Jesira Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 So much for maintaining the pre-launch development team on the game like they promised. I know it's "unrealistic" to expect that, but Trion's done it. I wonder how large their newly formed team is compared to other games? For all we know it's substantially larger than any other game right now. It's normal to go through restructuring, and move people around to other projects, but from the sounds of it they actually got rid of the people all together. I wonder what departments suffered the losses? This whole situation with this game makes me really, really, really sad. Ugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orrow Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 You laugh...does their pain amuse you? This wasn't a BW decision. This was EA, pure and simple. You fanboys keep trying to draw a line between EA and Bioware, they are one and the same. The Bioware that brought us Knights of the old Republic, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Jade Empire, Neverwinter nights, and Dragon age Origins died they day the Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk took EAs money. Ray and Greg knew EAs reputation, knew that it could be the end of Bioware like so many studios before it, and still took the money. They knew EAs insatiable drive for profit at any cost would leave the studio a shell of its former self and they didn't care, they wanted the money. So no Bioware doesn't get a free pass on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abruptum Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 You fanboys keep trying to draw a line between EA and Bioware, they are one and the same. This. They're not literally the same company, but EA is so in control of Bioware that they might as well be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xyeth Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 So much for maintaining the pre-launch development team on the game like they promised. I know it's "unrealistic" to expect that, but Trion's done it. I wonder how large their newly formed team is compared to other games? For all we know it's substantially larger than any other game right now. It's normal to go through restructuring, and move people around to other projects, but from the sounds of it they actually got rid of the people all together. I wonder what departments suffered the losses? This whole situation with this game makes me really, really, really sad. Ugh. That's the first thing I thought of when I read the announcement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerion Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) You fanboys keep trying to draw a line between EA and Bioware, they are one and the same. The Bioware that brought us Knights of the old Republic, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Jade Empire, Neverwinter nights, and Dragon age Origins died they day the Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk took EAs money. Ray and Greg knew EAs reputation, knew that it could be the end of Bioware like so many studios before it, and still took the money. They knew EAs insatiable drive for profit at any cost would leave the studio a shell of its former self and they didn't care, they wanted the money. So no Bioware doesn't get a free pass on this. I see it like the classic Vader/Lando Scene. Vader: Fire as many employees as you can. Lando: You said they'd be left at Austin under my supervision! Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further. Edited May 22, 2012 by Cerion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nytak Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) So much for maintaining the pre-launch development team on the game like they promised. I know it's "unrealistic" to expect that, but Trion's done it. I wonder how large their newly formed team is compared to other games? For all we know it's substantially larger than any other game right now. It's normal to go through restructuring, and move people around to other projects, but from the sounds of it they actually got rid of the people all together. I wonder what departments suffered the losses? This whole situation with this game makes me really, really, really sad. Ugh. We restructure at my company all the time and don't have to announce that to investors. The only time something like that gets published is when there is a *reduction* in staff. Investors don't really care if you move somebody from say graphics engine development to server infrastructure development, they don't care if you hire a bunch of new QA or Tech Support, they don't care if you fire that guy who always shows up late, takes a long lunch then leaves early. They DO care, and because of trade regulations, are required to be notified, when there is a reduction in staff due to financial reasons or a failure to meet company goals. Edited May 22, 2012 by Nytak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maulfly Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) I'm glad people got fired. Now, they need to fire the people at the top of the food chain. They need to fire our worthless community manager, he is never on these boards. I don't know if QA deserved to be fired or not, if they were reporting bugs and they went ignored then it was not their fault. People need to get fired so that maybe the dev team will see what they are doing is NOT working. Fire more people, but fire the right ones. If the "right" people were fired, that would be one thing. If they only fired a quota across the board, no matter the quality of work...that would be an entirely different matter. Looking around various sites, it wasn't just QA members who were canned. Facebook alone was a trove of information as former BW employees updated their status fairly quickly. Often on their social pages you can see what they used to do. But yeah, if the dev teams were getting the information on bugs and never acted on it...then they would deserve to be canned as that has an effect on player experience and content quality. If QA never caught the issue or CS never actually reported the problems players have been complaining about since launch, and therefore never informed the devs (who think everything is working on their end), then the issue with content fixes falling between the cracks would be with those involved with QA and CS. If they tracked down these issues and dropped people as appropriate, then we should see content issues dealt with more efficiently and the gamer experience with content improved. If it was a mere hack and slash for saving money...then the old issues will continue and with fewer people to work on the workloads, players might see slower content releases or fixes. This. They're not literally the same company, but EA is so in control of Bioware that they might as well be. Yep. Very much so. Edited May 22, 2012 by Maulfly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berezo Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 You fanboys keep trying to draw a line between EA and Bioware, they are one and the same. The Bioware that brought us Knights of the old Republic, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Jade Empire, Neverwinter nights, and Dragon age Origins died they day the Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk took EAs money. Ray and Greg knew EAs reputation, knew that it could be the end of Bioware like so many studios before it, and still took the money. They knew EAs insatiable drive for profit at any cost would leave the studio a shell of its former self and they didn't care, they wanted the money. So no Bioware doesn't get a free pass on this. This...this...this. The bioware i used to love is dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinphonic Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 the real question is... Does it really even matter? I mean, who here see's themselves playing the game for another 6 months in its current state? Are these changes going to change the game so dynamically and fix all the flaws we have been raving about for months now ? Personally I don't think so. But who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GalacticKegger Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 If its just the programmers who caused all the bugs ever new patch then I have no issues with them firing them... But to be fair every Design team lays people off after a lunch of a MMO.... If anything Bioware kept them around a lot longer then most MMO companies do...This. Welcome to the machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkerus Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 the real question is... Does it really even matter? I mean, who here see's themselves playing the game for another 6 months in its current state? Are these changes going to change the game so dynamically and fix all the flaws we have been raving about for months now ? Personally I don't think so. But who knows. I do. I really like this game. Its a perfect MMO to fit into my schedule. Today's news is really sad but hopefully the downsizing will help "right-size" the game. I want this game to succeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesira Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 the real question is... Does it really even matter? I mean, who here see's themselves playing the game for another 6 months in its current state? Are these changes going to change the game so dynamically and fix all the flaws we have been raving about for months now ? Personally I don't think so. But who knows. It only "matters" for players/subscribers if the content development is slowed down significantly, and the amount of content released is reduced. As I've said before, they could still have a substantially large team for an MMO, and from the sounds of it most of the people were QA, which in all honesty....the players do that job already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tloops Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 and so it begins...coming soon...free to play Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
voriand Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 (edited) We restructure at my company all the time and don't have to announce that to investors. The only time something like that gets published is when there is a *reduction* in staff. Investors don't really care if you move somebody from say graphics engine development to server infrastructure development, they don't care if you hire a bunch of new QA or Tech Support, they don't care if you fire that guy who always shows up late, takes a long lunch then leaves early. They DO care, and because of trade regulations, are required to be notified, when there is a reduction in staff due to financial reasons or a failure to meet company goals. Layoffs are tricky. Yes it gets rid of the poorer performers. But you also loss some of your best talent as they can jump ship easily and get hired elswhere. What is left is all of your moderate performers and a few top performers who do not want to leave and roll the dice hopeing their pay scale is worth their efforts. Developers know when layoffs are looming and we spend that crtical time updating resumes and working on contacts for possible new employement. Edited May 22, 2012 by voriand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frostvein Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 And yet look at your signature. Of course you wish people to loose their job. Your well-documented crusade on this forum proves it. I like how I said "people losing their job is never funny" and somehow you twisted that into "of course you want people to lose their job!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogozhi Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 the real question is... Does it really even matter? I mean, who here see's themselves playing the game for another 6 months in its current state? Are these changes going to change the game so dynamically and fix all the flaws we have been raving about for months now ? Personally I don't think so. But who knows. Only issue I see with the game is population. Get on a populated server and the game is awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadOrb Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Future class content/story has already been written months and months ago so that's safe , they told us in the guild summit. One things for sure though , they stated that 1.4 is going to be a bigger patch , so they are going to have a lot of work to do. I'm sure they can do it. cheers, Badorb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urael Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Future class content/story has already been written months and months ago so that's safe , they told us in the guild summit. One things for sure though , they stated that 1.4 is going to be a bigger patch , so they are going to have a lot of work to do. I'm sure they can do it. cheers, Badorb. Especially because things keep slipping from 1.2 and 1.3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oredith Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 and from the sounds of it most of the people were QA, which in all honesty....the players do that job already. this is somewhat surprising, considering the number of bugs that have riddled just about every patch thus far. i just figured they didn't actually have a QA dept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SketchieGambit Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I thought the press release was kinda sad. I honestly thought they were about to break into the whole "these steps are necessary for us to continue to be world class *insert sport", and these sacrifices are what we need" schik I feel pretty bad for those that did get the news that they were no longer required. In most cases, a by the numbers press release means exactly the opposite of what is going on behind closed doors, so I've no doubt the businessmen had any problem with culling jobs. As for the "this means we can concentrate on content" line, that doesn't make sense, at present BW have a bad rep for releasing new content that is incredibly bug ridden, how exactly will cuts help this? If you reinvested the sub money you save in improving your model, you might get away with this statement, but when we consider EA's part in this, its pretty clear what they are steering at here. Your customer service has not improved since the day I had the misfortunte to purchase a CE with no product key. Hours of phone calls and dumb cut and paste emails later and no appoligy to this day. Does this sound like it needs a less is more restructuring? Oh well, keep up with those press releases from your ivory tower, it just shows how completely out of touch you are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaramukhti Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I am withholding any judgement until I know who was laid off. When someone has that info, kindly post it. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Costello Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I hope this is a wake up call and unless they make this some possative changes to the game they will keep losing subs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oredith Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Future class content/story has already been written months and months ago so that's safe , they told us in the guild summit. One things for sure though , they stated that 1.4 is going to be a bigger patch , so they are going to have a lot of work to do. I'm sure they can do it. people still refer to the guild summit as a source of information? i thought just about everyone has come to the realization that the summit was a complete flop, and lied to the players about everything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimnoire Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 iv sure things will turn around, u dont dump 200 million into a game to let in fail You do if you reach a point where it costs more to operate that you get back as revenue. A big project that paid the vast majority of itself off before being closed down isn't nearly as much of a failure as one that had a lackluster start and then slowly bled out money for years in order to stay running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellyeah_Rook Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 It seems the people laid off were from the QA team. Tell me, how essential is a QA team for success? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts