America's Army dev team laid off after AA3 launch.

BabyHeadCrab

BabyHeadCrab

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What a goddamn shitstorm. How embarrassing for anyone involved with this project. The auth servers still aren't working properly and people cannot log in and complete training. The future of the project is, despite statements of development being relocated to some unknown Alabama studio, unknown.

Kotaku said:
The Emeryville, California based development studio responsible for America's Army 3 has been shut down, according to details forwarded to Kotaku by former staffers. That closing comes one day after the U.S. Army funded simulation officially shipped.

According to ex-AA3 developers, the contract studio responsible for the latest America's Army entry was shuttered due to a lack of funds, with future development allegedly moving to an unnamed Alabama-based developer. The newest game in the publicly funded series is experiencing some growing pains, as one can likely glean from the game's official support forums.

The anonymous America's Army 3 developers in touch with Kotaku unsurprisingly didn't sound too pleased with the current situation, venting that "a lot of good people [worked] insanely long hours on this game that was butchered by outside sources."
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It's hilarious that the Fileplanet beta was in far better shape than this so called "official launch".

Kotaku
Shacknews
 
Now I feel like an ass for not participating in the beta in hopes the release would be a smoother product. I guess I'll try again in a few months.

btw, they better have gotten a release party before the pink slips were sent out. Or perhaps they knew before release? Now that's some strong motivation to release as soon as possible! (not)
 
Hahahah! GOOD. Get rid of this piece of military-industrial-complex-mind-control. I think Obama had his hand in this. Aaaaahhhh...Obama. :thumbs:
 
Alabama based developer?


Oh





My





Satan




HURK DURK SUPPORTAN AR TROOPS DEEYUUUUUURRRRR
 
Kotaku talked to one of the devs and they said the game was butchered by a outside source.
 
There's only two outside sources that could have "butchered" the launch, whoever manages to auth servers and... the United States Army.

I wouldn't be surprised if they went through significant budget cuts, defense dollars being spent on a game is downright stupid.
 
Well, what did you expect? The Army can't even take care of its wounded veterans.
 
Interesting post...

I worked as a Dev at AA Emeryville for the last year and a half and I hope I can appeal to your rationality and common sense. I would like you to imagine trying to build a game with an impossible deadline, steadily declining workforce (via firings), A hiring freeze, constantly being fed misinformation, having the "higher ups" completely ignore your weekly plea for either A) more time, or B) more manpower, working a ton of unpaid overtime, pouring your heart and soul into a misadventure only to have the uniformed community scoff at you for uncontrollable variables..... RIGHT when you've just lost your job.

There are problems with the release beyond the devs control. In fact, the bureaucracy is so convoluted that you can't even begin to imagine the breadth and scope of B.S. the devs had to deal with daily. in short, imagine being the subcontractor of a subcontractor of a contractor to the government. Sure Millions of dollars may have been poured into this project, but how much do you think made it to the actual DEV team, the people MAKING the game, after it was filtered by the bureaucracy?

I realize if you are a gamer, you rightly expect a game to work. period. But I would ask that you imagine for a second that you actually DON'T understand what it takes to make this particular game, and you really don't understand the many obstacles that were placed in front of the Devs... in nerdy terms: A Kobiyashi maru.

What I would like you to understand is that the Devs did everything they could, worked a TON of unpaid overtime, put their time and passion into an un-winnable situation, and were effectively stabbed in the back. Many of these guys are my close friends, they have family to take care of, and overpriced rent to deal with. They just came off busting their butts for months, to be let go, without warning. Perhaps a little empathy is in order here.

Almost every multiplayer online game has problems upon release. These problems become exaggerated when a development team is kept in constant turmoil and paranoia via misinformation and a high rate of employee turnover. When the people you trust around you are being let go, it becomes difficult to emotionally invest yourself in the titanic sinking ship. Nonetheless, I can tell you the Devs STILL pushed themselves as hard as they could.

Furthermore, the problem with the game at this point, has everything to do with the authentication servers being slammed, A.K.A not a controllable variable by the Devs. Sure there are bugs, they WERE being fixed, and now you'll be lucky to see any fixes in the near future.

For those of you who think Redstone arsenal will do a better job, well.... I won't have to tell you that you're sadly mistaken because you'll see for yourself.

I'm not sure why i've felt compelled to write this when I'm sure it will get deleted, or even scoffed at further, but I hoped to let the fans know that we tried as hard as we could and are very bummed to see the fruits of our labor shoved at gamers like a heaping pile of crap.
Click to expand...

This just keeps getting more interesting.
 
The impossible test programmed, in part, but none other than Spock, that they make students in Star Fleet take in the Star Trek universe. You're not supposed to be able to beat it but Kirk does, because he's awesome.
 
Wow.
All that trouble for a free game.

I feel sorry for everyone involved in it.
 
To add insult to injury it's a buggy pile of crashing elephant spunk.

Much like the US Army.
 
They patched it, everything works perfectly for me.

I like it a lot. Then again I loved the old one too, this will probably be the thing that gets me back into it. It has a decidedly different feel and pace than any other online game I've played, and it's incredibly uncompromising. It also has one of the most mature communities I've seen due to the level of patience and tactics required to be successful.

I don't see why people complain about the Army producing it with tax-payer dollars. It came out of the recruitment budget ... this is just how they chose to advertise ... the same money would've been spent on TV ads or whatever regardless. Whether or not it's effective I don't know, but I certainly benefit much more from this than being constantly harassed by recruiters setting up booths at events and campuses.
 
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