i am sure he has stock, shares, contract or whatever that he will get paid any bonuses due to him. he isnt the lead programmer, artist or whoever else does the daily grunt work. how many guys or gals there have a vp title and are co something? co-manager? well i guess the other co-managers got a little more work dumped on their plates, big whoop.
i am sure he has stock, shares, contract or whatever that he will get paid any bonuses due to him. he isnt the lead programmer, artist or whoever else does the daily grunt work. how many guys or gals there have a vp title and are co something? co-manager? well i guess the other co-managers got a little more work dumped on their plates, big whoop.
Why is that always the first thing someone says? This guy is known to move around in the industry, he doesn't stay in one place for too long. What this article doesn't say is that it's also being reported that he's following his good friend Raph Koster into the social gaming platform, it has nothing to do with the state of The old Republic. People leave companies all the time to pursue different opportunities, especially if they get paid as much or more to work with a good friend on something new.
Yep, well said. I doubt this will have any effect on the game at all.
People tend to switch jobs when they are either offered more pay or believe they will have better career opportunities elsewhere. Contrary to popular belief, it does not always mean doom and gloom for whatever project they are working on.
Stop pulling something positive out of everything will you? This is disaster news and has a huge impact on Bioware.
Lol. Not really. But keep hoping, always a healthy attitude to fervently hope that new MMORPG's will fail
Originally posted by blueshadow
It is not just about sallary in that business. Leaving the "ship" that close to the release of what is hyped to be the premium MMORPG product and the next wow killer, makes me wonder if something is not right onboard.
This stuff happens. Jeff Strain, one of the big chiefs of ANet recently left to join his buddy at Undead Labs. Doesn't mean GW2 will fail or that something's wrong.
People read too much what they want to read in things. Reminds me of that EALouse quote of TOR's 300 million budget, where TOR haters/critics suddenly abandoned all critical wariness and took it for truth without any doubt.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
As I read these posts, the following cycle through my head:
"Where, oh where, are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the world over, and I thought I'd found true love,
You met another, and PFFT! You was gone!"
and of course this one too:
"Gloom, despair, and agony on me Deep, dark depression, excessive misery If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all Gloom, despair, and agony on me"
Seriously though, the only reason this news gives me pause is because they also lost their community manager a while back. Neither story by itself means much, but taken together......it could point to deeper problems in Austin. But is TOR the issue or is it Bioware as a whole?
Nevertheless, I'm doing my best not to think too much into it.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
guys you can start to complain when a lead dev or the the majority of the programmer leave then you can start to worry someone who just write things are hardly something to worry about
They don't need to hire anyone, Gordon probably left because his work there is done. He spend the last 5 years working in this game and now that it is near release, he can be more useful in other company and probably profit more.
Seems to me, he moved to a bigger job title and a bigger salary. Didn't this sort of thing happen with Blizzard as well, during the development of WoW? Developers have very fluid jobs and jumping around at odd times seems par for the course.
Its very cut and dry. An career opportunity came up in an industry that is really taking off. It looks to be a more senior role and he's looking to get in at the ground level. Playdom needed to fill a position now, and they weren't goign to wait for SWTOR to launch, so Mr. Walton had to bounce prior to launch. As previously stated his work was probably complete with the SWTOR project so he left.
Even if SWTOR does fail, this guy had his hand in the pot for the last 5 years, so his name is still associated with it. He can't really wash his hands clean of this because he bailed a few months before launch.
Could not care less. I have changed job twice in the last three years. No biggie.
Also I went to school with someone of the same name, doubt if it is the same bloke seeing he was an overweight layabout who seemed more interested in the contenst of his own nostrils than any career path (Sorry Gordon)
I used to visit this site a lot however in recent years it has become the home of negative forum posts, illogical opinions and tantrums so I visit less often.
Played or Beta'd: UO / DAOC / Horizons / EQ2 / DDO / EVE / Archlord / PirateKingsOnline / Tabula Rasa / LOTRO / AOC / Champions / Darkfall / Mortal Online / DCUO / Rift / STO / SWTOR / TSW
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.
To be fair, in large projects, there comes a point where even major players in development have done their job and can move on. And frankly it isn't uncommon for such players to move onto new gigs even before a launch.
If anything worries me, it is the inability of Bioware/EA to manage PR better.
^ This.
Bloody doom and gloom merchants forced me to login and up this. ;-)
i am sure he has stock, shares, contract or whatever that he will get paid any bonuses due to him. he isnt the lead programmer, artist or whoever else does the daily grunt work. how many guys or gals there have a vp title and are co something? co-manager? well i guess the other co-managers got a little more work dumped on their plates, big whoop.
Not if they leave
ok didnt know you were a lawyer and privy to his contract or to the inner workings of bioware. i stand corrected.
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.
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.
'Step up' is a very subjective view and knowing nothing about Gordon I would be a fool to speculate (although I certainly would be a fool in good company, based on previous posts here).
There are so many factors possible that should be in general just accepted as a "we don't know the whole story" type of situation.
I am not surprised but still displeased with all the (knee-jerk) reactions here and the rest of the net involving a snapshot of the Playdom website or its current knowable state.
Lets look at this from a business perspective...
1. software does not just pop into existence one morning, it takes time, effort, talent, and money. Thus I fail to see any logic in believing that it is a step down in any way based simply on what I see on the website... yet, this does lead to...
2. what is in fact on the website that is interesting (as pointed out previously) is that Playdom is part of a much larger, well known, successful and deep pocketed group
3. social services and entertainment related to them have proven to be a still emerging and lucrative area to be in
Gordon may be an entrepreneurial visionary with a track record of delivering. Such a person is generally not content to sit idly by and just leech and absorb. Rather, they want to be on the bleeding edge as well as to see both their vision and other's they see value in, succeed.
However, what really fascinates (but yet again, does not surprise) me is the complete cognitive dissonence regarding the very basic and real fact that all small companies start off simple and small. Some are in a garage while others have great investment backing and are in good offices, but they all start small. Also, there is always going to be a debate on whether to (if applicable) release early with a small portion of what you plan, or to wait until you hit some arbitrary set of features that most would consider 'complete' and then release then. There are merits to both sides and it is not a simple decision.
Its funny to see how the vast majority of people judge the viability of an endevour based on whether they use and like it or not. I tried various social games and found they are not for me. However it is quite obvious that there is a massive and growing market for such. I realize not everyone is, or should be, of the sort that can see real potential in things... I am not saying we should all be, that would be silly. However, one should wisely recognize that they are NOT that person and just drive on. The mentality here is pretty much the same as you find when a good idea and even good implementation just fail for reasons outside of the value to folks or quality of work. (sometimes, the best things fail due to oddities in social acceptance and buy in... well that and a large amount of government interference and/or bullying tactics on the part of the 'winner'. This happens in everything from formats of videos to operating systems) What is sad is the amount of arm-chair quarterbacking that happens after the event... this is completely separate from a healthy post-mortem analysis. The later seeks to learn and grow while the former is a blatant show of folks trying to be 'right' and look smart.
Who knows, Playdom may tank, Gordon may move on (again), and TOR could tank. One thing is certain, that if any of that doom and gloom does happen, then the mental giants trolling here will pump their chest and say they 'told us so.' So just in case, in advance, I would like to be the first person to say, "great guesswork, too bad you have absolutely NO factual or logical basis to have come to that conclusion.'
i am sure he has stock, shares, contract or whatever that he will get paid any bonuses due to him. he isnt the lead programmer, artist or whoever else does the daily grunt work. how many guys or gals there have a vp title and are co something? co-manager? well i guess the other co-managers got a little more work dumped on their plates, big whoop.
Not if they leave
ok didnt know you were a lawyer and privy to his contract or to the inner workings of bioware. i stand corrected.
Precisely! Since we don't know these details then why is there all this silly, baseless speculation and dogmatic assertions?
If one were to speculate in an intelligent manner they would use external (present and past) yet similar circumstances to draw on. It is not uncommon at ALL for high level folk, in any industry, to leave yet receive substantial pay, profit share, stock, etc, and this is not even including what stake they held before leaving.
Originally posted by Vonatar Cool, now Bioware can hire Brad McQuaid instead
You are so evil lol.
A VP left their corp just before a big project gets finished. Not the first, certainly not the last, the corp and it's beancounters shall go on.
SW:TOR will make filthy gobs of cash, you wait and see. Bioware shall dance the Dance of Joy.
(no I ain't gonna buy and play it, it's already garbage and it ain't even released yet)
I am the Player that wonders... "What the %#*& just happened?!" ............... "I Believe... There should be NO financial connection or portals between the Real World and the Virtual in MMOs. " __Ever Present Cockroach of the MMO Verses__ ...scurrying to and fro... .munching on bits of garbage... always under foot...
Comments
i am sure he has stock, shares, contract or whatever that he will get paid any bonuses due to him. he isnt the lead programmer, artist or whoever else does the daily grunt work. how many guys or gals there have a vp title and are co something? co-manager? well i guess the other co-managers got a little more work dumped on their plates, big whoop.
Not if they leave
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.
Yep, well said. I doubt this will have any effect on the game at all.
money see money do.
guess he wasn't about the game after all.
People tend to switch jobs when they are either offered more pay or believe they will have better career opportunities elsewhere. Contrary to popular belief, it does not always mean doom and gloom for whatever project they are working on.
Cool, now Bioware can hire Brad McQuaid instead
Lol. Not really. But keep hoping, always a healthy attitude to fervently hope that new MMORPG's will fail
This stuff happens. Jeff Strain, one of the big chiefs of ANet recently left to join his buddy at Undead Labs. Doesn't mean GW2 will fail or that something's wrong.
People read too much what they want to read in things. Reminds me of that EALouse quote of TOR's 300 million budget, where TOR haters/critics suddenly abandoned all critical wariness and took it for truth without any doubt.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
As I read these posts, the following cycle through my head:
"Where, oh where, are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the world over, and I thought I'd found true love,
You met another, and PFFT! You was gone!"
and of course this one too:
Seriously though, the only reason this news gives me pause is because they also lost their community manager a while back. Neither story by itself means much, but taken together......it could point to deeper problems in Austin. But is TOR the issue or is it Bioware as a whole?
Nevertheless, I'm doing my best not to think too much into it.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
guys you can start to complain when a lead dev or the the majority of the programmer leave then you can start to worry someone who just write things are hardly something to worry about
They don't need to hire anyone, Gordon probably left because his work there is done. He spend the last 5 years working in this game and now that it is near release, he can be more useful in other company and probably profit more.
He might have left for personal reasons. It doesn't have to mean anything. Still it is good gossip.
Seems to me, he moved to a bigger job title and a bigger salary. Didn't this sort of thing happen with Blizzard as well, during the development of WoW? Developers have very fluid jobs and jumping around at odd times seems par for the course.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Its very cut and dry. An career opportunity came up in an industry that is really taking off. It looks to be a more senior role and he's looking to get in at the ground level. Playdom needed to fill a position now, and they weren't goign to wait for SWTOR to launch, so Mr. Walton had to bounce prior to launch. As previously stated his work was probably complete with the SWTOR project so he left.
Even if SWTOR does fail, this guy had his hand in the pot for the last 5 years, so his name is still associated with it. He can't really wash his hands clean of this because he bailed a few months before launch.
Never heard of him
Could not care less. I have changed job twice in the last three years. No biggie.
Also I went to school with someone of the same name, doubt if it is the same bloke seeing he was an overweight layabout who seemed more interested in the contenst of his own nostrils than any career path (Sorry Gordon)
I used to visit this site a lot however in recent years it has become the home of negative forum posts, illogical opinions and tantrums so I visit less often.
Played or Beta'd: UO / DAOC / Horizons / EQ2 / DDO / EVE / Archlord / PirateKingsOnline / Tabula Rasa / LOTRO / AOC / Champions / Darkfall / Mortal Online / DCUO / Rift / STO / SWTOR / TSW
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.
ok didnt know you were a lawyer and privy to his contract or to the inner workings of bioware. i stand corrected.
Do your research bro:
"On July 27, 2010, The Walt Disney Company acquired 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.
"According to reports, Walton is now working for social games developer Playdoh as an executive producer."
... Oh, wait.
'Step up' is a very subjective view and knowing nothing about Gordon I would be a fool to speculate (although I certainly would be a fool in good company, based on previous posts here).
There are so many factors possible that should be in general just accepted as a "we don't know the whole story" type of situation.
I am not surprised but still displeased with all the (knee-jerk) reactions here and the rest of the net involving a snapshot of the Playdom website or its current knowable state.
Lets look at this from a business perspective...
1. software does not just pop into existence one morning, it takes time, effort, talent, and money. Thus I fail to see any logic in believing that it is a step down in any way based simply on what I see on the website... yet, this does lead to...
2. what is in fact on the website that is interesting (as pointed out previously) is that Playdom is part of a much larger, well known, successful and deep pocketed group
3. social services and entertainment related to them have proven to be a still emerging and lucrative area to be in
Gordon may be an entrepreneurial visionary with a track record of delivering. Such a person is generally not content to sit idly by and just leech and absorb. Rather, they want to be on the bleeding edge as well as to see both their vision and other's they see value in, succeed.
However, what really fascinates (but yet again, does not surprise) me is the complete cognitive dissonence regarding the very basic and real fact that all small companies start off simple and small. Some are in a garage while others have great investment backing and are in good offices, but they all start small. Also, there is always going to be a debate on whether to (if applicable) release early with a small portion of what you plan, or to wait until you hit some arbitrary set of features that most would consider 'complete' and then release then. There are merits to both sides and it is not a simple decision.
Its funny to see how the vast majority of people judge the viability of an endevour based on whether they use and like it or not. I tried various social games and found they are not for me. However it is quite obvious that there is a massive and growing market for such. I realize not everyone is, or should be, of the sort that can see real potential in things... I am not saying we should all be, that would be silly. However, one should wisely recognize that they are NOT that person and just drive on. The mentality here is pretty much the same as you find when a good idea and even good implementation just fail for reasons outside of the value to folks or quality of work. (sometimes, the best things fail due to oddities in social acceptance and buy in... well that and a large amount of government interference and/or bullying tactics on the part of the 'winner'. This happens in everything from formats of videos to operating systems) What is sad is the amount of arm-chair quarterbacking that happens after the event... this is completely separate from a healthy post-mortem analysis. The later seeks to learn and grow while the former is a blatant show of folks trying to be 'right' and look smart.
Who knows, Playdom may tank, Gordon may move on (again), and TOR could tank. One thing is certain, that if any of that doom and gloom does happen, then the mental giants trolling here will pump their chest and say they 'told us so.' So just in case, in advance, I would like to be the first person to say, "great guesswork, too bad you have absolutely NO factual or logical basis to have come to that conclusion.'
Precisely! Since we don't know these details then why is there all this silly, baseless speculation and dogmatic assertions?
If one were to speculate in an intelligent manner they would use external (present and past) yet similar circumstances to draw on. It is not uncommon at ALL for high level folk, in any industry, to leave yet receive substantial pay, profit share, stock, etc, and this is not even including what stake they held before leaving.
You are so evil lol.
A VP left their corp just before a big project gets finished. Not the first, certainly not the last, the corp and it's beancounters shall go on.
SW:TOR will make filthy gobs of cash, you wait and see. Bioware shall dance the Dance of Joy.
(no I ain't gonna buy and play it, it's already garbage and it ain't even released yet)
I am the Player that wonders... "What the %#*& just happened?!"
...............
"I Believe... There should be NO financial connection or portals between the Real World and the Virtual in MMOs. "
__Ever Present Cockroach of the MMO Verses__
...scurrying to and fro... .munching on bits of garbage... always under foot...
Until some senior programmers/developers/writers start leaving Bioware this will have zero impact on SWTOR.
DEFINITION OF REALITY: Graphics ok, Sound ok, Gold drops need more work...