I think he was pushed, but his position was untenable.

KICKED OUT from firaxis. Ohhmmm. We are talking about J. Shafer of course?

BTW - what did you expect? He is one to blame for for tragic AI and bad rates of game (among fans not press). So I think somebody had to loose job...

he quit cause corrupt marketing made him release his game too early and now he has to take the blame for marketing's mistake.

We'll probably never know, but what we do know is for whatever reason this game was released to early. :sad:

Maybe he just stepped out? Because he was tired of being the focus of fanatical discussions on the web?
:dunno:

Does it matter? None of you will ever know, and I honestly don't think it's worth knowing.

Poll all you like, but none of this actually matters now that he's gone.

He quit because he pushed the game out of the door while the marketing tried to stop him, fearing for bad longterm effects which then showed.

He quit because he pushed the game out of the door while the marketing tried to stop him, fearing for bad longterm effects which then showed.

Are you being ironic? It's hard to tell on the web.

Its thousands of time more likely that it was the opposite, and releasing the game early was a decision taken by the publishers and the marketing department while he wanted to finish polishing it first.

Can't you just leave the poor guy alone? This thread is just baseless speculation without any discussion result to be expected.

With attitude like this, no wonder why CivFanatics isn't primary forum for official information anymore.

And it's not first time. Even in Civ4:BtS era thing knew to get out of control (I still remember there was some incident at that time, not sure what was exactly...), with forum members flaming the designer.

Can't you just leave the poor guy alone? This thread is just baseless speculation without any discussion result to be expected.

It's a poll. No discussion intended.

May be he just wanted to change a job for a while but needed to finish the project first.

Are you being ironic? It's hard to tell on the web.

Of course I've been ironic.

I used the same hyperbole as some others did in pretending to "know" what was going on behind the scenes. ("Oh, it was not HIS fault, it all was the marketing!")

Regarding the "too early" state of the game upon release, none of us knows how much this influenced his/the development team's decisions and ideas.
Knowing quite something about projects under time/budget restrictions, I know that the most important part is to concentrate on the core ideas. Anything else can be added later.
But the core should work.

The very core of Shafer_5 was "1upt". The whole game is designed around this basic idea. It influences really anything in this game.
And this didn't work too well. The AI was (and is) not capable of getting the principles, was (and is) not capable of doing the necessary calculations in time and a meaningful manner.

THAT is what a good designer would have tried to avoid.
"1upt" should have worked from the get go. Everything else was just candy on the cake.
But even the candy (let's talk about "diplomacy" or the tech-tree, eh?) didn't taste well.

The game is a showroom example of what not to do when releasing a game. Even more so when this game is a sequel for a franchise of almost 20 years.

With attitude like this, no wonder why CivFanatics isn't primary forum for official information anymore.

And it's not first time. Even in Civ4:BtS era thing knew to get out of control (I still remember there was some incident at that time, not sure what was exactly...).

Yeah. I remember that incident as well.
Alexman came here to announce something about an upcoming patch, fans started "discussing" about the why and how and more, and finally the insults began.

Then, Alexman showed up again, slipped into some shoes which weren't his and was p****d, although at that state the discussion was completely not about him or the patch anymore.

The point is, Firaxis is particularly weak in communicating with their fanbase.
They try it from time to time, which is good. And then they fail, because they aren't doing it right on their side, because it is done by the wrong persons and then it ends in a mess.

With attitude like this, no wonder why CivFanatics isn't primary forum for official information anymore.

And it's not first time. Even in Civ4:BtS era thing knew to get out of control (I still remember there was some incident at that time, not sure what was exactly...), with forum members flaming the designer.

You don't have to post it in both threads. We get it.

Also, inb4tehlocke

Poor guy! Anyway, I don't think he needs our pity nor flame. Let's hope the game will be better onwards.

I dunno but it surely needs a whole thread about it!

Stay classy civfanatics

A poll?? About what?
You can suppose it is about Jon, but as the title of this thread + the poll + the O.P. body text mention nothing, I say:

YES, I have pushed my grand mother in the stairs!

Does it satisfy you?

It would have been nice, at least, to be more specific on the purpose of this poll.

He said specifically that he left of is own accord and it had nothing to do with CivV

It's a poll. No discussion intended.

You posted a poll on a discussion forum. Whether you intended for discussion or not there will be one.

Of course I've been ironic.

I used the same hyperbole as some others did in pretending to "know" what was going on behind the scenes. ("Oh, it was not HIS fault, it all was the marketing!")

Regarding the "too early" state of the game upon release, none of us knows how much this influenced his/the development team's decisions and ideas.
Knowing quite something about projects under time/budget restrictions, I know that the most important part is to concentrate on the core ideas. Anything else can be added later.
But the core should work.

The very core of Shafer_5 was "1upt". The whole game is designed around this basic idea. It influences really anything in this game.
And this didn't work too well. The AI was (and is) not capable of getting the principles, was (and is) not capable of doing the necessary calculations in time and a meaningful manner.

THAT is what a good designer would have tried to avoid.
"1upt" should have worked from the get go. Everything else was just candy on the cake.
But even the candy (let's talk about "diplomacy" or the tech-tree, eh?) didn't taste well.

The game is a showroom example of what not to do when releasing a game. Even more so when this game is a sequel for a franchise of almost 20 years.

1: I keep laughing at the fact that you call it 'Shafer_5'

2: To test your hyperbole, what do you think should've been the core idea?

Not a discussion thread - so no reason to keep it open in a discussion forum.