Dear Future Gamer

"Is Jon Hare the most sensible man in gaming?" you asked. No, he isn't, but he's by far the most bitter. Just because his game (which sounded rubbish anyway) failed to get off the ground he proceeds to slag the entire industry off for lack of 'innovation' (what about the diabolical Sensible Soccer on the PlayStation Mr Hare? Real innovative, that).

Ask anyone for a totally original game idea and you always get crap like Virtual Farmer, 3D Taxidermist or Betty Goes to the Gynaecologist Simulator. And as for John Hare's game Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll, he did a 3D cartoon adventure for adults about the music business in this day and age! It would barely have made the top 40, no wonder no publishers wanted it. And how is a 3D adventure 'innovative'? If only he'd evolved Sensible World of Soccer into a lovely 3D ISS '98-beater rather than trying to get brownie points for originality, maybe he wouldn't be so bitter, and we'd have another great game to play.

Joe K

FG: Jon may be bitter, but it's not simply because Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll didn't get signed. Jon voiced what concerns a great many of us - software houses are less inclined to take a risk because of the huge amounts of money involved in developing a game these days - and he did it very eloquently. Now that Mr Hare is in bed with Codemasters I'm sure his creative talents will once again be encouraged and that can only be a Good Thing.