Once again, Carl did not "work closely with team ninja" as he claimed. That was BS and I'm not defending that ridiculous statement. But do you honestly believe that Shimbori would have even been half as receptive to checking out 3.1 if someone hadn't put that doubt in his mind about 4 being complete garbage? Team Ninja never appeared to have given a damn what we thought prior to that.
He was receptive largely because he knew people were unhappy with the game after Carl's little tirade, he just didn't have a full understanding as to why.... because nobody can stand to talk with Carl for longer than five minutes to actually find out. Hell, Peter probably wasn't even translating half of what Carl said accurately because he either didn't know how, or he deemed it not appropriate to do so in that environment with a Japanese developer.
But Carl did something nobody else in this community could do, which was be a relevant person while shitting all over the game right in front of the director. Sorwah does not have the heart to tell someone their game is terrible, but it had to be said for any of what was done at DID 7 to take any kind of effect.
Carl gave the harsh, blunt criticism nobody else high-profile enough would, Sorwah gave the solution in a polite, educated, and friendly manner. It was an uncoordinated one-two punch, and it worked.
Now if Drdogg knows about other folks who were harassing team ninja on a daily basis and actually making progress, well then that's news to me. From where I'm standing though, those were the only incidents I have ever seen in the last 7 years that ever directly changed the course that Team Ninja was heading on. I won't give Carl more credit than he is due on this (even though he seems to want it), but it does seem as though his tirade was more than a little necessary.
Also, Carl has an account here... he just doesn't use it much.