Paul Trowe criticism on Kickstarter update

[Fronzel Neekburm]

Awesome! I was about to resign in disgust from the Replay forums after Trowe's revolting display towards dedicated über-fans like Serena and Tom, only to find out that someone already took the dirty work upon himself and banned me.

 

Well played, Mr Trowe! Well played! Driving away the few remaining fans who were willing to spread some positive word of mouth about a perfectly mediocre game.

 

I can't say how sincerely sorry I am for people like Serena, Tom and Irishmile for having so graciously given so much of their time, money, hard labour and LOVE, who are now getting spit out by this ungrateful scumbag.

[Decaffeinated Jedi]

If this follows Paul's usual modus operandi, I predict a public apology to Mark, Scott, Chris, and the fan community sometime within the next 12 hours.

[MusicallyInspired]

Guess who won't be believing him a second time.

[Frede]

Yeap, that apology is gonna have to go unaccepted.

[MusicallyInspired]

Incidentally, in light of these events I'm also quite curious what happened to Josh.

[rogerxy]

I agree with the others that it's really nice to see the community stick together. Love you guys

[Collector]

I just noticed, Josh's Facebook page has been deactivated.

[tomimt]

Last week I was thinking of I could be willing to back possible LSLR2 remake if Replay would ever suggest it. Now, after all this, I must say that if a second Larry KS would ever emerge, I'd steer away from it with Paul Trowe in the handle. He has lost all credibility in my eyes.

[Troels Pleimert]

I just noticed, Josh's Facebook page has been deactivated.

 

Josh deactivating his Facebook page, as far as I know, had nothing to do with him leaving/being asked to leave Replay. It may have been related to it, but I got the feeling it was just him needing to wind down his on-line social life? (I also have no idea of the story surrounding his departure from Replay, either. I'm guessing that, in due time, the man himself -- or Trowe -- will let us know. Hopefully, they both will -- Josh for the honesty, and Trowe for the snidey, unintentionally funny, mostly-fictional side. ;) Sorry, that was mean. Back on my high horse.)

 

 

Awesome! I was about to resign in disgust from the Replay forums after Trowe's revolting display towards dedicated über-fans like Serena and Tom, only to find out that someone already took the dirty work upon himself and banned me.

 

Sounds like someone got busy with the ban-hammer.

 

If this follows Paul's usual modus operandi, I predict a public apology to Mark, Scott, Chris, and the fan community sometime within the next 12 hours.

 

Unlikely, my friend, since he now believes that SQN is populated solely by trolls. Not troels'; trolls. ;) From his witty and insightful retort on Kickstarter:

 

"So go troll on spacequest.net and gossip about me because honestly, I won't lose sleep over anything you guys have to say about me."

 

He's right; I think he has more pressing things to lose sleep about, to be honest.

[MusicallyInspired]

It's funny, not even that many people were really being insulting to him. Just giving him advice and asking him to stop being a douche. He obviously thinks everyone is like him. Nothing but negative things to say. Really shows how much bigger even SQ fans are than this man.

 

I feel like we as a community and backers of SV should do something really nice for the 2 Guys and the Pope to show them our support. I don't think of us as merely backers and consumers, I think of us all as a community who pulled together WITH the Two Guys to see this happen. I really consider them brothers in arms rather than (ironically) somebody I expect to get my money's worth from. I want to see SV happen as much as they do and I know I'm not the only one.

 

So we should do something nice to show them we not only support them but that we've got their backs. A nice montage video of all of us wishing them the best with motivational sappy music behind us (which has tremendous comedic potential as well for double effect! Heartfelt and honest but overly sappy and emotional monologues lol. That would be right up their alley I'd think), or a fangame just for them, or put together something...some kind of article...some nice notion and promote it everywhere so that it gets notoriety. Don't mention Paul or criticism or anything. Just give them some much needed motivation, encouragement, and love. Their efforts aren't unnoticed nor in vain. Because besides the latest criticism, it seems like they need it. What do you think?

[Frede]

I like your idea. I'd be in for any kind of tribute.

[Troels Pleimert]

Me too. The overly sappy video montage appeals to me a lot. ;)

 

For a scoop, MAYBE we could get Jane to reprise her "the SQ series was a great inspiration to me - it helped define what I wanted to do with my games, and what I didn't want to do" line, only adding, "I hope the SpaceVenture fares better." ;)

 

First of all, it would be a hilarious balance to all the over-sap. And second, the timing couldn't be better - it's a throwback to both GK1 and the SQ heydays. :)

 

Except Jane is notoriously hard to get in front of a camera, it seems.

[Troels Pleimert]

Haha, I know, I know. It's all hugs, kisses and death metal.

 

Hehe, yes. Interestingly, I've had this song stuck in my head for a little while now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJgcH9PMtVA (The chorus goes, "I cannot spend more time listening to your lies..." - oddly apt, somehow.)

[DrJ]

Hello everybody,

 

Thank you for all the support. After reading Paul's comment on KS, I was done.

After him banning and deleting ALL the posts that Serena created on the forum, I'm even more done.

 

I've been active in the community for a long time (started all on the QuestStudios forum - hence this nickname). When the Sierra revival started with Leisure Suit Larry, I just couldn't sit by and not try to get involved. I've been grateful to be able to help out and provide my professional help to this project. I still stand behind all the work I've done and I'm happy to have helped bring this game to market. Josh Mandel is an awesome guy and I would work for him or ANYONE at N-Fusion Studios in a heartbeat! All such talented people that have such a great heart for the gaming industry.

 

I know more than I would say on here (I like to remain taking the high road) - but I just want to thank everyone for supporting us (Serena, Irish, Tom & myself) for speaking out against something we believe in. The adventure game community is a tight community and I am proud to be part of it. If anything, this experience has taught me a lot and I'm very grateful for all the people I got to know through this.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

Jeroen

aka Dutchmagic

[Troels Pleimert]

A bit late, I suppose, but I updated the original post with Paul's rebuttal and added direct source links.

[Intendant S]

I'd be so in for some kind of thanks to Scott, Mark, and Chris. Count me in. :y:

[jfrisby]

Well, this is sad more than anything.. Josh did a really great job of repairing the image of Replay for awhile with his updates and by hiding Paul, I didn't know that he'd left Replay (but that explains Paul being off-the-leash).

 

I can only imagine that LSL:R sales are poor to middling, and that's something all adventure game designers are probably going to have to face. Not that surprising Paul is imploding, given that he's probably alone, surrounded by bills and hate, and he's that sort of asshole. Looking forward to hearing stories from Josh in 5-10 years -- and many thanks to the fellow Replay forum folks for the good times, it was fun while it lasted :D

[tomimt]

I wonder if Trowe really understands how much damage he's doing to not only his own reputation but the reputation of his company name as well. Josh did, indeed, fix up the previous PR disaster very nicely, but if he's not there to keep things in check I guess we won't be seeing that much of Replay in the future. I think he doesn't fully understand that he's a head of his company and as such everything he says or does reflects back on it as well. A sad thing indeed.

[MusicallyInspired]

I doubt it. He's quite stubborn, obviously. Either he's being stubborn in spite of being in the wrong here or he lives in his own little world where he's always right and everybody else is totally unreasonable. I tend to suspect the latter. Some people have just never learned to think before they speak

 

I feel sorry for anyone who's ever signed up to work with him. Sorrier still for those trapped in a contract with him. Anyone who has been let go as a result of his personal outburst should count themselves lucky.

 

EDIT: You know, Datadog mentioned earlier about how there used to be lots of drama in the adventure community and it's true. Part of the reason I believe this backfired on Paul as much as it did is because we've all been there before. The adventure community has had quite a lot of dissention and disunity in the past. Between AGDI and IA for a brief time, there was some animosity towards POS when they first started, even the SQ community had quite a lot of what you could call a civil war for quite a long while (split right down the middle). And there are many other examples. Paul would have been right at home during that time.

 

We've all been there and we've all grown up and put it behind us. The reason these Kickstarters have been so successful is because we've all banded together to see it happen. All across the board. We're done with fighting amongst one another and that'll be the day we let somebody come along and ruin the good thing we've created for ourselves. We've shown that we won't be dragged down to that petty pit again. Cheers, guys. This is why we have overcome and why SpaceVenture will succeed (and why Paul Trowe won't).

[billybob476]

I must say, I do find it a bit comical that he called us trolls. :)

[Cez]

I find MI's words right on! We've put our differences behind and really come together (even forming partnerships) into this resurgence of the genre, and we are all the better for it. We are a bunch of happy kids now :)

 

I know the Guys from Andromeda will give us an excellent product.

[Intendant S]

I wasn't there for the early drama, but I know for a fact that I'm happy to see so many adventure game developers rally around each other and support each other. As a fan of the genre since the '80s it feels good to give so much back to something that I've loved as a child. What Paul did and said hurt. A lot. But I'm willing to move on and support projects that deserve my time and effort.

[flesk]

I'm sorry for you guys just getting the middle finger from Paul Trowe after everything you've put into the LSL reboot. I went back to the Replay forums after things started to escalate in the Kickstarter update comments, and the discussions there are barely coherent with so many notable posters just completely vanished.

 

I only just registered here, since I've been spread a bit thin between various forums after the adventure game renaissance last year, but I like MusicallyInspired's suggestion about doing something nice for the Two Guys and the Space Pope. Also, I recognize so many names from other places here, that there certainly must be a lot of truth to what he said about us sticking together to make all these games a reality, despite whatever differences we might have had in regards to which companies/franchises we rooted for in our youth.

[PurpleTentacle]

If people were expecting/hoping for Paul Trowe to shift today to a more apologetic tone, then they are going to be disappointed.

 

Paul Trowe tweeted a sarcastic "thank you" to Serena and others for an increase in Twitter followers he says he got today.

[Intendant S]

Yeah. There's no way he's gonna be apologetic. And if he tries to apologize nobody's gonna take him seriously, anyway.