Tomm Hulett, Silent Hill Producer, Leaves Konami

[Redemption]

Source . So whats people's takes on this? He seemed to be excited about the franchise.

[spearofhope]

Konami's still in charge. That's the problem. That's always been the problem. Look at the making-ofs, at all the commentaries. Guy Cihi said it best, that the Konami offices looked like Bank offices, not the offices of creative types. Run by Stifling people with stifling business practices, Silent Hill has floundered. We saw it in the March Madness nonsense that rushed out two unfinished games and failed to produce the third. They're thoughtless, care nothing for the product, think every one of their ideas in genius and refuse to learn anything from their mistakes. Konami is the problem. Tomm was a glorified scapegoat saddled with the responsibility for failing to save a game franchise he had no power to actually save.

I'm not saying there's a solution. I'm saying this isn't it. I hope he quit of his own volition and wasn't pushed out. I'd give up on that job too.

Hell, who am I kidding. I'd never give up on a chance to save the Series. I'd beat my head against the wall of corporate stupidity until it bled.

All the same, I don't know what his contributions really were at the end, but he seemed to have some good ideas, but maybe ones with the wrong motivations. That's my reaction.

[Tabris]

^^ Sums up a lot of my thoughts about the situation, particularly with Konami itself.

Though, there's an extent I think people may be looking into it too much when it comes to the community itself running him out. People assume too much. I'm sure the community had an impact but I also think it may be personal desire to further his own career too.

People direct so much childish vehement rage towards him. He did lots of good and lots of bad to the series. Like fuck, so did plenty of the original creators of Silent Hill too. People bitched and moaned just as much when SH3 and especially 4 came out.

If he was even half as much of a fan of the series, he knew what he was getting into with the community. There's an extent where the fanbase is being as it is typically, and just downright arrogant with their assumption that they had any impact on him moving on.

I'm curious where this will lead Silent Hill though. I doubt this is a nail in the coffin or anything. One thing that likely kept it from that is probably Kojima's intrigue with his new engine and how it would work with Silent Hill. That's a pretty big deal, even if Kojima has no intention of being part of an SH game.

[Judas]

Jan 28, 2013 22:00:37 GMT Tabris said:

People bitched and moaned just as much when SH3 and especially 4 came out.

Anyone who complained about SH3 must have been nuts.

[spearofhope]

Jan 29, 2013 3:32:50 GMT Judas said:

Jan 28, 2013 22:00:37 GMT Tabris said:

People bitched and moaned just as much when SH3 and especially 4 came out.

Anyone who complained about SH3 must have been nuts.

You know, it's funny, I always felt the same way about the people who complained about 4. It really is just personal opinion. In a way, there'll always be that part of the fanbase that can Never be pleased, that will always complain and bitch and never accept anything new, and there'll also be that part of the fanbase that will Always be pleased, no matter what. Somewhere in between there should be some kind of general consensus, but there really isn't. We can't agree on what Silent Hill is supposed to be, what a Sequel should have, what made the games great. This is really an impressively divided fandom.

I feel sorry for anyone who has to cater to these whims. And yeah, Tabris makes some really good points. We do come across as entitled, unpleasable, and in a way we are. We put so much hate on Tomm Hullet (And Hell, I just put so much hate on Konami, a bunch of fellow humans who are just trying to do their jobs!) for... what? Not achieving some unobtainable, unquantifiable triumph? And then when he steps down, we assume it's because we hated him. I mean, maybe we need to consider that this isn't OUR video game series, it's theirs. We're not the end-all, be-all, we don't have the final say (or Any say, realistically), Konami does. They can do what they want with it. Up to and including Dungeon crawlers and poorly realized film sequels.

Doesn't mean we have to like it.

Wherever it goes, it'll have upsides and downsides. There's just not going to be another Silent Hill 2, and there's certainly not going to be one that can live up to our overblown glorification of it. I for one know nothing of Kojima, but people seems pretty excited about him, so I'll keep watching that.