RPGs Were a 30-Year Detour?

The comments made by inXile's Matt Findley in his Hunted: The Demon's Forge interview on Gamasutra aren't going over too well with long-time PC gamers, as demonstrated by the blogged responses left by Rampant Games' Jay Barnson and Armchair Arcade's Matt Barton. Let him have it, Jay:
If you want to work less and make more money by making an action game, that's FINE just don't imply that fans of more traditional RPGs are just too stupid to recognize the genius that is the action genre. Dude, I lived in arcades during my formative years. I was addicted to Asteroids and Pac-Man long before I discovered Ultima. I've spent half of my career making action games for consoles. I was FTPing Doom the day it was released. Oh, and I was playing action-RPGs before anybody decided to draw a border between the two back when it was stuff like Gateway to Apshai.

I'm not ignorant of the virtues of action games, nor am I too old and slow to have a great time playing them today. And yet I still crave a good, stats-heavy, turn-based RPG. Regularly. I am so grateful to indie game makers and places like GOG.COM that provide me with more games like this old and new than I have time to play.

Because obviously the mainstream games business is too screwed up to make something like this ever again.

And then Matt lays it on even thicker:
Weather: unpleasant. News: funny, unless you were looking forward to Shunted: The Demon's Hemorrhoid.

...

Anyone have doubts that Hunted: The Demon's Forge is going to suck? Just read this awful interview with Matt Findley. Here's the line that really kills me: "Well, you know, we analyzed the long history of video games. I think these games always wanted to be action games at their heart. I think all those old turn-based games, it's just that's all the technology would allow." Ugh, ugh, ugh. Ugh. Ugh. It's okay, Matt. I'm sure Hunted will be a wonderful game...for us to take turns pooping on!

Moral of the story? Making ridiculous suggestions that are literally offensive to long-time fans of your previous company is not a good idea when you're trying to promote your next game.