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The rise and fall of @cliffy_b
At some point during the short life of Twitter's @cliffy_b, a mockumentary version of Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski, the joke became a little too real for some people and it had to be shut down. Matthew Downham, who we've actually featured before in spoofs where he fails hard at games, along with his friend, Austin Brown, were the men behind the false Bleszinski. Today he posted the full explanation of the birth and death of @cliffy_b.Downham explains the duo never intended any malice with @cliffy_b, that the character, a clear goof on the extroverted designer, was meant to be an over-the-top version of a gaming personality they admired. The joke was going along fine, until one particular tweet was taken a bit too seriously. Although Downham avoids what the post was, it was probably the tweet heard round the Gears community: "After much testing, it looks like matchmaking is permanently broken ... There are new maps though, only 800 Microsoft Points!" That's when the Epic lawyers had Twitter kill the fake Mr. Bleszinski. The story stands as a good metric on how some lines -- especially involving money and multi-million dollar franchises -- are dangerous to cross.
'One Man's Journey' tries and fails at Wii Fit
One Man's Journey recovers from the Rock Band disaster of '07 and releases another tale of self-realization. This time, the overly-optimistic Matt Downham is looking to lose some weight and (feeding into the hype) believes Wii Fit is going to get him to do that -- just like he wanted Rock Band to turn him into a rock star. Matt's faithful companion, Friend, joins him again on this adventure of self-discovery, standing by his side and offering his own special brand of support.Of course, similar to what happened with Rock Band, Matt's hopes and dreams of Wii Fit curing his weight condition lead to what the movie advertisements refer to as a "roaring rampage of revenge" (after catching his breath from walking up the stairs). He roars. He rampages. We just hope Friend survives for the next big game launch sporting a plastic peripheral.
Rock Band's satiric backlash begins
Rock Band was bound to get the satiric backlash soon, because any game with this much hype has to. And if the writer's strike wasn't going on The Daily Show or Colbert Report would have probably done it by now -- but with those shows on extended hiatus, we'll have to accept Matt Downham's take.Coming from a place of love, Downham tells his Rock Band tale. At first we thought he was some cub guerrilla marketing guy, but as the video goes on it's all about one fan's obsession and expectation turning to disappointment -- and rage.
