Jon Shafer Leaves Firaxis

Flash of Steel is reporting that Jon Shafer has left Firaxis. Shafer served as the Lead Designer and Principal Gameplay Programmer for Civilization V.

The Marketing Director for Firaxis, Kelley Gilmore, says of Jon, "We are grateful for Jon's contributions to Firaxis and the Civilization franchise and wish him all the best in the future."

Shafer has made this comment:

I very much enjoyed my time Firaxis, worked on many projects that I've very proud of and got to know a lot of amazing people. I'm appreciative of the opportunities provided by Firaxis and 2K, and hope to see (and play) more great games from them in the future.

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Feel free to discuss Shafer's exit on our forums, and thanks to forum member Windsor for the news tip.

Wow. I don't have Civ V, so I haven't been really following it. Was it planned for Shafer to leave or is this out of left field? Does Civ V have anything to do with it?

I have nothing personal against the guy BUT this is fantastic news. Now perhaps Firaxis can sort out this awful mess of a game.

Perhaps Firaxis could take a look at "Rise of Mankind - A New Dawn" for some hints about the complexity that I think a lot of us are crying out for from CiV layered on top of all the good stuff it could be fantastic.

I hope the franchise can be saved.

Ha I wonder why? Wait it's because he ruined civ!

Whoa!
True, CIV V had its flaws and was rather unfinished at launch, but overall, it wasn't as terrible as everyone said. I've enjoyed (and still enjoy) playing it, and liked some of the new additions to the game. Thanks John, but maybe it's for the best?

Now let's get back that Zynga guy.
or Sid Meier, if you must.

El Caballerion said:

True, CIV V had its flaws and was rather unfinished at launch, but overall, it wasn't as terrible as everyone said.

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Look, no one is saying it's terrible. But when a sequence of a game is worse than some mods of a past version made by fans that didn't gain any money doing them, then you don't need a terrible game to disappoint and unplease the fans.

Good riddance to Jon Shafer and his "for dummies" mentality.

Actually I am not grateful for any of Jon's contributions to the Civilization franchise, and don't wish him anything for the future (other than hoping he doesn't return). I wish he would have never worked for Firaxis, and wish he wouldn't have mucked up Civ 5 so much.

Probably got tired of all those whining "fans" on a certain forum.

Dont blame him...people are spoiled and ungrateful. I really like CiV and I hope they continue this style.

It was a hit and run!!!!!!! lol Jk.

Please hire back Soren Johnson. I loved this guy.

sey wut???

May be the problem is not Jon Shafer or Soren Johnson but Firaxis...
How much influence has a leaddesigner at Firaxis in reality? Can he - for example - say "let´s get rid of these ugly 3d-graphics that only use a lot of pc-power and offer nothing to the game but minor graphics with a small number of polygones" and this will be done?

I do't know what huppens there (Firaxis). But is true that they created an expensive game with tons of bugs. The game after 2 patches still has many problems.... (see the treats about technical support and bugs reports).
As for me, i'm very ungry about the game and i'll be very careful to buy civ6, i'll wait first the coments of fanatics and the patches and after may be buy ..... (civ5, i bought immediately 3 dvd's and after i spend more time for the bugs and technical support than to ...play the game!).

Can we really honestly say that Civ IV Vanilla was that great out of the box? I've gone back and played Vanilla and well, it sucks compared to what Civ4BTS became.

In fact, comparing Civ IV Vanilla to BTS is most likely a template of what is to come for Civ5. Take a look at the most recent patch -- while I concede that there are still balancing issues and even some "fun," funtionality, and interface/(lackof) information issues still there -- the latest patch has just begun to address what is needed.

We can sit and whine about how the game was released too soon, or how it's not like CivABCD, or we can make our will known.

I believe that in a couple of months, Civ5 will have ironed out its rough spots and we'll look back at Mr. Shafer and think: "Ohhhh! This is what he had in mind!"

I belong to those who think that CIV 5 is a huge disapointment. And even though this is only the vanilla version, one should expect more from a sequel. It's just not good enough to send something like this out.

I think that Jon Shafer has come to the conclusion, that it's only uphill from here, and with only little chance of succes of reaching the hights of CIV 4, hi want to try his luck elsewhere where the circumstances are better.

I wish him the best of luck.

I wish there was more information on Why he quit.

I'm personally happy he left.

I was never a fan of Jon since he got hired to lead Civ5. I mean, the kid is only 24 years old, fresh out of a below average university, and was given the job to LEAD a 20 year old franchise that was at its peak of development with Civ4-BTS??

I'm sorry, but I saw this coming long time ago. I critiqued some of his new ideas since they were leaked during the development of Civ5, he did have some really good ones, but mostly horrible ideas.

My wish was that he was at least going to implement these bad ideas well, that we were going to have a solid, polished (enough) game to start with and then work around those things. But he failed to deliver in everysingle level that many of us expected.

Personally, I don't have anything against the kid, I just don't think he was up for the job, and ultimately I blame Firaxis and Sid for patronizing this kid and giving him the lead of Civilization in the first place. You don't come out as CEO for JP morgan fresh out business school, no mather how good your ideas or the school you attented are.

Honestly thou, I never expected Civ5 to ship in the shape it did, and while it doesn't surprise me that Jon left, I wasn't really expecting to happen this soon. This goes to show you how bad were the things with him up there, that "he had to leave" withing months of the horrendous Civilization release.

This really gives me hope tht Civilization 5 might reach Civ-BTS level at some point.

This is a good news i think, because Jon was why the game was lack the hm, Civization-feeling.

That's so true.

You shouldn't give that much responsibility to somebody that green.

I hope this is a stop to make CIV V a hardcore game again, I don't take it personal to Jon though, he musta been pretty much pressed by the market to make the game more casual =/