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LucasArts Employees Hold Wake & Eulogy; Vader Still Roams

Posted by timothy on from the highly-qualified-applicants dept.

Dawn Kawamoto writes "LucasArts employees held a wake Friday night, days after Darth Vader Disney slayed their studio. Taking the high road, two LucasArts employees put together a eulogy that offers a retrospective on the culture, memories and accomplishments of the team. Most of us who've witnessed a blood bath at the workplace aren't as charitable. Darth Vader Disney is expected to strike again in the next two weeks at its studio and consumer product divisions."

18 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Disney says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "We have altered the deal. Pray we do not alter it further."

    1. Re:Disney says... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Funny

      Perhaps you feel you are being treated unfairly. It would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison of Mouseketeers here.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Disney says... by Phics · · Score: 5, Funny

      Which is the broadside of a spherical space station?

      --
      There are two types of people in the world; those who believe there are two types of people, and those who don't.
    3. Re:Disney says... by dwywit · · Score: 4, Funny

      All of it.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
  2. A warning for Disney by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Make sure you've got some protection for the Epcot Center's thermal exhaust ports.

  3. Sierra's Chainsaw Monday by dottrap · · Score: 4, Interesting

    LucasArts shutting down is a significant and sad event, but adventure gamers should remember their history. Never forget Sierra Online's Chainsaw Monday.

    1. Re:Sierra's Chainsaw Monday by jonwil · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What happened to Sierra is a BIG reason I will NEVER give a single cent of my money to Activision Blizzard (and no I wont pirate their content either, I will play games made by companies that dont pull that kind of crap)

    2. Re:Sierra's Chainsaw Monday by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is all a result of those major movie studios never really understanding computer gaming and trying to buy up all those independent gaming studios to create the illusion of growing income within the expanding conglomerate (to inflate executive salaries and bonuses) only to find there is very little value in the old game titles that came with those independent gaming studios. The whole game publisher market with it's access to brick and mortar outlets is also coming under pressure with direct on-line sales in boxed format and digital sales.

      Also foreign gaming is now coming in and unlike movie or TV content, if the gaming is good the language translation is fairly cheap and this is creating a new flood of content.

      That old model of incompetent nepotism just buying up other companies and pretending that's revenue growth and management skill is falling apart. Why would Disney buy Lucas arts, only to shut it down, git rid of the competition? Those gaming licences just like media content licences have proven to be pretty much shit value because they just add enormous cost to new game development which often destroys the game before it gets out of the door for lack of playability. Cheaper to come up with a new 'theme' and a thin storey and focus on game play, which has proven to be far more profitable.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  4. Underperforming Division gets cut by new owners. by Osgeld · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We all love lucas arts, but there has not too much coming out of that for a while now, and its a smart decision to trim the fat, no matter how great they once were.

  5. The Dice Angle by guttentag · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For anyone who was wondering what Dice's real interest in Slashdot was, this seems to be it.

    The first link goes to a "Dice News" story.
    The second link goes to a Slashdot "Business Intelligence" story (remember, Business Intelligence is code for "someone paid us to put this up") that is a "Dice News" story by the same author as the first link.

    Obviously Dice pushed the Slashdot editors to post this as a news item. So much for editorial independence from the parent company. The disappearance of LucasArts may be Slashdot-worthy news, but when Slashdot's parent company, Dice, is writing the story it looks like they just want lots of techies to think "techies are losing their jobs, it could happen to me, I should look and see what's out there."

    1. Re:The Dice Angle by guttentag · · Score: 5, Informative

      The author of the Dice "news story" and the "business intelligence story" is also the submitter. Dawn Kawamoto is a Dice employee who has had two story "submissions" accepted in the last three days. Her other one was the H-1B visa cap story, which notes her as "First time accepted submitter Dawn Kawamoto." She's not an accepted submitter, she's a shill for your corporate overlords, Timothy. Again, a story about people looking for jobs and how tough the market is.

      Bottom line: if you see Kawamoto's name listed as the submitter, you know it's a Dice ad right away.

      Dice: You bought slashdot. Fine. But if you're going to try to pass your content off as news, instead of sponsored content, people will leave and you will have wasted your money. If you want to post an ad, call it what it is. Deception will get you nowhere on this site. You said you weren't going to interfere with Slashdot's editorial independence. Honor your commitment.

  6. I used to work at Disney World by mark_reh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    about 30 years ago. It was the most degrading job I have ever had. Management treated employees like crap. Day one job training consisted of the boss showing you your locker and uniform, telling you to keep it clean and never take it out of the park, and do things the "Disney way" or get the hell out because there are 10 people lined up outside to take your job.

    1. Re:I used to work at Disney World by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh no! you have to do what you're told when you're getting paid for it?
      They don't let you steal uniforms either? No noes!

  7. Re: Darth Vader Disney by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    LEGO Indiana Jones
    LEGO Indiana Jones 2
    LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
    Star Wars: Battlefront
    Star Wars: Battlefront II
    Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy
    Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
    Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II
    Star Wars: Republic Commando
    Tales of Monkey Island

    All great LucasArts games released within the past 10 years.

  8. Re:Live by the tax, die by the tax by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Informative

    Lucas sold out in 2012 because Disney gave him a butt load of cash. Don't kid yourself.

  9. Re: Darth Vader Disney by viperidaenz · · Score: 5, Informative

    LEGO Indiana Jones - Traveller's Tales
    LEGO Indiana Jones 2 - Traveller's Tales
    LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy - Traveller's Tales
    Star Wars: Battlefront - Pandemic Studios
    Star Wars: Battlefront II - Pandemic Studios
    Star Wars: Jedi Knight - Jedi Academy - Raven Software
    Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - BioWare
    Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - Obsidian Entertainment
    Star Wars: Republic Commando - Lucas Arts
    Tales of Monkey Island - Telltale Games

    FTFY
    All the games by Lucas Arts in the last 10 years:
    2009: Lucidity
    2003: RTX Red Rock
    2005: Star Wars: Republic Commando
    2008: part of "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed", amongst many other games studios, same with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II in 2010

  10. That eulogy by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is self serving justification. "We sacrificied everything! We were so dedicated [sniff] it's not [sniff] [cry] FAAAIIIIRRR [sniff]"

    The studio had the greatest franchise in the history of science fiction and failed. If the employees don't hold themselves responsible, I can see why it's been closed. Considering the epic failure of Kinect Starwars and the near complete disappointment of TOR .. it's pretty clear that LucasArts Studios has been on pump and dump for some years now. Thinking back, it's hard to recall a Star Wars game since X-Wing which has even come close to meeting expectations of the fans.

    And I don't think you can blame the fans for having too high expectations. If TOR was even remotely like a an open ended MMO, people would have been glued to it like flies on shit. But despite the that being the only requirement .. well, the bar was too high. If the staff aren't the people responsible, who are?

    I'd be the last person wanting to publicise my failure on a eulogy page, that's just flat out embarassing.

  11. Re:Yeah... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    a friend of mine was always telling me I should get that job, because he thought it was the most magical place on earth and it must be wonderful working there.

    Seriously the Cult of the Mouse is some scary shit. Makes Scientology look tame in comparison.

    Mountains out of mole hills.

    It isn't a cult, it isn't scary. Youre just a retard.

    Disney is an empire and they do everything they can to protect its image because that's what Disney is, its an image. An image that earns them billions of dollars a year. And Disney world? You better believe they make sure everyone follows very strict guidelines because millions of families go through those parks each year all expecting to have a magical experience that the Disney name lends itself to.

    Is mickey a cult? Don't be so melodramatic and idiotic. But youd be really stupid to think that they wont hold their employees to the same standards that's families have about Disney. A potato headed employee can much up a families vacation and ruin some childs image of it, so you better believe they expect you to behave. If you want a job where you don't have to treat the customers like they matter then go to walmart and shut up. No one forces anyone to work at Disney.