I do think that the utter mystique and secrecy of AAA game development does indeed create false impressions that wouldn't exist if companies were more open about how silly and janky games look early in development instead of refusing to share their work until it "looks good", and it definitely contributes to making people impatient and eager to consume leaks like this.
But at the same time, people can be absolute buffonish morons and I'm sure even if it was common practice to show how games evolve over development there'd still be idiots who complain and harass over leaks like this "looking bad" because their brains can't process that graphics and animation bugs are a mid/late development priority.
There's also the issue that these leaks were not accompanied by explanatory notes about why it looks the way it does.
I think a guided tour of a game in early development, with more focus on characters and story and such, and leading with the caveat that it is unfinished and the final product will look better, would yield much better results overall.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesI would also point out that no developer/publisher wants to give that level of a show on "how the sausage gets made'' because often they feel it would make them look bad.
This doesn't even apply to just video games but *a lot* of industries these days. *EVERYTHING* has to be PR and make the company look good and sell product and be all polished up. Even if it's utterly illogical to do so for sheer fact of it's a product being made and, yes, things get and look messy as a product is made.
Disney is rather infamous for this. The Sweatbox. Documentary film about the production of "Kingdom of the Sun" which equally infamously became Emperor's New Groove. Disney will never ever let the film see light of day because they feel it makes them look bad.
*I* have seen a copy of the movie. It... really doesn't make them look bad? I mean, granted, it's probably edited to Disney's specifications to some degree in the first place, but the end product doesn't make them look bad. It genuinely feels like... yeah, a production that went through development hell and had a lot of issues and changed radically from it's initial concept. Y'know, a totally normal thing to occur in large artistic productions of any kind?
Disney will not ever ever ever let any issues of production, no matter how perfectly reasonable they may be, be discussed or acknowledged. "They're the happiest place on earth", so every production goes smoothly in their own history. We love all our movies equally except the ones we don't.
Sorry. I have a particular loathing for Corporate Disney and this entire age of PR nonsense.
Point is, even if a developer is really really clear about how a game gets made and even let an in-depth and honest dev diary view of a production come out... Gamers will riot and bitch on the internet and suddenly shareholders get upset and antsy that "Why are you telling people your game looks bad on purpose?! This looks terrible! Why can't you show them a shiny trailer?! Show them what they want and they want shiny!!". As dumb as gamers are... I can absolutely assure you that shareholders aren't much better in a lot of ways. Both have the same money entitlement for starters...
Counter point; don't do that. The best way to actually do this would be to *not* focus on the characters and story. Because that's what every other "behind the scenes" dev diary does and it doesn't *actually* say anything about how the sausage gets made here. It just turns into another teaser trailer for the game and "Look at our cool companion you get to boink once you buy our $60 game!". Characters and story are exciting. Actual development... isn't. It's... coding.
No. Lean into it's exact purpose. Focus on the devs and their teams and exactly the stages of development a game goes through; like when certain elements get introduced and when a game starts to look "finished". And exactly why trailers *look* finished even when the game at that time in production does not. Show production timelines as to when certain things get added into the mix. Granted, yes, I realize there's not some over-night beat where x is added to game and that element will never change again, but I should hope you'd get what I'm going for here?
Edited by InkDagger on Sep 22nd 2022 at 1:00:26 AM
The GTA Forums did provide an update on the situation:
https://gtaforums.com/topic/985849-update-from-gtaforums-on-the-current-situation/
TL;DR
We believe that:
- "Teapot" and "Lily" worked together and both accessed the account on GTA Forums.
- "Teapot" made the posts regarding hacked materials, "Lily" made the posts regarding a new Telegram account.
- The account has not been accessed since Sunday evening.
- We have no reason to believe "Lily" is in possession of any hacked materials at this moment in time.
- We locked the other thread regarding this to minimize misinformation.
So that's interesting for sure.
Looks like someone's blackmailing and hacking days are over. That didn't take long at all.
It seems this guy was also hacking Uber, so he's been busy.
Edited by Redmess on Sep 23rd 2022 at 10:09:25 AM
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesYeah, trying to blackmail Rockstar and hacking Uber is gonna go over extremely not well for them in court.
Had they just dumped the leak anonymously and left it at that they probably wouldn’t get the full book thrown at them; but like this they’re just fucked
PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/TheyIt's also probably because high profile hacks like that is bad for business... far as criminal hacking goes anyway.
A good hacker is one that is never discovered.
Or, to be more specific, companies like Rockstar, CDPR, and Uber get hacked *all* the time. Just those companies usually never let the info get out and everything is handled very quietly.
Once shit goes public, usually there's enough for someone to get tracked down and arrested. Not unless they have something else shielding them, like a country that doesn't really care or etc.
Oh, right. The leak seemed to be referencing the diner scene from Pulp Fiction, so I expect there will be more like that.
Hmm, interesting question there: will the protagonists be more like the protagonists from the movie there, or like the crazy couple who tries to rob the place?
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesThe rendition of Donald Love in LCS always seemed strange to me, if he was indeed based on Donald Trump. It's something that would have made much more sense years later, when Trump had already started his political career, and became a Hate Sink as a result. In 2005, when LCS was released, it came out of nowhere for a Trump parody, and was much of a Character Derailment for how Love had portrayed in III (and Love wasn't the only one, IMO).
Edited by morenohijazo on Oct 4th 2023 at 9:39:28 PM
Yeah, me and my friend playing LCS felt he was made a cannibal mainly to bring him down for being one of the few likeable characters in III. The same thing happened with Lazlow in V. Apparently there can be no such thing as a halfway decent person in this universe.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest timesJason Schreier for Bloomberg: GTA 6 to be announced next week per anonymous sources, trailer next month
This is the most credible prediction yet given Schreier's track record and confidence to publish this in freaking Bloomberg, so... hype train?
Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Nov 7th 2023 at 7:37:48 AM
Confirmation from Rockstar Games.

You have a shockingly high opinion of people.