Jeff just posted on Twitter "After reading up on all the really creepy Hydrophobia drama, I sort of want to buy a copy and see what the deal is, maybe do some video." 
 
Any ideas as to what this might be? I've only recently heard of this game, and it seems interesting, so I'd like to know more about it :D

People gave the game a bad review and the devs are QQing like bitches.

People gave the game a bad review and the devs are QQing like bitches.

Yeah, I saw that and (admittedly very roughly) tried to look up what Jeff was about.
 
Here's the first hit.

" http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/09/hydrophobia-developer-defends-game-attacks-critics.ars   Pretty much sums it up.  "

" @jukezypoo said:

" http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/09/hydrophobia-developer-defends-game-attacks-critics.ars   Pretty much sums it up.  "

Thats the one Jeff retweeted.  Reading about what shes doing is just kinda sad. "

I don't always agree with edge but thank god for their hard nosed stance on things.
 
If every press outlet agreed on reviews what would be the point?
 
Developers should know by now that the market is always going to side with the press unless you have an absolutely sterling and long standing relationship with the market.
 
Unfortunately hydrophobia's dev's do not and this kind of temper tantrum PR nonsense is not going to win them any friends.

So the game is bad?  Damn.  I was really hoping for a good one with it.  Game Feast starts off poorly!!!  Hopefully, Comic Jumper and Super Meat Boy will ease that pain. 

I think meat boy will be the only one worth getting. Could be wrong though.

The way the creative director has acted in retaliation to the bad review scores has been amazingly unprofessional. I can understand that someone would be upset if they spent all that time working on a game only for it to be somewhat of a critical flop but getting aggressive and telling everyone who didn't like the game that they didn't play it or were playing it wrong makes her look bad, makes her company look bad and starts to undo all the hard work that the development team has put into the game.

I really enjoyed the game.  it's one of those games where the enjoyment is derived from how creative you can be when you play.   
 
I remember when IGN wrote a column on Just Cause 2, saying "well, you could attach that car to the ground with your grapple gun to stop it, but you could just as easily simply blow it up".  If you take the easiest, simplest path through any game you're missing the point.   
 
That said, I disagree with the outrage from the developer.  

Making games is a stressful, time-consuming business. I honestly feel the anger from the developers, having committed a large amount of time and effort into a product, and then have reviews question the game's design. That can be infuriating for a creative director. I played enough of the trial to deduct that the game wasn't bad, but his comparison that the design of the game is the equivalent of, and I quote: 

 “There’s a famous quote from a very early American president from the turn of the previous Century, who said, ‘Electricity? It’ll never catch on.’ If you’re producing something new, people have an adjustment phase.”

rofl at their ego. 
 
"you're playing our game wrong!" 
 
Maybe your programmers and level designers should have been better then, because you're not going to be able to phone every player of your game and tell them how to play it 'right'. 
 
"Our game is as revolutionary as electricity" 
 
No one will remember it by next week. Enjoy your debt.

When you have Microsoft telling you your work is amazing for months and months before it's release in order to sew it up as an exclusive, you might fall into the trap of believing that that opinion will be shared by everybody, even people who don't want anything from you.

I wanna try the trial soon, see if its anything good =)
 
Media loves this kind of drama tho <3

Shame that game sucked total ass. Would like to see a QL nonetheless just to see what Jeff and them think of it.

Reminds me of the recent interview with Ken Levine, where he was talking about developers desperately trying to convince people that their games were revolutionary and had amazing features. If it's a good game, then its good qualities should speak for themselves; the developer shouldn't have to try to explain how good they think their own game is...

Is it wrong that I feel slightly bad for this woman?
Sure, whats she did was idiotic, but she did put a heck of a lot of time behind something she no doubt loved to death and so to get 3/10, even if your game is middling on average, must be a harsh blow.

" Is it wrong that I feel slightly bad for this woman? Sure, whats she did was idiotic, but she did put a heck of a lot of time behind something she no doubt loved to death and so to get 3/10, even if your game is middling on average, must be a harsh blow. "

" aw man dont know if i want to play the game anymore I'm a big fan of Jim Sterling the developpers suck and their game kind of deserves to bomb now "

Its like the collective consciousness of Giantbomb embodied in a woman, of all things.

Better than being embodied in an uptight prig, I guess.

Yeah writing vitriol to reviewers for not "getting" your game isn't uptight at all. I'd love for you to be the guy defending her for 10 pages. You've got nothing else to do, right? Essay time.

" Shame that game sucked total ass. Would like to see a QL nonetheless just to see what Jeff and them think of it. "

Only played the trial, but from the 15 minutes I spent with the game, it's clear this game terrible. The water was kind of fun to play with though. Nothing on the level of what PhysX is doing on PC.

" Is it wrong that I feel slightly bad for this woman? Sure, whats she did was idiotic, but she did put a heck of a lot of time behind something she no doubt loved to death and so to get 3/10, even if your game is middling on average, must be a harsh blow. "

" Is it wrong that I feel slightly bad for this woman? Sure, whats she did was idiotic, but she did put a heck of a lot of time behind something she no doubt loved to death and so to get 3/10, even if your game is middling on average, must be a harsh blow. "

Also, their website says 20010, so perhaps they've actually spent 18,003 years working on this game. In that case, it's even more disappointing to see a game being worked on for 18 millennia and still get a middling score :( "

" @Hitchenson: I happen to agree with our grammatically challenged friend here, in that mr. Sterling is a brilliant provocateur, with way more depth than people give him credit for. "

 According to Chester, she demanded Jim's phone number, saying that if he was playing the game wrong she needed to correct it.

I wonder if this still counts for "all publicity is good publicity"

I understand the developers rage, you spend all that time on a game just to have some prick whose sole "job" is to play games bashing it, seriously bitching about the water physics? I would like to ask that guy to find me a game with better ones so he can show me hes source of comparison, imo the water looks great as NO GAME has anything like it.
 
Also anyone who gives Deadly premonition a 10 should never be taken seriously, ever.
 
having said that I still don't think the devs had the right reactions, it just makes them look even worse and the reviewer pricks look like victims.

" I understand the developers rage, you spend all that time on a game just to have some prick whose sole "job" is to play games bashing it, seriously bitching about the water physics? I would like to ask that guy to find me a game with better ones so he can show me hes source of comparison, imo the water looks great as NO GAME has anything like it.  Also anyone who gives Deadly premonition a 10 should never be taken seriously, ever.  having said that I still don't think the devs had the right reactions, it just makes them look even worse and the reviewer pricks look like victims. "

k, just watched the trailer.
 
Bioshock fanfic + 3D platforming + third person shooting = Revolutionary, duh.
 
+ bad russian accents

" @onarum said:

" I understand the developers rage, you spend all that time on a game just to have some prick whose sole "job" is to play games bashing it, seriously bitching about the water physics? I would like to ask that guy to find me a game with better ones so he can show me hes source of comparison, imo the water looks great as NO GAME has anything like it.  Also anyone who gives Deadly premonition a 10 should never be taken seriously, ever.  having said that I still don't think the devs had the right reactions, it just makes them look even worse and the reviewer pricks look like victims. "

but dude hasn't even REVIEWED it yet; edge is the one who gave it a 3, the guy works at destructoid "

"seriously bitching about the water physics? I would like to ask that guy to find me a game with better ones so he can show me hes source of comparison, imo the water looks great as NO GAME has anything like it."

@BeachThunder
 
sorry I can't see any huge masses of water forming waves and stuff on that TECH DEMO.

" So the game is bad?  Damn.  I was really hoping for a good one with it.  Game Feast starts off poorly!!!  Hopefully, Comic Jumper and Super Meat Boy will ease that pain.  "

Has anyone told the devs that Hydrophobia doesn't mean what they think it means yet?
 
As Hydrophobia is either;
 
a) A chemical 'aversion' or 'rejection' of water at a molecular level.
b) Used to describe an animal in the latter stages of Rabies.
 
The word they were looking for was Aquaphobia i'm sure.

" Has anyone told the devs that Hydrophobia doesn't mean what they think it means yet?  As Hydrophobia is either;  a) A chemical 'aversion' or 'rejection' of water at a molecular level.b) Used to describe an animal in the latter stages of Rabies.  The word they were looking for was Aquaphobia i'm sure. "

" @EOT said:

" Has anyone told the devs that Hydrophobia doesn't mean what they think it means yet?  As Hydrophobia is either;  a) A chemical 'aversion' or 'rejection' of water at a molecular level.b) Used to describe an animal in the latter stages of Rabies.  The word they were looking for was Aquaphobia i'm sure. "

I know you wanted to sound witty and all, having looked this up on Wikipedia, but unless both Webster's and Oxford dictionaries decided to take crazy pills when they came to this entry, Hydrophobia can also mean a fear of water. "

• Rabies, especially a set of symptoms of the later stages of an infection, in which the victim has difficulty swallowing, shows panic when presented with liquids to drink, and cannot quench his or her thirst.
• Phobia of water (this is mainly colloquial, phobia of water is usually called aquaphobia, see below, to differentiate it from rabies.)
• Aquaphobia, a morbid fear of water, or of swimming.
• Hydrophobe, a term used in chemistry to describe chemical "aversions" of a molecule or part of a molecule
• Hydrophobia (video game)
• Hydrophobia, a Hungarian disk magazine (1996–1997)