- isnt Cryptic North basically "Champions Online" ... according to the article = unaffected
- new secret Projects = unaffected
- Neverwinter = 9
- Foundry Team, executive and business positions = maybe ...
We seriously need some form of conformation with what the hell is going on and what is happening with the future of STO.
The silence from PWE/CRYPTIC is nothing more than adding fuel to the fire....and showing exactly what people already think about them... No respect for the people who indirectly pay their wages through in game purchase's etc etc..
it ain't about crying. Nonetheless, a man just losing his job like that is always a bit of a shock -- if, for nothing else, because people may be wondering how it affects the continuity of STO (whether that's reasonable or not).
We know nothing for certain (yet), though. PWE may have simply thought having 2 Community Managers on staff, for the same game, was too much, who knows?!
We seriously need some form of conformation with what the hell is going on and what is happening with the future of STO.
We already know that. A whole new episode is coming next week. A galaxy wide revamp of sectory space. And the Delta Recruitment initiative. Plus, Season 10 in early Spring. You have more than enough answers of what is ahead for STO.
What else are you looking for? They aren't going to tell you the game is ending until literally the 11th hour for hopes of miking the players for every last penny.
We seriously need some form of conformation with what the hell is going on and what is happening with the future of STO.
I do not remember anyone from EA coming to the SWTOR forum to talk about the Bioware layoffs. Likewise, I do not remember anyone from Sony coming to the DCUO forum to talk about their layoffs. What you are asking for is certainly not the norm in the industry. Companies answer to shareholders. Laying off 18 people out of 128 is not that big of a deal - especially when half came from another game.
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.
We live in a tech bubble. Investor faith in the tech industry is receding. This is also known as a bubble burst. We are still experiencing the effects, but this is something I (and others) have predicted almost a year ago.
Delta Rising had very little to do with this. I know people want to say otherwise, but it's the same thing in other development studios across the planet. They can't ALL have simultaneously made a massive series of mistakes with each of their products affected.
PWE is trying to mitigate the impact felt by their investors. Unfortunately, that means lay-offs. Lay-offs suck. They're no fun. But this tech bubble is beyond them. Beyond us, beyond STO. Most of this is outside of our control.
vBulletin is evil. I would not be surprised if trying to change a username here would usher in the Forumpocalypse. I mean, we already know that the dev tracker breaks just from looking at it wrong, which is why last night I assumed it was the forum software's fault that Smirk wasn't showing anymore.
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.
It's not a level cap or gear grind what it is they already had a specialization system of their own in mind where it works like their world pvp system. You gain rank by account and not per character so what happens is when you go to the expansion area you are adding a 2nd class to any given character you choose. Which there are enough consumables designed around it where you don't have to grind anything.
From what I've heard, you're leveling an alternate skill set, one that is specifically needed for the new content zone(s). They'll be pushing you to go there, just as much as Cryptic wants/wanted you to go to the delta quadrant. The only redeeming attribute is that it's account wide, but it's still VP until the next expansion comes along and supplants it.
So the big difference that made me turn away from STO to Gw2 is that I am playing for fun and not a treadmill grind which that is all STO has been and sounds like they don't plan to deviate from it even if there is no one left playing sto lol.
vBulletin is evil. I would not be surprised if trying to change a username here would usher in the Forumpocalypse. I mean, we already know that the dev tracker breaks just from looking at it wrong, which is why last night I assumed it was the forum software's fault that Smirk wasn't showing anymore.
iB (vbulletin) are like the pwe of the forum world. in fact, they are probably worse than pwe for money grabs, customer dissatisfaction, and running something great into the ground via poor decision-making, even poorer quality, and outright greed.
this is where people say it has nothing to do with sto's profits...
TBH nobody knows either way. It may be PWE losing money and trying to spread the cuts across the different units. Maybe we will learn more with Q4 numbers. It looks like this is timed before the call so that top management can show they are taking some action and keep their own jobs.
Some good news with STO's team relatively unscathed. I was only aware of Smirk, and while I'm sorry for anyone losing their job, this happens a lot in the gaming industry. Wish them well, and I have a good idea they will find success elsewhere.
I have spent 100's of dollars recently. Still plan to for the foreseeable future. I'm starting to enjoy the game again, and it's less damaging say than an evening of debauchery with the real life versions of Starfleet D*****.
Wait.. no... that's not right. An evening with 13-year olds hiding in their parents basements wasn't what I was imagining. Damn... I thought they'd be cooler in real life.
I went to Smirk's twitter page that used to be PWECaptainSmirk, now has been changed back to TheCaptainSmirk
That's all the confirmation I need
Personally wasn't all too concerned with Smirk. What I DO need is yea or nay confirmation for just one in particular so I know whether or not to throw the 'good riddance' party.
I'm going to speculate this has less to do with the 'health' of STO but rather in context to the overall PWE game portfolio and falls under the standard quarterly operating performance ratio projection/analysis of sales/revenue per employee:
Sales/Revenue per Employee=Revenue/# of Employees
and tangentially related in part to the chairman's buy-out offer.
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.
nobody in an industry where everybody knows everybody is going to talk bad about a former employer if they ever want a job again. to do so would most likly get you blackballed.
Trophies for killing FEDS ahh those were the days.
Well, tbh, will he be missed? Insofar as his presence was minimal and his effectiveness questionable.
I'm sorry he lost his job. But then again, "Customer Service" is truly a Western construct and concept.
What we need is some sort of player advocate. But when the devs in not so many words state that they don't really pay attention to the forums and by extension, our opinions, then really, Community Managers and the like are truly redundant like 3rd nipples or tonsils.
I'm going to hazard a guess the Smirk lost his job not because of some great STO game cutback like so many here seem to think but because he was really poor at it. Hell I took the time to write him on an issue after community mods said I should and got ignored. On another issue I wrote him with multiple suggestions on how to improve as he was really dropping the ball on a regular basis. There were no longer any excuses, with his time on the job, for those kinds of errors (I've managed large communications teams). He banned me for that and told me not to criticize him. I wrote him again anyway and I'm sure I was ignored.
For any future people in this role I'll pass this tidbit along: Preparation and internal communication would eliminate most of the errors. And that is called doing a good job. Truth be told, mistakes like the ones that happen here would cost people their careers where I've worked.
Smirk was sacked because he opened nearly 50 R&D packs last week in front of 700 people and didn't get one bug ship. Effectively killing the sales of the packs there and then. The Chinese overlords seen this and they were displeased lol
Smirk was sacked because he opened nearly 50 R&D packs last week in front of 700 people and didn't get one bug ship. Effectively killing the sales of the packs there and then. The Chinese overlords seen this and they were displeased lol
If it's a 1 in 90 chance of not getting a ship in 50 boxes it will happen 57% of the time.
This is my Risian Corvette. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Comments
We seriously need some form of conformation with what the hell is going on and what is happening with the future of STO.
The silence from PWE/CRYPTIC is nothing more than adding fuel to the fire....and showing exactly what people already think about them... No respect for the people who indirectly pay their wages through in game purchase's etc etc..
it ain't about crying. Nonetheless, a man just losing his job like that is always a bit of a shock -- if, for nothing else, because people may be wondering how it affects the continuity of STO (whether that's reasonable or not).
We know nothing for certain (yet), though. PWE may have simply thought having 2 Community Managers on staff, for the same game, was too much, who knows?!
We already know that. A whole new episode is coming next week. A galaxy wide revamp of sectory space. And the Delta Recruitment initiative. Plus, Season 10 in early Spring. You have more than enough answers of what is ahead for STO.
What else are you looking for? They aren't going to tell you the game is ending until literally the 11th hour for hopes of miking the players for every last penny.
18 people in total... I was shocked when I saw this over on the NW boards (their team lost 9 people).
I already covered this elsewhere, but I'll post it again here.
We live in a tech bubble. Investor faith in the tech industry is receding. This is also known as a bubble burst. We are still experiencing the effects, but this is something I (and others) have predicted almost a year ago.
Delta Rising had very little to do with this. I know people want to say otherwise, but it's the same thing in other development studios across the planet. They can't ALL have simultaneously made a massive series of mistakes with each of their products affected.
PWE is trying to mitigate the impact felt by their investors. Unfortunately, that means lay-offs. Lay-offs suck. They're no fun. But this tech bubble is beyond them. Beyond us, beyond STO. Most of this is outside of our control.
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
vBulletin is evil. I would not be surprised if trying to change a username here would usher in the Forumpocalypse. I mean, we already know that the dev tracker breaks just from looking at it wrong, which is why last night I assumed it was the forum software's fault that Smirk wasn't showing anymore.
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.
I don't think anyone can confuse the two.
Possibly. Something tells me PWE hasn't changed their approach to game design.
iB (vbulletin) are like the pwe of the forum world. in fact, they are probably worse than pwe for money grabs, customer dissatisfaction, and running something great into the ground via poor decision-making, even poorer quality, and outright greed.
free jkname
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hey have you seen the "new" t6 jhss
Nope
Now ask me if I honestly care. (apply the above response to that question also)
lol apply your response to the thread topic....it pretty much solves the thread
lmao Yep it certainly does
Some good news with STO's team relatively unscathed. I was only aware of Smirk, and while I'm sorry for anyone losing their job, this happens a lot in the gaming industry. Wish them well, and I have a good idea they will find success elsewhere.
I have spent 100's of dollars recently. Still plan to for the foreseeable future. I'm starting to enjoy the game again, and it's less damaging say than an evening of debauchery with the real life versions of Starfleet D*****.
Wait.. no... that's not right. An evening with 13-year olds hiding in their parents basements wasn't what I was imagining. Damn... I thought they'd be cooler in real life.
That's all the confirmation I need
Personally wasn't all too concerned with Smirk. What I DO need is yea or nay confirmation for just one in particular so I know whether or not to throw the 'good riddance' party.
Fulfilled.
Sales/Revenue per Employee=Revenue/# of Employees
and tangentially related in part to the chairman's buy-out offer.
nobody in an industry where everybody knows everybody is going to talk bad about a former employer if they ever want a job again. to do so would most likly get you blackballed.
I'm sorry he lost his job. But then again, "Customer Service" is truly a Western construct and concept.
What we need is some sort of player advocate. But when the devs in not so many words state that they don't really pay attention to the forums and by extension, our opinions, then really, Community Managers and the like are truly redundant like 3rd nipples or tonsils.
For any future people in this role I'll pass this tidbit along: Preparation and internal communication would eliminate most of the errors. And that is called doing a good job. Truth be told, mistakes like the ones that happen here would cost people their careers where I've worked.
Perhaps here as well.
If it's a 1 in 90 chance of not getting a ship in 50 boxes it will happen 57% of the time.