stuff in TV comedy circles. I had no fewer than three comedy pilots on the go, and most people I met assumed I was going to be The Next Big Thing in British comedy.

As you are probably aware, I never became The Next Big Thing in British comedy. One of my pilots simply wasn't good enough, and one of them was just too weird. And one of them - the one I think of as The One That Got Away, which had been precision-tooled to be a long-running replacement for My Family - got verbally greenlit for a series by BBC One controller Peter Fincham.... only for him to resign literally the next day over the BBC's misrepresentation of the Queen, before he had time to sign the paperwork.

Yes, that's right: like something out of Alan Partridge.

The show was then thrown into limbo for a year while a new controller was sought. They eventually commissioned a sitcom with an almost identical premise. The creator of that show once told me that she'd been shown my pilot by someone high up in BBC Comedy, and been asked "Can you make something like this?".

So instead of becoming incredibly rich and successful, I wrote Pudsey The Dog: The Movie, and ploughed a furrow in the lower-paid realm of kids TV. Where, frankly, I feel more at home than I ever had in the world of grown-up telly anyway.
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BRAAAAIIINS
I don't know what happens in the brains of other people when they suddenly go from being anonymous to being in some sort of spotlight.

​Most successful, publicly-known, people I've met seem so suited to it, as if they were genetically predisposed to being famous, and at the top of their game.

When it almost happened to me, I never felt any different. If anything I always felt out of place, an odd fit. Many people in that world seem to only want to hang out with other successful people in the industry, 
whereas I just wanted to be with my real friends and family, and do normal things.

I didn't want to go for lunch at The Ivy, or stumble out of the Groucho Club at 4am. On the rare occasions I've been dragged into places like that, everyone else seemed like they belonged there. Like they knew how to behave, what to talk about, what was acceptable.

At one party thrown by a production company, which I felt obliged to attend, there was a room set aside - complete with security guard at the door to keep out any sober ne'er-do-wells who might "harsh" someone's "buzz" - for guests to take cocaine. Such partying-while-Rome-burns decadence was so far from the touchstones of my otherwise ordinary life that it gave me anxiety, and I left.

Unfortunately, this mentality of not being one of Them might be behind one of the most unprofessional transgressions I ever made. 

SITCOMUNICADO
I was spending days auditioning people for one of my hundred or so potential sitcoms - this particular one was for a show that never even made it to pilot (though we did a reading with the cast in front of the TV bignobs).

Auditions are weird things when you're me: I, an anonymous nonentity, was sat there with the producer and a camera, effectively interviewing - and, indeed, acting opposite for the purposes of the audition - scores of actors, most of whom I recognised off the telly, many of whom I admired. People like Adam Buxton, Suranne Jones, Michelle Gomez... and people lower down the ladder, trying to blow smoke up my backside in the hope I'd give them their big break.

The biggest name I ever auditioned was probably Russell Brand. Back then he wasn't the international celebrity he is now: he was fresh off the drugs, and trying to rebuild his reputation. He was incredibly polite, and a bit shy.

Anyhow. One of the actors we had through the door told us he was going to be appearing in the new series of Doctor Who. This was shortly before it returned with Christopher Ecclestone as the Doctor.

​As someone who was eagerly awaiting the relaunch of the show, I wasted no opportunity to subtly interrogate him about his role. What he told me was beyond exciting. So exciting that I failed to be professional, and as soon as I got home I went onto a Doctor Who forum - where I had previously only lurked - to post my thrilling news in the spoiler section. 

There was no power trip in it for me, no arrogance. I simply wanted to share my excitement with likeminded others. My mistake. 

WHO DONE THAT?
As soon as I'd posted my spoiler, the massed ranks of Whodom descended upon me, calling me out as a liar.

Admittedly, the spoiler I'd offered did sound like a lie - at that point, we had no idea quite how shamelessly populist and OTT Russell T Davies' version of the show would be. Nevertheless, I wasn't a liar,and I was being called out as such. I'd posted it in good faith - in a section of the forum dedicated to spoilers - and received abuse for it, and calls for me to be banned.

Back then I was a bit touchier than I am now. I reached a point where I'd had enough of trying to convince them. I offered to prove my credentials to one particularly vociferous truther, by sending him a polite private message explaining exactly how I'd come about the information.

His response?

"I'm going to destroy your career, you fucking prick. You'll never work in TV again."
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REMINDED
Now, I mention all this, because something just reminded me of it.

I don't know if you've been aware of this week's games industry drama, but Kotaku published an article by one Jason Schreir, reporting that sources had suggested that the release of No Man's Sky was going to be delayed. Again.

It was a short piece, utterly innocuous. Nothing in there that you would think could possibly be controversial. 

​The response? Well... this is one of the messages Schreir received: 

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"The only thing I live for" suggests the sender is - what? - a hoaxer? A joker? Thinks it's funny? At least, I hope so, otherwise... damn. Either way, it's threatening, and I'm sure Schreir could've done without it.

There was more, particularly on the No Man's Sky subreddit and - inevitably - Twitter, suggesting that Schreir was making it all up. 

  • I refuse to believe that @NoMansSky has been delayed. None of the "evidence" I've found is convincing, and all of the articles quote kotaku.
  • The news originally came from @Kotaku, who along with gawker, have lost credibility in my eyes..#NoMansSky
  • @IGN @Kotaku stop trying to spread some bs article that No mans sky is delayed just because a "gamestop employee" claims something

Of course, hilariously, it has now been proven that Kotaku were right: No Man's Sky is being delayed slightly - to the 10th August in Europe - as confirmed by its director Sean Murray on the PlayStation blog: 

"As we approached our final deadlines, we realized that some key moments needed extra polish to bring them up to our standards. I have had to make the tough choice to delay the game for a few weeks to allow us to deliver something special."

Inevitably, that led to comments like this, trying desperately to save face, and hang onto their predetermined reality:

  • Regarding the #NoMansSky delay, I'm shocked that Kotaku WASN'T lying for once. Still doesn't excuse the other shit they've posted.
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NO MAN'S SIGH
So, there are a few things going on here that I just don't understand.

Firstly, why are people so excited about No Man's Sky? I mean, it looks as if it'll be great, potentially - but to be whipped into such a frenzy about a game that has yet to be released, yet to be reviewed, is inexplicable to me.

​I could understand if it was a sequel to a much-loved hit, but it's a new IP. Baffling. 

Secondly... Schreir did nothing wrong. As has been demonstrated by his report being proven right. What else are games websites and journalists for if not to report a story like that? What... you just want them to parrot carefully-controlled press releases? 

Thirdly... some people really hate Kotaku, and will use any opportunity to beat them around the head. 

Fourthly... it's just a video game. Why do you care so much? Did you really plan the rest of your year around No Man's Sky?

Fifthly... some people are just dicks aren't they?

TOO MANY DICKS SPOILS THE BROTH
I try, so very hard, to give people the benefit of the doubt. I've flirted with being a dick in the past. I know how easy it is to slip into dickishness as a way of lashing out at the world. I tell myself that everyone has feelings, everyone deserves to be valued...  

But the more I see of the games industry since coming back to it 18 months ago... the more I become convinced that some people are just utter arseholes.

There's no reasoning with these people, so locked are they into their worldview and dickishness, that it has become a way of life for them. It's so all-pervasive that it corrupts any effort to reach out to them, to reason with them, to make them see the benefit of entertaining other opinions, or trying to get some sort of perspective. They just want to hate, they just want to hurt, they just want to dig their heels in and never admit they're wrong, or that there might be any validity in viewpoints other than their own.

I mean, even at my lowest ebb, I never sent death threats to anyone - and believe me, I had good cause to do so - least of all over something so unimportant as a website reporting that a game was going to be delayed, possibly. 

I mean... it beggars belief. That sort of behaviour is just off the charts isn't it? Surely you've got to be slightly mentally ill, or have the emotional maturity of a 14 year-old, to do something like that?

Or maybe you're just a dick, always have been a dick, and always will be a dick, and no amount of empathy, no amount of trying to see things from your perspective, and give you the benefit of the doubt is going to change that. 

I don't want to see the world that way... I don't want to see anyone like that... but, unfortunately, looking at things as they stand, gaming seems to attract more than its fair share of these people. All evidence suggests that the modern games scene is nothing less than Dick Central.

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59 Comments
Alastair
28/5/2016 10:20:45 am

Dick central, from the Asylum rip off of Wreck it Ralph.

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Mr J Crikey link
28/5/2016 10:38:17 am

I was certainly hoping that the delay rumour was untrue, and managed to partly convince myself that it was - especially as I believe Kotaku was one of the outlets that based a 2016 NX release date on an unnamed source - but that sort of behaviour sits far outside my realm of understanding.

I'm excited for No Man's Sky. Personally this is because of the basic premise, the aesthetic, and from interviewing Hello Games back when they were 'the Joe Danger studio' I think they can actually pull it off.

But that level of hatred for a frickin' news report??

I don't think it's accurate to say that videogames have a higher percentage of dicks in their fanbase than other industries. It's simply that most human beings are dicks (optimism ho!), and an awful lot of kids play games. Kids are more likely to express their dickishness on the internet than older people.

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Mr Biffo
28/5/2016 10:40:48 am

That's more than likely true of course. I'm changing my stance though. No more Mr Nice Dick. I'm hoping that nobody really wants to be called a dick, and if they're being called out as such then maybe that'll give them cause to have a look at how they behave.

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Kelvin Green link
28/5/2016 10:47:56 am

"Beggars belief" is right. I cannot get my head around why anyone would respond to a news story about a computer game like that. It's beyond my understanding.

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Kelvin Who link
28/5/2016 10:53:49 am

Oh, and I know that forum. There are some very nice, positive people on there. There are also an awful lot of people who seem consumed by anger that Tom Baker left and do nothing but spread hate, so I'm saddened -- but not at all surprised -- by the response you got, Biffster.

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Mr Biffo
28/5/2016 11:13:18 am

Yeah... Suffice to say, I never posted again after that!

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Nin
28/5/2016 11:06:13 am

It's not gaming, it's nerd culture in it's entirety. Entitled dickbags who think they own whatever it is they're obsessed over.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
28/5/2016 12:38:44 pm

I used to do this a lot, smearing nerd culture to distance myself from it. It didn't really accomplish much in the end. If you're posting on a site about videogames, you're part of it, like it or not. The good news is that it's not just us. there's similar behaviour with stuff outside our sphere like sports and music, it's fan culture as a whole that's the problem. And hell, if you really want to go further, it's a small facet of the human need to define their identity by something that has inspired (or helped to perpetuate) a ton of worse things throughout humanity's history.

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Nin
28/5/2016 12:49:26 pm

Oh I'm making no attempt to distance myself from it, I'm very much part of that group. I'm increasingly tired of the spoilt brats stomping around like theyre owed something though.

Doc Strange
29/5/2016 01:10:45 pm

You hit the nail on the head there. They feel a sense of ownership over someone else's creation. To the point of feeling like they are owed it and the creator has an obligation to them. That the creation almost is pointless without their involvement. I've encountered readers and even book critics who think this way too so it's not reversed for games and tv shows. Deluded people who can't create stuff so claim ownership over others creations with a sort of 'Alpha Consumer' authority.

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Dr Kank
28/5/2016 11:17:45 am

Putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat, it looks like a fake threat to me - it's going on about making fun of a reddit although the article doesn't mention anything like that. There's no swearing or gratuitous exclamation marks. Note the lower case i, in contrast to the game title, an intentional conceit.

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Monkeymanbob
28/5/2016 11:26:17 am

The reactions and threats of these people fascinates me, the current writer of Captain America has also recently received death threats, all over a piece of fiction.
What ever th medium they are either fluid or short term in their "impact" on said medium. Will anyone be talking about No Mans Land in 5,10 or 20 years. Probably not. But the unfettered bile that some project, as I've said, is fascinating. There's a part of me that wants to engage with them to either find what broken piece of pysche leads them down this path or bait them into a state apoplexy.
I don't, I'd like to think because I'm mature enough or if you will, less of a dick than they are.
Still, at least there's a rich vein of material for anyone to write a sit-com about for these angry virgins.

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Saddan
28/5/2016 11:54:10 am

"have the emotional maturity of a 14 year-old"

The way I explain the level of awfulness around things like this is that it probably literally is a bunch of children posting it. I always assume someone is a grown up when I'm reading their comment, but all evidence points the other way

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Ian
28/5/2016 01:45:12 pm

There are probably hundreds of legal issues that would make it impossible, but a little glimpse of that sitcom script for your loyal patrons would be lovely!

But then I just enjoy reading scripts.

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Mr Biffo
28/5/2016 03:36:05 pm

Patrons and donors occasionally get the occasional benefit like that - where I can keep the scripts and whatnot hidden away...

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Ian
28/5/2016 04:08:41 pm

I do *enjoy* having access to your *special area*.

Mr Biffo
28/5/2016 04:11:23 pm

I bet you do. I'll see if I can dig out a script or two to put up next week.

Darren link
28/5/2016 02:40:06 pm

I have been looking forward to No Man's Sky since it was first announced at some gaming thing, somewhere, sometime.

With a month to go to release and Argos offering a decent offer on the PlayStation 4, I took the plunge and bought the console this week with the express intention of getting ready for the release of this new space exploring galaxy-fest.

The very next day, I hear that the game has been delayed. How did I react? I laughed and shrugged my shoulders.

And that's how life should be...

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KaraVanPark
28/5/2016 03:00:58 pm

Forums - Full of weirdos.
Facebook - Full of illiterates
Twitter - Full of hand-wringers

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WM
28/5/2016 03:14:22 pm

Isn't it also the case that journalists are fetishizing abuse a little bit? I think Jason was a little excited at the prospect of being the next target of GamerGate-style people. It brings exposure and positive attention from the right crowd.

Why else would you draw attention to what is obviously an empty, childish threat?

The "woe is being a journalist on the Internet!" angle is a little irritating. This is what it's like being anybody who publishes anything on the Internet, and a big part of that is developing the skills to filter the detritus comments out. You have to! Angry people who lash out unconstructively are absolutely everywhere in gaming, and if this event is genuinely notable to Jason then his job is too cushy and he hasn't exposed himself to his audience enough.

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Clockwork Fool
28/5/2016 08:41:05 pm

I've kinda got to agree with your sentiment here. I think that's a large part of what's going on.

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Mr Biffo
28/5/2016 09:09:15 pm

I'll also give it to you that there might be a teeny edge of that happening from time to time.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
29/5/2016 12:49:36 am

Looking at that nonsensical threat again, it has to be either someone trolling for laughs, or someone who isn't just a regular fanboy but actually has some serious psychological issues. Either way, not really representative of the average gamer.

That said, while I gave up on expecting anything of value from Kotaku years ago (long before Gamergate, I should add!) they shouldn't be threatened for actually reporting on news about games. At least that's progress from writing a few lines of text about funny images they found on Reddit.

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lilock3
28/5/2016 03:21:53 pm

I think that there are actually a lot of level-headed people with moderate views in the world. I think that, being moderate and level-headed, they see no reason to broadcast their moderate and level-headed views to the rest of the world. I will occasionally comment on something I read... and then I move on. Rarely do my (in my opinion) moderate and level-headed views inspire anger, vitriol or even just a passing comment from anyone else.

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PanamaJoe
30/5/2016 02:31:49 pm

Proven perfectly by the lack of comments on this post. Which I've just ruined.

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Omniro
28/5/2016 03:32:27 pm

The online gaming scene has always been full of insufferable dicks going all the way back to the 90s. Gaming is one of those activities that some people hang their identities on. There are people who book time off work just to play a new game release, like they're going on holiday or something. When they talk about games and their prowess at playing them, it's like they're talking about the time they stormed an enemy base in a war and got awarded a medal by the Queen.

Maybe there's some sort of psychological friction between that kind of internal view as a powerful entity, and the outside reality of being denied access to the source of that "power" that results in a kind of juvenile temper tantrum.

BTW Biffo, I thought Biffovision was absolutely splendid.

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Mr Biffo
28/5/2016 04:10:44 pm

Cheers, ears. So did I!

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Cusstopher
2/6/2016 12:50:23 pm

I'm a bit late to this, but it seemed a good opportunity to say that I also thought Biffovision was brilliant. Who done that? Did you done that? Scranton K. Mr Botton. All of these things that I might have remembered slightly incorrectly, all hilarious. I had some kind of recordable DVD player at the time and had the recording for years until I saw that it was on YouTube relatively recently. The rot that's on tv and yet this doesn't get picked up. Madness.

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Superbeast 37
28/5/2016 03:36:57 pm

So TLDR the "dicks" are:

1, An obsessed loony fan or two who go psycho at the messenger - well there will always be one in any form of entertainment. Although that looks like a troll to me who may not care about NWS or the delay and just wants to stir controversy and get attention. Mission accomplished! That is why the police consider such threats to be "not credible" and advise people to not say anything in public about it.

But hey why pass up on a good opportunity for victimbux, clicks and furthering the narrative/smearing of innocents? Feed them trolls!

2, A bunch of people who question a statement made by a notoriously dishonest blogger/publication who are well known for click bait and whose parent company (from which their culture is firmly inherited) are being sued out of existence due to their illegal practices.


I just see healthy scepticism there. They were right to question it and wait for an official statement or something from a more credible source.

So you have showed me one nutter and a few examples of healthy scepticism from an audience of millions. Nothing to see, move along.


IMO any media organisation that thinks it is OK to "out" closeted gay people or post private tapes filmed in peoples bedrooms won't get much sympathy from me when people don't trust them.

It pales into insignificance compared to some of the horrendously abusive acts that company have committed in real life.

Inb4 the strawman - no I am not condoning death threats and it is a pity because Kotaku do get some good scoops. There is some good there, they just need their offices flushed clean with bleach.

The people commenting here trying to smear the whole of nerd culture over the actions of a few obsessed fans are not much better IMO.

How many pre-orders are there for No Man's Sky? How many people crossed the line from healthy scepticism (e.g. "Kotaku are full of it, I don't the trust story") and into death threats/serious abuse? What percentage? Seriously try to think before smearing the entire nerd community.

Where ever you go, what ever country, culture or community, there will always be some mental person - or whatever the PC word for "mental" is these days.


As far as No Man's Sky is concerned, I have some serious questions about how good that game is going to be to play for more than a few hours. On the bright side this delay should push the game into the "Neo" window where all new games must have an enhanced Neo mode.

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Nick
29/5/2016 12:47:14 am

Always with the strawmen.

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Superbeast 37
29/5/2016 01:05:16 pm

It is ok to call them "dicks" though right?

People who are on the spectrum and have autism/aspergers which makes them get obsessively interested in something like NMS and get upset when they hear it has been delayed.

They then have problems dealing with or communicating that frustration correctly and we know what happens when they go online to express themselves...

I mean this whole article is effectively mocking them for caring so much about a video game which clearly baffles most people that don't have those conditions.

FWIW I don't give a monkeys about tone/language policing. It just becomes a meta game for point scoring by people who really don't care.

Superbeast 37
29/5/2016 01:05:58 pm

Sorry the above post was in reply to Paul.

Mr Biffo
29/5/2016 06:12:41 pm

Hey, yeah, it's absolutely not on to call them dicks. And that's me breaking one of my biggest rules: there's no such things as "dicks", "twats" etc... but there is such a thing as "dickish behaviour", "twattish behaviour" etc. It's a big distinction, but... I've spent the best part of two years pussy footing around that on this blog, so you can see this post as something of me reaching an exasperated tipping point. I've got to say... during the years when - looking back - I might've been considered a dick, I wasn't being like that because I am a dick. It was for a myriad of other reasons. Nevertheless, being called a dick - and being perceived as a dick - went a long way to getting me to sort my shit out.

Paul Jon Thrillin'
29/5/2016 12:20:47 pm

as someone with a delightful cocktail of mental illnesses, I'm not that bothered by people using 'mental'. Depends on the usage and context, really.

But saying " or whatever the PC word for "mental" is these days." shows that you know it COULD be found offensive but are using it anyway to prove some spurious point you find more important than respecting the mentally ill, which is sort of something a jerk would do.

Dinnae be that guy!

In other news, No Man's Sky looks pretty neat. If they need to take more time to get it right, they should! Don't want everyone complaining if it's released on time like they did with Street Fighter V. Never happy.

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Paul Jon Thrillin'
29/5/2016 09:36:53 pm

(response to superbeast above. the comments section is very odd about direct replies)

I'm not convinced the gaming arseholes you hear about with their harassment etc are necessarily on the spectrum. Impossible to say, perhaps insulting to assume. Also, people on the spectrum are often capable of understanding responsibility and consequence.

Also, just 'cos you're not interested in 'tone policing' doesn't give you a free pass to chuck about what you know are slurs, and suggesting so is a weird response to a mentally ill person (me) saying it's a bit dodgy.

"I'm not offended, so everyone that IS offended is lying and trying to score internet points" is kinda skew-wiff, really.

Suspect we are diametrically opposed regarding 'social justice' so this was probs a pointless response. Just, I dunno, please try not to assume that your attitude is the common sense one and that everyone else is somehow trying to besmirch a blameless gaming culture with PC-gone-mad power games?

Sometimes (most of the time) people are genuinely offended with no ulterior motive (being offended is not fun) by regressive, thoughtless aspects of pop culture. Striving to make games and culture more inclusive and reflective of a changing world are not bad things.

ChorltonWheelie
31/5/2016 08:29:11 pm

What's long, pink and ejects jizz?
YOU! HaHaHa! YOU SuperdickheadBeast. An absolute Whopper.
Wrong tone in the wrong forum.
Honestly, go and bore someone else to dickdeath.

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Old Red
28/5/2016 03:43:41 pm

You also have to remember that dicks tend to spend a lot of time alone and unfortunately the internet can't choose to not spend time with a dick.

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Wicked Eric
28/5/2016 04:41:16 pm

I once glassed a man for calling pacman a "wasteman".

And I'd do it again.

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Seano
28/5/2016 07:35:16 pm

Too many dicks. Not enough fannies.

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Clockwork Fool
28/5/2016 08:45:30 pm

The thing about No Man's Sky, to my mind at least, is twofold.

Firstly, if it works even vaguely like it's being advertised as working, it's essentially a technological breakthrough, a genuinely exciting achievement. On a purely academic level, it's quite a special project, at least potentially. Nothing else of that scale has ever, to my knowledge, even been attempted.

Secondly, it's basically a space exploration type game and there are a lot of people out there who have been dedicated fans of the genre for a very long time.

The fact that it's possible the game might be a half decent one and the developer seems like a genuinely nice sort are just kind of frosting, really.

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Adam
28/5/2016 09:40:12 pm

I hope you at least got well paid for all those pilots you churned out.

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Harry Steele
28/5/2016 09:55:25 pm

The thing is, I'm sure a lot of these people acting like kids are exactly that: kids. The Internet gives them an equal platform to speak their mind (no matter how immature their opinion) and of course the anonymity to make it sound like an unbalanced adult that might, just might, carry out their threat.

Replace an online forum with a room in real life and you'd likely see that the loudest rudest people would look just as stupid as they sound.

(I'm not wishing to tar all kids with the same brush, there are of course lots polite kids!)

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Damon link
28/5/2016 10:15:43 pm

"have the emotional maturity of a 14 year-old" Well, how emotionally mature are 14-year-olds supposed to be?

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Mr Biffo
28/5/2016 10:34:14 pm

Yeah, yeah. We know a lot of them are probably just kids. But still. If a 14 year-old spits on you or swears at you at a bus stop... empathy is only going to get you so far.

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Damon link
28/5/2016 11:44:08 pm

Oh I know that... but the thing with the internet is that you can't do shit and they know it. They're too young to have anything to lose in life which puts you, or any other professional, at the disadvantage.

Superbeast 37
29/5/2016 10:08:45 am

What gets my goat are the bigots who weaponise (hate that phrase) those kids and use them as an excuse to attack entire cultures.

Worse still are those cowards within the cultures who rather than stand up and defend the majority, prefer to virtue signal and slag everyone off.

Spiney O'Sullivan
29/5/2016 10:35:43 am

I agree that these kids shouldn't be used to define and denigrate the subculture, but it is annoying that due to having more free time and less fear of consequences, they are usually the loudest voices in the subculture. If more moderate people don't speak out about them, then they win. That said, I'd agree that it sucks that even the gaming press, who should have a better understanding of gamers as a whole, seem to have taken to hurling us all under the bus with these punks.

Also I'd like it if these kids could stay AWAY from my bins.

Dacanesta
28/5/2016 11:18:29 pm

Dear Lord.....
In the age of social media, there's a lot of noise.....so to be heard, the dicks shout loudest. If you read the comments sections of things you'll see how everything now is extremes. In fact, everything at the moment is extremes. So youve got your extreme dicks and your extreme non-dicks to combat them. It's Sanders vs Trump. It's the rise of your Corbyns but also the rise of your Farages. And it's genuinely scary. The only solace we have is that these dicks are merely hammering away on their keyboards that are lined with sweaty fingertip hate, rather than going into a church and shooting up the place. Either way, the message is 'Hear me! Pay attention to me!'.
Now, Biffo idiom....seems reasonably low-budget, in a good way, so no chance you could make it off your own back? Try to find a buyer and if not then release it online with pride? Or too busy/expensive?

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Dacanesta
28/5/2016 11:29:06 pm

Oh, I did a silly!
That should read 'Biffovision'. Yes.

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Mr Biffo
28/5/2016 11:43:31 pm

Well... "Biffo Idiom" was indeed low-budget, but still cost around £60K - and that was with people waiving all sorts of fees, in the hope of a series. Not sure I'd be able to raise the funds - even with crowdfunding - and certainly couldn't pay for it out of my own pocket. Not that I wouldn't want to mind. I'd love to do more. I'm open to suggestions as to how we made it happen, though.

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Dacanesta
29/5/2016 05:35:24 am

Yeah, not cheap that is it....
I guess I meant the general set up, in a studio and that. Was recently in Tokyo anyway and was asked to write the end of a film because 'it's got an english guy in it and you're english'. Made the 10 minutes or so for peanuts, and despite my terrible dialogue and some shoddy acting, it looked like a pretty decent production. Got a pretty experienced cinematographer to help us for free (as we helped him out on a horror short for a YouTube competition) and so the look was spot on. He supplied his own expensive camera, and he rest were film students who were happy to help out for free, and I assume got the equipment from their uni, or maybe ache had a passion for that particular part of their craft, eg sound, and had their own stuff. Long spiel, but I'd say with contacts, which you must have, or a 'wanted: students to film show for free!' Type thing? And I look at the fosters shorts for Vic and Bob and can't help thinking they weren't expensive. And as someone says, there's always the audio route a la Chris Morris.....on the hour became the day today, for example. Must be a few routes into alternative medias that are rough and ready maybe but still artistically viable!

David W
29/5/2016 08:42:50 am

Biffovision spin-off Broom Cupboard style, one small room and a fixed camera?

If you could somehow use the former BBC Television Centre, decaying abandonment and all, that would be perfect.

Spiney O'Sullivan
29/5/2016 05:45:33 pm

I love the idea of filming from the now deserted and dusty CBBC broom cupboard. It would have a bit of a Five Nights at Freddy's feel, but with decaying versions of Gordon the Gopher and Ed the Duck strewn around.

Damon link
28/5/2016 11:51:14 pm

Mr. B could always explore the format of audio drama or drop as a visual-novel-style narrative. They tend to be low-cost sofaras production goes but good talent tends to cost the same across the board.

That said I am friends with a voice director who is currently working on a film adaptation of a children's book, oddly enough.

Larry Blamire is writing a series of audio adventures (the adventures of "Big Dan Freighter") to fund the third film in his Lost Skeleton of Cadavra trilogy. There are ways, Mr. B.

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Mr Biffo
29/5/2016 10:51:34 am

Well, yeah... I mean, the Digi YouTube channel had little vids, obviously. They were more or less made up on the fly... but were time consuming and never proved particularly popular, which is why I've stopped doing them. Plus, I'm not a performer - to do a Biffovision properly, I'd need an actor. Who might need paying... and... ack! But - believe me - I would love to do it. IF there's a way.

Dacanesta
31/5/2016 10:41:18 pm

Student actors, man! I've seen it, they will happily work for free, and coz everyone is working for free, there's a good bit of camarderie and desire to make a good end product!

Martin
29/5/2016 12:35:32 am

When I heard the news I cut an old grannies beak right off.

Reply
Rob Ace
29/5/2016 12:50:57 am

What was the sitcom that was like yours that did get made?
What was the spoiler you posted that no one believed?
Also I wish Michelle Gomez would add a Mc to her name or something.
I always start thinking of Michelle Rodriguez, before deciding that's not right.

Reply
Random Reviewer
29/5/2016 01:52:05 am

"I could understand if it was a sequel to a much-loved hit, but it's a new IP. Baffling" I mean, that's sort of why I'm so excited about it.

See, I think we've reached a point where people are willing to take a risk on new IP's and so invest in them partly because they are looking for something palpably fresh. But 'newness' alone doesn't cut it, so another part of the excitement for me is that I love the premise of the game and hope the devs can execute it as close as possible to the idea of the it I hold in my head.

People have emotionally invested in this game before its release because not having a pre-existing title to fall back on allows them to form their own idea of what the game might be like. The most potent form of hype is that which is created in the imagination of the expectant gamer, spurred on by a few promotional videos and interviews with devs. It can lead to getting genuinely excited about things in a childlike way that can be very pleasant to get caught up in.

Which goes some way to explaining (but not excusing) the various levels of dickishness.on display towards Kotaku. You take all that energy and feed into it an article from a Gawker (catshit) affiliated site like Kotaku (pigshit wrapped in catshit) whose dubious publishing history gives people good reason to expect something to be either improperly sourced or an outright lie and the results are, well... predictable. Sad, but predictable.

I'm not saying that the people who slung insults/death threats at the Kotaku writer ain't dicks (they are). However, despite publishing the odd decent article, Kotaku are equally as responsible for the poor standard of discourse in gaming at the moment.

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