Since I joined the periphery of the "media" in the gaming industry with the launch of this site, I have been getting a number of press releases and deal with a lot of PR people. Not as many as I'd like of course, because not all of them take TheBrasse.com seriously... but with luck that will come in time!

There is a curious aspect to the public relations industry. In addition to advising media about new developments, they overstate, understate, obfuscate and deflect the real story as needed to make things look better. Do they lie? Sure. It's their job!

It is always interesting to me to see something like the messy, toxic meltdown of Sigil as filtered through the shiny, happy filters of PR departments. When I read the end product that arrives in my e-mail, announcing SoE's acquisition of Sigil, it is as if sunshine just broke through the clouds and brought forth flowers in the meadows. It certainly was good news for the subscribers of Vanguard...

So here's to the art-form that is PR!

I already had this comic concept in mind when I received a nice press release about the Shores of Evendim content update for LOTRO today and a tidbit from the Devs featuring the Witch-king, I simply couldn't resist and decided to combine the two to illustrate my comic, hehe.

I wanted to see if even the Witch-king could manage a few appropriate words when a reporter calls. You KNOW he and Gandalf have had words, but he's not going to admit it to the media! You also know he is pissed that the ending is already written and we all know it - but he toes the company line, barely. Pity for the Goblin that there are no stress-balls in Arda.

I figured this was safe enough to lampoon without getting hate mail from loyal fans of the game, as the Shores of Evendim update is very likely to be all that was promised, delivered on time and in one piece - LOTRO devs have not let us down yet - and the Witch-king would never do something like this anyway, hehe.

;-)#
Brasse