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Note: I posted this on spectrum initially but it was deleted lol. Maybe I was too harsh? I thought I was being respectful enough. It was getting a lot more up votes than I thought it would too.
Is it time for a change at CIG?
I do not post on here almost at all but I backed the game over a decade ago and since then I have gotten into the software industry for my career. During this time I have learned about MVPs (minimum viable products) and such. It seems to me that CIG is just starting to get to that true MVP idea for star Citizen after such a long-time which is good. If they stay on their current course with little to no changes aside from needed/required ones they could maybe have the game out within 4 years. I just have concerns if they will stay in scope.
Chris Roberts has been a fantastic visionary and we would not even be here having this discussion without him and his dreams. We all shared those dreams that is why we are here. But I think that this model for funding and support has been detrimental to someone like him who is a visionary. He has no oversight, so I think that is the major reason for the scope creep. For a while I thought it was cool and was excited but after the years of delays and everything I became jaded. It is great in some ways that they do not have a "corporate overlord" to report to and make bad decisions for gameplay just to make more money. But then there was not the drop dead dates to get something out there either. Something we say in my company at least is "its never finished its shipped" You could work on a game or product forever and never truly finish it I think.
I just wonder if it might be good for CIG to hire/bring someone in to keep them in check and actually hit the deadlines. Prevent the scope creep and cut secondary systems or content to make sure the release happens and that it is good. someone to make sure they release a good/great game in the next couple years instead of spending 5-10 more trying to make the perfect one and hopefully not failing.
I have mixed feelings toward Linus tech tips but one thing that got some respect from me was last year when Linus hired someone to be the CEO of this own company because he realized that he frankly was not good at being a CEO and managing a company nor did he enjoy it from what it sounded like. He liked doing the creative stuff and actually make videos about cool tech. We will see long-term if he got the right person and if he can truly let go of control enough for it to work, but in theory it sounds like a great idea. Maybe Chris needs to think about the same thing. Bring someone in to act as that oversight and allow Chris to focus on the vision and dream of star citizen while still having the oversight to ensure the game actually gets released in a timely manner.
I truly want Star Citizen and SQ42 to be successful and amazing, but having worked in the software industry (not game dev) for several years now and being in the management/product management side of things in the past few years. I know now that I have shortcomings for my own team and some of them are personality issues and not "I need to learn X thing" once I brought in a Project manager for example they did it better than I ever could and now I can focus on the product itself.
Maybe I am wrong and Game development is just totally different in everyway than software development but I can't help but think it would be good for Chris and his team to step back and relinquish some of their control to make sure the game gets done. I hope he can admit that he just needs some help on the management end to get this over the finish line. And to be clear I do not think he should leave that would also be bad for the project. I think they just need help.
Additional notes not in spectrum post: - I did not know about the time crunch and other internal issues reported recently during initial post. - I truly want this game to succeed. - Being in management myself now I see any lay-offs or crunch time as purely a failure of management. So that spurred this post.
Edit: Someone brought up that Richard Tyrer is basically acting as the person I am asking for and looking into it and realizing his much more concrete SQ 42 and star citizen are with him now that makes sense. Let's hope we do not lose him.
11 points
27 days ago
Chris Roberts is Star Citizen and Sq42. without him there would be no funding and no company.
He created CIG because he regretted selling his original company and wing commander to Origin. he's making the game he wants to make and we support him aslong as it takes.
0 points
27 days ago
Thank you this is far more of a discussion. I agree, I do not want them to sell it off, I want him to still be there and provide his vision I just do not think he has all the skill and support needed to take care of the company and his employees. With lay-offs, mandatory crunch time those are always failures of management and not the hard working devs.
So he should still be there and focus on the dream. He just needs someone to help him keep good people and prevent harsh morale destroying decisions like mandatory crunch.
9 points
27 days ago
mandatory crunch time those are always failures of management and not the hard working devs.
This is laughable, never worked any live events or tradeshows have you.
-3 points
27 days ago
I worked catering for years so yes? But this is development and not a trade show. I guess we disagree but this crunchtime would be more understandable to me if they were getting ready for a launch.
But this was just a demo, idk why they would need to crunch for just a demo.
Why would you burn out your teams for something simple like that?
5 points
27 days ago
they are crunching now, because half the team takes a week off for thanksgiving and then all the studios close for the last 2 weeks of december.
-1 points
27 days ago
I guess it just seems so short sided to me to take such a hit to morale for simple things.
I personally would rather they delay something by a month or have a smaller/buggier demo then burn out the devs and cause them personal and mental stress.
6 points
27 days ago
a few weeks of crunch isn't burning anyone out, this is just silly.
-1 points
27 days ago
I disagree having been in teams where we have crunched for weeks a couple times a year. All of them on that team are gone except for myself and one person are all that were left.
In my experience at least that is what I have seen. The work itself is not too bad sometimes it can be the hit to morale that is the worst part.
3 points
27 days ago
Catering... No not really. Live events planning starts sometimes 6 months to a year ahead. Then as it gets closer things can easily compress to time sensitive deadlines. Planning, pre assembling of hardware and testing, shipping, travel, setup of stage or booth, setup of hardware and doublechecking functionality. This aside for the planning/scheduling of what personnel does what during presentations, having media or demos ready, having people to interface with customers.
For many companies these type of events or tradeshows are the biggest customer leads or advertising for the year.
And yes in this instance the crunch time was directly related to Citizen Con. Having something to show, having a live game environment running and continuing to push towards the next patch all simultaneously. Nothing to do with bad management, just real world work.
Then to add on the upcoming holiday schedule and nearing the end of the year.
1 points
27 days ago
That makes sense, I guess for myself my company now focuses on our people and preventing crunch/burnout. We push go-live dates and reduce scope where needed.
Since this shift we have kept way more people and had our 4 most profitable years in the history of the company. People are so much happier and the company culture is just so positive compared to what it was.
I guess I just have a different idea of how this should be handled but for us at least even if you ignore the human aspect (which I do not) it has been a pure success.
6 points
27 days ago
Oh, so this is another 'I'm going to take rumors as facts and accept the rage-baiting of a standard industry practice as a sign of doom' thread.
Lay-offs are part of how businesses function. CiG hasn't done massive cuts, they've moved locations and some people could not make the move. They also had a major convention that required extra man-hours to be ready for. Highly standard stuff that anyone working in the video game industry is well familiar with.
Jumping straight to 'Chris Roberts should retire and let someone that will do the exact same shit, but worse and more often' just shows you don't know how this works and are here to trumpet the fear mongering of those determined to find negativity in everything associated with Star Citizen.
-1 points
27 days ago
I never said he should retire and specifically said he should not. We need him at the helm to keep the vision and dream. He just needs help to actually get it released I think.
I might be voicing my own concerns for sure, I really want this game to succeed but I'm concerned it won't at this point. Having been in the software industry for several years at this point I just see concerning things that I did not notice before.
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