EA Louse or Mythic Rant or EA Rant
polycounter lvl 20
Just caught this, thought some of you here may be interested in it:
http://ealouse.wordpress.com/
Here's the opener:
http://ealouse.wordpress.com/
Here's the opener:
Hi everyone,
I would think myself to be part of some noble cause, like the original EA Spouse trying to save her husband from a hellish work environment at EA. That had a happy ending, however, with tons of publicity and a total change of overtime wages and salaries and how they are handled within the company. I do not expect a happy ending, so Ill be personal and selfish, and this is just for me.
So just call me EA Louse.
I would think myself to be part of some noble cause, like the original EA Spouse trying to save her husband from a hellish work environment at EA. That had a happy ending, however, with tons of publicity and a total change of overtime wages and salaries and how they are handled within the company. I do not expect a happy ending, so Ill be personal and selfish, and this is just for me.
So just call me EA Louse.
Replies
Incoming lawsuit, imo.
This read has ruined my morning
"So there it is. Rewarding the incompetent. Firing the competent."
He's not being vague enough, I can tell what department he's in.
The more people that speak out about shit like this the more the more likely something good may come from it. Instead of the default sweep it under the carpet until its a really big problem.
It is pretty funny though, there seems to be a large(or not if your 'finicky')pattern of mismanagements with game developments. It appears full of stupid people whom dont know how to run company's.
edit: They probably shouldnt have said Swotor or whatever, will be crap though. The fanboi rage looks bad, they'll be getting death threats and worse probably soon.
Sometimes bitterness comes from legitimate grievances. As a former EA Mythic employee I don´t find the article that hard to believe.
I find it interesting that it is this common that managers can completely fuck over tens or even hundreds of people with their incompetence across the industry, but a grunt naming names of people who will never ever be held accountable is "bad form". What artists need is more solidarity amongst ourselves, not less. Not labeling people as bitter or having an ax to grind. Any of us who have worked more than a few studios knows how familiar situations like this are, and how likely that it's true.
I mean with all the past shit that the industry has pulled across country, state, publisher, and size of company lines, does anyone really, truly find a situation like this unlikely?
poop: there was huge solidarity amongst the artist at Mythic, my only sadness was that we had gotten so good and efficient at the end and the fruits of our labor weren't seen.
How is it dangerous? Are they going to set the spanish inquisition on him. They have not let slip any product details or things that are under nda or anything like that(I dont think). Its just procedures or processes, you cant (I dont think, its america, who knows, you cant do anything there), stop someone or sue someone for talking about what EAlouse has.
now I'm all nostalgic for Mythic, those were some good times.
This seems like par for the course, typical corporate douche-baggery. Or if you ask anyone with a MBA, they'll say this is "perfectly sound business practices", and by that they mean, "in the mad grab for cash no one saw us bury the bodies".
Recapping his rant: Yet this guy stays? It's a tough market yadda yadda yadda... bla bla bla... whatever, you're in charge of your own life if you're that miserable, leave. I'm sure picking peas is way more fun than making failed MMO's.
Maybe the road to freedom really is paved with martyrs? It defeats the purpose of martyrdom to throw yourself on the fire anonymously, so he must be just airing dirty laundry... wow that won't backfire...
They admit to it... business school teach them to hit people like pinatas while trying to protect their own. They think that's how the world operates. Those that think differently are suckers, literally you're black licorice lollipop... in a pinata.*
*I personally don't think that. I know you're all wonderful human beings who stick together and help each other out as much as possible. If only the world operated like polycount it would be a constant costume party instead of a pinata beat down.
Me too, me too.
Giant Kudos to the fella\lady for doing it. Speak out if you have something to say.
And I don't want to diminish my approvement of this move, but the fact, that EAlouse waited to get fired before spilling it out and the form that it's in probably could drop some shadow on him.
I think you've got to stand for yourself all the time, but especially when it could actually change something.
When I felt f*cked by the suits douche-baggery in a place I worked I actually wrote an open letter to the guy, putting in copy everyone affected by his "not so wise" decision asking for explanation and bringing forward facts. After a brief intercourse I've got a personal latter stating that this won't end good for me and well, some other insults.
I can't say that this approach was very useful, since not much changed, and I actually had to neglect "wise decision" someplaces to do things the correct way, but at least I find it the most honset. And as thing added up I eventually left. So guess I'm in the boat with Vig on that one.
If you asking questions leads to you being fired, than Hooray - that's definitely not the kind of people I want to be connected with in my life. Onwards and upwards
Life's always a choice between what's right and what's easy.
I dunno. In all honesty i dont think i will sit and listen to dialogue either. I always read ahead and then I dont wanna wait to hear them say it.
Kudos to the guy for announcing how fucked the situation is.
Wow, you really do have it rough at your studio
just talk to your friends in other jobs.
i cannot prove it but i feel that the more the job is away from the actual production of the product, and the higher the wages become, the more potential grows to produce parasites that slowly decompose the success of all involved companies of a deal.
not that companies always fall by them, but they simply atrophy for the time the imbeciles infesting key managing and communication positions....
i hope EA Louse can achieve something.
but i have also some advice to everybody whos bullied by idiots:
sometimes it can be helpful to talk to persons who even stand above the object of disturbance and who are not driven by incompetence. those persons might be very far away from the actual product but therefore mostly interested in a prospering company. so perhaps take some ballz and give it a try.
Department? I don't think there were enough artists left to consider calling it a department. If the writer was one of the remaining artists, it'd be pretty easy to spot who it is by just their writing style.
xeno: I'm guessing it's a programmer, the way Mythic's metrics and server engineers were bragged about I get the feeling the engineers thought they were too valuable to be laid off.
He wasn't abused. He wasn't forced to work absurd hours (or at least he doesn't complain about it). All that happened is that he was hired to do a job, and got pissed off because he didn't agree with what the people who were paying him wanted him to do.
Welcome to the work force. Being hired for a job doesn't mean you get to be in charge. *SHOCK*
This made me laugh so hard. I'm sure English isn't your first language, so I don't want to poke fun at you, but damn that is too funny.
Atlas Shrugged reader spotted.
Are you really going to pull some market based capitalism bullshit about rational actors here. Why are you pre supposing what he says is wrong, and that he's just being whiny? People with actual experience can tell you that situations like this are not uncommon. I've worked at 7 plus studios now on 3 different continents, and I'll agree with Arshlevon, Mythic was the worst run of them all by a good margin, while having some of the best artists I've worked with in the trenches.
If what he is saying is true, he WAS abused. The US doesn't have worker protection rights. 100% of the power is in the hands of the employer, which is why companies continue to get away with the abuses we read about every day in a multitude of industries. It took decades and a huge class action lawsuit to address overtime with EA and they have already found ways to mitigate that. Overtime is still ripe, as are withholding bonuses, proper credit, etc.
This idea that every single person can walk with their feet at any time the situation becomes unfavorable is so laughable it shows how out of touch with the real world you really are. What if they are only mediocre employees, delivering what is asked but nothing special enough to flit around to studios as needed? what if they have a house they can't sell, or kids that need mental stability from not moving, or a spouse in school, or they are foreign and depend on special visa situations? Do they deserve to get fucked in an unfavorable situation unless they are single white men with no roots to keep them in place with an insane resume and portfolio that can land them another job the second they feel like it?
Could the guy have written in a more mature way? Sure, but if the situation is even partially true, and there is every reason to believe it is from actual past employees or even just experienced developers chiming in that situations like this are not uncommon, the problems with the situation are so long that the tone of his rant are like number 500 on the list. Think of all the employees who's livelihood is ruined by the decline of the studio based on poor managerial decisions. Not everyone will be able to sell their house, not everyone will find another job, not everyone will be able to move with their spouse and/or kids. With the lack of healthcare many of them could find themselves in serious financial problems if they or their family is sick. These are real problems that are reasons to get upset. That a few incompetent managers had their names rightfully sullied and the person ranted in an unprofessional way is such a minor problem it's really ridiculous that a forum full of 3d artists is focusing on *that* of all aspects.
Employers are not obligated to give all of their employees a say in how they run their business, and while I'd hope that they're encouraged to speak their mind, if your boss wants you to do something that you were hired to do, then I see no reason why you wouldn't do it. Even if every artist on the team thinks it's a bad idea, game artists don't become citizens of the company upon being hired, and they don't get to vote en masse and overrule their employers.
If I ever become lucky enough to run my own company, I certainly don't want to face a revolt every time I want to move in an unpopular direction.
Worker protection rights? Protect him from what? Poor art direction?
also david jaffe's view: http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/2010/10/my-response-to-ea-louse.html
I don't work "in the industry" explicitly, but it's common - all over, in any industry, for the CEOs/"founders"/people with executive decision making abilities, to be completely asinine, greedy scumbags with very minimal - if any knowledge, of the developmental process. And it damages a lot of people in a lot of ways.
Personally, I live the sort of minimalist life style. I don't own hardly anything. "Furniture" is almost a funny concept. And I'm intentionally looking for the cheapest rental property I can find - even if I can afford a little more, because I know it's likely I'll get screwed over. I imagine I'll be living something like that for the next several years, at least. And when I stop, I'll probably wind up regretting it.
A 'whiny bitch' is far to of a conceived notion from this article, but rather someone who really had something to say. Let's not chastise the guy for speaking up against the man, man.
Why is he being a whiny bitch? i think you read this guys post in a "i hate my job" context but the way i read it,its more of comment on the fact that the wrong people in high positions can turn a multimillion dollar project into a total unmitigated disaster. When the project tanks their failure is rewarded with cushy jobs at other studios while the people who put in the hard work to complete a project get toally fucked.
Ive experienced working under completely unqualified,arrogant and dickish management who's ill informed actions hurt the morale of the team and have had huge consequences to the health of a studio. I think he chose a poor choice of language but then again its completely plauseable,especially in this industry.
You can say quit if you hate it but as Ben mentioned it isnt so bloody simple. Ive seen alot of well intentioned and exceptionally qualified people in bad situations speak out only to be sacked because they just wanted to improve the company and deliver a better game.
I think this could hurt the poster for being so specific but this problem of " shit floats" in our industry is huge and im happy it was said.
Remove WOW from the equation and still say the game was a disaster: a fairly high meta-critic rating and fairly decent subscriber numbers (CCP celebrated when they reached the "horrible" sub numbers of WAR). MMO critics love there Hyperbole, there's only two options, WOW levels of success or failure.
There's eating shit to survive and then there's eating twinkies and making anonymous snarky blog posts about the company you still work for.
I don't know, maybe he is chained in a cave and was lucky to get a wi-fi signal... but really he sounds like an artist that invested a large portion of himself in his job and the product he made.
I didn't go and post an anonymous rant naming the people I worked for and try to destroy their reputations as fully as possible. I'm sure the producers he named were trying their hardest to make a good game too.
Professionalism matters. He doesn't have any.
I was debating this with one of my former leads from Mythic, the mysterious absence of certain names either means he's an artist that doesn't want to blow his cover OR he isn't an artist and wouldn't know those names because they weren't in the limelight. It's possible he's a mid-level content guy.
What would be the "right" attitude to adopt? Or is this correct way just more what you would do in such a situation?
Anyhow Justin is right. He isn't vague enough. Im sure the management has feelers out already tracking it down to one person. I am surprised though a few of the comments are from former or current employees pretty much either backing him up or explaining side points. NOT contradicting him outright.
Unfortunately whomever artist (I think animator) this is. History shows that whistle blowers usually end up being screwed over. To this person. When the hammer falls. YOu probably will be blacklisted (and those of you can BS all you want about Blacklisting doesn't exist - it does). Look for the smaller companies to hire you.
Still I don't get why people keep focusing on irrelevant details...
Suck that experience couldn't have been better for ... whoever that is... But to echo Justin, my experience was awesome! I got paid, laid and a career upgrade. But hey, I make lemonade.
Voting with your feet. If you don't like it, then leave. Those are conservative views, not liberal, hope that helps. It presupposes that a person can leave at any time and no outside factors could come into play which is demonstrably false.
You're making it sound like the boss asked him to make stylized characters when he likes realism. That isn't the case. This is a case of management forcing people to create a substandard game that won't sell. The employees, as future shareholders of the company's well being, deserve and should demand a say in these type of decisions because if you believe the game will fail, you are likely to face unemployment. Plus don't we all honestly want to work hard and put passion into our game? That isn't going to happen if you think the game is going to suck. Employees should get to vote, because as this case, and many others show, the management is not some meritocratic all knowing super gennii that makes perfect decisions that the employees can't understand. You are at the same time positing that employees be super rational actors knowing exactly what is good for them, BUT ALSO too dumb to second guess the upper management.
That's what it comes down to, doesn't it? The American idea that in 5-10 years they will be at the top, so they will protect the top's interest, even when the likelihood of you ever owning a company is zero. (see also: people with no way of every breaching the 100k mark still voting consistently for tax cuts for people that make 250k plus, ie republicans)
How about protection *before* he knows he's laid off so he can speak his mind. An ombudsmen, or union, or even a group of employees that don't quiver at the idea of losing their job can and should approach management, shareholders, or owners when they feel bad decisions are being made. We are smart people and if something is so obviously wrong that a bunch of 3d artists can see it, we should have ways to address our grievances without fearing for our jobs. The workers as hopeful future employees deserve a say in how a project is run, unless you hired illiterate buffoons.
Many countries don't allow you to fire without a 6 month notice, and if you tried to fire a person for bringing up issues, they could go to their employee representative, union rep, or even an outside government agency for protection. When you lack that and have a right-to-work state like VA that allows you to fire for any (and no) reason, a total lack of social programs or health-care, you have essentially blackmail level power over your employees to where they cannot ever complain till situation reaches critical mass, because they literally cannot afford to lose their job.