Jon Shafer joins Stardock to work on elemental

[wurstburst]

This news is a bit... disturbing. I bought Elemental mainly because Civ V was boring & terrible & simple & I was looking for an alternative game to play. Suffice to say that I won't be buying any sort of Elemental expansions if Shafer is anywhere near the design role.

Or you could wait and see if the expansion is any good before pre-judging it. Unless you enjoy cutting off your nose to spite your face.

 

[blind biker]

Credited doesn't mean he did anything substantial for all those games though.

WTH? I agree with Dale? Hell has frozen over!!!??

 

[blind biker]

new interview

He definitely sounds a bit the corporate psychopath. Smooth, manipulative, leaves a trail of destruction after him.

I decided now NOT to get Elemental. I like 1.1, but this interview completely confirmed what I feared about Jon's ability. No ability there, just pretense and manipulation.

 

[Darsnan]

He definitely sounds a bit the corporate psychopath. Smooth, manipulative, leaves a trail of destruction after him.

After reading the below it sounded more like someone handed JS a script for this interview, said "here, read this", and he did.

Shack: Some were saying you could potentially be Sid Meier's successor at Firaxis. What was the reasoning for leaving the team? Was it hard to walk away from that opportunity?

Jon Shafer: It's always tough to leave what you've been doing, and it was especially hard saying goodbye to such a great studio and an amazing group of people. I've been a follower of Firaxis for more than a decade, and am anxiously awaiting their upcoming games. Stardock is another great company, and has a lot to offer those in this business. I'm very excited by this opportunity and absolutely believe we're going to do some great things in the coming years!

D

 

[Drakarska]

After reading the below it sounded more like someone handed JS a script for this interview, said "here, read this", and he did.




D

Wow, Talk about the fine art of evasion. Anyone know if he's running for public office?

 

[Venereus]

If people were seriously considering him as Sid's successor, then there's gotta be some truth in the rumors about Sid not being a very good designer/programmer.

 

[Aristos]

He definitely sounds a bit the corporate psychopath. Smooth, manipulative, leaves a trail of destruction after him.

I decided now NOT to get Elemental. I like 1.1, but this interview completely confirmed what I feared about Jon's ability. No ability there, just pretense and manipulation.

EXACTLY.

We had a word for his kind in Southamerica: CHANTA.

Meaning the person that as not much to offer in real abilities, but manipulates most people's perception of his "abilities" to the point that many defend them even in sight of a mediocre result. A lot of talk, a lot of avoiding responsibilities for his own results, a lot of blaming others...

A chanta...

 

[blind biker]

EXACTLY.

We had a word for his kind in Southamerica: CHANTA.

Meaning the person that as not much to offer in real abilities, but manipulates most people's perception of his "abilities" to the point that many defend them even in sight of a mediocre result. A lot of talk, a lot of avoiding responsibilities for his own results, a lot of blaming others...

A chanta...

Wow, I am very impressed there is a word for this, in.. Spanish? Or Portuguese/Brasilian? This phenomenon is RAMPANT in the western corporate world, but without an adequate word, it is hard to stop.

Chanta. I'll make a note for this. Thank you very, very much Ricardo.

 

[MadRat]

Wow, I am very impressed there is a word for this, in.. Spanish? Or Portuguese/Brasilian? This phenomenon is RAMPANT in the western corporate world, but without an adequate word, it is hard to stop.

Chanta. I'll make a note for this. Thank you very, very much Ricardo.

You guys summed up middle management beautifully.

Rat

 

[Ayt]

If people want to be worried about the future of Elemental, they should be concerned with Wardell and Kael since those two have much more input than Shafer will have.

The teeth gnashing is downright laughable. I uninstalled Civ 5 within two weeks of buying it and have told anyone who asks me about it that I think it is terrible, but that doesn't mean Jon Shafer is incapable of doing a great job in his new position.

 

[Venereus]

EXACTLY.

We had a word for his kind in Southamerica: CHANTA.

Meaning the person that as not much to offer in real abilities, but manipulates most people's perception of his "abilities" to the point that many defend them even in sight of a mediocre result. A lot of talk, a lot of avoiding responsibilities for his own results, a lot of blaming others...

A chanta...

Sí, muy chanta el tipo este.

Translation:
Yeah, this guy is a freaking fake.

 

[Aristos]

If people want to be worried about the future of Elemental, they should be concerned with Wardell and Kael since those two have much more input than Shafer will have.

The teeth gnashing is downright laughable. I uninstalled Civ 5 within two weeks of buying it and have told anyone who asks me about it that I think it is terrible, but that doesn't mean Jon Shafer is incapable of doing a great job in his new position.

or maybe it does... you wanna assume the risk? Go ahead. I love to be a free rider.

 

[Aristos]

Sí, muy chanta el tipo este.

Translation:
Yeah, this guy is a freaking fake.

Chanta de cuarta! Jamas pense que un chanta destruiria la franquicia de Civilization.

Translation: A chanta of fourth category! I never thought a chanta would destroy the Civilization franchise.

Rioplatense, che? (From the River Plate, "che"?)

Note: "che" has no translation... it can mean buddy as much as it can mean ass...ole, depending on the circumstances...

 

[Drago Askani]

If only the rest of us could fail to critical and financial acclaim. If you like it or not, its both a media darling, and very well selling game.

 

[Aristos]

If only the rest of us could fail to critical and financial acclaim. If you like it or not, its both a media darling, and very well selling game.

The question really is: for how long?

I mean, the core principles of Civ that were now blatantly broken held the franchise for 20 years... the "new vision" will do something similar? I don't think so, I don't think it will even last one cycle... and I'm not happy about that, I would prefer to be praising a wonderful design as I did with Soren's work (like it or not, it was a sound design).

So, maybe it sold initally very well because of us, the long term fans that were used to grab a "guaranteed" platform of empire building... maybe it won't sell that well anymore afterwards. Time will tell.

I don't see it happening though, not with this DLC bullcrap anyways... the one and only thing (together with Steam) that I can not attribute to Shafer.

 

[tom2050]

Yeah, responses are already pretty much as anticipated.

Your responses, like this one, are pretty much as anticipated as they have always been, ever.

Anyways, I think Stardock should be hiring some experienced people; instead of the green guy that many blamed for Civ5, and then he mysteriously 'left, retired, departed, got fired, quit, left with large pension, whatever it was' after that.

Perhaps Stardock feels they should try anything they can with the game, and hope for the best. Desperation, perhaps. Perhaps a glimmer of green hope, again. Not even Shafer could ruin that game... it can only get better, I think.

Originally Posted by ricardojahns
EXACTLY.

We had a word for his kind in Southamerica: CHANTA.

Meaning the person that as not much to offer in real abilities, but manipulates most people's perception of his "abilities" to the point that many defend them even in sight of a mediocre result. A lot of talk, a lot of avoiding responsibilities for his own results, a lot of blaming others...

A chanta...

I supposed you have met him and know these things well? Please, tell of off his abilities, manipulations, views on responsibilities, and the rest from your apparent first-hand south american experiences... I'd like to hear non-assumptions as well. Thanks.

This phenomenon is RAMPANT in the western corporate world, but without an adequate word, it is hard to stop.

Try not to world-region assassinate based on other peoples word-assumptions all because 1 company of free-thinking people thought the guy might be of some use. Oh, what a rampant 'Shafer' phenomenon...

 

[Grimberht]

Stardock wants a more moddable game, they brought the "top" guy from the most moddable franchise to help out. Seem logical to me. After he's done he will even get a chance to do a stand alone game... a game he "wants" to make, well that's a chance he cant let go.

Plus, I would have left that sinking ship too (CIV V) Poor guy; his name is tight with the death of a 20 yrs old franchise cause some dumb publisher wanted to cash in on a named game to get out of bankruptcy. No wonder he wanted a chance to really prove himself. Good for him.

 

[Venereus]

Chanta de cuarta! Jamas pense que un chanta destruiria la franquicia de Civilization.

Translation: A chanta of fourth category! I never thought a chanta would destroy the Civilization franchise.

Rioplatense, che? (From the River Plate, "che"?)

Note: "che" has no translation... it can mean buddy as much as it can mean ass...ole, depending on the circumstances...

Chileno. Al menos aquí podemos traducir "che", porque "huevón" también puede significar amigo tanto como tarado.

[Not worth translating]

 

[Brian Shanahan]

Come back to me in a month with all their "true answers" catergorized into meaningful statistics. Until then, you cannot call this evidence. It's called confirmation bias.

I had to stop up when I read this, as the usage you gave for confirmation bias is so innacuarate it had my jaw drop.
Confirmation bias is a phenomenon common to all humans (and probably a lot of animals too) whereby unusual events are assumed to happen a lot more regularly than they actually do. To use an example from another game originally brought up in this thread by JLoZepelli (sp?) Football Manager (FM for short). Over at the FM official forums, where I'm also active, there are 3 main types of thread (which constantly pop up) which showcase this 1) "Why do I always concede an equaliser/winning goal in injury time", "why do I always get an injury to players after 3 subs" and "why does my star striker never score 1v1s". Now all of these are cases of a few incidences of the above being inflated to "happening every game," thus confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is not now nor ever will be a statistical metric which will give you information about the numbers, it is a psychological metric which gives you information about people and how they tick.


Now onto my own musings, I was thinking about John Shafer running through the thread and it struck me that he is a bit of an "ideas man" who seems to have a bit of a problem with implementation and finishing projects. Examples from his Civ work:
Final Frontier: beautiful concept, never anywhere near to completion until far later with work from voluntary modders.
Espionage: Good idea, poorly implemented, with some very overpowered tactics (to my mind no thought to how it would mesh)
Civ V: Some very good ideas, lots of initiative, but poorly implemented, no thought to how they would work in a Civ environment or whether it would make the game enjoyable. And then some badly broken mechanics (city states) and some very well done mechanics (Social Policies).

So I am actually optimistic for future projects from John (maybe not this year or next but down the line) as I feel what he needs is the discipline to work thoroughly and the patience to see things through. It is a case of better applying his ideas, keeping what works, fleshing them out, and jettisoning the ones that don't fit, and I personally think a lot of this will come with experience.

So best of luck to you John, and I hope you are now and always will learn from any mistakes you make.

 

[Geddy]

Hang on where was the question

"So John, the reception that Civ 5 got was below expectations. No one is playing multiplayer and the majority of users are either very upset with the poor job you did of it, or have given up playing after a week or 2. Do you feel you could have done a better job with Civ 5 or is this the best work you can do?"