The Chainsaw Hoax
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- čas přidán 13. 04. 2024
- In 2006, I was in a reality TV show titled "The Race to E3", which framed me and Peter Moore as the super villains who tried to cut the chainsaw from Gears of War. In this video, I set the record straight on the Chainsaw Hoax once and for all.
- Hry
"Today you have resources to verify things for yourself" *cut to resources gathering cobwebs*
LOL! Sadly often true.
These glimpses behind the game industry curtain are so interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for being here!
wow. thanks for sharing. definitely one thing that is frustrating in the games industry is people who've seen a video or two think they know exactly how games or even just a specific game got made.
True! Making each game is an adventure and slightly different every time.
@@laurafryer6321 As someone who has made Unity prototypes in college in game development courses and recently found a bug on a homebrew project I'm working on with the pause feature completely locking the world up not allowing you to move (I still have no idea how to fix this bug as it appears to be an in-engine issue) I completely agree with you.
Making each game is indeed an adventure and slightly different each time.
I didn't even know this happened lol. But then again I was what? 13? 14? When it came out, and MAN going from call of duty and halo to Gears and oh my lord my best friend and I were blown away by it lol. Many years later, I'm visiting my girlfriend and she's literally playing Gears 2 and absolutely baffling me, wall bouncing, pop shots, gnasher brawls, all of it. Was fun as hell watching those games, and playing the first one. So glad to see more Gears in my feed!
I'm glad you loved Gears and thank you for watching!
Sorry you went through this, and also sorry that I brought it up in one of our first interactions. I knew the show was just manufactured entertainment, so I didn't realize at the time that it was such a sore spot.
LOL! No worries! At least you brought it up so I could make sure you knew it didn't happen. I'm consistently surprised at how many people are fooled by hoaxes even now when you can figure it out by digging in a bit.
Yessss MY SIS IS BACK!!!!! Great VIDEO LOVE YA AND U DID A GREAT JOB ON GEARS 🙏🏿👍🏿❤️
Thank you for sharing this. The more you know situation, thanks for providing the truth. Sorry for what happened to you.
I appreciate that. Thank you!
Love your behind the scenes industry insight videos, keep doing the thing Ms Fryer!
Thank you! I appreciate that you watched.
I edited the wikipedia article to mention this! I hope the lies of the documentary will become transparent to all
Thanks! I didn't realize it was in wikipedia.
@@laurafryer6321 It is, and my change was sadly reverted. I cited this video as the source, but it fails wikipedia's self-published source rule. There needs to be a 3rd party confirming the situation for the change to stick
Thank you for your efforts! Interesting...I wonder if the book would count?
Hey Laura. This was very enlightening and thanks so much for sharing. Even backin 2006 I knew that "reality' tv was anything but that. So sorry you were made the villain. I hope your video gets some traction.
I just put a new comment on Act Man's video about Gears of War and politely suggested he watch your video and perhaps even read the Gears Retrospective book and MAYBE edit his video or add a postscript. I get the sense he is a good guy at heart and just didn't research enough, so hopefully he will.
Thank you for your comments! In fairness to actman, it wasn't easy to find the truth on this one because it was only corrected in a book from 2019..hence my video.
@@laurafryer6321 Yes and I said as much in my comments on his video. I get the impression he is fair and even-handed so hopefully he will address with a postscript if an edit is not feasible/easy.
I remember this from back in the day. It’s really sad this was allowed to happen, glad you have set the record straight.
Thank you!
Thanks for your contribution to my favorite hobby and fun experiences I've had with friends. I love hearing stories like this.
Awesome! Thank you for watching!
These videos are a goldmine. Keep it up!
Thank you! I miss our lunches.
Some of these audio cuts are so abrupt it's hard to believe anyone fell for it.
Exactly! I think part of the problem is that people kinda put their brain on cruise control when they watch.
@@laurafryer6321I definitely think the David vs Goliath framing of the story made it VERY easy to believe. It's such a convincing story that I guess anyone willing to buy into it wouldn't think twice about something like the audio.
Everyone fell for it, even a lot of our fellow developers. It's to the point where this story is told as truth around many a game dev and gamer circle.
Mad props for the Dandy shout-out! I got my start on the Atari and working for Antic, when we were publishing games like Dandy through the APX. Always good to know there are people out there that know of it and played it (vs. calling it a "discount Gauntlet").
Dandy was fantastic! Thank you for making it! I think we have some Antic magazines kicking around still.
I was 20 years old when Gears first came out. I still have the Game Informer issue showcasing it before release. I also absolutely remember that teaser of Marcus being overun and I vividly remember feeling that I REALLY needed to play this. It definitely was the better choice. I have some incredible memories of this franchise, thanks for being a part of it and I'm sorry you had deal with all that crap.
Thank you! I think I have that issue too!
Thanks so much for sharing, recently found your channel and it has been very enlightening. Love your content and your unique insight on game development. You have a legendary career and love to hear your perspective on past and current stories of the industry. Thank you for all your work on Gears and I’m sure many other titles that are very close to my heart.
Thank you for your kind comments! I'm glad that you enjoy my content.
After all these years I always thought something was off about that video but just accepted it. It was awesome to finally see your take on what really happened here, thank you for sharing that and helping ship one of the greatest shooters of all time! Sorry they did that to you and Peter Moore.
Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to find out what happened. :)
I had no idea this was even a thing. I am so sorry that you had to deal with that misinformation for such a long time. I am glad that you got this cleared up at least, I hope more people find your CZcams Channel. I don't know who started the misinformation but that shouldn't have happened.
Thank you! I hope so too!
So basically, they tried to make the chainsaw lady into some stereotype for marketing and now we have without a doubt THE chainsaw lady of gaming to live in our hearts until our last breath.
NICE!
Thank you for your kind comment!
Reality TV, especially of the 00's has always been awful, I legit don't understand how anyone could watch that without cringing their teeth out.
Agreed! Thank you for watching!
By looking at the actual interactions between all of you, it was evident that y’all never actually asked to cut the Lancer, the fact that it turned into a witch hunt and that it became common knowledge among the community via misinformed and clickbait content creators spewing that narrative is funny and sad, nowadays, it’s currently common for people who don’t know about game development to point fingers at certain people and pretend that the blame for a bad launch or an underwhelming new thing or reworked old one is solely on those folks (e.g. some Halo devs who keep being blamed for things they most certainly didn’t have much of a say in, devs from the Coalition who keep getting their work compared to past Gears of War devs when they’ve done their best to provide quality games, etc.)
I sure hope this video blows up and that you finally stop getting vilified by the noisy minority who continues to believe this with blissful ignorance, thank you for the insight and I hope we get more great videos like this one from you (maybe even having guests who once worked with you sometime 👀).
Agreed and thank you!
Thanks for making these. Really enjoy watching your videos.
I'm glad you like them. Thank you!
Crazy that this video pops up a week or so after I watched the actman video of Cliff saying Microsoft tried to cut out the chainsaw.
Agreed...it was crazy! I took a break from working on this video to watch the actman and it was pretty wild to see him talking about the hoax.
Thank you for sharing these incredible moments from your career. I’ve binge watched all your videos and find your insight refreshing and honest, which I feel is rare for an insider, but it’s probably just a cut in the communications loop that makes me feel like it’s rare.
I found you through searching CZcams for information on Xbox now with all the closures and mergers and enjoyed your view on the situation in the “Darkest Before the Dawn” video.
I hope you make a lot more content as it’s extremely interesting to watch and I am very sorry you had to go through this reality tv nightmare
Thank you for watching and for your kind comments!
Thank you for this video. I've never been in the Gears of War scene enough to see that ViDoc so if I've heard the bit about the chainsaw cut I would've accepted it as truth unless I took the time to catch up on it all. But this video found me and I'm happy it did. I wish you luck continuing forward! 🧡
Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to watch!
"I love chainsawing people!"
- Laura Fryer
But yes, good video. I honestly have never even heard of this controversy. Speaking of which, I wonder if Epic Games really started to slowly fall apart after Mike Capps left... Tim Sweeney has just been awful.
I loved working with both of them and I still consider them friends. Every leader has different strengths.
Knowing who controls the camera is incredibly important. I've been seeing too many cases of reputations tarnished because of the garbage Reality TV is.
True! For interviews with media, I've seen people insisting on being able to record it themselves as well so that the clever editing can't occur which is wise. Thank you for watching!
Someone has to send this to the actman.
Just want to say I've been following your channel for a while and I love your videos. Not only do they give great insight into the production process of these games, but as a software engineering manager I find them loaded with good advice. I don't expect to have any documentary crews filming me anytime soon, but now I also know to be cautious! 🤣
Awesome! I'm glad that you're finding the advice useful. Thank you for watching!
That's ... WILD.
I really don't like any kind of "Reality" TV.
It's insane.
I've never seen any of this stuff, but it's pretty amusing to me, because the tension they are trying to manufacture just isn't there? lol. It's as if someone took footage of some folks calmly disagreeing about what to have for lunch, and the editor tried to imply some massive political controversy in that conversation. Meanwhile in reality, those people are just having the most mundane conversation imaginable.
Isn't this stuff they did like, some kind of professional slander? They misrepresented your words and fabricated a narrative, to deliberately present you as this unlikeable person that everyone is supposed to be upset with on a tv show. It's probably too late for this, but you ever thought of suing them or something?
At any rate, sorry that this stuff happened to you, much love, thanks for the vids.
"some folks calmly disagreeing about what to have for lunch" - best description ever! I couldn't stop laughing! Thank you for watching!
When you have access to an infinite amount of good data, the lazy path is to believe the first lie that is brought to you on a silver platter. Almost makes it harder for a truth to get out these days.
Very insightful and I agree! Back in the day I called this chaff.
The industry did a much better job properly hyping their products back then. It feels like everything just comes and goes nowadays.
While I understand the frustration with being misrepresented by what was essentially "reality" TV, it was videos like this one that helped generate interest in the Gears of War franchise. With the absence of E3, companies are now relying on rather bland presentations, completely devoid of crowd participation, to hype up both the hardware and the software.
Thank you for your comment! I agree, I think the show helped.
ok ok ok i was going to watch this on the pc.. but a 20min video from laura fryer have to been watch on the big screen!! thank you for this kind of content is really informative and entertaining.
Thank you for watching!
Sorry to hearabout this. I wasn't aware but this seems like typical showbiz shenanigans. It's hard to trust those people.
True! Thanks for stopping by again!
I love your content and insight, thank you 🙏
Thank you!
Let the records be clear... Laura loves chainsaws 🥳
Definitely! Couldn't live without them.
Thank you for your content. Enlightening stuff. :)
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!
I bought into it during that time, and years went by and my connections within the industry grew I saw some of these same CZcamsrs attacking particular people at 343 mostly based on unfounded stuff. I should have realized that this sort of nonsense extended back to that "documentary". I really should have done a retrospection to realize that this wasn't a documentary but rather a reality TV stunt. Victor Lucas did a lot of great developer stories and his work would have been great for this, but I suppose MS wanted to go the "reality TV" route rather than a documentary route.
Microsoft had a "not cool" problem they had to fight against so this was an attempt to break out of that image. They had very little experience with this type of marketing.
You really are one of the most unsung hero's of the industry the information on this channel is amazing.
What experiance have you had bringing in external teams to support lagging or behind internal teams?
When do you know?
How do you choose the right external team?
Thank you!
External teams can help if you have clearly defined work and the teams have a history of working together. A good example of this: Certain Affinity and the Halo franchise. Max the founder, worked at Bungie so he knew everyone. In 2007 his team developed multiplayer maps for Halo 2. This is low risk because there aren’t a lot of dependencies between the two teams which means autonomy and accountability. It worked and they’ve been helping on Halo for years. As a counter, reports indicated that the Certain Affinity collaboration on Perfect Dark didn’t go well partially because of the nature of the work but we will probably never know for sure.
@@laurafryer6321 thanks for replying I really appriciate it
Aw, I'm sorry that you were made the villain. It's so great that you're able to share your rational perspective on things, and also reclaim your story.
Would you have any insider perspectives of any mass layoffs diring your career? Given recent events, publishers are in danger of falling back into the cartoonish villain role. Do you think that's justified or are we just falling into traps laid by misinformation like this reality show?
I remember seeing a lot of nerd rage threads on places like gamefaqs back in the day about this. I was like, 14 when Gears came out so I wasn't really thinking critically. Seeing the clips in context you can really see the cuts... Honestly awful they'd manufacture this drama just for a small boost to viewership at the expense of you.
LOL some of those threads were pretty mean. Understandable if the story had been true. Thanks for watching!
Excellent video. Thank you for sharing these insights.
I'm glad you liked it!
The guy at the end made a video talking about how the lancer was almost cut omg. What a great journalist. I'm sure he feels great to keep lies going
In fairness, they were deceptive in the TV show and the truth was hard to find..hence this video. Thank you for watching!
@@laurafryer6321 I guess I am biased since I also read the book you mentioned!
New to this channel. Cool to see an insider making videos! I love industry insight.
Sad to hear that you got screwed by this. I remember the series and thought cutting the Lancer was crazy.
Glad to hear no one was quite that nuts. You said you were unsure the negative impact extent, but did you ever consider litigation?
I didn't.
I'm really curious about the process of releasing this TV show. Didn't Microsoft get approval of the content to be aired? Didn't they see a problem with making one of their employees look bad due to a made up moment? It sounds like a major HR problem. I'm surprised you didn't request for MS to release a clarification way back when. Must be one of the downsides of working for a mega-corporation.
Thank you for your comment! There was someone at Microsoft who approved it. I never asked for the clarification because I had a lot on my plate at the time.
I'm so sorry that this happened to you. It's baffling to me also since who at Microsoft approved of the show if it's portraying the Microsoft side as being kill-joys for their own console? Especially given their existing reputation as a boring company that makes office software rather than fun games... Seems massively counter productive. And then throwing an employee under the bus like that... It's wild, but ultimately my confusion aside, what's important is that you didn't deserve that and I hope lots of people who enjoyed these games gets to see this video.
Thanks for watching my video and for your kind comments!
Great video, super informative. Subscribed!
Thank you for subscribing!
"Reality" TV is so trash I haven't watched it for over 20 years, so had no idea about any of this. Gears was fun though. Sorry you had to deal with Gamer™ idiocy. Thanks for the behind the scenes info.
Thanks for watching!
At 1549 that made me soo happy look at Ashman and my Gorgeous sis lol 🤟🏿👍🏿❤️
LOL! Thanks Keith! The couple that games together stays together.
@@laurafryer6321 amen that is FACTS 👍🏿❤️
Was and still am a PS player and had no idea any of this happened. Maybe good this happened before today's internet. I think you handled it very respectably. What are you and your husband playing today?
Thank you! We're playing 0ad.
Great video! I just have one question: why did you want to cut the chainsaw from gears of war?
Just kidding. Serious question: to what extent would you be willing to take a personal hit to your reputation due to a lie if it helps the success of something you're working on? I don't think this is a likely scenario, but suppose that documentary had been the difference between the game being successful or not. Would it have been worth it? Or is a lie like that always too harmful?
Great question! I'm a huge fan of teams, so it's in my nature to prioritize the team over myself. When I was a VP at WB Games, I gave up my bonus so there was more for the team. I'm not saying that's the right choice but that's what I tend to do.
How is it not criminal to make fake cuts and tarnish someone's reputation, no matter what their contract small print says?
Thanks for the insight!
I'm glad you liked it!
"even today"??
it's a million times worse today
this needs to have way more views, or better yet, covered by some big youtube channel to led the truth spread.
Thank you for your kind words!
The thing with cliffy's girlfriend was a hoax too right.....right?
Good question, I'm not sure. Thanks for watching!
This is why I can't watch reality TV. It's so manufactured and misleading.
Still wrong to not have the focus be on the chainsaw, in the last scene in the trailer though.
Advocating the alternate scene showing Marcus under threat, is overthought nonsense - perhaps stemming from focus groups?
Gimme iconic and visceral wish fulfilment over a call to action, any day of the week!
I don't think there was a focus group. Thank you for watching!
Such a view was formed without external input?
Absolutely wild but not surprising that they would do this, especially without your permission. What's a little more surprising is the developers not speaking up in your defense. That sucks and I'm sorry that happened to you.
Thank you for your comment! I don't think most of the team saw it ahead of time either.
@@laurafryer6321 That's fair, though I guess I would've hoped to see some follow up articles after it released that would've set the record straight.
I work in the industry and I know the stress, hard work, (and pleasure!) of working so hard to make something for people to enjoy. I also know the thankless job that producers have, and you deserve thanks for all of your hard work. Gears brought me a lot of joy back before I worked in game design. It was a great release at the end of many tough work days, and I had many amazing times with my friends that I'll never forget. Thanks for being the glue that held that team together.