I don't have the requisite German skills but there seems to be disagreement on the exact meaning of some of the posts, leaving me to think this might be an overreaction.
Then let's check out the facts and I'll provide translations
. I'll be trying to do this in order of occurrence.
1) The JoWood logo and link to the JoWood forums all of a sudden disappear from the official German Gothic III website at
www.gothic3.com (the English site still has the link to the JoWood forums). This happens after Ralf M. from PB (the art director) began to sound increasingly critical towards JoWood in his almost daily replies to posts from fans. Especially worthy of note: A post in which Ralf lamented the fact that JoWood publicly disclosed that they were very happy about the financial success of Gothic III but that PB was not sharing the joy quite yet (hmmm... unpaid/held back royalties?).
2) Ralf from PB
posts on May 16 in response to a fan question about the (in the fan's opinion) mediocrity of the story (missing dialogue, sequences et al) in Gothic III...
Thanks for your critique.
As you might have read before, we are partially sharing these views as well.
To add sequences is not possible. In regards to a patch, I would not recommend to have any expectations. As you will have noticed, the wheels are in motion behind the scenes and we can not comment on any of this at this time. Therefore, I can only hope for your understanding as far as our communication policy is concerned.
Obviously, people were not too amused about the recommendation bit. Ralf failed to provide any sort of clarification (like whether he meant to have no expectations in regards to the sequences (which has been known for a long time that they -PB-would not change the story) or whether he meant to have no expectations in general) about this statement until today, Sunday - May 20 even though he did post in between (see below).
3) After this post, WoG moderators who seem to have inside knowledge, began what could be referred to as a "community crackdown" by closing a
thread about the patch and
another thread about the rumor that PB and JoWood were going to divorce (the rumor came up after the removal of the JoWood logo and forums link from the official German Gothic III website).
I have personally had two (civil... not like the first post of mine in this thread
) posts of mine deleted where I asked for clarification. They (WoG) simply deleted everything that was related to the patch or any JoWood/PB separation rumors left, right, and center even though it was (is) the most pressing community concern. What kind of fansite is that where you are not allowed to discuss the no. 1 community concern? What kind of fansite is that that is so far up PB members' asses that they can scrub their teeth from the back side? WTF?
4) Then on May 18, instead of providing any sort of clarification about the burning issue of what his comments regarding the patch might have meant,
Ralf goes...
[Some introductory small talk about a documentation/diary that he wants to record about "A Day at Piranha Bytes"]
...
There are still no news or an announcement that could be made in regards to the patch or the current project. All I can do is to recommend to anyone who hasn't played Gothic III to this day to finally have a go at it.
And to everyone who is sending me PMs via this forum to get more info on these issues that we can not officially comment on:
There's really nothing else I can tell you than what we are posting here. Everything will be cleared up in due time but as long as JoWood doesn't post an announcement there is nothing that we can or would be allowed to say about all this.
... and later in the same post in response to a question about the workflow (remember that Ralf is PB's art director)...
...
Ideally, the game design and story departments would start long before the art and programming department but since no independent studio can afford to keep 2/3 of their staff twiddling their thumbs (very unhealthy) or to let them work endlessly on patches for the previous project (which are usually not supported by funding from the publisher), you need to find ways to have someone create first objects and (parts of) editors for the ongoing project that are NOT trashed after three months.
This is making my job very hard during this phase since all I can do is guess what the story might be like and what main characters we will need for sure...
... again later in that post after some more replying to various questions...
As you will have noticed, the wheels (of business) are in motion behind the scenes and thus there's just no answers to be given on such issues as the patch or the editor for mod kits. Would a lot of things have been "optimizable"? Yeah, certainly. But sometimes the agreements between a studio and a publisher are... well, let's just say... interesting.
I.e. we don't always have full control of what's happening to a game after its release. Several factors such as funding/financing of things such as mod kits and prolonged phases of debugging do play a role just as well as the plan to get started on the new project ASAP because as I said... if perfection isn't to be found in the past then maybe one will have better luck with the new project next time.
... and yet again later in that post...
I'm not sure how to interpret all the "please clarify" posts...
I have forwarded the questions about the graphics engine, hoping that one of our programmers will be able to provide a more detailed answer than I possibly could...
So... no clarification but instead a few other potential "bombshells". As someone who is following the forums at WoG closely, Ralf must know that a lot of people are still holding off and waiting for the fabled "uber patch" before really getting into Gothic III. He recommends to finally have a go at the game now. Why? Does he know that the patch is not coming?
And what's that stuff at the end about "better luck with the next project". Are they seriously abandoning Gothic III in favor of the add-on or Gothic IV or something entirely different? And what's up with all the hints about being out of money or at least funding issues?
And at the very end... what the hell is that? He is either retarded (unlikely) or intentionally playing dumb (bingo) because he must very well know that he was asked to clarify on the questions that were brought up by his previous post (about the expectations in regards to the patch) and not some rather unimportant questions about the graphics engine.
... continued below...