Daniel Erickson leaving BW Austin?

[Polebreaker]

Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.

 

A Møøse once bit my sister ... No realli!

[Cakellene]

A Møøse once bit my sister ... No realli!

 

No realli! She was Karving her initials øn the møøse with the sharpened end

of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law -an Oslo

dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo

Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink"...

[LaVolpex]

I wish people would stop sacking people and also I wish people would stop leaving , it's getting very tiresome. This game has a hell of a lot of potential , more than a lot of mmo's out there , not a happy bunny.

 

Cheers,

 

BadOrb.

 

that my friend is EA bs at its finest, this is what happens to EVERY franchise/gamedev they touch

 

their slogan should be

Capitalism

coming to a game near you!

[Bloodstealer]

SWTOR had 800 employees at the height of their development. Simutronics, the company that developed the HeroEngine, has 25 full time employees. Do you honestly believe that those 25 employees had better resources and financing to finish the game engine that the roughly 800 that EA/Bioware employed?

 

Well... I will let the games shoddy performance answer your question for you... YES!

 

You take an engine and alienate the people that designed and developed it, then feed that same unfinished, unteststed engine to a whole bunch of people with no hands on knowledge of the engine, its capabilites, its shortfalls.. and this is what you get.

I am not saying they were'nt capable, of course they are/were but it would of swallowed a decent chunk of time out of the games development process,so imo it was foolish to of alienated the people who were at the heart of the product ...

Secrecy and knowledge guarding of their plans to develop a SW MMO I can understand but putting up 200ft walls and shutting the doors in Hero's face was a bad move imo... I can only imagine that at launch they were wishing they hadn't... but having pushed the goal posts back and back, and with the game still looking and running like something from 2004, EA likely had to draw a line under it and say NOW!, hoping that box sales will payback most if not all of the upfront costs... then micromanage the game along its path... and that path seems now to be set.

 

The next big test for the Hero engine will be ESO... if that runs as poorly as TOR then yeah the engine was, is and likely always will be a flop... but I am keen to believe that it wont because a fully tested engine and better MMO management around it might just be the proof of this debacle of a pudding MMO. - - TIME will tell i guess.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Bloodstealer

[Izorii]

Ok so his on a Job search website. Means his got his CV out there does not mean his left does it? I am sure some people look for new jobs and if something does not come up they stay. Of course I suspect that people doing this normally dont have a forum full of people discussing it.

 

If he is leaving then I wish him the best but think maybe a change in direction might help the game. Make it more MMO and less single person with flash points for groups. However I feel sorry for the next guy his got a community which has been expecting updates and not long to turn the game around.

[aeterno]

It makes sense when you think about it.

 

Get rid of the lead story writer. Get rid of the guy thats prolly the only one that did his job half right. Keep that guy gabe that presides over ilum and balance fiascos.

 

All in keeping with the terrible managemenet trend.

 

Consistency is king.

 

 

 

On a related note, if they're canning the story guys can we assume that's really curtains for story contnent in TOR? Despite going F2P I still held hope for full expansions that would advance the lore and class stories but this news are making me a pessimist.

[Rafaman]

I don't know... maybe he is leaving. Maybe not. However, I will say that I work in an industry that delivers new products and product designs all the time and it is not unusual for personnel to move and even leave the company once the product is released. The talent is recycled as new opportunities pop up. Often it is the individuals preference as they would rather be working something new and different.

 

I wouldn't read too much into this.

[Krewel]

Well, this is one of the main problems I see with the game post-1.2 - we don't really know who is in charge of anything now, we don't know the internal structure of the company that we're supporting, etc. People have been asking about Erickson for months without anyone, not even him, responding. Is he forbidden to write one sentence on this forum? Does he not want to? I mean, if customers are asking if the lead story writer still exists as the lead story writer for the game they're paying for ... why is it so hard to answer that? I have no idea how this silence can benefit ANYONE. Corporate (mis)management at its best?

[Darka]

Seems they are betting big on F2P

[Rayla_Felana]

You know after watching the man completely ignore simple things like Kiras Lightsaber bug or the music that will hardly ever play (no music in a star wars game really Daniel really?) and his whole "Lets woo the progression raiders despite the fact that they hate us" philosophy I'm not seeing a great loss.

 

Whoever takes his place I just hope he or she works on fundamental embarrassing bugs that should have been addressed in beta one.

 

Daniel Erickson is lead writer, James Ohlen is the man in charge.

[FourTwent]

Oh! oh my God! Mr absolutely can't leave

 

absolutely absolutely xD

 

From what I read, seems more like they are using Hero Engine to borrow ideas from, and not just modifying it like Bioware did.

 

I dont think you know how dev companies use game engines if you think they aren't modifying them.

Edited September 8, 2012 by FourTwent

[Thyl]

Can someone buy EA allready ...... bah ...... BW should never have bought out well well If DE is leaving best of luck to him.... Edited September 8, 2012 by Thyl

[PurpleCliff]

I can't handle this. All these brilliant people we grew to love for years...

[Deewe]

I'm sure EA had nothing at all to do with the layoffs, the decision to go F2P or the strategy to make a short term large financial return on investment instead of producing a quality product that provided a revenue stream over a longer period.

 

History is also not on EA's side, where the nearest thing Bioware have done that's annoyed it's customers is the ending to ME3. EA has systematically screwed over loads of customers, loads of products and loads of development houses.

 

Bioware's management aren't blameless by any stretch, but to say that EA haven't had any decision affecting influence isn't really true.

It's been documented from current and previous employees that EA holds an iron grip on the game development. They micromanage everything and call the shots. It's why many employees have pretty well come out and said working at the Austin branch is so terrible, because this game isn't being developed by game designers, it's being run by business managers.

 

I think the very fact that BW's quality of games plummeted after the EA buy out is proof enough that EA is the reason this game is having such issues (or how about pretty much any other company EA has bought and destroyed).

TOR is another story: what you tend to forget is BioWare asked for having free reign on the development of the game. The mistake, for once, was that EA agreed on that.

 

Would BioWare execs have done a good job (more below), some leads did not have the "we know all better" attitude and well actually listen to player feedback EA would be sitting on a huge pile of crazy income.

 

 

That last highlighted part is where I feel the game fell apart in development. I don't know any details, but everything I saw in videos and interviews screamed arrogance and condescension to me. The game released in a sloppy, unprofessional and buggy as state. It's gotten better, but the $ spent on this game, and the staff they had dedicated to it, is most certainly not reflected in the product we all purchased.

Have a look at the following: Behind the scenes of Star Wars: The Old Republic: throwing people at the problem

 

Wasn't Dallas one of the guys that were behind the failure of SWG (NGE)? and you can see how well this game is doing too.. sooo.. I wouldn't be so excited about that team.

Yes Dallas was the guy who pushed the NGE and kept saying they were ready to loose the current customer base to replace it with a (supposedly) bigger one.

 

Now on the Hero engine here's some infos on what went wrong: clicky

 

Finally here's a few thing that are hindering TOR, story/lore wise:

• Most of the side quests are boring and does not fit the supposed status of the character
  
• You never feel like a powerful and important key player as peons ask you to sweep the floor for them
  
• Being dark side is mostly being a jerk and looking for fame or money
  
• Once you played a planet class story it's pretty much the same on all other planets
  
• Dialogs and story lines are very cliche and not that appealing
  
• Most choices doesn't have any impact on the character, NPC, world
  
• We are stuck with specific companions even if we don't like them
  
• All our character must use the legacy and must belong to the same legacy
  
• Tatooine and Hoth does not feel desert planets at all with the clutter of NPC, camps and so on
  
• Bending the lore too much: force users with glow bats in Hutt ball, force users master with flame throwers and non force users with force choke, red crystals on non dark side aligned characters, Sith and Chiss in the republic
  

Edited September 8, 2012 by Deewe

[Hessen]

TOR is another story: what you tend to forget is BioWare asked for having free reign on the development of the game. The mistake, for once, was that EA agreed on that.

 

Would BioWare execs have done a good job (more below), some leads did not have the "we know all better" attitude and well actually listen to player feedback EA would be sitting on a huge pile of crazy income.

 

Decision making on how to deliver may have been left to Bioware, but the targets were set by EA. Not just in terms of release date, but in terms of profitability.

 

As I said, you only have to look at other recent EA titles to see that quality or high-end product isn't part of what they want. They want the Angry Birds and Cityville player crowd, and they want it now. And that undeniably influences Bioware's decision making.

[Deewe]

Decision making on how to deliver may have been left to Bioware, but the targets were set by EA. Not just in terms of release date, but in terms of profitability.

 

As I said, you only have to look at other recent EA titles to see that quality or high-end product isn't part of what they want. They want the Angry Birds and Cityville player crowd, and they want it now. And that undeniably influences Bioware's decision making.

I read you but for TOR it was a bit different.

 

What EA did, is oblige BioWare to finally put the game out, because even after giving them one more year they saw it was going nowhere close to be ready. Sadly they had to start putting hard pressure on them.

 

We can blame EA, thing is none MMO had that much time nor budget to deliver a MMO.

 

Just step back and think about what what Trion or Turbine would have done with 1.5 more time and 3+ (Rift), 8+ (Lotro) times their final budget.

Now compare it with TOR.

Thing is these both game, out of the door, were more polished and had more features than TOR 6 months after launch...

[Trenter]

Daniel Erickson is lead writer, James Ohlen is the man in charge.

 

Lead designer. Not lead writer. It's a long time since Erickson was the lead writer. That is now Hall Hood if I'm not mistaken. Ohlen is still the creative chief. Until he is replaced with another Warzone designer...

Edited September 8, 2012 by Trenter

[Jett-Rinn]

Daniel Erickson is lead writer, James Ohlen is the man in charge.

 

Lead designer now or at least was.... ergo his issue.

[Wayshuba]

Somebody over on reddit linked this and noted the "actively looking for new opportunities" on Daniel Erickson's Linkedin.

 

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/571/screenshot20120907at113.png/

 

 

He is one of my favorite people on the SWTOR dev team... I hope he doesnt leave.

 

Here is the link to the reddit:

 

Honestly, if he is already posting this one of two things have happened. He is already gone, but recently or he has been told it is time to seek new employment. Whatever the case may be, this needs to happen. He, James Ohlen, Georg Zoeller, Dallas Dickinson and Gabe Amatangelo have presided over a catastrophic business failure and, quite frankly, deserve this. At the end of the day, whether you like them or not, they are paid to do a job and they failed miserably at it. About the only good thing that hopefully will come of this is that their over-inflated egos will finally be put in check and they will finally realize it's not about what their tastes and desires are but those of their customer base.

 

Who here thinks James Ohlen, Daniel Erickson and Dallas Dickinson will form their own studio I do.

 

Based on their business performance on this title, it would be a bad idea.

 

Two letters. EA.

 

Why does everyone keep blaming EA? The title was started before EA acquired them and BioWare was given complete freedom on it's development and direction. Let's see what execs at EA were looking at shall we: They had the biggest budget ever invested in an MMO, with the largest staff ever to work on an MMO, and taking longer than almost all MMO companies take to develop an MMO title. BioWare was already failing on multiple levels BEFORE the game was released. EA just finally held their pampered feet to the fire and told them how a real business worked and that it was finally time to deliver.

 

BioWare, not EA, was the one who failed on a multitude of levels with this whole project. From the way it was managed, to the mediocre game design, to the arrogant (and ignorant) response to their players base since launch, to their inability to deliver timely updates after launch. None of this is EAs fault except for them calling BioWare on the carpet for their own incompetence.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Wayshuba

[TheRealCandyMan]

Honestly, if he is already posting this one of two things have happened. He is already gone, but recently or he has been told it is time to seek new employment. Whatever the case may be, this needs to happen. He, James Ohlen, Georg Zoeller, Dallas Dickinson and Gabe Amatangelo have presided over a catastrophic business failure and, quite frankly, deserve this. At the end of the day, whether you like them or not, they are paid to do a job and they failed miserably at it. About the only good thing that hopefully will come of this is that their over-inflated egos will finally be put in check and they will finally realize it's not about what their tastes and desires are but those of their customer base.

 

 

 

Based on their business performance on this title, it would be a bad idea.

 

 

 

Why does everyone keep blaming EA? The title was started before EA acquired them and BioWare was given complete freedom on it's development and direction. Let's see what execs at EA were looking at shall we: They had the biggest budget ever invested in an MMO, with the largest staff ever to work on an MMO, and taking longer than almost all MMO companies take to develop an MMO title. BioWare was already failing on multiple levels BEFORe the game was released. EA just finally held their pampered feet to the fire and told them how a real business worked and that it was finally time to deliver.

 

BioWare, not EA, was the one who failed on a multitude of levels with this whole project. From the way it was managed, to the mediocre game design, to the arrogant (and ignorant) response to their players base since launch, to their inability to deliver timely updates after launch. None of this is EAs fault except for them calling BioWare on the carpet for their own incompetence.

 

LMAO, do you really believe that? Everything about how this game was desgined screams EA even if you didn't know EA owned Bioware.

Edited September 8, 2012 by TheRealCandyMan

[HanStyle]

I need a reason to stay , all the creators leave and they expect ppl to come back or keep their subs They are really begging us to leave . I have been a huge fan but these kinda news make me want to quit

[Ricktur]

project leads leaving a game are not a good sign, reference Richard Garriott and Tabula Rasa

[Wayshuba]

LMAO, do you really believe that? Everything about how this game was desgined screams EA even if you didn't know EA owned Bioware.

 

Yes, I do. Why, because former employees and contractors are pretty much stating this was the case in Austin and that the real problem fell on the lead designers who didn't want or care to listen to any feedback.

 

Also, the game was in development for almost a year before EA acquired BioWare. So what did EA have to do with the initial design and development that was started then? Apparently you didn't know that.

 

Games development started in October 2006. EA didn't acquire BioWare until late 2oo7 (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15831#.UEuFr41lSCk).

 

 

EAs modus-operendi is to CUT investment on titles after studios are acquired, not to put money into an endless till like SWTOR was. BioWare was given complete freedom on this title until they were failing and EA execs held their feet to the fire.

Edited September 8, 2012 by Wayshuba

[Wayshuba]

project leads leaving a game are not a good sign, reference Richard Garriott and Tabula Rasa

 

It is obvious why.

 

Content from the original 1.4 patch will be piecemealed out over the next year - a space mission here, a flashpoint there, etc. - with one new thing every six weeks (yeah, one space mission that takes eight minutes to go through will keep people occupied in six week cycles). During this period, they will milk as much money as possible from the title. Makeb, may or may not, see the light of day and, bet your bottom dollar, if it does EVERYONE will be charged for it.

 

EA is already putting this game into maintenance mode. Expect to see another round of layoffs hit this month (which with DE already looks like it is happening) or shortly after F2P is finished and ready for deployment.

[Costello]

It does feel like this game is going into maintenence mode and none of the devs or community mods appear willing to say differently.

 

Would be great if there was something to make people sit up and take notice but another op that will require people to re-run it a miminum of 8 or so times and probably closer to 16 to get the next best tier of gear. Only at this point it will be the only thing that that tier of equipment is needed for so you are running an op to get gear to run that op. Space missions that take up probably less than 1% of the time people spend in game, a new warzone which like the Op is just a means of grinding PvP gear/valor to make running warzones easier to grind out gear.

 

Where is the open world content the MMO aspect of the game? Almost all end game content could be linked to a lobby where you sit until a group is formed to port you into a random map or battle field. What after 9 months of going live is really being done? At this point I would even welcome an expansion pack that I had to pay for if it provided new levels of content that didn't require 8 other people to sign up for and revolve around killing 5 bosses. Cause thats really heroic.