Livewyr, on 19 February 2014 - 10:55 AM, said:
PGI has repeatedly failed to meet deadlines and has thus far delivered substandard product for something considered "launched" and rightfully, just about everyone in the PGI higher echelon staff has received flak for over-promising and under-delivering. The game has very little actually tying the community to it (I'd say just being battletech related is what is keeping a fair number of people here) and that was where Garth came in. He established a rapport with the community that helped counter Russ' "let them eat cake" island comments. Garth was a master at community relations, and one of few assets PGI had going for it in relation to the community.
While I agree that Garth was a good guy, and its a loss for the community that he is gone, we do not know the circumstances of his release. Russ' post is naturally not going to give details other than he was let go. Its sad to hear and Im sure Garth is bound by contract to not give any information.
But I see the "hate pgi at all costs" machine is still in full gear. The quote above proves that the OP is simply not acquainted with reality.
1) MWO was never "launched" as a completed title. It was soft launched as a stable product to serve as the core of future features according to their development plan.
2) The whole "they missed promised deadlines and deserve flak for substandard product" is again not reality. The dev model is to add beta-level features to the game and let the players act as beta QA and finish the features based on feedback and metrics. As for substandard product, at no time was a completed product or completed features ever promised or offered. And, at no time was a sworn deadline ever given for features - only projections based on current projects and resources.
3) and while Garth was a good guy, seemed to do well, and was the face of a humanized pgi to the community, I think the title of "master of community relations" is overboard. We can all think of pr-related things that should have been done that were not.
MWO and pgi certainly have issues but people need to stop judging the game and the devs against the standard dev model (At least a 10 to 20 million dollar investment, dev outfit with hundreds or thousands of employees, 3 to 5 years working underwraps, big pr blitz on release). They are not creating a game behind closed doors for 5 years, fully QA tested, before release. We are the QA. I expect features to be beta upon arrival, I expect bugs to linger, issues to persist, and balance to be in constant correction. This is the intended dev plan. We are watching them make the sausage. I think the game is great and I give pgi a B for their efforts.
Edited by LakeDaemon, 24 February 2014 - 05:33 PM.
7
