Ian Weatherburn
I read the tribute to Viktor Drozd with great interest coupled with sadness at his passing. Clearly few could match his passion for the Speccy and I have been amongst the beneficiaries. It reminded me what an important place the WoS tribute page is.
So I went on to read the full page and found that Ian Weatherburn has not been so blessed by his 'tribute'. Simon Butler's write up starts off well enough - and is certainly interesting throughout - but this is not what I would define as a 'tribute':
"We parted on far from good terms but by that time the Ian I knew had turned into someone I had no time nor sympathy for.
Ian could have, I can only conjecture, been a pretty damn good coder, but I believe his communications skills or lack of would have held him back.
Most likely he would have gone Stateside and followed his first love, the almighty dollar.
I can see him now, alone but unconcerned in a house with a beach view, a fast car in the garage and the world's dodgiest collection of 80s female rockers in his cd collection.
He could have been happy. But he never was.
And that was Ian Weatherburn"
You simply can't write a tribute about someone you have no sympathy for - an obituary yes, a tribute no. No one close to Ian has been consulted for this damning tribute as his birth and death dates are not even known. He may have no family or friends for all I know, but if he does, one day they will surely find this write up and be unnecessarily saddened, and they will have found it in a place where they would rightly expect his achievements to be eulogised.
I'm not arguing that everyone who is dead should have nice things written about them, but here, of all places, Weatherburn can be seen foremost as the creator of The Alchemist, a game still rated by many Wossers - as noted in a recent top 10s thread - and one of the most influencial games in the speccy cannon. His softography, far from being a bit average as stated in the 'tribute' also ranks him as one of the most popular coders with a very high average score for his works.
Many people who commit suicide feel like social outcasts and often are, so from that fact alone we can guess that Ian may not have been life and soul of the party, without the need to speculate about what he might have achieved had he only been easier to get on with. But his creative mind and skillful delivery of it on the Spectrum should be admired in a tribute and I feel that the emphasis should be on that rather than Simon Butler's poetic, honest, eloquent but eventually unpleasant deconstruction of his character.
I think that this destructive tribute detracts from the merits of an admirable page. If other Wosser's agree, and don't think I am simply soapboxing here, then I would happily edit this obituary and turn it into a tribute, without compromising Simon's undoubted insight.
I'm quite happy to be wrong one this one. What do other Wosser's think?
So I went on to read the full page and found that Ian Weatherburn has not been so blessed by his 'tribute'. Simon Butler's write up starts off well enough - and is certainly interesting throughout - but this is not what I would define as a 'tribute':
"We parted on far from good terms but by that time the Ian I knew had turned into someone I had no time nor sympathy for.
Ian could have, I can only conjecture, been a pretty damn good coder, but I believe his communications skills or lack of would have held him back.
Most likely he would have gone Stateside and followed his first love, the almighty dollar.
I can see him now, alone but unconcerned in a house with a beach view, a fast car in the garage and the world's dodgiest collection of 80s female rockers in his cd collection.
He could have been happy. But he never was.
And that was Ian Weatherburn"
You simply can't write a tribute about someone you have no sympathy for - an obituary yes, a tribute no. No one close to Ian has been consulted for this damning tribute as his birth and death dates are not even known. He may have no family or friends for all I know, but if he does, one day they will surely find this write up and be unnecessarily saddened, and they will have found it in a place where they would rightly expect his achievements to be eulogised.
I'm not arguing that everyone who is dead should have nice things written about them, but here, of all places, Weatherburn can be seen foremost as the creator of The Alchemist, a game still rated by many Wossers - as noted in a recent top 10s thread - and one of the most influencial games in the speccy cannon. His softography, far from being a bit average as stated in the 'tribute' also ranks him as one of the most popular coders with a very high average score for his works.
Many people who commit suicide feel like social outcasts and often are, so from that fact alone we can guess that Ian may not have been life and soul of the party, without the need to speculate about what he might have achieved had he only been easier to get on with. But his creative mind and skillful delivery of it on the Spectrum should be admired in a tribute and I feel that the emphasis should be on that rather than Simon Butler's poetic, honest, eloquent but eventually unpleasant deconstruction of his character.
I think that this destructive tribute detracts from the merits of an admirable page. If other Wosser's agree, and don't think I am simply soapboxing here, then I would happily edit this obituary and turn it into a tribute, without compromising Simon's undoubted insight.
I'm quite happy to be wrong one this one. What do other Wosser's think?
Post edited by Jumping Stack on
Comments
When I originally got the write-up from Simon I felt it was a bit heavy on Ian, but on the other hand Simon probably knows him better than anyone having worked with him closely on many titles and was therefore a very honest (and frankly an eye-opening) account on Ian. So I let the original write-up be.
If you can get inputs from someone closer to Ian that would throw a better light on him, then please go ahead by all means.
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
I'm sure it was a tough decision. It is certainly honest and eye-opening and it would have been a shame to hide Simon's thoughts, especially where no others were found. Perhaps, however, the two more recent glowing eulogies for WoS members have changed the atmosphere of the page a bit since this was written.
That is, of course, the flaw in my long post. I can't really offer to do any better than you have already. My offer was mostly to soften the tone a bit with the information as it exisits on the page and in the archive. On reflection its perhaps not much of an offer.
Congratulations to you Arjun for getting the original information together.
As far as I know, nobody ever got close to Ian; Simon was one of the very few exceptions.
There are some rumours floating about on the Intarweb, most of which are sadly much, much worse than what was written here (to the point where Ian is declared a criminal, cheating all and sundry out of their money).
That said, if someone who really knew Ian is willing to add a bit of text to the tribute, we'll of course add that. But you may be hard pressed to find someone willing to say anything...
I was always brought up to believe, if you don't have anything good to say about someone don't say it. (OK so I don't live by it :D haha but you get the point).
...and yet the vast majority of the 'tribute' concerns his personality. Maybe the tribute should list his contributions rather than his personality defects.
Edit: If i was a member of his family and stumbled across the tribute I would be rather upset by it.
Simon only knew Ian from a business perspective I'm sure if a family member wrote a tribute from their perspective it would be added. I certainly wouldn't want Simon's write-up removed.
Now then who else thinks this tribute should stay/change?
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
trib?ute /ˈtrɪbyut/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[trib-yoot] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
?noun
1. a gift, testimonial, compliment, or the like, given as due or in acknowledgment of gratitude or esteem.
Tribute? It may be true, but I would think a tribute should talk about Ians good attibutes and achievements, not the bad stuff. I don't see how his social failings have any place in a 'tribute'. I for one whould like to see it toned down a bit, if only for his families sake.
I might be making a content-free post, but I agree with the above three statements, and this one in particular. When I read the existing article, I too get the impression that he'll be missed.
What happens with obituaries in the papers? Are they brutally honest, or do they just sing praises, or what?
His anti-social behavior could be directly linked with that and as such should be above reproach. Of course this is all theoretical but generally people don't top themselves unless something is seriously wrong upstairs.
So...for someone unable to defend themselves the benefit of the doubt should be given.
Ok, no more posts..I promise!
I bumped into Ian a few times whilst at Ocean - he was working on 'Never Ending Story' - but we never really spoke.
Well then specchums, does anyone know how to get in touch with Mr. Gibson? Perhaps a word of mouth campaign will dig up some sort of contact detail....
Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
That was years ago. I replaced him (finishing off a GameBoy Advance project he was working on) at the now defunct Warthog. He left to work for the now defunct 3DO in the states. Then came back and started working for some company in Cheshire. He lives in Chester.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/frobush/looney.html
It must not have been a recent issue of Edge then!