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Laura Fryer: Culture Killed Concord

akira__

akira__

Banned
Former Microsoft Games Studios executive producer Laura Fryer

Concord failed because the culture of the studio made them unable or unwilling to see and fix its problems. Sadly, reality-driven game development isn't a new story and confounds many game developers.The Overwatch model was a success, but gamers evolved, and Concord needed to evolve with them. We faced similar issues with Vanguard, a game that aspired to compete with World of Warcraft. I also discuss Gotham City Impostors, which faced challenges with its characters and pricing.





EDIT 1:
Summary of the video
www.neogaf.com

Laura Fryer: Culture Killed Concord

I mean, I think she nailed it. People were too afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs.
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com
 
Last edited:
Danjin44

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Men_in_Boxes said:
Holy ****! 250 million dollar budget?! Eat that Concord fanboys!
Click to expand...
brady-bunch-mirror.gif
 
Barakov

Barakov

Gold Member
Sounds like the fugly designs were just one of the many issues with this whole debacle.
iDo39Ot.png

The whole social media culture trend of shitting on gamers, you know the ones that actually buy games, added fuel to the fire in this whole situation. Sounds like a pretty text book case of doomed to fail.
 
HeisenbergFX4

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
MarkMe2525 said:
I'm not going to be watching this video, so would you mind sharing if that 250 million number has been verified in any way?
Click to expand...
I have no idea if thats what is said in this video as I wont give them a click either

No way I could find out exactly but thats the figure the whispers say thats including the studio purchase price

I know some here dispute that figure by their own internal calculations

James Sawyer Reaction GIF
 
TGO

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
akira__ said:
Concord failed because the culture of the studio made them unable or unwilling to see and fix its problems.
Click to expand...
This is the problem with any studio, be it games or film.
Those fucks would run the studio in the ground before giving it up.
And that's why they should just be fired or removed from any place of power.
 
ZehDon

ZehDon

Gold Member
"... and the dust settles and the title fades in. Days Gone... 2. So, what do you think? Great pitch, right?"
"No, we're passing. Look, I'm sorry, but we're just not convinced there's a market for... this. The original only sold 10 million copies. You know what sells? Take a look at what Firewalk is doing. Their new game? Fortnite numbers, guaranteed. We're investing USD$250 million. Why? Because they've got their finger on the pulse."
 
Men_in_Boxes

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
She brings up an interesting point about QA telling devs they wanted "aspirational characters to play as". Then she says "They were right. How do I know they were right? Because I worked on Gotham City Imposters which had ugly characters and that game failed."

Yet she ignores Minecraft, Roblox, Counter Strike, TF2, Lethal Company, Valheim, Rocket League, DotA, and PUBG etc...

Noel Gallaher was right...



Gamers don't know why they like what they like. They have a very limited understanding of the physchology behind why they play what they play so their brains regurgitate whatever is observable to them. As in "I don't know why I don't like this game...uh...maybe it's the characters. Yeah, it must be the characters."

She does make a solid point about Firewalk not catching themselves as they were headed down the path that was Concord.
 
Dr.Morris79

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
Men_in_Boxes said:
She brings up an interesting point about QA telling devs they wanted "aspirational characters to play as". Then she says "They were right. How do I know they were right? Because I worked on Gotham City Imposters which had ugly characters and that game failed."

Yet she ignores Minecraft, Roblox, Counter Strike, TF2, Lethal Company, Valheim, Rocket League, DotA, and PUBG etc...

Noel Gallaher was right...



Gamers don't know why they like what they like. They have a very limited understanding of the physchology behind why they play what they play so their brains regurgitate whatever is observable to them. As in "I don't know why I don't like this game...uh...maybe it's the characters. Yeah, it must be the characters."

She does make a solid point about Firewalk not catching themselves as they were headed down the path that was Concord.
Click to expand...

Of course the customer knows what they like or they wouldn't buy it 🤷‍♂️

In this case, they didn't.
 
Men_in_Boxes

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Dr.Morris79 said:
Of course the customer knows what they like or they wouldn't buy it 🤷‍♂️

In this case, they didn't.
Click to expand...
No, I don't think so.

I don't think people really understand the forces that influence something like fun. They latch on to what they can observe but are largely ignorant of subconscious motivations.

The reason why I brought it up here is because Laura (woman from video) seems to suggest Concord failed because its characters weren't aspirational. She then goes on to prove this theory by identifying one other game, with ugly characters, that failed.

She produces a theory.
She scans the environment for a single example that supports her theory.
That's not how you test theories. That's how you preach to choirs.

As if players found Fortnites default skins "aspirational" during its first few months of release back in 2017. Yes, that's the reason Fortnite blew up...
 
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Holammer

Holammer

Member
MarkMe2525 said:
I'm not going to be watching this video, so would you mind sharing if that 250 million number has been verified in any way?
Click to expand...
The person talking is not some YT algorithm surfer nobody. She's an actual industry veteran. You go and watch it right now mister!
Her analysis is interesting and mentions similarly cursed projects like Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Gotham City Imposters.

www.mobygames.com

Laura Fryer - MobyGames

On 18th October 2012 it was announced Laura Fryer had been appointed general manager of the Seattle division of Epic Games, Inc. to oversee all work on the fourth version of the Unreal engine. Previously on 12th February 2009 she had been appointed...
www.mobygames.com www.mobygames.com
 
Dr.Morris79

Dr.Morris79

Gold Member
Men_in_Boxes said:
No, I don't think so.

I don't think people really understand the forces that influence something like fun. They latch on to what they can observe but are largely ignorant of subconscious motivations.

The reason why I brought it up here is because Laura (woman from video) seems to suggest Concord failed because its characters weren't aspirational. She then goes on to prove this theory by identifying one other game, with ugly characters, that failed.

She produces a theory.
She scans the environment for a single example that supports her theory.
That's not how you test theories. That's how you preach to choirs.

As if players found Fortnites default skins "aspirational" during its first few months of release back in 2017. Yes, that's the reason Fortnite blew up...
Click to expand...
Ah I get ya ;)

I guess I brushed it off with my old man way of looking at things and surface leveled it as most of those games I can see why the hooks were made and they dont really affect me personally.

As for Concord, games like that, no matter who they're for, will never take off. It doesn't matter what hooks are involved our brains are naturally wired to reject such trash

But..

Give it another twenty years, more feminising boys in schools/'social programs', indoctrination, trashing masculinity and hating our values..

This game will be fire 🔥

:messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
Elfstar

Elfstar

Member
Men_in_Boxes said:
No, I don't think so.

I don't think people really understand the forces that influence something like fun. They latch on to what they can observe but are largely ignorant of subconscious motivations.

The reason why I brought it up here is because Laura (woman from video) seems to suggest Concord failed because its characters weren't aspirational. She then goes on to prove this theory by identifying one other game, with ugly characters, that failed.

She produces a theory.
She scans the environment for a single example that supports her theory.
That's not how you test theories. That's how you preach to choirs.

As if players found Fortnites default skins "aspirational" during its first few months of release back in 2017. Yes, that's the reason Fortnite blew up...
Click to expand...
Dude let it go. No wants to look at lame/fugly shit in their entertainment. Period.
The idea that pushing """non conventionally beauty""" characters in entertainment is progressive and reflective of what audiences want is delusional nonsense promoted by dimwitted activists living with their heads buried in their asscheeks.
 
Last edited:
MarkMe2525

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
Holammer said:
The person talking is not some YT algorithm surfer nobody. She's an actual industry veteran. You go and watch it right now mister!
Her analysis is interesting and mentions similarly cursed projects like Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Gotham City Imposters.

www.mobygames.com

Laura Fryer - MobyGames

On 18th October 2012 it was announced Laura Fryer had been appointed general manager of the Seattle division of Epic Games, Inc. to oversee all work on the fourth version of the Unreal engine. Previously on 12th February 2009 she had been appointed...
www.mobygames.com www.mobygames.com
Click to expand...

Kacho said:
If you ask in the comments on the video Laura might answer. She’s actively engaging with the comments now. Awesome woman.
Click to expand...
I'm not intending to make any implicit statement about the creator, I just don't have much interest in the topic. Cool to find out that she has good stuff, I may check out some other videos.
 
DonkeyPunchJr

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Jesus H Christ is Men_in_Boxes still trying to damage control this?

I blocked him after he told me that Team Fortress 2 had bad character designs yet it still was successful, therefore the shitty Concord characters couldn’t have anything to do with why it failed.

Full retard. Not worth wasting your time arguing with someone like that.
 
Buggy Loop

Buggy Loop

Member
Her video pretty much nails it.

Her explanations of having a broken feedback loop is common in any industries and we have public examples of that happening with Concord, such as the director/team just swiping the feedback under the rug months ago.
 
Gamer_By_Proxy

Gamer_By_Proxy

Member
I forgot about Gotham city imposters and have no idea what vanguard was.

Gamers are mostly tired of new GaaS games and only want the ones they already got. And everyone is tired of needing to know what you like to have sex with. Even Bert and Ernie didn’t shove it down your throat.
 
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