Feb 4
Dear Mythic: I Quit Warhammer
Over at Massively they’re talking about the layoffs of some dozens of people from Mythic Entertainment. To a lot of people this is a sign of the times, yet another economic indicator of terrible downturns. It’s also (to yet others) a result of the impact of a game design that couldn’t overcome the inexorable gravity well of World of Warcraft.
I couldn’t care less. I’m at the point now where I look at games and all I see are people. So Warhammer Online, the Warhammer Online I’ve been playing for the last three months, is now gone. Justin, Angie … both gone.
Update: Carrie pinged me to let me know she hadn’t been let go. And yes, I know this was a petulant and infantile response to this situation. I’m not going to apologize for expressing what I felt here. I have to do a lot of tongue biting most days, and I just felt like getting this out.
Thanks for putting up with my hissy fit.
And Carrie. Carrie Gouskos. Carrie is the woman who provided me with one of the finest pieces of interviewing I’ve ever had, a piece that essentially consisted of me asking a question and then sitting back and listening for thirty minutes. Carrie even thanked me for that piece. Nobody ever thanks me. SHE FUCKING MADE THE TOME! It’s one of the best parts of Warhammer, a clear leap forward in storytelling, questing, and achievements. And in thanks they show her the door?
Mythic, sorry, I quit. I’m done with your game. I don’t need to play it anymore, I’m not going to defend its potential anymore, I’m done. You spent millions of dollars on a game built purely on the passion of the developers. These people poured years of their lives into this game, spent late nights, lost personal credit with friends, spouses, and otherwise … they crossed continents and made themselves into pure pillars of game design to make this game stand upright. And now they’re out.
Hey every other game developer out there! Hire Carrie Gouskos! Hire Justin and Angie! I can personally vouch for their excellence as a third party.
If any of you have ever wondered why games bloggers are so bitter, why games journalists are so vicious, and why developers themselves are so twitchy it’s becuase of crap like this. Down here on the ground, we’re living and breathing these games. At the top of the pyramid, it’s all just numbers with no context or importance. These games matter. These people matter. And I hate the marketplace that’s resulted in this kind of talent and passion going to waste.
23 comments23 Comments so far
Really? An ‘I Quit’? I thought people were kinda over that.
You thought people were over that? I thought the blogesphere was making it more common.
And certainly, there are “I quit” messages and “I quit” messages.
Somebody who finally comes to the official forums (should they exist) for the first time to say, “Balls to you, I’m out of here!” does not have the same impact as, say, somebody who has had a leadership role, and has shown a great deal of enthusiasm in that role, in the media coverage of a given game.
More interesting to me will be how Mr. Zenke reconciles this message with his leadership position at Massively.
I know how you feel, kind of…
I got to know some of the Community Mgrs. at Microsoft as I was invited to some events and whatnot… now that most of them are laid off, I feel very much less attached to Microsoft and Xbox.
That’s why they hire these people in the first place, to foster relationships with the community. Why shoule anyone be surprised that when you fire the Community managers, the community goes with them?
My question is that if they’re laying off between 60 and 130 people at Mythic on top of those already let go, how many people are left making sure that this ship is headed in the right direction? How large was the team of people involved in WAR?
Given their ambitious schedule that Mr. Jacobs has been touting, who does he expect is going to be able to make it happen with fewer developers and QA staff unless these are all complete and canned content updates that will be released slowly.
[...] Must….resist…saying….anything…. [...]
> More interesting to me will be how Mr. Zenke
> reconciles this message with his leadership
> position at Massively.
Well, the first clue would be where this story was posted: his personal blog.
I would assume that he would continue to cover Warhammer Online stores the same as Massively had up to this point, with a lack of bias and with commentary by columnists that are familiar with and commenting on the community, since that is what journalists do.
I’m sure we’ve all seen layoffs from the inside. I know that sometimes it’s not passion that keeps someone around, it’s not how much hard work they’ve done. It’s how much they were getting paid, what title they held, and how hurt financially the company is.
My thoughts go to those who were let go, but I wouldn’t get personally worked-up Michael. It’s a business. Same as the movie industry, the web startups, the news stations, the Fortune 500’s. It just always hurts more when you knew someone. Especially in this economy, we’re going to keep seeing more and more of this. Nobody is really exempt from it, regardless how good they were at being interviewed unfortunately.
You realize that your account cancellation will only hurt Mythic employees further – EA will now need to lay off another 1% of a person to make up for the loss in revenue.
Way to kill the economy, Michael!
Cuppy: It was business right up until Mark said “Though we are resizing the team to move from a pre-launch to a post-launch size, we remain fully committed to creating and delivering the best WAR experience.”
He’s not. He’s lying. Warhammer without Carrie Gouskos, Justin Webb, and all the other folks? Not the best WAR experience they could have. Fact.
Well come on, who listens to a word he says anyway? I learned that lesson long ago…. =P
Well, there’s some truth to that.
But I’m throwing a petulant fit and so things seem very black and white here. :)
Everything Mark Jacobs says should probably be taken with a grain of salt. :) He wouldn’t be doing his job as a studio VP if he wasn’t trying to calm people down with spin, right? As long as you’re aware of it, it’s something to be expected…
I don’t work in the gaming industry, but I work in the business / technology consulting field, and we’re feeling the crunch too (although not quite as badly, up here in Vancouver.) I feel for people getting laid off — been there, and it’s no fun. I’m sure they’ll be back on their feet in no time, though.
Talented people are always at a premium.
-nick / reroller
Regardless of whether MJ is being especially weasilly in this instance, giving a pink slip to the architect of the Book of Knowledge seems slightly insane. It’s one of the few core design elements that has been almost universally praised. Personally, it was my favorite thing about the game.
The best WAR experience possible? Indeed, I agree with you. Not by a mile.
[...] Michael Zenke quits WAR in protest (on his own blog, mind [...]
I was going to chime in, but Tami said the same thing I was going to. Times are tough, and it’s not just the games industry that’s suffering. When you’re not making enough money to cover projected costs, you have to cut some people.
I’m sure that all things considered, they would have liked to keep the people who helped make the game what it is today if they could. But at this point, it’s probably not even clear if Warhammer is going to survive (and you really don’t need designers if your company goes under).
can i have your stuff?
Micheal,
I know it sucks. I’ve been following this game since it was announced that yes, there was going to be a WAR; only to see this? Many of the faces that I’ve gotten to know as though I saw them every day get let go? Yeah it really stinks. And I’ll agree that they’re not the brightest pixel on the screen for laying off some of those that they did, but when has Mythic muchless EA, had a good running streak for being smart more than a dozen times in a row?
But to boycott the game? Not the way to go about things. A bit childish if nothing else. And while you may be feeling childish at the moment given the circumstances, nothing will get accomplished. Give it a month at least. If you feel like you really don’t want to play WAR then, through the same set of criteria that one would normally use (i.e. Have I logged in in the past two weeks? Am I having fun? Is it worth it?), go ahead and cancel. But to do it in spite of EA? Its kinda like saying “I’m leaving my bank and going somewhere else because they laid off my favorite teller!” doesn’t really make sense, you know?
And as for Mark? Just nod your head, say yes, and go about your business. He hardly ever says anything that actually has credence anymore anyways. Yes he’s putting a positive spin on a negative situation, but then too, that’s what he’s paid to do, as Nick said.
Just a random view from an odd girl though…..
~Kira
I honestly feel this is 100% the wrong way for people to respond to this, yes allot of people feel a attachment to people they have communicated with throughout the games development, but saying ‘i quit’ devalues the work they did in the past & the work of those who are left.
I think i also read on another blog that reports are coming out that Carrie Gouskos hasn’t been laid off. If that turns out to be true will you re-install the game?
If you really want to show how much you appreciate the guys who have been unfortunate enough to loose their jobs write something which highlights the work they did without sensationalizing their situation. The last thing any of these will want to be at a time like this is a cause celeb.
I am honestly not trying to argue, and I know that people within the field of “game journalism” do make relationships with people within the industry then associate them with a game, but the fact is that EA didn’t make what they thought they would from the game 6 months outside launch (700k -> 300k). There is no one to blame specifically, but the fact remains they (EA) can only support X amount of people at this time. That X amount includes ever increasing console games, which overall, I think still is increasing at a faster rate that people who join Waaagh, so this is where the axe is gonna fall. It doesn’t make it any easier to digest that the people who had an integral part of the game design and “soul” are leaving, but lets face it, even in times of economic boom this was happening, I think you are totally overreacting based on your own emotional attachment to these people ( just look at the first two paragraphs of this post). It almost feels like this is your emotional plea (and place to keep further connections) that massively wouldn’t let you run. I am sure these people will find other positions (Waaagh was a very well polished game when it did release, yeah there have been changes but that wasn’t because of lack of quality). Quitting the game is your choice, but this post smells like such planned drama and mmo blogosphere subject will raise up. This post seems like a post to keep and solidify your current connections as they more to other places and doesn’t have the sincerity of actually caring for the individuals let go (lets be honest, objectively canceling your subscription doesn’t mean shit financially to the people let go.)
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Hate to pile on here but damn.
So they let the person who developed the Tome go, sounds like a solid business decision to me. The game has launched, the Tome created and going forward all you need to do is add to the Tome. I’m sure others at the company are more than capable of doing this type of work. The Tome (while cool) is not going to do jack shit to bring people back to the game (what Mythic and EA most likely are focusing on).
I get the idea that a lot of people have never been a manager or executive at a large company. Business is business and you do what needs to be done to accomplish your goals. Sometimes you have to make decisions where there is no ‘good’ solution, they all suck but you pick the one that sucks the least.
Don’t take this as a defense of MJ in the slightest – I think the man is full of shit and should keep his freaking mouth shut. He does more harm than good when he starts talking.
Maybe it is just my background but to lash out at EA and Mythic like this is very unprofessional. I don’t care if this is your personal blog, it is a blog. While you can talk all the shit you want about Mythic and EA, doing it in a public space like this something I would never do and don’t think you should do either. Have you thought what this will do to your relationship with EA and Mythic, what it will do the Massively’s relationship with them? Hell man, if I were your boss I would knock the shit out of you for outbursts like this.
I’m not saying you have to be some corporate yes man but emotional outbursts (relating to your job) should NEVER take place in public.
They had a 400+ team up to launch.
They kept them all on months after release, while other MMO companies generally trim the team back as soon as the game launches.
And for this you rip on them? And worse, rip on them without the correct info (re: the update on Carrie).
And given the numbers (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/239/feature/2671/page/1), I think it’s still a pretty large team (larger than the team that did DAoC?)
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