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FSS Programmer Speaks Out
7th Jun 2008 01:52 PM GMT | Elly | 5 comments
Seems this one slipped under the radar and it makes for depressing reading I'm afraid. It's a blog entry from Guy Somberg, a programmer at FSS (a dying breed it seems). His entry from back at the beginning of May reads:
Work is depressing right now. Never mind the fact that Hellgate isn’t as popular as anybody had hoped. Never mind the fact that there exists a term “Flagshipped,” meaning where a company basically overpromises and then screws you. Never mind the fact that the forums are totally populated by people who do nothing but complain and talk about how much the game sucks. Never mind the fact that people do the same thing in the game itself.
Yes, Hellgate is not a big success. That sucks, and it’s depressing. I’m keeping a positive attitude about it because of Korea and China. The Koreans really love the game, and the Chinese have yet to see it. I don’t know how any of these deals are structured, but I’m hinging my hopes for Hellgate’s future on the Asian market.
So why is work depressing? (Other than all of those other depressing things, that is.) The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they’re leaving. We’ve had programmers, accountants, HR people, and artists leave. The founders are all still around, but they’ve been floating away from Hellgate to work on various other projects. The only one still actively on Hellgate is Tyler, but Tyler’s not programming anymore; he spends all of his time on management activities.
Today was our programming intern’s last day; he’s leaving the company for the world of academia to get his PhD in computer science. I also learned today that another of our programmers is leaving in a couple of months (he gave lots of notice, which is very nice of him). With him leaving, I am basically the senior developer on Hellgate. Tyler, Dave, and Peter (the founders) are the only other programmers who were around beforehand, and I was the first programming hire after that. With Dave and Peter on other projects, and Tyler basically no longer a programmer, I’m what’s left after he leaves.
Thing is, the way things are going I’m likely to be the only programmer still working on Hellgate left from the original crew. I’ve heard rumours that other programmers and artists are thinking of leaving.
I was so disturbed to learn that all of these people are leaving that I couldn’t concentrate, and I left work early, claiming illness. I don’t want to leave Flagship. I’m happy here. I like the people, I like the environment, I like the pay, I like the location... There’s so much good about it. I’m not considering leaving. It’s just overwhelming and depressing having all of these people go. Every time a programmer leaves, it’s more work for me. Every time an artist leaves, it’s less content that we can create for Hellgate in the future.
Tyler is talking about replacing our programming intern with a designer. I’m fighting against that, because we need more programmers! We can’t just put it all on me.
Bah. Listen to me whine. It could be much worse, of course. At this point, though, what I need is some fresh projects; I’m getting burned out on Hellgate.
Yes, Hellgate is not a big success. That sucks, and it’s depressing. I’m keeping a positive attitude about it because of Korea and China. The Koreans really love the game, and the Chinese have yet to see it. I don’t know how any of these deals are structured, but I’m hinging my hopes for Hellgate’s future on the Asian market.
So why is work depressing? (Other than all of those other depressing things, that is.) The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they’re leaving. We’ve had programmers, accountants, HR people, and artists leave. The founders are all still around, but they’ve been floating away from Hellgate to work on various other projects. The only one still actively on Hellgate is Tyler, but Tyler’s not programming anymore; he spends all of his time on management activities.
Today was our programming intern’s last day; he’s leaving the company for the world of academia to get his PhD in computer science. I also learned today that another of our programmers is leaving in a couple of months (he gave lots of notice, which is very nice of him). With him leaving, I am basically the senior developer on Hellgate. Tyler, Dave, and Peter (the founders) are the only other programmers who were around beforehand, and I was the first programming hire after that. With Dave and Peter on other projects, and Tyler basically no longer a programmer, I’m what’s left after he leaves.
Thing is, the way things are going I’m likely to be the only programmer still working on Hellgate left from the original crew. I’ve heard rumours that other programmers and artists are thinking of leaving.
I was so disturbed to learn that all of these people are leaving that I couldn’t concentrate, and I left work early, claiming illness. I don’t want to leave Flagship. I’m happy here. I like the people, I like the environment, I like the pay, I like the location... There’s so much good about it. I’m not considering leaving. It’s just overwhelming and depressing having all of these people go. Every time a programmer leaves, it’s more work for me. Every time an artist leaves, it’s less content that we can create for Hellgate in the future.
Tyler is talking about replacing our programming intern with a designer. I’m fighting against that, because we need more programmers! We can’t just put it all on me.
Bah. Listen to me whine. It could be much worse, of course. At this point, though, what I need is some fresh projects; I’m getting burned out on Hellgate.
Says in his bio he does magic tricks, something FSS could do with about now. Since it was a few weeks since the blog post was made, we sincerely hope the situation has improved by now.
Source: Google Cache
Via: Flagshipped
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Comments
88 days ago
I think everyone is aware of the fact that if the game would have been released around now, it would have received a much better reception, and probably a bigger player base as well. =(
89 days ago
If it had had that much extra development time it might actually have been finished and then, you're right, it would not have been slammed so much.
But remember, if you don't like the game then you're what's wrong with game fans today.
But remember, if you don't like the game then you're what's wrong with game fans today.
89 days ago
All they have to do is release an expansion instead of just adding new sub content. Package up the sub content, charge for it boxed. That way they'll get a new review.
It's better than it was, it's simply not that awesome still though. The unique items still seem to have as much imagination put into them as going "hey, let's name all our unique items after people at Community Day!!"
Imagination is more the problem now. When the bugs are gone, the gameplay is fun, but the story is so shallow and the background and lore just don't exist.
It's better than it was, it's simply not that awesome still though. The unique items still seem to have as much imagination put into them as going "hey, let's name all our unique items after people at Community Day!!"
Imagination is more the problem now. When the bugs are gone, the gameplay is fun, but the story is so shallow and the background and lore just don't exist.
89 days ago
whats so depressing is that if this game had been released in the past month or so rather than last October it wouldn't have been slammed so badly by both reviewers and its own gamers. It seems like the people on the official forums don't even play the game nearly as much as they just ***** about it.
89 days ago
This is cleary written when this guy was in a bad mood, but it doesn't bode well for the Hellgate project at all. Its becoming more unlikely by the day that this game is ever going to recover (at least in the western markets).
I think the thing that caused this was mainly the fact that they wanted to do to much and where forced to put it out with to little.
I think the thing that caused this was mainly the fact that they wanted to do to much and where forced to put it out with to little.
