And yet, people keep offering up their opinions. Opinions such as “stop talking”.
I have to completely disagree on that point. That they are willing to make wholesale changes to basic game systems immediately after release speaks directly to the fact that there is no core design there. It’s all rough edges.
And what is informing these wholesale changes? Are they implementing stuff that gets the most votes on the forums? Are they carefully considering how each new, far-reaching change impacts all the other moving parts? I have no faith in their ability to make good decisions on these issues, since their decision-making to date has been so poor.
Major kudos to Troy for not pulling any punches on that podcast. Unfortunately, though, if we take Brad at his word, the only explanation for this disastrous release is that he and his internal team are just, hate to say it, clueless. He talks repeatedly about being so in love with the game that he couldn’t see the forest for the trees, but what exactly was he in love with? Playing through the beta and post-release the various problems were instantly, painfully obvious. It boggles the mind that Brad proudly describes himself as a hardcore gamer, but failed to see any of those problems. Especially when the financial well-being of his company apparently depended on releasing a solid, polished product.
Sarkus
5043
Why do people keep saying this? The “financial well-being” of Stardock has nothing to do with the success or failure of this game. The non-gaming part of the company is by all accounts doing fine. So is Impulse. The failure of Elemental impacts the game development part of Stardock, and apparently only to the degree that it means a planned and at least partially complete expansion of that division of the company will not happen.
Stardock could announce tomorrow that they are abandoning Elemental and giving everyone their money back. They could even announce they are not going to develop games anymore. And the rest of Stardock, the part that makes most of the money, would be fine.
Cubit
5044
You sure about this? I’ve heard rumblings that since the release of Vista/Windows 7, Stardock’s customization products are not in demand like they once were.
Sorry, make that “financial well-being of their game development division.”
By those same accounts, beta 4 might be crap, but the secret internal build is the dogs bollocks.
Sarkus
5047
People have speculated about that, but it’s pure speculation with no proof behind it. If you listen to Troy’s podcast, for example, Brad notes that every Dell computer ships with Stardock software on it. He also mentions that they have enterprise software deals with other major companies as well. Stardock is not just games and windows customization products.
Sarkus
5048
If you can show me the press reports where Stardock is or has layed off anyone outside of the games division, then we can talk about that further.
Do you really care about the non gaming division of stardock? I mean, we aren’t here to talk about window maker or icon fucker or whatever shit they make.
In the context of Qt3, stardock means the games division.
Oghier
5050
I think there are two links:
-
Stardock can survive a bad launch because they finance themselves
-
Some people find schadenfreude so delicious, they want Stardock as a whole to go under, and they enjoy rumours that the non-games division may have problems
Sarkus
5051
When you talk about the financial well-being of Brad’s company, we are talking about all parts of it, not just the gaming part. And the non-gaming part gives Stardock flexibility in dealing with things that a game only developer does not have. So its relevant.
The rest of this thread should be deleted and this post of JM’s become post #1. The entire thread summed up in one line.
rezaf
5054
I finally listened to the podcast as well last night.
Brad sure does a LOT of talking, and Troy and Rob hardly ever get the chance to ask/say something.
Although at more than one time, all the talking appears to be there to dodge a question asked or dance around it, overall it’s interesting to listen to.
Some things that stuck out to me …
The whole magic is dull ™ thing. We discussed that here, in this very thread, while talking was still cautiously positive and thus Brad himself was still around. Heck, I even made a few suggestions myself that Brad himself wrote were interesting and he’d see if they could be put in by the time of release. However, somehow he appearently hasn’t understood what the difference between boring and interesting is in this regard, and he even claims the spells had been fixed according to player feedback for the release version (vs. Beta4) … but then quicky drops the point to talk about loads of interface improvements.
Like Troy, I’m not saying Brad is lying, but I still have a veeeery hard time coming to terms with the depiction that everybody was too close to the project to see it’s flaws.
Especially since during his long speech about the improvements after Beta4, he cites so many examples of stuff that had been changed which OBVIOUSLY had totally sucked before …
Why is it that the dude renowned for his great AI coding skills (personally, I never found the GalCiv AI THAT great, but maybe I just haven’t played enough) changes major game features so that the AI can better cope with them?
And about all the announced changes down the road in general…
This.
After this whole shipping window debacle, maybe SD should embrace the “way of the indie” and, like many others in that segment, release their games digital only at first and (possibly) boxed later?
In the bottom line …
… JM’s correct.
rezaf
DaleKent
5055
If the CEO of the company interviewed you looking for heads to roll after a catastrophe project public launch, and the CEO asked you “did you know my pet project was crap?” You’re going to say “No sir, I didn’t know. I was to involved in the code to see the whole program.”
Jarmo
5056
She’s doing her job. If I was responsible for Stardock PR I would certainly want to be there when the very outspoken CEO of the company is interviewed about the many issues with the latest product launch. To not be there would be irresponsible.
At the very least, she needs to know what goes down in the interview. She wouldn’t be able to do her job effectively otherwise. What if Wardell said or promised something in the interview she was not aware of? Or took a new, controversial stand? It is her phone that would be ringing off the hook. It is a lot better to be there in person than to rely on hearsay later or in the worst case be blindsided by the resulting podcast.
Of course, she would also be able to immediately react and comment on any issues that came up (even though that didn’t happen much this time). It is useless to have PR persons if they are not allowed to manage the public communications of the company. That is what they are there for and that is their specialty and area of expertise. They know how to present things in a way that benefits the company if at all possible. That’s why they are hired for the job and being on the podcast is just a part of that job.
P.S. I felt Ot3 is a better place to discuss this. If you disagree, I can move my comment to the Flash of Steel comments.
Sarkus
5057
Game devs and other high profile people are on podcasts all the time. This is the first time I’ve heard one where a PR rep was there as well. How many Flash of Steel podcasts have involved PR reps? Or Gamers with Jobs podcasts?
Well are of course assuming the non-gaming part of the company does allow Stardock to do things only a game-only developer can’t. And these things are exactly… well we don’t know. Stardock has Impulse going, and has done pretty well in most of its products pre-Elemental (aside from Demigod). Unfortunately we don’t really know what their finances are, or how much word-of-mouth was supposed to fuel Elemental’s sales (though that factor is apparently where the bulk of their cash flow was supposed to come from, based on the company’s reaction to lay off potentially a second development team and peripheral Elemental staff, not to mention possibly support staff). I haven’t seen numbers of any of this and I doubt Brad will give anything out.
It certainly hurt Stardock’s game division and I’m assuming that’s just as important to the well-being of the company as its non-gaming division. But those assumptions above sounded like they were big, maybe too big (and perhaps too unrealistic). While it may not financially ruin the company (hopefully if planned correctly), it undoubtedly had a major impact.
— Alan
rezaf
5059
It was nice when she said: “Brad is active around the internet on forums. Maybe even a little too much so!!!1111111ONEONEONE”. ;)
rezaf
PR devs are present at interviews all the time. You may not hear from them but they are there. High profile people and game devs simply cannot do interviews and other scheduling alone if their company isn’t represented by a PR firm or has internal PR people (if they did, these PR people aren’t doing their jobs, or aren’t allowed to, and would quit or leave).
Plus it was abundantly clear that Brad needed a PR minder and they already pay for a PR person and have for some time. This PR person probably threw a fit of epic proportions after the initial review mix-up and this was the result.
— Alan
