what happened to warhammer?

[solarbear88]

EA Artist, Soon To Be Laid Off, Burns EA Management

A very interesting read from someone who just got his pink slip from EA.

Most interesting part... I hope he is not right as it will disappoint a ton of people:

And Bioware? Don’t make me laugh. They’ve spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Shit you not. More than $ 300 million! Can you believe that?

And you know what they’re most proud of? This is the kicker. They are most proud of the sound. No seriously. Something like a 20Gig installation, and most of it is voiceover work. That’s the best they have. The rest of the game is a joke. EA knows it and so does George Lucas,they’re panicking , and so most of Mythic has already been cannibalized to work in Austin on it because they can’t keep pushing back launch.

Old Republic will be one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs from EA. Probably at the level of the Sims Online. We all know it too ……

[Reoh]

There's a lot of raw, naked emotion in Louse's post. :P

That's how business is run these days though. Welcome to the world of "it makes no sense to anyone that aren't suits."

[Rickety]

*shrug* Only the test of time will tell if a game is successful or not regardless of how much lamenting is done.

[brohawk]

Interesting read... we will see if they let a $300 million invest rot on the vine, but my guess is NOT!!! I hope the game has some good playability and if not there is GW2 and Rifts I am looking at as well.

[Drac]

Dude complains a lot, but doesn't seem to have a much of a clue himself.

Miss-management happens almost universally with large scale creative projects. When was the last time you heard of an MMO or even large budget console title being completed early or coming in under budget?

It seems there were defiantly moral issues though, which is never a good sign. Or perhaps he just couldn't take the pressure. It's not an easy job, crunching 12-hours-a-day-7-days-a-week for months on end as a deadline looms really tests a persons character. A bad crunch can carve out some deep wounds but that's just the way it is. Games are never going to be a sure bet, it's a high risk boom/crash market, shit will go bad, studios will bust and heads will roll as you watch the studio down the street rake in millions with their latest hit game.

Personally I think this dude needs to suck it up, Grow thick skin or switch vocations. Most of the industry vets I know have worked for a minimum 4 different development studios each.

[Bayland]

He will now learn what lawsuits look like. He's probably accurate. Most large companies aren't interested in producing quality products, but sustaining careers. Which seems counter intuitive, but it happens every single day. The game will be what the game is. They will make their money back.

IMO Opinion all of these online games shouldn't be released when they are. They are all works in progress on release. It's the way it is and sometimes simply because they couldn't visualize how it would all work. This is why Blizzard is kicking these guys butts. Anyway. Software.

Now back to work at my giant software company...

[Snott]

sadly, to me that looks like any large company.

Bunch of butt-kissers whom everyone hates, but somehow move up the ranks, who then get rid of the guys who actually know how to do stuff because they are onto them and dont kiss their ass.

My father was an owner-driver for a fuel company, delivering fuel to gas stations.His truck was the most efficiently run in the entire country for 3 years, yet when contract renewal came up it went elsewhere because he doesn't brown-nose.
I met the guy who did the deciding (before this happened) and instantly hated him. Its always the sort that would've gotten beaten up at school.
I hate corporate crap.

[brohawk]

I work at a medium sized company and I don't know how they stay afloat. It doesn't make sense to me at all why they do what they do and I am not stupid. It kind of reminds me of the movie They Live with Rowdy Roddy Piper. I just need a set of glasses to be sure.

[Draadnor]

This is all easily understood when you realise that many bosses are psychopaths and are promoted because they are. Have a look at this from Catalyst on the ABC.

Dr John Clarke: There are 20 characteristics to define a psychopath. Really the fundamental factor is an absolute lack of remorse or guilt for their behaviour, pathological lying, manipulative, callous, egotistical, very kind of self centred individual, glib and superficial charm

[Drac]

David Jaffe (lead designer on God of War and is now doing Twisted Metal for the PS3) has a better way with words that I do and seems to be thinking along similar lines. I was going to say earlier that an Animator has no real business commenting on game design and production issues, not in the way that EA Louse complains but couldn't articulate well enough so choose to leave it out. I'm glad Jaffe said it though:

Knowing nothing about the company, game, or people, I'm in no position to comment on how true and valid all this is vs. how much it's just a tantrum from someone who felt they should have been listened to but was not.

I will comment on two things however:

#1- EALouse- no one gives a shit if you or the animators get to express yourselves IF in expressing yourself it breaks the fiction of/immersion into the world of the game. It's not a ****ing art class where everyone gets a chance to 'show what's inside them!'...it's work. I don't know much about the Warhammer world but **** man, seems a pretty spot on comment that if the whole fiction is about some horrid, down and dirty war then mechanics and animations that allow characters to ****ing DANCE are probably not going to fit into that universe. And the fact that you feel removing the dancing- which was a good creative call in my mind- served to take away some of the team's ability to express themselves does nothing but paint you as someone with out of touch, unrealistic expectations of what your job is supposed to do for you. Games SHOULD allow for self expression by members of the team- that is FANTASTIC when that happens and something management should always try to offer up- but it's gotta be within context of and in service to the product.

#2- What the **** is it about making games where it brings out the worst, most immature, most obnoxious sides of certain types of people on a team? Everyone thinks they always know better than the people in charge. On God of War 1 I still remember a small group of hard core gamers on the team that felt we were making the game 'wrong' because there was not all this deep, deep, Street Fighter 2/Tekken style depth to the combat system. "Jaffe's out of touch!" "Jaffe doesn't 'get it!'"...never did it occur to them that we were going for something else...even tho I explained this to them over and over! But still, every few weeks I could count on this little contingency being up in the studio head's office pitching 'their' version of the game, with the goal being to have the head step in- which he never did- and shove their ideas into the title. **** it annoys me! Am I the only one in games who has experienced this?

David

David is a really smart cookie, and his games have been nothing short of pure awesome sauce. His blog is often a great read too: http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/