Matthew Jeffrey on EA Europe

[Klicek]

GREAT! thx !:thumbsup:

[PavelPetrenko]

Grat Article tanks! :thumbsup:

[lildragon]

Great article! Thx for this Paul

take care,

~t

[elnady]

Thanks Paul for the hard work :)

[NyneDown]

Really interesting material, thanx! :)

[dunkelzahn]

Interesting to read.

Seems that the "EA spouse" article must have been a real public relations nightmare for their recruiting/HR department, judging by the way he mentions it in several sections of the article. Guess the steady stream of reels and applicants changed to a trickle after the article was put online.

[garphik]

I had a chance to meet Matthew once, very inspirational person.

[leigh]

Call me a cynic, but this all sounds like another piece of shallow recruiter propaganda to me. You hear this same story from recruiters everywhere, about how their field is the best, how working in it is so awesome, how all the people are so cool, how it provides you with such amazing creative opportunities... and then you show up for your first day of work, and it's just another place full of burnt out people who have lost all passion for their work.

Oh, and then the plug gets pulled on the project two weeks later and you're out of a job.

:p

[CGmonkey]

Leigh I guess it you haven't worked much with games outside of the US ? ;) There is something else than slave farms you know.


However, he does make some awekward points. Games not being able to make the player cry? What the hell? I've cried in many games :)

[ninth_level_dan]

On the top right of page 1, Mr. Jeffrey makes reference to the volatile, short-term contract nature of Films, suggesting that the Game industry is more stable and long term, making it attractive to families. But then the last two paragraphs talk about how the Game industry is "replicating the film industry model of a flexible workforce with some contractors and outsourcing some work out to other companies". In other words, volatile, short term contract work, projects farmed out to small companies that may have the project funding pulled at a moment's notice, and working 6 days a week for 14 hours.
One thing that isn't mentioned is the way many artists fall under union rules in Los Angeles. But being from EA Europe, I wouldn't expect the same rules to apply. Then again, some people will argue that since EA is headquartered in San Francisco, etc, etc.
It's good that the EA spouse was a wake up call, and Mr. Jeffrey is smart to acknowledge its continuing impact. It's important to keep it always at the front of their minds, or they are liable to forget. And there's no question that the Game industry has made some very positive steps in the right direction.
Both industry models have good and bad aspects about them. It's important that both industries try to get the best of both worlds. Good article

[OneSharpMarble]

Call me a cynic, but this all sounds like another piece of shallow recruiter propaganda to me. You hear this same story from recruiters everywhere, about how their field is the best, how working in it is so awesome, how all the people are so cool, how it provides you with such amazing creative opportunities... and then you show up for your first day of work, and it's just another place full of burnt out people who have lost all passion for their work.

Oh, and then the plug gets pulled on the project two weeks later and you're out of a job.

:p

Yikes jaded much? I am sure there is plenty of artists who work at game studios who aren't burnt out and have no passion left for their job. I wouldn't generalize that whole section of the industry.

[eek]

is Matthew related to Karl Jeffery (climax etc, etc)?

[grantmoore3d]

Great article! As a student who's going to graduate in two years, it really gave me a few things to think about career-wise! Thanks!

[Randis]

you get to hear that a lot in the industry... eveything is great...
the market grows, that is a fact but in reality you will not have a benefit from it as you will never get to bite the big cake.

with a growing market there is always a growing demand for content generation or in other words more jobs, however many studios are forced to geneate the content with the same budget as for the older hardware generation games. more and more people try to jump on the train, undecut rate standards to get more jobs, evey day some new studis open and some close. more and more cheap 3th parties who undercut rates.

in many cases most of the employes neve get to see their boss face, and i dont talk about the boss who works next to you, i talk about the investors/sharehoders/publisher who might own the studio you work for. for them actually the good part applies, they profit from the industy without often even knowing what they sell.

deadlines are getting tighter, during the crunchtime u barely get to see your family and sleeping in the studio is not as cool as it might sound for a 12 year old. you will get to hear a lot of motivation shit but in most cases no one will pay you the ovetime.
fame might be a good motivation factor, expecially when you work on some hit aaa title but only your boss will actually do the interviews.

clever and good people can make money everywhere, just do not take everything by word and think twice if all the said great things apply to you

[subtlebluetones]

Call me a cynic, but this all sounds like another piece of shallow recruiter propaganda to me. You hear this same story from recruiters everywhere, about how their field is the best, how working in it is so awesome, how all the people are so cool, how it provides you with such amazing creative opportunities... and then you show up for your first day of work, and it's just another place full of burnt out people who have lost all passion for their work.

Oh, and then the plug gets pulled on the project two weeks later and you're out of a job.

:p

bah. bitter leigh strikes again.

I work for said company. Worked on mentioned titles, and now work on BF bad company.

best job iv ever had by far, and i would like to challenge most here and say better job than anyone else. And our morale here is brilliant. Bad company will be the best game of 2008.

Nuff said.

[leigh]

bah. bitter leigh strikes again.


Wow, it's like people have forgotten what a smiley means.

:rolleyes:

[subtlebluetones]

After actually reading the article though i do have to agree. They are over selling it abit. And i dont think people being in control of entertainment is the answer, and nowhere near as good as they are making it out to be.

Some people dont have the imagination, creativity, or even WANT to make the experience up themselves. Reason cinema is so succesful is because you can switch off and be taken on a journey.

Games industry is a great industry, has a lot of future promise, but will NEVER be everybodies cup of tea...

[NyneDown]

lol...Why is everyone always trying to pick fights with leigh, gaawd! ;) Everyone has their own opinion on these things, so not one person is 100% correct with how they percieve this article. It says it's controversial, so expect others to not share the same opinion as you and try to be respectful of that.

I've yet to make a mark in the industry, but I know better then to believe everything a sales person says. It can be argued that Mr. Jeffrey isnt that, but at the end of the day he's selling a product and what's going to generate profits for himself. I raised my eyebrow on a couple of his comments and all of us are old enough and intelligent enough to know what's right and what's wrong, what's fact and what isnt. just my opinion though :)

[subtlebluetones]

lol...Why is everyone always trying to pick fights with leigh, gaawd! ;) Everyone has their own opinion on these things, so not one person is 100% correct with how they percieve this article. It says it's controversial, so expect others to not share the same opinion as you and try to be respectful of that.

I've yet to make a mark in the industry, but I know better then to believe everything a sales person says. It can be argued that Mr. Jeffrey isnt that, but at the end of the day he's selling a product and what's going to generate profits for himself. I raised my eyebrow on a couple of his comments and all of us are old enough and intelligent enough to know what's right and what's wrong, what's fact and what isnt. just my opinion though :)

??? ok ????

EDIT: it was a pretty strong statement made though. I just had to disagree because i work with the company and on the games mentioned and i love my job more than any job ive ever had, and actually cant think of a way it could be made better. (unless they brought in a day killed 'stripper fridays' or something along those lines).

but at the same time, the article was slightly exagerate...

and P.S. im sure shes a big enough girl to defend herself....

[AJ]

killed 'stripper fridays' or something along those lines
"Come on guys, it's been ages since we've murdered a lap dancer..."

[subtlebluetones]

hahaha i was in a MP playtest and someone must have been talking about killing at the same time. Woops!:scream:

edit: p.s, meant to say 'called' ;)

[elderic]

... in one of germany's bigger studios doing stuff for EA right NOW, I couldn't agree more.
never saw _any_ german company doing software (not only games) where this didn't apply like johnny on the spot.

I do a shitload of overtime, nobody pays. I get holiday-requests denied because of deadlines. and on top of that, nobody wants to tell EA that feature X on system Y isn't gonna make it so easily because it's a new platform for the studio. btw, if you don't do all the platforms (except perhaps PC) anymore, you're right out as a lucrative partner. nobody likes to loose their deals with all-mighty electronic arts, no no no. now... back to crunching, so all the marketing promises make it in. aaaah, the sweet life of games development.

-elderic


Call me a cynic, but this all sounds like another piece of shallow recruiter propaganda to me. You hear this same story from recruiters everywhere, about how their field is the best, how working in it is so awesome, how all the people are so cool, how it provides you with such amazing creative opportunities... and then you show up for your first day of work, and it's just another place full of burnt out people who have lost all passion for their work.

Oh, and then the plug gets pulled on the project two weeks later and you're out of a job.

:p

[Djampa]

After actually reading the article though i do have to agree. They are over selling it abit. And i dont think people being in control of entertainment is the answer, and nowhere near as good as they are making it out to be.

Some people dont have the imagination, creativity, or even WANT to make the experience up themselves. Reason cinema is so succesful is because you can switch off and be taken on a journey.

Games industry is a great industry, has a lot of future promise, but will NEVER be everybodies cup of tea...

Nice to see the thoughts of everyone here.
What I think... Jeffery enthusiasm is great as well contagious :scream:. His view is shared by most of the Industry Investors at moment, btw their are very happy investors by the ROI they are getting paid.
I'm currently at the business side of both industries, actually at all the digital content side, I can see whats happening is that we as consumers will have a greater number of entertainment choices in near future, in fact subtlebluetones is right about people who doesn't want to be in control of the action, as well the Internet didn't take out the TV audience, or newspapers, the e-Books didn't crash the real Book market (I love to have a physical book in my hands rsrsrr), with games I don't think different, it has a growing audience but that doesn't mean necessarily a decrease on Film audience.
Sometimes I like to plug off my mind from work and then is nice to play something that you control the action, sometimes not, some days I just want to go to a movie and be amused by the director.
In resume I think there always will be enough space in future for Film creative talents, but a greater number of opportunities at game industry, just because of its industry's nature of creative process and not by a replacement of entertainment ways and audience choices.

Well let us see the future and then come back to this article here in about 10 to 20 years latter ! hehehehe A time capsule... :)

Cheers,

[NyneDown]

??? ok ????

EDIT: it was a pretty strong statement made though. I just had to disagree because i work with the company and on the games mentioned and i love my job more than any job ive ever had, and actually cant think of a way it could be made better. (unless they brought in a day killed 'stripper fridays' or something along those lines).

but at the same time, the article was slightly exagerate...

and P.S. im sure shes a big enough girl to defend herself....

I'm sure she's more then capable of defending herself. I was trying to lighten the mood more then anything...ahh, nevermind.

Glad you like your job, that's good....But tsk tsk, it's not nice to kill strippers! ;)

[subtlebluetones]

I'm sure she's more then capable of defending herself. I was trying to lighten the mood more then anything...ahh, nevermind.

Glad you like your job, that's good....But tsk tsk, it's not nice to kill strippers! ;)

bahaha, ah man, i was cracking up when i read that back :) next time i should concentrate more on my playtests

[StrokerAce76]

Nice picture , I am learning as I go, I just started a couple days ago taking the tutorials of Poser. The background is awesome, I like the way you blurred the background to make it look like that car is hauling some serious tail. But you could blur the rear end of the car a little bit more to make it look more real.

http://features.cgsociety.org/stories/2007_09/eagames/burnout_paradise.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4243)

[/QUOTE]

[subtlebluetones]

Nice picture , I am learning as I go, I just started a couple days ago taking the tutorials of Poser. The background is awesome, I like the way you blurred the background to make it look like that car is hauling some serious tail. But you could blur the rear end of the car a little bit more to make it look more real.



http://features.cgsociety.org/stories/2007_09/eagames/burnout_paradise.jpg (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4243)





[/QUOTE]

huh? thats not someones art for critique.

its a real time screenshot from the awesome burnout paradiso on 360. :)

[PaulHellard]

*snigger! I just have to have a laugh at that I'm sorry :scream:

[mummey]

*snigger! I just have to have a laugh at that I'm sorry :scream:

Quoted for agreement. :D

PS: StrokerAce76 - the screenshot is using depth of field.

[subtlebluetones]

Quoted for agreement. :D

PS: StrokerAce76 - the screenshot is using depth of field.

but more predominantly, motion blur is what you can see ;)

I havnt seen this game running for a long time. When i did, it wasnt near this good. So proud of what they pulled off. Ill be paying for this one.

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