[Milhouse31]

http://www.n37radio.com/node/22 <- audio + transcript

[Timen]

I read the whole thing, there isn't anything new there really...

just what we allready know.

[Milhouse31]

Yeah he doesn't say anything new about the Revolution. But It was quiet interesting (why he left NOA & co)

[Sho Nuff]

Yeah he doesn't say anything new about the Revolution. But It was quiet interesting (why he left NOA & co)

Because they paid him shit in true Nintendo fashion?

edit: Ah yes, it says right there that he commuted via bus. Two other people I know at NoA/NST take the bus because they can't afford cars. I have no idea why people punish themselves by working for "cool" companies that pay them dick.

[JackFrost2012]

Ah yes, it says right there that he commuted via bus. Two other people I know at NoA/NST take the bus because they can't afford cars.

I don't think you appreciate what an HONOR!!!! it is to work at Nintendo!! Just like it is an HONOR!!!! to work at any Japanese game company!! Yes you could make three times as much doing the exact same work in a non-industry job, but where would the HONOR!!!! in that be?

[trippingmartian]

It wouldn't look too bad on the resume. And doesn't Miyamoto bike to work?

[Gahiggidy]

I'd certainly take a cut in my $16k salary for a chance to work at Nintendo.

[Sho Nuff]

I don't think you appreciate what an HONOR!!!! it is to work at Nintendo!! Just like it is an HONOR!!!! to work at any Japanese game company!! Yes you could make three times as much doing the exact same work in a non-industry job, but where would the HONOR!!!! in that be?

Lucasfilm does the same thing. "It's an HONOR for slime like you to work on Star Wars. Here's a nickel."

My favorite is when the boss disses you at your pay meeting even though you know you kick ass and are pretty much irreplaceable.

[Sho Nuff]

I'd certainly take a cut in my $26k salary for a chance to work at Nintendo.

After a casual interview over the phone, Nintendo will send you a surprise plane ticket to Seattle dated tomorrow morning. When you call them and ask them just WTF they're doing and what you're supposeD to do on such short notice, they will tell you to go to the supermarket once you arrive at Seatac and check the local real estate boards for an apartment. When you tell them that this is completely insane (especially considering how no mention of salary was made), they will tsk-tsk you indignantly, replying that "It doesn't sound like you're serious about this job."



By the way, this is not a joke. This is exactly what happened to one of my friends who now works in Japan. (Needless to say, he told NoA to stuff it and the ticket went unused. He should have sent it to Gahiggidy)

[Cold-Steel]

After a casual interview over the phone, Nintendo will send you a surprise plane ticket to Seattle dated tomorrow morning. When you call them and ask them just WTF they're doing and what you're supposeD to do on such short notice, they will tell you to go to the supermarket once you arrive at Seatac and check the local real estate boards for an apartment. When you tell them that this is completely insane (especially considering how no mention of salary was made), they will tsk-tsk you indignantly, replying that "It doesn't sound like you're serious about this job." By the way, this is not a joke. This is exactly what happened to one of my friends who now works in Japan. (Needless to say, he told NoA to stuff it and the ticket went unused. He should have sent it to Gahiggidy)

Wow.

Just wow.

[Shaheed79]

Lucasfilm does the same thing. "It's an HONOR for slime like you to work on Star Wars. Here's a nickel." My favorite is when the boss disses you at your pay meeting even though you know you kick ass and are pretty much irreplaceable.

Sounds like that river runs pretty deep there Sho Nuff. Still pretty funny.

[acidviper]

I guess Kaplan Reggie and Harrison are the only employees of NOA and they all live in the same house and take the bus to work

[JackFrost2012]

"Material possessions" are for people who work at those OTHER game companies--once you've hooked up with the Big N you can kiss the house and wife goodbye!

[trippingmartian]

Attempt at humor failed again.

[Shaheed79]

It’s very different, everyone there is super friendly. I love NCL, if I ever let my emotions bleed through in my answers about directing development, it has nothing to do with the actual people, I love the people from NCL. They are some of the most talented people, and it’s fun to work with them and learn from them. But in terms of physical location; beautiful city. Kyoto’s gorgeous. The orginal capital of Japan was in Kyoto, so they have a ton of really cool old temples and things like that so they were very hospitable hosts.

Friendly developer enviroments? Fuk that

[Chittagong]

What was your first job there at Nintendo? <Jeff> It was the Game Play Counseling. Back then, they differentiated between, let’s say, people that helped you hook up your system, and do Nintendo Power subscriptions versus the just help with game play questions, and I was solely game play questions, because I didn’t want to deal with all that other stuff. I wanted to be able to just deal with the gamers, and back then it was a toll-free call to a 206 area code. I think it was 206-885-PLAY, if I remember correctly, going back in the memory archives. So yeah, I basically just sat on the phone and had a huge database of, basically, every game that had come out, plus, when I started, they had a four-week training class on the eight most popular games. So you spent a week on two games, basically. I trained on “A Link to the Past”, “Link’s Awakening”, the original “Zelda”, “Seventh Saga”, “Young Merlin”, “Secret of Mana”, and I think those were the core ones, they were called ‘prompt calls’. Those were the ones that you heard my name when you called up, and said ‘For this game, press this number’, those were called the prompt calls. So, I trained on those, and in order to progress, you had to take tests on, like, the top twenty games, just like a written one and a half page tests.

This is what I did too ten years ago. Luckily we didn't have the weaksauce consellor dedication in couple of games, though.

And the database he is talking about, ELMO, is awesome. It's the most mindblowing Nintendo resource there is in the world. Very fast to browse and has extremely extensive, easy-to-talk-through info on virtually all games ever released to a Nintendo console. NOA has a team doing monthly updates for it.

Sadly, that interview seems to confirm what we are seeing - the Nintendo of mid-90s is dead, and the company has evolved into something which I feel is a lot inferior.

[Gahiggidy]

This is what I did too ten years ago. Luckily we didn't have the weaksauce consellor dedication in couple of games, though. And the database he is talking about, ELMO, is awesome. It's the most mindblowing Nintendo resource there is in the world. Very fast to browse and has extremely extensive, easy-to-talk-through info on virtually all games ever released to a Nintendo console. NOA has a team doing monthly updates for it. Sadly, that interview seems to confirm what we are seeing - the Nintendo of mid-90s is dead, and the company has evolved into something which I feel is a lot inferior.

It'll be all right.

[Grug]

...although I’m crossing my fingers that the new Salmon Max is gonna be good.....

They called Sam & Max... "Salmon Max". They fail at gaming and life.

[jj984jj]

It was pretty obvious was Iwata was doing to cut costs for Nintendo so that they would make a profit and revitalize the Japanese market, but to actually hear how it's affecting NoA is a bit sad.

BTW, isn't the title he's talking about that Nintendo changed up to release worldwide Geist? It's not being released in Japan anymore, but was originally being planned to.

Edit: However, from what an ex-Rare employee said once, MS isn't any better then Nintendo when it comes to the changes they want made in a game, he said that Nintendo was actually a tad bit more lenient when it came to any changes they wanted Rare to make, I guess some publishers are just harder to work with. (Please don't ask me for the link, all I remember is that the interview did take place sometime early last year and now he works at Codemasters).

But that doesn't excuse Nintendo from ignoring their NA/EU audience, they should publish some games that completely cater to us as well even if our market isn't dying.

[elostyle]

<Jonathan> What, precisely, made you want to leave Nintendo? If you can pinpoint it on one key thing. <Jeff> The inability to truly be involved in the development of games. The job had changed from what it was, and I was no longer being active in Development. I was no longer providing level feedback, balance feedback, script feedback, design ideas. I was taking information from point A and emailing it to point B, and it stopped being fun.

And a lot of developers are probably happy about it. I mean c'mon, the only thing worse than an external associate producer wanting to have his fingers in everything are licencees that get too involved :P

These are a lot of words for very little to say. Not much new.

[puck1337]

Just how much do they pay junior and intermediate programmers? I notice their ads in Game Developer every month, and I'm always tempted to apply.

[fallout]

They called Sam & Max... "Salmon Max". They fail at gaming and life.

Heh, I caught that too, then read it on slashdot and it's been noted here. I initially brushed it off as "Meh, doubt anyone cares."

[Acosta]

Just how much do they pay junior and intermediate programmers? I notice their ads in Game Developer every month, and I'm always tempted to apply.

For what I have heard, a cup of coffe with the face of Mario, so you can work more hours ;)

I always has heard crazy stories about working fo NOA, but I has no direct input so I won´t talk much.

For magazines works in the same fashion. It´s funny how some of the most respected and/or profitable magazines are the ones that pay less for content. Edge for example seems pays quite less than other UK magazines, becaue, you know it´s a honor to work for them (actually, I would love the idea to work for Edge :P I just live for my job so I doen´t have all that nuisances about wife and home and I´m happy with little money, sadly, among a lot of reasons, my english is not on par).

[Catchpenny]

edit: Ah yes, it says right there that he commuted via bus.

Actually, he mentions commuting via bus to his current job, not NoA. Not that I doubt your claim in general, just sayin'.

[evilromero]

That's why you enter Nintendo through the sales/marketing channel. Leave the programmers to do our bidding. World domination.

[fallout]

(actually, I would love the idea to work for Edge :P I just live for my job so I doen´t have all that nuisances about wife and home and I´m happy with little money, sadly, among a lot of reasons, my english is not on par).

See, the way I've always seen a career/job is that it should be something you enjoy to some degree. For instance, I was going to take a rather low paying job to go work up at Ellesmere Island this summer, just because it sounded like a rare opportunity and something I would truly enjoy. I would gladly take a pay cut to do something I've always wanted to do.

Obviously, I'm not saying that working for Nintendo is great. I honestly just don't know enough to say. Still though, if the guy enjoys it and doesn't care that he's making less ... what's the problem?

[fartblast]

maybe some pissed off engineers or whoever does the specs made revolution jokingly underpowered because of that crap

[Pellham]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. I hear Microsoft hired away tons of NOA employees because they could pay them 2-3x more.

But hey I work for Dell, whom underpays its employees too (programmers at Dell get a measely 40k compared to the industry standard 60-80k). I'm just too lazy to look outside the company. Maybe that's how it is for most of the current NOA employees.

[DavidDayton]

After a casual interview over the phone, Nintendo will send you a surprise plane ticket to Seattle dated tomorrow morning. When you call them and ask them just WTF they're doing and what you're supposeD to do on such short notice, they will tell you to go to the supermarket once you arrive at Seatac and check the local real estate boards for an apartment. When you tell them that this is completely insane (especially considering how no mention of salary was made), they will tsk-tsk you indignantly, replying that "It doesn't sound like you're serious about this job."

Hmm... perhaps it's a GOOD thing they only did that one interview with me, then.

[Ark-AMN]

Well, I don't think I'd be working at NOA since they have no development outside of NST.

[StRaNgE]

After a casual interview over the phone, Nintendo will send you a surprise plane ticket to Seattle dated tomorrow morning. When you call them and ask them just WTF they're doing and what you're supposeD to do on such short notice, they will tell you to go to the supermarket once you arrive at Seatac and check the local real estate boards for an apartment. When you tell them that this is completely insane (especially considering how no mention of salary was made), they will tsk-tsk you indignantly, replying that "It doesn't sound like you're serious about this job." By the way, this is not a joke. This is exactly what happened to one of my friends who now works in Japan. (Needless to say, he told NoA to stuff it and the ticket went unused. He should have sent it to Gahiggidy)

sounds like similar practices as the A&E show Inked .

i was to fly out and start on there last tuesday but a couple hours prior to my flight they fucked me all around and here i sit .

[Synbios459]

<Jeff> Yeah. I was working on a game that was pretty much centered on North American audiences; there’s no secret that there’s a big difference in the type of games the two audiences like, Western vs. Eastern, and this game was really aimed at a Western market, but NCL came in, changed the direction of the game pretty drastically so that it would appeal more to both markets so they could release it in both markets so it would have the broadest range of acceptability, but then they ended up not releasing it in Japan. So all that wasted effort so not only does it not do well in the US, because it’s too changed, it’s been changed too much, but they don’t even bother to release it in the East, so it really didn’t give that game the shot that it deserved if we had kept it centered on Western Development.

Anyone know what game he's talking about?