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Dynamix Closed Down?

Posted by michael on from the bullet-holes-in-their-altimeter dept.

ioctl writes: "According to Planet Tribes, Dynamix is being shut down by its parent Sierra (or more appropriately, Vivendi Corp.). Story here and here. Looks like my buddy just wasted $50 on Tribes 2... =P"

12 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Tribes 2 gone? Doesn't have to be. by Dasher42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I am utterly surprised that the V12 engine, a derivative of the Tribes 2 engine by GarageGames at www.garagegames.com hasn't been mentioned. With minor exceptions where Sierra's intellectual property was removed from the engine and replaced with other code, it essentially the source code to the Tribes 2 game engine, already near the state where it could be used to create high-quality games for Linux. The EULA requires a $100 per-seat license fee for the source code and distribution must be through GarageGames, but the model seems quite pragmatically attractive, seeing as how open source hasn't quite caught on in the 3D games arena like it has for operating systems etc. If you ask me, this is a big chance to improve the gaming scene for alternative platforms.

  2. $50 by iGN97 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    $50 dollars can hardly be spent on anything more worthwhile than Tribes 2. It's a great game, and it's been released. I don't think all the servers out there will disappear.

  3. The irony is.... by Bilestoad · · Score: 5, Funny

    This page is still up:

    http://www.dynamix.com/jobs.html

    "Just imagine- no traffic, no commute, low crime rate, reasonable cost of living, clean air and best of all, a creative fun place to work."

    They forgot "no irritating colleagues" :-)

  4. Re:Why is the $50 wasted? by IdentityCrisis · · Score: 4, Informative

    For an online game like Tribes 2 it's very important there will be a company behind it. Master servers, IRC server (irc.dynamix.com), patches that will eliminate bugs and cheats. Hopefully sierra will take the place of dynamix on the above. but if it won't Tribes 2 will die All you need is one widespread cheat and the community dissolves.

  5. What about Loki? by BadBlood · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wouldn't Loki still be able to update the Linux version. If the win32 port is no longer updated, couldn't this potentially be the killer game app that forces the masses to Linux? I'm guessing this all depends on what rights Loki has to the game code.

    --


    Praying for the end of your wide-awake nightmare.
  6. Posts from Dynamix Employees by ShaggusMacHaggis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    here are some posts from dynamix employees that i've ripped from http://www.tribalwar.com "It is true that the lot of us were locked out of the building today. Why this is happening nobody knows for certain, aside from those in upper management at Siera/Vivendi. The whole thing is quite a shock for most of us, aside from those few in upper management at Dynamix who could not manage the meager bit of human decency that it would have taken to give us a warning. It is like that in corporate america, these people really do not seem to have come equipped with a soul. I blame the 60-70 percent of Sierra that has nothing to do with creating anything but instead leech of the top like a bloated lamprey. Not only are they the cause of this situation, but they are the ones that stand to benefit in the short term whether they intended it or not. This liquidation is all about artificially inflating 3rd quarter profits for V/U, much like releasing before the game was ready wasabout inflating 2nd quarter profits.We should have become wary last week when a part of Dynamix management took their sick days afterreturning from a visit to Sierra One thing I would like to say about the Tribes team: Please do not hate Dave Georgeson or the rest of the team. We all busted our asses and worked longer thanhumans ought to to make this game great, and you willsee that the latest beta patch has many of thefeatures that were cut for release, and the stabilityand performance that it should have had. Dave did whathe could to make this game work and fought for moretime when Sierra insited that we ship a buggy game. He also has been religious about reading beta and meta tester's input and post release comments and doingwhat he can to make the game what the audience wanted. Please do not flame this guy. He can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, and working under him was hard, but I really think that he tried to do you right with T2. (Dave, Mitch, and Eric can ignore that comment). Trust me, this whole thing is a lot more complex that that, and cuts straight to the heart of the greed of VU's corporate interests. If you work for a major conglomerate, this will happen to you too someday. These types do not care about you or anything but cash. I would like to say also: Thank you for your help in making the game. We tried always to weigh game changes against the community's wishes, and where we have failed, it was not for trying. We did our best. So long, and thanks for all the Fish. See you in the pubs." and from Rated Z, a dynamix employee (and great tribes player) " Ok, I've kept my mouth shut for a long time. I'm Eric, and working for Dave wasn't "hard", it was fucked! I will never work for anyone like that again. Whoever you are, Anonymous employee, no offense, but you must have had an office in the far corner. As for Dave trying to do you (the Tribes playing public) right: Bullshit. Dave did what Dave wanted to do. And Dave's "you" was the 5 guys on TW that posted 2 page bitches about one thing or another who managed to offend him enough that he replied. Actually, I shouldn't even say "caught his attention" since a major part of his day was spent surfing and posting on TW. Dave G is/was PRODUCER, not Publicist, QA Lead, Art Director, and Lead Designer. There were 30+ people on that team; everyone of them worked very hard, and very long. How many of them have you even heard of? I love Starsiege: Tribes. I've played 5+ days per week, since the day it came out. First, as BMF Balefire, then as Rated z. I try hard not to appear a bitter, petty, disgruntled ex-employee, but I'm sicker than shit of the spin doctoring that I've seen on this forum in the last few months. So here I am, disgruntled and saying "Fuck that." "

  7. Seems typical of the industry to me. by Shivetya · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Computer Game industry always seems to be this brutal, why should anyone in a subsidiary of Sierra actually be surprised, didn't they do just the same thing the year before, and the year before that?

    Actually, I think the first warning to any of the developers on a project is when their company is bought by another. Followed closely by their shipping of the product.

    In essence, your nothing but a contract programmer when you work on a computer game, and its probably even worse for the graphic artist and other "support" specialties.

    Not an industry for the faint at heart, all guts and no glory.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
    1. Re:Seems typical of the industry to me. by Glytch · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Friend, you're dead-on accurate.

      There's a small community college in Miramichi, New Brunswick, Canada that offers a two year program in "Electronic Game Design". Basically, it's two years of learning the entire development process of a typical software business. Documentation, project management, overall design, game theory, application programming, 3D modelling, 2D graphics, and a little bit of artifical intelligence.

      The intent of the program is to have people learn to make modern PC video games. It's a nice place: very up-to-date hardware and software (industry standard stuff like Lightwave, Photoshop, Maya, etc), smart instructors, not too expensive to attend, either. The overall goal for the two years is to form a team of roughly 4 to 6 people from the various graphics and programming streams, and develop a commercial-quality PC game. It doesn't have to be on the level of Quake 3 or Mechwarrior 4, but should be at an appropriate level for a B-title. Demos are acceptable, as these are intended for portfolio pieces for the team's members.

      But the *stress*, my god! If working in an academic environment, without the pressure of having to generate revenue was bad, then I can't imagine what it's like in the real industry! I'm amazed that any PC video games turn out as well as they do.

      Just out of curiosity, has anyone ever done a study on the suicide rate of game developers? :)

  8. more on this by Barbarian · · Score: 5, Informative

    tribalwar.com has more on this, and apparently some (ex)-Dynamix employees are dropping into the forums (look for the topics with like 20 pages of replies).

  9. Eulogy for Dynamix by Greenrider · · Score: 4, Informative

    Let's not forget that these are the wonderful people who brought us:

    Red Baron
    Betrayal At Krondor
    Aces over the Pacific
    Tribes 1&2
    Outpost
    The Incredible Machine
    The Adventures of Willy Beamish
    Stellar 7 (anyone remember that one?)

    Red Baron was the first truly engrossing gaming experience that I had as a child. Playing Red Baron on The Sierra Network (later renamed The Imagination Network) was an experience far, far ahead of its time.

    Farewell Dynamix, you served us well.

  10. This has been happening too often... by DarkFencer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In the past year or two, the following has happened:

    Sierra shuts down their Yosemite division, firing some great programmers, game designers, and others. This was the group (for the most part) responsible for the great Kings Quest, Quest for Glory (earlier Hero's Quest), Police Quest, and many others.

    Origin systems closes down in two phases. They went "Online Only" after Ultima IX, and those that stayed with the company were assigned to work on Ultima Online 2. Earlier this year, with the game a good deal finished, Electronic Arts stopped production on the game and fired all the employees.

    Looking Glass studios, the maker of great, revolutionary titles like Thief I and II, and Ultima Underworld I and II shuts down due to lack of funds (mostly because Eidos had to sink so much money into Ion Storm to keep Daikatana afloat).

    And now, as this story mentions, the gutting of Sierra is almost over, with Dynamix (the source of my favorite game of all time: Betrayal at Krondor and may others) being shut down.

    I really worry about where the industry is going. There are many other companies that are wholly owned by larger companies that have had the quality of their products go down hill - New World Computing (of Might and Magic fame) has been taken down that road by 3DO, not to mention others.

    How much better would things be now if Richard Garriott never sold (or had to sell) Origin to EA? The same could be said of Ken Williams selling Sierra. This list goes on and on.

    Well, I'm done rambling on about the game industry. I'll go back to browsing the game stores for real games while avoiding "Who Want's to be a Gazillionaire 12" or "The Sims 15th Expansion Pack", or whatever crap the industry makes money on.

    Incedentally my first word-processing software was Sierra's Homestar Plus for the Commodore 64. Yes, Sierra made a Wordproccessor!

  11. Deja vu... by lskovlund · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This has happened one before, when Big Bad Sierra(tm) closed down Yosemite Entertainment, the division that made Leisure Suit Larry etc. I am not surprised that this happens now - Sierra's upper management appears to be clueless. Ken Williams should never have sold the company.