2013-12-06 They love me down there

[Spidrift]

You must be joking.

Yes I am. Congratulations for noticing.

Tristan isn't, though.

Still admiring the pointless geek rage...

His bosses do love her after all.

Do they? The Faceless Guy is riding the wave, and is quite prepared to exploit Sandra's popularity, but I imagine that he loves her exactly the way he surely loved Tristan last week. The goose is loved so long as it keeps pumping out those golden eggs. And Sandra forced a marketing one-eighty - manageable, but inconvenient.

(And it's not like Tristan was doing anything violently non-commercial. Games in which well-liked long-standing characters run the risk of dying horribly can apparently sell just fine.)

Double post merged. The DAMNed

[Cortez]

His bosses do love her after all.

Do they?[/url])

They do, they only one that has a problem with her is Tristen, because as it has been shown, he's a sexist jerk.

And why do you keep bringing up Tomb Raider? You are comparing apple to oranges slick. Stop moving the goal post and stay on topic. More importantly, what they did in the new Tomb Raider was actually empowering, while Tristen's idea wasn't and he obviously has mistaken notion that women don't play video games.

But again, he's a sexist jerk.

[Don Alexander]

Oh, and since no one has said it.

Lavali!

[zaprzapb]

I think Lavali is cute too and I hope she becomes a regular in the comic.

Edit: And it looks like Gary might end up meeting Lavali if Sandra takes him to the studio.

[Spidrift]

They do, they only one that has a problem with her is Tristen, because as it has been shown, he's a sexist jerk.

Please show us where anyone at the games company says that they love her.

And why do you keep bringing up Tomb Raider?

Because the whole Tristan/Carmen sequence was a blatant parody of the whole Tomb Raider 2013 kerfuffle.

[Geeno]

I wouldn't say the game company loves her, but she has created quite a buzz for their new Carmen Chamelia game, and that the fandom - their principal market - would be upset if Sandra were cast aside. As long as it looks like Sandra will be good for sales, the company will "love" her.
And seriously, Tristan's game was just a generic "look at the sexy girl and shoot things" game, hardly anything special. If anything, Tristan is more expendable to the company than Sandra right now. Her face and name are known and liked by the target audience; his - not so much.

[crimzontearz]

Actually the new tomb raider undersold compared to expectations (it still made a profit) and now they announced the definitive edition for the next gen machines

[Fluffy]

(And it's not like Tristan was doing anything violently non-commercial. Games in which well-liked long-standing characters run the risk of dying horribly can apparently sell just fine.)

But in this case, it wasn't just about the main character potentially dying a gruesome death, it was completely changing the main character altogether - strongly hinting that her back story was filled with humiliation and torment, which turned her into a murderous she-bitch; which no one in that crowd seemed to approve of when the reality of it all sunk in (Sandra's protest just got that ball rolling).

A person can re-envision a beloved franchise; but when you start changing the elements that made the original story work, don't expect die hard fans of the original version to embrace the changes.

[Bambikles]

Simply put, Tristan's vision of Carmen Chamelia was In Name Only. No wonder those knowing the game even a little would get angry.

[Spidrift]

It's no surprise at all that some of the fans of the old game would react badly to the new version of the character. Some fans will react badly to anything, and anyhow, Tristan's vision was clearly adolescent and dumb.

But "the company" had already gone there. The president had, one must assume, signed off on Tristan's ideas, and the rest of the staff had at least put up with them enough to do their jobs. Nor was that self-evidently stupid. Violent, adolescent, dumb stuff sells, and can easily be pitched as "mature" or "edgy".

Then Sandra came along, and now the president is going where the money now lies. No doubt, the rest of the staff will tag along, as Tristan has already. Some may be happier about it than Tristan. But for Sandra or anyone else to assume that she's loved for it, by anyone within the company, is galloping ahead of the actual evidence. We have, as yet, no proof at all that anyone at Dark Matter loves her, at all.

[crimzontearz]

Yes, Spidrift.....look, large companies think in terms of "how are we going to sell this a lot".

hey, mature and violent sells, add to the pile the name of a beloved franchise and BOOM...massive sales.

that is the basic idea.

those companies have exactly ZERO clue on what sold a beloved franchise to begin with because the people who run them see OFTEN not fans of the product to begin with and as such cannot be faulted entirely for not understanding when a pitch sounds utterly idiotic.

case in point, John Riccitello who was, at one point, advocating for COD MAGAZINE RELOAD MICROTRANSACTIONS. Or EA at large pushing DA2 out in 18 months forcing both the ME template on it AND micro transactions to make a quick buck off of the DAO wave of success (this from Inon Zuhr lips)

of course SOME of said companies, once they are hit where it hurts (the wallets) they actually start listening to people who might have a more consumer centric perspective (which is what happened here, sort of)

now, about Tristan and the rest of DMG....you would be VERY surprised about how many developers would be happy for such a turn of events. It happened with Bioware and Mass Effect 3, you really think the staff at large was happy about the original ending which basically SHAT on 7 some years of their work AND fan investment because 2 nitwits decided to pull a LOST and be artsy about a franchise that was never about that? No they were not, EA was not happy to have to put FREE CONTENT to fix it (to a point) on top of paying salaries and stiff upload fees? Not at all.

idiots like Tristan are a blight to industry and need to be EXCISED. Especially since they can play on the ignorance of the publishers to pitch their bullshit.

[zaprzapb]

Well Lavali and that other guy the in fourth panel don't seem too upset over having to make changes to the game but it does look like Lavali is expressing worry and concern over how Tristan is venting his anger and frustration.

[Odd Man Out]

Oh, and since no one has said it.

Lavali!

That was my favorite part of the comic certainly. Hoping she ends up with a sidekick modeled after her or something so there's an excuse for seeing her in different costumes.

[Geeno]

see crimzontearz above. The publishers were just saved a huge embarrassment and money sink. Sandra is the one in touch with the fan base. She is the one they need, not Tristan. Don't think for a moment the publishers don't see it that way - especially after the million hits on Sandra's meager web page, as soon as they are informed - assuming they weren't tracking her themselves. She is hot with the people whose money they want, and they will follow that now that they've seen it.

[Spidrift]

You know, all I'm really actually pointing out is the joke in the latest strip. Sandra blithely announces that the games company loves her; cut to the games company, where Sandra is not being loved. Sandra is, as usual, being wildly optimistic.

Everybody on the audience track laughs. Cut to next scene.

Quite why it's so important to some people that Sandra should be right, when the current gag is that she's wrong, is very strange.

(And yes, Lavali is cute. One wonders if she's meant to be a significant character, or whether we're just seeing a bad case of runaway memetics on the boards, as usual. From what we've seen, she seems to be a lowly gopher at the games company, although she does get to hang around the chief developer's office.)