Tony Albrecht, console games programmer, inventor of the Tony Unit, knows all about getting the shaft. And I don't mean that in a rude way. You see, he used to work at Rat Bag Games for six years, right up until Midway infamously closed the studio down just before Christmas 2005. He knows the low-down.
Tony shares his valuable advice for all you ex-Auran peeps now that you're going through what he and many of his colleagues had to endure just two years ago...
It's shit when it happens, but a studio closure can open doors. Take the chance to do something you wouldn't have considered before. You can always quit and go somewhere else if you hate where you end up (unless you have a family to support, in which case you have my understanding and my sympathy).
As Keith Flint once said, "It's better to regret doing something than to regret not doing it".
1. trog Wed, 19 Dec 2007
Sorry, the valuable advice is "go get another job, quit if you don't like it unless you have a family in which case you'll have to suck it up"? :)
How about "start up a self-serving blog?"
So a talented veteran details his relevant experience on his bog, with the hope of helping others suffering the same layoff fate.
Yet geniuses trog and anonymous coward feel the need to criticise without it appears even reading the blog in question (RTFA).
What helpful advice have trog and anonymous coward offered ex Auran employee’s?, what insight do they provide? What have they contributed to this forum?
Sweet Fanny Adams, frankly this site would be better off without them, the level of petty, uninformed anonymous bitching cheapens the whole venture.
Welcome to Sumea mate.
And people wonder why our local industry doesn't have the community that other nations have yet?
Well for a start these little anchors don't help.
Hey anchor rhymes with something else these guys are.. nice. :)
I think everyone's seen John Gabriel's Greater Internet Dickwad Theory: normal person + anonymity + audience = total dickwad.
Introduce logins, nuff said :)
yep, logins would go a long way to a) bringing dev guys back to the site and b) just generally clearing out some (though def not all) of the idiots that love to... be idiots
We're still having anonymous comments postings with the new site, but the plan is to have them approved by our news editors before they get posted up. This should hopefully solve everything.
Also maybe look at lowering the number of votes to get the comment removed from the site might be a good idea. At the moment 10 is a bit too many votes.
This is a bad idea that will head towards sponsoring companies (or companies employing editors/censors) to influence the comments.
it's fun to make silly comments now and then , getting away with it etc.. as long as they don't go too far.. I think having a login and letting everyone know who you are would just mean that no one would post any comments in fear of making a mistake and saying the wrong thing etc.. I find tony's blog pretty good, probably the most helpful and best advice he has is getting "employment insurance" . Personally I think the best advice i was ever given and give to other people is to continue to working on your portfolio and skills, so when you do get laid off or that time comes you are prepared.
Tony's advice is definately welcomed amongst those that are doing it tough, just knowing that other people have been through the same crap and come out the other side is important.
Removing anonymous comments would also remove the insight you get into a lot of companies, forcing us to stick with the masturbatory press releases the company releases about themselves.
Trolling is bad, but that's why you should use the thumbs up/down feature more. It's there for a reason.
I agree with this statement. While the use of anonymity on this site opens the door to some idiotic content, it is also a great tool for allowing honest commentary for individuals. Of course you can't take everything you read here as gospel, everyone should know that.
The idea of having 'news editors' moderating user comments is a bit troubling to me. How do they judge what's worthy of being displayed? Obviously some posts are just troll fodder, but where do you draw the line? What is the likelihood that the editor's own personal views will influence their decisions? Or that pressure from companies that sponsor Sumea will influence this new system?
What about combining the two - you have to login to post a comment, but you can choose whether to display your name or not? Souri and the Sumea team will always know who you are, so anyone who is consistently being an idiot can be banned (or lose the privilege of anonymous posting).
Anonymous means anonymous.
I wonder what the legal ramifications are of an internet site allowing anonymous posters to abuse and make defamatory comments about developers. Newspapers for example have to have thier facts checked, etc. What about online sites.
Look up the Whirlpool incident with the Accounting software company that tried to sue them because a forum poster wrote something bad about their software at Whirlpool. The bad amount of press and ill feeling towards that company was enormous and the company eventually shut down because of it. They made their software problem known a million times louder.
Saying negative things about a company is legal.
What do you mean by 'legal'. If it's not factual then you can get sued for defamation.