Seeing "Arkhane Magic" used by the higher-ups gave me whiplash. No shot they just said that. The more things change the more they seem to just stay the same.
Seeing "Arkhane Magic" used by the higher-ups gave me whiplash. No shot they just said that. The more things change the more they seem to just stay the same.
That's because what the companies want is to make money, and they think you can build a game to do just that. It's true that games can make a lot of money, but I don't think that can be the only...
That's because what the companies want is to make money, and they think you can build a game to do just that.
It's true that games can make a lot of money, but I don't think that can be the only motivation. There has to be some sort of desire to tell a story, or build a world, or just explore characters. Even big studio Japanese games built by committee have some kind of unifying creative center to their projects.
If your creative center is just "how can we market microtransactions?" or "people seem to really be pouring cash into GaaS right now," your output is going to feel commercially motivated, and not a world that people will want to spend dozens or hundreds of hours inhabiting.
That's to say nothing of the actual developers doing the creating. It's gotta be tough to gin up inspiration if you know that all your paymasters are looking for is a way to sell horse armor. Then to be paid on the low end of industry standard and asked to move to a state in political turmoil on top of it all, it's a wonder they managed to ship a functional product at all.
They're matching Bioware with being a single player focused studio being forced to make a multiplayer service game and just hoping their 'magic' makes it work out.
They're matching Bioware with being a single player focused studio being forced to make a multiplayer service game and just hoping their 'magic' makes it work out.
It immediately reminded me of CDProjekt hoping to release Cyberpunk in workable state. They too counted on "Witcher magic" to bring the project together just before release.
It immediately reminded me of CDProjekt hoping to release Cyberpunk in workable state. They too counted on "Witcher magic" to bring the project together just before release.
Yeah, this was the moment I did a little double-take when reading it. "Arkane Magic"? Seriously? As if that's ever a positive thing? Then again I should not complain too much, just got asked at...
Yeah, this was the moment I did a little double-take when reading it. "Arkane Magic"? Seriously? As if that's ever a positive thing?
The part that stood out to me was the challenge of convincing developers to move to Austin. I'm not sure if there's any data to back up that theory, but I've been thinking that people who can...
The part that stood out to me was the challenge of convincing developers to move to Austin. I'm not sure if there's any data to back up that theory, but I've been thinking that people who can afford to live in HCOL areas comfortably prefer to stay there, and the "droves" moving out to Texas are people that got priced out of their neighborhoods, not necessarily because they want to buy a house there.
Plus they say they're paying below average. And as the article says, for below-average, you're not going to get somebody who isn't already living there to move to Austin of all places. That's...
Plus they say they're paying below average.
And as the article says, for below-average, you're not going to get somebody who isn't already living there to move to Austin of all places. That's somewhere people want to move away from.
If they wanted to be serious about hiring they ought to have either gone for above-average pay, or at least for 100% home office work.
Gentrification + soaring living prices was already an issue in Austin pre-pandemic, to the extent that only yuppies and FAANG employees can afford to live there comfortably. I can only imagine...
Gentrification + soaring living prices was already an issue in Austin pre-pandemic, to the extent that only yuppies and FAANG employees can afford to live there comfortably.
I can only imagine that the situation has been exacerbated in Austin since the pandemic hit.
I think it's a lot harder now post-pandemic where people are used to working from home. Lots of people have moved to or applied to work at places from other states and don't want to move just...
I think it's a lot harder now post-pandemic where people are used to working from home. Lots of people have moved to or applied to work at places from other states and don't want to move just because a company is mandating people return to the office in person.
Seeing "Arkhane Magic" used by the higher-ups gave me whiplash. No shot they just said that. The more things change the more they seem to just stay the same.
That part really stood out, the disconnect in these studios from what they want to what they are building is wild!
That's because what the companies want is to make money, and they think you can build a game to do just that.
It's true that games can make a lot of money, but I don't think that can be the only motivation. There has to be some sort of desire to tell a story, or build a world, or just explore characters. Even big studio Japanese games built by committee have some kind of unifying creative center to their projects.
If your creative center is just "how can we market microtransactions?" or "people seem to really be pouring cash into GaaS right now," your output is going to feel commercially motivated, and not a world that people will want to spend dozens or hundreds of hours inhabiting.
That's to say nothing of the actual developers doing the creating. It's gotta be tough to gin up inspiration if you know that all your paymasters are looking for is a way to sell horse armor. Then to be paid on the low end of industry standard and asked to move to a state in political turmoil on top of it all, it's a wonder they managed to ship a functional product at all.
They're matching Bioware with being a single player focused studio being forced to make a multiplayer service game and just hoping their 'magic' makes it work out.
It immediately reminded me of CDProjekt hoping to release Cyberpunk in workable state. They too counted on "Witcher magic" to bring the project together just before release.
Yeah, this was the moment I did a little double-take when reading it. "Arkane Magic"? Seriously? As if that's ever a positive thing?
Then again I should not complain too much, just got asked at work today whether I don't want to be among the group of devs added to a late project to "help" it along.
This is the biggest call-out for me too. I wonder the tenure of these higher ups. Something like this makes it seem like they are rather new IMO
The part that stood out to me was the challenge of convincing developers to move to Austin. I'm not sure if there's any data to back up that theory, but I've been thinking that people who can afford to live in HCOL areas comfortably prefer to stay there, and the "droves" moving out to Texas are people that got priced out of their neighborhoods, not necessarily because they want to buy a house there.
Plus they say they're paying below average.
And as the article says, for below-average, you're not going to get somebody who isn't already living there to move to Austin of all places. That's somewhere people want to move away from.
If they wanted to be serious about hiring they ought to have either gone for above-average pay, or at least for 100% home office work.
From what I've heard, Austin is insanely expensive, and only getting worse.
Gentrification + soaring living prices was already an issue in Austin pre-pandemic, to the extent that only yuppies and FAANG employees can afford to live there comfortably.
I can only imagine that the situation has been exacerbated in Austin since the pandemic hit.
I think it's a lot harder now post-pandemic where people are used to working from home. Lots of people have moved to or applied to work at places from other states and don't want to move just because a company is mandating people return to the office in person.
Yeah I think the smarter companies will continue to allow fully remote work and give people the option of working hybrid or working fully in-person.