SOE to own VG - Sigil fires employees

[Camerous]

Originally Posted by AngryGerbil

While Ut and company certainly have their flaws as posters (like anyone), I am in no way opposed to them doing and saying what they did when Brad came around these parts.

And again it had nothing to do with what they were saying but the fact that every time ANYONE posted ANYTHING positive about the game they were right there like retarded fags making sure to post what they thought again and again and again. We all knew what they thought... there was no need to post their tired stupid shit over and over again.

[Sinter1]

Ben comes to Sigil from Monolith Productions, where he worked as a shift lead GM for The Matrix Online before being transferred to the live events team. At Monolith, he was responsible for training, customer service quality reviews, policy creation, implementation, designing, and running live events.

Jeez someone has had a rough go in the mmo industry... poor QA guy.

[Quineloe]

Originally Posted by Miele

I don't want to believe what is in that interview.
Especially the part where one makes a comment about buying a new house with his stocks share, in front of 60 fired people. That's being an asshole on more than one level.

I'm surprised he didn't end up swinging from a tree. That is what he would have deserved.

6. You will stop hearing projections of ship to ship combat and RTS-like village building from Brad McQuaid or anyone at Sony. The previews that you hear will be more restrained and plausible -- like the introduction of raids.

I really like this one. I've never seen a press release like that before, it basically says "McQuaid was so full of shit we had to abandon the sigil offices because it still smells in there"

[Stosh]

What I think is fascinating is SOE's apparant business plan to become the home of wayward and misfit MMOGs. It's as if their strategy is if we can't have one MMOG with 8 million subscribers, we'll have 8 million MMOGs with one subscriber each.

Also, I assumed that when Nino said that he would probably be chewed out on Monday morning after being "strongly encouraged to stop posting here", that Brad or perhaps Jeff Butler was behind this. But since we now know that Brad, as was so elequently put "went Brian Wilson" and was never in the office...who was going to do the chewing out?

Lastly, anybody can be magnanimous and a great guy when they are in a successful situation. How a person acts and behaves when things are going badly is a more accurate indication of their character. Not being present, as the CEO and founder, when the employees of your company are being dismissed speaks volumes to me. That's not my definition of a good guy I'd like to have a beer with.

[Campa]

Originally Posted by Astos

So let me get all this straight. Basically Sigil forces its employees to work 80+ hour weeks so they can hurry up and get the product finished...

That's how basically all game developers roll. Need we forget the EA Employee Wife fiasco from what 2 years ago??

It is just the reality of pretty much all Production Software Developing because there is always more work than can be done and you have to get as much done as possible before release.

[Maxxius]

I agree 100 percent Stosh. What is disturbing to me is the utter lack of class and courage on Brad's part with respect to these firings. Sigil was his brainchild. For all intents and purposes he was Sigil. Those terminations should have been handled by him and no one else. Yes it would have taken courage, but I'm sorry you don't hide while others do this task.

[Hal2005]

Originally Posted by Wolfen

It's time for the final scene where Brad is seen in his brand new Ferrari while driving into the sunset laughing his ass off.

No the final scene is where in the final content patch to Vanguard post acquisition one NPC is added. He has the appearance of a balding white male, wearing a tacky shirt and a cigarette. When spoken to his text box is simply "I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours."

Players are then given 2 grams of mescaline, 1 sheet of blotter ink and then can resume questing in vanguards final quest, the search of Brad's Vision.

And Campa is correct, video game grunts are notoriously exploited. Places like Montreal or Edmonton are not the norms for industry work conditions. (But they do make for nifty photo ops and investor tours).

Big prop to Nino as well. It's commendable to have posted or kept public during the takedown.

[guanna]

Originally Posted by Mkopec1

[b]Even though I know jack shit as a game designer or a manager or wahtever, I know one of the first steps I would do creating a company is making the entire team play different mmorpgs and coming up with their own like and dislike list. Then compiling that data as a start of the features in my new game.
For instance how would you gauge what a grind is?

one would think this to be common sense. heads up Schilling!

[Ladro Liscio]

Originally Posted by Campa

It is just the reality of pretty much all Production Software Developing because there is always more work than can be done and you have to get as much done as possible before release.

It's more than that though... it's very budget driven. Most game companies want to extract as much as they possibly can in the shortest amount of time from their employees. It's a horrible horrible industry to work in, to be honest. You pretty much make absolute shit money for 12-16 hour days. I believe most of the entry level developers that SGO hired to create a majority of the content made low-30's to work those kind of hours.

The paradigm of game development has to change, but the fact that games are costing millions upon millions of dollars to make now, practically mandates this type of work environment. It's pretty sad actually.

[I'm Rich Bitch]

Originally Posted by Stosh

What I think is fascinating is SOE's apparant business plan to become the home of wayward and misfit MMOGs. It's as if their strategy is if we can't have one MMOG with 8 million subscribers, we'll have 8 million MMOGs with one subscriber each.

It may seem crazy but I think Smed is crazy like a fox. The benefits of this strategy are:

1. They are able to get a small profit from each little MMO they own. The Team size is determined by how much money each one is bringing in.
2. They use the MMOs as sort of a "MMO University" to train new Developers and spot talent when they see it. When they do get a hit they will not have to interview to get talent to staff it.
3. Their current staff of Developers and Designers can move to the "Next New Thing" while their MMO portfolio brings in money to fund the R&D. This keeps the Staff happy.
4. They continue to gain Market Share with the collection of small MMOs.
5. They keep the naming rights to MMOs.
6. Eventually they will be able to create a messaging system between all games.
7. Eventually they can develop a way to have 1 character that can be played in each game. No more leveling alts in each game.
8. Use the Station Exchange concept as a way to get more money in addition to box sales, and Subs.

There is a reason this guy is still around and in such a powerful position. The fact that you guys underestimate him makes him even stronger.

[Nairbog]

I was never a big fan of Tagad. All the class revamps he did during beta were poorly received, and most had to be rerevamped.

[Campa]

Originally Posted by Ladro Liscio

It's more than that though... it's very budget driven.

Yes it is almost certainly worse in the game developing world, but basically all software development is that way. Budget + Schedule are highest priority, period. Even the gov. project I work on where Quality is suppose to matter the most, it always come down to Budget & Schedule pressure (though for us it is schedule more than anything) and the home stretch is always rough. But at least I get paid OT :P

[Believe]

Originally Posted by I'm Rich Bitch

The fact that you guys underestimate him makes him even stronger.

Ok, that made me laugh out loud.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by I'm Rich Bitch

It may seem crazy but I think Smed is crazy like a fox. The benefits of this strategy are:.

You forgot economies of scale. A lot of the Sigil GMs were fired because SOE already has people in that department similiarly a lot of the operations side will go once the lease expires on the Sigil offices -- SOE has all their own people already.

In the end SOE will be able to make money off of VG where Sigil couldn't simply because of EoS.

[Gaereth]

Originally Posted by Camerous

And again it had nothing to do with what they were saying but the fact that every time ANYONE posted ANYTHING positive about the game they were right there like retarded fags making sure to post what they thought again and again and again. We all knew what they thought... there was no need to post their tired stupid shit over and over again.

Which is exactly what the other side did. Someone posted something negative and they were right there like retarded fags making sure to post what they thought again and again and again. We all knew what they thought....there was no need to post their tired stupid shit over and over again.