It's not uncommon at all for staff to move around every few years, especially after a project has, or is nearing completion. You try working, staring, playing, designing and talking about the same game for several years and see how much you want to keep going with it after half a decade has passed. People get burnt out, so they move on to a new studio and a new development challenge to help keep things fresh. You think its all the same designers and devlopers that are still working on WoW? The only difference is this guy is much higher up on the totem pole, so he gets a nice little news story to go along with his leaving.
Does anyone really think that a move to a social gaming company is a step up from being VP of Bioware Austin The Old Republic. Seriously anyone would if everything was going well at the ToR that you would move from a 100 million dollar project to free to play gaming just as you are ment to be coming to launch and there is no doubt a nice bonus in your pay cheque.
Now nobody can know why his moved but it sure isn't because of better prospects you have a company that is an industry leader over one up till now nobody could name. I can't think of any game developed by playdom. And so its equally unlikely that they will be paying him what EA and BW were paying. VP of a flag ship game or free to play gaming I doubt very much Playdom lured him away by a larger pay cheque.
So the reason to quit back in January seems a lot more like falling on your sword and getting out before the bad press hits and you can't get another job. Where the old community manager bailed now the VP has and gone does this mean that they did this despite confidence of their game or because of a lack of confidence.
Do your research bro:
"On July 27, 2010, The Walt Disney Companyacquired Playdom in a $763 million deal. Disney will initially pay $563 million for Playdom, which is the No. 3 social game company with about 42 million monthly players. The deal also includes a further $200 million in additional payments if Playdom achieves growth thresholds."
I'd say $763 million is pretty good valuation.
You've never heard of Walt Disney?
Basically what I'm saying is; there is a very good possibility that the paycheck lured him away.
Heh you beat me to it Tensor. All this doom and gloom talk. Folks need to do their research. It's just folks seeking to find fault where ever possible especially when something is so hyped and anticipated.
Zygna got a $9 billion valuation. Social gaming developer. Yes, they make utter shit, but people are seemingly lapping it up. No doubt the guy sees the opportunity to work for Playdom as a chance to get some of that (shit) pie.
Didn´t the same thing happen to Arenanet / Guild Wars 2? Was it Jeff Strain?
Jeff Strain never made millions of dollars on very succesful games? so no not the same thing at all but nice try? or not.
yeash calm down dude.
I'm pretty sure he saw how stupid us people are and how insane silly facebook games are. I'm sure the super super low cost of those games on their, and the Ginourmous profit they make on those games enticed him, as well as a sufficient infusion of bonus cash for signing on.
Now, if TOR suddenly starts moving towards a Sandbox post this guy leaving or some other huge change, I think it will have no real effect, good or bad.
Frankly, no one knows for sure what the situation is besides the people that were directly involved, that being the heads at BW/EA, and Walton. It could be that he was angry at TOR's current PR situation, or that he didn't want his reputation tarnished by what he believes is a poor product. On the other hand, it could just as easily be that he was no longer wanted by the company, or that he decided a change of pace was necessary, or was offered a bigger piece of the pie at Playdom. The fact is, no one knows, and likely we will never know, so everyone here is simply speculating, no matter what their opinion is.
As far as the game itself goes, nothing changes simply because Walton left, unless he was overseeing the PR department, in which case his departure would be a good thing. The question is whether or not he left for reasons pertaining simply to a position that he felt better suited him, or whether he left because he no longer agreed with the product or corporate decisions.
Hayden Blackman recently left LA shortly before the release of SW:TFU 2, which he was in charge of, due to disagreements over that game, and other LA management decisions. It isn't unreasonable to question whether that may have been the case here as well.
Wow. The guy who once said that giving players too much choice is bad and who was 1/2 (Vogel being the other) of the involved crafting and player housing is bad duo is gone? Right before ship? Hmm...
Even more strange is that he is going to work with Koster who believes (at least up until last I read) the exact opposite.
There may be something to this 2012 stuff afterall. I better go play Fallout 1, 2, 3 and New Vegas again and brush up on my post apocolyptic survival skills.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Raph Koster and Walton know what they are doing moving to social games. I don't think it is because he was unhappy working for bioware.
But really, SWTOR is close enough to launch that if he thought it was going to be a huge hit he would probably stick around so his name could be attached to it. But anyone who thought that game would be huge is kidding themselves anyways... Big, decent, maybe, huge no.
Wouldent surprise me if the game arent even halfway done, all they have to show are the first lvls and a railroad shooter in space. Now they will just continue to postpone the game for years to come.....
Dah, They have shown some crafting, a pvp warzone, companions, quest system and a mid level flashpoint just to name a few.
They also stated they are nearing completetion, which doesn't tell me they are only half done. EA also stated the game would come out this year. The way they said it told me that it won't get pushed back to 2012. It will release in it's current state in 2011 or not at all.
Though the way it sounds, it will more then likely finish a lot earlier then that. especially the way the people at BW are talking about the game.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Stop pulling something positive out of everything will you? This is disaster news and has a huge impact on Bioware.
Would you elaborate on this please and explain to us why exactly this is "disaster" news and how will this have a "huge" impact on Bioware?
Personally i am not acquainted with corporate procedures and how this system works. So, i don't have an opinion about this matter. It may or may not have a negative impact on TOR's development and well fare. Judging from your statement you do have insight and knowledge.
OH MY GAH! This is doom and failure written all over it! This means Bioware spent that 300 million on voice overs and is out of money to pay the guy! OMG! The Glenn Beck paronia around here is scary. The guy got a better position with a salary hike, nothing to see here.
im suprised no one mentioned this. simply put, he just might not like riding EA's D lol in the words of seth rogen, PREPARED TO BE F**KD BY THE LONG D*** OF THE LAW
Well its the firm way to say, you not up for it, you are fired but we can't let the public know it might look bad on the stocks and give a bad reputaion maybe pepole will think we loosing the grip and if you shut your mouth you get a job down below in the seller, kids games soo pack your stuff and f... off.
When you read somthing, its the opposit of what it is.
Well its the firm way to say, you not up for it, you are fired but we can't let the public know it might look bad on the stocks and give a bad reputaion maybe pepole will think we loosing the grip and if you shut your mouth you get a job down below in the seller, kids games soo pack your stuff and f... off.
When you read somthing, its the opposit of what it is.
So when I get this translated I should take what you said and make it the opposite of what you said?
Great news! He was one of the assknobs who thought gamers can't fly in 3D space. Maybe Bioware can redeem SWTOR with 3D flight now that he's gone -- instead of that rail shooter #$*&&.
He's like a project manager. He helped get the game off the ground, now he's off to another challenge. It's what he does. A guy that valuable to the industry will never stay put. Anyone who is in the business world would know that people in important positions move around lot. It's why they are in important positions. If the stayed put they would be at the bottom of the food chain still.
Normally, we would not comment in threads like this. The decision to leave any company is entirely personal, and Gordon's reasons are his alone.
Then again, as Gordon's a great guy and left us on great terms, we thought we'd give him one last right of reply. So here's Gordon:
Thanks to all the well-wishers and even the haters. A few things I thought I'd mention.
1) SWTOR will be an awesome game!
2) Working at BioWare was my best experience in my 33 years in the games industry so far! It's not a good company, it's a GREAT company.
3) I wasn't working at SOE when the NGE came out, and frankly I was adamantly against doing it.
4) I don't hate the SWTOR space game or JtL, really! (Read the transcript of the talk or listen to the recording to find out what I actually said, versus what people say I said about space...)
5) Unfortunately, there is very little customer understanding of how the game development business actually works - but that is fine, as seeing how the sausage is made won't improve your appetite for the games!
Personally, I’ll be buying and playing SWTOR the day it launches. It will be not only something different, but in my mind a more immersive experience than anything that I’ve seen on the market to date.
Best wishes to the potential customers here and all the great folks building SWTOR!
Gordon
Everyone here at BioWare wishes Gordon well in everything he does in the future!
His departure is not a problem, in fact you'd be worried if he weren't in demand elsewhere, afterall the industry is in a flux atm, most of the top guys are barging each other to get a foot in on a new part of the genre.
It's the timing that is concerning imo, if there are branching issues on release (which there will be) many of which as gamer we will not even be aware of, having as many -been there done that- kind of guys at the top is invaluable.
Time stands still for no man I guess.
----- The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
Stop pulling something positive out of everything will you? This is disaster news and has a huge impact on Bioware.
That remains to be seen. On a team that large, one persons contribution, while it may be important, is unlikely to be critical. It all depends on how Bioware reacts. As for the hysteria about not departing from WoW and some of its insights, thats hardly an insult. Name ONE western game that has had the sustained subscriber base over more than six years that WoW has had. Like it or not, investors do NOT care about anything but such numbers. Keep in mind that absent those investors millions of dollars, AAA titles do not get created.
You guys are missing the big picture here. Gordon Walton and Raph Koster, two key persons behind swg and uo, are working together again for a company that is raking in tons of cash publishing social games.
Any self respecting mmo fan should be dancing a jig right about now.
Name ONE western game that has had the sustained subscriber base over more than six years that WoW has had.
Oh look at me I think I'm so smart when in reality I'm a fucking retard.
How about a little known MMO called EVE Online? You know he one who's sub count has only been increasing and will probably see a big jump come Incarna's release?
All I can say is one person leaving shouldn't make or break a BioWare game of this scope. A quality MMO today takes Vision, then teamwork to come to reality. I think the vision is well entrenched and the team remains at work.
Mech... I hate to point this out, but there is a rather LARGE difference between 360,000(EVE) and 12 Million(WoW). EVE is doing rather well for itself, and I hope CCP keeps it up. But its FAR from having WoW's numbers. As much as some may hate Blizzard and WoW, the fact remains that they are producing the only thing that counts to investors. Massive amounts of cold, hard cash. Month after month, and year after year.
Comments
It's not uncommon at all for staff to move around every few years, especially after a project has, or is nearing completion. You try working, staring, playing, designing and talking about the same game for several years and see how much you want to keep going with it after half a decade has passed. People get burnt out, so they move on to a new studio and a new development challenge to help keep things fresh. You think its all the same designers and devlopers that are still working on WoW? The only difference is this guy is much higher up on the totem pole, so he gets a nice little news story to go along with his leaving.
My Guild Wars 2 Vids
It more than likely means nothing, but all I can think while reading this announcement was "WARNING. WARNING. WARNING."
Teamwork: using the morons on your team as bait.
Heh you beat me to it Tensor. All this doom and gloom talk. Folks need to do their research. It's just folks seeking to find fault where ever possible especially when something is so hyped and anticipated.
Zygna got a $9 billion valuation. Social gaming developer. Yes, they make utter shit, but people are seemingly lapping it up. No doubt the guy sees the opportunity to work for Playdom as a chance to get some of that (shit) pie.
yeash calm down dude.
I'm pretty sure he saw how stupid us people are and how insane silly facebook games are. I'm sure the super super low cost of those games on their, and the Ginourmous profit they make on those games enticed him, as well as a sufficient infusion of bonus cash for signing on.
Now, if TOR suddenly starts moving towards a Sandbox post this guy leaving or some other huge change, I think it will have no real effect, good or bad.
Frankly, no one knows for sure what the situation is besides the people that were directly involved, that being the heads at BW/EA, and Walton. It could be that he was angry at TOR's current PR situation, or that he didn't want his reputation tarnished by what he believes is a poor product. On the other hand, it could just as easily be that he was no longer wanted by the company, or that he decided a change of pace was necessary, or was offered a bigger piece of the pie at Playdom. The fact is, no one knows, and likely we will never know, so everyone here is simply speculating, no matter what their opinion is.
As far as the game itself goes, nothing changes simply because Walton left, unless he was overseeing the PR department, in which case his departure would be a good thing. The question is whether or not he left for reasons pertaining simply to a position that he felt better suited him, or whether he left because he no longer agreed with the product or corporate decisions.
Hayden Blackman recently left LA shortly before the release of SW:TFU 2, which he was in charge of, due to disagreements over that game, and other LA management decisions. It isn't unreasonable to question whether that may have been the case here as well.
Wow. The guy who once said that giving players too much choice is bad and who was 1/2 (Vogel being the other) of the involved crafting and player housing is bad duo is gone? Right before ship? Hmm...
Even more strange is that he is going to work with Koster who believes (at least up until last I read) the exact opposite.
There may be something to this 2012 stuff afterall. I better go play Fallout 1, 2, 3 and New Vegas again and brush up on my post apocolyptic survival skills.
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Raph Koster and Walton know what they are doing moving to social games. I don't think it is because he was unhappy working for bioware.
But really, SWTOR is close enough to launch that if he thought it was going to be a huge hit he would probably stick around so his name could be attached to it. But anyone who thought that game would be huge is kidding themselves anyways... Big, decent, maybe, huge no.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
Wouldent surprise me if the game arent even halfway done, all they have to show are the first lvls and a railroad shooter in space. Now they will just continue to postpone the game for years to come.....
99% chance that im wrong....but anyway.
Dah, They have shown some crafting, a pvp warzone, companions, quest system and a mid level flashpoint just to name a few.
They also stated they are nearing completetion, which doesn't tell me they are only half done. EA also stated the game would come out this year. The way they said it told me that it won't get pushed back to 2012. It will release in it's current state in 2011 or not at all.
Though the way it sounds, it will more then likely finish a lot earlier then that. especially the way the people at BW are talking about the game.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Would you elaborate on this please and explain to us why exactly this is "disaster" news and how will this have a "huge" impact on Bioware?
Personally i am not acquainted with corporate procedures and how this system works. So, i don't have an opinion about this matter. It may or may not have a negative impact on TOR's development and well fare. Judging from your statement you do have insight and knowledge.
It's 2012 in 2011! OH SHI-!!!1!!1
As another poster said, "Good gossip".
He who keeps his cool best wins.
OH MY GAH! This is doom and failure written all over it! This means Bioware spent that 300 million on voice overs and is out of money to pay the guy! OMG! The Glenn Beck paronia around here is scary. The guy got a better position with a salary hike, nothing to see here.
In Bioware we trust!
im suprised no one mentioned this. simply put, he just might not like riding EA's D lol in the words of seth rogen, PREPARED TO BE F**KD BY THE LONG D*** OF THE LAW
Well its the firm way to say, you not up for it, you are fired but we can't let the public know it might look bad on the stocks and give a bad reputaion maybe pepole will think we loosing the grip and if you shut your mouth you get a job down below in the seller, kids games soo pack your stuff and f... off.
When you read somthing, its the opposit of what it is.
So when I get this translated I should take what you said and make it the opposite of what you said?
In Bioware we trust!
Great news! He was one of the assknobs who thought gamers can't fly in 3D space. Maybe Bioware can redeem SWTOR with 3D flight now that he's gone -- instead of that rail shooter #$*&&.
He's like a project manager. He helped get the game off the ground, now he's off to another challenge. It's what he does. A guy that valuable to the industry will never stay put. Anyone who is in the business world would know that people in important positions move around lot. It's why they are in important positions. If the stayed put they would be at the bottom of the food chain still.
gordon walton allowed to make a few comments regarding things being said about his leaving bioware on their forums
StephenReid
Joined: Oct 2010
Today , 09:38 AM
Normally, we would not comment in threads like this. The decision to leave any company is entirely personal, and Gordon's reasons are his alone.
Then again, as Gordon's a great guy and left us on great terms, we thought we'd give him one last right of reply. So here's Gordon:
Thanks to all the well-wishers and even the haters. A few things I thought I'd mention.
1) SWTOR will be an awesome game!
2) Working at BioWare was my best experience in my 33 years in the games industry so far! It's not a good company, it's a GREAT company.
3) I wasn't working at SOE when the NGE came out, and frankly I was adamantly against doing it.
4) I don't hate the SWTOR space game or JtL, really! (Read the transcript of the talk or listen to the recording to find out what I actually said, versus what people say I said about space...)
5) Unfortunately, there is very little customer understanding of how the game development business actually works - but that is fine, as seeing how the sausage is made won't improve your appetite for the games!
Personally, I’ll be buying and playing SWTOR the day it launches. It will be not only something different, but in my mind a more immersive experience than anything that I’ve seen on the market to date.
Best wishes to the potential customers here and all the great folks building SWTOR!
Gordon
Everyone here at BioWare wishes Gordon well in everything he does in the future!
http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=5486625#edit5486625
His departure is not a problem, in fact you'd be worried if he weren't in demand elsewhere, afterall the industry is in a flux atm, most of the top guys are barging each other to get a foot in on a new part of the genre.
It's the timing that is concerning imo, if there are branching issues on release (which there will be) many of which as gamer we will not even be aware of, having as many -been there done that- kind of guys at the top is invaluable.
Time stands still for no man I guess.
-----
The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
That remains to be seen. On a team that large, one persons contribution, while it may be important, is unlikely to be critical. It all depends on how Bioware reacts. As for the hysteria about not departing from WoW and some of its insights, thats hardly an insult. Name ONE western game that has had the sustained subscriber base over more than six years that WoW has had. Like it or not, investors do NOT care about anything but such numbers. Keep in mind that absent those investors millions of dollars, AAA titles do not get created.
You guys are missing the big picture here. Gordon Walton and Raph Koster, two key persons behind swg and uo, are working together again for a company that is raking in tons of cash publishing social games.
Any self respecting mmo fan should be dancing a jig right about now.
Oh look at me I think I'm so smart when in reality I'm a fucking retard.
How about a little known MMO called EVE Online? You know he one who's sub count has only been increasing and will probably see a big jump come Incarna's release?
Wow, such a response over this news item.
All I can say is one person leaving shouldn't make or break a BioWare game of this scope. A quality MMO today takes Vision, then teamwork to come to reality. I think the vision is well entrenched and the team remains at work.
Mech... I hate to point this out, but there is a rather LARGE difference between 360,000(EVE) and 12 Million(WoW). EVE is doing rather well for itself, and I hope CCP keeps it up. But its FAR from having WoW's numbers. As much as some may hate Blizzard and WoW, the fact remains that they are producing the only thing that counts to investors. Massive amounts of cold, hard cash. Month after month, and year after year.