2023, book 15: Blood, sweat, and pixels, Jason Schreier

Hey, it's OK. Mostly. The writing is solidly meh-plus, which is pretty good for this kind of book.

Most interesting chapters: Stardew Valley, Diablo III, Shovel Knight, and The Witcher 3. Random thing I was unaware of: GOG is part of CD Projekt, the developers of The Witcher series. Huh.

Page 121, Microsoft screws up a promising RTS by insisting it use the Halo universe:

"Halo was incredibly hot at the time," said Peter Moore. The first two games had sold millions of copies, and Halo 3, coming in 2007, was one of the most anticipated games ever. "We felt that [Halo] was IP that lent itself well to a real-time strategy game, given the way that the universe was constructed. Good guys versus bad guys. All the stuff you needed in an RTS. And I think that probably the data and the evidence lent towards a lower-risk opportunity in Halo than in new IP."

Holy hell, Peter Moore is a complete idiot. Even if I assume that he's being quoted out of context here, he's still a colossal tool. He shows such a complete misunderstanding of what makes good RTS games good that it boggles the mind. Is this man a parody of the clueless marketing drone? Peter, do the world a favour and shut up until you've played some Starcraft. Good versus bad guys? Sheesh... At least have the honesty to say you were scared of new IP and that you had no other reason. (OK, I've now read the Wikipedia article on this clown. EA Sports? Liverpool FC? Yeah, no doubt, I'd hate his guts and I'm unsurprised he'd defend a braindead decision like this.)

Page 160, quoting Cameron Lee:

"It didn't do the story help," said Lee, "because you've closed the rift, so what's the urgency to keep going?"

"Didn't do the story help"?! Don't quote broken-ass english like this! That's what paraphrasing is for.

In contrast, on page 171 we find this footnote:

Recalled Ian Flood of their creative process: "It's like, 'That's really cool that you think that's what Batman should do, but you know what Batman really needs to do? Be out by Christmas.'"

Now that's a good quotation! That should be in the main text.