The price of soul searching

Just as my hopes for CCP and EVE are raised a little by the publication of the POCO dev blog another crushing blow is delivered – and one which is all the more real to those developers and staff who are losing their jobs.

Having experienced unemployment I really do feel great sadness for those who must suffer it due to the strategic mistakes made by CCP.  Hubris is the only term for it and it is disappointing to see that people have to suffer the consequences of that in very real terms.  Those that have been treated most harshly, in my view, are those community reps CCP Zymurgist and CCP Fallout who despite their angst ridden player base stayed true and upbeat throughout: quite literally keeping the fires burning in the depths of winter.

Cutting staff whilst overstretched suggests a fairly large degree of corporate insanity.  Something we’ve come to more or less expect.  But we must also recognise this news post for what it is: damage control.  Between the lines it is quite readily apparent that the business case for WoD no longer stood up, NeX had not delivered the piles of gold expected and it risked entering a market bloated with new and current MMO titles. The loss of the community reps and the telling line ” We attribute this to our own mistakes and poor communications with our players” clearly marks the apportioning of blame to those responsible for selling the message.

The sad truth of the matter is that many Devs and community reps really did try and sell those new concepts – but those concepts (NeX, Incarna) were fatally flawed.  Equally disturbing is the relationship between the community rep element of CCPs staff and the Council for Stella Management (CSM).  Are those being removed from post carrying the can for ‘allowing’ the CSM delegates to become too vocal and thus a risk to CCPs self image?  What might this bode for the CSM process?

These are all questions for another time.  For now, whilst we are able to sit comfortably back and await the “fruits of this realignment” its worth considering the cost of those fruits.

I wonder quite how bitter they’ll taste.

C.