Infamous Quests
Public Forums => Banter and Chit-Chat! => Topic started by: Brainiac on December 13, 2013, 03:53:25 PM
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You know how a lot of people felt Paul Trowe was a little shady? Well, prepare for some rather unfortunate confirmation.
http://kotaku.com/leisure-suit-larry-publisher-in-upheaval-after-strange-1481988709 (http://kotaku.com/leisure-suit-larry-publisher-in-upheaval-after-strange-1481988709)
...yeah...
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And this: http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/12/5205336/leisure-suit-larry-creator-al-lowe-quits-comeback-company-replay (http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/12/5205336/leisure-suit-larry-creator-al-lowe-quits-comeback-company-replay)
And this: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/12/12/leisure-suit-larry-creator-leaves-following-publisher-scandal.aspx?utm_content=buffer4dcc4&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/12/12/leisure-suit-larry-creator-leaves-following-publisher-scandal.aspx?utm_content=buffer4dcc4&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer)
And today, this epic piece: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/13/the-messy-saga-of-replays-paul-trowe-as-al-lowe-quits/ (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/13/the-messy-saga-of-replays-paul-trowe-as-al-lowe-quits/)
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Yeah, we've all been talking about this, heh, on facebook for days now.
(SIDEBAR: Just shows how different forums are these days than they were 10 years ago. Sigh.)
Bt
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The thing I still like about forums is that you can keep your anonymity.
Sorry, that's a derail. I'm glad Paul is probably out of the picture now and we can all rest easy knowing he can do nothing more to anybody with any real level of influence. PHEW!
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This is kind of a sad story.
Sure, LSL1 remake sucked but I had high hopes for the sequel.
Maybe someday it'll happen.
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Interesting. What didn't you like about the remake?
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Everything! It goes for that Monkey Island 4 "let's copy Grim Fandango," the artwork isn't as pretty, the jokes are cornier, you can't turn off voices and play with just text, etc.
I don't know, I mean, I played it and I just felt like, "you know, I'd rather be playing the original."
I'm still happy I bought and supported it, I really did want to see LSL 2 and 3 get remade.
I predict the license will be sold off to someone else- having someone with a pedo-sex scandal involved in making a raunchy sex comedy game wouldn't sell well with the public.
Btw, what'd he do exactly? Just out a sex video to a 16-year old girl he claims didn't know was 16?
I'm not defending him but not all girls are as innocent as they used to be, a lot of them are into watching real raunchy porns online. One porn actor noted he always had to ask the age of girls whenever they'd flirt with him on Twitter. (cause a lot of em were under 18)
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There's more than just the sex scandal. He's done so much more, especially in the past few months. Read the RPS article I linked above and see. And that's not even all of it. Trowe is pure evil in every sense of the word.
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He showed a pornographic video to an underage girl. It's illegal and he's lucky he only got counselling and no jail time.
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It goes for that Monkey Island 4 "let's copy Grim Fandango,"
I literally have no idea what you mean by this. I'm genuinely curious though--can you elaborate?
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I liked the LSL remake. The only quaff I had with it was that the animation was pretty sub-par. I'm sure that was a budgetary constraint; the game had a lot of "telling" not "showing" that way. The writing, especially new stuff by Josh, was funny and totally in line with the original game's aesthetic. It just makes me sad, thinking about what everyone had to go through during the production of that game.
Bt
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What BT said. Despite what happened with Paul, I really enjoyed working on the game...even if it was just as a tester and forum moderator. I got to meet so many wonderful people and make lasting friendships, including with Josh and Al. And N-Fusion did a great job on the game, Josh and Al did wonderful writing, and overall was pretty solid. The main thing that bothered me was the animation. Other than that, I really enjoyed playing.
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I thoroughly enjoyed it also. I loved the backgrounds, even though there was sometimes a bit of a disconnect between them and the sprites. That's something I've always admired the third Monkey Island game for. A lot of people dislike the direction the art and design took for that game (I will always love the first two, they were absolutely perfect in my eyes) but the cel shaded characters allowed for a lot more expressive animation to be created in a much shorter time, and the backgrounds were a really good stylistic match for them. The LSLR characters didn't fit into their world quite as well, but had they had a bit more money and time to extend the animations it would have gone a bit of the way to bridge that gap.
The game was short, and pretty easy, but being a remake of a short game that was only really harder because of the limitations of the day, that was to be expected. It was only ever really intended as a showhome to garner the support and go-ahead for future games, as I understand it, it's just a shame those won't be going ahead as planned. I know there is a feeling of regret in the community that the outcome of this "victory" also makes the future of LSL quite unsure, but between that and letting someone behave however they like just to ensure a few more games get made (knowing also that the making of those games is going to be in a hellish working environment for anyone involved), I think it's for the best.
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It goes for that Monkey Island 4 "let's copy Grim Fandango,"
I literally have no idea what you mean by this. I'm genuinely curious though--can you elaborate?
The Scumm system was perfect, it didn't need to get needlessly change. I'm talking about the horrible gameplay differences between MI3 and 4 in terms of control. LSL1 remake's not as bad as MI 4's controls, but it still veers in that direction.
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He showed a pornographic video to an underage girl. It's illegal and he's lucky he only got counselling and no jail time.
If he's gay then why would he show a pornographic video to an underaged girl?
Also, is there proof he did or did not know the age of the girl in question?
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The reports I read said that he pleaded no contest, if I recall correctly. That means he accepts the sentence for the crime without necessarily outright declaring his guilt - but I think this is the kind of charge you'd want to defend if you thought there was any way you could prevail. Maybe he just didn't want anyone looking into his past in any further detail.
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My cat's breath smells like cat food.
Bt
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My cat's breath smells like cat food.
Bt
I bent my wookie.
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I choo choo CHOOSE you.
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It is amazing that Al and Josh managed to pull the project together while working with such an "interesting" boss. Does anyone know if Josh is still,working for them?
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Josh left months ago. From what I heard, it was at least in part because he couldn't deal with Paul.
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Too bad they're not stationed in France or Japan, people wouldn't even bat an eye there! :P Hell, France even made Woody Allen a cultural ambassador and what that guy did was 10000X worse!
And the dude from Team Ninja fondled up a female employee like crazy and all he got was a slap on the wrist.
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I am sure the allegation/ charges were only part of the reason they left, trowe was a train wreck waiting to happen. I found him infuriating and I had only read half A dozen things written by the guy so I can't imagine what working with him would be like. Would love Josh to do a kickstarter he deserves every success and sadly won't have the opportunity to build on the success that LSL reloaded had, hope he got a good royalty out of it anyway.
Just think trowe wanted both Space Venture and Hero U under the replay banner, what a disaster that would have been.
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Paul actually WANTED a Sierra 2.0 under his banner. That was one reason why he harassed Scott and Mark so much during the campaign. At least that's what I remember. He also bullied and bossed around practically everybody who worked on the game, whether employees or volunteers. A lot went on behind the scenes, only a little bit that I was personally privy to.
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Really sad to see. I remember reading Lowe's blog years ago and seeing the farce that was those 2000s LSL console games where the makers contacted him, messed him around and then just made those god awful games without him. I really felt for him helplessly watching his creation being ruined.
So I was so happy when LSL remake was announced and Al did the video saying he was back. That's why I happily shelled out the cash and got the boxed copy and looked forward to him remaking all the LSL games with a good team of people.
However if there's one thing I've noticed with the sierra greats coming out of retirement and working with a new team is that it's a real hit and miss affair. Mark & Scott and the Coles got a hit.. Lowe and Wallis got a miss and got stuck with bad people. Yes Lowe got his game finished but at what cost.. the future of LSL? I heard way back at the beginning that Paul was an ass but this? wow.. can't wait for LSL2 The Sex Offender Special Edition to be announced. :/
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Paul actually WANTED a Sierra 2.0 under his banner.
It's sad. I think it would have been a great thing to have everyone work together instead of having to spend money on a Unity "framework" separately. But that definitely wont happen with Mr. Trowe anymore.
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Paul actually WANTED a Sierra 2.0 under his banner.
It's sad. I think it would have been a great thing to have everyone work together instead of having to spend money on a Unity "framework" separately. But that definitely wont happen with Mr. Trowe anymore.
I agree. It would have been great to still see a Sierra 2.0, but it never would have worked with Polyester Paul at the helm.
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I predict he'll ultimately sell the IP.
Again though, did he even know the girl was underaged or was it just some random chick online? Do we have any way to confirm or not?
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He doesn't own the IP, it's just under license from Codemasters who own it.
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Hopefully Codemasters sees what's going on with him and yanks the license from him. I'd rather see them sit on the IP and do nothing with it than to see it stay in his nasty little hands.
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Well, Al is still slated to appear at Magfest just after New Years (the tweet saying he wasn't coming was corrected on Facebook)...as am I.
Anything anyone wants me to ask him if I get a chance?
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I guess whether he'd be interested to coming back out of retirement again if it was with the RIGHT people?
Tell him that he's got a lot of fans that feel for his situation & hope the license gets pulled from Paul.
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I'd like to know if there's any future for Torin's Passage, if he can find better people to work with - I can't imagine that license would be as hard to get as LSL was.
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Activision seem to hold onto their licences a lot tighter than others. LSL is owned by Codemasters who've had it since VU owned the rights.
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I'd like to know if there's any future for Torin's Passage, if he can find better people to work with - I can't imagine that license would be as hard to get as LSL was.
Al did share a bit about the creation and planning of Torin's Passage - a game designed that parents and children could play together as he had with his son but missed the timing with his daughter. He had a rough concept of five games that would cover Torin's coming-of-age to his eventual death - it would have basically been the story of his life and would take a lot from Disney in terms of aesthetics and emotional resonance (Boogle, for example was specifically crafted as is typical for a Disney sidekick to show the viewers how they should be reacting - Boogle worried about Torin means the kids should be as well). It was basically intended to serve as the "off-year" release - those games would come out when there wasn't a King's Quest game put out onto shelves.
However, Al isn't looking to get rights. He never tried to get rights for Larry, after all - that was all Paul Trowe, and no matter what else has gone on (which Al chose to avoid bringing up for obvious reasons), Paul was a month-long non-stop workhorse to get that Kickstarter to work. Without him, LSL Reloaded would not exist, so he deserves the credit for that if nothing else (and as far as writing goes, pretty much all the new humorous dialogue and click options are Josh Mandel's work). Al said this is basically the third time he's gone back into retirement and he kinda hopes it sticks this time.
There's more on his website if you're interested. And speaking of his website, of particular note is that a Leisure Suit Larry collection that even HE didn't know existed was brought before him for an autograph at MAGFest. Al asked to take pictures and he'll be updating his LSL Collections page on the site with this "new" edition when he gets a chance.
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Not much to say about this... Extremely sad of what could have been. An awesome opportunity wasted and now we have a situation where everyone looses.
I still have a small hope that Al and/or Josh will make more games. Larry or not is unimportant.
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To be completely honest, I don't care that Al Lowe is going back into retirement. I think Josh Mandel has far more to offer the current adventure game community--his decision to leave the online community for the foreseeable future is the far greater tragedy. Josh Mandel was the real heart and soul of the Larry remake, not Al Lowe. Not to mention all of the great pro bono work Josh has done for the remake community. Luckily, Josh is also probably a lot more likely to return, once a decent bit of time has passed since Trowe-Gate.
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I actually agree with Lamb. Most of the new jokes was thanks to Josh and Al deserves his retirement.
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Josh is back on twitter now, btw, though he never really tweeted much to begin with :)
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Trowe-Gate that is a awesome name for it and I agree completely