Tag Archives: Migratory Fluxes

Wandering devs – Rich Vogel leaves SWG

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From SirBruce on Grimwell the news that even the executive producer of SWG is taking off to land somewhere else unspecified:

I just got an email from Rich Vogel saying he has left SOE as his contract was coming up for renewel and he wanted to move on. Given that he was still representing SOE at GDC, he must have made the decision about that time, perhaps at the same time Gordon Walton and Johnathan Hanna left. He had been Executive Producer of Star Wars Galaxies.

Let me know when the part B of the news will be available.

For now I still notice how “the movement of devs is inversely proportional to the health of the game”. Already covered.

(I cannot form a better principle in english but I do not mean that the movement of devs is a sign that something is going wrong. What I believe is, instead, that the movement of devs is the CAUSE why the game won’t be good. Just as a precisation.)

Somewhere, Aracnakat is giggling to herself

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Does someone remember Katricia?

She was the only Community Manager for World of Warcraft till July of the last year and she was also doing a good work for what it was possible. Then she left for no apparent reason and I never found any other information about where she landed, or about the reason why she decided to leave. Did she dance with Caydiem? (Caydiem came to WoW from Horizon, you know. Check the note near the end of the link)

Some more informations come from an habitue of Corpnews. An unconfirmed rumor but that I really have no reasons to doubt about. It comes as a comment to the drama of the last days that is worth archiving in its entirety.

J.:
Somewhere, Aracnakat (or Katrice or whatever) is giggling to herself.

Faust:
She doesn’t know about it… or she doesn’t care. I’ve been grouping with her and her Hubby every night this week and there’s been no mention of it. Speaking of great mysteries, there isn’t one there either. Her husband got a job requiring relocation, she went with him.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… I’ll give you an alternate viewpoint on the whole thing: I’ve been playing online games for nye on an eon now (yadda yadda yadda) and I have yet to see a game where somebody who knows somebody didn’t get juiced by the Dev’s/GM’s in one way or another. Maybe it’s Beta Accounts, Little Upgrades, a little hint here or there, or tickets to the E3 party. Maybe its a little bit of inside info which points people toward an unreleased objective. Or even just paying a little more attention to their observations about gameplay and using those opinions to allocate resources. All “special treatment”.

And ya know what? It’s OK. It’s perfectly fine. It is not a big deal. These people are more than paying customers.

That said, I must admit that the reason it’s OK is that situations like this one blow way out of proportion and keep it all in check… so I guess that’s OK too. Anyone getting overly excited about it is a lamer.

uh… you know, like making a front page article about it (?)

“Evocare” is PvP Lead Designer on WoW

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Nothing is more horribly incestuous than this industry.

12 March of the last year, Tom “Evocare” Chilton, Lead Designer of Ultima Online, leaves EA along with many other devs after the decision to close the Origin studios, in Austin. There were already voices about him joining the World of Warcraft team to work as a Senior Lead Designer.

Today Blizzard publishes another list of excuses to justify that colossal fuckup that the “Honor System” represents. It’s not anymore just “Kalgan”, it’s Tom Chilton. The image header reads: “Insider Interview with a Lead Designer on World of Warcraft”.

He was behind the most awful period of UO (Lord British Return, Age of Shadow). It makes sense, all the pieces are coming together.

Now tell me how can we be surprised if the industry doesn’t even offer NEW screwups.

Follow ups to news

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The first news is the destination of Jessica Mulligan. We know she left the AC franchise now we know she arrived at Nevrax, to work as Executive Producer (for a change, yadda-yadda) for the unhyped Ryzom:

PARIS, FRANCE – April 27, 2005 – Nevrax, the premiere developer of the ground breaking massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Saga of Ryzom, announced the addition of Jessica Mulligan as Executive Producer of The Saga of Ryzom.

A 20 year veteran of the MMG industry, Ms. Mulligan most recently worked for Turbine, Inc., developer of such titles as Asheron’s Call and Asheron’s Call 2, as Executive Producer and Creative Director for Asheron’s Call. Prior to joining Turbine, Ms. Mulligan held a variety of industry positions, including President of the Themis Group, Director of Operations for MM3D, Inc. and as a Director on Ultima Online for Origin Systems..

Maybe I could check the game soon but back in beta it seemed a collection of dispersive and ineffective design. Good premises but a complete lack of appeal.

The other “news” is again a follow-up to what I posted just a few hours ago as a warning. “Beware WoW’s battlegrounds because they will become another spectacular fuck up.”

Well, the first confirmation arrives from an official FAQ posted about the Honor System. This part in particular:

Repeated killing: you only get full CP for killing the same player once per day. The second kill on the same player on the same day gives 75% of the CP, the third 50% and the fourth 25%. Subsequent kills give no CP at all.

Ahah, have fun in the battlegrounds farming the same players for zero points. Priceless.

Jessica Mulligan quits

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As spoiled through Grimwell it seems that Jessica Mulligan is leaving Turbine. She “was” the Executive Producer of the doomed Asheron’s Call franchise and also one of the few valuable persons in the industry with some brain. This is why I commented the news with a “standing ovation”, as an encouragement. Whatever will happen I hope it will be for the better.

The news came from Asheron’s Call April letter from the team.

2: I’m leaving the AC Team and Turbine. Today is my last day here.

Before the conspiracy theorists drown out the rest of us, this is in no way connected with the launch delay discussed above. In fact, I, among others, lobbied hard to get that delay and the fact that we got it – even though Turbine is going to take a financial hit on marketing and distribution money that has already been spent and a confidence hit with some of your fellow players – should prove that this company is committed to giving you quality. In the old adage of “You can have it good or you can have it Tuesday,” the company chose the former. How many times have we seen companies choose Tuesday, instead? It doesn’t guarantee a flawless launch, but it does reduce the risks to one and that’s the best any of us can hope for.

So, no, the reason I’m leaving isn’t about the delay; my reasons are my own and don’t involve dark portents. (Remember, the Illuminati have nothing to do with my leaving. No, really. Honest.) In the meantime, you are in good hands with srand as Live Producer, backed up by Ibn, meanbeard, Scenario and the rest of the crew, some of the best developers I’ve ever worked with. Almost all of them came to the team as AC players – one of you and a part of you, in fact – with years of experience in the game; I don’t think any other MMORPG can say that about their Live Team.

I’ll still be around the industry, but I’m going to miss the team and I’m going to miss you guys. AC is still my favorite online RPG; I played it long before joining Turbine and I’ll be exploring Dereth years from now. For all that a few of you are the most cantankerous players on the face of the earth, as a whole you’re the best community I’ve been part of to date. After nineteen years and being part of more MMOGs than perhaps anyone in the industry, that’s saying something. It has been a privilege to serve you, truly.

And who knows? Maybe one day I’ll actually make it out of the Training Academy on Darktide without getting ganked.

– Jessica