Funcom gutted.

[TheCastle]

It's really annoying when he

Does he do that often?

Perhaps secret agents tracked him down during the post and he had no choice but to!!

[UnSub]

What happens to The Secret World? :(

2008 has been a banner year in the MMO industry. Banner... as in Bruce Banner, meaning it lost its shit and a lot of destruction and torn pants were left in its wake.

[UnSub]

Some folks seem to have been let go from Norway, but

That's Schild being crash tackled by Torquist.

[Sjofn]

Oh no, they got him! 

[schild]

Oh wow I don't know what happened there.

...but I don't have exact numbers.

[Reg]

Do you have any idea if their mindbogglingly original idea to use "volunteers" to replace paid GMs is actually true? If it is I'm definitely gonna go for it just so I can get in on the inevitable class action lawsuit to follow.

[schild]

No, but I'll be sure to find out.

[Falconeer]

I don't know if this helps:





and this too (link to the F.O.A. website): http://cs.ageofconan.com/Public/

[Cheddar]

Didn't UO do something like this?  Wasn't there a lawsuit?

[Zetor]

They've done the exact same thing with ARKs in AO. Don't remember a lawsuit there though...


-- Z.

[Koyasha]

Is Funcom the only company that still has a volunteer program?  I remember the old UO Counselors and Elders, and of course the EQ guide program which I was in for a while, but I think that's gone now, and I don't know of any other game off-hand that still has volunteers.

Maybe it's a US thing due to the aforementioned lawsuit, and Funcom doesn't need to worry cause they're in Norway?

[Merusk]

Didn't UO do something like this?  Wasn't there a lawsuit?

There was a lawsuit against AOL for their volunteer program.  I seem to recall someone trying it against UO as well... and Hey, Mr. Bartle had a post on it. 

The problem with UO, and AOL's old "Volunteer" program was they had mandatory hour per week requirements and/or scheduled times they had to be on.   If you allow them to be true volunteers, get on when they feel like it and stay as long as they feel like it then it's ok.   I think AOL also had the problem that they were compensating the people with free AOL time, in effect paying them less than the minimum wage and recognizing that they should be compensated at all.   Like RB mentions, UO, EQ and AOL's system went tits-up shortly after the class action suit against AOL came down against AOL.

[damijin]

While not an MMO, Kongregate.com uses a team of 300 or so volunteer user moderators, managed by only 3 or 4 actual paid employees for cost effective chat moderation. Not really customer service or QA, and as the guy who used to run the program, I can tell you its a total fucking stressful headache over time with all the drama and abuses of power. However, it makes hiring employees pretty easy, as Kong has now hired 4 or 5 people directly from the community in order to manage it as it grows. These people tend to have extreme loyalty to the site and vision, and work with a lot of passion to improve it -- in comparison to outsourced CS anyhow.

It does work, particularly for a smaller community. It doesn't scale very well, and is probably more suited to a game that is going down in terms of total userbase, rather than a growing community.

[Signe]

Didn't Xuri go work for Funcom?  XURI!  ARE YOU OKAY?  Someone check on Xuri!

(or have I gone completely insane?)

[Lantyssa]

I think so.  Don't know.  Where's Photek.  He's close.

(probably.)

[Xuri]

*checks on Xuri*

I'm okay. =) And I have a new chair............!

[Signe]

Hey!  Just a minute, pal.  All these cuts and you get a NEW CHAIR?  This is a scandal of paramount proportion!

Glad you're okay and you still have a job to go with your new chair, too.    

[Venkman]

Wait. Did he get a new chair, or did he get a new-to-him chair from a "recently departed".

The moment anyone leaves in an office, all their cr*p is up for grabs 

[Signe]

I didn't even think of that!  I wonder who got Lord British's throne over at NCsoft?

[photek]

I think so.  Don't know.  Where's Photek.  He's close.

(probably.)

I am, very close! Funny thing you mention it, I applied for a job as system designer a while back and go to the last stage of their developer tests and got a "Sorry, your visions for AoC are different than the devs" kinda talk, so.. Yeah 

[Lantyssa]

I'm sorry. 

[TheCastle]

I think so.  Don't know.  Where's Photek.  He's close.

(probably.)

I am, very close! Funny thing you mention it, I applied for a job as system designer a while back and go to the last stage of their developer tests and got a "Sorry, your visions for AoC are different than the devs" kinda talk, so.. Yeah 

ah man
sorry to read that man...

The speech you mention seems particularly lame.. "Your vision is different?"
I cannot imagine a dev house not having nearly every person with at least a slightly different vision for any given project.

[Sunbury]

AC1 did that also the first couple of years.  The volunteers got separate logons and stood around in towns as special NPCs.  I think they got their base sub free.  I knew one, who also got inside info on new quests....

[Lum]

Funcom can run a volunteer program because they are not based in the US.

[Trippy]

Funcom can run a volunteer program because they are not based in the US.

But if their NA servers are based here and they have offices here it's like not like they are immune to the laws in the US.

[Lum]

However their labor laws fall under the country of incorporation for "virtual" positions.

[Trippy]

However their labor laws fall under the country of incorporation for "virtual" positions.

Even if the volunteers live in the US?

[Johny Cee]

However their labor laws fall under the country of incorporation for "virtual" positions.

Even if the volunteers live in the US?

It depends.  Two issues:

1. Employee vs. independent contractor.
2. Nexus (physical presence vs. economic presence)


I'll maybe put something together later....

[Venkman]

Funcom can run a volunteer program because they are not based in the US.

But if their NA servers are based here and they have offices here it's like not like they are immune to the laws in the US.

But doesn't that bring us back to the office closures schild mentioned?

Servers, have no idea. Could they sell those servers to a U.S. operator and then lease them back as a foreign holder so that they really don't have any staff at all in the U.S.?

[Driakos]

You can have volunteers for your games in the US.

You cannot have your volunteers perform the same services as your paid employees.

If you have no paid employees, then you can have the volunteers do whatever.

We were working on bringing the volunteer program back for UO, but many things trumped it on the priority scale. 

[Falconeer]

Official statement (EU):

Recent Restructuring
As some of you probably already have read on various websites over the weekend, Funcom has cut some of its staff. The reasons being cost efficiency and reorganization of certain teams and departments. This also includes hiring new people for opening positions in the organization. Such changes due to efficiency and performance initiatives are vital to any business and is to make sure that Funcom as a business stays on course. So this process was to re-adjust our cost base in some areas while increasing investment in others. This is a natural part of adjusting to the changing markets.

We are dedicated to improve Age of Conan further, as the past updates have shown and as well as the plans for the future updates clearly indicate. So we will stick to the plans we announced the past weeks and keep on working to constantly improve the game.
__________________

   Oliver 'Tarib' Kunz
Senior Community Manager

[Comstar]

WW2OL has volunteer GM's, there's only 15 people working on the game total so it's the only way CRS can handle it.

'Corse most of the time I get a GM warning in game, it's from a guy already on my Mission channel.

[schild]

WW2OL has volunteer GM's, there's only 15 people working on the game total so it's the only way CRS can handle it.

'Corse most of the time I get a GM warning in game, it's from a guy already on my Mission channel.

Too easy.

[Mrbloodworth]

Official statement (EU):

Recent Restructuring
As some of you probably already have read on various websites over the weekend, Funcom has cut some of its staff. The reasons being cost efficiency and reorganization of certain teams and departments. This also includes hiring new people for opening positions in the organization. Such changes due to efficiency and performance initiatives are vital to any business and is to make sure that Funcom as a business stays on course. So this process was to re-adjust our cost base in some areas while increasing investment in others. This is a natural part of adjusting to the changing markets.

We are dedicated to improve Age of Conan further, as the past updates have shown and as well as the plans for the future updates clearly indicate. So we will stick to the plans we announced the past weeks and keep on working to constantly improve the game.
__________________

   Oliver 'Tarib' Kunz
Senior Community Manager

Oh HI! This looks just like the letter i just got a few weeks back.   (The "re-adjustment" Was due to lack of contracts)

[NiX]

That has to be the worst "We just fired an ass load of people" statement I've ever seen.