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- May 29, 2007
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While I'm thankful I've never had to make a post like this before, I am extremely frustrated (at myself) that I now have to make one at all.
Context
Earlier this evening, we aired a Round-Up episode claiming Erik Wolpaw, one of the senior writers on Portal and Portal 2, had left the company to continue working more closely with Double Fine Productions on Psychonauts 2. In this particular instance - we were wrong, and follow-up emails to Erik himself have confirmed he is still indeed at the company.
In this scenario, we failed to take the necessary and ridiculously basic steps to proving or disproving the news story before running it as big, high profile reveal. This mess-up is amateurish and unacceptable, and I sincerely apologise for spreading false stories of this nature.
Here is Erik's reply to us.
Fittingly, it would seem Erik is actually taking a sick day off from the company, meaning he has technically left Valve, but only for a day or so! We can also confirm Erik owns an iPhone!
Conclusion
I have since removed any public reference to the news story in order to avoid it spreading further across social media. I have also personally apologised to Erik for causing any disruption to him (possible email spam from the community, etc), and thankfully he seemed to take it very well. As you can imagine, I am extremely embarrassed about this whole situation, and I hope this mess does not reflect badly on ValveTime as a whole or our reputation. In the future, we will strive to return to conducting the appropriate research and background checks where ever necessary before running any news story.
Editor's Note: At least I wasted my whole evening editing, preparing, and releasing a worthless video! I'll be reworking the opening news story of the video tomorrow to try and resolve these issues before it is re-released.
Context
Earlier this evening, we aired a Round-Up episode claiming Erik Wolpaw, one of the senior writers on Portal and Portal 2, had left the company to continue working more closely with Double Fine Productions on Psychonauts 2. In this particular instance - we were wrong, and follow-up emails to Erik himself have confirmed he is still indeed at the company.
In this scenario, we failed to take the necessary and ridiculously basic steps to proving or disproving the news story before running it as big, high profile reveal. This mess-up is amateurish and unacceptable, and I sincerely apologise for spreading false stories of this nature.
Email EvidenceHere is Erik's reply to us.
Fittingly, it would seem Erik is actually taking a sick day off from the company, meaning he has technically left Valve, but only for a day or so! We can also confirm Erik owns an iPhone!
I have since removed any public reference to the news story in order to avoid it spreading further across social media. I have also personally apologised to Erik for causing any disruption to him (possible email spam from the community, etc), and thankfully he seemed to take it very well. As you can imagine, I am extremely embarrassed about this whole situation, and I hope this mess does not reflect badly on ValveTime as a whole or our reputation. In the future, we will strive to return to conducting the appropriate research and background checks where ever necessary before running any news story.
Editor's Note: At least I wasted my whole evening editing, preparing, and releasing a worthless video! I'll be reworking the opening news story of the video tomorrow to try and resolve these issues before it is re-released.
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