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Disco Elysium creative lead Robert Kurvitz was quietly fired from ZA/UM in late 2021, files lawsuit against them

ColCol

Arcane
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
1,731
Sad about recent events, it's clear from when DE was in its early dev days that it was really something the team was placing everything they had into the project, and I think it showed in the end. I can't say any new effort will really match that lol. I can't imagine what a game like DE will become with too many hands in the pot.
 
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Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
13,664
I just hope that Prime Junta is doing fine. He was really happy there :/
He is. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, he wrote a gushing blog post about the place two months ago. He knows these chumps were fired long ago and doesn't care. :)
Curious to know whether Prime Junta played through Disco Elysium a second time, or if it remains the best computer game he's ever played once. :M
 

Terenty

Liturgist
Joined
Nov 29, 2018
Messages
1,493
"So far we've only managed to show you a tiny, insignificant corner of it: the district of Martinaise in Revachol West, on Insulinde. I can not begin to tell you how introductory it is. ("Disco Elysium" means "I learn Elysium"). It's small. A matchbox world. It's all we had money for.
Yet because of You - you angel, you legend, our comrade in arms - because of your interest in our idea, we get to see more of it. Jamrock, I hope. And then to other isolas.


Thank you. We hope you enjoy the Final Cut.
-

Robert Kurvitz


Fuck, that hurts :negative:
 

Longes

Augur
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
448
Real communist video games haven't been tried.
Disco Elysium is objectively the most communist video game, because the story of the game is a story of a group of communist gathering together to build a communist game, before the head communist grabbed the bag and left everyone else to starve. I've been digging and cackling for the whole week.

There was a man named Kaur Kender, executive producer on Disco Elysium. Kender is an advertisement mogul in Estonia, but he's also a radical leftist novelist, famous for his very radical and very edgy writing. Edgy to the point that in 2016 Kender got charged with creating child pornography but was later acquitted (because it was in writing). Here comes the cackle point number one: Kender got his breakthrough in business by commercializing and selling communist iconography.

Somewhere around 2009, Kaur Kender meets Robert Kurvitz, future lead writer of Disco Elysium, and they found the ZA/UM cultural association with their mutual friends. Kender helps Kurvitz write a novel "The Terrible and Sacred Air", but it bombs horribly, selling only 1000 copies, and Kurvitz becomes a depressed alcoholic.

In 2013, there was a state-owned newspaper Sirp. Kaur Kender is friends with the culture minister Rein Lang, and wants more cultural clout. Kender is famous as an author in Estonia, but he's not respected as an author in Estonia. Lang also wants more cultural clout. He's a culture minister, but the more media you control the better politician you become. The newspaper Sirp has lots of cultural clout, but it wants an editor. The previous editor-in-chief retired, and there's currently an open contest for a new editor. So Kender and Lang help each other out. Lang uses his pull in the government to bypass the contest and directly appoint Kender as the new editor-in-chief. Kender immediately fires the entire staff of the newspaper and replaces it with his friends from ZA/UM, including Kurvitz, who starts spending considerable page count printing his own poems.

This becomes a public scandal. A public scandal bad enough that Rein Lang steps down as the culture minister, on accusations of nepotism and abusing his position. Because the public and Sirp's friends in the media call out both that Lang is turning Sirp into his mouthpiece, and that ZA/UM have been shits to the employees of Sirp. Within a month, the communist takeover of Sirp falls apart and ZA/UM flee the paper.

A few more years pass, and ZA/UM decide to turn Kurvitz's failed book into a video game. Kaur Kender sells his Ferrari to get starting capital and founds ZA/UM Ltd, which he still owns and is still the director of the company. Kender's connections lead to Tõnis Haavel being involved (he's the second executive producer of Disco Elysium). Tõnis Haavel is the guy convicted for investment fraud, and Martin Luiga's bitter post paints both of them as the masterminds behind the takeover of ZA/UM. Things get even funnier because Kender and Haavel manage to attract investment from Margus Linnamäe - an Estonian pharma oligarch with a history of financing center-right party Isamaa, and killing healthcare reforms that threaten his pharma business.

Fast forward to 2021, Kurvitz is still an alcoholic, while Kender has left Estonia completely and moved to London, where the new headquarters of ZA/UM is. Kender is the owner of the company, and the company is the owner of the Disco IP. His old friends, who failed at every art project for two decades except for Disco Elysium, are no longer necessary - the studio got loads of money and keeps growing. So Kender cuts Kurvitz and Rostov out of the company, and initiates legal action against Kurvitz to get the rights for the book too. Helen Hindpere, writer on Disco Elysium, gets promoted to Lead Writer for the sequel, but is also fired within a year. Being now located in London, Kender proceeds to fire every alcoholic Estonian bum from the company, and is replacing them with hip and wealthy British anarcho-communists from good schools with good names.

FeTt643VEAAaBNW

FeTt645VIAE4645


And some of them conclusively prove that Harry was right - women are bourgeois:
zeNc2zr.png

JQqsMra.png

FMvqC-MWQAIM7-q.jpg
 
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Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
100,751
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. 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
Whew.

Being now located in London, Kurvitz proceeds to fire every alcoholic Estonian bum from the company, and is replacing them with hip and wealthy British anarcho-communists from good schools with good names.

You mean Kender here.
 

Longes

Augur
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
448
ZA/UM is done for.
I'll believe it when I see it. Blizzard's been getting grilled for years now for all the worker rape, and the gormless masses still ran to play Overwatch 2 as soon as it was released. "Um, akthually there's no ethical consumption under capitalism so it doesn't matter if I give Blizzard money or not".
Will Disco Elysium 2 be a worthy successor? Probably not. Will Disco Elysium 2 be commercially successful? It very well might be!
 
Joined
Jan 14, 2018
Messages
50,754
Codex Year of the Donut
ZA/UM is done for.
I'll believe it when I see it. Blizzard's been getting grilled for years now for all the worker rape, and the gormless masses still ran to play Overwatch 2 as soon as it was released. "Um, akthually there's no ethical consumption under capitalism so it doesn't matter if I give Blizzard money or not".
Will Disco Elysium 2 be a worthy successor? Probably not. Will Disco Elysium 2 be commercially successful? It very well might be!
Blizzard's only sin was creating terrible games, I don't care who is drinking the breast milk.
 
Self-Ejected

Dadd

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 20, 2022
Messages
2,727
ZA/UM is done for.
I'll believe it when I see it. Blizzard's been getting grilled for years now for all the worker rape, and the gormless masses still ran to play Overwatch 2 as soon as it was released. "Um, akthually there's no ethical consumption under capitalism so it doesn't matter if I give Blizzard money or not".
Will Disco Elysium 2 be a worthy successor? Probably not. Will Disco Elysium 2 be commercially successful? It very well might be!
Blizzard's only sin was creating terrible games, I don't care who is drinking the breast milk.
I doubt most Overwatch players care about office activities other than a relatively small number of redditors and twitter users who look for such drama. Other than a few recent failures Blizzard is good at making products that are addictive for their target audience. Disco Elysium 2 would likely have to be a worthy successor for their audience for it to be commercially successful.
 

Longes

Augur
Joined
Jan 13, 2013
Messages
448
But yeah. The current story on Disco is that Mr. Evrart helps you find your gun, and then Mr. Evrart takes your gun, and your badge, and your IP.
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
21,991
Real communist video games haven't been tried.
Disco Elysium is objectively the most communist video game, because the story of the game is a story of a group of communist gathering together to build a communist game, before the head communist grabbed the bag and left everyone else to starve. I've been digging and cackling for the whole week.

There was a man named Kaur Kender, executive producer on Disco Elysium. Kender is an advertisement mogul in Estonia, but he's also a radical leftist novelist, famous for his very radical and very edgy writing. Edgy to the point that in 2016 Kender got charged with creating child pornography but was later acquitted (because it was in writing). Here comes the cackle point number one: Kender got his breakthrough in business by commercializing and selling communist iconography.

Somewhere around 2009, Kaur Kender meets Robert Kurvitz, future lead writer of Disco Elysium, and they found the ZA/UM cultural association with their mutual friends. Kender helps Kurvitz write a novel "The Terrible and Sacred Air", but it bombs horribly, selling only 1000 copies, and Kurvitz becomes a depressed alcoholic.

In 2013, there was a state-owned newspaper Sirp. Kaur Kender is friends with the culture minister Rein Lang, and wants more cultural clout. Kender is famous as an author in Estonia, but he's not respected as an author in Estonia. Lang also wants more cultural clout. He's a culture minister, but the more media you control the better politician you become. The newspaper Sirp has lots of cultural clout, but it wants an editor. The previous editor-in-chief retired, and there's currently an open contest for a new editor. So Kender and Lang help each other out. Lang uses his pull in the government to bypass the contest and directly appoint Kender as the new editor-in-chief. Kender immediately fires the entire staff of the newspaper and replaces it with his friends from ZA/UM, including Kurvitz, who starts spending considerable page count printing his own poems.

This becomes a public scandal. A public scandal bad enough that Rein Lang steps down as the culture minister, on accusations of nepotism and abusing his position. Because the public and Sirp's friends in the media call out both that Lang is turning Sirp into his mouthpiece, and that ZA/UM have been shits to the employees of Sirp. Within a month, the communist takeover of Sirp falls apart and ZA/UM flee the paper.

A few more years pass, and ZA/UM decide to turn Kurvitz's failed book into a video game. Kaur Kender sells his Ferrari to get starting capital and founds ZA/UM Ltd, which he still owns and is still the director of the company. Kender's connections lead to Tõnis Haavel being involved (he's the second executive producer of Disco Elysium). Tõnis Haavel is the guy convicted for investment fraud, and Martin Luiga's bitter post paints both of them as the masterminds behind the takeover of ZA/UM. Things get even funnier because Kender and Haavel manage to attract investment from Margus Linnamäe - an Estonian pharma oligarch with a history of financing center-right party Isamaa, and killing healthcare reforms that threaten his pharma business.

Fast forward to 2021, Kurvitz is still an alcoholic, while Kender has left Estonia completely and moved to London, where the new headquarters of ZA/UM is. Kender is the owner of the company, and the company is the owner of the Disco IP. His old friends, who failed at every art project for two decades except for Disco Elysium, are no longer necessary - the studio got loads of money and keeps growing. So Kender cuts Kurvitz and Rostov out of the company, and initiates legal action against Kurvitz to get the rights for the book too. Helen Hindpere, writer on Disco Elysium, gets promoted to Lead Writer for the sequel, but is also fired within a year. Being now located in London, Kender proceeds to fire every alcoholic Estonian bum from the company, and is replacing them with hip and wealthy British anarcho-communists from good schools with good names.

FeTt643VEAAaBNW

FeTt645VIAE4645


And some of them conclusively prove that Harry was right - women are bourgeois:
zeNc2zr.png

JQqsMra.png

FMvqC-MWQAIM7-q.jpg
First and only mistake here was letting a Kender run your company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kender_(Dragonlance)
It was only a matter of time.
 

Stupid Man

Novice
Joined
Jun 1, 2004
Messages
20

Serus

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 16, 2005
Messages
7,121
Location
Small but great planet of Potatohole
I don’t think places like the Codex were very productive for his mental health
They're not productive for anyone's health... People are constantly shitting on W3 and Disco and both were selected as the Codex GOTYs, pretty hilarious xD
It's almost like people are lurking, voting for GOTY, and avoiding the loonies who are the regular clientele.

It's almost like some of the people genuinely interested and knowledgeable of CRPGs criticise some games they don't like. Then lurkers came to vote. Thank God, they aren't numerous enough to make Bethesda and CDP's games win every poll.

RPG CODEX is excellent for one's mental health! I swear! It just happens to attract a lot of crazy people. However they mostly stick to general discussion. In gaming there are mostly trolls, not runaways from mental institutions. Also people with too much time to spare, like myself.

Who the hell took "let me think..." rating away? Or is it me being more blind than usual? Either way, give it back!
 
Self-Ejected

Dadd

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 20, 2022
Messages
2,727
And some of them conclusively prove that Harry was right - women are bourgeois:
zeNc2zr.png

JQqsMra.png

FMvqC-MWQAIM7-q.jpg
What was this Berrak person's involvement in the game?
 

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