Frank wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 6:46am:


Wasn't Sevpay brought to DDO from Assrons Call to do the same fucking thing he did at that game? I imagine they'll move him to LoTRO by the end of the year to put his shitty mark on that game too. The guy is a fucking brainless piece of shit that created the sad state of power creep DDO has become. The sooner he finally makes maintenance mode official the better if only so he'll keep his retarded hands off of what's left. I can't fucking understand why Turbine has let him run the game into the ground for as long as he has but maybe that was the intention all along.

Turd_Ferguson wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 11:59am:


You seem upset, nigger Faggot, why? 

Meursault wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 9:02am:


Really?  You worry about this?  Shutting down DDO would cost people jobs.  People he is responsible for as a manager.  Maybe even cost him his job too. 

That doesn't mean the game couldn't be or won't be shut down.  I just doubt that it is done with intent on the part of the Exec Producer because some players said mean things about him on a message board.

wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 12:48pm:


I'm just a fucking happy person in general. I figured even a shit stained ass wipe could tell that by how pleasant my posts are. Now, as we use to say in elementary school to each other on the playground, eat shit and die.

OldCoaly wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 1:43pm:


I've never met a manager that thought that way.  I know that as a manager (earlier) and small business owner (now), I am always aware of how many families, and hungry mouths, depend on the quality of my decision making and leadership.  I'm not going to endanger anyone being able to put food on the table and keep the lights turned on over what someone says about me on the internet.

It's possible he is a different sort, but even what you describe here: complete selfishness and personal gain is not congruent with Mersault's comment that he would hurt himself just to spite the DDO community.  Intentionally sinking the IP you are the EP of is a black mark on a CV, no matter how you spin it.  That doesn't jive.  This isn't McDonalds where that minimum wage worker may spit on your burger if you give them too much shit at the drive thru.  Although a lot of people here talk like this is their primary business frame of reference.

Asheras wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 2:09pm:

Maybe, in fact I hope so, I rarely bother with the main forums these days and you see a lot more of his posts on the PC than I have access to. Maybe I only see him at his worst when I follow a link from here to there. But what I have seen looks very much like a petty egomaniac.

And when judging him based on the traits of managers you have known, remember that he works at one of the worst run software development companies in business today. Giving him credit for common management knowledge is like giving Comcast customer service the benefit of the doubt - you may be right, but it's a crap shoot not a sure bet.

Asheras wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 2:07pm:


I admit that I am pessimistic about Severlin's motivations, however I have seen nothing from him to indicate that he is able to objectively evaluate criticism or interpret any communication that contradicts his vision as anything but a personal attack.

I'm not convinced that Sev will sink DDO for the purpose of sinking DDO, but I am certain that he will push his ideas through to whatever level of completion the development team can stumble without objective regard for its consequences to the game environment.

His motivation is to have things "his way", not "best way to maintain DDO as an ongoing concern".  So far, these have not aligned, and his data shows that he will not be swayed by evaluating historical outcomes of similar events or discussion of facts.

The only things allowed to over perform are Sev's things.

Regarding the black mark on the resume, any HR person would find any Turbine employment reference to be a black mark if they bothered to look at trends such as staffing levels or game populations without needing a line item "tanked DDO" under "Duties Performed".


It's true, though, that I haven't seen everything that Sev has done, and I'm willing to listen to contradicting evidence.

Cite some examples of Sev being a stand up guy.

OldCoaly wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 5:13pm:


I agree with all your clearly laid out sentiments Coaly.

Sev has behaved like a petulant child.
His ego is huge, but fragile.

Whenever one of his pet projects fell flat, he either shifted blame or went to ground.

Where has our illustrious Producer been?  Not that I follow his every word, but from what I've heard, he's said bugger all in the last year.


Asheras wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 1:08pm:


Ash - as to your point about why would he sabotage his own job?  A rational argument, but it is probably not the right question.

I would ask:
Why would he sabotage his replacement's job, or why would he give the middle finger to a customer base in a product he knows is about to get shit canned?

He's too narcissistic to sabotage himself, even for spite.
So maybe he isn't.  Maybe he sees his next lily pad to leap onto is LOTRO or one of the mobile apps teams, and he is leaving a nice steamer on DDO's doorstep to say "screw you" to the vocal opponents in the customer base who dared to challenge him.

That type of behaviour is not uncommon when you get demoted or side shifted, or have a grudge against someone.

Regarding the employment record.  Do recruiter's ever bother to look at the success or failure of previous of potential employee's previous products in the software industry?
I'm not sure, but there are lots of software products that fail, so maybe that is just accepted as fact and they look at the skill set you have and the role/responsibility you had.  Whether the software failed directly as a result of your efforts is going to be too hard to determine.  Conversely, you worked on Warcraft, does that make you a legendary 3D artist or coder?

Maybe some of the better gaming houses, ask around and do back ground checks, but I suspect most of the yum-cha developers just want warm asses on chairs doing stuff.

Asheras wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 2:07pm:

That behavior isn't exclusive to minimum wage workers, it's a well documented phenomenon among even highly educated people. And yes, even to the point of incurring personal cost. Surely you've heard the phrase "cut off your nose to spite your face"? It's a common phrase because it's a common behaviour, though obviously not literally.

For example, from http://jameskimmeljr.com/law/law-and-psychology/justice-addiction-recent-brain-i...
Quote:


or from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23426678
Quote:


or from http://stanford.edu/group/spanlab/Press/bk0804press2.html
Quote:


And furthermore, intentionally sinking it is only a black mark if you're caught, and if you have a highly inflated sense of your own ability you are far more likely to believe you can get away with it. Working for Turbine is already a black mark on the CV, hastening the demise of DDO to have a good exit excuse sooner could be quite logical if you don't think you can get caught. It would afford an opportunity to move on (i.e. to one of Turbine's Mobile F2P games) without looking like the rat who abandoned a sinking ship and would feel as good as sex for punishing those ungrateful players.

So though it's not proof that he would, it's clearly proof that concern isn't unreasonable and can't reasonably be dismissed out of hand.

OldCoaly wrote on Jul 13^th, 2016 at 5:13pm:

I'd cite the 10th Anniversary challenge loot as an example where they were so full of their ego that they wanted people to run around in stuff named for them.  But an argument could be made that it was just their normal power creep SOP at work.

My vote is on ego.

Meursault wrote on Jul 14^th, 2016 at 7:03am:

Different version of The Darwin Awards: beatification.

Quote:

http://www.britannia.com/bios/saints/aebbeyounger.html

I'd point out that I. Nov of 2012 NCsoft shut down city of heroes and refused to consider selling it because they did not want to create a potential rival out of a former product. Paragon studios entire team was fired. COH saw profit that year in excess of 7 figures and one of its best earning periods in its history. It had a solid active subscriber base of nearly two hundred thousand players at the time of the announced intent to shut down. It was shut down simply because its umbrella NC soft want to change direction away from western MMO or so was said.

So if you think with the announced intent to direct turbine to mobile games there is even a chance in the nine hells that WB will pay Hasbro for continued rights to DDO or lotro your higher then this life long pot head.