Last week, in the middle of a GDC session called the "Burning Mad Game Publishers Rant", Chris Hecker, a Maxis designer currently working on Spore, delivered a controversial speech in which he blasted Nintendo and the Wii. Beginning his tirade with the now infamous declaration, "The Wii is a piece of s**t", Hecker went on to state that the Wii was "nothing more than two Gamecubes stuck together with duct tape", that "Nintendo doesn't take games seriously as art". One day after his less-than-kind appraisal, and shortly before taking the stage again to talk about Spore's animation system, Hecker issued an apology that contradicted everything he'd said the day before, offering that he was trying to be "entertaining" and "thought provoking".
Source: Ars Technica [ more info ]

He can say whatever he likes to explain why he did it or why he apologized, but I'd be willing to wager that his bosses rang the "or else" bell. Personally, I think it's just another example of watching what you say in public, especially at an event like the GDC. Though I don't think he deserves the "hypocrite" label, the complete 180 was a little hard to swallow. But, if I was one of the guys working on Spore, I'd be backpedaling like a world class Flatland BMXer too.

Chris can tell you, it's hard to be a speaker in the public eye. You want to say what's on your mind and stick to your guns. But backlash has a way of going right past you and affecting everything you're working on. With his inflamatory statements about the Wii, Hecker put a bit of unwanted focus on Spore. Companies can say "there's no such thing as bad press", but that ignores the human tendancy to associate things that should not necessarily be associated. Spore would certainly move beyond this, it's too heavily anticipated to be denied by something as simple as one designers harsh criticism of the Wii. But, some angry Wii fans may well hang on to their ire and take it out on Will Wright's next masterpiece. That's the nature of the associative beast.

As a side note:
It's kinda weird drawing two mouths on one head. Fun, but weird.

If he had the choice (as you say, maybe his boss told him to issue the apology) he should have stayed the course. From a PR perspective it never looks good going out with a harsh statement like that and changing your story afterwards. He might have gained some enemies by talking about the Wii like that, but no one likes a hypocrite. At least you could respect him for standing up with his opinion, regardless of how badly formulated it was.

Hehe.. love the panel, pretty much exactly what I was thinking.

I really cannot begin to guess what his true intentions where in saying those things, but I serious doubt it was to be 'entertaining.'

I applaud him for speaking his thoughts on Wii. I myself as a developer who worked on a Wii title, think the Wii is underpowered for this generation of gaming console.

The apologies were made IMO, to calm down the Hate mails and bad publicity this whole story would bring to the company.

I am unhappy with the media reaction to this, for the sole reason that its GDC and not E3 ! Its about technology and the software architects. It is an exposition for the devs, not the general public.

True Erling, very true. But I can definitely understand accepting being called a hypocrite if staying the course me getting canned from Spore. **grins**

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Doodlepants, that's a very good point. Unfortunately, there are no longer any media islands that protect anyone from press attention, and industry/consumer response.

but no one likes a hypocrite.

I'm sure he'd rather be considered a hypocrite than be an unemployed guy living on saltines and rain water.

God that pic looks creepy....

Keep up the good work, woody.

Originally Posted by quark1020:

God that pic looks creepy....

I hear that. Reminded me of the Umgah from Star Control 2.


But ya... too little honesty these days. Even if I disagree with his original statement, it's still unfortunate that people do such 180s. At least in this case it's pretty obvious why, so his true intentions are easy to see, but it still is unfortunate.

nice one woody.
as to the events at the GDC,
If you are speeking at a podium, in this day and age you have to asume that what you say is going to be recorded etc.and diseminated to the general public, and if you go on a rant about something, you are going to get backlash. the greater the popularity of the thing you bash, the greater the response is going to be. Its a given.
I think this is just yet another example of a company employee/spokesperson speaking without thinking it through.
Been seeing a lot of that this last year or so. How these guys get out in public without a muzzel these days is beyond me. If i had some of my people going to an event like the GDC or whatever you can bet we would be having a little talk beforehand about not putting their foot in their mouth etc. or they might not have a job when they got back.
thats my thought anyway
luck

I think I know where the guy was coming from, if I am not wrong, Spore will be a cross platform game available for all 3 machines. They may be pushing the 360 and ps3 to their limits and his frustration at porting that to the wii may be a bit more than just light.

However, the way he expressed this was less than stellar. He could had expressed that frustration without having to go as far as insulting not only Nintendo, but also everyone that works there.

As for GDC being about developers, I hear that the show has every year turned more and more of a commercial event than a developer oriented one. The fact that we see it covered like this only proves it's true. I would not be amazed if in a few years it resembles more the current E3 than it's original self, that is, if it doesn't already.