Guy Somberg, an audio and gameplay programmer, has posted his troubled thoughts about the Hellgate: London project on his blog (which has since been removed). It doesn#DY#t make for happy reading, we#DY#re afraid.
"Work is depressing right now," he begins. "Never mind the fact that Hellgate isn#DY#t as popular as anybody had hoped. Never mind the fact that there exists a term #DY#Flagshipped#DY#, meaning where a company basically overpromises and then screws you. Never mind the fact that the forums are totally populated by people who do nothing but complain and talk about how much the game sucks. Never mind the fact that people do the same thing in the game itself.
"Yes, Hellgate is not a big success. That sucks, and it#DY#s depressing. I#DY#m keeping a positive attitude about it because of Korea and China. The Koreans really love the game, and the Chinese have yet to see it. I don#DY#t know how any of these deals are structured, but I#DY#m hinging my hopes for Hellgate#DY#s future on the Asian market.
"So why is work depressing? (Other than all of those other depressing things, that is.) The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they#DY#re leaving. We#DY#ve had programmers, accountants, HR people, and artists leave. The founders are all still around, but they#DY#ve been floating away from Hellgate to work on various other projects. The only one still actively on Hellgate is Tyler, but Tyler#DY#s not programming anymore; he spends all of his time on management activities."
