I've been your DiRT community manager for the last two years - Ask Me Anything

[justbiglee 0]

This is mainly for the benefit of the DiRTy Gossipers whom I've been teasing endlessly for the last two years - I promised them the opportunity to ask me anything about the DiRTy Gossip they've found over the last few years when this was all over and here it is.

For those newcomers you're welcome to ask me anything too - Just so you have some context this is the DiRTy Gossip thread that I'm talking about. http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/203/dirty-gossip-thread/p1 

To those guys who were our DiRTy Gossipers thank you - you all know who you are and its safe to say you propped us up when we needed it most. I've been cruel, I've wound you up intentionally and I won't lie I loved every minute of it :D 

Now's your chance to get your own back, put me through the grinder and find out the real secrets behind the tweets.

So go on then... Ask Me Anything.

[Azoresst 6]

So let's start :P

https://twitter.com/justbiglee/status/456732646434177024

36 rally stages on EA release or this means something else?

[SamRWD 2]

What's Your personal favourite game of all time (excluding Codemasters tittles ;) )?

[justbiglee 0]

Azoresst said:

So let's start :P

https://twitter.com/justbiglee/status/456732646434177024

36 rally stages on EA release or this means something else?

lol I'd forgot this one was a thing with you guys for a while.

I just happened to purchase 36 donuts. I think it was to celebrate us hitting a milestone on DiRT Rally which was called DiRT Delta at the time, it was our internal build of the game and what most of our test drivers would have played when they visited prior to last summer.

If any of you happened to read any of the interviews with @KickUp around launch where he's talking about us not being 100% happy with the handling this is the version of DiRT he's referring to. 

The "36" number was nothing of importance and just a coincidence. 

[gfRally 307]

Maybe I missed it but 128?  I'll have to dig through Twitter at home later for the other numbers.  

I have lots of other questions, but probably just can't be discussed, just wonder if I was close to some things.  

[justbiglee 0]

SamRWD said:

What's Your personal favourite game of all time (excluding Codemasters tittles ;) )?

I'm gonna go with Final Fantasy 7 as an over all but truth is I have many depending on my mood.

Racing - Gran Turisimo 2
Platforming - Sonic 2
Shooting - Gears of War 2, Halo 3 and Destiny
Quite like games where you build stuff too - Cities Skylines, Theme Park etc
Dead Space, Mass Effect, Bad Company 2, the new Tomb Raider are a few of the others on my top games list too.

[gfRally 307]

Oh yeah, 4?  And #thatCar?  Lol had to be the clown to put that up :blush: you know me enough though..

[MastaVonBlasta 1]

Sooooooo....

Which of our guesses was the most surprising, in a way that you were sure we wouldn't hit the jackpot, but we did?

And which was the most ridicilous attempt at figuring out your torturing hints? :)


I quite liked the DiRT Delta name - shame it didn't stick :)

What other names for the game were considered?

Which hint/tweet did you get into trouble the most for? (with the exception of the infamous '4' :P )

[Azoresst 6]

What about this one? It was referring to the Delta build?

https://twitter.com/justbiglee/status/492614093334134784
https://twitter.com/justbiglee/status/492409379766145024

And this one? :)
https://twitter.com/dirtgame/status/501382334755921920

[justbiglee 0]

gfRally said:

Maybe I missed it but 128?  I'll have to dig through Twitter at home later for the other numbers.  

I have lots of other questions, but probably just can't be discussed, just wonder if I was close to some things.  

lol I knew 128 would come up.

Straight up I don't know, pretty sure that came from you!!! 

I think it was around the day of the Scottish referendum and the producer on DiRT (a guy called Evil Ross) had brought in some Tunnocks Caramel Wafers, like a lot of them! The joke was he'd got them in now before Scottish independence in case there was a trade embargo on them (Evil Ross is Scottish BTW).

You guys did some crazy math and come to the number 128 based on how many you could see in a picture then you just kept finding the number 128 all over the place...

... So I started posting it all over the place (lol)

So it never really meant anything, after @Hatward  and @KickUp and myself had strung you on for long enough we decided that we should probably make it mean something but never came up with anything worthy of the hype. 

The best we could come up with was that the last time it was tweeted was how many man hours left until launch, then we started counting down (the post-it on the barrel??)

When you guys almost worked it out we bottled it and didn't drop any more numbers.

[couger1981 82]

@justbiglee Did you end up finding the pedals you lost when you did the big move to another desk near you? lol

[MastaVonBlasta 1]

justbiglee said:

The best we could come up with was that the last time it was tweeted was how many man hours left until launch, then we started counting down (the post-it on the barrel??)

When you guys almost worked it out we bottled it and didn't drop any more numbers.

http://forums.codemasters.com/discussion/comment/76279/#Comment_76279   Ha! I was kind of close with that guess - it's quite funny that this post got 10 LOLs....

quote:
Here we go again!

While I'm waiting for the FFB fix to come out I may as well make a prediction...

108 stands for 108 hours... So at at 2.05am on Monday the next DiRT game will be announced or released. Yup, that seems legit and likely...

[justbiglee 0]

GentleNameMVB said:

Sooooooo....

Which of our guesses was the most surprising, in a way that you were sure we wouldn't hit the jackpot, but we did?

And which was the most ridicilous attempt at figuring out your torturing hints? :)


I quite liked the DiRT Delta name - shame it didn't stick :)

What other names for the game were considered?

Which hint/tweet did you get into trouble the most for? (with the exception of the infamous '4' :P )

Most surprising - I think it was @gfRally who come up with some idea that we were doing early access last summer and it got a few of you excited. The timing of it was really weird because its when the conversation internally was going on about doing Early Access. We hadn't dropped a single hint - It was like we all came to the same conclusion at the same time.

Ridiculous attempt - probably the Caramel Wafer 128 thing, you guys did some crazy maths to get to that number.

Names - oh man there were loads over the course of the last few years, it would be quicker to name the things it wasn't called. Naming anything in this place always one big argument, been through it on so many games now. I can't remember the full name but there was one that ended in "evo" for like a day. DiRT X was another one that lasted a few hours, DiRT Pulse was one that stuck for a few weeks, that one even made it to the logo creating phase.

I'm happy with DiRT Rally - we all are, does exactly what it says on the tin and the orange in the logo is a cool nod to the first Colin McRae DiRT so it works in a few different ways.

In trouble - Nothing compared to the 4 tweet, - I'd been thinking about doing it for weeks but never had the stones to do it. I remember giggling to myself  at the time I sent it then Twitter lit up and I was like "ohhhhhhhhhh this was not a good idea" then my boss at the time (Sam) turned and just glared at me, slowly and quietly she said "What have you done". Then the phone started ringing and I was in a lot of trouble, I won't lie to this day I still find it funny and up until recently I like to cite it as the highlight of my career.

It now takes second place to this tweet.

https://twitter.com/dirtgame/status/592674569703460864

[justbiglee 0]

couger1981 said:

@justbiglee Did you end up finding the pedals you lost when you did the big move to another desk near you? lol

no lol

[couger1981 82]

justbiglee said:

GentleNameMVB said:

Sooooooo....

Which of our guesses was the most surprising, in a way that you were sure we wouldn't hit the jackpot, but we did?

And which was the most ridicilous attempt at figuring out your torturing hints? :)


I quite liked the DiRT Delta name - shame it didn't stick :)

What other names for the game were considered?

Which hint/tweet did you get into trouble the most for? (with the exception of the infamous '4' :P )

Most surprising - I think it was @gfRally who come up with some idea that we were doing early access last summer and it got a few of you excited. The timing of it was really weird because its when the conversation internally was going on about doing Early Access. We hadn't dropped a single hint - It was like we all came to the same conclusion at the same time.

Ridiculous attempt - probably the Caramel Wafer 128 thing, you guys did some crazy maths to get to that number.

Names - oh man there were loads over the course of the last few years, it would be quicker to name the things it wasn't called. Naming anything in this place always one big argument, been through it on so many games now. I can't remember the full name but there was one that ended in "evo" for like a day. DiRT X was another one that lasted a few hours, DiRT Pulse was one that stuck for a few weeks, that one even made it to the logo creating phase.

I'm happy with DiRT Rally - we all are, does exactly what it says on the tin and the orange in the logo is a cool nod to the first Colin McRae DiRT so it works in a few different ways.

In trouble - Nothing compared to the 4 tweet, - I'd been thinking about doing it for weeks but never had the stones to do it. I remember giggling to myself  at the time I sent it then Twitter lit up and I was like "ohhhhhhhhhh this was not a good idea" then my boss at the time (Sam) turned and just glared at me, slowly and quietly she said "What have you done". Then the phone started ringing and I was in a lot of trouble, I won't lie to this day I still find it funny and up until recently I like to cite it as the highlight of my career.

It now takes second place to this tweet.

https://twitter.com/dirtgame/status/592674569703460864

Yeah most were convinced it was going to be called DiRT 4, and any plans on a special edition in the future? you can call it DiRTy Rally for us gossipers ;)

[justbiglee 0]

Azoresst said:

What about this one? It was referring to the Delta build?

4a wasn't anything to do with the game... well it kinda was. Our Exec Producer at the time (a legend called Andy Norman) was giving the studio a rundown of a meeting he'd had with the execs and just sharing good news from the bosses. He'd wrote a load of stuff down on his notepad to say and numbered them all but he couldn't read 4a on his list and was so excited he'd forgot what it even was. To this day we still don't know what 4a was.

WWAND - was another nod to Andy, he was the one who came up with WWGFD Based off of @gfRally's love letter to rally that he posted on Facebook all those years ago (which we printed off massive and hung in the studio). The point of WWGFD was for it to be something we'd all ask ourselves with every decision we made about the game - Would this Greg guy like this? Would he enjoy it? It became a bit of a mantra on the team and maybe put poor old Greg on a pedestal (Sorry Greg). The thinking was if we could get this one guy who loved rally so much to like our game we'd won.

 It was Andy (and a lot of other very talented and creative people) who kind of instilled that ethos in the team so WWAND was a nod to that and to make us think about how we would go about doing something where as WWGFD was the why.

That make sense?

[justbiglee 0]

couger1981 said:

Yeah most were convinced it was going to be called DiRT 4, and any plans on a special edition in the future? you can call it DiRTy Rally for us gossipers ;)

Lol, no I don't think so but I guess that is up to your guys? What should we put in one if we did? truth be told we're not really thinking that far ahead. Pikes is the next thing on the list while, Tarmac Terrors is well under way. There are a few people just starting on Rallycross stuff too.

Outside of that you've got the handling team looking at the FFB and in game setup options, QA hunting down bugs, programmers making everything work, Game Design coming up with new ideas, web team/racenet working on improving the website, I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time - there is so much going on its hard to keep up. I need an army of Community Managers to help lol.

It's busy, its never been like this on a game before. The whole place has a real energy about it and it's pretty awesome.

[gfRally 307]

What was this about, I thought it ment something, never figured it even now 

https://twitter.com/justbiglee/status/477441815092527104

Also what was the big E3 deal last year?  I'll admit offline I was a bit upset about this one being lead along, but I got over it and never made a big deal about it, but was there something to it?  Same with Paul going to Brazil?  

Just want to say thanks again @justbiglee all this craziness over the while brought all of us together in this strange little way. Made us feel part of some crazy plan (which it was).

and thanks to everyone else for putting up with my crazy posts/rants and wining about American Rally.  Can't say they will stop, but at least I've made some of you laugh.


Edit, oops meant E3

[RallyDriven 272]

A VERY long time ago, about when we first started gossiping there was a post of someone (think it might have been Doran) playing a blurry game (on my phone and can't find the pic sorry) was that dirt rally?

edit: http://instagram.com/p/gGWfugEQHy/

[couger1981 82]

RallyDriven said:

A VERY long time ago, about when we first started gossiping there was a post of someone (think it might have been Doran) playing a blurry game (on my phone and can't find the pic sorry) was that dirt rally?

edit: http://instagram.com/p/gGWfugEQHy/

This one?

http://twitter.com/MrHarveyParker/status/395845924519673856/photo/1

[justbiglee 0]

RallyDriven said:

A VERY long time ago, about when we first started gossiping there was a post of someone (think it might have been Doran) playing a blurry game (on my phone and can't find the pic sorry) was that dirt rally?

edit: http://instagram.com/p/gGWfugEQHy/

Technically that was the Delta build - in that picture Liam is playing an early version of Greece which was the first stage we completed. 

[VirtuaIceMan 52]

1. After a year or more of adding new content, might the game be re-branded DiRT4 and ported to consoles too?
2. Are the upcoming track packs all based on real-life stages, like the current ones?
3. Will you be able to cause your car terminal damage more easily (or have it as a difficulty slider)? As in Richard Burns Rally you're always aware one slip = broken radiator/end of rally!
4. Will we hear about any other Codemasters games this year, apart from those already announced?

[justbiglee 0]

gfRally said:

What was this about, I thought it ment something, never figured it even now 

https://twitter.com/justbiglee/status/477441815092527104

Also what was the big E3 deal last year?  I'll admit offline I was a bit upset about this one being lead along, but I got over it and never made a big deal about it, but was there something to it?  Same with Paul going to Brazil?  

Just want to say thanks again @justbiglee all this craziness over the while brought all of us together in this strange little way. Made us feel part of some crazy plan (which it was).

and thanks to everyone else for putting up with my crazy posts/rants and wining about American Rally.  Can't say they will stop, but at least I've made some of you laugh.


Edit, oops meant E3

35 donuts was again just a celebratory milestone thing.

As for E3, that was all you guys again! Not me! You decided we was at E3 with DiRT but it was actually Ben who was there with Autosport.

... I just maybe didn't correct you.

Sorry.

[MastaVonBlasta 1]

justbiglee said:

RallyDriven said:

A VERY long time ago, about when we first started gossiping there was a post of someone (think it might have been Doran) playing a blurry game (on my phone and can't find the pic sorry) was that dirt rally?

edit: http://instagram.com/p/gGWfugEQHy/

Technically that was the Delta build - in that picture Liam is playing an early version of Greece which was the first stage we completed. 

Ha! I knew the answer to what Doran was playing all along, but couldn't say... When I had the amazing chance to visit in Sept 2013 I played the DiRT Delta build and Greece already look amazingly detailed and properly rally.
Stages in Wales and MC looked more as a path between wireframe walls and had no pace notes so it was hard to judge.

I never heard about @gfRally 's letter - any chance it can be shared?

@justbiglee - Was it that Andy from WWAND that I brieefly met during my first visit? I remember his words, about how he hoped such visits and input from the community will last for a while. I can't remember the words exactly, but at that point I did think of myself as 'test driver' :)
 
@justbiglee @KickUp - did the big survey carried out years ago sway towards the rally sim direction? can you share anything you've learned from that?

[justbiglee 0]

GentleNameMVB said:

justbiglee said:

RallyDriven said:

A VERY long time ago, about when we first started gossiping there was a post of someone (think it might have been Doran) playing a blurry game (on my phone and can't find the pic sorry) was that dirt rally?

edit: http://instagram.com/p/gGWfugEQHy/

Technically that was the Delta build - in that picture Liam is playing an early version of Greece which was the first stage we completed. 

Ha! I knew the answer to what Doran was playing all along, but couldn't say... When I had the amazing chance to visit in Sept 2013 I played the DiRT Delta build and Greece already look amazingly detailed and properly rally.
Stages in Wales and MC looked more as a path between wireframe walls and had no pace notes so it was hard to judge.

I never heard about @gfRally 's letter - any chance it can be shared?

@justbiglee - Was it that Andy from WWAND that I brieefly met during my first visit? I remember his words, about how he hoped such visits and input from the community will last for a while. I can't remember the words exactly, but at that point I did think of myself as 'test driver' :)
 
@justbiglee @KickUp - did the big survey carried out years ago sway towards the rally sim direction? can you share anything you've learned from that?

This was Greg's thing - I'm sure you've all heard it.



Yeah it was that Andy :)

and as for the survey the answer is yes but you don't really need to see the results... you're playing it.