Comments on: Burn Them AT THE STAKE!

By: Robert Lever

Robert Lever — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:32:17 +0000

To tell your peers that something in your game sucks, requires only balls – not a bad attitude or poor morale.

If you care about something, you try to make it as good as you can.

That being said, in my opinion, Paul is right. There is nothing worse than working side by side someone who has no passion for what they’re doing and are dragging down the spirits of all those around them.

By: C Is For Credits And That’s Good Enough For Me « Broken Toys

C Is For Credits And That’s Good Enough For Me « Broken Toys — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:49:45 +0000

[...] a heretic in good standing, which means that under the Barnett Inquisition, I would have been burned AT THE STAKE while monks and executive producers would have chanted in [...]

By: blachawk

blachawk — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:25:25 +0000

“The FLAW with both Barnett and by extrapolation sadly WAR is that Barnett cannot make this mental determination himself. He seems to think that his closest competitor got lucky, and since he can’t see how that happened he will not look at it.”

You hit the nail on the head, drove it through the board, and killed the handicapped orphan standing behind it. The problem is not unique to WAR though.

I am particularly annoyed by people who say WoW’s success was mainly due to polish.

By: An Important NDA Announcement « Broken Toys

An Important NDA Announcement « Broken Toys — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:16:53 +0000

[...] this! In other vaguely Warhammer-related news, Shacknews reveals that only people who were NOT burned as heretics will have their names inscribed in the Book of [...]

By: Alby

Alby — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:18:07 +0000

Having ambitions that your skills/resources can’t achieve is one issue (SWG), but it is easier to fix 3 star skill sets than arrogant developers with talent but no drive.

By: Tide

Tide — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 19:29:24 +0000

#11 was just unnecessary. The whole article in fact read to be just a by-line of one guy’s opinions. And it pretty much seemed from someone who 1) has no background in building and *maintaining* consumer software services, 2) won’t be hanging around to help manage the new service once it’s launched.

It’s very easy to leave bodies on the road on a project. It’s more difficult and better business not to do so. Since very often you need the same people to run and grow your service once it’s built. Waterfall thinking is out.

By: dieplskthxbai

dieplskthxbai — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:34:44 +0000

Oh, and shouldn’t it be “…STEAK!!!”? Just for old time’s sake?

By: dieplskthxbai

dieplskthxbai — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:32:54 +0000

You know, Paul’s either a genius or about to be a martyr for his leadership style. WAR flops, he’ll be back to flipping burgers for a while until he figures out who’s going to pay for his services again… Personally, I’m guessing on closer to 1mil+ boxes shipped in the first 45 days and a >80% sub retention rate, which would tend to justify his mgmt style… On the other hand, we could both be wrong. Either way, playing in WAR’s beta just makes me think that they’re onto something good here…

And I love how it’s always the ‘anon’ posters that say neat things like “sub-WoW combat mechanics”, “bland visuals”, and “uninspired world design”. Have fun in WoW, fanboi…

The same clowns would be saying things like ‘Ohgawdithurtzmaieyez’ if the world were to be too bright/different/innovative/etc. You can’t please everyone all the time, but some morons don’t deserve a well lit crosswalk, let alone a game that beats the hell out of anything that Nodiatis could ever become.

-’Zog out

By: Axecleaver

Axecleaver — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 18:30:48 +0000

Does Paul actually have direct reports? An attitude like that in a manager — burn at the stake any who oppose my One True Way or who don’t share my outsized enthusiasm for the project — would be very detrimental to the type of environment he says he wants, one of strong, supportive teamwork where people are all pulling in the same direction. People need to feel they’re working in a supportive, creatively safe environment, where it’s safe to disagree and even to fail.

Paul might be a bright game designer, but he sounds like a terrible manager.

By: Slyfeind

Slyfeind — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:31:00 +0000

Interesting. I’ll weigh in on Paul’s side a bit here, just for a bit of Devil’s Advocacy.

If someone technically brilliant comes on board because he needs the money and doesn’t give a damn about the project, his skills will be wasted. But if you have someone who wants the project to succeed, and wants to learn more, then that’s a bit more valuable than the grumpy gus who just doesn’t care. That three-star enthusiast might just bring the whole team down with him, because it’s downright easy to get jaded over a project. It’s not so easy to turn a jaded person back into someone excited to be there.