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I actually worked at Rockstar Games briefly during this period, although I wasn't involved with L.A. Noire. I would discuss with others why the games industry

I actually worked at Rockstar Games briefly during this period, although I wasn't involved with L.A. Noire. I would discuss with others why the games industry was run this way and what could be done about it. One friend's opinion was "look at successful games, they're all made that way, so 'bad' management must work better than 'good' management." Thinking about it later, I figured that bad management just increased costs & time to market, and made the games buggier, but didn't fundamentally change who successful a game is. And video games are a very hit-or-miss business, where successes are such run away money makers, that a popular game can gross so much money as to cover a really inefficient development process. As long as the lead game designers had a really good sense for what a good game was.

talmand 15y ago
"look at successful games, they're all made that way, so 'bad' management must work better than 'good' management." That's silly logic, might as well as admit that since sweat shops make money then all companies should be run as sweat shops. In my experience bad management succeeds despite itself, usually because of the workers who put up with it and push to succeed for their own reasons. In those cases the bad management does everything they can to take the credit for the success but blames everyone for the failures. This is far more common in multiple industries than it should be. The main reason this happens, in my opinion, is most of the people you would want as managers (because they would be good) don't want to move into that position. They want to stay where they are since they like what they're doing. For example, moving a developer into a management position often means no more development for that person. Not to say all management is bad, there are companies out there that do seem to get it. Valve seems to be the model we all should have in mind based on some recent stories I've read.
- kahawe 15y ago
  > In my experience bad management succeeds despite itself, usually because of the workers who put up with it and push to succeed for their own reasons I sincerely wish, more managers would understand this instead of knocking each other on the shoulder. Just because you manage to get something out of the door after all does not mean you are a good manager and it does NOT mean you are _NOT_ a bad manager.

talmand 15y ago

"look at successful games, they're all made that way, so 'bad' management must work better than 'good' management." That's silly logic, might as well as admit that since sweat shops make money then all companies should be run as sweat shops. In my experience bad management succeeds despite itself, usually because of the workers who put up with it and push to succeed for their own reasons. In those cases the bad management does everything they can to take the credit for the success but blames everyone for the failures. This is far more common in multiple industries than it should be. The main reason this happens, in my opinion, is most of the people you would want as managers (because they would be good) don't want to move into that position. They want to stay where they are since they like what they're doing. For example, moving a developer into a management position often means no more development for that person. Not to say all management is bad, there are companies out there that do seem to get it. Valve seems to be the model we all should have in mind based on some recent stories I've read.

kahawe 15y ago
> In my experience bad management succeeds despite itself, usually because of the workers who put up with it and push to succeed for their own reasons I sincerely wish, more managers would understand this instead of knocking each other on the shoulder. Just because you manage to get something out of the door after all does not mean you are a good manager and it does NOT mean you are _NOT_ a bad manager.