So David Jaffe, games designer famous for the likes of God of War and Twisted Metal, has publicly announced that he’s “going dark” on the blogosphere.
In other words, he’s had enough. At the risk of taking him out of context, which he obviously hates (and rightly so), his last post says:
“But for the time being, I’m going to go dark. My stylings have upset some folks within the biz I care very much about and that I can not live with. For me, it’s always been silly, stupid fun…you know, giving what I get, talking like alot of folks on geeky message boards do, trash talking,etc. But I guess some folks have taken it to heart and that’s not cool for me. End of the day, even the folks who spew much venom my way, I probably would like very much in real life. As I’ve said before, we’re all geeks and if you can’t get along with a fellow geek, then what’s the point.”
Should he have bowed out so publicly, or kept his personal blog voice going?
Being his personal blog, he has the right to do what he likes, although I’m a little wary of people making grand statements about leaving or stopping blogging.
His outspoken style has certainly ruffled a lot of feathers, and whether or not it’s been “silly, stupid fun” to him, it’s obviously caused a lot of upset, and a load of backlash.
While a lot of his ‘style’ may have been put on, I generally believe that people’s personal blogs reflect their character. It’s not fair of me to judge him by his last three or four posts, but I know that – despite being fairly thick-skinned – I couldn’t read his work for long without feeling a little queasy.
Disagreeing with others is fine, but I don’t really need to read his highly sexual reference as to what those he disagrees with can do with their relatives. I’ll leave it there, suffice to say that’s the style he’s chosen.
Maybe he’s made a rod for his own back, and he can’t take it any more.
Though a personal blog reflects your character and personality, you still have complete control over how that is portrayed and what language you use, and you have to be prepared to face the consequences.
It’s possible to have a change of heart, and steer your blog’s style in another direction, but you have to remember that everything you write is “out there” on the Internet — forever.
On an industry level, his rantings will probably be missed, and not just by those who enjoy talking back at him. He is, after all, a talented designer (whatever you think of his output) and certainly isn’t afraid to buck the corporate trend (he was the one who effectively said Sony had made a mistake by putting Blu-ray on the Playstation 3).
There are plenty of other well-known bloggers who have a love-hate relationship with many of their followers, who have stuck with it (Scoble springs to mind, though his mouth is at least quite a lot cleaner).
What David does next remains to be seen. If you want some nostalgia (and don’t mind some strong language) his blog is here.
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