Stephen Russell's absence and Thief

Tomi on 6/7/2013 at 22:21

Quote Posted by Ceamonks890

Taking the disgusting behaviour towards actual Thief fans from EM employees into account, this game doesn't even deserve a purchase from anyone IMO.

And what exactly is this disgusting behaviour? :p

Azaran on 6/7/2013 at 22:32

Quote Posted by Tomi

And what exactly is this disgusting behaviour? :p

LOL..are you serious? Deleting links to our petition, completely ignoring our pleas to get Stephen Russell back (essentially spitting in the face of the established fanbase), banning people from their forums for complaining about it, etc...ad infinitum

386DX on 6/7/2013 at 23:21

Not to mention the negative things they have said about the original gameplay in various videos and interviews.

I feel Stephen Russell's departure was probably heavily influenced by EM's decision to reboot the series. This allowed for them to secure a fresh new voice actor whom they can call their own for EM's next three Thief inspired games. I'd be curious to know how soon after that decision was made that Stephen Russell was kicked out the door and the focus on unnecessary mocap technology began.

A voice actor is the absolute easiest way to connect over a decade old game to a reboot of the franchise. :tsktsk:

Tomi on 6/7/2013 at 23:54

Quote Posted by Azaran

Yes, I'm serious. I haven't read the Eidos forums at all myself, but I've heard that there's some censorship stuff going on, and some people have even got banned from there apparently. Yikes! I have no reason to doubt that, but I'm also quite certain that things aren't as black and white as these people claim them to be... Of course it's nice to blame the evil EM and their nasty mods for everything though. :cool:

I was actually going to reply to your post about this subject in another thread earlier, so here goes:

Quote Posted by Azaran

And let's not forget how they consistently delete threads and posts with links to our SR petition.

Consistently delete threads? You (as in "general you") keep consistently posting threads that will get deleted, and then wonder why you get banned? Oh dear.
I just spent almost half an hour reading posts on the Eidos forum, and I saw a lot of people complaining about a lot of things, including the absence of SR. The posts haven't been deleted and these users haven't been banned either. The general mood on the Eidos forum seems to be a bit more positive, but I can't see any big conspiracy there. Of course if some people keep posting the same things over and over again, knowing that they will get deleted, then they can only blame themselves for getting banned. Isn't that quite obvious?

Yes, I'm also a bit disappointed that Stephen Russell won't be voicing Garrett again (but it's hardly a dealbreaker for me either, to be honest), but it seems like EM has made their decision. If the petition helps, then yay! But if not, c'est la vie - the new guy is still pretty good and the game isn't all about SR anyway. Their explanation of getting rid of SR sounds silly to me, but what I find even more silly is the ridiculous "us versus them" attitude of some people. The concept of "true fan" only exists in the heads of those people, the same people who see EM as some kind of an unholy beast and the ultimate enemy, and see great conspiracy theories everywhere. :p Reading their posts often makes me cringe with embarrassment. How could anyone even take them seriously? Because no matter what you do, they'll always find something to complain about. If I was a game developer, I would certainly "completely ignore" these people.

So, we've got our fair share of loonies in here, but we've also got people who are capable of rational thinking. People who see the positives and the negatives, and don't jump to any hasty conclusions based on gossip or lacking evidence. To me, it's their opinions that really matters the most, and I bet that the game developers don't "completely ignore" them either...

New Horizon on 7/7/2013 at 00:12

Quote Posted by Tomi

I just spent almost half an hour reading posts on the Eidos forum, and I saw a lot of people complaining about a lot of things, including the absence of SR. The posts haven't been deleted and these users haven't been banned either. The general mood on the Eidos forum seems to be a bit more positive, but I can't see any big conspiracy there.

The moderating over there lately has been more...restrained. If you weren't even there during all of that nonsense, you can't really get a firm grasp of what it was like. I was there and it was a ton of BS. There were tons of unjust deletions and bans.

MensaLaureate on 7/7/2013 at 02:08

Ex-Eidos Montreal user here. In the nearly 5 years I was there, I went through 5 accounts, 3 accumulated the maximum 100 infraction points and 2 got banned before that.

I can attest that, yes, threads get deleted, posts get deleted, censorship is beyond ridiculous, and favoritism abounds. I once got an infraction for using the term "Boys and Girls" because it was condescending. And when I pointed out to a mod that there was a thread that contained a link to a video that was filled with expletives, all the mods (and B1skit too) said they never clicked the link, and that was after it was up for 2 weeks. It just so happens that the thread was started was by a highly respected, long time, Thief apologist. And I got another infraction for "Excessive Drama" when I demanded the link get removed.

Now, I for one, am glad Russell is out of the picture. EM knew that a Thief 2.5 would bomb. An utter flop it would be. And by Thief 2.5 I mean a game that looked like LGS developed it right after the Metal Age. Deadly Shadows, even with Russell as the voice, was blasphemous. EM knew they had to take it in a new direction. Their biggest blunder was calling the character Garrett. Had they made it a female, they would have struck gold.

Russell is just the icing on the cake. A great voice, but even he couldn't save TDS when sloppy, lazy development enters into the picture. Orzari has got what it takes. Besides, Garrett's New England drawl really never worked. Garrett, and the City he lived in, demanded his voice be unique, alluring, and exotic. Orzari fits the bill.

Specter on 7/7/2013 at 02:17

I wont buy it if SR makes a miraculous return, and it would actually depress me a little if he did. At this point, like others here, I feel this game is so far removed from what I believe Thief should be that I would rather it have no ties at all to the original games.

Chade on 7/7/2013 at 02:31

Voted "no impact", but that's not really true ... the poll is missing lots of options. I went for the least untrue.

Shinrazero on 7/7/2013 at 02:41

Quote Posted by Chade

Voted "no impact", but that's not really true ... the poll is missing lots of options. I went for the least untrue.

I aimed to make the poll super simple as I am curious to see if SR's absence is a deciding factor on purchasing nuThief, nothing more. What do you mean "least untrue"? I don't feel the poll is missing a lot of options, given the intent but what would you have added, out of curiosity?

Chade on 7/7/2013 at 09:31

Eh, I guess I just feel uncomfortable voting for an option with wording that makes it sounds like I don't care about Stephen Russell at all. I care about Stephen Russell in the same way that I care about Randy or Eric or Terri and all the others.