Dyack's defense: Too Human haters 'just don't get it'

In the design world, players not getting it is pretty much a euphemism for bad design.

I'm having serious Lair flashbacks here. And that's not good.

Saying the audience just "don't get it" is the last cry of a true hack. If the audience doesn't get it then you did it wrong since the point is to entertain and sell games.

Maybe they should pay CNET to hype their game up a little bit.

I'm still really interested in this game and loved the demo so I am going to get this game immediately, but this statement from Dennis makes me groan.

I remember someone who made "Turning Point: Fall of Liberty" say the exact same thing.

Please Dennis, don't insult your audience. Put quite simply, this game is something a lot of people apparently didn't think was all that great.

$60 is too much to take a gamble on a game that scored a 6.5.

I think Denis confused "not understanding a game" with "not being entertained by the game". Going back to Suda, I didn't have a damn clue about what was going on my first run through of Contact, but I still found it enjoyable. I don't get Geo Wars, but its still my latest crack addiction.

If a game is enjoyable, it shouldn't matter whether or not I "get it", because I should be too busy enjoying it to notice underlying messages my first run through. That's where replay value comes in.

Dyack is full of himself and this is expected. Has anyone heard interviews with him? He spouts off pseudo-intellectual theories and tries to somehow make them relevant to his game design.

I remember being psyched about this game before the GC was launched, it sounded like an epic sci-fi adventure touching on deep themes..then when I saw the recent clips of it and saw it's nothing more than a simple brawler with lots of loot...how lame!

Lair redux, indeed

To suck is too human, to bitch is to dyack

Wow, what a dickhole. Is this guy in denial or something? Seriously, your game sucks!

Umm.

"It's ironic, it just shows that human nature of if you don't understand something, you immediately attack it."

That puts the lawsuit in an interesting light.

how is the utter lack of a user-controlled camera "innovative"? not only is it NOT innovative, it's ancient technology (and annoying). this Dyack guy is a contradictory blowhard. he says "a lot of negative reaction to the game's demo has its roots in fear of the unknown." That's an absolute contradiction. If they played the demo, it ain't unknown anymore.

People played the demo, some hated the camera and the right-stick attack "innovation" (garbage) because it feels like you are playing a pre-Y2K game, NOT an innovative game. This guy's a crybaby because his game isn't up to snuff.

Im sure i understood that i didnt like the fighting styles and camera angles just fine.

Or... was the no free camera supposed to be the innovative part??

Also its nice that something is innovative, but it can be innovative and just not work. Its not that we dont get it, its more like u don't get it lol.


Short version: Your Doing it Wrong.

I've always wondered why game developers didn't take a more hands on approach in the online community. It would seem like they'd be the same type of people as those of us that frequent videogame blogs.

Now, I understand why. From a PR standpoint, this is a disaster.

"And it's because we've created something so innovative and different" bullshit, it's diablo plus space vikings. Nothing about this game is new and innovative. I bet the game would have been shitloads better if Dyack never touched it

i was looking forward to this game... lol.
something different than the 5 shooters i will probably buy this year... gears, resistance 2, cod5, killzone 2, etc.

What a surprise...Dyack is throwing another temper tantrum because people are pointing out the obvious flaws in his game. I've been playing the demo and for the most part I agree with the reviews that have come out, the game has potential but way too many flaws prevent it from being a good game

I will defend this game saying that while it isn't perfect, it still was pretty fun. But Dyack bitching about haters is not helping this game at all.

My advice to Dyack: Shut the fuck up and accept the fact that your game is average. And be happy with the fact that there are still people out there who do enjoy the game. There's just no point in alienating everyone by being a dick.

Nobody should be mad at this director, after all, it's quite obvious that he is fighting like crazy to keep his job after blowing a 10 year project with the hype that Too Human had. Neither Microsoft or anybody else will want to continue this trilogy or hire this so-called innovative director to create another "amazing game" that for some reason, every consumer just happens to believe is total crap. Dyack's career in the video game industry is over for all intensive purposes!

God, please shut up, Dyack.

Does anyone else get the feeling that all of the characters in Too Human were actually mocapped marionettes?

Wow. Thanks Dyack! You have truly opened my eyes. I thought I just didn’t like Too Human, and now I know it’s just that I don’t understand it. Amazing!!! I now know that everything in life that I don't like isn’t because it is sub par and truly lack luster (like I thought Too Human was), but rather it’s because I simply “don’t get it.” I will remember that the next time a car mechanic does a crappy job on my car. I will keep your quote handy and refer to it the next time I get food poisoning from a botched cooking job at a restaurant. It isn’t that the mechanic or cook did a poor job, it is simply because I don't understand it. In fact, next time a friend’s beloved family member passes away and doesn’t like it, I will make sure that I mention your concept of only disliking something because we don’t get it. I’m sure that will make as much sense in that situation as it does with your game’s situation.

Well I think that Too Human is exactly as the name implies… “Too Human.” Naming your game after a species that is far from perfect and contains many flaws is appropriate for this title. It is also funny how you mention innovation a bunch in your interview yet your game seems to be stuck in 1999. I do see all those innovations, it’s just a shame that they are just really late to the party and actually happened in games sometime in the last 8 or so years. You could of course blame the Y2K bug because that is happening next year right? Oh wait… no worries though Dyack. Everything is okay. If you don’t like what I just typed, as well as any negative reviews on your game, you can always chalk it up to what you say… it's only because you “just don’t get it.”

"You just don't understand my genius."

Sorry, Denis, when you have to EXPLAIN your genius to me, it ceases to be genius.

Loved your previous work, but you may have jumped the shark.

I'm just saying.

Oh, dear. The weak, faint cry against negativity, "You just don't get it." Shame on us gamers. We clearly didn't get what he was going for.

67 is a bad average... especially when the xbox 360 has way more games with higher averages, it makes it look even worse.

Too Human is not a good game, I knew this when I started playing the demo... I'm glad others agreed with me.

I'm going to play it and I'm probablly going to like it. I'm just lucky like that.

I think that over all the other problems that people have brought up with the game, the thing that hits me the most is that the single player story is only 10 hours long...but it's plotted as a trilogy? The game could very obviously have had all three parts in one game. That's like .hack first series level of bullshit padding just to sell more games.

I made this image macro to commemorate Too Human's scores:

http://rigbysface.com/Internets/NoThanksDyick.jpg

Oh, I get it. I get that I can't aim or look at anything very well because you decided to use the right stick to swing a frigging sword. I get that you tried to compensate for this huge misstep by having the game decide what I want to shoot at, instead of me. I get that the game has been in development so long that you didn't account for the proper dual-stick setup every single 3rd-person 3D action game has adopted for a *reason*.

From such a company that graced us with 'Legacy of Kain' and 'Eternal Darkness', I am having a hard time accepting that they would push out such an unfinished product like 'Too Human'.

My personal opinions on Dyack aside, the game suffers from bad design choices that could easily have been eliminated during the 10 year cycle of which the game was produced.

However they made the choice to keep those design elements in, be it out of pride or pure ignorance; or the actual belief that they were innovative. Now after the game is released Dyack attributes that critics and players alike are scoring it low, and by some galactic coincidence are pointing out the exact same flaws, with that "they don't get it."

Well you are making the game for us, so for your game to be successful we have to get it. If we do not get it, the game has failed to deliver.

Also, I don't really like how people compare Dyack to Molyneux; Molyneux is a brilliant and passionate gamer and developer that swallowed his pride and admitted that Fable was inferior and that he was an inferior designer at the time. He did not go into a pissing contest with everyone who disliked Fable.

Even though Fable did not deliver what it was promised, it was still an entertaining game; although not revolutionary or innovative, it still delivered a compelling 20ish hours of fun. (This is of course subjective to taste, but the game was more or less polished.)

You know, this sounds remarkably like the argument used by people who support sex with minors.

Innovation is no excuse for almost puttin' me to sleep! Dang, and I liked them graphics too. I'm not an impatient gamer, i played Shenmue 1 and 2 multiple times, but geez!

That said, I give the demo a 7 out of 10.

Well, he's half right.

A lot of people didn't get the game... but not because it was particularly innovative. (its basically diablo 3d with an original setting.)

What people didn't get was the camera controls (using the right stick for the camera is very ingrained these days, and hard to get over) and the genre. Its a diablo style dungeon crawler with slightly beefed up combat... but it came across to a lot of people as a God of War style brawler... which drastically raises the standards for the combat controls.

Read the whole quote here :
http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/08/19/dyack-i-posted-on-neogaf-because-it’s-“the-worst-forum”/
Then reflect on how much of an asshole he really is.
Only then can you achieve peace and zen.

Honestly, I cannot think of a bigger motherf-cker.

I like that people can just deny reviews. Sure it's an opinion but I like that people will just literally say it's wrong.
"I don't like your game."
"because it's too awesome."
"...fine whatever"

This guy makes it impossible to defend him. I enjoyed the demo much more than I thought I would but there's still no way I buy this for more than $20.

So, how many people have actually played this game? I've been looking forward to it, but wasn't sure if this is just another "let's jump on the bandwagon and bash this game" situation or if people really played it and thought it sucked.

So making a shitty clone of Hellgate: London with PS2 graphics is innovation? I think somebody needs a dictionary... I played through the demo. Not horrbile, but certainly not great either. There is really nothing special here. Worth $20, at best, IMO.

Oh oh. Dennis is about to get owned by NeoGaf.

The fact that people keep yappin on about this 10 year cycle on here, among other things which is simply not true, makes me wanna get this game.

Reviews are *extremely* powerful at shaping peoples opinions, what to like and not like, and in creating expectations. And seeing games like Halo 3, GTAIV and MGS4 even getting 100/100 (yes, that's right, 0.0-10.0!) it's getting ridiculously appearant how these reviewers and sites either totally lack credability and/or are completely bought off.

Call me a pessimist, but I'd say there's certainly a possibility that SK/Microsoft just didn't pay enough to keep the reviewers "interested"....

After playing the demo and being agrieved by the mish-mash of the source material, which I admit is mostly a me problem and not a Dylack problem, I was underwhelmed by the way the entire game felt like a game I would have suffered through ten years ago.
I enjoy the high concept of the game, but its execution was so limp that it is instantly forgetable. When you compare it to any modern game that employs the same concepts and the huge disconect between Two Human and every good, solid game in the genre is palpable.
As gamers we always look for innovation, and I love new IP's, so I like many others had a lot of hope for this title. However, accusing his core audience of not getting his game is grounds for Dylack to be relegated to programing the next big movie game so we won't have to wonder if its worth checking out his next effort.

Yes its a very good game period! I would give it around 8.7/10. Hardcore gamers just wanted something so great, it would take away there pain of not having a girlfriend. SK are not stupid people and should be proud of this game for good reason. Its one of a kind, and there efforts should be rewarded.

i really thought this game was amazing,i bought it,loved it,and have a lvl 50 commander that i plan to max out with epic armor and the likes. I can't see why so many people hate it in the first place. It's like that other guy said,its either epic win or epic lose. WTF?! What ever happened to the inbetween, i play games to enjoy them,and i give all their fair share of chance. On that note i also really enjoyed Two Worlds, it just needed 5-10 mins to load and then it performed fine. But oh well,even still,i think every1 could enjoy games more if they just tried them rather then always listening to critics,i've stopped completely. Everytime i heard a critic talk bad about a game i ended up liking it. Also,last time i checked u know...the wicked long time they had to make it,wasn't there alot of shit between the publisher and microsoft and shit? Wasn't the game up in the air for awhile too? Or there's even a possibility that they had already started working on the second game? Looking ahead trying to be 1 step forward or ahead of mass Effect. But it could just be me since i like all mythology right? I just think if every1 stopped caring about critics and kept an open mind thinks might be better in the gaming world,and as far as what Dyack said,i might be alittle pissed if i worked my ass off on a game and most didn't even try it and said it sucked.