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http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07/17/swtor-executive-producer-leaves-bioware-new-layoffs-rumored/
Just found this on Massively. I wonder if this is another round of layoffs or they are still "restructuring". ;(.
Comments
Holy...
I won't smile until Erickson is gone.
I remember the moment I started hating him was in that video where he attempted to defend their "space system" and poke fun at SWG's.
What a worthless sack of crap, he is.
No Game Ever fires this many top people and recovers soon
and Ohlen, they just wouldn't listen to feedback in beta at all
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
Erickson didnt really bother me but James Ohlen just comes off as an arrogant ass. I know that is harsh but in all the interviews I have ever seen he quotes his "metrics" and how this or that makes it better ;P.
this sucks. hundreds of millions of dollars. thinking about what could have been
Instead of firing the workers who only did what they were told by the leadership, it is the leadership (Daniel Erickson) that should be fired. I will cheer for the firing of the leadership (who are ultimately responsible for SWTOR's debacle), but I can't cheer when everyday workers lose their jobs.
..and its still not enough...
Anyone who so much as worked as a janitor for this game should be canned.And then barred from ever working on a video game again for life.
That's the sad part, the people that need to be fired are still employed and the people that just did their jobs and had no say in decisions are being let go.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
C'mon dude, be serious, this is people's livelihood's you're talking about and what issues SWTOR has clearly comes from the decisions made at the top level.
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Agree. If you believe in accountability and responsibility, then the people who should be losing their jobs should be the leadership and management of this project. This game massive failure was a direct result of poor decisions going all the way back to the drawing board when they decided the direction of the game. Stunningly, Paul Barnett seems to slither away (again) from this mess and onto Ultima where he can lay waste to yet another revered IP.
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Like most things in life it is always the little person that gets screwed.
Sad for the programers, art designers, etc that got laid off, but hard to feel sad for EA/Bioware. There Day1 LDC, and Big payouts to Advertising and game reviewers (IGN) instead of actually investing in the game itself is coming back to bite them.
In these ugly times It'd be commendable to talk about other people's jobs with much more respect and human empathy.
EA and BW keep firing second and third lines to lay a smoke screen in cover of their top brass' massive mismanagement. Nothing new around since most of the bankers and financial "advisors" that plunged the world in this economic depression are still in charge and keep scoring disasters.
Greed and incompetence are a nasty cocktail....
This is sad and I have sympathy for everyone back out there on the job market but...it's really not surprising. SWTOR underperformed and it seems like it is continuing to underperform, so EA is trying to cut their losses. It also doesn't help that EA itself seems to be not doing well at all.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
I agree...
I think it's clear that SWTOR failed at the design level, not at the implementation level. The game was basically doomed from the start when they hung their hat on "story" to keep people playing an MMORPG for years.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
And then people wonder why developers don't take more chances and innovate more.
"Hey Bob, I have a great fresh new idea we can do in our next MMO!!"
"Sorry Steve, I'm not going to be responsible for ruining the entire team's lives if the players don't like it. I'm sticking with what we know they like...WoW type stuff"
Sucks to see hardworking people lose their jobs because of their management's inability to listen to their customer base. It's a shame that companies with the history that Bioware and EA have, that they can't seem to make a great game even with a great IP.
My condolences to the laid off workers whether this is just a continuation of the "restructuring" or a whole new round of layoffs.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
From what I understand, that is exactly why SWTOR is in so much trouble. They stuck with the Wow type stuff and didn't listen to their potential fanbase.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
Exactly.
And guess who got laid off....Steve!
That's the crappiest part about the whole thing. I personally don't feel too bad when top brass gets canned for their own mistakes. Typically with the amount of money they make in large companies (such as EA or even Bioware), they should easily be able to ride out being canned. "Steve" usually can't but "Steve" is usually the one who suffers because "Bob" doesn't do his homework....or he thinks he's too damn smart to do his homework.
And execs of companies wonder why "the little guy" can hate them so much.
You want me to pay to play a game I already paid for???
Be afraid.....The dragons are HERE!
I hate this chat, SWTOR's problem wasn't even that it was like WoW.
WoW has oodles of better features than SWTOR, at least in WoW you arent forced down a tunnel of a planet with invisible walls everywhere.
Well, on one hand I have no sympathy what-so-ever .. they dug their grave, and now there is no money to pay the bills.
But ... it was the idiots who made a SW game into a themepark WoW clone who should get the can. Big Time.
But they probably won't because these are the "superiors" at EA, along with the people who made the roadmark decisions and quit their job (ah .. who was the idiot who pushed the Hero Engine and promoted reworking it without support? .. didn't this person resign after the damage was done?)
Well in any event, the upper people at EA supported BioWare idiots in charge of making bad decisions. It's the lower people that have to suffer now. For shame, EA, for shame.
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EA cant afford to pay out the huge severence packages if they fired the top dogs in charge. So they dump the little guys.