Bishop wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 6:42pm:

I mean, everything you have ever fucking typed sounds just like Grand on his socks, so...

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^^

Your lack of humor is giving this sock away. This is an awful bad version of Meat. Try again.

Bishop wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 6:42pm:

sure thing "No Mayo Warrior"...

keep fighting that righteous battle waging inside your head.  you are warming up to amusing fodder levels.  who knows, you may even manage entertaining train wreck levels on your journey.

GOD SPEED!


Asheras wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:15pm:

i think those rehires in first quarter 2018 were brought back at less than they used to originally make, for starters.  which with Bostons cost of living, has to be a kick in the teeth.

i also DO NOT grant the whole 100 employees thing. @ best (last year) it was half that.  & now, post Daybreaks December 2018 cull...  i have confirmed at least 5 people terminated & i suspect it is more than that.

it wasn't just design people either, at least one core engine guy was fired.  sucks to be a patriots fan @ SSG i guess.

the employees they do retain as regulars while some may spend more time on one title or the other, i think most crossover more than you'll ever get an admission out of a SSG rep.

Asheras wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:15pm:

not with intern programs they don't, at least not remotely as expensive as regular hiring practice & the temp expectation is built right into the hire.  if it turns out to be a transfer to full employ... that is the carrot that makes the arrangement work...  then the expense might kick in at a larger scale, but you've weeded out the mistakes, which would have costed you out front.

it also isn't nearly as expensive if you are contracting out 3rd party vendor sites for part of your commerce services.  SSG does exactly that...  Xsolla anyone?

& whilst not every detail of Daybreaks relationship as publisher is provided in great detail...  the Limited Liability Company (LLC tax) structure provides a flow through for expenses/revenues that can be written off in the most lucrative place (usually as money invested to reduce, or pay down expenses for write-off purposes for the investor.)  kind of like a legal (but fishy) money laundry, but one that does favor temporary positions.

the full time stuff lends legitimacy & serves for PR but the motive to cull it back to minimum levels is always a constant with larger entities.

so what i think is some of you...  hopefully less daily...  have bought the set of rose colored glasses about how this company operates.

---

also what is this expansion i keep hearing repeated?  & when does it release?  what is it called? etc.

or is that yet another item to be confirmed post producers letter...

Rubbinns wrote on Feb 19^th, 2019 at 12:33am:

ah i see now.  looks like they started teasing that last August around the GenCon event.  could find nothing on any official release yet, other than a generic Spring target.

puts some perspective on this question, which i can better answer now.
Asheras wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 12:00pm:

it wasn't a cut of 50%

the list i recently complied has 25 names i can tie directly to "named" employees and an additional 15 names who could be literal anybodies. & 5 i confirmed who were with SSG prior to December 2018 & are no longer.

of the list of 40 or so names. most (not accounting for possible duplication) have been visible in one way or another since mid December with only a few exceptions.  Severlin is one of those exceptions.

12% - 20% is more in the ballpark.

so not only did they do this right during a fund raising sale:  DDO Season Pass  but also with an expansion potentially launching sometime in 2019.

thanx Daybreak.

Rubbinns wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 10:37pm:


Is it too late for a little retroactive darning, I had high hopes for this one...

Bishop wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 6:42pm:


I do say old man, dither not amongst these miscreants and ne'er-do-wells, an endeavor poorly suited to your station and do stop by for a spot of tea.  And in the meantime, be a jolly good chap and have a word with Jerrold on my behalf, that I might leave these loathsome environs for the sunny vistas of "the one true forums".  Pip pip and all that!

There is something I don't get about this Sev thread. 

Lets say he's gone, moved on to other things to fuck up.

Why the secrecy?

Asheras wrote on Feb 19^th, 2019 at 8:52am:


https://twitter.com/DrOctothorpe/status/1072151482986913797

noamineo wrote on Feb 11^th, 2019 at 12:37pm:


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it all really does go back to Ashrons Call...  & there are many reasons i chose the above video.

Darel (correct spelling) confirms both LOTRO & DDO share code and are derived from the same place.  (Ashrons Call.)  he also mentions the back end work required for Xsolla:  https://xsolla.com/

& the last reason has to do with my confidence level about what i say...  it is a little more substantive than merely musings, or thoughts.


Asheras wrote on Feb 19^th, 2019 at 8:52am:

no you aren't bringing interns in to finish an expansion, they can do the grunt work so the the regs can focus on the crunch times & final sprint.  regardless,  the people let go in December weren't interns & my reference too, had more to do with writing down/off expenses at tax time. 

the hiring in the first quarter of 2018 that focused @DDO staff was likely preparation & groundwork for the Sharn Expansion.  when they began teasing in August at the D&D convention, the work had already been started through the Summer.

the Daybreak firings unfortunately had to happen before year end, because that is just how big companies operate, financial quarter to quarter.  so it does make sense.

Asheras wrote on Feb 19^th, 2019 at 8:52am:

time for another video:



now i don't expect anyone to actually watch this.  it is over half an hour & once agian the sound is terrible...  @ least cordovan is consistent in that regard.  from about the 4 minute mark to the 6 minute mark, the fricken sound actually loops repeatedly drowning out the actual conversation.  pathetic.  also, i now officially really can't stand the guy...  for us @Lotro he is relatively new.  DDO has had to endure him much longer.

that said, Mark Lizzotte is the second longest original Turbine employee.  he started on Ashrons Call waaay back in 2001.  about him i will say, when he isn't forced to copypasta everywhere and is actually given the greenlight to produce new assets, the stuff he does is pretty good, (which is pretty much the case for most who actually do get a green light to spend the time creating new assets.)

only employee who has been in the trenches longer than Mark is Christopher "Trotter" Pierson; who was one of the original 4 on the original credits for Ashrons Call.

Jen Melnick is the newbie. she started at Turbine in June 2016 & moved to SSG when it was created at the end of the same year.

Todd DeMelle (the man in the middle) is another Turbine vet who joined Turbine from Middle Earth Online (the game Turbine inherited from Sierra in a deal Jeff Anderson negotiated with Vivendi.)  Todd joined Turbine in Sept 2004.

as of November 2018 all 3 were with SSG and all have worked on both DDO & Lotro.  there is even a point in the above vid where they don't outright say, but ellude to recent work, which likely is Sharn.

and now you know a little but more about some Turbine employees & once again i chose this specific video for a reason.  when it comes to proof, i have to pretty much stick to stuff already in the public domain, walking a fine line down the middle.

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This. It takes a lot of experience to do anything complicated in life and game development is bananas---especially in an older, custom engine.  Who knows what kind of bizaare programming habits people had back then....

OldCoaly wrote on Feb 20^th, 2019 at 10:36am:


I wasn't shitting on Lynn.  Lynn was awesome as an intern and now as a full staffer.   However, I think even she would tell you that she was limited in her first 90-120 days as an intern to syntax and spelling errors in dialogue and tool tips and the like.   Which was HUGELY popular.   And much needed.   

Sometimes having someone who can focus on the small details like that is such a boon.  To the players and the full stack developers. 

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I'd add that she's actually our community manager at this point. Cordovan does all the useless shit that no one cares about. Lynn gets in touch with the community and gives us a voice---limited though it is. Forum moderation is a big waste of resources when we could be appointing all the dick heads with the hard on for rules as the moderators. Reddit style saves SO much time.

Asheras wrote on Feb 20^th, 2019 at 10:56am:


Even an experienced FTE isn't going to get much done in the first 90 days.  It takes time to understand a working environment and the various tasks that are being done.  A summer intern is not going to be given anything mission critical to accomplish, whether it is within their capabilities or not.  It takes a month or longer to even determine what someone can or might be able to do, intern or FTE.  A development team would have to be made up of idiots to take a risk like assigning anything important to an intern.  Just because Steel is a entitled asshole doesn't make him an idiot.  Even Jerry isn't an idiot, but I can tell you after listening to too many DDOtalk episodes back in the day, he ain't the sharpest pencil in the box either...  I mostly listened for crunchy bits.