Is Doug Lambardi a bad person?

[Eternity]

Is Doug Lombardi a bad person?

Hello. I'm a bit surprised that there isn't more threads devoted to Fragmaster's selective revealing of information, so I'm starting one, because I found it extremely interesting. Who knew that Sierra would hire him for a Prima Strategy Guide on Half-Life II? To me, I don't find this too smart; Fragmaster seems like he could get the job done (despite what he looks like in that SA video) but do you really want to reveal potentially damaging information to someone who runs one of the biggest Half-Life II fan sites in the world? There are some potentially sticky situations there, and as we saw, they all came true. Fragmaster was bound by an NDA, but he stirred up muck anyway, and who can blame him. Let's face it, he was right: the game was going to be delayed, he knew about it, and it was going to happen, hack or not. Valve must have been very nervous of his spouting of information; during those months he knew more about the real state of the game better than anyone other than the game developers themselves.

Anyway, do you guys think, in light of what Fragmaster has revealed, that a) Valve is seriously lacking in a structured PR department/way of doing things and/or b) Doug Lombardi isn't the man for the job?

Now, I don't know Doug. I don't want to put heat on him and shout to the forums that he should be fired, because I don't know him, and basically who wants to wish that on a person? But I find what Fragmaster revealed a little disturbing, if only for the fact it backs up what I've been feeling for the past year or so. Valve's blackout prior to the release of Half-Life II was perfectly justified. They didn't want to hype the game. This was the smartest business move that they could have ever made, and I have to give Doug props for keeping the game under wrap all those years.

But man, things have been falling apart. Denials that the game is going to slip before the hack? Why would Valve do this? Why couldn't they just say that the god-damn game was delayed? The real question is, why the hell didn't Doug see it fit to just dispatch an e-mail to the fansites out there telling them what's up? He had already notified the major mags that the game wouldn't be out before the holidays; to me, the only reason he didn't tell us was because he didn't have to. The mags needed to know, we didn't, so he left us in the dark.

I think this part really strikes home with Fragmaster's argument that they don't respect the community. Before all you bumblers out there scream out with their 'they don't owe us nothing', quiet please. I don't like foggy thinking. Number one, they don't 'owe' us anything, but does that mean we can't point out they don't respect us? Just because they don't have to doesn't mean they shouldn't.

I just don't know about Doug and the way he does his job. Gabe, I think Gabe is a good leader and basically a cool person with a couple shortcomings. He doesn't really understand our position, but that's just lack of perspective. He matter of factly told us that the game was going to ship in the summer like it was a confirmation; like we were expecting it; but what he didn't realize is we had no ****ing idea when the game was going to ship!!

The blackout after the hack was REALLY unprofessional. I mean, Bungie has weekly updates. We had silence for 3/4 of a year. I mean, come on, Doug.

What do you guys think? Do you think Doug and his staff is inadequate? Would you even say he's not a nice person, or is that crossing the line? What are your thoughts?

 

[Dougy]

*yawn*

Fragmaster no longer works for Planet half life.

take all news fragmaster gives with a pinch of salt.

trust only the valve info thread.

 

[ferd]

Fragmaster didn't reveal shit


But I dont really like Lombardi, he's french you see

 

[Eternity]

You know, perhaps I'm just a bit slow, but I really don't think Fragmaster lied about any of it, although he might have been a bit misguided; for instance, we already knew some content was being cut.

Next time, read my thread.

 

[Lobster]

i still dont think it was worth another thread, considering it has no constructive outcome, other than to bring people down.

 

[Dougy]

the reason people arent talking about this more is becuase its not a big deal.

fragmasters been proven wrong and ignorrant in the past several times, so once again Pinch of salt.

 

[Eternity]

No, I'm not highlighting Fragmaster's bits of info (and yes, he did draw back the curtain about the delay a little bit more) but Doug Lombardi and his job at Valve. Get off the whole Fragmaster thing....

And sure, people could potentially not like Lombardi, but I feel it's an avenue of discussion..

 

[Brian Damage]

We already knew some content was being cut? That's news to me. First I heard of it was Frag's letter/post/thingy...

 

[Kadayi]

*yawn*

Fragmaster no longer works for Planet half life.

take all news fragmaster gives with a pinch of salt.

trust only the valve info thread.

I'm with Dougy. Fragmaster seems to one of those people who rose to a position by being at the right place at the right time rather than through genuine ability. As a reporter he was pedestrian at best, and his farewell letter smacked of too much Axe grinding subjectivity to be taken seriously. He jumped before he was made to walk.

 

[Skull]

Eternity, I like your post
I agree on every point you make. Still, I wont be commenting on Doug because I shouldn't (no-one should, we don't know anything)

Good post though

 

[mortiz]

too right Doug is a bad person.

I heard he eats babies.

 

[Gorgon]

Brain damag free some space on your PM list.

I am sending you something important.

backto topic: Well I don't hate him but you could say I do not trust his words.

 

[Eternity]

We already knew some content was being cut? That's news to me. First I heard of it was Frag's letter/post/thingy...

Gabe said in one e-mail or another they had to cut some stuff with rendering technology.

I'm with Dougy. Fragmaster seems to one of those people who rose to a position by being at the right place at the right time rather than through genuine ability. As a reporter he was pedestrian at best, and his farewell letter smacked of too much Axe grinding subjectivity to be taken seriously. He jumped before he was made to walk.

Wait, what? The entire point of the post was subjective axe-grinding, he said that from the first; what, did you want an objective letter of resignation? Just because he got some stuff off his back doesn't mean he lied about any of it; lying about working for Sierra would be ridiculous.

I can't really follow what you guys are saying about Fragmaster, or if it really has any point, but I'll back off it for now. Sorry.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Yeah Doug is so bad he listens to what he is told to do.

 

[Kadayi]

too right Doug is a bad person.

I heard he eats babies.

Someones gotta eat them, how else will he get his porsche in the garage?

 

[Brian Damage]

Gabe said in one e-mail or another they had to cut some stuff with rendering technology.

I think Fragmaster was referring to storyline and gameplay stuff...

Are you sure you're not talking about the feature-locking of the engine?

 

[Ahnteis]

I don't think anyone here has enough information to make an informed judgement.

EDIT: Not that that's ever stopped any internet posting before.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Doug just needs to double check his information before releasing it. If he knows it's complete BS, he shouldn't say a thing.

 

[Kadayi]

Wait, what? The entire point of the post was subjective axe-grinding, he said that from the first; what, did you want an objective letter of resignation? Just because he got some stuff off his back doesn't mean he lied about any of it; lying about working for Sierra would be ridiculous.

He might of had a job, but his opinions about what he saw are purely his own. He's put out a claim that elements of the game have been 'cut' in order to meet deadlines, but in the real world of work decisions are never that cut and dried when it comes to editting down a project. Since the delay, Valve haven't set a release date, so therefore why would they cut content? They aren't under any time pressures. Perhaps they decided an element just wasn't working under CABAL conditions and opted to loose it?

 

[Kadayi]

Doug just needs to double check his information before releasing it. If he knows it's complete BS, he shouldn't say a thing.

It was a big mistake to stick so earnestly with a release date that wasn't going to be met, and then to follow it up with the 'holiday' release talk.

 

[Dile]

That wasnt a Prima Strategy Guide, but a Behind the Scenes book.

 

[mrchimp]

I think Fragmaster was referring to storyline and gameplay stuff...

Are you sure you're not talking about the feature-locking of the engine?

He's talking about image based rendering which is in the same generation as UE3.0 or above, it wasn't exactly cut but never implemented in the first place, i doubt it ever made it into the HL2 desighn brief, it's just one of those things that you try but don't really expect to work.

Fragmaster seems to be talking about actual chunks of content, like a level or an enemy. I doubt vlave would cut anything because of time constriants, they definately cut the crap out though. Remember how much of the original HL they cut out?

I'v been thinking about Fragmasters insinuations that the leak was all that Vlave had or was close to it and well it doesn't make any sense to me. they had been working on it for 5 years for a start and if you look at the source code you will see there was some work done on the original HL engine, showing that they probably thought about building it onto that, meaning that they must have made some content for it, the chances are that Valve have way more content than whats in the leak, but they need to bring it across from an earlier version of the source engine or that alot of it isn't needed for testing yet and can be kept sperately from the main build.

When Valve say that only 1/3 of the source code was leaked they may not have been bullshitting, alot of the actual game logic wasn't there and there weren't many shaders with it either, certainly not as many as there were in the E3 presentation. Also there was alot of crap that came with the source code that had nothing to do with HL2 makeing it seem bigger (e.g the HL1 source code, TF2) , also there were SDK's for MS voice recognition, Havok and other such things, not just the header files and librarys required for compilation, but all the examples, documentation and any other crap that comes with an SDK. The HL2 source code probably is as big as the leaked code but not all of the leaked code was HL2.

I refuse to believe thats all valve had done, there will be many different revisions of HL2 and it's content stored in vlave's offices, not all of it held in the same place, the vast majority of it will never see the light of day, but I don't think the leak was even 50% of what valve had ready to put in the game at the time.

 

[Lucifer Crass]

Is Doug Lombardi a bad person?

YES HE IS, and he shall pay with his life and soul!!

 

[Ahnteis]

Grammar nazi time:

He might of had a job

That's "might've" or "might have", not "might of".

 

[Eternity]

They aren't under any time pressures.

Sure they are. Just because they can afford to extend the development process doesn't mean they want to.

And yes, I was talking about the image based renders...

 

[Gossoon]

Doug Lombardi may be slimey, but look where we're all posting - a half-life 2 site six months after the game was supposed to come out. He is getting the job done, regardless of whether we hate him or not. I don't agree with valve's PR methods and I believe that it will hurt them in the long run, but right now it's working for them.

 

[jet jaguar]

Doug Lombardi may be slimey, but look where we're all posting - a half-life 2 site six months after the game was supposed to come out. He is getting the job done, regardless of whether we hate him or not. I don't agree with valve's PR methods and I believe that it will hurt them in the long run, but right now it's working for them.

There are better ways of getting PR. Knowingly(notice I didn't say 'purposely') pissing your fanbase off is a rather...unconventional way of hyping a game up. If Valve is going to play the silence game that's fine, but they should not utter a peep about ANYTHING until the game is thisclose to going gold. They repeatedly made that mistake with TF2, CS:CZ, and now HL2. They should've learned after TF2 quite honestly.

And yes, Doug Lombardi is a bad man for not doing his job better. All publicity is not necessarily good publicity. Just ask Janet Jackson about her latest cd sales results.

 

[Flyingdebris]

Little girl-Why, why did you lie to us Doug Lombardi?
Doug Lombardi-Oh, little Girl, you seem to have been misinformed, you see i didn't lie. I used marketing strategy all up in your hizzie, BIATCH!

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Do you people really understand this, Doug is told what to say to the public, he just doesn't go spouting shit without finalizing with the company.

 

[Naveed]

Do you people really think Doug would have said:

Q: When will Half-Life 2 be released?
Doug: "Half-Life 2 will be released in 2005 or beyond, period."

Q: Then why you guys continuously said "September 30th".
Doug: "ATI had to ship there cards that would have been difficult to sell since they obselete very quickly, so we had to stick with the date till last moment."

Q: What about the code hack?
Doug: "That was unfortunate, it blows us away and revealed to everyone that we were not near completion, sorry for that"

:E

 

[Kadayi]

Do you people really think Doug would have said:

Q: When will Half-Life 2 be released?
Doug: "Half-Life 2 will be released in 2005 or beyond, period."

Q: Then why you guys continuously said "September 30th".
Doug: "ATI had to ship there cards that would have been difficult to sell since they obselete very quickly, so we had to stick with the date till last moment."

Q: What about the code hack?
Doug: "That was unfortunate, it blows us away and revealed to everyone that we were not near completion, sorry for that"

:E

The second question, maybe, but one and three are ill founded.

 

[The Mullinator]

[SARCASM]Yes of course Doug is a completely evil person and the only reason he kept on saying Sept. 30th was because his purpose at Valve HQ is to piss of HL fans.[/SARCASM]

lol I probably wouldn't of posted anything but I wanted to see what this new Sarcasm tag would do.

 

[Wilco]

Well Valve said the Source Engine was locked September 2001. So they could concentrate on the Content. This was said at E3 also so it could be part of the big Sept 30th Conspiracy, but if its true they had already done all the rendering code they were planning so they couldnt cut it. Also They would have had a year and a half to write some content, so I doubt they hadn't done any of that.

Some-one says it was an inside Valve book, now Frags post says it was a Strat Guide, so I dont see how that works, but if it was why would Valve agree to letting people inside to see that they were lying to the public. That would be really stupid.

Why would they bring it strat guide people at all if they hadn't got any content done, there would be no point.
[SARCASM]Now this won't be overused[/SARCASM]

 

[CreedoG]

Asshole Lombardi.....

They started out saying a 9/30 release date. They knew about the delay as early as May, but wouldn't tell the fans. They told the mags. They told online sites. They told their publishers. But they didn't tell us. Fine, whatever, like someone said, "They don't owe the fans anything."

On 9/23, when they finally graced us with their presense, and admitted the game wasn't quite finished, they also, out of the kindness of their heart, said they were shooting for a "Holiday Release". They didn't have to say this, but they did.

The real reason for announcing this release time frame was so that, people like me, would go out and buy a 9800/9600, in anticipation. That way, ATI could still make big bucks for the holidays, and wouldn't sue Valve for breach of contract. I can pretty much guarantee that Valve never had any intention of meeting a holiday release. On 9/23, to make a holiday release, they had to be 6-10 weeks away from going gold. Do you really think they thought they were 6-10 weeks from going gold? I mean, it's almost May, and we're most likely looking at an August/September release date.

However, due to their misinformation, I went out and bought a $325 card I could have today for $200. Sure, they don't owe us anything, but the "holiday release" thing was pretty ****ing shitty. Straight out lying to fans, to keep corporate partners happy. Commercialism rules. Valve sure learned a lot from their Microsoft background.

And now here's the REALLY shitty part. They never said another word to us about the release date until right now. When they missed their "holiday release date", they didn't bother telling us it was delayed again, before, or after. We didn't hear about this "Summer Release" UNTIL SOME GUY FROM CNN CALLED UP DOUG LOMBARDI (in february), and since CNN is soooo much more important to Valve than their fans, they were more than willing to tell this guy that they were shooting for a "Summer Release" .. NOT US. NOT THE FANS. Some ****ing dude from CNN. We had been begging for release information for months, and couldn't get a peep from Valve. And they've just now, in the last two weeks, confirmed the summer release date to the fans. (2 months after telling the guy from CNN).

They have kept us in the dark about the release since the start. Valve's PR was HORRENDOUS during the TF2 scandal, but this is getting to be just about as bad. In case you weren't around for the TF2 thing, it has pretty much gone down just like this. Except that after E3, we never heard from TF2 again. Imagine if you didn't hear about HL2 again after this year's E3, for another 3+ (still going) years

I'm not sure if Doug Lombardi is a bad person per se, but he sure as **** is an asshole. We've been treated like step children. But luckily, they can treat us like absolute shit, and we'll still buy their game. And they know it.

 

[mrchimp]

Maybe you should just stop bothering to follow HL2 then

 

[Lobster]

lol it is a bit strange, if people are so overly fed up and given up on the idea, why do they persist to write these massive replies explaining how very FED UP they are..

 

[jet jaguar]

I'm not sure if Doug Lombardi is a bad person per se, but he sure as **** is an asshole. We've been treated like step children. But luckily, they can treat us like absolute shit, and we'll still buy their game. And they know it.

Heh, I just thought it was funny that you bleeped 'hell' but didn't bleep 'a--hole'. 'Hell' isn't even one of the 7 dirty words is it?

 

[Quixote]

You can't really tell the moral fortitude of a person from the way they do their jobs. However, as a PR man Doug sucks.

 

[DarkStar]

A few weeks ago, Doug Lombardi actually slipped me a mickey, kindnapped me, and hooked me into a virtual reality matrix running the Source Engine in his dungeon-like basement apartment. I go on living my normal life in the virtual reality matrix, but in reality he's spent that last few weeks raping me and feeding me nothing but the human flesh of the children he kills.

Oh, he also takes a dump on my head every now and again.

 

[Quixote]

Well at least he's interacting with you DarkStar which is more than can be said regarding the HL community.