I’ve been wanting to write a little something about Tim Schafer for a good, long while. Somehow, he’s escaped major scrutiny here on the site. Sure, I’ve mentioned him once or twice, and I’ve certainly lampooned him on Twitter. But we’ve never done an article dedicated to the man behind Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, and some other shit. What else? Brütal Legend, Spacebase DF-9, Massive Chalice…the man stays busy, I’ll give him that. I can’t say that I’ve ever been a huge fanboy of his. He’s earned my money once or twice, but I don’t consider him a legend. So when I saw him trashing gamers, I was automatically thinking “this guy can go fuck himself.” And he was literally one of the first big names I remember talking a ton of shit. I highlighted one of those tweets a couple weeks ago on Twitter. The fucker is just downright offensive.
Here’s a little background on the bastard, in case you forgot:
Never forget what a scumbag Tim Schafer is. Bobby was right…https://t.co/4bfHYjuPUE#GamerGate pic.twitter.com/4Z56YAqU2Z
— Ethan Ralph (@TheRalphRetort) January 29, 2015
https://twitter.com/Youdaman/status/508821430771798016
MN9 community manager showing Tim Schafer how to ignore his customers. We'd hate to bother him, right? #GamerGate pic.twitter.com/IDrp20dK9m
— Honeymoon's Over (@Honeymoons_Over) September 27, 2014
ICYMI: Tim Schafer should have learned how to handle money. Bobby warned us, repeatedly. #GamerGate pic.twitter.com/HznbNg1wqf
— Ethan Ralph (@TheRalphRetort) November 23, 2014
To be fair, it does cost a lot of money to hire such sweet entertainment (this is from a Double Fine event last fall):
It’s too bad they couldn’t have used some of that money they spent on an extravagant party to save some jobs instead. Or maybe they could have used it to finish the game and not shit on customers? Nah, that’s probably asking too much.
Just look at the con they pulled with DF-9. TechRaptor does an amazing job breaking all that shit down:
Tim $chafer's DF-9 Master Con #GamerGate pic.twitter.com/p1SyUH40BK
— Ethan Ralph (@TheRalphRetort) February 17, 2015
So why does Peter Molyneux get raked over the coals, but a fat spendthrift like Schafer escapes scrutiny? Well, it’s simple: he’s part of the SJW Good Ole Freaks network. This anon explains it pretty well:
When you take the full Tim Schafer experience into consideration, the only option (for me, at least) is to reject doing business with him. I know some will disagree, but not only is the man disreputable, he also takes great pride in slandering gamers. Plus, he was in the notorious Nightline segment that misrepresented our pastime to the nation. He’s got a lot to answer for. How dare this fucker try to prolong his career with cheap SJW tricks? And he’s doing it at the expense of gamers and free expression. Fuck that.
As I just alluded to, I won’t be buying Grim Fandango: Remastered (it sounds like he phoned it in, shockingly). I won’t be buying anything with this fuck’s name attached to it, for that matter. The spineless and corrupt gaming press will never ask Schafer if he’s a “pathological liar,” like John Walker did with Molyneux. He’s in their bullshit club. But as long as there’s a GamerGate, there will be people here willing to call him out.
34 comments
Double Fine is a great name for his company. You will be sure to pay twice more than necessary if you support it.
Its been pretty easy for me to ignore this guy’s entire career because he makes shit games. This is the guy that made niche games full of bad jokes and shit gameplay until he got the funding to make one big game, brutal legend, which spectacularly bombed. People actually talk up trash like costume quest.
The guy is a joke. Propped up entirely by people who hate gaming, like Telltale is now. Only journalists that hate gameplay and hate playing games drool over these.
I’m a headbanging moshpitting metalhead and I took one look at Brütal Legend and knew it was for posers.
Only game I’ve played of his was Psychonauts, and that was a long time ago. It’s arguably one of the best 3d platformers ever.
Aside from that, I really don’t think this dude ever did anything of note. I’d actually rather play the fable games than anything he’s ever made. (And I’m not really a fable fan, either.)
Hi Ralph. Good to know you started on Kelly’s Girlcott idea with Double Fine!
Just calling ’em like I see ’em, as always. I didn’t crib anyone’s idea here. (September 24th, 2014) https://theralphretort.com/confirmed-chargebacks-work-mighty-9/
Not saying you cribbed or anything. Sorry for any misunderstanding. I was just referring to the heat Kelly got when she suggested that gamers should start picking and choosing which developers’ products they support in the future based on their past performance, only to be shouted down with foolish cries of “no dev boycott,” and “anti-trust” by idiots. Not supporting scamsters in the future is not a boycott.
There might be some semblence of quality coming out of Double Fine and the San Fran indie scene right now, but history has shown this self-serving croneyism leads to laziness and scams. We’ve already seen an incomplete game get rebranded as “part 1”, like that’s fooling anybody.
Schafer is a pathological asshole.
Great piece! TimOfLegend is such a terrible hack. Would like to mention how he got lots of free press at Giantbomb, and how Giantbomb kept promoting Gang Beasts which his company conveniently picked up for publishing.
I have never seen what was so special about his games. I played Brutal Legend and that was… meh. I have meet fans of his games and I keep getting the same old BS every time that “he is not a bad man. He just wants to makes different games, leave him alone”. Right… and that’s why he is a total jackass pissing on gamers just to stay in the club with the SJW and RF asylum… copy that.
I have to agree with Ralph. Tim here can go suck an egg.
The problem is very much that Schafer makes the same shit we’ve played a multitude of times before, but markedly worse. The only thing he does differently is he’ll slap together disparate genres and wraps ’em in a unique aesthetic. That’s pretty much his claim to fame. If folks like that then more power to ’em, but he’s certainly not making different games.
Huge metalhead, loved brutal legend, and then he goes, and, does, THIS FUCKING SHIT? fuck his greedy ass with snakeoil
Yup i already decided at the start of this to never buy anything from him again…
I know this ain’t related to the article, but it invloves our good friend Mark Kern.
https://www.change.org/p/kotaku-lead-the-way-in-healing-the-rift-in-video-games
Also, I’m glad I never bought any of Tim “Chaffer’s” games in my lifetime. Looks like I managed to dodge a bullet there.
IF Broken Age part II ever comes out I’ll finish it because it’s included with PtI which I bought before knowing better. I’m skeptical it ever will though.
Understand I loved both psychonauts and Brutal legend and still do, and there’s other entries in his career to consider too. Just the same as much as I might have sometimes liked Tim the artist I can’t condone Tim the serial fuckup any further. I wont be giving this fuck any more money in the foreseeable future.
I use to like Schafer, but now I just see a guy who is full of hot air, lies and arrogance.
He sold out. Simple.
Too be fair he still hasnt fucked up as often or as bad as mol so that is definitely a reason.
Schafer’s problems were plain well before gamergate when he completely bungled the management of kickstarter darling massive chalice. Anyone that buys into his projects after that gets what they deserve . the cherry on top is his radical anti – gamer stance with regards to gamergate
http://i.imgur.com/hG3MmsX.jpg
I like the toilet one the best – he’s both wasting money and shitting on his customers:
http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/1/10479/2145409-tim___toilet.jpg
Someone please answer me. Does gamergate supportersgamers plan to actively boycott his products. Because if you we don’t, then what the hell are we even talking about it for?
The reason I ask is because lately I have been seeing this mantra on the internet of, ‘hey don’t boycott, just complain in forums and on there pages.’
Your leader of gamergate like the rest of us, I know there’s more than Timmy I’ll never feed again. Decide how to redistribute your own shekels. There’s nothing unethical about consumer choice so choose. As an anon above said ” Not supporting scamsters in the future is not a boycott.” I’ll add the caveat of not supporting people who have demonstrated, (insert your own words here) and treated all of us with contempt, likewise wont receive further custom from me, you get t choose for you.
If that is wrong, I have no desire to be right. Leave them to the hell they made, we march to victory, glory and the future with ethics as our standard.
Rejoice Brothers and Sisters, the tide turns
GamerGate Victor!
Buy?Do you think anything he does is even worth pirating?
It’s sad when Bobby Kotick is looking less like the bad guy when compared to these people. Say what you will about him, and believe me I have more than once called him Satan incarnate of the video game industry, but at least that guy knows how to run a business. Oh what’s that you guys are going under? Well gee it’s not like you’ve been insulting your core audience for the past 6 months.
Bobby Kotick did insult his audience at least at some point. He did say that his company’s games were aimed at males that couldn’t get laid or something like that.
And I’m sure they rolled back on that and did a PR speech. At least he didn’t declare his audience dead and compare them to ISIS.
i torrented grim fandango, i’ll give timmy credit, it is pretty fun but its definitely not everyones cup of tea.
but theres no way i’m paying for it 1) after his awful attitude towards potential customers. and 2) i’m definitely not fucking paying for an almost 20 year old game, regardless of its ‘remastered’ or not.
At least Tim Shafter has more to his name than most other anti-GamerGate developers. I’ll give him that.
But then again, while I’m fairly convinced that Bobby Kotick does his best Michael Vick impersonation daily, he has keen business intuition. Unlike Tim Shafter.
“Gee, let’s throw a massive party (with Unlikeable Hipster Dickface the Legendary Thundercunt as DJ). Oh what’s that? We spent too much on this hugeass party? Looks like we gotta lay off 12 people. Oh, and did I mention that we somehow lost 3.3 million dollars?”
Mr Schafer, you’re awful with money.
I wish the converzation on the “rape culture” tweet didn’t abruptly started in the middle of that guy’s long chain of tweets. I hate when twitter doesn’t show the rest of it.
Hey Tim Telltale called. Just want to let you know the time it took you to release act 1 of Broken Age they have released 1 season of Wolf Among Us, 2 seasons and a in between installment of Walking Dead, 2 episodes of Game of Thrones, and 1 episode of Tales from the Borderlands. So what is the hold up on act 2?
I agree with all the shit he has pulled over the last couple of years someone needs to take him to task.
Everything he made after Lucasarts has been shit. Day of the Tentacle is still a pretty endearing game, but to be fair that’s basically Maniac Mansion fanfiction, and he wasn’t the only one working on it.
Schafer is a big name with little talent. He’s a dry cow.