Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12
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Are these guys the ones who are breaking new ground with all the stunning never-been-done-before tech?
I'm not aware of that, but man, look at the tone of the post. Its practically religious in nature.
Maybe CIG does have some good and talented people. I've not looked at the resumes of the rank and file. I am aware of the histories of the top management though, and it doesn't exactly fill one with confidence. And it isn't helped when the guy at the top is incompetent and incapable of managing such a large project. You could have the best team in the world, but when the man at the top is constantly screwing things up, you're not going anywhere fast.
Back to the rank and file though, we've had some good laughs over the years, like when they put people that guy front of the camera, who looked like he was still going through puberty, and then displayed their job title as "Senior". Seems to be some rank inflation going on at CIG.
Blah blah blah... assets assets assets. Argh! Jared... skip! More blah blah blah.
Its all just blah. Can't trust anything CIG says. Only trust what they actually deliver and actually appears in the PU.
For example?
I knew someone was watching me...
It's a bunch of people end of career who realised it's not gonna fly but that doesn't prevent them to push a lazy job and collect paychecks while spinning up scam stories to keep the money rolling.
The only bunch that might make it is when someone cuts off the leech and has someone like Turbulent salvage what's possible. Which will come at a cost because Robbers owns the stuff and it may well be that the cost of acquisition does not go in accordance with earnings expectations.
Remember when CIG said... (yeah, you could fill an album of memes with this stuff, erm), no cheating with elevators. All physicalized right?
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
If we start a "remember" sequence about SC this thread will never ever end. Here is another one:
VR up to speed in early 2016 baby!
Wonder how much money was pledged over the 2015 holidays just thanks to the hype in that statement.
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Trepid, I apologise in advance for unloading all this on your innocent sentence
Gods of Production?
Do you mean the production tier guys he mentions like Chambers? I dunno, I think it's interesting that a lot of the long-termers are all Crytek guys (Chambers, Papy, Tracy, Crewe, Dearsley, Reindell, Appell, etc etc), or old affiliates of Chris & Erin (Paul Jones, Tony Z, Nick Elms, Robert Johnson, Ben Parr, Ricky Jutley etc).
Most of the production guys from other dev houses seem to have taken their leave. IE 'polished brass' like this lot:
- Alex Mayberry (Blizzard) - Executive Producer - May 2014 - Jun 2015
- Travis Day (Activision) - Senior Producer - May 2013 - Jul 2015
- Jeremy Masker (Blizzard) - Director of game ops - Oct 2014 - Nov 2015
- Jason Hutchins (Blizzard) - Senior Producer - Oct 2014 - Jan 2016
And sure, they all landed on their feet. And maybe they left due to the Illfonic fallout, or due to standard churn, or whatever. But it's still interesting that they're the kind of guys who calved off from the project, while the others stayed.
It's also kind of interesting to note that the few old affiliates / Crytek leads who did actually bail didn't fare quite so well:
- Eric Peterson (Digital Anvil) - President of Production & Development - Jun 2012 - Nov 2014
- Rob Irving (Origin) - Lead Designer - Feb 2013 - Feb 2015
- Dan Tracy (Crytek) - Lead Tech Designer - Feb 2013 - Apr 2014
All working on indie projects (and/or mired in legal issues / failed projects). Not quite picking and choosing choice jobs as you suggest, perhaps?
Why Move?
Ultimately the old guard have recaptured the bottled lightening of previous Chris eras, the Crytek guys have been saved from a local sinking ship (and probably wouldn't be welcome back now it's floating again), and the TT Games guys have progressed from QA to leads under Erin's wing. They all have reasons to be grateful. They're all earning big bucks. And the whole project looks like it could continue for years to come, in terms of funding, and production schedules. So why change? Why upend families and roll the dice? When you can take a prolonged ride on the gravy train...
All That Glitters...
I think it's worth noting that some of the top brass aren't quite as 'polished' as they initially appear. There's a surprising number of them who haven't shipped a game of note in decades. Or at all in many cases. Guys like:
- Tony Z - Director of the Persistent Universe - Hasn't shipped a game since the 90s, or worked in gaming since the year 2000.
-
Francesco Roccucci - AI Director - Has never shipped a game. (Joined from academia).[Whoops, wrong, he worked on Crysis AI etc] - Stephen Austin - Associate Producer - Has never shipped a game. (Worked his way up internally from QA).
- Mark Abent - Lead Gameplay Programmer - Has only shipped mods of existing games (although that does include Black Mesa )
- David Colson - Lead Vehicle Programmer - Has one minor indie game to his name, in an unrelated genre.
I want to be clear and say there's nothing wrong with any of the above. Old hands can still bring skills to bear, QA guys move into production all the time, talented guys can work their way to the top from scratch, modders are the lifeblood of the dev world, etc etc.
But it does seem like there's quite a lot of the above going on at CIG. Particularly in terms of them hot housing younger guys into senior positions.
It doubles down on the idea that such leads would be loyal to the company which gave them a break (and which provides ample opportunities for advancement internally). And it also undercuts the 'experienced hands' narrative somewhat...
The Secret World of Churn
Underneath the bright lights of the top brass, there's a constant flow of ins and outs of course. And it's frankly impossible to discern whether there's really a brain drain of experience inching out the door, and inexperience filling the gaps, as some claim. But the rumours of high churn do persist. And it is hard not to wonder if that's why more experienced devs aren't filling some of the above senior roles...
TLDR:
Source: https://twitter.com/PaulJonesAD/status/1201603512712474624
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In other news, the annual Ship Showdown, where punters are invited to advertise on behalf of CIG on twitter voting on their favourite ship, for the grand opportunity to spend more money on cosmetic skins for the lucky winners, has started.
What is your favourite ship, Citizen.
Star Citizen - Ship Showdown 2951 - Roberts Space Industries | Follow the development of Star Citizen and Squadron 42
Roberts Space Industries is the official go-to website for all news about Star Citizen and Squadron 42. It also hosts the online store for game items and merch, as well as all the community tools used by our fans.
robertsspaceindustries.com
What is your favourite ship, Citizen.
Trepid, I apologise in advance for unloading all this on your innocent sentence
Gods of Production?
Do you mean the production tier guys he mentions like Chambers? I dunno, I think it's interesting that a lot of the long-termers are all Crytek guys (Chambers, Papy, Tracy, Crewe, Dearsley, Reindell, Appell, etc etc), or old affiliates of Chris & Erin (Paul Jones, Tony Z, Nick Elms, Robert Johnson, Ben Parr, Ricky Jutley etc).
Most of the production guys from other dev houses seem to have taken their leave. IE 'polished brass' like this lot:
- Alex Mayberry (Blizzard) - Executive Producer - May 2014 - Jun 2015
- Travis Day (Activision) - Senior Producer - May 2013 - Jul 2015
- Jeremy Masker (Blizzard) - Director of game ops - Oct 2014 - Nov 2015
- Jason Hutchins (Blizzard) - Senior Producer - Oct 2014 - Jan 2016
And sure, they all landed on their feet. And maybe they left due to the Illfonic fallout, or due to standard churn, or whatever. But it's still interesting that they're the kind of guys who calved off from the project, while the others stayed.
It's also kind of interesting to note that the few old affiliates / Crytek leads who did actually bail didn't fare quite so well:
- Eric Peterson (Digital Anvil) - President of Production & Development - Jun 2012 - Nov 2014
- Rob Irving (Origin) - Lead Designer - Feb 2013 - Feb 2015
- Dan Tracy (Crytek) - Lead Tech Designer - Feb 2013 - Apr 2014
All working on indie projects (and/or mired in legal issues / failed projects). Not quite picking and choosing choice jobs as you suggest, perhaps?
Why Move?
Ultimately the old guard have recaptured the bottled lightening of previous Chris eras, the Crytek guys have been saved from a local sinking ship (and probably wouldn't be welcome back now it's floating again), and the TT Games guys have progressed from QA to leads under Erin's wing. They all have reasons to be grateful. They're all earning big bucks. And the whole project looks like it could continue for years to come, in terms of funding, and production schedules. So why change? Why upend families and roll the dice? When you can take a prolonged ride on the gravy train...
All That Glitters...
I think it's worth noting that some of the top brass aren't quite as 'polished' as they initially appear. There's a surprising number of them who haven't shipped a game of note in decades. Or at all in many cases. Guys like:
- Tony Z - Director of the Persistent Universe - Hasn't shipped a game since the 90s, or worked in gaming since the year 2000.
- Francesco Roccucci - AI Director - Has never shipped a game. (Joined from academia).
- Stephen Austin - Associate Producer - Has never shipped a game. (Worked his way up internally from QA).
- Mark Abent - Lead Gameplay Programmer - Has only shipped mods of existing games (although that does include Black Mesa
- David Colson - Lead Vehicle Programmer - Has one minor indie game to his name, in an unrelated genre.
I want to be clear and say there's nothing wrong with any of the above. Old hands can still bring skills to bear, QA guys move into production all the time, talented guys can work their way to the top from scratch, modders are the lifeblood of the dev world, etc etc.
But it does seem like there's quite a lot of the above going on at CIG. Particularly in terms of them hot housing younger guys into senior positions.
It doubles down on the idea that such leads would be loyal to the company which gave them a break (and which provides ample opportunities for advancement internally). And it also undercuts the 'experienced hands' narrative somewhat...
The Secret World of Churn
Underneath the bright lights of the top brass, there's a constant flow of ins and outs of course. And it's frankly impossible to discern whether there's really a brain drain of experience inching out the door, and inexperience filling the gaps, as some claim. But the rumours of high churn do persist. And it is hard not to wonder if that's why more experienced devs aren't filling some of the above senior roles...
TLDR:
Source: https://twitter.com/PaulJonesAD/status/1201603512712474624
Nice write up.
When's the July blog?
Nice write up.
When's the July blog?
I’m on a Line of Defense shift now. You’re on Twitter rants
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Happy looking lot aren't they.Trepid, I apologise in advance for unloading all this on your innocent sentence
Gods of Production?
Do you mean the production tier guys he mentions like Chambers? I dunno, I think it's interesting that a lot of the long-termers are all Crytek guys (Chambers, Papy, Tracy, Crewe, Dearsley, Reindell, Appell, etc etc), or old affiliates of Chris & Erin (Paul Jones, Tony Z, Nick Elms, Robert Johnson, Ben Parr, Ricky Jutley etc).
Most of the production guys from other dev houses seem to have taken their leave. IE 'polished brass' like this lot:
- Alex Mayberry (Blizzard) - Executive Producer - May 2014 - Jun 2015
- Travis Day (Activision) - Senior Producer - May 2013 - Jul 2015
- Jeremy Masker (Blizzard) - Director of game ops - Oct 2014 - Nov 2015
- Jason Hutchins (Blizzard) - Senior Producer - Oct 2014 - Jan 2016
And sure, they all landed on their feet. And maybe they left due to the Illfonic fallout, or due to standard churn, or whatever. But it's still interesting that they're the kind of guys who calved off from the project, while the others stayed.
It's also kind of interesting to note that the few old affiliates / Crytek leads who did actually bail didn't fare quite so well:
- Eric Peterson (Digital Anvil) - President of Production & Development - Jun 2012 - Nov 2014
- Rob Irving (Origin) - Lead Designer - Feb 2013 - Feb 2015
- Dan Tracy (Crytek) - Lead Tech Designer - Feb 2013 - Apr 2014
All working on indie projects (and/or mired in legal issues / failed projects). Not quite picking and choosing choice jobs as you suggest, perhaps?
Why Move?
Ultimately the old guard have recaptured the bottled lightening of previous Chris eras, the Crytek guys have been saved from a local sinking ship (and probably wouldn't be welcome back now it's floating again), and the TT Games guys have progressed from QA to leads under Erin's wing. They all have reasons to be grateful. They're all earning big bucks. And the whole project looks like it could continue for years to come, in terms of funding, and production schedules. So why change? Why upend families and roll the dice? When you can take a prolonged ride on the gravy train...
All That Glitters...
I think it's worth noting that some of the top brass aren't quite as 'polished' as they initially appear. There's a surprising number of them who haven't shipped a game of note in decades. Or at all in many cases. Guys like:
- Tony Z - Director of the Persistent Universe - Hasn't shipped a game since the 90s, or worked in gaming since the year 2000.
- Francesco Roccucci - AI Director - Has never shipped a game. (Joined from academia).
- Stephen Austin - Associate Producer - Has never shipped a game. (Worked his way up internally from QA).
- Mark Abent - Lead Gameplay Programmer - Has only shipped mods of existing games (although that does include Black Mesa
- David Colson - Lead Vehicle Programmer - Has one minor indie game to his name, in an unrelated genre.
I want to be clear and say there's nothing wrong with any of the above. Old hands can still bring skills to bear, QA guys move into production all the time, talented guys can work their way to the top from scratch, modders are the lifeblood of the dev world, etc etc.
But it does seem like there's quite a lot of the above going on at CIG. Particularly in terms of them hot housing younger guys into senior positions.
It doubles down on the idea that such leads would be loyal to the company which gave them a break (and which provides ample opportunities for advancement internally). And it also undercuts the 'experienced hands' narrative somewhat...
The Secret World of Churn
Underneath the bright lights of the top brass, there's a constant flow of ins and outs of course. And it's frankly impossible to discern whether there's really a brain drain of experience inching out the door, and inexperience filling the gaps, as some claim. But the rumours of high churn do persist. And it is hard not to wonder if that's why more experienced devs aren't filling some of the above senior roles...
TLDR:
Source: https://twitter.com/PaulJonesAD/status/1201603512712474624
Just to check, as used here, is 'brass' a euphemism or a use of street-slang?
Buy an Idris - they're selling out fast.
I always associated 'top brass' with being a military term for top officers, generals etc.
Of course there is brass monkeys & cold weather, which is a whole different thing.
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