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[Silas Vitalia]

I enjoy the direction the game took post-Incarna.

you just love being contrarian

[V. Gesakaarin]

Whilst I have my sympathies with the staff laid off (losing any job sucks immensely) a lot of what I read doesn't really come as a surprise to me. I think a lot of the internal issues with CCP stems from the fact that as a company it's gone from a Dev staff that had a lot of, "Making the kind of game we want to play", with a niche/small playerbase to entering a mainstream market. I think it's a lot different in terms of company culture going from a bunch of friends who know each other to a more "professional" culture as your product grows and expands as Eve has. It seems like CCP wants to keep the nostalgia of being just a bunch of guys talking about all the cool game stuff they'd do, "If only," but also having to deliver content on time and on target which means uncool stuff like project management, deadlines, and cracking the whip on people.

Still, Eve remains fun for me, I get drunk and pew pew with some great guys in a persistent setting. Then again, after my first burnout on Eve I think I learned it's better to just curb your enthusiasm and not be disappointed by CCP. Who, in my books, still remain a far lesser evil compared to other companies like EA or SOE in the MMO market.

[Samira Kernher]

I really really hope Eterne decides to, and would be allowed to, stay on with Mercury. His stuff is amazing.

The management sound like the ones that need to go, not the guys actually doing good work.

[Makoto Priano]

Hey Ursus!

I was one of those doing the 'disgruntled employee' bit. Having heard that he reached out to you, and hearing your more measured discussion here, I think I'll retract that bit. Thank you for your analysis!

And also, definitely with the folks who say that the issue is one with the industry generally. I've some friends locally who've worked for a random Disney subsidiary, and they've had to go through rounds of layoffs as the industry contracts.

Also also, Ursus, any way I can plumb your knowledge on what the hell was going on with the Sleepers, or are you under NDA?

Pretty please?

Pretty, pretty please?

[Silas Vitalia]

I will second the 'tell us everything' request.

[Silas Vitalia]

Hilmar gave them a set of points he wanted to make. It's hard to not feel bad for the guy when he hasn't been giving himself salary because of the Incarna fuckup.

He's demonstrated a shit attitude many times.  Apologizing because you made a mistake is one thing.  Apologizing because of public peer pressure and crafting a PR response reeks of corporate shittery. 

I could care less how much someone gets paid or chooses to pay themselves as a PR stunt, it's all about the attitude and emotions and the general golden rule is always the best one: 'don't be a dick.'

There's a bunch of really smart, really talented, dedicated writers, programmers, and employees of that company who have gotten completely fucked due to repeated terrible attitudes and decisions of management.  Completely avoidable.

 

[Alain Colcer]

Dropsus, thank you for providing your point of view and some context, much appreciated.

[Graelyn]

I dunno...The EVE Storyline looks pretty dead to me from here.

When I try to forcibly remove the bittervet glasses, it still seems this way. Maybe I'm missing something important, but it's a hard sell for me right now to think that it will ever be anything but occasional window dressing and flavor text from here on out.

[Nicoletta Mithra]

I have to agree there with you, Grae. It's not like the storyline hasn't suffered for a long time, by now. EVE: Source didn't change that as it mostly summarized and where it didn't a lot of it wasn't that grandiose to my eyes.

And that while they had writes, of which I'm convinced, that they could've done better. Maybe they're better off somewhere where their talent isn't stifled by indecisive management.

As to Hilmar, I see it like Silas. I can't feel sorry for someone cutting his pay, if he already made enough to live from pretty indefinitely, when his decisions lead to people really suffering economically.

[Vikarion]

I didn't work at CCP, and I don't know that I should defend Hilmar. Hell, everyone knows that I've been particularly vicious towards him and others at times.

But I can speak to the situation a tiny bit as a very-small scale businessman, and I'd put it like this: being in charge can really suck.

Even in a small organization, you are constantly trying to make critical decisions on incomplete information. Incomplete because someone thought you already knew. Incomplete because of your personal biases. Incomplete because nobody realized that there was a problem. Worst of all, incomplete because it was in someone's interest not to tell you, especially if they screwed up.

Sometimes you make good decisions. Money comes in, everyone congratulates you, you feel awesome, but not totally, because you aren't sure exactly how things turned out so well. Tomorrow, you make decisions the exact same way, and things clusterfuck. You should be fired. You're worthless.

Undoubtedly Hilmar bears responsibility for many of the failures of CCP. But, then, I have that nagging voice where I'm reminded of all the times I gave clear instructions, and people simply didn't follow them, because they thought I didn't know what I was talking about, or because they just didn't want to, or because I wasn't perfectly clear.

And there's all the times I've shown up to jobs where the responsible employee said things were going well, only to find it an utter clusterfuck. And other times I've been told everything was horrible and everyone was doing the wrong thing, and yet I show up and can get things running smoothly with just a little refusal to panic and a bit of direction and prioritizing.

It would be utterly fucking lovely if one could create some sort of management system where you could just understand exactly what was going on, all the time, and never have miscommunications, misperception, or flat out incompetence. I would pay good money for that mythical myth of wonderful mythiness. In the meantime, I tend to understand the plight of some CEOs just a little.

On the other hand, the long term inability to act decisively and clearly in regards to streamlining expectations and operations is a fault that must be remedied. I am a big believer in the idea that providing absolutely clear objectives and methodologies for achieving them is the most important management skill.

But then, what do I know? I'm just a contractor.

[Lyn Farel]

One of the main issues is that management always seem completely out of touch to everything. Either they don't have the skills to actually understand what their subordinates do (which is a fucking huge issue), or either they just do not want to know what's really happening. When it comes to employee's well being and how a team performs, every people in position of power always plugs his ears and let the thing get worse and worse until something breaks.

Not sure how it is in other companies of the industries, but internal communication sucks hard. I mean, we often learn at the last minute when we actually have to start work on some project that this project actually exists and has existed for months, that it makes it almost look like being part of some terrorist cell where every cell doesn't even know the other cells, just their direct leader.

Not even speaking how not serious at all the hierarchy can be, and how unclear positions of power can be defined. And yet people play the rest perfectly serious at the first screw up, which is even worse since the system itself is a nest of potential mistakes. You spend your time eating crows for the mistakes of others, either someone else or either someone in managerial positions. Some teams do not even have leads and nobody exactly knows what they do. Sometimes it's almost wondering if themselves really know either.

They use fancy words and methods like SCRUM and Agile but actually do not even really understand what it means, or just do not care at all to actually implement it or do it seriously through meetings and actual communication.

[Desiderya]

As to Hilmar, I see it like Silas. I can't feel sorry for someone cutting his pay, if he already made enough to live from pretty indefinitely, when his decisions lead to people really suffering economically.

Not going to defend the man, but what should he do. Shoot himself? Light his house on fire? It is a pretty solid message that goes beyond any 'I'm sorry guis, really!' message.

Also Silas, I'm not being contrarian it's just my opinion, and I think it is legit and ought to have a place in this drowning sea of bittervet, too.

[Silas Vitalia]

Also Silas, I'm not being contrarian it's just my opinion, and I think it is legit and ought to have a place in this drowning sea of bittervet, too.

Absolutely, that's why I gave you the wasn't really criticizing you.


Vikarion has good points, sometimes it is hard for the people at the top to see what the underlings are doing.

BUT

Companies respond to the culture, tone, expectations, and examples of the group of people running the show. 

Part of my job (I'm also in the construction industry) is making sure other people do their job, checking on their work to make sure it meets a certain standard of completeness and quality. If I don't expect the best out of myself, and demand that they do their best too, it's never going to work. It's never personal but if you don't establish clear expectations things can and absolutely will fall to shit. 

The people who do my job by being assholes sometimes get the results they want, but it's a miserable job site and poisons the well.  That article made it sound like the well was right and truly poisoned for years and rotting on the inside.

[Nicoletta Mithra]

Well, really, it's not like I or anyone else, who isn't sorry for Hilmar, called for burning him at the stake. (Just like Ursa wasn't calling for his head.)

The guy decided to make the job that the position of CEO comes with. No it's neither easy, nor an especially enviable position. No, we still don't have to be sorry for him, that he choose to be there. he's there out of his own volition and he gets ample monetary recompense - so much, indeed, that he has no economical pressure to worry about making mistakes.

Therefore I'm neither sorry with him, nor do I think that he can do anything to make me feel sorry for him. I don't think that's such a bad thing for him, nor do I think that it's in general a good thing for people that I or anyone else is sorry for them.

Also, in my ook, understanding the difficulties of a job doesn't mean one should be automatically sorry for people having said job. Or that we should forget about the responsibilites that make a job so difficult. (Just like I wouldn't think of removing a physicians responsibility for the health of the patient, just because it oftentimes makes a hell out of that professions daily life, combined with other factors.)

What he should do? Try to do his job right. He's payed for the war on the impossible, so rather than expecting that from his game developers, he should make that war in respect to achieving good management.

[Silas Vitalia]

Good stuff Mithra.

The other possibility that always works is that when you don't know how to do something, hire people who do. 

This is of course us on the outside looking in, we have no idea what other variables are at play that we don't know about.  What we do know about is a pattern of jerk behavior, leaked emails trashing the paying customers, and things like this article.