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So Jeri Ellsworth got fired today (Valve nextgen gaming hardware)

Z

Zia

Member
nephilimdj said:
Looking at her twitter

"I'm in the middle of an exciting project right now. I think it will be a big hit."

9 Feb

We had another kim swift moment?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I follow her Twitter pretty closely and she's been nothing but positive and excited about whatever she was doing with Valve.
 
R

Row

Banned
the more time that passes the more valve looks like any other soulless company, which is fine of course, but how they've been looked at with rose tinted glasses for so long is a bit ridiculous
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Row said:
the more time that passes the more valve looks like any other soulless company, which is fine of course, but how they've been looked at with rose tinted glasses for so long is a bit ridiculous
Click to expand...

omg they fire people. the company that does such things has no soul.
 
S

Stallion Free

Cock Encumbered
Row said:
the more time that passes the more valve looks like any other soulless company, which is fine of course, but how they've been looked at with rose tinted glasses for so long is a bit ridiculous
Click to expand...
This might be a good successor to the "Valve makes no games" comment.
 
D

dave is ok

aztek is ok
The problem with letting your employees do whatever they want is that sometimes you'll have employees doing things that no one else in the company is interested in. They probably didn't have many hardware people.
 
1

1-D_FTW

Member
Stallion Free said:
This might be a good successor to the "Valve makes no games" comment.
Click to expand...

Works for me.

At the very least, we can no longer say Valve has a hippie or Commie business structure. Because no Commie system would ever rid themselves of workers who didn't pull their weight. I mean, unless you could ship them off to Siberia. But I don't think that's an option here.
 
T

Tymerend

Member
The reality of business, ANY business, even one as seemingly unstructured as Valve's, is that sometimes you have to fire people. Gabe isn't running a charity, and there has to be SOME accountability. I can't expect to go to my job, sit on the internet all day reading forums and do nothing productive and have them not can me.

...

I'm on a break at the moment. >.>

Anyway, it doesn't mean Gabe or Valve or whoever is a bad person. It also may not mean it was justified, we don't have any details. But the bottom line is that you can't assume a company that fires someone is doing a bad thing. It was, for them, the right thing to do, and that's all that should be of concern.

She seems like a rather skilled individual and I highly doubt she'll find it difficult to obtain new employment.
 
Shai-Tan

Shai-Tan

Banned
It sounds like they're going in a different direction on the hardware front and/or they thought the current work wasn't market viable. As they explore different possibilities it makes sense that some doors close, others open. They're working on bringing Steam to the living room but they're also working on more speculative solutions to that problem like how to move beyond the game pad
 
Sentenza

Sentenza

Member
cRIPticon said:
Ahahah! What?!? Yes, popular on YouTube but that's not why she has a huge following. Google her please.
Click to expand...
I don't need to "google her", as you would know if you bothered reading the thread, and I never suggested any reason about "why she has a huge following".
In fact I didn't even touched that topic. I just said that she was already a minor internet celebrity before Valve hired her, which is true.
 
I

I H8 Memes

Member
antonz said:
Valve is moving into Duke Nukem Forever territory with their main franchise and couldn't even deliver titles they announced and previewed prior.

Valve is nothing more than a money sink thats kept afloat by selling other peoples games making a few key people very rich
Click to expand...


The flavor of your Hatorade is very bitter.
 
B

batteryLeakage

Neo Member
nephilimdj said:
Looking at her twitter

"I'm in the middle of an exciting project right now. I think it will be a big hit."

9 Feb

We had another kim swift moment?
Click to expand...

I suppose we can't know for sure, but that would make sense to me.

Regardless of the circumstances, its a shame. People get fired/layed off all the time, but I'm real bummed out hearing this one for some reason.
 
M

Mononoke

Banned
Row said:
the more time that passes the more valve looks like any other soulless company, which is fine of course, but how they've been looked at with rose tinted glasses for so long is a bit ridiculous
Click to expand...

Lol so freakin' overdramatic.

I wonder if people ever read back their posts and realize how hyperbolic they are.
 
C

Crawl

Member
Row said:
the more time that passes the more valve looks like any other soulless company, which is fine of course, but how they've been looked at with rose tinted glasses for so long is a bit ridiculous
Click to expand...

So Valve isn't allowed to fire people if things aren't working out? Makes sense.
 
F

FStop7

Banned
Based on her background she sounds like a perfect candidate for her own Mythbusters style show. Or some kind of weekly competition where she and other hardware hackers build machines to fulfill various challenges.
 
1

1-D_FTW

Member
FStop7 said:
Based on her background she sounds like a perfect candidate for her own Mythbusters style show. Or some kind of weekly competition where she and other hardware hackers build machines to fulfill various challenges.
Click to expand...

I'd subscribe to this show on YouTube.
 
eot

eot

Banned
antonz said:
Peer based stuff like that is always a disaster and a sign of poor Management. Management has a job and that's part of it. If they cant handle it then don't get into a role of Management. Valve would have been out of business years ago if it wasn't for steam keeping the coffers filled.
Click to expand...

They were in business for a decade before Steam took off
 
tfur

tfur

Member
I do not understand the "Steambox doomed" notion.

How does one rationalize this idea, after having Gabe repeatedly speak of the Steambox idea just days before these layoffs? So, because a few people are let go, his plans expressed to the public are now dead?
 
C

Crawl

Member
antonz said:
Peer based stuff like that is always a disaster and a sign of poor Management. Management has a job and that's part of it. If they cant handle it then don't get into a role of Management. Valve would have been out of business years ago if it wasn't for steam keeping the coffers filled.
Click to expand...

And microsoft would have been out of business if windows wasn't keeping their coffers filled. See how easy that is?
 
H

Hero

Member
Wario64 said:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...e_decisions_about_its_future.php#.URvSA2eT2cU

25 people may have been laid off, but that's unconfirmed. What is confirmed though is that more than 1 department were affected (hardware/Android)


'phrases we've heard from affected employees describing the incident include "great cleansing" and "large decisions."'
Click to expand...

This sounds a lot bigger than people are making it out to be due to reasons like not fitting in with the company or what not.
 
M

Maztorre

Member
I wonder if there's been some movement on Steambox with an outside partner that has justified Valve gutting their hardware group?
 
S

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Affected employees were asked not to speak about specifics, but the impression we get is that these cuts were driven more by company challenges than by individual performance issues.
Click to expand...

sounds cryptic
 
R

Row

Banned
Crawl said:
So Valve isn't allowed to fire people if things aren't working out? Makes sense.
Click to expand...

I didn't say that, all I'm illustrating is how valve really is like any other company in the industry and that people are finally starting to see that instead of putting them up on some bizarre pedestal
 
C

Crawl

Member
Row said:
I didn't say that, all I'm illustrating is how valve really is like any other company in the industry and that people are finally starting to see that instead of putting them up on some bizarre pedestal
Click to expand...

Did you ever think that it isn't a bizarre pedestal? And that maybe people genuinely like valve for the content they create and how they treat their customers? No it couldn't be that.

Everyone just holds valve on a pedestal because they are drinking the kool aid.

Don't worry we will always have overly cynical critics such as yourself to always point the finger and say: "HA I TOLD YOU THEY ARE EVIL JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE"
 
B

batteryLeakage

Neo Member
subversus said:
sounds cryptic
Click to expand...

Yeah, what does that mean?

I think Gabe has said something in the past like he is looking to hire smart people with no real cap on employee number. Maybe that's not the case anymore? Perhaps they have hit a point where any growth beyond is unsustainable?
 
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