Placebo Radio interview

[jerryhopper 286]

The show is available for download.

A Massive 120 megabytes, due to a little too high compression setting.

http://arma.valuenet.nl/radiostuff/Placebo/placebo_interview.mp3

(SPA/SR) - Out of Sight, Not out of mind. Sahrani Radio brings you an exclusive interview with Paul Statham, better known as Placebo. With an impressive dedication and love for Operation Flashpoint, Placebo is one of the most (in)famous people in the BIS community, and Jerry Hopper looked him up to checkup on Placebo's life after Bohemia Interactive. we ask what placebo does these days, if he still plays games, and how he looked back at his position at BIS in the last years. Furthermore, Jerry talks with Warren Blyth from Natural Point, discussing the products that Natural Point sells, and not only focussing on the TrackIR4 Gear. Warren explains what's so special about Natural Point's TrackIR, and why developers could benefit from their products.

This week's 'Good Morning Sahrani' episode will be aired Friday May 11 22:00GMT at Sahrani Radio. the show will be available for download the next day.

Sahrani Radio Website : http://arma.valuenet.nl/SahraniRadio/

Sahrani Radio Forums : http://www.armedassault.eu/forum/viewforum.php?forum_id=30

i hope y'all like it!

Regards,

Jerry Hopper

[uPDATE]

You can still post questions to placebo, but i can not garantee them to be asked!

[mattxr 9]

Cool, is that actually you on the pictures too.. you make me think all radio guys look that crazy

[Infam0us 10]

Be good to finally put a voice to Placebo How long will the show be available to download? I'm away all weekend till Sunday evening but would love to hear this!

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

High Jerry

Have a few questions for Placebo.

I made some harsh comments about my point of view about his role and how he performed in this forum.

I do not know if his role was only to serve as SPOC for us towards BI or if he might had 1000 other things to do, but I made clear that in my opinion

1.) he was to seldom here in the forum.

2.) He has not the required technical knowledge you would need at least to deal with most technical issues here in the forum. If the time of the devs is such a short resource, the community manager should have a certain know-how to avoid that he needs go back to the devs to often.

3.) The statements were to often like "it is ready when it is ready". Of course, if this is what Suma and Maruk saying he can not change it. For that I do not need a community manager, our mods do the job here already brilliant.

In one reply I expressed that my opinion is that he is the wrong person for this particular constellation or he would like to do a lot more, but he is not allowed by BI. I know it is just guessing. But it would be nice to get his point of view.

For just announcing patches you do not need a community manager, I expected much more and with little money and time he could have done more, why he did not ensured that nice tools/ideas for tools like OFPwatch for addon management or our new BTS for trouble ticketing are picked up by BI and made part of the BI deliverables.

I know that I am maybe the most demanding BI customer and I found just 1 single additional critical comment in this forum made by Q about his performance, but I guess some of that could be addressed in the interview in a more polite way, since "how are you?" and "what do you do now?" is after 5 minutes done.

[Dallas 9]

Cool Jerry, you're our link to the OFP/ArmA stars.

[blackdog~ 0]

Cool Jerry, you're our link to the OFP/ArmA stars.

... or you could just PM them personally if you have a question...

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

I have also a Q for Warren:

I tried to use TrackIR but I can not get used to the fact that I have to keep my eyes to one direction instead of turning with the head.

The other way would be to use small screens like glasses. But industry gave up I guess because users became sea-sick.

Is there any research ongoing to avoid becoming sea-sick when using mini-LCDs like glasses? Even 3D would be possible with this.

Is there anything ongoing in your company to develop such video glasses?

[maddogx 13]

I have also a Q for Warren:

I tried to use TrackIR but I can not get used to the fact that I have to keep my eyes to one direction instead of turning with the head.

The other way would be to use small screens like glasses. But industry gave up I guess because users became sea-sick.

Is there any research ongoing to avoid becoming sea-sick when using mini-LCDs like glasses? Even 3D would be possible with this.

Is there anything ongoing in your company to develop such video glasses?

That would probably cost about 10x as much as TrackIR4. What's the problem with keeping your eyes fixed on the screen?

Anyhow, I look forward to the interviews. And I must repeat Matt Rochelle's question: Jerry, is that you in the photos?

[NaturalPoint_Vincent 0]

I have also a Q for Warren:

I tried to use TrackIR but I can not get used to the fact that I have to keep my eyes to one direction instead of turning with the head.

The other way would be to use small screens like glasses. But industry gave up I guess because users became sea-sick.

Is there any research ongoing to avoid becoming sea-sick when using mini-LCDs like glasses? Even 3D would be possible with this.

Is there anything ongoing in your company to develop such video glasses?

We are currently not looking at any VR "glasses" hardware.

[JohnMalcolm1970 0]

Jerry.... (Mofo8 here from ShackTac)... any chance you could ask the TrackIR guy about the possibility of implementing helmet mounted sight functionality? i.e. you're the gunner in an Apache.... move you head and the crosshair moves too?

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]1.) he was to seldom here in the forum.

You gotta be kidding, right ?

Quote[/b] ]2.) He has not the required technical knowledge you would need at least to deal with most technical issues here in the forum.

Working as a community manager doesn´t automatically make you a hypergeek for all technical computer questions. Go to a Mercedes Benz garage and ask for Maserati hydraulic issues.

If you happen to be the genius of all times, great for you but I still remember Placebo as one of those who put effort into answering technical questions by adressing them to the right people and making sure that they got answered if they were of interest, not just for some loner but for a considerable part of the buyers.

Quote[/b] ]3.) The statements were to often like "it is ready when it is ready". Of course, if this is what Suma and Maruk saying he can not change it. For that I do not need a community manager, our mods do the job here already brilliant.

So you think an employee can easily override a companies info policy and burst out info that is clearly restricted by the contract he signed ?

What world are you living in ?

Even people who are not affiliated with BIS but have the chance to test and/or use internal things are forced to sign a Non-disclosure agreement; what do you think a guy working there has to do ?

Quote[/b] ]In one reply I expressed that my opinion is that he is the wrong person for this particular constellation or he would like to do a lot more, but he is not allowed by BI. I know it is just guessing. But it would be nice to get his point of view.

As if you could judge that.

Let me guess what his point of view is:

I don´t want to get my ass sued by BIS so I will obey the contracts I have signed.

Again, how much experience in the real business world do you have ?

Quote[/b] ]I know that I am maybe the most demanding BI customer

In fact you seem to be the most uninformed and picky customer a company can imagine. Apart from that you have obviously no clue how things are running in the real world. Let me guess, you work for a low-risk company in a position where you don´t really count and have no real responsibility nor some real weight.

I guess that´s why you try to play big elsewhere.

In the end it´s funny that noone really cares about you and your demands and that´s the thing that makes you really mad.

Placebo, even if we had quarrels at times, in the end has proven to be the hot wire to BIS and while you seem to fail to see how precious this connection was, there are quite a number of guys here that would welcome him back anyday, anytime.

[jerryhopper 286]

Placebo, even if we had quarrels at times, in the end has proven to be the hot wire to BIS and while you seem to fail to see how precious this connection was, there are quite a number of guys here that would welcome him back anyday, anytime.

dude, thats nicely said....

Now lets hope i can pronounce your name right!

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Cool, Placebo is undercover in this forum.

He is called Balschoiw now.

Balschoiw can you not just shut up if you are not asked?

I expressed my opinion and I know yours, I am interested in Placebo's opinion.

It could be that I am wrong, one way to find it out could be the interview with him.

There are always 2 possibilities why someone fails:

- The right guy at the wrong position

- The wrong guy at the right position

Quote[/b] ]Apart from that you have obviously no clue how things are running in the real world. Let me guess, you work for a low-risk company in a position where you don´t really count and have no real responsibility nor some real weight.

I guess that´s why you try to play big elsewhere.

Wow, you blame me that I guessing, and at the same time you do the same. You are cool man. You have the Stoiber-Syndrom, you want to say the right thing, but in the end you fuck it up Scatman.

For my position you are wrong, it is exactly the other way around, but at home my wife says what will be done and what not. Could this serve you in your analysis?

Or when I was very young, I have seen the boops of my 55 years old history teacher which maybe traumatized me.

Doctor, can you help me?

[max power 21]

Dear Innocent and Clueless,

I think that you are:

a) woefully ill-equipped to express your opinion in terms of interpersonal skills

b) lacking in the knowledge to form a valid opinion

c) totally useless

Just in case you missed it, I was attempting to get your opinion on this matter.

:/

I don't think he's going to be very receptive to your request for his opinion.

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

@ NaturalPoint_Vincent:

OK, but I would be interested in the pro/cons technically and commercially and what needs to be solved before to even thinking about such a product.

A good old friend of mine is camera assistant, but not a usual one, he is developing technical equipment to support cool camera moves and he uses his job to get practical experience about the needs.

He assembled for camera assistants for steady cams a system to bring the signal to a remote place with high-res mini or micro screens. Screens so tiny and transmitter & receiver so tiny that they are man portable with batteries for almost 1,5 hours operation.

He confirmed that he can easily build it in a way that it could serve as a 3D remote observation system, or, referring to my hobby, a remote weapon station.

We discussed it a little bit and by surprise he went deeper into it and surprised me weeks later with some proposals, the outcome for the user equipment for such a remote weapon station, regardless if used for a predator or a game, would be among others:

- head position sensors

- "VR glasses", not monitors!

The problem was that he did not found any VR glasses with sufficient quality and low power consumption.

So VR glasses seems to become "triple use" weapons, for games, for real military use and for movie business.

You see a market?

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Yea, we had it here:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....6;st=75

Can one of the mods guard Balschoiws & plaintiff1 to that thread?

I do not claim that my opinion is the right opinion, again.

And sorry plaintiff, I am not interested in your opinion and you can ignore my opinion.

Maybe Placebo will drop some words explaining his view and maybe I will change my mind?

Maybe he will give a sh** of what I am saying.

But it is as in the past, there are always guys with god complex starting unrequested speaking in the name of BI or BI (ex) members.

As I expressed before on the example with the introduction of the BTS: The biggest resistance did not came from BI, the biggest resistance came from guys with the mindset of Balschoiw and from plaintiff1 himself.

So the problems have names.

[Marus 0]

High Jerry

I do not know if his role was only to serve as SPOC for us towards BI or if he might had 1000 other things to do,...

He was the "lead moderator" not a "dev", what is so hard to understand?

[4 IN 1 0]

and later a PR manager, but never be an actural dev team

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

He was the community manager, in this forum he was lead moderator.

I did not say that he is a developer, and I did not say that I need developer skills there, but the interface towards the developer. And he does not need to have the same knowledge as a developer, but at least so much that he can transfer an issue without loss or corruption of information.

I appreciate that Suma and Maruk are here from time to time to breathe the gun powder, but (again, it is just my personal opinion! ) the community manager necessary for BI should make this obsolete.

And I guess I am not wrong if I say most of the community issues are technical issues.

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]Maybe he will give a sh** of what I am saying.

I guess 99 percent of the forum com do exactly that already.

Quote[/b] ]But it is as in the past, there are always guys with god complex starting unrequested speaking in the name of BI or BI (ex) members.

To me it looks like it´s the other way round. You have quite a record on demanding things in the name of the com that noone apart from you in the com wanted or asked for, but still you threatend to sue, played big and behaved if you are the only one on the planet who´s opinion counts. Should we check how often you use the word "demand" in your posts ?

You certainly won´t put me into that fanboy bowl, even if you try 300 times a day.

Now insulting a guy may be a perfect and working solution for your daily life (although I doubt that) but be prepared to meet resistance when you do that here.

I´m not going ok with the way you talk about people you hardly know and I am not going ok with the way you make it look like your personal vendetta.

If someone tells bullshit about a person I know from messaging and years of coexistance, I will tell the guy that it´s bullshit and this has nothing to do with a godcomplex, this has to do with being fair and correct.

Things that are missing in your life as it seams.

Godcomplex; I guess this term is more appropriate for your personal use.

[max power 21]

Yea, we had it here:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....6;st=75

Can one of the mods guard Balschoiws & plaintiff1 to that thread?

I do not claim that my opinion is the right opinion, again.

And sorry plaintiff, I am not interested in your opinion and you can ignore my opinion.

Maybe Placebo will drop some words explaining his view and maybe I will change my mind?

Maybe he will give a sh** of what I am saying.

But it is as in the past, there are always guys with god complex starting unrequested speaking in the name of BI or BI (ex) members.

As I expressed before on the example with the introduction of the BTS: The biggest resistance did not came from BI, the biggest resistance came from guys with the mindset of Balschoiw and from plaintiff1 himself.

So the problems have names.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I was illustrating that you were insinuating that Placebo was incompetent and as useless as tits on a bull, then asking him what his opinion about that was. I wasn't my intention to insult you directly.

I think that the way you answered me is exactly how Placebo is going to answer you. "I don't care what your opinion is, get lost". Thanks for further illustrating my point!

In regards to the BTS, I was championing an argument that I thought had to be made in order to ensure the best quality for the community. I didn't have any say in whether or not they were going to use the bug tracker, and I think I made that clear when I was first approached about it. When it was being implimented, since everyone was all hot for the BTS, I decided to make my best argument against to see how it stood up against some sober and focussed debunking. After my argument was debunked, I was satisfied (albeit a little dissappointed that I wasn't going to be able to grow tired of formatting and QC the bug list, I was enjoying that for the time being).

[Colossus 2]

Anyway....

I can't wait

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Let`s continue this crap here:

http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....6;st=75

if really required, else I would say:

It is anyway Jerry`s decision if and what he is asking and since I know my limitations I wrote:

Quote[/b] ]but I guess some of that could be addressed in the interview in a more polite way, since "how are you?" and "what do you do now?" is after 5 minutes done.

I never claimed that I speak for the full community.

I know for example that some modder would like to have a decent documentation about all paramameter/commands/values and I spoke for those.

But some others wrote me they are fine with that what they have now.

In the end guys like Mr-Murray have to fill the gap.

[shadow 6]

Last I checked, this is thread was about the upcoming interview. If you want to discuss how good/bad Paul was as a moderator, do it in private.

Get back on topic or I will start punching the PR-button.

[INNOCENT&CLUELESS 0]

Hmmm, if the interview partner is Placebo, you can not really do it without talking about him.

But I just wanted to give some suggestions about questions and in an interview you can confront the interview partner with some/someone else's statements - how wrong they might be.

I guess Placebo is old enough to defend himself if he see`s the need, if not - I will survive :-) .

I understood the thread as invitation to fill Jerrys list of possible questions.

So I am interested in Placebo`s view and not in this:

Quote[/b] ]If someone tells bullshit about a person I know from messaging and years of coexistance, I will tell the guy that it´s bullshit and this has nothing to do with a godcomplex, this has to do with being fair and correct.