Interesting RockStar Article

Uly

I'm not stating my opinion, simply forwarding what I thought was an interesting read via Kotaku. The blog post of a former R* employee.

"I figure today is as good a day as any to write down some of my experiences working at Rockstar Games. This is a company that seems to be in the news a lot lately, so there seems to be no shortage of interest. And I've been away long enough now that it no longer feels strange to write about it. It's a story of great and talented people working for probably the most poorly-managed company in the history of the planet."

Hit the jump for the whole post.

Live During Wartime : Working at Rockstar Games

Edit: Like I said, not my opinion. It may be SSDP for some of you guys, but for some, it's still an interesting read.

Daz

Quite honestly, I'm pretty sure that anybody who's ever worked in a games studio has a story in them about management incompetence and ego.

aesir

nothing in that article really surprised me. Not really because its rockstar, but mainly because its a game studio. I could see most of it happening anywhere.

rawkstar

every single game company is poorly managed, if you think the company is well managed you are not well informed, if you think your company is well managed you are delusional.

adam

even id?!

:P

D4V1DC

Wow thanks for posting this very informative and insightful look into a company I am very excited about being apart of one day.

Oddly enough back in 2004 I actually got a reponse from there hiring manager about a possible position at that company though, this was around Xmas/Newyears and I just didn't check my mail for that week and was shocked I actually got a reponse from them. Sadly they never got back to me, which put me down some at that time. Though I still want to be working for rockstar NYC one day, hopefully by then if and or when I do I will be under better management/conditions.

Very glad I read that, Thanks again Uly.

Edit: After reading comments above I see it doesn't matter much especially if they are all like that.

spacemonkey

[ QUOTE ]
every single game company is poorly managed, if you think the company is well managed you are not well informed, if you think your company is well managed you are delusional.

[/ QUOTE ]

QFT.

Gav

[ QUOTE ]
every single game company is poorly managed, if you think the company is well managed you are not well informed, if you think your company is well managed you are delusional.

[/ QUOTE ]

Indeed!

Emil Mujanovic

[ QUOTE ]
every single game company is poorly managed, if you think the company is well managed you are not well informed, if you think your company is well managed you are delusional.

[/ QUOTE ]
Put me down as agreeing with this.

-caseyjones

SouL

Hahahahahahaha

I'm happy where I'm at.

gavku

Poorly managed companies......HAHAHAHAHAHAHA ring any bells Eagle?

greenj2

Haha, hell no man. You can't manage poorly if you don't manage at all!

AstroZombie

[ QUOTE ]
every single game company is poorly managed, if you think the company is well managed you are not well informed, if you think your company is well managed you are delusional.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm gonna go ahead and call "bullshit" on this one. Until you've worked for every single company in the industry, I don't think you are qualified to make this assertion.

adam

I read it and what stuck out was how the entire Manhunt team hated what they were working on, making them feel almost guilty about producing such a title. Thats what I took from it, not the poor management, thats not news.

I wonder how vocal the entire team was about what they thought of the game. If they were vocal, then I wonder if they were given an ultimatum like, "You're on this game or your out of Rockstar". I've heard horror stories about Rockstar Vancouver and this article seemed on par with those stories.

I can't relate though, I like where I'm at

Toomas

About Manhund he said that it was pet project of R*North, didnt he? By the "whole team" he means the marketing staff in NY i assume.
Anyways he sounds cocky and like he tries to take too much credit. Not to diss or anything but i guess less than 10% of the customers have visited sites of the games they buy.
But then again i dont particulary like the snobby webdesigner/marketing types.

AstroZombie

I gotta say that I had a very bad experience when I interviewed with Rockt*rd San Diego. They came off as very unorganized and unprofessional. Ultimately I left feeling as if they had wasted quite a bit of my time and ended up emailing them the next day to tell them I decided that I was no longer interested before I received any kind of response from them.

ebagg

Ah well, management is always flawed not matter what industry you're in, but add to that gaming is a very young industry and you get the clusterfuck that is game development.

Mark Dygert

[ QUOTE ]
I only took about 100 total Manhunt screenshots, but about 1/3 of all the PS2 Manhunt shots ever released are mine - including the "hero shot" on the back of the box.

[/ QUOTE ] what an amazing accomplishment, I'm glad he spent 4 pages on the screen shot approval process...

Ruz

Per 128 , you took the words right out of my mouth:)