Mattnettic leaving KI.

[MzDreamfire]

It is a little concerning to have another person who has been so important to the game leaving so soon.
I wish Mattnettic the very best in his new adventures but I will really miss seeing him and his cat on KI Live.
Have to admit makes me wonder who's next to leave?

[jlegendwielder]

I sure hope there's a big turnout for KI Live at the end of the month so that all three KI employees will feel the love and support.

[Oxnhorse]

Its sad to see someone to leave a job they have been part of for any significant time. Makes me wonder if all the bad omens regarding Gamigo is coming to fruition.

I hope the new content for Pirate is still in the works and that Renee and Matt were not vital for its activation.

I hope Matt and Renee left over something that wasn't affecting the bottom line and fired over something as understandable as a pay raise.

These companies might consider them greedy, but I've watched people do coding in C++ in college and it was mind blowing how fast people type the codes in and are able to figure out where the issue is in no times flat with the programming.

Oxnhorse

[Bailey Jade]

Wow! another person leaving KI I have to admit this is a little concerning.


Best wishes to Mattnettic. Thank you for all that you have done.

[Kingurz]

I wouldn't be concerned with their departures.....yet.


As Ratbeard explained on his stream, if a KI employee wanted to seek other employment....now would be the time. All the big KI/Wizard/Pirate news is positive right now (investment, hiring surge, etc). It looks good on resumes (right now) if you worked at KI. Clearly Renee and Matthew found better opportunities for themselves. Both were recently promoted, so these are not layoffs. If anything, they used the recent promotions to better their resumes and become more marketable. If we were seeing a bunch of new hires leaving in mass, well that's a concern.


The concerning thing will be WHO replaces them. Gamigo is historically a vulture company, cutting costs where it can. Will they bring in new employees with zero experience or bad reputations in the MMO business to cut costs overall? Will these new employees actually have the skill or experience to make KI games better or we going to spend the next couple years with them doing trial and error (or even revamping systems once again)? Renee has been with Wizard101 for a long time and at multiple levels; Mattnetic already had vast MMO design experience before even starting at KI with the Polaris update). These are big shoes to fill to keep the game fluid and "transparent" to the end player.

[Allison DeathWielder]

I wouldn't be concerned with their departures.....yet.


As Ratbeard explained on his stream, if a KI employee wanted to seek other employment....now would be the time. All the big KI/Wizard/Pirate news is positive right now (investment, hiring surge, etc). It looks good on resumes (right now) if you worked at KI. Clearly Renee and Matthew found better opportunities for themselves. Both were recently promoted, so these are not layoffs. If anything, they used the recent promotions to better than resumes and become more marketable. If we were seeing a bunch of new hires leaving in mass, well that's a concern.


The concerning thing will be WHO replaces them. Gamigo is historically a vulture company, cutting costs where it can. Will they bring in new employees with zero experience or bad reputations in the MMO business to cut costs overall? Will these new employees actually have the skill or experience to make KI games better or we going to spend the next couple years with them doing trial and error (or even revamping systems once again)? Renee has been with Wizard101 for a long time and at multiple levels; Mattnetic already had vast MMO design experience before even starting at KI with the Polaris update). These are big shoes to fill to keep the game fluid and "transparent" to the end player.

I think we'll be okay in the way of avoiding "trial and error" experiences as long as Ratbeard and Leah are there as authorities on the design process. Ratbeard especially seems to deeply care about Wizard101, and perhaps even more so Pirate101, so I imagine he's going to have a lot to say about how the new hires handle things. These two remaining on the team gives me hope despite my ever dwindling trust in Gamigo.

[YourToothbrush]

Apparently, the Great Resignation is affecting even smallish video gaming companies. Hopefully, these departures are on the "greener pastures are calling" side rather than the "don't let the screen door hit ya." As Bob Cratchit said (Kermit the Frog version):

"It's all right, children. Life is made up of meetings and partings. That is the way of it."

Best wishes to Mattnetic on his future.

Decided to look out of curiosity.

KingsIsle currently has 17 positions open, largely software engineers. There's also a couple of art positions, a marketing position, and QA department stuff.

None of them talk about pay. All of it is "competitive wages" again, which is a race to the bottom for wages, even for the educated. PTO and other benefits be thrown out the window, I'd rather know my direct compensation if I'm gonna apply.

Checking GlassDoor since the beginnings of 2020, it's still largely negative. New reviews largely say the same things- lack of innovation, doesn't feel like one can move up, lack of communication (except for one who was REALLY excited), and one review prior to the Gamigo buyout that said something like they held contempt for their fanbase. And since Q1 2021, when Gamigo bought out KI, it's been more of the same.

It wouldn't surprise me if Matt and Renee got out while the gettings were good. Both of them have plenty of experience in their fields, and more than enough to work at another place, or even start their own studios if they wanted to. With Gamigo's experience and "The Great Resignation" going hand-in-hand, I wouldn't be surprised if we see an exodus on par with Ubisoft right now.

[Dylan Windwalker]

Decided to look out of curiosity.

KingsIsle currently has 17 positions open, largely software engineers. There's also a couple of art positions, a marketing position, and QA department stuff.

None of them talk about pay. All of it is "competitive wages" again, which is a race to the bottom for wages, even for the educated. PTO and other benefits be thrown out the window, I'd rather know my direct compensation if I'm gonna apply.

Checking GlassDoor since the beginnings of 2020, it's still largely negative. New reviews largely say the same things- lack of innovation, doesn't feel like one can move up, lack of communication (except for one who was REALLY excited), and one review prior to the Gamigo buyout that said something like they held contempt for their fanbase. And since Q1 2021, when Gamigo bought out KI, it's been more of the same.

It wouldn't surprise me if Matt and Renee got out while the gettings were good. Both of them have plenty of experience in their fields, and more than enough to work at another place, or even start their own studios if they wanted to. With Gamigo's experience and "The Great Resignation" going hand-in-hand, I wouldn't be surprised if we see an exodus on par with Ubisoft right now.

You'd think these types of negative reviews would drive up negative attention (and by extension, bad publicity) would cause the companies involved to change their outlook of their community-base and their treatment of employees so that the game would attract quality employees, ultimately making more money from the game... I don't know much about the inner workings of business particularly secretive organizations like Ki, nor do I know the limitations Ki (and by extension Gamigo) is under, but something about this is illogical lol There's a lot of business benefits from being respecting employees and being kind to their consumer base...

[firemaniac221]

Decided to look out of curiosity.

None of them talk about pay. All of it is "competitive wages" again, which is a race to the bottom for wages, even for the educated. PTO and other benefits be thrown out the window, I'd rather know my direct compensation if I'm gonna apply.

So, uh, I don't know much about the situation as a whole. I wouldn't say it's cause for panic - we aren't the Lemurs... Though it is very sad to see Mattnetic go.

That being said, this "competitive wages" trash is not specific to KI. I recently graduated with my bachelors in science (chemistry) and it's like that there, too. This is an issue with the US as a whole. Don't worry I managed to find a job, I start at the end of this month!

[YourToothbrush]

So, uh, I don't know much about the situation as a whole. I wouldn't say it's cause for panic - we aren't the Lemurs... Though it is very sad to see Mattnetic go.

That being said, this "competitive wages" trash is not specific to KI. I recently graduated with my bachelors in science (chemistry) and it's like that there, too. This is an issue with the US as a whole. Don't worry I managed to find a job, I start at the end of this month!

I know the competitive wages part well. It's difficult to find a job with my issues, much less a job that pays well.