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Working At FASA After the Borg
amitlu writes "What's it like to be assimilated by Bill Gates' empire? Russ Pitts from The Escapist talks two game industry veterans, Bruce Shelly of Ensemble and Jordan Weisman of FASA, to contrast two hugely different opinions on the matter. While Bruce, still employed by Microsoft, has nothing but nice things to say, Weisman paints a much different picture. From the article: 'Let's say, part of what they wanted from us was our development culture, because we'd worked very hard to have this collaborative, effective team, and they wanted to kind of build those kinds of teams and kind of capture that. In reality, ... the machine of Microsoft, unintentionally, I believe, and inadvertently, ripped that apart. Rather than model itself around what we had done, our [culture] got forced into their model. ... We lost that special sauce that we had built.'" Speaking of FASA, if you're interested you can sign up for the Shadowrun Beta. They're only looking for 360 players, at the moment, and only ones with gold Live accounts.
I really miss the days that FASA and Activision worked together on MechWarrior 2. The follow ups out of FASA/Microsoft just didn't quite ever live up to those older games, and MechAssault helped drag what used to be a fun mech simulator franchise down into "Halo with Mechs". True, it opened it up to a wider audience, but the fun of the franchise left for many people.
They're only looking for 360 players, at the moment, and only ones with gold Live accounts.
360 slots doesn't, sound like a lot. Oh, Zonk meant, players with XBox360s. I thought "editing" was about, being clear.
Speaking of FASA, if you're interested you can sign up for the Shadowrun Beta. They're only looking for 360 players, at the moment, and only ones with gold Live accounts.
Apparently they aren't looking very hard.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Bill Gates' Empire?? The Borg?? Will you people ever end this lame schtick?
Given that Bill Gates no longer runs the company, and has fairly little to do with Microsoft these days, using him to bash Microsoft makes about as much sense as dissing Lee Iacoca, and has as much timeliness.
Second of all, outside of slashdot, and in the real world, I've never heard of Microsoft referred to as the Borg. It was not funny in 1994, and it's even more tired now that Star Trek has been off the air for more than a few years.
You people need to grow up.
Exactly why they are not able to adopt the collaborative and cooperative demeanor of fasa. Then, the post was quickly modded down by a microsoft zealot, apparently it was destined for this, it seems :
Seriously, microsoft represents the opposite of what made the internet a civilization-wide revolution as of now : Cooperation, Collaboration, Coexistence, Friendly Competition, Sharing, Curiousity, Modesty.
No surprise, considering the roots of this company was formed by 3-4 fledgling young geeks back at 1970s, when the above concepts were in decline since the 60s and materialism&yuppieness&personal achievement and wealth was on the rise into the 80s. These were youngsters then who wanted to hit it big, and hit it good. And due to the nature of the times they have matured in, they have become kinda yuppie geeks, people of the 80es themselves.
1-2 among them, you know who, were much more willing on treading this path and also easy in mind about scratching anything that proved to be a burden, and they scratched their friends/colleagues who they started on the road with. Geekdom was rising then, tech was coming, i.t. was forming, so they got an advantage, they formed juicy business deals while following the path of 'scratch all, hit it big, 'im a material girl'. they crushed and stamped out many competition back then, with the same philosopyh that provided scratching of friends/colleagues. (dos'es era). after some time, when 'deal them, tie them, bring them in the darkness and bind them' policies succeeded with the advent of windows and office, they became real big. ms pWnEd all pcs round the world by then, seemingly. computer meant 'windows' in some countries' non-techie slang.
then the internet came. due to the nature of it, which is a carrier of information, its nature formed on the philosophical properties of 'information' (information in the sense of knowledge, news) - seeking of free flow, no-bars, easy sharing, non-ownership as much as possible, common to all and so on.
microsoft did not realize what the hell this was going to be later. after all, they owned pcs around the world, and it ran on them. more the internet propagated, more pcs would be needed, they calculated probably. they were right it happened as such and also it helped windows sales.
but after all, in all cases of knowledge/information being present, sharing occured, and with the sharing information/knowledge redoubled itself with every passing instant. internet grew huge.
once you set the roots of something, then build a community/company/society around it, it recruits people of similar kind to itself, and bonds with societies/companies/communities of similar kind to it. so, when microsoft woke up to internet, it naturally responded according to its own personality - tried to stamp out competition. we all know netscape/ie thing. they were successful in this too. maybe the last time they succeeded in this. after some time they crushed netscape, internet has grown to a place that was a community/nation by itself and at that time it/(we) have developed a trans-internet society/culture with experience, preference, knowledge, lore, even politics about anything going on in i.t. and internet. at THAT point microsoft stopped winning.
then came the google. it was just compliant with the philosophy over the net - simple, no-evil (as much as possible), up-to-point, non-aggressive, not limiting, cooperative and such. people embraced, and it grew huge.
they mocked google and other companies that followed the new non-yuppie, non-'hit it big' thing, as they were locked in suits of the 80es still. they mocked, but mocks or laughs or bravado are pitiful when the majority of human civilization (as much as the percentage on the internet, which is something huge itself) is going some way and you are not.
so what happened ? they couldnt fit the times, they were not able to fit the people on the net and give them what they needed, some other people did that, the fir
Read radical news here
Anyone else see "FAFSA" when they saw this headline?
.. you're thinking of Tomb Raider.
Support a real Shadowrun game, one that is actually RPG. This FPS crap for Shadowrun sucks.
http://www.shadowrun-online.com/sro/
They are currently making a proof of concept to present to Microsoft for a MMO Shadowrun game.
Okay, there has been crap to deal with, but that was the kind of crap you'll always have to deal with publishers or platform owners... We'll see what the future brings.
I appoligize, but I do not have time to beta a new game. I am currently Beta-ing Oblivion IV for PC.
BBH
So, how long ago were you assimilated unit Astroturf593?
It somehow asserts in it's opening paragraph the MS acquired code from Apple, which acquired it - in turn - from Xerox PARC.
d ucts
This is simple muddling of ideas: that imitating a technology and a design are somehow equivalent to acquring products and companies. It is a kind of intellectual laziness and shorthand, written by someone not particularly conversant in th edetails of either technology or business.
It also demonstrates a mastery of opinion over knowlege of the subject at hand. In particular, of Microsoft. I would venture to say that the author of the piece was not around to see the original Apple GUI, or the introduction of Windows 1.0 through 3.0.
A better, more accurate and relevant anecdote about Microsoft would be the semi-ethical acquisition of QDOS and Tim Patterson from Rod Brock and Seattle Computer products. This was the birth of MS, as IBM's OS supplier of choice, and propelled them from being a purveyor of ubiquitous BASIC ROMs, to the most cash-rich corporation in history (outside of banking.
Linkage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Computer_Pro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Paterson
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
They're only looking for 360 players
And given the apathy towards it by the Shadowrun FANS (as well as FPS people who see Counterstrike-with-elves), I don't think they'll find that many. Maybe 200.
"Sometimes a woman is a kind of religion, she can save your soul & set you free from all your sins" - Bad Examples
It's so funny, hearing a Slashdot zealot whine about "what Microsoft is like", when they have no idea what it's like to work there (or anywhere, most likely of all).
I dont care how it is like working there. I am talking about how they treat the rest of the world.
In groups/societies exhibiting such kind of behaviour, the inner philosopy cant be all rosy.
you and your teammates may have created a little collaboration oasis in lower middle level of the company, but, the behemoth acts according to its own personality.
Read radical news here
Unlike what the article says, Microsoft did not acquire FASA. They only acquired FASA Interactive. FASA itself still exists as a holding company, and still owns the paper versions of their games, which they license to a variety of other companies, including WizKids, who in turn license Shadowrun to the German company FanPro, who is currently publishing the fourth edition of Shadowrun. Earthdawn is licensed to Living Room Games. Other games have been licensed to other companies.
FASA Interactive, and thus Microsoft, only owns the rights to computer games based on these settings.
Nor Activision
- 3/cover-art/gameCoverId,63884/
See here..
http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/mechwarrior
Personally it's my favorite, along with the original and often overlooked Mechwarrior 1.
You're fucking nuts. Either that or just incredibly overdramatic, maybe both.
And curiously, you are an anonymous coward.
...
i wonder why is that
Read radical news here
If my coworkers were something along these lines, then I wouldn't mind working for the Bor^H^H^H^H Microsoft....
Defining company culture is a job of the top level executives. This is one of the areas where they are out for bragging rights; cloning the culture of a company they acquired would not make them marketable for other jobs.