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Really nice interview, Joseph Staten is really great, I loved him on the Halo 1 & Halo 2 Cutscenes with Developercommentaries...
I just got Contact Harvest for Christmas, I haven't read much stuff but till now it's awsome!

  • 01.09.2008 1:57 PM PDT

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I doubt a big-ass chunk of people in the fanbase listen to NPR..I do though, I know this program, it's pretty interesting. The last time I heard a Bungie person was I believe when "halo 2" came out and the warthog was demonstrated, etc and we could HEAR it being driven in the game and the reporter described it as if he'd never SEEN such a vehicle, heh heh

  • 01.09.2008 4:52 PM PDT
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If only I weren't a gamer I could understand this thread!

  • 01.09.2008 5:25 PM PDT

"In order to be effective, truth must penetrate like an arrow - and that is likely to hurt." -Wei Wu Wei

I love that this was supposed to be about "Contact Harvest", but the content, or quality of content, was practically a sidenote. Instead the piece pretends to "discover" that people who play Halo can (1.) read (2.) think (3.) be creative. It's an insult to Staten, who's actually a pretty good sci-fi writer, to claim that he would have been a bestseller regardless of how he wrote the book.

  • 01.09.2008 7:26 PM PDT
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She was quite the condescending little -BLAM!-

  • 01.09.2008 9:52 PM PDT
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I understand that most people here seem to be (and in my opinion, rightfully so) rather annoyed, angered, and (oddly) surprised at this woman's apparent lack of effort and her offensively condescending attitude. This sort of shoddy work is to be expected of the NPR. It's kind of their thing.

Edit: btw, loved the book especially the last 2 or 3 pages (damn you and your opening up new questions). Also, who else here could imagine Dadab incorporating the grunty "du do do doo"? Anyway, I hope you publish more in the future Mr. Staten.




[Edited on 01.10.2008 12:40 AM PST]

  • 01.10.2008 12:25 AM PDT
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Hmm, well I considered it to be a poor attempt at reaching the target audience, and the gamers.

I thought the reporter could have done better if she researched more Halo material and tried to convey some respect to the gaming community. Minor informational errors aside, the editing and overall quality of the interview was sub par. This woman Chana Joffe-Walt didn't sell the story very well. I didn't hear alot about the book. More about Halo's story and video games. In the end, I'm left disappointed.

I loved the book Staten, you have a future in writing novels, keep up the good work.

  • 01.10.2008 12:28 AM PDT
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I have a feeling that the reporter has been in a box for 20 years or so.

  • 01.10.2008 4:43 AM PDT

kappan koins since 1920

Can't flip your new worthog? well you need to call kappa koin with the best driving since burnout ^_^

Well lady it's 2008 and you have no idea what gaming is all about, you need to stoping acting like your some little kid with no clue of whats going on in the world, then where you really messed up is asking "Do gamers read?" your interview really was a slap in my face.

For now on anything that has NPR with it I will be against it because you people sound like your the top of the world and everyone else is a illiterate, joystick playing geek. and I will never suppor such people.........................NOOB

  • 01.10.2008 3:35 PM PDT

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Posted by: Deus_Ex_Machina
Cortana 5 is a carbon-based lifeform that frequently visits these forums, currently residing in the United States. Practically every male on the site responds to her posts.

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Awesome! <3 Joe Staten.

  • 01.10.2008 3:41 PM PDT
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-T.F.S.

This just proves that the MSM is not only becoming obsolete, but that they're in denial of that fact. Sending someone who doesn't play games to report on games is like sending someone who doesn't listen to music to report on a popular band. Her obvious disdain for gamers and her treatment of Joseph and his work, which the poor man thought she would be genuinely interested in, disgusted and upset me. I felt bad for him, and i'll never patronize NPR again. NPR, that was incredibly unprofessional and snobbish report.

"All Things Considered, except, you know, silly things."

Jerks.

On a lighter note, I'm about half way through and loving the book, Joe! First contact was handled a bit too casually (OK, quite a bit too much), but other than that, excellent book.

[Edited on 01.10.2008 5:25 PM PST]

  • 01.10.2008 5:22 PM PDT

Don't tell me what I can't do.

This lady really ticks me off.

"Joseph Staten is Halo’s story guide. YES, my fellow non-gaming gledates there IS a story to Halo. I know. I thought the same thing. Isn’t gaming all shoot-em up? Why do you need story?"

Amazing. Some gamers have brain cells. never would have guessed. Staten Intelligently states that you must play the game to understand. That’s when Staten gives an introduction to Halo. And she says

"That’s it. Right there. The ENTIRE Halo story."

Yup thats all folks. Later Staten explains how careful he must be:


“When you play a game, you have the ability to look at everything for as long as you want. You can become an expert on the source material. So when your writing a book for a bunch of highly literate gamers, you need to be very, very careful about stuff that you throw in. Your dealing with this internet connected, very savvy audience.”

"GEEKS in other words. Your dealing with GEEKS."

Where did she get that from?

As a conclusion, she states

“To get the full story, your going to have to put down your joystick and read a book.”

She makes it sound as if a gamer is too stubborn , too lazy and too illiterate to put the games down for just one second and read.
Mostly everything else she said was somewhat intelligent relative to the ignorance stated here. Bottom Line:

Crazy Book Interview Lady - Ignorant, Uneducated in the gaming industry, and possibly good person.

Joseph Staten - Civilized, Intelligent, Leading Leader in the art of interactive story telling and excellent grunt voice.

Thats all folks

  • 01.10.2008 8:27 PM PDT
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What a an ignorant -blam!-.

  • 01.11.2008 1:27 AM PDT

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I contacted NPR with my opinions, and I suggest that if you feel strongly about this, that you do the same.

NPR's contact page: http://www.npr.org/contact/

My letter:

Dear NPR Staff,

On the January 8th, 2008 edition of All Things Considered, I heard the segment "Best-Selling Book Shows 'Halo' Game's Wide Appeal" by Chana Joffe-Walt. After listening to the entire segment, I decided to address several issues raised by Ms. Joffe-Walt's sloppy and unprofessional approach to the subject matter of her story.
As a 20 year old, literate, videogame-playing, male college student, I fit right into the target demographic for consumers of videogames and products spun off of videogame content (products such as books for instance). Therefore it may be no surprise to Ms. Joffe-Walt that I have indeed played all of the Halo games, that I have read all of the Halo books to date, and that I have a fairly extensive knowledge of the Halo story from start to finish (at least the portions made public by Bungie). However, judging by the tone of Ms. Joffe-Walt's recent story, it may be a surprise to her that I do in fact read, that I'm generally intelligent, and that I'm living a normal life (interacting with other members of society in a fashion that is considered normal and socially acceptable, complete with a girlfriend, some keys to carry in my pocket, a car, my own apartment, and even a job...surprise!). It may be an even bigger surprise to her that I also listen to NPR, the station that happened to be broadcasting the segment in which she did her best to insult the intelligence of the entire videogame playing demographic. For example, at one point during her interview with Joseph Staten she posed the question "Do gamers read?" She goes on to say "...Geeks, in other words, you're dealing with geeks..." I don't claim to be an expert on journalistic technique, but it seems rather callous and counter-productive to insult the intelligence or the social status of your audience.
Besides taking shots at video gamers in general, Ms. Joffe-Walt's tone during most of the segment conveyed a sense of contempt for what she was reporting on, and her apparent lack of knowledge on the story's subject matter made it obvious that she spent little time researching before hand. This lazy and unprofessional approach to journalism degrades All Things Considered, and the entirety of NPR when it is aired on what is otherwise a highly respected show and radio station. While insulted by Ms. Joffe-Walt's comments, and saddened by the style of journalism she exhibited on NPR's All Things Considered, I'm not looking for an apology. I’m just asking that future stories by Ms. Joffe-Walt for NPR, and stories about videogames in particular, reflect the high standards of journalism found in the rest of NPR's, and All Things Considered's, reports.

  • 01.11.2008 2:11 AM PDT

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xTRIGGER09x=Yeah, qnd then there's a larger chance getting a girl pregnant, so I'd put that condom back on.
JAVA2:=All you have to due to cure pregnancy is punch the girl in the stomach....problem solved.
Toast90:=Thats....not right

WHAT A -blam!-! WHO THE HELL SHE THINKS SHE IS?!?

  • 01.11.2008 7:32 AM PDT
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Posted by: RedMonkey999
I contacted NPR with my opinions, and I suggest that if you feel strongly about this, that you do the same.

NPR's contact page: http://www.npr.org/contact/
Thanks for posting that. I will also be sending them a letter.

Here's what I wrote them:
Dear NPR,

I listened to the Jan. 8th edition of "All Things Considered." The one where Chana Joffe-Walt interviewed Joseph Staten.

Being a gamer myself (and reader), I was left with quite a sour taste in my mouth after listening to that edition. I thought her extremely biased view towards video games, and gamers in general, made gamers sound totally illiterate and dumb. I have played all the Halo games, read all 5 of the books and the Halo Graphic Novel, and theorized about it extensively. I consider myself to know quite a lot of the Halo universe, down to the last little factoid.

I will point out some things that she said that struck me as quite ignorant and condescending.
"Joseph Staten is Halo’s story guide. YES, my fellow non-gaming gledates there IS a story to Halo. I know. I thought the same thing. Isn’t gaming all shoot-em up? Why do you need story?"
And when Mr. Staten gives a little summery of the story, she says:
"That’s it. Right there. The ENTIRE Halo story."
If she knew anything about Halo at all, she would know that Halo's story is one of the reasons that it made it so popular.

Mr. Staten also said that you have to be very careful when writing a book about something that the fanbase knows quite a bit about. He tells her that we (the Halo fanbase), are quite savvy and very intelligent people. She then says:
"Geeks in other words. Your dealing with geeks."
This is where she gets a little contradictory. She first asks if gamers read (making it seem like we're a bunch of idiots), then she calls the ones that do read-geeks. So what are we supposed to to, Mrs. Joffe-Walt?
That brings me to the worst thing she said:
"Do gamers read?"
Yes, in fact we do Mrs. Joffe-Walt. We're not all teenagers that have ADD and are hopped up on caffeine. Some appreciate a good story, and that's why we play Halo. For me, that's the ONLY reason I play Halo-for the story.
She also says this:
“To get the full story, your going to have to put down your joystick and read a book.”
Which ties into what I just said. Oh yea, and joysticks died out with the Atari-15 years ago. It's called a controller now.

And just so you know, she didn't just insult the Halo fanbase. She insulted the gaming fanbase, which includes tens-upon tens of millions of people around the world. So, before you interview someone else, please research a little-you're only making yourself, and NPR look bad.
I commend Joseph Staten for having to deal with the completely biased attitude towards gaming, because he, along with Bungie have created one of the best game franchises ever.

[Edited on 01.11.2008 12:38 PM PST]

  • 01.11.2008 12:12 PM PDT
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That women mostly sounded like a misinformed idiot.

  • 01.12.2008 11:44 AM PDT

A lime a day keeps teh scurvy at bay.

Posted by: flareman jr903
Joysticks? Covenant? Nerds? Annoying Lady? Weird.
But not as weird as this. No one said "1ST POST" etc...

That's because only we geeks read, and those children avoid intelligence when it rears its astoundingly gorgeous head.


That said, the woman was being absolutely unprofessional, all things considered (no, that isn't an intentional reference). Seriously, there wasn't a hint of objectivity, and pandering to your supposed demographic with such obvious contempt in her voice is a disgusting reminder of modern journalism's new, ugly visage.

Joe always goes to his interviews with such poorly controlled enthusiasm (not a bad thing if you ask me), that it disheartens me to see him put in such a bad light. He's a bestseller not because of his name and connection to the Halo series, but because he's a genuinely good writer. Having actually read hundreds, possibly thousands, of books on my own since the age of three, I've had some experience reading my share of craptastic books and really awesome ones. Really, the only criticisms i could throw at his first work is how short it felt (it wasn't short, just felt that way), and certain spelling and grammatical errors. Since laying out your ideas is probably the hardest part, the grammar's more an indication that editing is needed to polish his work, not an indication of lack of writing greatness.


Keep your head up, Joe, and keep up the good work. If you ever get the chance again, what with no time on your hands and such.

  • 01.13.2008 6:53 AM PDT

I swear to DRUNK, I'm not GOD!

Ouch.... I'm really disappointed in NPR! I mean, lots of the time, reporters just generalize us gamers as being a bunch of morons who think that shooting stuff mindlessly is all there is to life, and I thought NPR would be a /little/ different, but I guess I was wrong...

Damn... really disappointing. Well, whatever. Thanks for at least braving the storm of the evil reporters, Joe! ^^

  • 01.13.2008 9:56 AM PDT

First off, good job on the book Staten. While I have not read it, I have only heard good things about it.

Second, every one who thinks the interview was horrible should send them a review. If not many peole respond to the work than they will think that they were correct in assuming the all gamers are unfunctional people. Also we need to respond in masses in order to get to them. If just a few people say something than they will take that as it is just a minority of gamers who lead productive life styles if they even end up reading their responses.

  • 01.14.2008 2:34 PM PDT

I'll be getting Contact Harvest this weekend.

Incidentally, isn't Joe's last name pronounced STAY-ten and not STAT-ten?

Quality reporting there if the bloody girl can't even get her interviewee's name right...

  • 01.25.2008 4:54 PM PDT

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