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Life At BioWare Mythic: "Rewarding The Incompetent. Firing The Competent"?
A recent anonymous blog post by a soon-to-be-fired BioWare Mythic developer calling himself EA Louse rails on the way the studio's run and what it's become. He names the people that he thinks are responsible for what he characterizes as Warhammer Online's failure and the studio's decline. Is it legit? Read the full account for yourself right here.
Some highlights:
– Original general manager Mark Jacobs was forced out when he left in 2009 and Mythic was folded into BioWare. EA Louse believes the developer operated under a "culture of fear" propagated by the people who pushed Jacobs out and divided his salary.
– EA Louse names the people behind Warhammer Online who he thinks sunk the game, including original owner Rob Denton, who he characterizes as absent during development and out of touch.
– EA forced Mythic to release Warhammer Online because it had already been delayed numerous times even though the game wasn't done.
– He calls BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Online "a joke," and speculates it will be "one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs from EA."
If this isn't interesting enough, none other than David Jaffe has waded into the fray with his own thoughts on EA Louse and the matter.
"What the f--- is it about making games where it brings out the worst, most immature, most obnoxious sides of certain types of people on a team?" he asks aloud in his blog. "Everyone thinks they always know better than the people in charge." Jaffe goes on to recount his own experiences with disgruntled team members and the ensuing head butting during the development of the original God of War.
We contacted EA for an official response, and the company said in a statement that doesn't respond to rumors or anonymous blogs.
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