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Denver, 12:49 PM
Mon Nov 30
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/27/09
Building up a good team and culture doesn't happen easily, so it's sad to hear it went up in a poof like that and then they had to suffer until it died.
Hopefully the next MechWarrior game will be amazing, but I envision it becoming a watered down 360 release lacking all of the intricate details and controls. If they port it to the PC without giving it the proper love first, I'm not sure how many more years MW will have to wait in the graveyard to make another comeback.
08/26/09
08/26/09
08/26/09
I've heard Sony is the opposite:
[www.industrygamers.com]
[www.n4g.com]
which does explain more avant-garde and innovative games like LBP and Heavy Rain.
08/26/09
It drives me nuts when people think creative work is a mechanical process, because the amount of work generated isn't on par with something like sales numbers. If you don't have the creative mindset or have worked a job that puts creativity and quality first, then I understand how it might be hard to see the real work that is put into design.
My job may not require a suit or start at 9am, but it sure doesn't end at 5.
08/26/09
sounds about right to me, except I start at 9am
08/26/09
08/26/09
But it does seem like something went wrong. And I can sense that Weisman was not happy about the experience. I have to wonder where FASA would have been had Microsoft not acquired them. Most smaller companies do not survive the long haul or are acquired. Look at what happened to Origin and Sierra after they were acquired. The companies were run into the ground and existing properties languished.
08/26/09
As for FASA, the company was no doubt ran like every other pen-and-paper RPG house: disorganised, disproportionately staffed and hemorrhaging funds.
The "culture" itself was doomed to fold as many of these relics fail to realise that "money coming in has to EXCEED money going out."
Seriously, this industry (both P&P and videogames...well, actually, anything "creative") is plagued by angry nerds and art-tards that have very little concept of what an honest day's work really is and bitch and complain when people start holding them accountable as it ruins their "culture" of wasting time and money (the same cannot be said for programmers and anyone on the bottom end of the echelons).
08/26/09
Try this: Go to art school. Then, work an office job 9 to 5 (because something fun like being a mover or bike messenger pays shit) while taking more art classes after work and on weekends while trying to build a portfolio that will get you hired in a creative industry, keeping your home clean and trying to maintain a social life.
Then say that creative-types don't know what an honest day's work really is.
Thx.
08/26/09
Uh, say what? I assure you, every one of us 'art-tards' working in the industry damn sure know what an honest days work is. In fact, the artists are usually putting in a great deal more hours than the programming staff you seem to deify.
Those hippies you went to college with that spent their days getting high, goofing off, and called themselves artists? Yea - they don't work as professional artists, at least at industry capacity. Those of us working in the industry are typically the ones you never even met because we spent every waking hour at the studio, behind a computer, or hunched over a desk.
08/26/09
08/26/09
I work more weekends than i get vacation, work holidays, work late hours - and don't get paid anything extra for it.
08/26/09
If you noticed the very last line that read "the same cannot be said for programmers and anyone on the bottom end of the echelons" you'd realise I was referring to the tenured parasites.
Ultimately, the people on the bottom are the ones that tend to carry the entire weight of the company on their backs. The angry nerds that have a perpetual need to prove how great they are and the art-tards that need ego-stroking/praise 24/7 are the targets of my ire... not the plebeians that actually work.
08/26/09
The Battletech/Mechwarrior franchise was a license to print money and Microsoft totally screwed the pooch. Shadowrun itself was a great multiplayer game and is highly underrated. I think the reason it got so much bad press is no single player campaign and MS didn't market it for shit.
Hopefully Jordan Weisman can bring some of the Battletech love back with his new company Smith & Tinker. I think I saw a teaser on a new Battletech IP from them so my hopes are high.
08/26/09
08/26/09
They likely also frowned on giving the design team leeway on general creature comforts, as opposed to "as long as I get my work done..." and I'm sure everyone got to look forward to mandatory OT.
08/26/09
08/26/09
I wonder if they'll impact the release of that upcoming/promised/prayed for Crimson Skies 2??? :)
08/26/09
08/26/09
A good manager fights to keep a culture that works well and doesn't roll over to just do whatever MS might impose on them.
Bungie did well, as well as several other studios. FASA would have probably failed under Sony, Nintendo, EA or Activision just the same.
08/26/09
08/26/09
As for the "destroyed culture", that would have easily been solved with a good contract including the right to give Microsoft the finger should they poke too much around.
08/26/09
Really... You can't take some time to try to examine this statement, or you know- do your fucking job and do some investigation?
No, that would require you to have a modicum of journalistic integrity.
That is just too much to ask from Kotaku sometimes.
08/26/09
everyone on this thread needs some xanax :P
P.S. This "'nuff said" approach seems to be plunkett's style ([kotaku.com]). don't like it? skip plunkett articles.
08/27/09
08/26/09
08/26/09
Bungie did not "run away" they still have a healthy relationship with MS. They just wanted to be thier own company again and MS allowed them to buy back thier shares. MS still has some shares in bungie.
Turn 10 is having a great time, not to mention Lionhead. Both of which are first Party not Second party.
But hey it is far more popular to just go "OMG RARE AND BUNGIE IS TEH SUXXORZ NOW!".
Pardon my rant, I just like Rare and am getting a bit anoyed by these kind of remarks sometimes.
08/26/09
Bungie has worked fairly independently for quite some time (and based on success, I don't see how you could possibly argue that their alignment with M$ was anything but a positive), and the other studios you have mentioned are also doing great work outside of the Redmond offices.
I'm as bummed as anyone about FASA folding, but they weren't exactly lighting the world on fire even prior to M$ acquiring them. The fact is, M$ gave them the resources and support to get MechWarrior 4 and MechCommander 2 out the door. Both of those titles are really the top achievements of FASA interactive (which had a really short run).
08/26/09
08/26/09
It also had nothing to do with FASA Interactive OR Microsoft, since it was made by Zipper Interactive (best known for SOCOM).
08/26/09
08/26/09
08/26/09
What if Apple stayed with PPC chips instead of switching to Intel? Most likely they'd have been transitioned to the Cell Processor that the PS3 currently uses. This would have made it exceptionally easy to port a game (maybe Halo 2 or 3) from Macs to PlayStation. Macs would have become a MUCH larger gaming platform and Bungie would still have their current level of success.
Serious game support coupled with their industry spurring OS X, MP3 players, and Phones would have given them a superior position in the entertainment industry similar to Sony's.
MS is a thorn that brings everything around it down to mediocrity. The fact that MS throws gross amounts of Money at multi-pronged uphill battles against superior competitors and sometimes wins says a lot.
Whether the things said are good or bad is up for debate.
08/26/09
08/26/09
Only douchebags correct people on the usage of internet shorthand.
But fine, I'll play your little game: A$$hole.
08/26/09
People aren't going to migrate to a $3,000 mac just for games because it was on a cell processor. It didn't work for Sony with the PS3 in a market they dominated with the PS2 brand, so why would it have happened for Apple?
Anyway, switching to Intel chips was one of the things that helped save them... They made that change for a reason.
Anyway, whatever, I'm not an M$ supporter or apologist. I just think they get lambasted unfairly at times. Hate them or love them, they made Bungie what they are today. Hate or love Halo, but you can't argue with the success, which means there is some perceived quality in there.
08/26/09
I know, hence my usage of the term "what-if ball". lol
99 was supposed to be the year they start getting serious about gaming, not when they would explode. Halo was supposed to be a major agitator for that.
People would buy a mac then for the same reasons they do now, only gaming would be another reason to add to the list (I personally know people who would JUMP on a mac if it had more games. They LOVE the OS, especially when OS X premiered, but they figured they could deal w/ Windows if it meant games).
If IBM got off their lazy asses and built a more compelling chip maybe Apple would have gone for the "G6" instead of Intel, and then follow up with the Cell.
Concerning the strategy not working for Sony, this is due to MS leaping ahead by a year (with shitty hardware no less) in order to establish a community. On a serious feature-by-feature comparison of a launch 360 to a launch PS3 I strongly felt the PS3 won hands down (loving my 60 gig beauty). MS , at first couldn't get devs to even look at the 360 so they threw money at 'em to get what were once PS3 exclusives on their machine.
I give MS credit when due (I'm hoping for Surface to become mainstream for example), but too often are they the problem for me to give them my support on a normal basis.