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As one of you, a Planetside fan! (like what I did there? :P) I too got caught up in today's layoffs. Some of you may remember me, many may not; I was one of the few original PS2 Devs still at Daybreak and I was active is PS2 development from alpha to 2016. Before that I was a long time Planetside 1 player and forum community member. I am passionate about Planetside and the MMOFPS genre.

It's been awhile since I posted here because when I was moved from Planetside 2 development 1) I felt it we be unfair to the remaining devs and 2) I was busy focusing on the projects I was moved to (H1Z1 and then PSA). Now that I longer work for Daybreak games I’m looking forward to returning to the Planetside community. This isn’t isn’t a goodbye, it’s a welcome back post.

I was prepared for this, even considering leaving Daybreak on my own in recent months so don’t concern yourself with me, but please send your well wishes and support to all the people who were affected by todays layoffs; every single one of them are talented and passionate individuals and not one of them deserved this, to lose the caliber of people they lost today is a massive hit to the company and I hope the leadership understands what they just did for the sake of the fantastic people that remain and the future of Planetside itself.

That said three things to start my reentry into civilian posting:

  1. Go easy on A_Sites going forward, he is a great guy and cares a great deal about the people work under him. Imo, none of the problems that plague Daybreak games/Planetside stem with him or anyone below him; he has a tough job and often requires him to be the punching bag between multiple unrelenting forces. He wouldn’t say this himself so I’ll say it for him; he is an asset to Planetside and any future Planetside project would be better off to have him involved.

  2. Wrel; He’s smart, he’s driven, and he cares a great deal about Planetside; things are likely to get very stressful for him in the coming months. I personally believe that as a result of the layoffs there are going to be some “interesting” changes coming to PS2 in the coming months; believe me, Wrel will be fighting the good fight behind the scenes and what we all end up seeing will be the least damaging iteration of it possible. So please go easy on Wrel as well.

  3. Remove my flair dammit! :P

Edit: lol, was pointed out that I used the words "lay off a_sites..." bad choice of words on my part, updated the wording to reflect the context and intent..

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over 4 years ago - /u/DBPaul - Direct link

Go easy on A_Sites going forward, he is a great guy and cares a great deal about the people work under him. Imo, none of the problems that plague Daybreak games/Planetside stem with him or anyone below him; he has a tough job and often requires him to be the punching bag between multiple unrelenting forces. He wouldn’t say this himself so I’ll say it for him; he is an asset to Planetside and any future Planetside project would be better off to have him involved.

Wrel; He’s smart, he’s driven, and he cares a great deal about Planetside; things are likely to get very stressful for him in the coming months. I personally believe that as a result of the layoffs there are going to be some “interesting” changes coming to PS2 in the coming months; believe me, Wrel will be fighting the good fight behind the scenes and what we all end up seeing will be the least damaging iteration of it possible. So please go easy on Wrel as well.

1000%

We did what we could with the resources that we were given. I'm super proud of the work we were able to do. The team was as small as 3 people for a certain time and I'm really proud of how that team was able to pull together and make magic happen. I wish everyone who will be working on the games the best of luck, and hope that the relationship with those making decisions changes for the better.

over 4 years ago - /u/DBPaul - Direct link

Originally posted by BBurness

To be fair I wasn't the only one, though arguably the loudest :P

In my experience most game devs who just want to make good games despise P2W mechanics; it (and loot crates) is viewed as a cancer in the industry.

Unfortunately, it has a history of working (people buy the stuff).

Your volume was a very helpful thing at key times. Just gotta make sure it's well grounded first ;)

over 4 years ago - /u/DBPaul - Direct link

Originally posted by Luckytiger1990

Please select the choice that most closely resembles the number of devs who spend the majority of their time on Planetside 2. Round down until N+2 and round up on N+3. Multiple answers may be correct; Choose the best one.

A. 0

B. 5

C. 10

D. 15

E. 20

F. Enough to have the potential to do some cool stuff, but not as much as anyone who ever touched the game would really want to be on there.

over 4 years ago - /u/DBPaul - Direct link

Originally posted by Luckytiger1990

WOAH CRACKS IN THE DEV TEAM HAD FORMED. I'M GONNA READ INTO THIS COMMENT WAY TOO MUCH.

/S

Nah nothing of the sort. Burness was part of the regular lunch crew (or rather, I joined their crew on occasion). He was a great guy to work with and I really enjoyed our discussions about design and industry :)

over 4 years ago - /u/DBPaul - Direct link

Originally posted by RunningOnCaffeine

So I guess one big question is on the surface it looks like there’s been some serious brain drain in terms of people with the engine knowledge to fix any deep underlying issues that crop up. Is that needless gloom and doom or an actual possibility?

Honestly it depends on where they focus the remaining resources. PS2 has been resource starved for so long that it may actually gain development power out of all of this.