Sarah moved from current project, update no longer coming?

[lysan]

I'm going to make a supposition here.

To a point, management tolerated SJAs interactions with the community. She was working on something that wasn't too secret - improving the AI is quite a reasonable public goal, and her interactions were quite good at subduing the dribbling plebs.

Now at some point they turned around and said that she was moving on to a new part of the project. One that was SUPERSEKRET, and in a naive way they thought that she'd be excited to be moved on to it. What they didn't take in to account is that she had become not only emotionally invested in her AI minions, but the admiration that she received from the forum and twitter.

They did not expect her to make such a public comment about moving role, and that her AI was potentially being abandoned.

It took a couple of days for the ripples to go from a small number of G+ followers, to her ill-advised tweet - once that happened it turned into an avalanche, and the hammer had to come down hard from management - as such they advised her to go completely silent.

With the focus being on GamesCon, they haven't yet had a chance to be able to respond to it, and they are more than likely aware that it WILL come up there as a question from some journalist (and god I can just see the dribbling masses on any live twitch stream shouting from the rafters "WHAT HAPPENED TO SJA?!?") - so I suspect they will be preparing an answer that they can deliver then. I'm sure something will make it's way out in some form of communication.

That make sense, however that also opens a can of worms regarding communication and control their of.

 

[jabokai]

From what I have read about the DDF, it was basically a list of 'wishes' that people wanted to see in the game, done at a fairly high level...

No, it wasn't a wishlist of what the players wanted at all, it was the design that FD wanted in the game! We just got to comment on it.

 

[Kris]

the Kickstarter is delivered, really?? The so called releases was one year late with half of the DDF features missing

Kickstarter was never ever about DDF. At no point in Kickstarter they indicated that DDF would be fully in game. DDF was long time after Kickstarter.

We might like the game, or might not, but only real thing missing is offline mode. Elite is not finished, but they did deliver what they made their Kickstarter. In many areas it is minimum approach, but they delivered their Kickstarter, even if sometimes barebones.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Lets throw this on the fire and see what drama, if any, comes from it....

There has been a small but steady amount of FD shares being sold this morning but an hour ago 3,000 were sold as a block... That sounds like some ones share option being cashed in...


*Grabs popcorn*

It could just as easily be a player/shareholder deciding they have had enough. I am a (modest) shareholder and have contemplated selling up for 'moral' reasons. I am waiting for the result of one specific as yet undelivered kickstarter promise. If they do not meet that obligation, I will be gone.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

No, it wasn't a wishlist of what the players wanted at all, it was the design that FD wanted in the game! We just got to comment on it.

In this very thread 2 other DDF members also explained what it was all about but still people persist with their misunderstandings.

I suspect that what we write Jabokai people simply don't read - perhaps that's why ED is as it is because FD didn't read either LOL

 

[timbow]

Lets throw this on the fire and see what drama, if any, comes from it....

There has been a small but steady amount of FD shares being sold this morning but an hour ago 3,000 were sold as a block... That sounds like some ones share option being cashed in...


*Grabs popcorn*

That should kick things off nicely. "Hello, yes, order for Timbow, yes, the usual dumper truck of popcorn please"

 

[CYB34]

Maybe the Thargoids are coming and they need to be bada**

 

[Titus Balls]

Lets throw this on the fire and see what drama, if any, comes from it....

There has been a small but steady amount of FD shares being sold this morning but an hour ago 3,000 were sold as a block... That sounds like some ones share option being cashed in...


*Grabs popcorn*

It could just as easily be a player/shareholder deciding they have had enough. I am a (modest) shareholder and have contemplated selling up for 'moral' reasons. I am waiting for the result of one specific as yet undelivered kickstarter promise. If they do not meet that obligation, I will be gone.

Quite frankly I dumped mine last month (or maybe early this month - it was recent) because it was the worst performing stock I had at -19%. So I wouldn't read too much into it, if you hold stock for moral reasons then I'd like to suggest you may deserve any losses you make against future earnings.

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

It could just as easily be a player/shareholder deciding they have had enough. I am a (modest) shareholder and have contemplated selling up for 'moral' reasons. I am waiting for the result of one specific as yet undelivered kickstarter promise. If they do not meet that obligation, I will be gone.

Now is not a selling time my friend they are at only 198p. If the news from the next big show is good then it could be headed back to the heady heights of 225p


EDIT: Depends on your purchase price of course

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

DDF was long time after Kickstarter.

say what? one of the kickstarter pledges was to be a member of the DDF

£300 reward

387 backers Limited (113 left of 500)

Be a design decision forum member, plus all rewards above.

 

[timbow]

The fact that this thread exists at all means that she has totally over-stepped the mark.

 

[cherbert]

we (DDF) said "yikes" and FD came back a few months later with Supercruise.

Doesn't this very statement contradict your point? So what you are saying is the DDF did manage to make a change based on feedback and interaction.

 

[Titus Balls]

The fact that this thread exists at all means that she has totally over-stepped the mark.

Correct. I'd even suggest it might be time for the mods to shut down as I can only see it descending further into madness and generally being no good for the forum or community.

 

[MikeSnos]

Looking at this from a software development point of view, such a sudden change does seem... unusual. I'm going to try and prevent as many assumptions as possible but I make no promises.

We know that Sarah knew about this change in advance of her tweets, as evidenced by the G+ comments this Monday. However, from reading those comments she, at first, appeared to be a little upset by the prospect anyway, potentially due to it limiting her time to interact with people? As a software guy with a client facing role myself I know how that can be, I get really grumpy when I'm left at my desk without any chance of interaacting with my clients, as is one of the curses of extroversion.

What we don't know, however, is what she's been moved to, whether it be ED related or otherwise. However, for it to be something related to the Gamescom reveal seems... unlikely, and this is where my assumptions and inference is going to begin. Gamescom is roughly a week and a half away, dev updates and other communication intimates that this is something that has been wroked on 'for a long time', one would assume that the project manager for this task would have gathered the requirements for the reveal and planned well in advance when they needed what resources, and could have informed people earlier.

For someone to be pulled onto a project so late in its life cycle seems... unprecedented. If they desperately needed something for Gamescom, they would have given her more warning and time to work on it.

From my interpretation of the information available, I wouldn't be surprised if Sarah's distress that we're seeing in her posts stems a lot from the fact that she enjoys interacting with the community - something she will not be able to do while on this new secretive task - and that she had become invested - and rightfully so, in my opinion - in her current project and was, despite advance warning, upset that it had to be shelved - or worse - handed over to someone else on her team. I know for a fact that the latter is actually MORE upsetting, at least for the guys I've worked with and have experience dealing with...

You do talk nonsense.... I've developed in many areas and I've lost count of the number of times I've been pushed into taking on a new set of code at the last minute prior to a go-live etc... If the code's structure is in common with previous code worked on then it's an easy transition... I've had to work on unfamiliar and undocumented code as well and came out smelling of roses... if you can't do that and be flexible and able to flit from different projects with ease then you really shouldn't be a developer or, at least, a developer worth having...

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

Quite frankly I dumped mine last month (or maybe early this month - it was recent) because it was the worst performing stock I had at -19%. So I wouldn't read too much into it, if you hold stock for moral reasons then I'd like to suggest you may deserve any losses you make against future earnings.

I'm not so stupid as to hold stock for moral reasons. Selling for moral reasons, whilst not necessarily financially sensible, I will do if the moral angst outweighs the financial loss. After all, I was not stupid enough to invest money that I could not afford to lose.

 

[CmdrPSB]

I beg to differ on the opinion that the kickstarter has been delivered. They are still outstanding pledges that have not been delivered, I believe the art book being one of them.

And offline mode!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kris]

say what? one of the kickstarter pledges was to be a member of the DDF

£300 reward

387 backers Limited (113 left of 500)

Be a design decision forum member, plus all rewards above.

I meant DDF discussion topics arrived after Kickstarter. Kickstarter was about pledging to be DDF member.

 

[AnnuverScotinExile]

EDIT: Depends on your purchase price of course

No it doesn't . As I said on many trading threads with people who were fixated with what they had paid for their cargo, all that matters is what it is worth, and whether that worth is likely to go up or down. What you paid for it, whilst interesting, should not impact your decision.

 

[Titus Balls]

I'm not so stupid as to hold stock for moral reasons. Selling for moral reasons, whilst not necessarily financially sensible, I will do if the moral angst outweighs the financial loss. After all, I was not stupid enough to invest money that I could not afford to lose.

Well that's fair enough then sir. Indeed SELLING for moral reasons is acceptable.

No it doesn't . As I said on many trading threads with people who were fixated with what they had paid for their cargo, all that matters is what it is worth, and whether that worth is likely to go up or down. What you paid for it, whilst interesting, should not impact your decision.

Indeed, I made a loss on Frontier. Them's the breaks but glad I sold when I did because the share price continues to tank. Might actually be a good time to buy again.

 

[MikeSnos]

We also know that it was against her will. We do not know, however, if that new assigment is for ED at all. As I said, it is quite possible that the ED dev team is being butchered right now in favour of Planet Coaster.

No... she's been sold to CGI to help out with Star Citizen....