What is This?

[FranOhmsford]

http://massivelyop.com/2016/07/07/rumor-more-layoffs-for-turbine/

Hello...Devs?

Anybody there?

[Zebedar]

That post and story are hours old, Devs should have responded or posted something here by now. The silence is very worrying.

Well devs? does this mean the long feared 'maintenance mode' has arrived?

[Taimasan]

That post and story are hours old, Devs should have responded or posted something here by now. The silence is very worrying.

Well devs? does this mean the long feared 'maintenance mode' has arrived?


Transition means move away. I feel for the families and people who lost work because of some paper pushers.

This is bigger than me wanting a Monk pass. These are real people here losing work, lets keep that in perspective.



At the end of the day, I guess it is not just a game.

[Zebedar]

Transition means move away. I feel for the families and people who lost work because of some paper pushers.

This is bigger than me wanting a Monk pass. These are real people here losing work, lets keep that in perspective.



At the end of the day, I guess it is not just a game.

Ah the 'paper pusher' theory....

I certainly agree it is bad news for families of the employees let go, terrible news. Even more so because if the past is any indicator it won't be the employees that made the mistakes and performed poorly who get the axe, it will be the employees unlucky enough to work under them that get laid off.

Idiots are just like cream, they float to the top in spite of being thick and dense.

[Karadon_II]

There's already a thread for this : https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/476881-I-hate-to-be-the-one-to-start-this-thread


That post and story are hours old, Devs should have responded or posted something here by now. The silence is very worrying.

This isn't the first time there's been layoffs. It's likely the case as before, that devs are not officially allowed to comment here what is happening.

WB say: "The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons online games will continue to operate as they do now.", so no DOOOOOOM! etc. yet.

As someone who has been made redundant myself this year, I know the difficulties that the affected people face and I offer condolences and best wishes for the future.

[Taimasan]

Ah the 'paper pusher' theory....

I certainly agree it is bad news for families of the employees let go, terrible news. Even more so because if the past is any indicator it won't be the employees that made the mistakes and performed poorly who get the axe, it will be the employees unlucky enough to work under them that get laid off.

Idiots are just like cream, they float to the top in spite of being thick and dense.


Do you have an alternate theory?

[Livmo]

Update: Warner Bros. PR has issued the following statement to Massively OP:

“Turbine is transitioning into a free-to-play, mobile development studio, and as a result we are eliminating some positions. The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons online games will continue to operate as they do now. Re-focusing and reducing the studio size was a difficult decision for the company, and we are grateful to all of the Turbine staff for their considerable contributions.”

http://massivelyop.com/2016/07/07/rumor-more-layoffs-for-turbine/

[Zebedar]

Do you have an alternate theory?

Yes indeed, the game has been mis-handled atrociously over the past 18 months leading to a massive drop in player numbers. The U29 roll-out nightmare and the entire data-center fiasco ended up gutting any of the growth in player base and revenue that the new content, long awaited LGS, epic Vale, and anniversary had hoped to create. That combined with the numerous and repeated failings to engage with the paying customers in a meaningful, respectful, knowledgeable, and impactful way has poisoned the well of good will that both DDO and LOTR had. Ironic because that loyalty was rather unique within the industry, and it took real negligence to tear down, I know personally. I was a died in the wool fan-boi and pally myself until the previously mentioned events just pushed it all out over the cliff. In the end Severlin was brought to DDO after overseeing the transition of Asheron's into maintenance mode, so it's not hard to see that's where he has been steering our game since he took over and started to attempt to reduce the characteristic complexities and uniqueness of the classes into something much more homogeneous while trying to hold onto a base that would guarantee a predictable revenue stream in maintenance. Armor-up, Hamp, spell/range/melee power, all designed to mainstream the majority of the player platforms on a predictable curve. All increased in power to make them more attractive and used then the odd-ones like druids, monks, wraps, etc... that would take actually resources to correct. If you won't spend the man-hours to fix something then use power creep and mainstream superiority to reduce the complaining customers and attract more of the customers that are used to a the much more common point and boom of the industries MMORPGs. Of course beyond the spectacular failure of the datacenter move is the sad fact that no matter how much mainstreaming, power creep, invalidating new items and cheap and easy Point and boom classes like the warlock you make it was all still for a 10 year old engine.

Yup, the people who blew up our baby will not be the ones to get laid-off. Paper pushers are brought in to trim fat and make cuts to streamline a ongoing enterprise to maximize the revenue, that's not what happened here. Instead a struggling enterprise was brought low by negligence and incompetence, so low that the parent company has to cut bait and avoid wasting anymore resources on a product that has had it's customer base destroyed by a cancer from within.

[HAL]

http://massivelyop.com/2016/07/07/rumor-more-layoffs-for-turbine/

Hello...Devs?

Anybody there?


That post and story are hours old, Devs should have responded or posted something here by now. The silence is very worrying.

Well devs? does this mean the long feared 'maintenance mode' has arrived?

Guess what, people - we are not the most important people in Turbine employees' lives. Reality check: they are probably either dealing with being layed-off or busy saying goodbye to coworkers who got layed off.

<shakes head>

[Holleyz]

This is just SAD. You will however notice that non of the CEO's or Vice Presidents and Upper Management is being laid off. No its the people on the floor who actually do something to earn their paychecks, build and make the game function as best they can with what they are given. Money truly is the root of all that is evil.

CEO/Pres to team: Well everyone thanks for the massive overtime you have put in since upper management decided to take the game to a new data center "The Cloud" but we must let you go now. We however upper management will continue to brown nose and receive silly large paychecks.

[Zebedar]

Guess what, people - we are not the most important people in Turbine employees' lives. Reality check: they are probably either dealing with being layed-off or busy saying goodbye to coworkers who got layed off.

<shakes head>



<Zeb shakes his head while scoffing at the fellow trying to dishonestly frame the position of other posters by purposefully ignoring the posts they made that conflict with his attempted frame...>


For instance:


I certainly agree it is bad news for families of the employees let go, terrible news. Even more so because if the past is any indicator it won't be the employees that made the mistakes and performed poorly who get the axe, it will be the employees unlucky enough to work under them that get laid off.




Oh Hal, do you ever get tired of being so transparently digressive?

[mudfud]

Guess what, people - we are not the most important people in Turbine employees' lives. Reality check: they are probably either dealing with being layed-off or busy saying goodbye to coworkers who got layed off.

<shakes head>


Maybe there should have been more of that "worry" when updates were being put out and this wouldn't be happening.

[Ykt]

That post and story are hours old, Devs should have responded or posted something here by now. The silence is very worrying.

Well devs? does this mean the long feared 'maintenance mode' has arrived?

Yeah so much worry, like during the layoffs in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015


doom

[PermaBanned]

Yes indeed, the game has been mis-handled atrociously over the past 18 months leading to a massive drop in player numbers. The U29 roll-out nightmare and the entire data-center fiasco ended up gutting any of the growth in player base and revenue that the new content, long awaited LGS, epic Vale, and anniversary had hoped to create. That combined with the numerous and repeated failings to engage with the paying customers in a meaningful, respectful, knowledgeable, and impactful way has poisoned the well of good will that both DDO and LOTR had. Ironic because that loyalty was rather unique within the industry, and it took real negligence to tear down, I know personally. I was a died in the wool fan-boi and pally myself until the previously mentioned events just pushed it all out over the cliff. In the end Severlin was brought to DDO after overseeing the transition of Asheron's into maintenance mode, so it's not hard to see that's where he has been steering our game since he took over and started to attempt to reduce the characteristic complexities and uniqueness of the classes into something much more homogeneous while trying to hold onto a base that would guarantee a predictable revenue stream in maintenance. Armor-up, Hamp, spell/range/melee power, all designed to mainstream the majority of the player platforms on a predictable curve. All increased in power to make them more attractive and used then the odd-ones like druids, monks, wraps, etc... that would take actually resources to correct. If you won't spend the man-hours to fix something then use power creep and mainstream superiority to reduce the complaining customers and attract more of the customers that are used to a the much more common point and boom of the industries MMORPGs. Of course beyond the spectacular failure of the datacenter move is the sad fact that no matter how much mainstreaming, power creep, invalidating new items and cheap and easy Point and boom classes like the warlock you make it was all still for a 10 year old engine.

Yup, the people who blew up our baby will not be the ones to get laid-off. Paper pushers are brought in to trim fat and make cuts to streamline a ongoing enterprise to maximize the revenue, that's not what happened here. Instead a struggling enterprise was brought low by negligence and incompetence, so low that the parent company has to cut bait and avoid wasting anymore resources on a product that has had it's customer base destroyed by a cancer from within.

LMFAO!

So with all of the pies (Game Titles) Turbine has their fingers in - including such colossal failures as that DC MOBA - you're seemingly convinced that it's simply their handling of DDO that's costing jobs?

[PermaBanned]

Maybe there should have been more of that "worry" when updates were being put out and this wouldn't be happening.I see much bliss in that statement ^^

[Karadon_II]

We do appreciate folks' concerns about the well-being of the team; know that the team has read them.

As with previous business-related decision-making like this, we really can't comment on personnel changes. We would like to reiterate the part from yesterday's statement that DDO will continue operating as it is now. We'd add that no changes have been made to our development plans.

No DOOOOOOOOM! apparently.

Carry on.

[Propane]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/476881-I-hate-to-be-the-one-to-start-this-thread?p=5845401&viewfull=1#post5845401

Topic covered in the above thread...

[Andu_Indorin]

http://massivelyop.com/2016/07/07/rumor-more-layoffs-for-turbine/

Hello...Devs?

Anybody there?

Regretably, the writing has been on the wall for a long, long time. I do wish all those talented individuals who received pink slips the best of luck, and I hope that their abilities will create new and wonderful things in the future.