Dear Richard,
You've been my first game developer hero ever since I took that class in adventure-game-making-on-the-Apple-II from you at Computer Camp in Tahoe while you were working on Ultima 2. I know it's easy to say stupid things in a live interview - but it's also easy to apologize. According to PC gamer, you did say you were better than virtually everyone else you've met--You may not have been trying to toot your own horn but you did. You surely did.--and you did say other people suck. There's almost no context where that isn't asshole behavior. So, yeah, how about that apology.
Maybe it would look something like this: "Dear Shigeru Miyamoto, Raph Koster, Ed Del Castillo, Sid Meier, Warren Spector, Chris Crawford (and you can go on naming names as long as you want here), and everyone else I've met who is a solid designer that I'm unfortunately forgetting right now, I apologize - I didn't mean to say that you weren't in the same league as I am. Also, for all those game designers who are toiling away in the trenches unnoticed, the ones whom I claimed 'suck' - I'm sorry for that too. You don't suck. You have possibly made some sucky design choices, and you can do better, but so can I. Let's all do better."
I think that's what I would do.
Sincerely,
Jamie



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