Anonymous Mythic employee dishes dirt on WAR and SWTOR

[tmp]

Mhmm, anonymous man claiming to be from BioWare Mythic and about to be laid off vents, spills some TOR dirt in the process

[Velorath]

Mhmm, anonymous man claiming to be from BioWare Mythic and about to be laid off vents, spills some TOR dirt in the process

What kind of fucking terrible rant is that?  Not even getting into the Bioware/SWTOR stuff since even if this guy did work for Mythic, it doesn't serve any purpose to snipe at someone else's project (it's not Bioware's fault Mythic did a shit job on Warhammer), the whole thing reads like some bizarre defense of Mark Jacobs and how all of WAR's problems were other peoples' faults.  He never gets into any details on how exactly though, except with vague talk about how they just really suck at their jobs.

[Samprimary]

mrrh. That's the worst kind of internal rumor. One that's plenty enough grapevine/hearsay that it leaves you pessimistic but leaves the anticipation. Because for all you know it could be total bullshit from a pissed ex-employee.

[Margalis]

Not even getting into the Bioware/SWTOR stuff since even if this guy did work for Mythic, it doesn't serve any purpose to snipe at someone else's project

Bioware Austin and Mythic are pretty much one and the same now from my understanding.

[voblat]

Not commenting on the internal politics stuff in that rant, it panders to what people want to believe , which makes it sound plausible, but could just as easily be utter rubbish, but the budget number for swtor , if anywhere near genuine, is astonishing.

The game would have to be the most successful MMO outside of wow , and by a long way, for it to be commercially successful.

There are some really optimistic people around if thats true.

[Stabs]

Not even getting into the Bioware/SWTOR stuff since even if this guy did work for Mythic, it doesn't serve any purpose to snipe at someone else's project

Bioware Austin and Mythic are pretty much one and the same now from my understanding.

He's comparing Bioware Austin with the Mythic team that built Warhammer several years ago. Not the same.

Good soap opera but as has been said outsiders have no way to evaluate. We already knew the unique selling point was the voiceover work and that they were proud of it.

[IainC]

An anonymous blogger spreads some inside dirt on WAR, SW:TOR and the still-born Dawn of Camelot (DAoC2). He's clearly way over in bitter ex-employee land so take it all with generous helpings of salt but it's an interesting read nonetheless. Some extra revelations in the comments too.

[Arthur_Parker]

Interesting, if you read with the understanding that the guy has a major chip on his shoulder, I'll quote it all in a spoiler, as it might disappear.

[Kageru]

Good quality rant. And some interesting, plausible, content. Though the 300m for SWTOR that even the possibility of it being true is 

But I could easily believe them convincing each other that Star Wars is such a hot IP that massive success the expected outcome.

[Arthur_Parker]

Couple more quotes spoilered, as I imagine it's going to be fairly easy to narrow down who this guy is.


Edit to add

October 13, 2010 at 2:52 am
I hear through the grapevine that the shit is hitting the fan over this, hope things turn out well enough for you. I know many people who want to shake your hand, after dealing with this.

While I do not know about the more recent events described, sounds like what was going on when I was there.

You didn’t even get into the Tool Support for devs, or the lack there of!
The items team had to manually make the items before the release (spread sheet, cell by cell) until it was clear they were not going to be done by the 3rd (or was it the 4th?) attempt at release. The guy they had to make a tool to help had 1 month to make it, and after that month, it was crashing, and making broken items.
I, on my own time off the clock, wrote a replacement tool in less than 12 hours (over 3 days after work) The day I finished the tool, I was fired for ‘not being early’ because of the same management BS you described.

They were still using MY tool a year later.

So much awesome, in so little time.

[Shatter]

I would of been fired in my first meeting with Paul after I put those glasses on him and then punched him in the face. 

[Trippy]

I deem this new discussion worthy of a wider audience

[Shatter]

These idiots could f*ck up a wet dream, I expect the same for SWTOR. 

[Trippy]

The day I finished the tool, I was fired for ‘not being early’ because of the same management BS you described.

Wow it sounds like EA is the worst of both worlds. The endless death marches and it's "corporate" with lots of rules.

I quit my previous full-time job cause they were going to fire me for not coming in at 9am. Silicon Valley, Software Engineer, 9am, not happening. Oh and right after I left they rescinded the rule as it finally dawned on them that wasn't going to work out.

[Trippy]

Merged the two threads.

[Mrbloodworth]

That sounds like a bitter employee, I'm not sure how much should be taken at face value.

[Arthur_Parker]

That sounds like a bitter employee, I'm not sure how much should be taken at face value.

Judge from the replies, basic facts aren't in dispute, just his spin, so he's convinced people who actually worked there.

Take this reply.

What about using EA Shanghai for art work?

What about Paul’s girlfriend’s job?

What about all the crazy promotions?

What about switching offices every 4-5 months?

What about firing people on donut day.

http://www.warhammeronline.com/newsletterarchive/2008/September2008.html

Check above link, has an absolute ton of credits for artists at EA Shanghai.

[Modern Angel]

That sounds like a bitter employee, I'm not sure how much should be taken at face value.

Maybe when someone works at a shitty company surrounded by idiots it's okay for them to be bitter. Bitter != wrong

[Mrbloodworth]

That sounds like a bitter employee, I'm not sure how much should be taken at face value.

Maybe when someone works at a shitty company surrounded by idiots it's okay for them to be bitter. Bitter != wrong

I said nothing of the sort. Just noting it sounds more like a rant than a post mortem.

It also reads as all post launch things, If I recall the outsourcing must have happened for the revamp they did AFTER launch for all the player models and armors. Consensus here though, was war had issues coming from development, least of all was art. I guess I just find it not so interesting when a slipping game, after a rather disappointing launch, had issues after being assimilated (BY EA nonetheless) and put on life support. Talk of management issues, outsourcing, and lack of focus is kind of moot at that point.

[Modern Angel]

Judging by the other ex-Mythics cropping up in the comments here and there confirming the general thrust if not the tone it sounds more right than wrong. But I'm only halfway through the comments.

[Mrbloodworth]

Wasn't really doubting the the info, just mostly the importance, and volume applied to it. 

The Barnett stuff was funny though.

[schild]

This does not fall outside the realm of what I've heard from multiple people from both studios. Alas, I cannot cover such things anymore.

[Mrbloodworth]

I think we all rather expected this after the announcement of the EA takeover. EA takes any handcrafted work, and turns it out for fast food production. They seem to cash in on a companies pedigree, but burn it out for, well I don't know why.

[schild]

I think we all rather expected this after the announcement of the EA takeover. EA takes any handcrafted work, and turns it out for fast food production. They seem to cash in on a companies pedigree, but burn it out for, well I don't know why.

Too easy. I wouldn't blame EA in nearly any of the stuff that happened at Mythic OR will eventually and inevitably come to light from Bioware Austin. Especially not Bioware Austin.

[Arthur_Parker]

Just a friendly hello to all the SWTOR people.  Here's what you have to look forward to in terms of marketing.

The Reenlisters!

[Modern Angel]

The office politics stuff isn't terribly important or interesting, whether it's true or not. It's the other stuff and some of the comments that are the good parts. Especially that SWTORO cost.

[Numtini]

I liked the bit about marketing. Didn't War sell like a million copies or something insanely good like that? My memory is that it was a game that almost everyone was talking about, bought, tried, and left.

[tmp]

the whole thing reads like some bizarre defense of Mark Jacobs and how all of WAR's problems were other peoples' faults.

Had similar feeling from the initial rant, but then he's fairly critical of Mark Jacobs too in the replies. Or at least willing to call a spade a spade.

[NiX]

I'm loving that the one Pingback to the blog about SWTOR failing has drawn the ire of many SWTOR fans and how their beloved MMO can't fail.

Schild: Quit your job, come back. We need you!

[Modern Angel]

I read the Jacobs stuff as "Yeah, he was bad but you have NO IDEA how bad these other assholes were."

[Mrbloodworth]

I guess my point was, War is unique in that it has a well established IP behind it, and has already launched. On his comment about outsourcing, why at this point, would EA need anything other than Fast, and cheap as far as any art needs go. I can safely say his salary would easily pay for a larger amount of assets than he himself could produce.

I have always read EA as a bottom line company, not necessarily one that respect talent or creativity.

I'm not really blaming anyone, WAR was doomed before EA I believe, EA is just trying to make there investment make a return. When I read "Why war failed" I expected some pre-launch stuff, not a rant on post-launch "OMG I can't believe they are cutting staff and outsourcing, why would they do this! Yes I know we had a million sales and ended up with less users than UO. BTW Star wars sucks too bitches!"

 

[Arthur_Parker]

Mrbloodworth it's a rant about Mythic, the art outsourcing was pre release for WAR, I even linked the title credits for you.   Trippy combined a WAR thread and a SWTOR thread, take a deep breath and consider that some people are interested in exactly how WAR came to fail so badly.  Even if this is all going to turn into a mess because of a 38 page fanboi outrage SWTOR thread, but he didn't really say much about SWTOR, did he?

[Modern Angel]

Further, I think there's a certain reading between the lines that's needed to get to some of the prelaunch stuff. Like the guy in the comments who coded tools for retards only to get fired literally the next day. Or Rob Whatshisbutt undercutting Jacobs; even if that's not true the mere existence of the belief that it was reveals a pretty unhappy place stretching back a long time.

[Mrbloodworth]

I'm not in opposition to anyone, just stating my thoughts on the blog/rant.

So, I'm confused as to your post.

Mrbloodworth it's a rant about Mythic, the art outsourcing was pre release for WAR, I even linked the title credits for you.

Mythic Artists list is much larger than shanghai, there is always some outsourcing in pre-production, once the principle design ETC.. is done by the in house. IE: Concept and first model made by designing artists, iterations and variations are outsourced using the original as a guideline. I see nothing "They took our jobs" in that list. Of course I have no idea about the day to day.

[NiX]

Mrbloodworth it's a rant about Mythic, the art outsourcing was pre release for WAR, I even linked the title credits for you.   Trippy combined a WAR thread and a SWTOR thread, take a deep breath and consider that some people are interested in exactly how WAR came to fail so badly.  Even if this is all going to turn into a mess because of a 38 page fanboi outrage SWTOR thread, but he didn't really say much about SWTOR, did he?

Even if SWTOR launches fine, the community will be the downfall. My god.