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Here's an article I read the other day on this: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-just-anything-except-good-150004900.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/am

Here's an article I read the other day on this: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-just-anything-except-good-150004900.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-just-anything-except-g... My favorite quotation: (context: Frazzini is director-lvl) "[...]the team cringed as Frazzini struggled to differentiate between hyper-polished conceptual footage and live gameplay[...]". I am awe-struck, my only response is: LOL My second favorite tidbit was about their game "New World", in which players "colonize a mythical land and murder inhabitants who bear a striking resemblance to Native Americans". Then refused to believe their employees who said this was racist and offensive. Until they hired a tribal consultant who, indeed, found it offensive. There's other good things in there as well - not listening to other employees, hiring and then wasting talent, chasing trends, not understanding the industry, not scoping correctly (lumberjack). Even AMZN's culture was restrictive and harmful (IMO especially "leaders are right a lot" lmao, not at all in this case!). Could you imagine working in an industry for a decade, and then being in this position? Where your boss literally cannot differentiate between a rendered video and a pre-release video game - but the culture has an in-built "you're probably wrong, peon" attitude? I'd leave so fast I'd probably forget my desk plants!

mywittyname 6y ago
> Could you imagine working in an industry for a decade, and then being in this position? Negotiate for fat RSUs because they need your industry experience. Placate the dumb boss long enough for stock to vest. Use stock gainz to finance a studio with former competent team mates. Sell successful IP back to AMZN. Retire to building goofy kids games.
- whymauri 6y ago
  I... know about someone who did exactly this (minus selling IP back to AMZN).
- bogwog 6y ago
  But then the studio will rarely, if ever, release games. And if they do, they'll probably be so bad they'll need to be recalled! ...wait a minute
danbolt 6y ago
I think a lot about Treasure, a quirky game developer that tended to make a bunch of strange games in the past. I think their studio director and founder, Masato Maegawa, understood the value in being more hands-off in a leadership role. [1] [2] Part of me feels like Amazon and Google thought their super-direct top-down style would be successful in a creative project involving larger team, unaware of the lessons previous game developers had learned. Hardspace: Shipbreaker, on the other hand had a unqiue idea and was a critical success, and in a retrospective the developers were very explicit not to impose a top-down attitude to development. [3] (disclaimer: I work at Blackbird Interactive, but not on Hardspace: Shipbreaker) [1] http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/sinandpunishment/0/1 http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/sinandpunishm... [2] http://shmuplations.com/aliensoldier/ http://shmuplations.com/aliensoldier/ [3] https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1026825/Forging-Hardspace-Shipbreaker-Creating-Processes https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1026825/Forging-Hardspace-Ship...

mywittyname 6y ago

> Could you imagine working in an industry for a decade, and then being in this position? Negotiate for fat RSUs because they need your industry experience. Placate the dumb boss long enough for stock to vest. Use stock gainz to finance a studio with former competent team mates. Sell successful IP back to AMZN. Retire to building goofy kids games.

whymauri 6y ago
I... know about someone who did exactly this (minus selling IP back to AMZN).
bogwog 6y ago
But then the studio will rarely, if ever, release games. And if they do, they'll probably be so bad they'll need to be recalled! ...wait a minute

danbolt 6y ago

I think a lot about Treasure, a quirky game developer that tended to make a bunch of strange games in the past. I think their studio director and founder, Masato Maegawa, understood the value in being more hands-off in a leadership role. [1] [2] Part of me feels like Amazon and Google thought their super-direct top-down style would be successful in a creative project involving larger team, unaware of the lessons previous game developers had learned. Hardspace: Shipbreaker, on the other hand had a unqiue idea and was a critical success, and in a retrospective the developers were very explicit not to impose a top-down attitude to development. [3] (disclaimer: I work at Blackbird Interactive, but not on Hardspace: Shipbreaker) [1] http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/sinandpunishment/0/1 http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/wii/sinandpunishm... [2] http://shmuplations.com/aliensoldier/ http://shmuplations.com/aliensoldier/ [3] https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1026825/Forging-Hardspace-Shipbreaker-Creating-Processes https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1026825/Forging-Hardspace-Ship...