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Another is that he wanted to work wth a company that that the freedom to make the kinds of games he wanted to make.
That one is funny.
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Shafer told us he could give out any info on what his stand alone project will be for the company as Stardock is still concentrating its efforts on updating Elemental, including the release of at least two expansion packs.
So, where is the info?
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"I approved the necessary budget in December to fund Elemental for both 2011 and 2011."
This one I love..
I cannot speak for anybody else, but he was "responsible" for one scenario/mod which I tried out for 10 minutes and immediately left to never ever touch it again.Shafer did work on the expansion that many people currently hating on him regard as the epitome of Civ, BtS.
Nobody just pops out of nowhere and becomes a lead designer.
You can make a good resume out of everything.Most Civ fanatics knew Shafer's name well before Civ5. I'll repeat, you don't go from nothing to being a lead designer. He had a good resume.
For me this is sufficient to know that I don't want to spend money for anything in which J.Shafer would play a significant role in design.
So, apparently Stardock hasn't yet hit their quota this year for hiring mediocre game designers. I thought Kael was an odd choice (not due to FFH not being AWESOME but just him being rather green). But Shafer? Are they to hire the creative Team for Darksiders next?
So I go over to Stardock and start reading this post about Shafer joining. By the fourth reply a guy shows up and says he is the CEO.
"Yes. That is the public version of the explanation and the broadly correct description. I'm the CEO. All failures are on my doorstep."
Something tells me that game will do just fine.
He was the one advocating the 1upt turn, by many regarded as the main cause of almost any problem within Civ5.
Moderator Action: Pre-Emptive warning:
I don't want to see any character assassination etc in this thread, please.
If you buy it, you can play the beta.Anyone know if Elemental has a demo version? I might have to check this game out at some point.
Well, some people are much more positive than I about the subject.1.1 Elemental+ Brad's AI patch is a decent right game now , seriously- though it needs improvements in some areas, notably UI.
Well... Brad did ignore and even ban people (Dale for instance) who told him during the beta that the game was going to be an epic failure at launch because of many issues. The result was he intentionally got a game out that was such a massive failure he had to cancel another project which had to be funded on Elemental benefits.I somehow doubt Jon is the type of person to ignore everyone to intentionally make decisions to screw people over. I'm sure he truly believed they had the time and resources so everything he wanted to do would work out. They didn't and that is not Jon's fault. It did work out fine for thousands of players, just not many of us. Jon has seen the criticisms, is a really nice guy, and will only become a better game maker from it.
Brad Wardell is the same way
OMG nooo!!!! He is going to ruin YET ANOTHER turn-based strategy game.
If he managed to completely destroy a 20 year old franchise that was at its peak of development and success so easy, as he did with Civilization, I wonder what he is going to do to an already mediocre game that is just coming out of a huge barrage of critizism from its last iteration.
Seriously, this young kid is like cancer for gaming, and he is spreading fast.
For those fanboys of him out there, please come back in summer when Elemental is released and tell the rest of us we were wrong by thinking he ruined Civilization and he will ruin Elemental in the same way. I'm 100% sure that won't happen. Listen, there was one thing, ONE THING that changed from civ4-BTS and civ5, and that was the lead designer. Yes firaxis got rid of tons of people later on, but that was when civ5 was already on its last phases of development before release, this only means one thing, Jon Shafer is responsible for destroying civilization.
If you buy it, you can play the beta.
Well, some people are much more positive than I about the subject.
Well... Brad did ignore and even ban people (Dale for instance) who told him during the beta that the game was going to be an epic failure at launch because of many issues. The result was he intentionally got a game out that was such a massive failure he had to cancel another project which had to be funded on Elemental benefits.
Brad would like to be open-minded and listen to the fans, but he did ignore critics and the result was a big failure.
I am NOT happy. Stardock is my "last bastion" after what happened with the latest civ iteration. Does this mean that we Stardockers will have to endure another "renewed vission" from this person, as we civvers had to?
Not happy. Not happy at all. Count me among the ones that see Shafer as the responsible for the weakest civ ever. I don't want to see that happen to GalCiv, or the new Elemental for that matter... now that they finally have something playable, fun and engaging after patch 1.1.
NOT happy.
What's character assassination?
If you listen to the EUIII forums, Paradox is messing up Paradox these days ^_^. Typical overblown remarks though.
Don't be insane.
Do you have any idea how much of the design process as well as scheduling is altered when you're dealing with a publicly traded company?
Seriously. If you don't like Civ V, think carefully about what it is you don't like about it. Seriously.
Moreover, as some have already observed, Kael is the one taking over design on Elemental from me. We desperately need someone who has AAA experience in extending game engines.
Don't let the din of the Internet fool you. The outstanding qualities of a given person are not what they often seem to be. You guys who love Kael so much don't realize that what makes him a magical super being is that he's an enterprise level project manager. Similarly, what makes Jon so amazing is his ability to extend what is there in new and interesting ways. These are crucial, important and most crucially, rare talents in our industry.
If you don't like Civ V, don't blame Jon. Don't blame Firaxis either. The truth behind games is a lot more complex than it seems on the surface.
As someone whose job for the past 2+ years has been to be a human punching bag for other people's decisions, I can tell you that the Internet "narrative" is almost never right.