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Specter of a Spector Departure?

[May 28, 2004, 2:35 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Shacknews is reporting that "multiple sources" inform them that Warren Spector "is said to be leaving" ION Storm, reporting the Austin Texas-based developer has also laid off 20-25 employees. Ion Storm Implodes is the headline on a similar story on IGN, which reports on the layoffs, as well as Eidos' explanation that this was a normal staff reduction associated with the completion of the pair of game projects that were underway at ION, quoting the publisher as dismissing the idea that Warren was laid off as well, though they don't actually come out and say he did not quit. They have yet to receive a reply from ION Storm, but this was Eidos' response to questions about Warren's departure:

"Ah rumors... well that sounds like a good one... but it is just a rumor," said the representative. "He certainly has not been laid off."

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63.

Re: My thoughts...

May 29, 2004, 14:45

Parallax Abstraction

Reserve judgements untill the game is out. What you said about Doom 3 shows complete ignorance of the facts. Id has stated that they are going AGIANST the groove with this title and will try to make a story bound and atmospheric retteling of the original Doom. Hell they even hired a REAL writer to set up the script even before production began.
So untill the game is released i would reserve my comments if I were you.

Well, while I do think this is how Doom 3 will turn out, I of course could be wrong and hope I am. And I should have said that I did in fact enjoy the previous Doom games back in the day. The thing is that I hear about this "going against the grain with innovation" line from a lot of developers and most don't deliver. The fact is that id Software makes their money from licensing their engine ad infinitum, not from the games. That's why they're able to work on only one project at a time and have large breaks between each one. The engine is first and foremost in their mind and I have a real problem with that as games shoudl be about the game, not the graphics.

About the other things in your post, I agree completely. Im sick of developers making unoptimised and clunky engines just for the sake of the game having ALL THE SHINY OPTIONS and THE KEWLEST GRAPHICS. No one seems to be puttning any effort into writing a bit of decent code nowdays. They think that superior hardware is going to pull them out of the sewers. And Im starting to suspect there is a kind of conspiracy going on inside the PC games industry to get more people to buy consoles, or constantly upgrade their PCs.
I say, fuck that. I guess the main problem is that PC hardware is getting more powerfull in such great leaps, the developers are simply too lazy to rid their code of bugs and optimise it. Kudos to John Carmack and id for being the exception to the rule with all of their games so far, hopefully Doom 3 will be made with the same care and attention and if its not, well fuck it there is always Blizzard.

Yes, there is always Blizzard. Thankfully, Vivendi Universal Games hasn't screwed with them too much, though Bill Roper did leave the company because he was concerned about how VU was throwing their influence around a bit too much. I will say for sure that StarCraft 2 is going to be my most anticipated game release ever. I still play the original with my friends on a regular basis and this is a game that still sells well, six years later. I was still running Windows 95 when that shipped originally.

My prediction is that they are going to announce StarCraft 2 after StarCraft Ghost and World of WarCraft get out in the world. I do hope that the gaming public is able to convince the industry to grow up and start caring about content again, but we will have to see. With a few exceptions, Hollywood never got it.

Parallax Abstraction
Technical Consultant, Hardcore Modern and Retro Gamer, Video Game Historian
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada




Parallax Abstraction Geek Bravado \| Retro Flashback \| All Together Now

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