DCDW
Member
Damn, I'm in the same boat. Was really holding out even with all the news about it coming recently, but this is enough. Also, 1st time dealing with Epic Games Store and refunds, so I guess I'll see how that goes.
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Mass Effect Andromeda writer Samantha Wallschlaeger hired as new lead writer for Bloodlines 2
- Thread starter xrnzaaas
- Start date
Kamina
Golden Boy
My face is tiredIf you can't rein in your insults, maybe stay off twitter, Samantha - this aged well and not adversarial at all:
Game dev needs a thick skin, not reactionary backlash that makes you look even worse.
How can anyone think that its a good idea to have someone who posts stuff like this as narrative lead?
PleaseWaitStation4
Banned
Hey Hardsuit and Paradox, how about we have a chat with your investors about your intentions on this project and their expected returns... You want to shit on the gaming community and burn the bank's cash in your tired statement?
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
Don't give the fuckers ideas.
Wrath of the Toomics
Member
Hey Hardsuit and Paradox, how about we have a chat with your investors about your intentions on this project and their expected returns... You want to shit on the gaming community and burn the bank's cash in your tired statement?
Probably obvious, but a good move - the money aspect is probably the only thing Tencent cares about. (Except for owning all company companies.)
Not sure if there's other investors beyond them, though (I wouldn't know how to check).
Piku_Ringo
Banned
Nothing wrong with a lady having a bit of fire to her.
In Your Vase
Member
I'm pretty sure Tencent isn't the only one, they probably invested just enough to get a foot in the door (it's not like Riot).
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
Nothing wrong with a lady having a bit of fire to her.
And that's why so many of us enjoy Kayleigh McEnany. The thing though is that she is intelligent and absolutely spits fire with 100% truth-bombs. She comes prepared and tears the media a new one. On the other hand here we have a grifter who simply insults anyone who doesn't like a grifter destroying someone's reputation and stealing his job. Do you see the difference or would you like me to draw you a picture?
GymWolf
Member
PleaseWaitStation4
Banned
To Chris Avellone and the other person who were pressured off the project by the sjw. You have grounds now for a lawsuit: Tortious interference, also known as intentional interference with contractual relations, in the common law of torts, occurs when one person intentionally damages someone else's contractual or business relationships with a third party causing economic harm.
In Your Vase
Member
He should definitely lawyer up (and so should Mitsoda, for other reasons).
Wrath of the Toomics
Member
Based on Paradox forums, they are also hiring a Lead Designer for the game. Now, of all times.
No idea what idiot/fool was the Lead Designer previously, but man, that's a lot of senior management slots that are empty/switched/fired/"desperately needed".
No idea what idiot/fool was the Lead Designer previously, but man, that's a lot of senior management slots that are empty/switched/fired/"desperately needed".
struggler_guts
Member
Yeahh this is the only reason to be hyped for this anymore unfortunately
Wrath of the Toomics
Member
Fun new Glassdoor post about the joys of working at Hardsuit Labs, you just have to scroll through the obviously fake ones written by their HR department, apparently.
It's a pretty harsh review of internal company culture: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Hardsuit-Labs-Reviews-E1030422.htm
It's a pretty harsh review of internal company culture: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Hardsuit-Labs-Reviews-E1030422.htm
M1chl
Currently Gif and Meme Champion
He already appologized, which means that he admited that alegations are true. He should have just kept quiet.
He didn't.
He apologized to his ex-girlfriend for a bad relationship.
He NEVER apologized for any accusations of actual sexual misconduct.
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M1chl
Currently Gif and Meme Champion
But it was in exactly same time as the #meToo starts rolling shit this year, pretty weird...
struggler_guts
Member
Any chance you could copy paste it? Its forcing me to make an account just to look
What?
Of course. It happened during the twitter accusations. With crazy bitch bringing up his bad relationship with his ex to paint him as a bad person (though honestly neither party came out that great imo). Chris apologized to that (being a bad boyfriend nearly a decade ago). End of.
Of course anyone who already has made their mind up about him jumped on that to mean that he apologized in regards to the accusations which is just not true. Accusations that are baseless as
David Cernat
has proven.
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Faithless83
Banned
If that isn't shitting on your fan base I don't know what it is.
Hey Hardsuit and Paradox, how about we have a chat with your investors about your intentions on this project and their expected returns... You want to shit on the gaming community and burn the bank's cash in your tired statement?
Hopefully we can still have the original script on a different game.
Wrath of the Toomics
Member
Here you go, excuse the formatting. Place sounds pretty terrible, overall.
"Generally good people, awful ideas, disruptive elements"
(1 Star)
Former Employee - Programmer in Seattle, WA
Doesn't Recommend
Negative Outlook
No opinion of CEO
I worked at Hardsuit Labs full-time for less than a year
Pros
Most of the people are likeable.
A decent place to start your work in, helpful but overworked co-workers.
The premises are nice and open.
Paradox ensures the company won't go under until the big-name title is completed.
Cons
The company likely won't survive long after they push out their larger products. They know this and try to compensate by having multiple projects on the side. Pay is low.
Most likeable co-workers leave the job after being burnt out by what lies below.
Absurd amounts of turnover. It's more rare to have a weekly report without at least 1 person leaving than it is to have one with no one leaving. I must stress that i've never seen something like this.
The management are clueless, and cannot organize a team.
Some managers are slack-jawed and only seem interested in their social media feed.
Constant bad advice and "no, do it this bad way" over-the-shoulder pestering.
Constant forced crunch time. Doing 9-11 hour days without counting in commute on a static monthly pay with no additional benefits is not fun, especially in this environment.
Zero chance to focus on your work with busybodies trying to micromanage every line of code Zero chance to focus on your work with other busybodies trying to always go on about their perceived differences.
The self-identified "LGBT" people are often nagging at innocent jokes and interrupting co-worker work-related conversations because they feel like they need to inject themselves and their opinion to it. This leads to a divided workplace which the management is unwilling to handle.
Constant murmur by management on how they're so "open", "accepting" and "diverse".
Constant undertones in all speech by management about progressive ideas and ideals even when it comes to completely neutral subjects like programming and gameplay design.
All additions and suggestions are primarily weighted against the former factors instead of whether or not it would fit the series or be conducive to good gameplay.
Obviously false glowing 5-star reviews on Glassdoor.
Advice to Management
Manage your workforce as a group instead of sitting behind a programmer's shoulder and trying to interject dumb ideas. The design and art people mention that this is common there too.
During work hours, control the people who are disruptive or tell them to act even remotely professionally. It's fine to have an open enviroment and expressive freedoms, but when certain people are disruptive to work and constant annoyance to co-workers, they should be dealt with.
Have not dealt with the CEOs so cannot say much about them.
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struggler_guts
Member
Hoooly shit! Part of me wants to believe this is fake from some manchild angry about the personnel changes, but after all that's happened it is very believable...
And so very sad
Wrath of the Toomics
Member
Generic shitposting reviews I don't usually give much credit to, but when it gets more detailed, I least pay attention to the details and see if it's echoed in other recent reviews.
Also, if the person has been there less than a year, that's hardly a good sign (if they were fired, that is - if they quit, that's worse).
Hardsuit does seem to have a high turnover, and employees don't seem to stay there long (which is echoed in other reviews).
I noticed Hardsuit also seems to be forcing a generic 5 star positive review at the top of the page that's out of sequence with the rest of the chronology of reviews. :/
I glanced at the other 5 star reviews, and I agree a number seem fake, one even reads like a "About Us, Please Apply" posting.
Faithless83
Banned
Based on "You'll never enjoy games again and that makes me happy" and the way they showed the original writer the door "out of nowhere", does this really sound fake?
People like this are a cancer to the industry and the reason I try my best to buy Japanese games at full price and avoid games like this. This hateful behavior is not the answer and makes me avoid the so called "inclusive" media in general.
Afterall, This image screams inclusive AS FUCK, right?.
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
Pro-tip. Click "read more", popup appears, just click the x on the popup, done.
In Your Vase
Member
Pretty much this. The idiot shouldn't have apologized for that break up anyway, relationships go bad all the time - and it's even funnier that the accuser SET HIM UP with her friend in the first place. Guess she had a much different view of him once, wonder what happened? /RollsEyes
The way the accusers immediately twisted the apology about the break-up into "guilt" was just how these Twitter mobs operate - all it teaches is never apologize, get a lawyer, or else this shit will keep happening.
rnlval
Member
Human female artwork was substandard.
Ivory Blood
Member
This is fucked up, I wouldn't want to work in such an environment either. Also anyone who tells that SJWs have no effect on the industry is clueless or lying.
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Lord Panda
The Sea is Always Right
Sigh. How do morons like these continue to flop from gig to another, when they've been responsible for such woeful and amateurish writing? Ugh.
A Most Virtuous Cat
Banned
Yea who the heck cares about merit. Got colored heir, ambiguous sexuality and crazy pronouns? Hell yea! Welcome!
In Your Vase
Member
Genuinely curious if HR departments are afraid not to hire such individuals for fear of the backlash.
Vow of Silence
Banned
Golgo 13
The Man With The Golden Dong
Political leaning is directly associated with personality (Based on “Big 5”) — creative people (those high in trait openness, low in conscientiousness) are overwhelmingly liberal. That’s one of the reasons why Hollywood is so disgustingly SJW; reflexive empathy without any granular understanding of reality.
Aesius
Member
Interesting. You don't see it among Japanese devs much, though. I think it's also heavily cultural.
Golgo 13
The Man With The Golden Dong
Very true, and it is. You don't have to be a disgusting SJW if you associate with the "left of center" side of the political spectrum; but since the left is unchecked in it's extremism and inarguably supported and unchallenged by popular media, the extremism is seen as morally virtuous.
But anyway yeah, I love the fact that you can still see beautiful, feminine women in Japanese games; they haven't let political correctness ruin them like a lot of the US/UK have.
Wrath of the Toomics
Member
Another Hardsuit lab review I found (bold isn't mine)
=====================================================================================
I worked at Hardsuit Labs full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
Appreciated the opportunity to work at Hardsuit and now, appreciate the contrast
Paradox can’t let studio fail yet, so there is some job security unless they don’t like you but they won’t tell you until too late
Devs are pretty cool if they stick around and/or aren’t fired but turnover is high regardless
“They try” and “they mean well” is the best thing to say about studio management usually followed by “but…”
Thankful for new opportunity in Seattle, even if in remote section
Cons
Pay is much lower than other Seattle studios
Studio is also cheap with reviews and raises
While “they try”, studio management and production fails more than they should
Managers are hit or miss – some non-existent, rest micromanage or do not task well
No producer mentorship
Managers are cast-offs from failed positions at other companies or failed companies
Studio listens and promotes contractors more than internal team (until they fire them), pay contractors more, too
Lot of wasted work
Post questionable reviews to inflate their image (check out the glowing HR-written 5 stars below, already reported)
Contracts don’t seem set up well and hurt company because company agreed to something unrealistic
Shift with parent company has caused increasing problems
Parent company “sort of owning us” is a problem because they aren’t fully motivated to help vs. having just enough leverage to force change
Sudden shifts in personnel that make no sense and could be corrected
The we do a “careful selection of applicants” claim isn’t true – often they have difficulty getting applicants because there’s much better opportunities in the area (more pay, more benefits, larger support structure)
Strange art turnover, worse, art department isn’t trusted
Gameplay design (or lack thereof) is enough to give headaches that last a year (or the whole dev cycle). Game designers are pretty closed off and don’t take critiques well
Left hand doesn’t know what right hand is doing. Or the left hand either.
Strangely, contract workers paid much more than full-time and trusted more to be face of product with disastrous results when trust is revoked suddenly
Management says they mean well, and at times, seem sincere…
…until they don’t and do the exact opposite of whatever platitude they’re championing today (below)
Management promotes saving money on one hand while setting fire to it with the other
Growing pains seem to have lasted a while, still going, never seem to end
Problem with fixing culture while trying to grow starting to create bigger problems, growing too fast and losing people as a result
Enter into projects and IPs they know very little about, but don’t make the effort to really learn or care
Drawing eye of execs is enough to guarantee any task will take twice as long as you overexplain everything you’re doing and hope they understand and remember the answer
Writing "deptartment" are stubborn and unwilling to make changes or listen to feedback, seem to take stubborn direction and stance from former writing experiences at studio
High level execs randomly fill in for other producers - unfortunately, makes it hard to do job well
Meetings are like weird let’s read the thing that was sent out and could have read then but now we’ll have a meeting where we’ll read it and everyone else wants to scream because everyone has other work they need to do to finish. the. game.
Studio problem with micromanaging – you have to Justify every single decision to the point you wonder why they even hired you.
Advice to Management
Don’t get HR shills to write reviews on Glassdoor, it makes others in studio motivated to write their own that are far more honest
Execs need consistent behavior - some too hands on and unhelpful, others act like can't ever be bothered and are unhelpful
Figure out why people leave and then ask yourself why they are leaving, and if necessary, why you hired them in the first place
Work on products you understand - because explaining how an RPG works to those who never worked on one but insist on approving and judging each piece of content wastes a lot of time
Don’t work on IPs and genres if you’re not going to hire for them
Stop embarrassing yourself in Paradox milestone meetings because you all sound like idiots who have no idea what’s going on and inspires no trust from publisher
=====================================================================================
I worked at Hardsuit Labs full-time for more than 3 years
Pros
Appreciated the opportunity to work at Hardsuit and now, appreciate the contrast
Paradox can’t let studio fail yet, so there is some job security unless they don’t like you but they won’t tell you until too late
Devs are pretty cool if they stick around and/or aren’t fired but turnover is high regardless
“They try” and “they mean well” is the best thing to say about studio management usually followed by “but…”
Thankful for new opportunity in Seattle, even if in remote section
Cons
Pay is much lower than other Seattle studios
Studio is also cheap with reviews and raises
While “they try”, studio management and production fails more than they should
Managers are hit or miss – some non-existent, rest micromanage or do not task well
No producer mentorship
Managers are cast-offs from failed positions at other companies or failed companies
Studio listens and promotes contractors more than internal team (until they fire them), pay contractors more, too
Lot of wasted work
Post questionable reviews to inflate their image (check out the glowing HR-written 5 stars below, already reported)
Contracts don’t seem set up well and hurt company because company agreed to something unrealistic
Shift with parent company has caused increasing problems
Parent company “sort of owning us” is a problem because they aren’t fully motivated to help vs. having just enough leverage to force change
Sudden shifts in personnel that make no sense and could be corrected
The we do a “careful selection of applicants” claim isn’t true – often they have difficulty getting applicants because there’s much better opportunities in the area (more pay, more benefits, larger support structure)
Strange art turnover, worse, art department isn’t trusted
Gameplay design (or lack thereof) is enough to give headaches that last a year (or the whole dev cycle). Game designers are pretty closed off and don’t take critiques well
Left hand doesn’t know what right hand is doing. Or the left hand either.
Strangely, contract workers paid much more than full-time and trusted more to be face of product with disastrous results when trust is revoked suddenly
Management says they mean well, and at times, seem sincere…
…until they don’t and do the exact opposite of whatever platitude they’re championing today (below)
Management promotes saving money on one hand while setting fire to it with the other
Growing pains seem to have lasted a while, still going, never seem to end
Problem with fixing culture while trying to grow starting to create bigger problems, growing too fast and losing people as a result
Enter into projects and IPs they know very little about, but don’t make the effort to really learn or care
Drawing eye of execs is enough to guarantee any task will take twice as long as you overexplain everything you’re doing and hope they understand and remember the answer
Writing "deptartment" are stubborn and unwilling to make changes or listen to feedback, seem to take stubborn direction and stance from former writing experiences at studio
High level execs randomly fill in for other producers - unfortunately, makes it hard to do job well
Meetings are like weird let’s read the thing that was sent out and could have read then but now we’ll have a meeting where we’ll read it and everyone else wants to scream because everyone has other work they need to do to finish. the. game.
Studio problem with micromanaging – you have to Justify every single decision to the point you wonder why they even hired you.
Advice to Management
Don’t get HR shills to write reviews on Glassdoor, it makes others in studio motivated to write their own that are far more honest
Execs need consistent behavior - some too hands on and unhelpful, others act like can't ever be bothered and are unhelpful
Figure out why people leave and then ask yourself why they are leaving, and if necessary, why you hired them in the first place
Work on products you understand - because explaining how an RPG works to those who never worked on one but insist on approving and judging each piece of content wastes a lot of time
Don’t work on IPs and genres if you’re not going to hire for them
Stop embarrassing yourself in Paradox milestone meetings because you all sound like idiots who have no idea what’s going on and inspires no trust from publisher
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