I'm not mocking you, this is all true. Google Cleve Blackmore and see for yourself. The man is completely crazy.

Plus, he spent 20+ years plagiarizing Wizard 7 and his "masterpiece" is still broken as hell. Yes, most Steam users might find Grimoire "decent enough", but his game would be shredded to pieces here on GOG, I'm positive.

But just to clarify: Cleve's Neanderthal statements are *not* a joke I'm making up or some sort of GOG in-joke. Seriously. Google him. You'll see the Neanderthal stuff and more absurd crap he's said and done.

Nope, not a joke. Cleve is Fucking Insane, and deserves those caps.

He claims to be a Neanderthal. He claims to have a skeleton made of titanium. He claims to be a genius (believe the magic number he throws around is that his IQ is 183). He claims to be a rodeo clown. He claims to be stronger and faster than any man alive.

He is a white supremacist, as shown by the posts on his pitiable blog, as well as forum posts for 20+ years; a doomsday prepper who has dug a "survival bunker" (a little hole in the ground) and eagerly awaits the end of the world because he wants the human race to be cleansed. There are very few stories you could make up about Cleve that would be worse or stranger than the truth.

The game really is enjoyable. But Cleve can indeed be (or is) an asshole.
One just has to learn to separate the "Creation" from the "Creator".

I'm not excusing Cleve in any way. But it's a fact that many masterpieces were made by people who were great artists but not nice people.
I don't know if he's a white supremacist. I've seen him defend black people several times. He seems to show great respect for Derek Smart.
But it's a fact that he has utter contempt for people with low culture or intelligence (black or white).

I guess we can all agree he's crazy, though.

This is true. In my major degree we were taught and encouraged to practice the Barthesian concept of "la mort de l'auteur", this separation of author from their work you speak of. But this *only* applies when you're actually talking about an actual masterpiece, which, let's face it, as enjoyable as you may find it to be, Grimoire is *not*.

I'm willing to separate Rimbaud, Ezra Pound, Picasso or even Wagner, who were all despicable human beings, from their works, because these people were geniuses in their fields and left us some of the best art in the history of mankind. Cleve Blackmore, though...? Nope, I'm not going to give him the same treatment. Unless his game was the masterpiece he blindly thinks it is, I'm not going to apply "la mort de l'auteur" to it.

O_o

That is some deeply crazy shit and this man is in need of serious help. Whatever doctor helped birth these delusions was being grossly irresponsible.

The Calvin Barkmore character from Jagged Alliance 2 is a pretty good snapshot-in-time of Cleve Blakemore.
Might be talented, unbearable coworker.

Cleve's been baiting people probably since he drew his first breath. And many of his claims are just that. Not delusions, but ways of annoying folks. He's quite the brat. Yes, he's a white supremacist, and he's got several other unpleasant ideas, but he also frames these in ways that will deliberately provoke. He's a vintage troll, in that respect. He feeds on attention. And as they say, the best thing to do with trolls is not to feed them.

He is also a pretty decent game developer. I suspect--and that's all it is, a suspicion--that his releasing Grimoire now in a state almost identical to what it was when I got a pre-release preview copy about 18 years ago is just to raise comment. Praise feeds him, as it would anybody. Criticisms allow him to mock, and engage his trollishness.

Question is, how do people like the game? I'm thinking word will get out pretty quickly that's it's pretty damn hard. A ton of grinding, which was (to be fair) characteristic of the Wizardry series on which this is clearly patterned. I recall Grimoire having tough puzzles (again, Wizardry did), and slow progression. It also has dated visuals and sound. Once the furor over the game dies down, I think it won't sell very well, not at its current price point. And Cleve will have to find something new to draw the attention of a world that puzzlingly enough, doesn't really care much one way or another about him.

I've considered getting the game out of a sense of morbid curiosity, but the lack of manual (or documentation of any kind, really) and talk of crash bugs have put me off, at least for now. I'm willing to endure a lot of garbage in these sorts of RPGs (possibly including the part where the developer is a reprehensible lunatic) but having to figure out the basic mechanics (like what the stats and skills actually do) is probably a bridge too far for me at this point in my life. At least, for $40 it is.

I am interested in seeing how reception to Grimoire will ultimately level out, once the shock of it actually being a thing you can purchase for money clears away. I don't worship at the altar of Wizardry 7 all that much, but that doesn't change the fact that no one else is making games like it in this day and age.

You're treading on "dangerous ground" here ;)
The question of what is a Masterpiece or a Classic is a highly subjective and mutable one. What is seen as great "Classic" today may be completely forgotten and viewed as "dated" and obsolete in the future. Since the definition of a Masterpiece is dependent on cultural issues, such definition can change as culture evolves.

You, more than anyone, should know, since you/we live in a country where probably 95% of the population has no clue who Ezra Pound is nor has any interest in knowing. In 500 years (assuming that there are still humans alive then) there's no guarantee that Grimoire will be seen as the pinnacle of dungeon-crawlers, while no-one will know who or what Wizardry or Eye of the Beholder are.
As a case study I suggest you take a look at [url=http://www.pcgamer.com/pc-gamer-presents-the-ultimate-rpg-handbook/ ]this abomination [/url]and the way it reflects (subverts?) the history of videogames.

He's promising a manual by next week, for what that's worth. I suspect one of the Steam folks will do up some sort of guide, as well. And agreed: $40 is more of a Cleve joke than anything else. Perhaps his way of seeing how many people will spill that kind of cash for a 20-year-old game, so he can laugh contemptuously at them in comparison to his Olympian will...? There always was a bit of a worshiper at St. Ayn Rand's altar in him.

I would like to point out one key difference here. Picasso and Wagner (don't know about the others) are, I believe, dead; therefore, purchasing their works (or attending a performance of them) will not give them money. However, Cleve Blackmore, as far as I know, is alive and profiting from the sales of the game; therefore, buying the game ends up supporting the developer. I do not want my money going to somebody who is openly hateful, and I therefore will refuse to buy the game, even if it is the sort of game I would like. (Not to mention the asking price and the fact that it's being sold on a DRM-encumbered platform.) I would rather have my money go towards people and companies who support a more inclusive world.

Don't worry, he said that Grimoire will be also available on GOG DRM free in the near future.

I couldn't wait, so I bought it on Steam. You forget about things like DRM when Incline is so great.

Huh. I'd be tempted to get it when it's here, but the fact that the developer is an insufferable arsehole with an ego the size of Jupiter, and the fact that I have a job, a wife and a daughter to look after, means that I'll be passing on this.

Looking at many of the positive reviews on Steam (many of which refer to "console peasants" and "graphics whores"), I get the impression that they're just alt accounts of Cleve or his "fanbase" is just as much an intolerable bunch of basement dwelling 30- and 40-somethings that still live with their parents.

Speaking of which, I think Cleve is likely to be in for a shock if he's expecting anything resembling commercial success. The majority of fans of hardcore CRPGs that played them on a regular basis in the 1980s and 1990s are almost certainly going to have families and jobs now that prohibit this kind of time investment. There is a reason that RPGs today feature automaps, tutorials and more intuitive character management.

I might have risked a gander in a GOG deep sale down the line, but if Cleve believes himself too important and his work too influential to lower himself to the level of the peasant developers, then...fine...I guess. It's not like I don't have other things to play, and I'm sure some other indie developer will pop up to bestow upon us a decent cRPG (for what it's worth, games like Legend of Grimrock are good, but quite simple and streamlined by comparison).

Cleve seems pretty keen on Steam

You could grumble about Steam and their margins all you wanted but the fact is their packaging and author updating system for patching distributions is light years ahead of all their competitors. Critique is easy, I'd love to see somebody compete with Valve. So far no serious contenders and likely won't be for a long time. It's superb from what I have seen.


http://steamcommunity.com/app/650670/discussions/0/2333276539591434186/?ctp=3#c2333276539600863377