I can see his point though, even though it was poorly expressed. People place different values on different kinds of perks. Some just want the dough, they're usually the less social types though, not great as team players.
Not only do you assume an awful lot but you have an appallingly bad short term memory. You brought up income with this direct quote: "Just pay me well and treat me decently".
Now, take the Kub smackdown as administered (one large spoonfull) and dont contribute to a thread If you have some big problem with it. Schwag is free crap for goddsakes. That's all.
kub: do you think we've had enough of the worthless troll? should we ban him? He's not a positive or even a productive member of the community and we'd all probably be better off without his crap.
we all get tired of being his singular source of amusement as practices his ability to take over threads with his childish self centered bullshit. if he cant pull his attitude in a bit, we can always do it for him. he'll probably just giggle and laugh at this anyways. he's scored a touchdown in his opinion. he's finally gotten us to warn him! that's the troll's milestone that they are doing their self appointed job well. I personally think we are all very tired of it.
Yeah, here at Neversoft we get some cool schwag mixed with some weird scwhag. We get tons of free skate clothing every year, which our company doesn't pay for (in fact, the skate companies usually pay an advertising fee to be in our game). They dump a ton of last year's clothes on us. I haven't had to pay for shoes (Etnies, Vans, Adio) in over 2 years. I've got 3 or 4 hoodies, about a dozen shirts, free skateboard decks (which I've had signed by the pro skaters that come around), the list goes on and on.
I think my favorite ever though was a free Nixon watch. We had a licensing deal with them and they allowed every employee to pick a free watch from their website. I picked a $200 watch. It was pretty cool. Battery's dead now, so I haven't worn it in ages.
On top of the other sweet benefits we get here at NS, this stuff is just icing on the cake.
On topic - I noticed both of the San Andreas soundtracks (2 CD and 7CD) are still in their plastic wrappers on my desk.
I've had a winter coat 2 years in a row now, but that's probably just because Scotland get bloody cold. My R* North beanie is a permanent fixture in the bottom of my bag. But no matter how much it rains, I'm not parading around with a LCS umbrealla.
But Dan nailed it. Companies make loads of promo stuff. Sometimes stockrooms get cleared out, and sometimes you just get it anyway. I have a few young cousins who get most of my tshirts. They love them. Think of the joy.
Besides, you air your distracting, un-informed, contrary, opinions out in the open where we have to put up with it, why does your embarrassing discipline all of a sudden go behind closed doors?
[ QUOTE ]
Besides, you air your distracting, un-informed, contrary, opinions out in the open where we have to put up with it, why does your embarrassing discipline all of a sudden go behind closed doors?
Alright fine. I'll have it out in the open. I sent r13 a message that anything I said I know already I have been judged. This is the area that seems to cause the most angst on both sides. Banning me from the site as a whole seems harsh given that I am not a seen as a troll in the other areas of it. So the best solution I could offer is to ban me from general discussion.
I stay here too often as many times this is the only social interaction I have for entire days and sometimes I get slightly obsessive.
thats funny, i'm looking at my SA soundtrack right now, still in its plastic wrapper. Except mine's got a hole punched in it ... presumably to fuck up trading it in.
[ QUOTE ]
thats funny, i'm looking at my SA soundtrack right now, still in its plastic wrapper. Except mine's got a hole punched in it ... presumably to fuck up trading it in.
... hang on ... LCS umbrella?!
[/ QUOTE ]
Reminds me of a funny story. I was supposed to model a shirt for the game, and it had a giant whole in the side of it in the photos. I asked if I was supposed to model it, thinking it might be a new style. Come to find out, it's so that we don't keep it and wear it! How cheeky is that!? We're putting a tshirt of theirs in a game that will be played by millions, and we can't have a shirt that probably cost them five dollars. I won't mention the brand name, but I don't like them any more.
Like kub said, I started this thread to see the cool little goodies that you all have gotten. Poop stated it very well, that these things raise morale and help you feel pride in your product. There was no need to shove my thread in the shitter - this was meant to be fun for all of us.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
thats funny, i'm looking at my SA soundtrack right now, still in its plastic wrapper. Except mine's got a hole punched in it ... presumably to fuck up trading it in.
... hang on ... LCS umbrella?!
[/ QUOTE ]
Reminds me of a funny story. I was supposed to model a shirt for the game, and it had a giant whole in the side of it in the photos. I asked if I was supposed to model it, thinking it might be a new style. Come to find out, it's so that we don't keep it and wear it! How cheeky is that!? We're putting a tshirt of theirs in a game that will be played by millions, and we can't have a shirt that probably cost them five dollars. I won't mention the brand name, but I don't like them any more.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thats quite awesome.
I know someone that stole an xbox360 devkit. Does that count as free schwag?
When I was testing for microsoft, one of the tester's car exploded (he wasnt in it) with a brand new 360 dev kit inside... that was an interesting event to watch. And then there was the guy who was posting very sensetive info about the game on the official forums from his computer at the office. If you count experiences as shwag, I defintely took some good stuff with me from that job
The stuff i have gotten from sony has been just crazy and cool and silly.
tshirts a plenty of course. I got so many sony game shirts i could use them as my primary wardrobe for work easily. plenty of ball caps and such too. a couple stacks of games, every game my chunk of sony has published. a couple eq elf lady action figures. a leather jacket with the planetside logo embroidered on the back with "rogue13" on the front, still with the tags on it.... a set of dogtags with the planetside logo
then there is the inch thick stack of posters and prints i have in the other room. mostly eq and eq2 stuff.
a refridgerator... an ex-employee left it behind and it was given to me instead of throwing it out...
frisbee, football and clock with the sony logo on them... couple shotglasses, bottle openers and necklaces. a couple pieces of really nice luggage with sony logos on it [those are always fun in an airport], nail grooming tools with sony logo on them, episode 1 2 and 3 dvd's from lucasarts, a yearly package of dvd's from sony pictures... dadddy daycare, charlies angles, badboys2, spiderman 1 and 2.
A star wars laser pointer pen, actual star wars concept drawings, a couple of swiss army knives with a faction logo from planetside on them. more recently i'm getting justice league dvd's and about all the free DC comics i want and dont want on a weekly basis.
Not a shipped game, but the little ad company I worked for got a crapload of Capcom stuff for making a website for them. Best client ever! I made out with a Viewtiful Joe bobblehead and one of those KMD shirts. Wait... that sounded wrong.
[ QUOTE ]
uhmm,,,After Completing Ghostrecon earlier this spring we got a 2 week allinclusive holiday in mexico and...a towel to use there! (also ofcourse, some more of the neverending flow of tshirts O_O )
[/ QUOTE ]
That's pretty damn nice and rare in this day and age. I almost forgot. When we finished Dungeon Keeper2, the entire team got an all expenses paid trip to Tunisia. Sand boarding on dunes in the Sahara, camel rides, belly dances round campfires (not us, dancers), trips to the set of the phantom menace (its still sits there in the middle of the sahara). That's some pretty nice 'schwag'. Ah, the good ol' days (although ironically the last people I wanted to hang out with after the crunch were the dev. team :-))
Occasionally our clients will send schwag to LD, but by the time it goes through admin and management the people who bust thier asses pulling all-nighters and working weekends are lucky to get any of it.
Hey Rick, does Rockstar still sell any of the full music collections from the GTA series? (I wouldn't mind getting my hands on the VC one, and the SA one wouldn't be too bad to get ahold of).
Oh, and I almost forgot; I almost ended up with a Kilrathi foot. When I was working the sims 2: uni QA, we got an email from the leads that the people at Origin two floors up had a bunch of old Wing Commander crap they wanted to get rid of. When we were diggin through the goodies (old manuals and ship specs and other oddities), one of the things I came across was a Kilrathi foot from the Wing Commander game with all the FMV's. I ended up giving it to someone on the team who was *really* into the whole scifi / space fighter genre... besides... it wouldn't have fit in with the Tikis around my room
I've got nothing worth taking pictures of... a few poker chips for TruePoker. Two T-shirts for Auto Assault. A couple of free games (but the majority of games I actually had to pay for, ha). Uh. I guess that's it. But I can't complain.
We usually get tshirts for all of the games we're working on, and since I work at a publisher I end up with a lot of tshirts. Some are actually fun to wear around, I get a lot of interesting questions from strangers when wearing my Gun shirt around, and I had some homeless guy in Santa Monica following me around calling me Tony Hawk when I was wearing my American Wasteland shirt.
Some of the recent shirts have gotten nicer, with Xmen hoodies and track jackets, and some Puma gear from the True Crime sponsor.
Other than that, each year at christmas Activision gives away some really nice gifts to some random employees. This past year we saw some things like HD TV sets and Laptops, and then a friend of mine got a minifridge (which isn't so cool compared to a widescreen TV, but a friendly gesture regardless).
I've been trying to snag a Project 8 poster and skate deck, but no luck so far.
That's pretty damn nice and rare in this day and age. I almost forgot. When we finished Dungeon Keeper2, the entire team got an all expenses paid trip to Tunisia. Sand boarding on dunes in the Sahara, camel rides, belly dances round campfires (not us, dancers), trips to the set of the phantom menace (its still sits there in the middle of the sahara). That's some pretty nice 'schwag'. Ah, the good ol' days (although ironically the last people I wanted to hang out with after the crunch were the dev. team :-))
[/ QUOTE ]
yeah it was great, but hang out with 30 gamedevelopers for 2 weeks in the burning sun without computers and weird stuff starts to happen.
Oh I also got a trajjillion Ghost recon pens...but they tend to break _very_ easily.
[ QUOTE ]
Hey Rick, does Rockstar still sell any of the full music collections from the GTA series? (I wouldn't mind getting my hands on the VC one, and the SA one wouldn't be too bad to get ahold of).
Grrrrr - Nixon watches are sooooo much better than my company t-shirt, game soundtrack and copy of the game! I feel blessed for these small perks though...at my last place we didn't even get a copy of the game each - just one for the company shelves! That's probably for the best though thinking about it!
FAT, don't feel so bad. I don't think I'm getting a free copy of STACKED, either
It's only $29, so it's that big a deal to pick up. But damn, I wanted that free copy....
[ QUOTE ]
Poop, your making a assumption if they would or not (if they didnt give out schwag, redistribute that money).
I guess to me, its like throwing rice to the peasants or slaves. I mean if Im going to have to be a companies bitch, then show me enough respect not to have this "tra la la arent we all happy together?" crap. Just pay me well and treat me decently.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sometimes I feel like people put a lot of effort into finding the most condemnable motive possible behind a certain action. In my experience that's a good way to get really angry towards everything and the conclusions usualy aren't even true.
[ QUOTE ]
Reminds me of a funny story. I was supposed to model a shirt for the game, and it had a giant whole in the side of it in the photos. I asked if I was supposed to model it, thinking it might be a new style. Come to find out, it's so that we don't keep it and wear it! How cheeky is that!? We're putting a tshirt of theirs in a game that will be played by millions, and we can't have a shirt that probably cost them five dollars. I won't mention the brand name, but I don't like them any more.
Fun thread.
Haven't really shipped a game yet, but I do have a decent amount of Tribes:Vengeance related swag. A large drinking glass, beta cd, press kit, Tribal war T-Shirt. Not bad for just being a corporate approved mod team at the time.
Maybe, as part of polycounts new 'image', we can set up a bartering system. We can put up 'swag' to be purchased/or traded for other swag. That'd give those that have too much crap/cool stuff to make some $$ off of it, or have the proceeds go towards getting gauss that third leg.
Replies
I can see his point though, even though it was poorly expressed. People place different values on different kinds of perks. Some just want the dough, they're usually the less social types though, not great as team players.
Whats your income have to do with it?
[/ QUOTE ]
Not only do you assume an awful lot but you have an appallingly bad short term memory. You brought up income with this direct quote: "Just pay me well and treat me decently".
Now, take the Kub smackdown as administered (one large spoonfull) and dont contribute to a thread If you have some big problem with it. Schwag is free crap for goddsakes. That's all.
we all get tired of being his singular source of amusement as practices his ability to take over threads with his childish self centered bullshit. if he cant pull his attitude in a bit, we can always do it for him. he'll probably just giggle and laugh at this anyways. he's scored a touchdown in his opinion. he's finally gotten us to warn him! that's the troll's milestone that they are doing their self appointed job well. I personally think we are all very tired of it.
...and laughter!
[/ QUOTE ]
So cute.
I think my favorite ever though was a free Nixon watch. We had a licensing deal with them and they allowed every employee to pick a free watch from their website. I picked a $200 watch. It was pretty cool. Battery's dead now, so I haven't worn it in ages.
On top of the other sweet benefits we get here at NS, this stuff is just icing on the cake.
I've had a winter coat 2 years in a row now, but that's probably just because Scotland get bloody cold. My R* North beanie is a permanent fixture in the bottom of my bag. But no matter how much it rains, I'm not parading around with a LCS umbrealla.
But Dan nailed it. Companies make loads of promo stuff. Sometimes stockrooms get cleared out, and sometimes you just get it anyway. I have a few young cousins who get most of my tshirts. They love them. Think of the joy.
Besides, you air your distracting, un-informed, contrary, opinions out in the open where we have to put up with it, why does your embarrassing discipline all of a sudden go behind closed doors?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yeah I agree, Rick is a such a PITA.
I stay here too often as many times this is the only social interaction I have for entire days and sometimes I get slightly obsessive.
... hang on ... LCS umbrella?!
thats funny, i'm looking at my SA soundtrack right now, still in its plastic wrapper. Except mine's got a hole punched in it ... presumably to fuck up trading it in.
... hang on ... LCS umbrella?!
[/ QUOTE ]
Reminds me of a funny story. I was supposed to model a shirt for the game, and it had a giant whole in the side of it in the photos. I asked if I was supposed to model it, thinking it might be a new style. Come to find out, it's so that we don't keep it and wear it! How cheeky is that!? We're putting a tshirt of theirs in a game that will be played by millions, and we can't have a shirt that probably cost them five dollars. I won't mention the brand name, but I don't like them any more.
Like kub said, I started this thread to see the cool little goodies that you all have gotten. Poop stated it very well, that these things raise morale and help you feel pride in your product. There was no need to shove my thread in the shitter - this was meant to be fun for all of us.
Thanks...
[ QUOTE ]
thats funny, i'm looking at my SA soundtrack right now, still in its plastic wrapper. Except mine's got a hole punched in it ... presumably to fuck up trading it in.
... hang on ... LCS umbrella?!
[/ QUOTE ]
Reminds me of a funny story. I was supposed to model a shirt for the game, and it had a giant whole in the side of it in the photos. I asked if I was supposed to model it, thinking it might be a new style. Come to find out, it's so that we don't keep it and wear it! How cheeky is that!? We're putting a tshirt of theirs in a game that will be played by millions, and we can't have a shirt that probably cost them five dollars. I won't mention the brand name, but I don't like them any more.
[/ QUOTE ]
Thats quite awesome.
I know someone that stole an xbox360 devkit. Does that count as free schwag?
When I was testing for microsoft, one of the tester's car exploded (he wasnt in it) with a brand new 360 dev kit inside... that was an interesting event to watch. And then there was the guy who was posting very sensetive info about the game on the official forums from his computer at the office. If you count experiences as shwag, I defintely took some good stuff with me from that job
tshirts a plenty of course. I got so many sony game shirts i could use them as my primary wardrobe for work easily. plenty of ball caps and such too. a couple stacks of games, every game my chunk of sony has published. a couple eq elf lady action figures. a leather jacket with the planetside logo embroidered on the back with "rogue13" on the front, still with the tags on it.... a set of dogtags with the planetside logo
then there is the inch thick stack of posters and prints i have in the other room. mostly eq and eq2 stuff.
a refridgerator... an ex-employee left it behind and it was given to me instead of throwing it out...
frisbee, football and clock with the sony logo on them... couple shotglasses, bottle openers and necklaces. a couple pieces of really nice luggage with sony logos on it [those are always fun in an airport], nail grooming tools with sony logo on them, episode 1 2 and 3 dvd's from lucasarts, a yearly package of dvd's from sony pictures... dadddy daycare, charlies angles, badboys2, spiderman 1 and 2.
A star wars laser pointer pen, actual star wars concept drawings, a couple of swiss army knives with a faction logo from planetside on them. more recently i'm getting justice league dvd's and about all the free DC comics i want and dont want on a weekly basis.
R13: Damn, that's a pretty nice list of stuff.
uhmm,,,After Completing Ghostrecon earlier this spring we got a 2 week allinclusive holiday in mexico and...a towel to use there! (also ofcourse, some more of the neverending flow of tshirts O_O )
[/ QUOTE ]
That's pretty damn nice and rare in this day and age. I almost forgot. When we finished Dungeon Keeper2, the entire team got an all expenses paid trip to Tunisia. Sand boarding on dunes in the Sahara, camel rides, belly dances round campfires (not us, dancers), trips to the set of the phantom menace (its still sits there in the middle of the sahara). That's some pretty nice 'schwag'. Ah, the good ol' days
And a garaunteed spot in heaven for making the Maine Council of Churches logo. So that ones pretty nice, but its no tee-shirt.
schwag ? is that how you spell it ?
Oh, and I almost forgot; I almost ended up with a Kilrathi foot. When I was working the sims 2: uni QA, we got an email from the leads that the people at Origin two floors up had a bunch of old Wing Commander crap they wanted to get rid of. When we were diggin through the goodies (old manuals and ship specs and other oddities), one of the things I came across was a Kilrathi foot from the Wing Commander game with all the FMV's. I ended up giving it to someone on the team who was *really* into the whole scifi / space fighter genre... besides... it wouldn't have fit in with the Tikis around my room
not game related but I get sushi once a month and lame company polo shirts.
[/ QUOTE ]
winner!
Some of the recent shirts have gotten nicer, with Xmen hoodies and track jackets, and some Puma gear from the True Crime sponsor.
Other than that, each year at christmas Activision gives away some really nice gifts to some random employees. This past year we saw some things like HD TV sets and Laptops, and then a friend of mine got a minifridge (which isn't so cool compared to a widescreen TV, but a friendly gesture regardless).
I've been trying to snag a Project 8 poster and skate deck, but no luck so far.
That's pretty damn nice and rare in this day and age. I almost forgot. When we finished Dungeon Keeper2, the entire team got an all expenses paid trip to Tunisia. Sand boarding on dunes in the Sahara, camel rides, belly dances round campfires (not us, dancers), trips to the set of the phantom menace (its still sits there in the middle of the sahara). That's some pretty nice 'schwag'. Ah, the good ol' days
[/ QUOTE ]
yeah it was great, but hang out with 30 gamedevelopers for 2 weeks in the burning sun without computers and weird stuff starts to happen.
Oh I also got a trajjillion Ghost recon pens...but they tend to break _very_ easily.
Hey Rick, does Rockstar still sell any of the full music collections from the GTA series? (I wouldn't mind getting my hands on the VC one, and the SA one wouldn't be too bad to get ahold of).
[/ QUOTE ]
Probably - amazon!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006SM6Q/103-9386887-7391052?v=glance&n=5174
i can only begin to imagine
a free Nixon watch.
[/ QUOTE ]
Grrrrr - Nixon watches are sooooo much better than my company t-shirt, game soundtrack and copy of the game! I feel blessed for these small perks though...at my last place we didn't even get a copy of the game each - just one for the company shelves! That's probably for the best though thinking about it!
It's only $29, so it's that big a deal to pick up. But damn, I wanted that free copy....
Poop, your making a assumption if they would or not (if they didnt give out schwag, redistribute that money).
I guess to me, its like throwing rice to the peasants or slaves. I mean if Im going to have to be a companies bitch, then show me enough respect not to have this "tra la la arent we all happy together?" crap. Just pay me well and treat me decently.
[/ QUOTE ]
Sometimes I feel like people put a lot of effort into finding the most condemnable motive possible behind a certain action. In my experience that's a good way to get really angry towards everything and the conclusions usualy aren't even true.
[ QUOTE ]
Reminds me of a funny story. I was supposed to model a shirt for the game, and it had a giant whole in the side of it in the photos. I asked if I was supposed to model it, thinking it might be a new style. Come to find out, it's so that we don't keep it and wear it! How cheeky is that!? We're putting a tshirt of theirs in a game that will be played by millions, and we can't have a shirt that probably cost them five dollars. I won't mention the brand name, but I don't like them any more.
[/ QUOTE ]
Haven't really shipped a game yet, but I do have a decent amount of Tribes:Vengeance related swag. A large drinking glass, beta cd, press kit, Tribal war T-Shirt. Not bad for just being a corporate approved mod team at the time.