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LucasArts Layoffs Spark Many Rumors, Including KOTOR 3
It seems that LucasArts has laid off somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 employees, sparking all sorts of interesting leaks and rumors. Chief among the rumors seems to be another carrot in the chase for the LucasArts/Bioware MMO project, which according to one employee, will take the shape of KOTOR 3. "Most interesting, however, is the information they provide on how the layoffs leave the company severely short-staffed as they approach a packed development schedule, one which it appears may be increasingly outsourced. Some of the titles they report LucasArts apparently have in this stacked pipeline, whether as publisher or developer, include: KOTOR 3, Battlefront 3, 'The Official Indiana Jones' game, another LEGO based game based on the Indy universe, and 'a lightsaber game for the Wii.'"
You get to play as an aging Han Solo who finds an artifact and meets aliens..........wait........redundant?
I stopped caring about LucasArts when they stopped making space combat simulators.
Double bladed lightsaber?
Amen
They need to make an up to date version of Xwing vs Tie Fighter... Imagine a 20 ship scrum going on with shinny new graphics...
The triple bladed light-saber gives a closer shave.
KOTOR3 as an MMO? That's awful. KOTOR 1 and 2 were the best adventure games to come out in a long time. That's what I want more of, adventure games.
I want a game with a compelling story, and interesting puzzles interwoven into the plot. I don't think that's possible to do with an MMO. I want to be the (singular)hero, the protagonist to the story. You can't have a compelling story with thousands of protagonists.
This is really bad news.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
You can make your own now, just strap a bunch of LEDs to a Wiimote and run around hitting people.
The Wii-mote probably would do a great simulation of a light sabre considering both would have about the same balance type. Since a light sabre would not have any weight where the blade would be either. Kind of a cool concept for the wii-mote. And you can sell a light sabre "handle" for the wii-mote to fit in.
LucasArts just hasn't been the same since the late 90's. Deciding to solely exploit the Star Wars franchise instead of the incredible IP they had built up over the last decade was probably the worst decision they could have made.
Now, we're all a little tired of the endless Star Wars games (and not even the great ones, like Tie Fighter!), and they're laying off staff and outsourcing to continue producing the same Star Wars crud.
Not a good sign for LucasArts' future if you ask me.
...because I have no fucking clue what KOTOR is?
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
Or Grim Fandango 2 on the list. Sigh...
Already exists. Don't know what games it's for.
As to the weight of the light saber -- have we established it would have no weight? Certainly, any of the scenes in which a light saber flies around, the physics seem modeled to indicate weight.
Not that, in the grand scheme of things, the weight of a light saber is a meaningful discussion. But, you know. It's Friday.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I see those NDAs that LucasArts probably made their employees sign went a long way.
Fuck everything, we're doing five blades.
Several of the books describe it not as a beam of light, but as a plasma circuit that extends one meter and curves 180 degrees back to the base, which is why the tip is round. While not much that would give it some mass. As an aside, it would also be 5000c, hot enough that holding the handle would be a sure fire way to get some serious burnination.
--fetch daddy's blue fright wig, i must be handsome when i release my rage
I don't really care about the other games, but I want a KOTOR 3 dammit! =(
i'm surprised and delighted to see this concise summation of my opinion given this information.
1 - the guy is not only beating dead horse franchises to powder, but he's going necro too, dragging them up from decades ago for a second round, this time using light sabers to beat the leftover powder into vapor.
2 - he's laying off experienced, skilled american labor who have demonstrated their loyalty for god knows how many years of work to replace them with offshore labor. He doesn't even bother to invent a pretext like "there just aren't enough talented americans". It's like watching your spouse make mad, horny love to whoever theyre cheating with on your dinner table in front of your 5 year old children.
3 - not only is he doing this, but he's adding insult to injury to both his remaining american staff and his customers by cutting this staff from dev and QA, meaning more pissed customers putting dents in the devs' reputations when it was the head honcho himself who overworked, understaffed, and partially repopulated his departments with trainees who in all likelihood barely meet minimum qualifications.
so yeah.. the conclusion.. (explative deleted) george lucas... it's absolutely brilliant. it boils down 3 paragraphs into a 3 word post title.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
OK, but tactile feedback is a very important part of sword-fighting, much more so than recoil is for shooting. Maybe vibration will be good enough, but I'm still not convinced.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.
When the inevitable happens and a disgruntled former employee goes berzerk when told he is laid off and is then shot by a security guard, you can bet George Lucas will edit the security cam footage to make it appear disgruntled worker shot first.
Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
Ah, the good old Gillette 3000... (aussie irreverancy at it's best)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gStI9ysPrhs
When they work in a foreign country and their family hates it and they are tired of weird squishy food and odd customs they will wish they had not gone.
The difference for a company is that work will suffer as there are all kinds of new barriers to putting out good work including culture, time zones, and language. It can be done, but generally it is not.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force...as if a 100 voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
Lucas the great rebel... is really just another corporate dick.
Outsourcing is also beneficial for anybody who is a consumer. A successful "buy American" campaign would curb outsourcing, of course those things never work because outsourcing benefits more people than it hurts. Outsourcing (and automation) may negatively impact employment in a specific industry, but the cost reduction for goods and services results in a net benefit for the economy overall.
Jobs don't exist to employ people, they exist to meet the needs of people. Would you like somebody coming up to your door and demand you pay them to landscape your yard?
What is the responsibility of the consumer? It is they who hold the ultimate power over corporations. For some reason they are willing to pay $600 for a $10 purse because of a name, why wouldn't they pay extra for a product made domestically.
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