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Company Status

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by DarkStarr, Jun 19, 2018.

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  1. 2112Starman

    2112Starman Avatar

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    my son a few years ago as he entered high-school had this idea about going into game development and I steared him away (as an IT person myself with a development group division under me). I am actually pretty shocked that Portalarium offered a steady job to people for as long as they have and they should be commended for doing so. No matter what the conspiracy theory people say (Im headed over there next to read what crazy they have to say), in the end, Port was a job creator and should be proud of the way I saw them over the past 2.5 years treated their employees (well, at least what we could see), but the leaders clearly respected their people. I wish them all the best. Ive been critical of this game but I still love playing it and they will continue to have my help and I will do so in Episode 2 (for one reason being that I actually recuperated in RMT just about every thing I put into it and I feel proud that I helped them in this way).
     
  2. Rada Torment

    Rada Torment Community Ambassador (ES)

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    Scott "Lum", I didn't expect that tbh.

    We will miss him and others. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of them,; your work will prevail forever in New Britannia.
     
    Last edited: Jun 19, 2018
  3. Duke William of Serenite

    Duke William of Serenite Avatar

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    Unfortunately this is not a charity but a business that has to make hard decisions to keep the train moving forward. Worse would be they don't make adjustments to the new revenue and go out of business. The last company I worked for laid off all ITD services and hired IBM outsourcing, my entire team was laid off and we worked together for about 15 years. Big and small corporations need to adjust to make ends meet, no different here.
     
  4. majoria70

    majoria70 Avatar

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    And it could mean exchange of world builders to more programmers, coders etc depending on the need at the time given the budget. Well sorry here I am speculating and hopefully wishing we just get what is needed at any given time. I have Lots of faith in this team. :)
     
  5. Floors

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    Well, not entirely unexpected news but sad to hear. At least it wasn't the announcement we all fear in the back of our minds.

    Thanks be to those that worked to make this game viable, it truly has turned the corner and the recent content coming out was great, I'm sad that will stop, but on the plus side I'm happy to hear about the direction and I am glad I still have time to finish the game !!

    Keep it going as long you as can folks ! I'm doing my part to attract new players.
     
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  6. Anvar

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    Not so suprised tbh, as he announced in last stream I think it was that his company was about to launch its boardgame, or was it an rpg, so hed be wanting to spend more time on that, also he was heavily involved with the art and production of the manual boxes maps etc
    so until work on Part 2 is underway sadly his services wouldnt be in so much need, although if they could drag him in to tell a tale or 2 in a livestream someday :)

    Also a farewell to all who have to go, your work has been much appreciated and hopefully youll get a call back if your free in the future for work on ep2.
     
  7. Rada Torment

    Rada Torment Community Ambassador (ES)

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    No, that's Scottie (Scott Jones). I edited my post to add "Lum" to avoid misunderstandings :)
     
  8. Anvar

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    Ahh well thanks for clearing that up, either way I wouldnt be suprised if Scottie was one who leaves, due to stated reasons, hope not though, would miss his tales and great art :)
     
  9. Amber Raine

    Amber Raine Community Ambassador (FR)

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    *This* is what many fear every time we hear of more people being let go. I keep praying, please no Tabula Rasa repeat... I call Shroud Home.. I will always call Shroud Home...

    We need to just stay calm and not pick up the pitch forks or torches.. We will no doubt be able to still stay following Lum where ever his path now leads him, although unexpected that *he* was one that was let go... He was part of Dark Age of Camelot, Shroud, he will find another place that he will tell his stories.

    Stephen Daniele is another who was taken away a couple years ago and has gone from game to game in the past couple years with his artwork..

    If we care, we support them and see where they go and pop in just to say "Hi! I am here also to support you and love what you did in the past.. we will love what you do in the future!"

    Always a positive in the darkness.. Lum is an amazing story teller.. he will find a new place to share his stories ... although here in Shroud we will miss him greatly.
     
  10. Sir_Hemlock

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    Why didnt you do this before launch? o_O
     
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  11. VZ_

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    I hope there's a some more town+ tax free lot pledges =]

    preferably in new npc towns
     
  12. Titania Xylia

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    Thanks for all of your hard work. I know this is a tough day for everyone at Portalarium.
     
  13. hammadowna

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    Wow, Lum was one of the people let go? That's depressing.
     
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  14. Dyonisys

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    Sad to see that some of you have to leave... thx a lot for your hard work and best of luck!

    Ps : give us valuable and useful stretch goal or addon item, always help getting money in for the development!
     
  15. Tazar

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    I'd guess three reasons (at least): 1.) Because there was still more of a need fixing issues around launch time. 2.) Finishing up the rest of the Kickstarter pledge rewards. 3.) Because the gaming industry evaluates employees not so much by what games they worked on, but more by what titles they launched.
     
  16. kaeshiva

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    Thank you Starr for keeping us all in the loop regarding this.
    I echo many sentiments above that we will be sorry to see some of the team go, but its a business decision and I think we can all understand that.

    On a somewhat related note, regarding the Ep2 stretch goal items ...I do recall there being stretch goals for these items before -elf stuff, mount-related stuff, etc. but I can't seem to locate the old pages that had this information ie. the items that were for sale and whether or not those goals were achieved (and how far off they were if not). Is this information still searchable somewhere?

    While I think mounts would be fun and playing as an elf might be neat, I'm glad that the focus is on improving the core gameplay and I'd certainly be willing to throw more money at the game if additional quality of life features were added as goals.
     
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  17. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    Honestly, the Stretch Goal Store was a bad idea. Pick *one* stretch goal, and add items to the store to help fund it. Once it's reached, all of the items are retired and a new goal goes up. Repeat until all goals are funded.

    Last time, none of them moved because they were competing with each other. If anything, use the percentages of funding from that run to determine order for the new store goals.
     
  18. Browncoat Jayson

    Browncoat Jayson Legend of the Hearth

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    Agreed. I wish him well, although I do wish they had kept him around for a bit longer to tighten dialogue and polish NPCs. Not that others can't do that too, but just feels like he should have been able to finish what he started.
     
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  19. Lum the Mad

    Lum the Mad Developer Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    Thank you all for your kind words! Transitions like these are always painful but it's been 5 years for me and they've been good years.

    Arguably it should be someone with a fresh eye! A large part of my work the past year was in actually working on tools and tech so I *wouldn't* have to be the only person doing all the writing.
     
  20. Preachyr

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    Not entirely surprising considering how far short we are of the 50,000 players Darkstarr said we need for the game to be profitable.

    I hope we are still getting our physical rewards...
     
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