The Unrevenged Review

Shortly after I released my educational game, Balance of the Planet, an important magazine reviewed it. The review was written by the senior editor himself, and it was most unflattering. It was obvious from the details he provided that the chap had given the program the most cursory of reviews. He thought it was a HyperCard stack when it was a standalone program; he complained about a lack of documentation when in fact the example he provided was handled in complete detail in the most obvious place in the manual; and so on. I was understandably upset with this grossly unfair review and wrote a letter to him decisively refuting his every complaint. He called me up to discuss the letter, and seemed apologetic. "Look," he said, "if you can boil this letter down to less than 100 words, I'll print it in the letters column. Just keep it civil." I thanked him for his consideration and promised that my letter would meet his requirements. Now, writing a good letter in 100 words or less is a tall order, but I managed to craft something that was short, diplomatic, and to the point. Unfortunately, the editor broke his word: He never published the letter.

LESSON 94

Integrity is an unexpected virtue.

Just four months later, the same editor wrote a letter to the Computer Game Developers' Conference requesting a special arrangement in support of an event he wanted to set up. He had no idea of my position as Chairman of the Board. I discussed the matter with the Board, and they were amenable to working something out. So I called him and offered our services. He was confused; why was I so cooperative after that bad review? I explained that I was wearing my CGDC hat, not my Chris Crawford hat. He didn't get it. Taken aback at his inability to comprehend a simple concept, I explained that my role as CGDC Chairman required me to act in the best interests of the CGDC, not my own best interests. He still didn't quite believe it; my attitude was most unusual to him.