Why did they take a holiday break? Can't wrap my head around it.

[Muthax]

I know job competition is tough in the US and taking holiday is seen as not being a committed team player, etc. Things are different in the UK and doesn't affect the quality/quantity of the work either.

FWIW I'm in work right now (just to clarify that the whole UK doesn't shut down for two weeks !)

Oh I am at work too but roughly 50% of the office is on holiday. And we sell and support SAN storage solutions to banks and government entities, we don't sell vacuum cleaners (with all due respect)

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Ahh yes, the fun of explaining how Xmas / New year holiday works in the UK the non-nationals in the team

I'd say in Europe, I don't know any country that doesn't do the same, in EU (dunno about the eastern side though)
Even the gerries take time off!!

 

[mono]

They probably deserve a holiday, I don't begrudge them that. Wish I was on holiday too and not typing this from work.

 

[Korenwolf]

I've never heard of any company completely shutting down development and/or support during any holidays. Usually they "stagger" the holidays or vacations and keep at least 50% of the staff on-board - especially after release of a new product.

I doubt they're completely closed. They will have (reduced) numbers in the office today working through tickets, there will be a 24x7 rota for server monitoring / emergency recovery probably call-out based for those hours outside both UK & CAN working hours. The main dev teams I expect are actually near completely closed down. I would suspect they have a 'maintenance' team who's main function is now bug fixing rather than adding new features, which is probably part-staffed.

However I fully expect they are running on very reduced numbers until 5th Jan, and that no amount of expectations that they should be working in the American Model of beating up on staff is going to change things.

 

[CMDR_Coenen]

FWIW I'm in work right now (just to clarify that the whole UK doesn't shut down for two weeks !)

Same here in the Netherlands. The company where I am at work right now (also software development) is as good as closed these two weeks. Just one front-end, one back-end, one technical specialist and someone from management are here for high priority stuff. Today is my "Friday", you won't see anyone the rest of the week here except one or two interns and someone from the helpdesk We're back in full on January 5.

Most companies here in the Netherlands are closed and locked too.

 

[burzum]

You American? The Euros seem to do a much better job of getting their priorities right.

I've worked 7 years for a US company and I'm now finally back to a european based company and really enjoy the vacations and better social and health system.

I agree that the employees of FDEV deserve their vacations. However, I disagree that releasing this unfinished thing that basically lacks the game just before christmas was a good move.

 

[CMDR_Coenen]

Well, seems there are two different issues then:

1) Do they deserve their Christmas holiday?
Seems to me it's a very big YES.

2) Was the product ready at release? / Should they have released ED right before Christmas?
That's something out of the scope of the thread title and as we have seen loads of threads discussing these...

 

[Boobytrap]

Perhaps the OP could have worded it better. I understand what he's getting at. Why would you release a half-finished game to begin with, and have minimal customer support immediately after it's release? Say it wasn't during Christmas, say it was February. Would you all still think Frontier did the right thing?

On day 1, they didn't even have a manual ready for goodness sake! On top of that, basic gameplay elements don't even work properly. I can understand little glitches like the landing pad numbers not appearing properly, but there are missions in the game that don't have proper instructions. I hope this won't go the way X Rebirth went for Egosoft. They released a half-baked game and lost the vast majority of their following within the first 3-6 months. Even though its a really good game now (after 3 major revisions!), most people still won't play it because they've grown weary.

 

[Tubit]

I disagree that releasing this unfinished thing that basically lacks the game just before christmas was a good move.

If the game is exclusively crowdfunded, I guess they have a very finite budget that forces them to release or give the game up. It certainly beats the alternative.

 

[Korenwolf]

Oh I am at work too but roughly 50% of the office is on holiday. And we sell and support SAN storage solutions to banks and government entities, we don't sell vacuum cleaners (with all due respect)

I'd say in Europe, I don't know any country that doesn't do the same, in EU (dunno about the eastern side though)
Even the gerries take time off!!

Ahh Europe, the many and varied nature of public holidays (mostly religious in nature) which apply differently in each country, and often differently in regions within the country (yes Germany I'm looking at you). I'm slacking at home this week, but we have enough cover in the office for emergencies and to keep the lights on. Strict triage based handling of issues (our kit is in most of the major mobile phone companies.. tends to hit the international media when there's a problem).

 

[Elmasri]

I know job competition is tough in the US and taking holiday is seen as not being a committed team player, etc. Things are different in the UK and doesn't affect the quality/quantity of the work either.

FWIW I'm in work right now (just to clarify that the whole UK doesn't shut down for two weeks !)

Me too. Although, to be fair, the office is pretty empty apart from us techs who keep the lights on (figuratively, and literally speaking)

The sales and admin teams are nowhere to be seen!

 

[Fost]

vacations

Been in the US too long! You mean "holidays" lol!

I disagree that releasing this unfinished thing that basically lacks the game just before christmas was a good move.

Been playing Elite for hours each day all over Christmas so it's a decision that's worked REALLY well for me.
I am optimistic about it becoming a much bigger thing though so hope you 'no game' guys will be happy eventually.

 

[Korenwolf]

On day 1, they didn't even have a manual ready for goodness sake! On top of that, basic gameplay elements don't even work properly. I can understand little glitches like the landing pad numbers not appearing properly, but there are missions in the game that don't have proper instructions.

Want to argue whether they rushed the launch and (from the outside at least) it looks like there are some serious resourcing and planning problems in getting all the committed content out. I'm with you. We're still waiting for the additional digital content promised (let's hope they don't pull a Warcraft "dance studio" on us).

My guess is that the netcode gave them a lot more trouble than they're letting on and it fouled up their development plan.

 

[Elmasri]

I'd say in Europe, I don't know any country that doesn't do the same, in EU (dunno about the eastern side though)
Even the gerries take time off!!

I htink the difference is that, in the UK, if Christmas falls on a weekend, we get an extra day as a bank holiday on the Monday following. The same is true for New Years' day.

 

[Muthax]

Ahh Europe, the many and varied nature of public holidays (mostly religious in nature) which apply differently in each country, and often differently in regions within the country (yes Germany I'm looking at you). I'm slacking at home this week, but we have enough cover in the office for emergencies and to keep the lights on. Strict triage based handling of issues (our kit is in most of the major mobile phone companies.. tends to hit the international media when there's a problem).

When I lived in Italy, they would have Public Holidays in a city and if you went like 30 miles they would be working as normal....

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I htink the difference is that, in the UK, if Christmas falls on a weekend, we get an extra day as a bank holiday on the Monday following. The same is true for New Years' day.

True, I forgot about that. Nice move

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Me too. Although, to be fair, the office is pretty empty apart from us techs who keep the lights on (figuratively, and literally speaking)

The sales and admin teams are nowhere to be seen!

They are always the first to abandon ship!

 

[CMDR Vasteel]

I live in the UK and while I'm not overly patriotic or anything reading this thread has made me remember how good we have it here, even if that was not the point of the thread. Every place I've worked has has the minimum 4 weeks paid holiday a year, then you have the free healthcare for most common things

 

[Kramster]

After two years of pretty much 7 day a week working even rolling out builds and fixes at the weekends.
The game launches and doesn't fall over, nice work on this and probably the biggest surprise
The game is relatively free of game breaking bugs
Job done have a great holiday...
.
I am sure the game is still being monitored for anything that might break the game but it has been incredibly stable since launch so the night-watchman has had some easy overtime.
As far as the forums are concerned, they only usually dip there toe in this shark infested tank when they have something to say or announce...not exactly going to ruin anyone's day by not posting.
.
They will come back refreshed and revitalized with a fresh eagerness to start buiding on a great game.

 

[OVMorat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Time_Directive

 

[Sorina]

Well, i also want so see more content etc. like everyone else, but on the other hand, they are humans too, and not machines.. everyone of us (Everyone i guess) would be glad to have holidays right now

 

[CMDR Carbo]

People are way to harsh to the OP.

I think you asked the wrong question.
Why would you release an online game a week before christmas? would be the better question.
Something I wondered myself. It just puts you in 'danger' to work over christmas.

Nobody denies them the right for holidays. And of course the holidays period is the biggest sale opportunity in the year.
But most game companies release online games in October-November and not a week before christmas.
Exactly for the reason that if something goes wrong with the servers or multiplayer that they have the staff ready.

They probably were very confident that their servers were up to it, after extensive testing in beta/gamma.
Imagine if they had problems like Ubisoft or EA after release, they either would have had to work over the holidays or leave people with an unplayable product.

 

[bassman]

I worked for Bioware since Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast in 1998, and left just after Mass Effect 3 was on storyboard, so I assure you, I have a fair amount of experience of sleeping on cots, subsisting on skittles and Jolt Cola, and busting my butt to make things happen for people who would immediately complain about ANYTHING. That was the corporate overlords (EA and Microsoft, among others), as well as the customers who didn't like the direction we were going with the IP. You might have liked the physics engine that I assisted putting in place that you may have seen in the opening of ME2, but you weren't there when I had to keep working despite a stomach bug that meant I had two garbage cans, one for throwing up in because we were approaching a code freeze for the section.

I just want to say that the Mass Effect series was IMO a magnificent work of interactive story telling so I cant pass up the opportunity to relay my thanks to someone directly involved. Good job