The Australiangamer.com Article

Cherished

Posted briefly after the announcement about Auran's Bankruptcy:

 

 

Australiagamer.com post

 

There's an interesting article from Australian Gamer that I think really puts into perspective the game's historical direction and its current course. I post it here because it relates directly to what I stated elsewhere, and I really feel that the article addresses the entire picture rather fairly. It also makes me question the distressing requests for our feedback, because I don't think you really like our feedback. You would prefer us to agree with you and tell you that it wasn't your fault. You want us to cheerlead for you and go to bat for you against the critics, and yet you have done nothing in the recent week to earn that kind of loyalty. In fact you lost that loyalty when you lost the people who made us believe we had a voice.

 

The Gully Foyle article was a bit one sided, coming from someone with more experience and less interest in painting the picture objectively. I was therefore less inclined to post about that harsh perspective. However, the reason I'm concerned, and the reason I'm posting this now, once again relates to a private message I received from Bossman (Hilliam).

 

Quote:

“My take is that I didn't spend enough time getting community and "the game team" to see eye to eye. We're now a much smaller team and basically the game team IS the community team.

 

Cam has been identified as the scapegoat by the community and one thing we will be doing is airing the dirty laundry so to speak. We need to open up much closer ties between not just design and the community but the whole team, and that starts tomorrow.”

 

I'm not sure when he'll get around to showing us that side of the new development team, but it doesn't give me much hope. The problem isn't so much that we don't see eye to eye, but that you (Auran, or maybe just Adam and Tony) want to make a game that we're no longer interested in playing, and therefore our opinions are absolutely moot. So here's a more objective opinion, from people who really seemed to value Auran's contribution, and may have a fairer take on how things have panned out.

 

Quote:

We interviewed Adam when we did our studio tour of Auran and found him to be very likeable and engaging. Things with Adam have gotten very bitter though, and there has been pointing and recriminations at Adam even before Auran died.

 

Some of it is just the fairly natural bitterness and finger pointing at the highest position, the man directly ultimately responsible for a failed project. But most of it's not.

 

Adam did an interview with website F13 last week, a few days before Auran went down. The interview is surprisingly open and honest, at least from his point of view, putting the blame for Fury's failure onto the developers who weren't dedicated or skilled enough, or who didn't properly "share the vision". Some parts of it are really quite bitter, and frankly unprofessional. Bear in mind this is not people he used to work with. At the time it was people he still worked with. At best it's disloyal and vindictive. Not to mention, stupid.

 

F13: Do you think folks tended to just hide their head in the sand due to Auran being more robust than just this title, hoping to just get by?

 

Adam: Who knows. I don't interact with them on the kind of social level needed to have this kind of conversation.

 

Wow. Just... wow. That's not open and honest, it's plain rude. It's essentially saying you're just too important to talk to the people making your game. It's saying that you don't like them. Who in any company would ever say that? You might think it... Hell, if I worked in any management position the only time I'd even speak to the plebs below me would be when I needed to piss on someone, but I'd never actually say that.

Brone87

Is this a new article? Can we get a direct link to it please.

A55A5IN

Old news.