Bobby "Lynx" Miller employed at Sega

Good news, I am sure this will help establish communication again.

Just can't say anything else other than the fact that Relic seems like a kick ass group of people. I take it that they had a major part in getting Lynx considered for the position (he obviously also carried his load by showing them his awesomeness), and SEGA likewise seems like a friendly bunch for making it happen.

I seriously DIG companies who manage to look away from numbers and profit margins for a split second and act like they are run by human beings instead of androids.

Awesome "news" anyways.

I seriously DIG companies who manage to look away from numbers and profit margins for a split second and act like they are run by human beings instead of androids.

+1 I wish there were more companies like that out there. But in this day and age they are hard to come by.

Yep.

I think that creative businesses are a lot better in this regard opposed to the rest of the lot (my subjective impression obviously). It's sort of a weird world where, we, as gamers wants kick-ass games and tend to side with the developers, whilst the moneymaking (and thus the driving force) within the gaming industry usually lies with the publisher. I'm happy that Relic got picked up by a publisher who seemingly cares about their developers beyond the money and $$$ they can earn off of them.

My thoughts and bold predictions on the "delayed beta/no information yet-vacum" in true *insert random Star Craft-Universe pseudonym here*-style:
SEGA acquiring Relic could mean a paradigm shift away from the "fast buck, easy does it"-policy enforced by THQ since the whole uDraw facepalm, to a more "finished when it's finished" style of developing games.

The reason I think that is because suddenly this awesome RTS developer didn't have a publisher in deep financial despair hanging over their desk. With certain people having said that "they would love to put *insert awesome features here* into the game, there simply isn't enough time/money", it's a good indication of somebody who's more stressed about getting shit out instead of getting shit good.

With SEGA supposedly hiring Lynx for a CM position, a position they with almost complete certainty could get somebody to cover without bringing new people in, I take it as a statement that they are willing to dedicate some serious attention to both the game and the community. They could easily have made somebody else cover as a half-arsed CM, stuck with THQ's pipeline for releasing the game, and taken the easy buck.

I'd say you should expect the release and beta-days to be pushed back in order to polish, develop and create new awesome stuff for CoH 2. There is absolutely no reason what so ever to delay development in this case other than to develop more stuff for the game itself. Hopefully we will finally see a shift in the marketing strategy as well, and it's gonna be awesome to see how a CoH game does with proper advertising.

Let's see if SEGA gives Relic the time and resources to implement an 'Observer Mode'. Right at the release of the game. That would be so awesome.

But for now, all we can do is wait for official announcements

Let's see if SEGA gives Relic the time and resources to implement an 'Observer Mode'. Right at the release of the game. That would be so awesome.

But for now, all we can do is wait for official announcements

Hopefully they realize that releasing a game without that in 2013 would be just silly. DoW: II had this in 2009 lol.

Awesome news.

Now Bobby, where is the beta?

Hopefully they realize that releasing a game without that in 2013 would be just silly. DoW: II had this in 2009 lol.

If I'm correct, DOW2 had to wait the There Is Only War (1.4) patch to have an observer mode, and a not too bad replay viewer. 5 or 6 month after release.

If I'm correct, DOW2 had to wait the There Is Only War (1.4) patch to have an observer mode, and a not too bad replay viewer. 5 or 6 month after release.

I take your word for it as I didn't play DoW: II from release. Just assumed it was always there.

Anyways, they should have the know-how easily accessible anyways

Yeey.

I seriously DIG companies who manage to look away from numbers and profit margins for a split second and act like they are run by human beings instead of androids.

This type of naive "socialism" fits right into CoH2.

Dwighty, I hope what you say is true. Unfortunately, Quinn wrote me a PM just 10 days ago, wherein, among other things, he said:

"At this point, it doesn't look like we'll be able to do custom keys at ship, but it's a feature we'd like to consider (or, at the very least, adding more keyboard options - like a WASD camera mode)."

Maybe that's just a prediction of Quinn's, considering how all the Sega and Relic reorganization is still work-in-progress, but if it be true, then I doubt the release date will be push back more than a few weeks to makeup for the turmoil.

wow.... this no custom key layout thing has the potential for a serious fuck up, imho... if they use grid keys without considering keyboard layouts, you are messing with all those ppl that do not have a qwerty keyboard layout (for example all germans, most french)

if they use grid keys without considering keyboard layouts, you are messing with all those ppl that do not have a qwerty keyboard layout (for example all germans, most french)

yeah, it was annoying during the alpha. But well, it was an alpha.
For game release, they are not that dumb (well, I hope so, Relic have their facepalm moments)

This type of naive "socialism" fits right into CoH2.

Actually this type of socialism is very successful in many companies and they are profitable .

His company has provem this , Its just an example of one in many
http://www.forbes.com/sites/karlmoore/2012/05/14/employees-first-customers-second-why-it-really-works-in-the-market/

Its not very successful for your average listed company, as neither employee, nor customer has significant influence, when compared to the shareholder.

I hope you realize that a column, in general, but in this specific case where a commercial book is promoted, is never considered evidence in favor of your argument.

Besides this, I was mainly aiming at the lack of nuance in the general view of (mostly) big corporates, which was shown perfectly in Dwighty's statement.

Hopefully they realize that releasing a game without that in 2013 would be just silly. DoW: II had this in 2009 lol.

It's been a long time, but i'm quite sure DOW 1 had Observer Mode back in 2004

Its not very successful for your average listed company, as neither employee, nor customer has significant influence, when compared to the shareholder.

I hope you realize that a column, in general, but in this specific case where a commercial book is promoted, is never considered evidence in favor of your argument.

Besides this, I was mainly aiming at the lack of nuance in the general view of (mostly) big corporates, which was shown perfectly in Dwighty's statement.

In general, there is a clear correlation between employe satisfaction and customer satisfaction. In today's "experience economy", the companies that rack up the least poor experiences, combined with a good product will be the winners in the long term. The music industry gets this; the movie industry don't.

Ever thought about what makes the difference between a good and a bad experience with customer service? It's ALWAYS the person who picks up the phone.

If you treat your employees solely like numbers, they will find other places to work since the wages will be better and so will the benefits. People also seem to perform better when they turn up at work for reasons other than just cashing in their paycheck.

Good luck trying to run a successful company when your bleed talent to your competitors.

Correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction has very little to do with the (financial) satisfaction of a shareholder.

Customers care about service, but they also care about prices. Both are complements. Low prices can complement bad service and visa versa.

The same conclusion applies to employee satisfaction and wages. your argumentation is flawed as the level of satisfaction does not change with the wage level, it only complements. Therefore, most people maintain/get jobs they dont like, as long as the remuneration outweighs the dissatisfaction they obtain from it.

It should be noted that there is a whole spectrum in between treating your employees/customers as numbers and treating them as "kings and queens". Next to that, I am still wondering how you got to the conslusion that personnel in the music industry gets treated better compared to the movie industry, which, according to you, results in higher customer satisfaction of customers in the movie industry. A Practical nightmare.

Good luck trying to run a successful company when your bleed talent to your competitors.

Employee spill-overs are quite common in innovative firms. For instance, the average employment term in Silicon Valley is very close to 2 years.

wow.... this no custom key layout thing has the potential for a serious fuck up, imho... if they use grid keys without considering keyboard layouts, you are messing with all those ppl that do not have a qwerty keyboard layout (for example all germans, most french)

You can always change the keyboard layout in Windows if it's so annoying.