I've seen this posted on Kotaku and I thought it was pretty interesting, even tho a bit extreme maybe. Still, sharing with you folks.
This was a reply to the recent Layoffs that hit Propaganda, they were working on Pirates of the Caribbean Game.
http://kotaku.com/comment/30788787/
I'm a veteran in the game and film indusrty and this is how the game industry works: Some of you wonder why a good looking game that's also near complete gets cancelled,... The problem has nothing to do with the quality or the creative team behind the game. The problem is the MIDDLE MANAGEMENT in the game industry. This is how it all goes wrong: game industry exists out of creatives and coders, a group of artists and programmers can create a game all to themselves. Of course there is some need for administration and people who deal with paperwork, especially when you are a publisher. Buts as far as a develpment team goes, the artist and programmers are the heart and soul of your game.Unfortunately our industry started to get more and more middle mangers, who are NOT artists or programmers. There is nothing that the middle manegemnt does which end up in the front end product of a game. Imagine having a company with a lot of administrative people who middle in the decision making and all have high paid salaries, because they call themselves 'management'. So why are they there? glad you asked, because they created these jobs for themselves and they like to keep it that way. In fact they are constatnly multiplying in the game company structres (like Hollywood) so there are more and more salaries going to middle managment people than to actual artists and progmmers. Plus these manager salaries are always more than what the average artists/programmer gets paid. So it is even a greater blow to the financial part of a game. It doesnt stop there, the middle mangers are known to meddle with every decision (creative or technical) that is made in the creation of a game. Sometimes we have a manager who has to answer to another manager and so on just to make a decision on a creative issue or coding. As a result of this the creatives have to wait untill these managers make a descision, and often they go back-and-forth with it. So subsequently time gets waisted. In short MIDDLE MANAGEMNT takes away money off of the project and at the same time delays the production project and wastes time, which is also wasting more money. Thats why it takes a long time to make a game, there is a lot of waiting for decisions from managers who nose in every aspect of a game, who shouldnt be employed in a development team in the first place. But yet there they are.
So the publisher sees that a lot of time has passed on a project, lots of money is spent on it, and still there is no complete finished game. In fact its a miracle that a game can even look remotely decent in a working condition like that (nothing is worse than fruistrating your creative team, artists and programmers). So the publishers cut their loses (eventhough the game might be near finish or might look good) but they want to cut their loses and order the publisher to lay people off. Ironically and sadly, the middle mangers are the ones who do the lay off at a game development company. So they will never fire themselves (eventhough they themselves ARE the problem in the first place!) In cases of lay offs the first thing the middle managemnt does is looking at the highest paid artists and programmers in the company (who are usually also the best talent, hence the highest salary usually). Managers fire those talent first, to save money. Then the company is left with a variety of good to mediocre level of creatives/coders. They get selected for layoffs and half of the company is thrown out. Still with the same amount of middle management involved, bacaues again the managers never fire themselves. And they never would admit that they are not needed in the industry.
What follows after this is quite remarkble, because now the company is half crippled. All or most of their high paid talent is out, and the company is left with a mediocre cheap labor group that cant even make a decent game anymore,...it a fast down-hill from that point on. Bcause the developer is basically not capable to produce anything to meet with the publishers demand. Yet still the middle managers are there, leeching the funding of every project. Seeing the weak and frustrated creative results of a develper, the publisher will eventually decide to cut off the funding comepletly and closing down the developer company all together. Then the managers are forced to leave and hopefully will not be hired in any other game company.
The HOPE is: that talented creative people will ALWAYS find work, at another and better company. Even better in situations like this, is when a group of artists and programmers will leave the decaying company and create their own developing studio with no middle mangers or any leeching entity at all. Because art+code is the creative heart of making a game and that's the most important part in making games. To make games you dont need a group of ridiculously high-paid administrators who call themselves 'managers'.
This is also the direction we already see the game industry heading,... groups of artists and programmers creating leaving big companies and creating their own developing studio. And they deliver great results in shorter time and push the creativity even further. Publishers soon notice these small pocket of developers run by artists and programmers and give them funding to develop even more. Just remember to keep the middle managers out of it. Leave them on the street where they belong!
