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An Interview with Jeffrey Kalles

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the life-in-the-day-of dept.

Jonathan writes "Former associate producer for Nintendo of America Jeffrey Kalles granted an interview with n37radio. The interview covers a wide range of topics from his time spent at Nintendo to the upcoming Nintendo Revolution release. The interview is available in both text and audio format for those who are interested."

46 comments

  1. For those who are unaware.... by Cherita+Chen · · Score: 5, Informative
    For those who don't know, but are curious - Here's a link to a little more info on Jeff, and his contributions to the industry.

    http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/deve loperId,67266/

    --
    I'm not fat, just big boned...
    1. Re:For those who are unaware.... by aitikin · · Score: 1

      Wow, thanks. Just learned he had a hand in some of my favorite games of all time.

      --
      "Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
  2. No Revolution Info by Yahweh+Doesn't+Exist · · Score: 3, Informative

    he doesn't seem to have any info about the Revolution, and wouldn't say it if he did anyway.

  3. Re:Yummy by GroeFaZ · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    /me slaps you with a trout for this comment.

    --
    The grass is always greener on the other side of the light cone.
  4. He's almost poor by slashedmydot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He only makes something like $18.75 per hour... that's not the kind of money I expected.

    He earned 7 something (I'll translate that into 7.5) per hour when he started and at the end he earned 150% more. So 7.5 * 2.5 = 18.75. Let's say he works 160 hours per month: 160 * 18.75 = 3000. Let's be kind and give him 13 payschecks per year: 3000 * 13 = 39 000.

    1. Re:He's almost poor by thedogcow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      39K/yr is not poor. Check yourself. Thats well above the average American salary.

      --
      Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
    2. Re:He's almost poor by slashedmydot · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I didn't say he was poor, I said "he's almost poor";

      My point was that the article pitched him as a bigshot at NOA, but with that kind of salery in the US, he can't be.

      I live in the Netherlands, and I earned 25 euro per hour 5 years ago with a simple part-time PHP/MySQL QA job. And now that I have my own company, I earn his annual salary per month.

      And the average income in the US doesn't say anything, all those McDonalds and WallMart jobs pay less than hobo's get with begging on the street.

    3. Re:He's almost poor by ClamIAm · · Score: 2
      And the average income in the US doesn't say anything,

      What convoluted train of logic derailed for you to say this? OF COURSE the average income in a country/region/job has a bearing on whether or not someone could be considered "poor". If he was making 39k and lived in China, he would definitely not be poor.

    4. Re:He's almost poor by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      I'm sure that you employ women, minorities, and Muslims at your company.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    5. Re:He's almost poor by slashedmydot · · Score: 2

      The average income doesn't matter to the discussion because comparing the income of someone who flips burgers at McDonalds an a associate producer for Nintendo of America is pointless. Comparing his salary with his peers makes more sense to me, and compared to his peers he doesn't earn allot.

      I think it was clear that I was not actually calling him poor. I was saying that he didn't make allot of money for the kind of job that he had.

    6. Re:He's almost poor by slashedmydot · · Score: 1

      I don't get it...

      What does that have to do with the discussion?

      But to answer your 'question':

      I have a very diversified staff, and I think it works better than a very homogeneous collection of white middle-aged men. Women and people from other cultures have a different paradigm, and that helps my company to be creative and effective. Not only gender- and culture-diversification is important to me, but also people with very distinct ways of thinking. I select one half of my higher management to be PHD's and the other half to be autodidactic. This strategy has worked out very good for my company.

    7. Re:He's almost poor by slashedmydot · · Score: 1

      "This strategy has worked out very good for my company."

      Ouch! I whish slashdot would let me edit my comments...

      But let the record show: This strategy has worked out very well for my company.

    8. Re:He's almost poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Read again. He said he did earn $7 when he started eleven years ago working for the nintendo support hotline, but then goes on to explain that today one would earn about 150% for this kind of work. He, however, got promoted several times and now even has a new employer. He definitely earns much more now.

    9. Re:He's almost poor by Inoshiro · · Score: 1

      Not quite. Almost every place I've run across for things like per capita income (such as this page) show the US to be at 40,000$. This is a raw mean.

      The median is supposed to be around there, also.

      Of course, when you factor in things like the price of health care, the US doesn't look so good. Most of the other countries listed next to it have a much higher general standard of living and lesser poverty than in the US due to socal programs (Norway is a great example of this).

      --
      --
      Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
    10. Re:He's almost poor by damsa · · Score: 1

      Although 39k a year is not exactly poor. In Redmond, where median income for males is 58k. You be considered, lower middle class.

    11. Re:He's almost poor by Jace+of+Fuse! · · Score: 1

      and compared to his peers he doesn't earn allot.

      And while I agree that he was not being paid enough, I would certainly argue that his peers are being paid WAY too much.

      He isn't poor. And depending on where he is, he may very well be living pretty well. These people who have it in their heads to believe all executives deserve millions of dollars are the reason that US companies are run so poorly. Very few people in an organization deserve more than a certain amount, and while that amount is subjective, I've found that in most companies the amount they are getting paid up top is normally way too high, and the people getting paid at the bottom is way too low.

      It didn't used to be this way in America, and now it is. Is it any wonder our economy is now so broken?

      --

      "Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"

      Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
    12. Re:He's almost poor by flazz · · Score: 0

      his carreer outline FTFA:

      Gameplay Counselor: answering gameplay questions in a call center
      QA: playing games
      Audit Coordination: playing games, with more feedback
      Associate Producer: worked on product development (not software development)

      i don't think you can compare his salary to software developer's salaries in the game industry.

      also, does this include non-salary income like stock options, etc.? isnt it more profitable sometimes tax wise to have the money in stocks than take a big salary.

    13. Re:He's almost poor by juletre · · Score: 1

      As a norwegian, i can comment on this. Yes, we have a high income in general. But everything here costs a lot too. Taxes, you know. 1 litre of gas = 1.7 $. Full size meal at mcdonalds, 10$. A new car? 30 000$, and that is a cheap one. You are complaining about $50 games? That would be cheap.

      But the good thing is hospitals are free. I got sick in the states once. When the girl in the reception at some hospital found out i wasnt a member (of this hospital/clinic or wherever I was supposed to be a member to get discounted prices) she wouldnt even talk to us before she found out we had travel insurance.

      --
      "he, who has quotes in his signature, is a douche" - unknown.
    14. Re:He's almost poor by ClamIAm · · Score: 1
      and compared to his peers he doesn't earn allot.

      Thanks for the numbers to back up your assertion. Oh wait.

    15. Re:He's almost poor by buffer-overflowed · · Score: 1

      The only way you can use autodidactic properly, and spell it properly, and yet follow that up by screwing up well/good is if you've gotten into a habit I used to have of taunting english majors with that very thing.

      I speak english good is like nails on a chalkboard for grammer nazis.

      --
      The key to the enjoyment of pop music is to replace any instance of "love" with "C.H.U.D."
    16. Re:He's almost poor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep in mind that as a salaried employee of a non-tiny company, he almost definitely has medical insurance as a job benefit. Just because the state isn't paying for his healthcare doesn't mean he has to.

      (Not that this is an argument for the US model, since those who are unemployed are often uninsured because no employer is providing them with health benefits, so they are forced to pay more for health care at the exact time that money can be really short.)

  5. Re:I have a question by toadlife · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm having trouble reading your comment. There are too many words. Can you condense it into a couple of sentences please?

    --
    I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
  6. My Idol :) by Chaffar · · Score: 4, Funny
    Jonathan: Do you have any comments about the recent X-Box 360 release, more specifically, the problems they've been having?

    Jeff: [...] its funny to make fun of and ill laugh with the best of them and say 'haha, Microsoft blue screen of death, no matter what product you release!' It's not going to hurt them in the long run...

    Jonathan: Isn't that fun though?

    Jeff: It is fun, well, it's always fun...

    My kind of guy :')

  7. Big Corps by oman_ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Isn't it scary how skittish most people have become about big corporations? So careful not to do anything that might anger them for fear of a lawsuit. Was it always this way?

    --
    Rats would be more funny if they could fart.
    1. Re:Big Corps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah, especially when they'd be in breach of contract if they talked about stuff pertaining to their previous employer that they agreed not to...

    2. Re:Big Corps by ScottCooperDotNet · · Score: 2, Informative

      Jeff says in TFA that the industry is so small that he's bound to work with some of the people at Nintendo again. That, and pissing off your longest reference isn't a good idea.

    3. Re:Big Corps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hi oman! how's it going?

      love and kisses
      -kjh

  8. Beware of jobs in the games industry by Kazzahdrane · · Score: 1

    "His/Her career probably spans more years than those displayed since these dates are based on the credits documented in MobyGames" It seems to make people lose their gender.

  9. I had to stop reading the transcript by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It made watching paint dry seem exciting and fun.

    The interview technique was plodding and dull...

    Here's an example of how they can waste words, bandwidth and time and at the end, you get no useful information:

    " If you're comfortable with me asking, how much money were you making when you left versus when you started?

      Wow. I started...not very much, it was seven-something and hour.

      So just above minimum wage?

      Yeah, just above minimum wage...although at the time, it was a couple bucks more then minimum wage. You've got to remember, eleven and a half years ago. It was over eleven and a half years, the percentage increase, and you guys with the math can do it, it was about 150% increase from that wage."

    There's no one on the planet who found that little exchange useful. Word after word to say "I didn't make very much".

    1. Re:I had to stop reading the transcript by Spaceman+Spiff+II · · Score: 1

      To be fair, I think this is just a barebones transcript of their spoken interview available for download. I'm sure it would sound natural and fine if you hear it. It's just it loses a little something when taken down on paper.

      --
      I understand that life's not fair, just why is it never unfair in my favor?
  10. Salmon Max? by tequesta · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jonathan What are some of the other game genres you enjoy and the games in them?
    Jeff [...]The Lucas Arts and the Sierra Online stuff; that's probably where I really fell in love with the adventure games. [...]I'm crossing my fingers that the new Salmon Max is gonna be good.

     Myself, I found Salmon Max vastly inferior to Polish Quest, Funky Island or Day of the Testicle. Seriously, can somebody shoot the guy who transcribed this?

    1. Re:Salmon Max? by interlingua.ro · · Score: 1

      You owe me a new keyboard...

    2. Re:Salmon Max? by indiechild · · Score: 1

      Jesus christ, this is the funniest thing I've read all week!

  11. Recommend this interview by gad_zuki! · · Score: 1

    This was actually a really good interview. At first I was a bit put off by the fact that jeff wasn't some mover or shaker in the industry, but as I kept reading, the more I appreciated he wasn't. Lots of good ground level stories, advice, etc here. He spoke freely as possible, which is quite a change from the content-free PR focuesed interviews you see here sometimes I'm not even that interested in the industry and I found it enthralling. The early days of anything are usually interesting and the sometimes ordinary people they pick up for 2 dollars over minimum can be the best employees and storytellers.

  12. Sheesh... by cosmotron · · Score: 0

    And today we will be interviewing the Nintendo of America Head Janitor...

    --
    Ryan - http://www.thecosmotron.com/
    1. Re:Sheesh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are a moron. Jeff Kalles was not only a panalist for PAX 04 and 05, he also has a great deal of industry experience and insight, and he's damn entertaining. Go die somewhere.

  13. The Revolution will not be televised... by Vapebait · · Score: 1

    That is all.

  14. Umm.. by thenoog · · Score: 1

    Hey, aren't "Associate Producers" a pretty lowly position in the games industry? Don't they like, get coffee for the producer? /. is using Jeff's name as if it meant something, which seems a little odd to me.

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