Well guys, last night when all this drama started brewing I didn't understand why Guess Who was getting his panties in a twist on IRC over the use of the word "key logger" for this game. The exe was acting shady outside of the obfuscation, which was enough to warrant a general warning I thought.
But then the Kotaku articles started rolling out, and the general backlash and misinformation came through, and I can see why everyone's getting pissed over the way this was handled. ESPECIALLY that we didn't have all the facts before reporting (The fact that only DInput is affected is kind of a big deal)
What's done is done. The community overreacted. Nothing we can do can change that, the damage is done. This reflects poorly on us as a community but also on the project itself. And so now is as good of a time as any to initiate public relations mode.
Canned Karma, on 10 April 2012 - 12:11 PM, said:
All of us had the exact same reaction everyone here did, and we're actively looking into it to the best of our abilities. That said, we've heard just as much from LOst as anyone here has lately, so I'm not sure what, if anything, we'll be able to find that corroborated or refutes what's been brought to light. I will say this though. LOst is no longer a part of S2HD. I'll have a more in depth response soon. We're just as pissed off about this as the community is.
This is an awesome first step. It makes LOst a bit of a scapegoat but I can't say he doesn't totally deserve it for other reasons. Now this needs to be publicized.
First off, when drafting your press release, be sure not to call out LOst by name. Do not mention his real name, do not mention his online alias. He's relevant, but only in terms of his impact on the project. It should be worded in such a way as to state "The lead programmer of the project, who is responsible for the problems, has been terminated." Simple and to the point.
Next I would run with the be wary of the alpha bit. In terms of the public image Sonic 2 HD = Keylogger, and so if you can assure a quality release NEXT TIME, there's no reason to latch onto this particular release.
Next, you need to assure the public that you have reordered the project's organization to have some checks and balances on the programming branch. Open source, while nice and something that most of us here love, isn't necessary for this. Just make sure that your new programmer has somebody else watching the code to make sure there aren't any little goodies put in there for the release. It will also be necessary because you're going to want a certain level of quality control on your next release. Sloppy coding simply isn't an option for you guys.
I would then include a bunch of work in progress art in vein of what you guys did to get people involved before the release with Emerald Hill Zone. Get your fans as involved as possible, it will take their minds off any worries about keyloggers. You also want as much good press as possible. Whenever you do something cool show it off to the media.
Once you have that press release done send it to as many news outlets as you can. You want to be able to guide the content of what the media is saying about you at this point so do as much of their work for them as possible. Anything you submit should be formatted in the AP style (Not that Kotaku gives a shit about that but) and it should generally look professional and presentable.
I feel like this project is far from over, you guys have time to save face, but you need to put some serious work in right now. Any time you're spending working on the game should be spent working with the press for the moment. Get the idea out there that Sonic 2 HD is a new product, different from the old one which had so many problems, and you'll be fine.
Good luck guys. I feel like you'll need it
This post has been edited by Walnut: 10 April 2012 - 04:09 PM
