LOL! Sad, but true. The only thing that will get me to buy a T7 ship is if it came with a console that instantly transported Jeri Ryan to my house for dinner and cocktails.
But for how long? keep in mind others would be able to use the same console.
I didn't get a confirmation whether or not Smirk is gone or not
But I would wish him well and found him at times more entertaining thatn BranFlakes, they both had a different approach to being Community Manager... Smirk imo was more meta, and felt like a gamer instead of just a big smiling face of the corporation, so therefore he was awesome.
Smirk may have known it was coming or was leaving on his terms, but was cut early (not an uncommon business practice to turn in two weeks and boss terminate it early)...his Twitter handle changed a week ago to remove the "PWE" (around March 10th)
you're NOT going to see a Company formally/publically announce who got laid off as that's a private matter between the company and the employee(s) involved. That doesn't mean the now former employees can't talk about what happened (unless they signed an agreement stating they wouldn't disclose anything publically for a given period of time.)
It's honestly none of our business who was laid off. If those so affected want to (and can legally) disclose what happened with regard to their employment status with Cryptic, they will.
Indeed. Is it even our business who lost their job? Would you want that spread over the internet? All that really matters is they adapt the business internally to benefit the game and its players.
LOL! Sad, but true. The only thing that will get me to buy a T7 ship is if it came with a console that instantly transported Jeri Ryan to my house for dinner and cocktails.
I'm still not buying unless that universal console is a hybrid so it could transport Jolene Blalock instead of Jery Ryan at my house. lol
From www.glassdoor.com recent 2015 reviews of Cryptic (PWE) by its own; the coloring of quoted was by me, to highlight what I thought was the main idea given by the original posters at Glassdoor dot com.
I have been working for about a year, full-time.
Current Employee - Product Manager in Redwood City, CA
I have been working at Perfect World Entertainment full-time (more than a year)
Pros
It's clean on the inside of the building. They pay good benefits when game sales are on the rise. Customers open their wallets and that's a good thing for business.
Cons
The Community Managers do not communicate with teams. They are out most of the time 'running their errands' and almost unavailable. Just recently a new Executive was hired and there is still no communication with the rest of the team. A mistake was made recently in a game and best they could do was extend an event. Players deserve more than that. I used to play the game before recent changes have been made because of the Executive decisions. The player-base have submitted their results of particular game-play and have continuously been ignored. This isn't a good way to run a company. Making a paycheck while all the above is going on is very tough.
Advice to Management
My advice to management would be to do your job. Listen to the team and the players. Stick around instead of 'running errands'. Do all the above and the company will be a success. If the company wants to keep losing customers, keep doing what you are doing.
Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Redwood Shores, CA
I worked at Perfect World Entertainment full-time (less than a year)
Pros
The individuals are great. The people that work there (or did at the time I was there) were quality people.
Cons
Management seems adrift. No clear direction and no visionaries to move them to a better place The hours were ridiculous - in that they required employees to work from 10AM to 7PM. Great for singles, but for folks that have family it was a nightmare (say hello to your kids on the weekend).
Advice to Management
Hire an executive staff that has vision and can execute on that vision. Run the company like a Silicon Valley company - just because some senior staff need to be available for conference calls to China does not mean the entire staff does.
Indeed. Is it even our business who lost their job? Would you want that spread over the internet? All that really matters is they adapt the business internally to benefit the game and its players.
While it is none of our business, it is expected for employees in the public eye to inform us that they are leaving or have left.
I wanted to stop by to let you know that this coming Friday (4/11) is my last day with PWE/ Cryptic, as I have made the tough decision to move back to Southern California.
.....
Until we meet again, Live Long and Prosper \\//_
Cheers,
Brandon =/\=
Personally, not leaving this type of message gives the impression that it was just a job to them and not something they had passion for.
Have no idea if Captain Smirk has left PWE since all their Twitter says is that they had a "case of the Mondays" which could mean anything and leaving on a trip to Italy and France in a couple of weeks with their boyfriend.
While it is none of our business, it is expected for employees in the public eye to inform us that they are leaving or have left.
Personally, not leaving this type of message gives the impression that it was just a job to them and not something they had passion for.
Have no idea if Captain Smirk has left PWE since all their Twitter says is that they had a "case of the Mondays" which could mean anything and leaving on a trip to Italy and France in a couple of weeks with their boyfriend.
Smirk does not appear to have left by his own decision. It is looking like he was essentially fired and quite suddenly, hence a pretty messy exit and I cant imagine the poor guy having much love for STO/PWE left to write a pleasant farewell message. I cant blame him. If I was fired upon coming to my office Monday moring, I wouldn't be.
And PWE will obviously play this all down. Theyd wont want players running to the hills in panic so will do what they always do - ignore it.
If he has left, it has to have been purely his decision or some sort of serious violation of company operations. Being a positive person I'm assuming he is moving on by his decision.
Otherwise we'd have been first introduced to the new CM.
It's also none of our business, he said, painfully aware of his own hypocrisy.
What I have been able to gather is the cuts on the Neverwinter side were "hang-ons" from the Neverwinter development crush. They were retained longer than they should have been by various managers and so forth.
The cuts on the STO side seem to total maybe three... a customer-service rep/community-rep, this Matt fellow and another employee... I am uncertain as what Matt did, but I know that other employee was related to "customer service" and "community communication and interaction."
We'll see. This could be nothing more than PWE just getting rid of corporate deadwood and under-performing workers.
The cuts on the STO side seem to total maybe three
Why 3 ? .... According to the Source 18 people were layed off ... half of them from Neverwinter ... CO and other projects seem to be unaffected ... so that leaves ... ?
Any other Source on that ?
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
DR launched, doom, EP bailed out before stuff hit the fan, people got fired for low revenues. Guarantee NWN is in the same boat, they are following the exact same unsustainable development cycle.
Cryptic isn't bringing nearly enough to support their staff compared to before, this could only be round one. Besides, the CMs during DR did a particularly bad job smoothing the DR launch out, if I had a CM working for me and that went on, they'd have been fired long ago.
I hate to say it but a few fleet members and myself who were following the signs since DR was announced at Vegas all agreed something was wrong, and our prediction was that financial troubles were looming. Financials for each quarter and the state of the game supported the hypothesis, this is just icing on the cake, though we all wish we'd been wrong
Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides
I no longer do any Bug Hunting work for Cryptic. I may resume if a serious attempt to fix the game is made.
Indeed. Is it even our business who lost their job? Would you want that spread over the internet? All that really matters is they adapt the business internally to benefit the game and its players.
oh I agree, but we arent even getting that much, just rumors and speculations. They could easily say something along the lines of "the recent rumors are [true/false] but this is merely a restructuring of internal offices and will/will not affect the gameplay or its development"
Smirk may have known it was coming or was leaving on his terms, but was cut early (not an uncommon business practice to turn in two weeks and boss terminate it early)...his Twitter handle changed a week ago to remove the "PWE" (around March 10th)
That can be a smart move both to preserve benefits and to avoid the stink of "laid off" on one's resume.
I did not always agree with some of the things Smirk said and did, and I know I told him on some occasions why that was.
That said...I also saw some cases where people got very personal as opposed to offering impersonal feedback on how a thing could be done better or a crisis could have been averted, and some of them were SO bad that quite frankly, I would see them as reasons to quit without PWE ever doing a thing. I've been dumped on plenty when I worked in retail, to know that such things can have an effect depending on the person, even if the company really did TRIBBLE up. (In my case that goes right up to IRL threats to my safety...none of which resulted in any harm, fortunately, but you do not forget it and you do not want to subject yourself to that, or all the lesser abuses forever.)
Upshot of this is? I do not agree with all that he did but some people were downright nasty and vicious with him on a personal level and I noticed it and do not forget it. Some of what I saw honestly pissed me off and made me feel almost sick. No, I will not quote posts. No, I will not name and shame. But I DID see it, and you will just have to trust me on that. Frankly I could not blame him should he not exactly miss PWE for the positions they put him in, or us as a community for some of the over-the-line things that were said.
I hope that if as his Twitter feed says, he is off on a vacation in Europe, that if he was indeed let to (or cut himself loose on his own terms, hopefully) he will be able to start decompressing and getting his mind off of things.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
If we are going to talk financial-doom... lets look at the cost of bringing in the voice talent.
Now compare that to the revenue numbers.
My guess is someone somewhere overestimated the amount of revenue the DR would bring in, and they are left with a massive shortfall.
Top this off with a poor community relationship this time around, and here we are.
My sources point to a handful of "support staff" a large chunk of Neverwinter deadwood and three STO-side employees. My source is unconfirmed and just as reliable as any of the other unconfirmed reports we have at this time.
I hate to say it but a few fleet members and myself who were following the signs since DR was announced at Vegas all agreed something was wrong, and our prediction was that financial troubles were looming. Financials for each quarter and the state of the game supported the hypothesis, this is just icing on the cake, though we all wish we'd been wrong
It has looked bleak for a while now. And with them speeding up the end war with the Iconians, it seemed a bit like they may be expecting something else to replace STO for revenue.
To be honest, if they have someone in charge that knew what they were doing, DR could have actually been a huge success.
Some are hopeful for a STO 2.0 to come out. If there is one, and Cryptic is going to do it, then they may be wanting to end the main story soon to release the new one. But, if they start selling power creep like with this game, it will shorten the life span. Power creep, and chasing DPS limits the progression of a game. And that is the biggest thing hurting this one.
It is obvious that they are not sure how to properly make decisions for MMOs. They sometimes start with a good idea, but it ends up being messed up by the desire for quick money, instead of steady growth.
If CaptainSmirk has left, or been laid-off (which is just a fancy way of saying fired), then I wish him well. Same for the other that were laid-off. Bad leadership leads to those under them falling first.
Leader of Elite Guardian Academy.Would you like to learn how to run a fleet? Would you like to know how to do ship builds (true budget as well as high end)?The join the Academy today!
If we are going to talk financial-doom... lets look at the cost of bringing in the voice talent.
Most of the voice talent is far cheaper then you realize. The SAG rate is less then $1,000.00 per day for video game voice work - and everyone's work could have been done in a single day. Heck, Ethan did his over Skype, so he did not even need to come to a studio. For better or worse Jeri is the only "star" in the recent group. Most of the actors in Trek are working for scale - there are people whose only income comes from convention appearances.
All the VO work for DR probably cost less then $10,000.00. They only needed to sell 80 Delta Packs to pay for it.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
Layoffs at PWE & Cryptic? Well there's a shocker. :rolleyes:
Quite a few people have been stating that trouble was on the horizon, and with (what I would deem to be DR's failure) I'm not the least bit surprised by this news. Sure, the parent company and all the individual games are somewhat connected, but if a better job was done in each department, that would go toward fixing a bigger problem.
Heh, I'll stick around till this all truly goes south (Iconian Lock Boxes, woo), but yeah, not at all shocked.
Why 3 ? .... According to the Source 18 people were layed off ... half of them from Neverwinter ... CO and other projects seem to be unaffected ... so that leaves ... ?
Any other Source on that ?
Cryptic also covers Cryptic North. On top of that Cryptic has executive and business positions, a Foundry team, a team for each of their 3 games, and a 4th team working on a hidden project. There is a lot of room to cut people - and who knows if the report is considering Smirk a Cryptic employee or a PWE employee.
And if the numbers are correct, that means there are still 110 people working for Cryptic.
STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
^Isn't Smirk the one that does the giveaway videos?
Are you sure you aren't thinking of Hrci at MyBalkanGaming?
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Cryptic also covers Cryptic North. On top of that Cryptic has executive and business positions, a Foundry team, a team for each of their 3 games, and a 4th team working on a hidden project. There is a lot of room to cut people - and who knows if the report is considering Smirk a Cryptic employee or a PWE employee.
And if the numbers are correct, that means there are still 110 people working for Cryptic.
- isnt Cryptic North basically "Champions Online" ... according to the article = unaffected
- new secret Projects = unaffected
- Neverwinter = 9
- Foundry Team, executive and business positions = maybe ...
Patch Notes : Resolved an Issue, where people would accidently experience Fun.
Most of the voice talent is far cheaper then you realize. The SAG rate is less then $1,000.00 per day for video game voice work - and everyone's work could have been done in a single day. Heck, Ethan did his over Skype, so he did not even need to come to a studio. For better or worse Jeri is the only "star" in the recent group. Most of the actors in Trek are working for scale - there are people whose only income comes from convention appearances.
All the VO work for DR probably cost less then $10,000.00. They only needed to sell 80 Delta Packs to pay for it.
Good point. You'd think those voice actors were all massive stars, in high profile films or shows and raking in formidable salaries from it. Most of them haven't even had a significant role since Voyager wrapped in 2001. Of course they got paid but people are acting like they hired an actor from Game Of Thrones or something.
Comments
But for how long? keep in mind others would be able to use the same console.
But I would wish him well and found him at times more entertaining thatn BranFlakes, they both had a different approach to being Community Manager... Smirk imo was more meta, and felt like a gamer instead of just a big smiling face of the corporation, so therefore he was awesome.
If he's still around... cool man.
Did you miss the part about 18 people within Cryptic alone ... probably 9 within the STO Team ...
Indeed. Is it even our business who lost their job? Would you want that spread over the internet? All that really matters is they adapt the business internally to benefit the game and its players.
I'm still not buying unless that universal console is a hybrid so it could transport Jolene Blalock instead of Jery Ryan at my house. lol
The Link:http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Perfect-World-Entertainment-Reviews-E285012.htm
Company wide is pretty normal when companies are cutting costs across the board.
This does not mean we should run around screaming.
While it is none of our business, it is expected for employees in the public eye to inform us that they are leaving or have left.
Personally, not leaving this type of message gives the impression that it was just a job to them and not something they had passion for.
Have no idea if Captain Smirk has left PWE since all their Twitter says is that they had a "case of the Mondays" which could mean anything and leaving on a trip to Italy and France in a couple of weeks with their boyfriend.
Smirk does not appear to have left by his own decision. It is looking like he was essentially fired and quite suddenly, hence a pretty messy exit and I cant imagine the poor guy having much love for STO/PWE left to write a pleasant farewell message. I cant blame him. If I was fired upon coming to my office Monday moring, I wouldn't be.
And PWE will obviously play this all down. Theyd wont want players running to the hills in panic so will do what they always do - ignore it.
Otherwise we'd have been first introduced to the new CM.
It's also none of our business, he said, painfully aware of his own hypocrisy.
The cuts on the STO side seem to total maybe three... a customer-service rep/community-rep, this Matt fellow and another employee... I am uncertain as what Matt did, but I know that other employee was related to "customer service" and "community communication and interaction."
We'll see. This could be nothing more than PWE just getting rid of corporate deadwood and under-performing workers.
- New Fed Tutorial
- Early KDF Missions
etc
Why 3 ? .... According to the Source 18 people were layed off ... half of them from Neverwinter ... CO and other projects seem to be unaffected ... so that leaves ... ?
Any other Source on that ?
I hate to say it but a few fleet members and myself who were following the signs since DR was announced at Vegas all agreed something was wrong, and our prediction was that financial troubles were looming. Financials for each quarter and the state of the game supported the hypothesis, this is just icing on the cake, though we all wish we'd been wrong
oh I agree, but we arent even getting that much, just rumors and speculations. They could easily say something along the lines of "the recent rumors are [true/false] but this is merely a restructuring of internal offices and will/will not affect the gameplay or its development"
That can be a smart move both to preserve benefits and to avoid the stink of "laid off" on one's resume.
I did not always agree with some of the things Smirk said and did, and I know I told him on some occasions why that was.
That said...I also saw some cases where people got very personal as opposed to offering impersonal feedback on how a thing could be done better or a crisis could have been averted, and some of them were SO bad that quite frankly, I would see them as reasons to quit without PWE ever doing a thing. I've been dumped on plenty when I worked in retail, to know that such things can have an effect depending on the person, even if the company really did TRIBBLE up. (In my case that goes right up to IRL threats to my safety...none of which resulted in any harm, fortunately, but you do not forget it and you do not want to subject yourself to that, or all the lesser abuses forever.)
Upshot of this is? I do not agree with all that he did but some people were downright nasty and vicious with him on a personal level and I noticed it and do not forget it. Some of what I saw honestly pissed me off and made me feel almost sick. No, I will not quote posts. No, I will not name and shame. But I DID see it, and you will just have to trust me on that. Frankly I could not blame him should he not exactly miss PWE for the positions they put him in, or us as a community for some of the over-the-line things that were said.
I hope that if as his Twitter feed says, he is off on a vacation in Europe, that if he was indeed let to (or cut himself loose on his own terms, hopefully) he will be able to start decompressing and getting his mind off of things.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Now compare that to the revenue numbers.
My guess is someone somewhere overestimated the amount of revenue the DR would bring in, and they are left with a massive shortfall.
Top this off with a poor community relationship this time around, and here we are.
My sources point to a handful of "support staff" a large chunk of Neverwinter deadwood and three STO-side employees. My source is unconfirmed and just as reliable as any of the other unconfirmed reports we have at this time.
It has looked bleak for a while now. And with them speeding up the end war with the Iconians, it seemed a bit like they may be expecting something else to replace STO for revenue.
To be honest, if they have someone in charge that knew what they were doing, DR could have actually been a huge success.
Some are hopeful for a STO 2.0 to come out. If there is one, and Cryptic is going to do it, then they may be wanting to end the main story soon to release the new one. But, if they start selling power creep like with this game, it will shorten the life span. Power creep, and chasing DPS limits the progression of a game. And that is the biggest thing hurting this one.
It is obvious that they are not sure how to properly make decisions for MMOs. They sometimes start with a good idea, but it ends up being messed up by the desire for quick money, instead of steady growth.
If CaptainSmirk has left, or been laid-off (which is just a fancy way of saying fired), then I wish him well. Same for the other that were laid-off. Bad leadership leads to those under them falling first.
All the VO work for DR probably cost less then $10,000.00. They only needed to sell 80 Delta Packs to pay for it.
Quite a few people have been stating that trouble was on the horizon, and with (what I would deem to be DR's failure) I'm not the least bit surprised by this news. Sure, the parent company and all the individual games are somewhat connected, but if a better job was done in each department, that would go toward fixing a bigger problem.
Heh, I'll stick around till this all truly goes south (Iconian Lock Boxes, woo), but yeah, not at all shocked.
And if the numbers are correct, that means there are still 110 people working for Cryptic.
Are you sure you aren't thinking of Hrci at MyBalkanGaming?
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
- isnt Cryptic North basically "Champions Online" ... according to the article = unaffected
- new secret Projects = unaffected
- Neverwinter = 9
- Foundry Team, executive and business positions = maybe ...
Good point. You'd think those voice actors were all massive stars, in high profile films or shows and raking in formidable salaries from it. Most of them haven't even had a significant role since Voyager wrapped in 2001. Of course they got paid but people are acting like they hired an actor from Game Of Thrones or something.
"Go and have a wee, the second act gets considerably weirder." -Tim Minchin