99 replies to this topic

[Haakon Magnusson]

Roadbeer, on 18 February 2014 - 08:04 PM, said:

Wait?
There was a community manager?
I thought it was just some guy who only talked about Cicadas.

Guess community manager only communicates what he can and they certainly haven't been a fountain of information. They would need to get their communication strategy in order, I hope this isn't an indication of reduced communication but rather that Garth found something better and PGI needs to find someone to pick up.

They would have avoided so many (total) community meltdowns by early preventative communication. Although there will always be someone up in arms. Still those of more reasonable disposition would like to know beforehand if somebody dropped the ball, that they are at least aware of the issue and will be dealing with it. I know I'd like.

Griffin cbill release date miss springs to mind (Guess somebody forgot, but anyways there wasn't anyone to pick up community questions and spot it before patch and deal with it in an appropiate manner)

Cest7, on 19 February 2014 - 12:05 AM, said:

Niko left on his own accord... maybe he saw something coming...?

wtf, Niko left as well? I guess they have picked communication strategy then...

[RedDragon]

Well, we have no idea what went on behind the doors of PGI, but Garth leaving makes me wonder...

Was he really that bad at his job? After all there wasn't that much communication lately, but as others have said that may well be the fault of PGI because there just wasn't anything to communicate about.

Maybe he quit on his own. Who could blame him? He must know that/if PGI is a sinking ship, and who wants to go down in history as the "Community Manager who couldn't communicate with a community" for whatever reasons? If he can't do his job right because of PGI and they put the blame on him (Russ did that in one of his Command Chair posts, remember?), that would be reason enough to leave IMO.

All in all, kicking the one guy from your team the community really cares about is just like PGI. I could very well imagine Garth became a bit inconvenient because he was asking the same things the community was asking (Where is the progress? What can we show our customers? What can we tell them because of missed dead lines?), but that is only speculation. Nevertheless it would perfectly fit the image PGI has developed over the last years.

[Poppaukko]

More importantly, how can this Cicada plushie find its way to Garth now?

[Mycrus]

Where these so called death threats?

Last I saw just a single post in closed beta... that is it...

A single post do not make "death threats"

[Slab Squathrust]

I remember seeing Garth on the forums frequently, and even ran into him in game occasionally. I remember thinking back then how cool it was that we had a guy who served as a direct link to the developers. At the time, I thought that this was a good omen for developer responsiveness to community concerns.

"Unfortunately Garth is no longer employed at PGI, it was simply a matter of his skill set no longer matching the evolving needs of the product and studio."
I really enjoyed this line. Obviously I am not a part of PGI, and perhaps, he wasn't doing his job. However, I can't help but feeling he was toast from the start. When no progress is being made, he can't go out and tell everyone nothing is being done, save for some new hero mechs. It seems fairly obvious to me that PGI was not working on promised features as they were waiting to hear back from Microsoft about the extension of the mechwarrior license. His options were, dodge questions and avoid the community, letting a hostile atmosphere develop, or come out and tell the truth. Either option has the same result, customer anger towards PGI. At least he could collect a pay check for a bit longer with option 1.

I wouldn't be surprised to see an announcement about the hiring of a new community liaison soon. They will herald it is a new beginning in community developer relations. They will hang the lack of transparency all on him as he is no longer around. This effectively channels the anger away from them and onto a scapegoat who is no longer associated with them. All in all it seems too bad. He seemed like a good guy.

[627]

interesting move.. let him have his honeymoon and a week later fire him...

[o0cipher0o]

Wow, first Niko, now Garth... i hope these are not signs of a bad ending for this game...

Edited by o0cipher0o, 19 February 2014 - 06:08 AM.

[Teutatis]

Garth has been found alive and well, attempting to ply his trade in another game

[Goosfraba]

Teutatis, on 19 February 2014 - 06:29 AM, said:

Garth has been found alive and well, attempting to ply his trade in another game

You are as funny as a urinary catheterization.

Edited by Goosfraba, 19 February 2014 - 07:18 AM.

[Thanatos676]

Loving how you trolls think that Garth being gone = MWO is failing..

You lot must not read much gaming news, as this sort of thing happens all the time. People in the games industry are constantly being fired, quitting, moving from job to job...its nothing new and it shouldn't be a surprise...

Does it suck, yeah kind of, but its how the industry operates..

[KhanCipher]

Except that Garth was pretty much liked by most of the community (you know, something a community manager should be), and usually when a good community manager gets fired/leaves they're usually replaced by someone who has no experience, does a terrible job at it, or has none of the skills required of being a community manager.

[Peiper]

Thanatos676, on 19 February 2014 - 08:03 AM, said:

Loving how you trolls think that Garth being gone = MWO is failing..

You lot must not read much gaming news, as this sort of thing happens all the time. People in the games industry are constantly being fired, quitting, moving from job to job...its nothing new and it shouldn't be a surprise...

Does it suck, yeah kind of, but its how the industry operates..

Whatever the reason he no longer works at PGI, I still wonder - as I have since we went open Beta - if he was ever ABLE to do the job of community manager. I've been involved in the community since closed Beta and I've asked around (beyond the House Steiner HUB where I work) and Garth - or any PGI employee, to my knowledge - has ever visited any of the units other than those few privilaged (like NGNG and ComstarNA teamspeaks). Their reticence toward creating private lobbies and/or doing everything they could to PREVENT teams from competing and creating community-run communities only reinforces the impression that they like to segregate themselves from their community. Okay, they don't want to show favorites; but a community manager doesn't have to have favorites - he can give the same lines to everyone who asks if he is allowed to say anything, or do anything at all. If Garth's job was regulated to dropping in NGNG sponsored twitch TV streams and posting on the forums, then how can he ever hope to be a good community manager? I wouldn't be surprised if he left willingly with the thoughts: when I go to another employer, what will I have to show for my years here? I wasn't allowed to do anything useful, so I am just spinning my wheels. Time to move on where I can actually grow and do something important.

All speculation, of course, and it's fueled by my belief - based on track record - that PGI has a very low opinion of the community and everything we've worked hard to do DESPITE PGI's policies to keep us down. Their lack of lobbies from the beginning shows that they really don't want the community to organize. I think they want community warfare to run only, and exactly as they want it to. The only reason I think they're finally giving us lobbies (I hope) in April, is that they either don't really know what the community wants/expects, or more likely they do, and they have no idea how to implement it. If they did, they could have a community manager, let's say, go out and tell us what is in the works.

[Thanatos676]

Peiper, on 19 February 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

All speculation, of course, and it's fueled by my belief - based on track record - that PGI has a very low opinion of the community and everything we've worked hard to do DESPITE PGI's policies to keep us down.

Can I interest you in a tin foil hat?

[Peiper]

Thanatos676, on 19 February 2014 - 09:08 AM, said:

Can I interest you in a tin foil hat?

My speculation is based on evidence, or in some cases, lack-there-of. But, I 'liked' your suggestion anyway, to show that I have a sense of humor. Somewhere in my guidebook 'How to Appear Normal' it says I should consider the use of humor to win friends and influence people. Are you influenced? Please fill in the circle that best fits your response.

O - Yes
O - No

[Thanatos676]

Speculation: the forming of a theory or conjecture without firm evidence

How can you make a speculation based off of evidence when speculation by DEFINITION means its a theory or conjecture without firm evidence....

Edited by Thanatos676, 19 February 2014 - 09:26 AM.

[Heffay]

Peiper, on 19 February 2014 - 09:01 AM, said:

Their lack of lobbies from the beginning shows that they really don't want the community to organize.

The lack of lobbies was due to having to wait for UI 2.0, and now that that goal has been met, we'll see the lobbies in April.

[Egomane]

Can those selfrightous players of the blame game please stop?

We have no idea what went on internally at PGI that resulted in Garth leaving the company.

Yes, they fired him. So? This happens all over the world with someone, for various reasons. Looking at the friendly words for his ex-colleagues on Garths LinkedIn page and the fact, that he is still listed as an admin for the MWO forums after the announcement, tells us that he left on good terms with them. Otherwise he probably would have worded his entry differently and the rest of the staff would be in greater hurry to adjust his status.

So please do not try to make up speculations, based on "evidence", which is at best a biased by opinion observation.

It's a thing between PGI and Garth and we have no say in it and no right to be in the know about the details and we shouldn't speculate about them, as it will lead to nothing.

We can mourn his loss but I hope he keeps playing MWO. He still seems to be active in his Cicada paintscheme thread, which might be an indicator for it.

I only played two matches against him and lost both. He even called me out as the prime target in one of them. I want my revenge for that. So I do hope he remains an active part of the community.

I wish him good luck with his future endeavors and hope he enjoys them!

Edited by Egomane, 19 February 2014 - 09:34 AM.

[Peiper]

Heffay, on 19 February 2014 - 09:27 AM, said:

The lack of lobbies was due to having to wait for UI 2.0, and now that that goal has been met, we'll see the lobbies in April.

And these weren't part of the initial build, why? Ask yourself that, and you'll probably come to a similar conclusion.

[Thanatos676]

Peiper, on 19 February 2014 - 09:35 AM, said:

And these weren't part of the initial build, why? Ask yourself that, and you'll probably come to a similar conclusion.

Once again, I have a pristine tin foil hat for sale, and you need it...

[Heffay]

Peiper, on 19 February 2014 - 09:35 AM, said:

And these weren't part of the initial build, why? Ask yourself that, and you'll probably come to a similar conclusion.

I'm pretty sure they did is specifically to piss you off. Like, they had a meeting with all the stakeholders, and said "Hey, lobbies or no? Anyone know what Peiper thinks we should do? Lobbies? Ok, scratch them then."