« Correction: Seth Killian Corrects GamingUnion about Marvel vs Capcom 3's Online Modes »
FuriousRGD
This is the right logo for Marvel vs Capcom 3A few days ago, GamingUnion posted a news story about Marvel vs Capcom's online. It was called 'Capcom: Expect the Minimum Online Modes for Marvel vs Capcom 3'. We passed along the information on IPW yesterday. Seth Killian, on the Capcom Unity forums, clarified today that the article had errors and wrong conclusions.
Thanks to Eventhubs for pointing this out. Here is Seth's clarification:
I didn't say anything like what he chose to use as the headline, and was pretty disappointed to see it. Here is what I actually said (after removing the writer's personal conclusions):
"There's still a lot of back-and-forth internally about it, frankly. So, at a minimum you can expect your standard online modes where you can have a friendly match or a ranked match, as well as all your offline modes. But set your expectations there and hopefully we can go in some fun new directions beyond that."
That says nothing about "MVC3 will ship with barebones online" or anything about DLC, patching, or the like. So that's where he added this quote:
However, Killian did suggest that further modes will be patched in later, as with SFIV and SSFIV. "You want to meet all the player expectations," he said, "but if there is something that you want to do that you're not able to get to - patch it in later."
I did say the things inside the quote, except I wasn't talking about online modes at all--I was responding to another question about "why isn't such and such character in MVC3," and pointing out that while there's no way we'll get in everyone that people want to see, adding others could be possible via DLC or something later.
In short, this is trying to go from a straightforward quote to a more dramatic headline. Could you conclude the headline from what I said? No, and a simple follow-up question could have cleared up any confusion, but there was no follow-up question sometimes people would rather create a more controversial headline than to ask a question and have me just say "no, that's not what I was saying at all."
The writer of the story doesn't seem to care about details though--he doesn't even have the right logo for the game on his pic with the story.
Reader Comments (7)
since when is editorializing a crime... he didn't quote seth as saying anything he didn't say, and the quote "...but if there is something that you want to do that you're not able to get to - patch it in later." may have been a response to something else, but it was a response that appears to be purposely generalized by seth himself. He didn't say "if there is a character we can't get in right away- patch it in later".
If he is generalizing it and saying "you can always patch things in later that you can't get to originally", I seen no problem with the author doing the same, and speculating that the same reasoning may be applied to online modes.
Based on what Seth has said, looks like nothing needed clearing up to me. As things currently stand, including seth's comments, the article seems like an on-point statement of how things currently are, with some personal speculation/editorializing thrown in, which he is fully within his right to do.
Wow Seth, I'm so sorry you have to deal with these people...
The argument that he(you?) did nothing that broke the rules and didn't misquote or do anything patently dishonest doesn't begin to equate to being an ethical person trying to deliver reliable and honest news and not playing a disingenuous game in order to get a more attention grabbing headline.
lol, poor seth, having to do his job as a PR guy... No, i'm not the guy that wrote the article, just someone who's able to look at it realistically without being skewed just because someone in the community got a little mad. Like I said- seth was the one that generalized the comment...that's not opinion, that's fact. As a PR guy, he shapes his words just like any Journalist does. If he wanted to apply it solely to character DLC, he would have worded it that way.
It's not like the guy was purposely playing games or being unethical and trying to hurt Seth or the game, haha. Seth made it clear that at THIS point in time, the game only has the most basic online modes that all games have at the very least (so- yes...barebones online), and that nothing further than that had been decided upon because of internal disagreement. To make a statement like that, and later talk about being to add whatever you dont' get to in DLC later- anyone could easily extrapolate the possibility of online modes being added later....just like what DID happen with sf4 vanilla and super. The guy is not offbase or out of line at all. If he had reported this as fact and/or said that Seth actually said something he didn't, I would agree...but taking what a PR guy says plus the recent history of a company in a similar situation and coming to an opinion based on that in your article...I'm not seeing the problem in this- it's incredibly commonplace...
Gahh..am I really taking the time to respond to this drivel? I guess I am.
You acknowledge that PR guys have to be crazy careful about what they say, thus admitting that many journalists are not trying to aid in delivering correct information to their readers, but care more about attention grabbing headlines. However, while you acknowledge this, you seem to think at the same time that because it is commonplace that it’s not wrong and unethical, and beyond that, it’s even somehow the PR guy’s fault since he is paid to not ever say anything that could possibly be misinterpreted (and yet still come off as natural and friendly instead of sounding like a scripted robot). Can you even imagine reading the annoyingly over specific interview that you think Seth needed to give? He really shouldn’t even talk at all, just hand them a press release that has had enough time and attention to make misinterpretation impossible. That is so what we all want to read…
The fact is that Seth is the best kind of PR guy, the one that doesn’t talk like a PR guy because he would rather be friendly and sincere and trust those he works with to treat him fairly, even if once in a while he gets burnt. It’s a big risk for him, not only does he have to work cleanup on this end, be he will probably have to deal with pressure from Capcom as well about what was reported. He’s does a great deal of good for our community. Our events and games are better because he does his job both as a passionate member of the community, and a solid source of value for Capcom.
But enough of kissing Seth’s ass, I just hate this crap cause I know that if I were him, every time I had to deal with this because I wasn’t being an asshole controlling exactly what the reporter could write, it would be one day closer to my last. And when people like you finally make him choose between being a jaded old PR prune that is a total phony all the time, and walking away... Well, I just hope he finds you and your like and punches you in the face on his way out.
just curious, was it hard making that manny unfounded assumptions with your tongue up Seth's ass? lol ok, you've convinced me, I'll shed some tears for poooor s-kill as well :(
Glad to have saved your soul.
Oh, and for maximum effect, try making fun of someone for something they didn't just finish pointing out themselves.
OOPS! Did you already point out your own crappy logic ad assupltions? Yikes I'll be careful next time. I was really going for max effect, now my face is just red...