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The Outer Worlds Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Obsidian as Blizzard feeder studio. Work for a couple years at Obsidian, get promoted, then hop to Blizzard so you don't have to start off in an Overwatch Boob Physics Adjuster entry level position.
 

LESS T_T

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Codex 2014
Reminds me of this old Glassdoor review on Blizzard: https://kotaku.com/5940672/pissed-off-employees-bash-pretty-much-every-major-video-game-company

Regarding career development, I asked the lead game designer for WoW about what it would take for me to move from being a tools programmer to a game developer. My problem was I had no experience, and all job requirements say you need at least 2 shipped titles. Guess what his answer was!? He told me "to be quite honest, you'll probably have to leave Blizzard, get some experience else-where, then come back to work here". You've gotta be freakin' kidding me if you consider that career growth, and advancement opportunities.
 

Ravn7

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Have they been hiring new writers? Or do they go Bethesda way and address the criticism regarding poor writing by ditching the story altogether?
 
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FeelTheRads

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Obsidian as Blizzard feeder studio. Work for a couple years at Obsidian, get promoted, then hop to Blizzard so you don't have to start off in an Overwatch Boob Physics Adjuster entry level position.

Huh, then Boyarsky must not have been good enough and was sent to the Obsidian Training Camp.

:philosoraptor:
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Blizzard of all fucking places. Place to go as a developer to die? Sit off the rest of your years with a nice pay, but with no creative output at all.
 

FreeKaner

Prophet of the Dumpsterfire
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Obsidian is bleeding talent left and right like a haemorrhage, by the time they are done with their on-going dumpsterfire only Feargus and Sawyer will remain in the company with their bi-gendered harem of aspiring SoCal writers. Take-Two will absorb their now main project while Blizzard will suck the soul out of all the developers and writers with any hint of promise.

It's over, and time to move on.

It's true. Let Blizzard do what it's destined to do. End Obsidian.
 

santino27

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My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Is Anthony Davis on it?

He was - unfortunately, he's also leaving Obsidian (this week - to Blizzard). End of an era. :(
That sucks. (Not for him, presumably, but in general.)
Wouldn't it suck for him too? Just a few months ago he was defending Obsidian and talking about how much he loves working there.

Unless he was forced out, he presumably left because he wanted to, so I'm assuming working at Blizzard is an opportunity he is excited about.

Pity they don't make games I care about at all, but oh well.
 
Developer
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Unfortunately, that Blizzard advancement quote is true of a number of companies, and it's also true of salaries (it's an unfortunate fact that, in some companies, if an employee leaves for a higher-paying similar position at another company, then return to the same company, they'll often be hired back on at a payscale that would never be what they got had they remained at the company - this happened at Obsidian). This is also the easiest way to get promoted - again, you can get a more senior role easier by leaving a company and coming back, which is bizarre, but true.

Also, with the Blizzard quote, the other challenge is the titles they produce take a long time to make, so the idea of having 2 shipped titles could mean (or did mean) 5-10 years if someone remained at the company (this was at the time).

THEN, you have the issue of entrenched leads - places like Naughty Dog, sometimes Blizzard, and especially small companies, there's little room for promotion or advancement upwards b/c the leads are already set and there's not enough projects for people seeking more responsibility (that's why DLCs and small titles at a company can be good - they can set up new lead positions, even if the projects are small).

Neither Rich or Anthony were forced out. While I wouldn't want to speak to the reasons (they can), it's hard to ignore that Orange County is a very, very expensive place to live, and salaries need to match that.

So if you're only get cost of living raises/minimal raises each year (even if your review is excellent), you'll be subsisting, not living, and a few years of that and you'll find yourself in a hole you can't get out of.

That said, both opportunities at Blizzard sound great for programmers, so god speed.
 
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oldmanpaco

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VaporWare.jpg
 

Flou

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Unfortunately, that Blizzard advancement quote is true of a number of companies, and it's also true of salaries (it's an unfortunate fact that, in some companies, if an employee leaves for a higher-paying similar position at another company, then return to the same company, they'll often be hired back on at a payscale that would never be what they got had they remained at the company - this happened at Obsidian). This is also the easiest way to get promoted - again, you can get a more senior role easier by leaving a company and coming back, which is bizarre, but true.

From what I've heard from my friends that culture is quite common even in the Finnish gaming/IT industry, but then again some of those companies here are US based. After certain amount of years and shipped titles, you should switch to a different company to get a bigger paycheck.
 

Latelistener

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Obsidian as Blizzard feeder studio. Work for a couple years at Obsidian, get promoted, then hop to Blizzard so you don't have to start off in an Overwatch Boob Physics Adjuster entry level position.
With the recent news about the RDR2 animated horse testicles that "shrink in cold weather" I feel like Boob Physics Adjuster is not the worst thing that could happen.
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Getting to program that you must have been on someones shit list.
 

oldmanpaco

Master of Siestas
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Unfortunately, that Blizzard advancement quote is true of a number of companies, and it's also true of salaries (it's an unfortunate fact that, in some companies, if an employee leaves for a higher-paying similar position at another company, then return to the same company, they'll often be hired back on at a payscale that would never be what they got had they remained at the company - this happened at Obsidian). This is also the easiest way to get promoted - again, you can get a more senior role easier by leaving a company and coming back, which is bizarre, but true.

From what I've heard from my friends that culture is quite common even in the Finnish gaming/IT industry, but then again some of those companies here are US based. After certain amount of years and shipped titles, you should switch to a different company to get a bigger paycheck.

This is pretty much true in any field.
 
Developer
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From what I've heard from my friends that culture is quite common even in the Finnish gaming/IT industry, but then again some of those companies here are US based. After certain amount of years and shipped titles, you should switch to a different company to get a bigger paycheck.

I will say one other advantage of this (for the person leaving) is that you also start fresh at a new place, where your skills/accomplishments are recognized for the level they are at now vs. when you started at the previous company.

This is something I saw occasionally back at Interplay (Black Isle and otherwise) and at Obsidian, too – some people would only be perceived as they were when they were first hired (in short, once you’d started in QA, you were always seen as the QA guy, even if you’re Lead Producer - and your opinions and authority would be judged as such).

Switching jobs sometimes allows you to wash away that perception.

My recommendation to folks was that if you kept getting the cost-of-living/1% raises consistently (or your review, while positive, reads like a broken record year after year), you might want to consider other options.

Even if you like the place where you work, they may be taking you for granted - or even less than that.
 

V_K

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at a Nowhere near you
Unfortunately, that Blizzard advancement quote is true of a number of companies, and it's also true of salaries (it's an unfortunate fact that, in some companies, if an employee leaves for a higher-paying similar position at another company, then return to the same company, they'll often be hired back on at a payscale that would never be what they got had they remained at the company - this happened at Obsidian). This is also the easiest way to get promoted - again, you can get a more senior role easier by leaving a company and coming back, which is bizarre, but true.

From what I've heard from my friends that culture is quite common even in the Finnish gaming/IT industry, but then again some of those companies here are US based. After certain amount of years and shipped titles, you should switch to a different company to get a bigger paycheck.
I even heard horror stories about universities, where administrators would only give you a pay raise if you show them a job offer from a different university with higher pay on it (in the US, naturally. Euro unis mostly have fixed payscales and thank god for that).
 

Latelistener

Arcane
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Also, with the Blizzard quote, the other challenge is the titles they produce take a long time to make, so the idea of having 2 shipped titles could mean (or did mean) 5-10 years if someone remained at the company (this was at the time).
I think of this as a problem rather than a challenge. There is simply no justification for their games to have such yuge development cycles. They aren't even doing anything special.
 
Joined
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Chicago, IL, Kwa
Pay raises, what are they?
tbh given the quality of Obsidian games, I would say their employees don't necessarily deserve them. "Owner sabotage" covers some problems, but not all.


Presumably though there have been a number of Obsidianites who did deserve them, did not get them, and then decided "well fuck this shit then" and left. John Gonzales is probably the most high profile example. The problem with excusing "owner sabotage" is that if it is sustained over a decade+ it will likely indirectly create a lot of problems that, at least on the surface, have nothing to do with management.
 

Quillon

Arcane
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Dec 15, 2016
Messages
5,214
some people would only be perceived as they were when they were first hired (in short, once you’d started in QA, you were always seen as the QA guy, even if you’re Lead Producer - and your opinions and authority would be judged as such).

Vice versa for you then; you must have been judged and respected as RPG writing god by your fellow developers(and all across the industry and all over the interwebz) in all those miserable 16 or so years at Interplay and Obs, which is why it took so long to break away, right? Unless... if you had started as an office boy at Interplay..? :P
 

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