America's Army 3 Has Rough Launch, Development Team Canned 150
incognito84 writes "The development team responsible for the creation of the freeware game America's Army 3 has been canned, days after the launch of the highly flawed game, which was distributed mostly via Steam. 'The anonymous America's Army 3 developers in touch with Kotaku unsurprisingly didn't sound too pleased with the current situation, venting that "a lot of good people [worked] insanely long hours on this game that was butchered by outside sources.' The game's launch was plagued by massive server authentication issues which inhibited most players from playing it even two days afterward. One of the developers made a post on the official forums saying they were 'effectively stabbed in the back,' and that much of the funding was filtered to the bureaucracy. A patch has been released to address some of the game's issues."
Unfortunately, this sounds typical (Score:5, Insightful)
"...much of the funding was filtered to the bureaucracy."
I've noticed a pattern in a lot of talent-based industries. On a small scale, or with an upstart CEO you can have talent-driven companies. But, as soon as they hit a critical mass, the bureaucracy becomes the dominate force and turns the talent into powerless labor. Every company I ever interacted with in the corporate world was like this. And, once you've got suits in charge, they make sure that they're well compensated.
Re:How Ironic (Score:2, Insightful)
And that sounds much like parts of corporate America and the "rank" system, where those best able to manipulate their managers and stab their co-workers in the back successfully are best enabled for advancement, leading to pure sociopaths at the top tier. Corporations like Microsoft in particular use the rank system...
Re:How Ironic (Score:1, Insightful)
Sounds more like Slashdot's mod system, where Linux Zealots can pat themselves on the back with +5 Insightful "Linux is awesome" posts, thereby gaining the power to squash anyone who might be "Pro-Microsoft".
From the standpoint of a soldier. (Score:5, Insightful)
the odds (Score:5, Insightful)
The chance that the entire team was incompetent is very small. When a project fails, look to its management, not to every single engineer on the team. Also keep in mind that half of software projects in general fail; it's a very immature industry.
Re:the odds (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:From the standpoint of a soldier. (Score:2, Insightful)
Other than that, the only purpose it served was to give children a false impression of war, and how god-forsaken horrible it is. Usually that wouldn't matter in a video game, but it certainly does matter when that video game is really a recruitment tool for the US Army. -Reed
Yep. My generation has spent its' adolescence with Doom, Quake, and Half-Life. Teenagers have learned very basic things from those games like the use of cover, and the necessity of ammo conservation, maybe, and on the basis of that, sometimes decided to do something like Columbine, if they didn't end up in Iraq.
They find out that outside a game, it's a little different. ;)
Re:the odds (Score:4, Insightful)
It's not quite that bad . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
The situation is not quite that bad, though the summary makes it seem so. From what I gather, it wasn't a major part of the development team that was released, but rather 3-4 people in a small satellite team. Of course, there would definitely be bitterness about this, especially in this economic climate, but the job cut definitely wasn't extensive.
As for AA3 being flawed, the only major issue it's had is that the authentication servers have been overloaded by the hoards of new players trying to log in and play the game all at once. Obviously something like this can't be predicted, so no one is to blame. (I'm sure many of us recall Quake Live being hammered when it was released in open beta for similar reasons. And Demigod as well.)
The game itself is a LOT smoother and cleaner than any of its previous iterations. There are some occasional bugs and glitches that need ironing out, but thus far I haven't seen anything drastic.
(Yes, I am an AA player, and I have enjoyed for quite a long time. No, I'm not at all interested in joining the US Army. I realize it's a recruitment tool, but that doesn't mean there's any reason for me to shun it as a game.)
Re:the odds (Score:5, Insightful)
But it takes a special talent to fail when your funding is provided for you and you can give the game away for free.
Re:the odds (Score:5, Insightful)
No it's a very mature industry. Allindustries go over time and over budget. It is a reality of life that we all think we can do more than we actually can. When that happens on the job we feel the consequences.
Now I'm not saying that is what happened here but it is a reality.
Not surprising (Score:2, Insightful)
That said, I do hope that moving development into the military sector instead of the private sector ends up saving taxpayer money in the long run, IMHO the game as a whole isn't really an effective recruiting tool anyway. The only thing that's really useful is the virtual-reality training for our soldiers, and that should be the main focus of the development.
Re:It's not quite that bad . . . (Score:1, Insightful)
Obviously something like this can't be predicted, so no one is to blame. (I'm sure many of us recall Quake Live being hammered when it was released in open beta for similar reasons. And Demigod as well.)
You just contradicted yourself; it sounds like it was actually very predictable.
Bureaucratic solution (Score:3, Insightful)
But, as soon as they hit a critical mass, the bureaucracy becomes the dominate force and turns the talent into powerless labor.
When companies *have* to be large, I believe keeping small, relatively autonomous groups of talented employees is the cure. Once a group becomes too large or the group is stripped of its autonomy to enforce mono-culture, innovation takes a back seat to sweeping, generic, stuffy rules that attempt to keep things 'safe' and 'organized'.
Just about every company wants complete control from the top -- The problem is it's dangerous to assume people from the 'top' have enough insight and knowledge to make good decisions for the 'bottom'. Letting groups of people do their own thing is chaotic, but it's probably good for incubating fresh material and novel ideas.
Re:Two Words (Score:3, Insightful)
Two Words. Socialized Healthcare.
Yes, I much prefer the warm, caring bureaucracy of a private insurance agency over the cold, sterile bureaucracy of a government agency...
Re:the odds (Score:4, Insightful)
That's true for schedule and budget overruns, but not true for the massive amount of failures. It's extremely rare that say a construction firm says "Man, this house is bad. In fact, it ended up so poor we can't even sell it. We'll just have to demolish it and start over." Then, again few try to redesign the house while they're building it...
Re:From the standpoint of a soldier. (Score:3, Insightful)
>>No time to stop and say "what in the name of FUCK am I doing here?"
LOL, My third trip to Iraq I actually did have time to think about this. I'll set it up for you (it may not make sense to everyone):
I was standing at the back of a long line at the west side BX at Anaconda where there were like 6 other empty but unmanned lanes for checkout. I'm pretty sure I was buying soap or clothespins or something. Most of the people in line were contractors in jeans and t-shirts. That's not where it began to sink in. Further up the line, 15 minutes later, I have to stand in front of a display for full-length mirrors. So for at least 5 minutes I had to stand there avoiding my own reflection.
What did I see? Sage green boots with sage green bootlaces. Sage green and tan trousers. Sage green and tan blouse. Sage green and tan hat tucked into a sage green and tan pocket. Sunburned face, short-cropped hair. One hand holding a bottle of soap and a pack of clothespins. Oh I forgot the reflective belt. Yep, gotta wear that yellow reflective belt. This probably sounds really stupid, but right then at that moment I thought, "How the FUCK did I end up in this fucking country wearing this stupid fucking outfit waiting in this stupid fucking line to buy fucking clothespins so I can wash my laundry in my fucking garbage can in my room and hang it out to dry in the fucking dust because my shift schedule makes it nearly impossible to get laundry done where NORMAL people do it and on top of that what mistake did I make in my life that made me willing to get shot at in order to do it? What the fuck did I do?"
I've been through some really shitty things over there but it wasn't until then that the realization sank in that I was 26, wearing a retarded costume designed by someone whose operational needs involved walking from their car to their office, and that nothing that 26 year olds enjoyed in life was available to me within an 18-hour plane ride. That for thanksgiving and christmas and new year's eve I was going to be stuck on an airfield in a cloud of garbage smoke with assholes who would stab me in the back for a smiley face sticker on their epr, who would lie to me with a smile on their face, who would steal from me, for whom I was expected to lay my life on the line, all in shitty weather with god's own mistakes crawling and flying and biting without respite while people I've never met and who I might actually get along with bombarded me with mortars and rockets. Where soldiers and marines slowly died in a field hospital across the street from a fucking taco bell. For a cause that I didn't believe in, that most americans didn't believe in, that I wouldn't ever feel proud of fighting for, that my kids and grandkids would look at as a colossal mistake.
I love my job and despite what I've said I wouldn't trade it for anything (well, hardly anything). The places I've been and things I've seen and the people I've met make up for all the really shitty times except during certain dark nights alone when they come back. This is the life I naively chose, the life I slowly adapted to, and now it's become an indelible part of me. Was it really my choice or not? It's impossible to say.
The point of all this: Kids, don't believe video games. And don't join the military. Go play paintball or counterstrike and get your degree and get your lame-ass job at a brokerage or in tech support or where ever because I'm telling you, and this is no bullshit, your lame ass job will seem like a royal appointment compared to being in the military.
And if you still join, I'm sure you'll have some good times, and it won't be until years later that you look back and think, "Hey that random guy on the internet was right. I really HAVE wasted four/six/ten years of my life trying to kill strangers. That's pretty fucked up. I wish I had someone waiting for me at home. I wish I had played a role in my family's life. I wish I hadn't missed out on almost every single fun time that my friends had back home. I'm done now and all I have to show for it is a DD214 and a duffel bag full of worn out uniforms."
Sorry, I had to rant, these things sneak up on you like that.
-b
Re:I'm not surprised. (Score:3, Insightful)
There is a third option: that he's talking about the US Army/Air Force routinely bombing the crap out of civilian targets we're supposed to be protecting and not getting too bent out of shape over it because it's just "collateral damage".