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Jeff Skalski Leaving Mythic/EA

Kayhynn

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No details other than what was posted to Twitter just now.

Jeff Skalski ‏@Jeff_Skalski 2m
It's been a great 12 year ride with Mythic and EA but now onto my next adventure with Ubisoft to get back to AAA console games. Can't wait!
 

BeaIank

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He was also the senior producer of the dreaded mobile version of Dungeon Keeper. :(
That game received a ton of backlash due to the way monetizetion and in-game purchases were handled.

Hopefully this is a willing change in his career instead of a forced move by EA due to the poor reception of Dungeon Keeper.
 

Goodmann

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No details other than what was posted to Twitter just now.

Jeff Skalski ‏@Jeff_Skalski 2m
It's been a great 12 year ride with Mythic and EA but now onto my next adventure with Ubisoft to get back to AAA console games. Can't wait!
I'm surprised he lasted 12 years..... I guess you can fool a lot of people into thinking your doing something for only so long. Wonder what game Ubisoft will let him destroy?
 

Viquire

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He hasn't been important to us since Broadsword took them helm. You might argue since before that. He saw mobile gaming as the future, and he could still be right. It just isn't our future. Pity I never even got to look at a log in screen for Forever.
 

Aran

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He hasn't been important to us since Broadsword took them helm. You might argue since before that. He saw mobile gaming as the future, and he could still be right. It just isn't our future. Pity I never even got to look at a log in screen for Forever.
It wouldn't have died if it went Android.
 

Jirel of Joiry

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Well no tears here. I never liked him. He only communicated through twitter and then he wouldn't answer your tweets. I pray to God Ubisoft keeps him far, far, FAR away from Assassin's Creed, Rayman and the Rabbids! Was it me or did it seem like all he did was go to Cons and play all the hot new video games? Btw, I never played Ultima Forever, not after it took sis a YEAR to get her password reset....and we thought the CS with UO was bad.
 

cazador

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Wait he was still employed at EA? I thought he left ages ago..oh well Good Luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Dot_Warner

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Jeff stopped paying attention to UO sometime summer of 2012, then stopped paying attention to Ultima Forever a few months later (it STILL hasn't been released for Android, nearly a year after it was supposed to be). Then, of course, there is the Dungeon Keeper debacle...

If you want to see what he was like, watch his Stratics interview
 

Dot_Warner

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Heh... Looks like EA pulled the plug on Ultima Forever. It was shut down TODAY.
 

Goodmann

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Heh... Looks like EA pulled the plug on Ultima Forever. It was shut down TODAY.
This will be how it is for us one day. Just a couple paragraphs and a swift kick in the a$$ for 17 years vets. That day will suck lol. On a side note wasn't Salaski promoted to Lord Blackthorn... Bring back R.G.
 

Ray_Martin

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Ubisoft has DRM through Uplay. If you download a Ubisoft PC game expect to have to be connected to the internet to play it. Even single player games. Google Uplay and cry for PC gaming.
 

Aran

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Ubisoft has DRM through Uplay. If you download a Ubisoft PC game expect to have to be connected to the internet to play it. Even single player games. Google Uplay and cry for PC gaming.
So like Steam but you don't like it because it's Ubisoft running it
 

Captn Norrington

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This will be how it is for us one day. Just a couple paragraphs and a swift kick in the a$$ for 17 years vets. That day will suck lol. On a side note wasn't Salaski promoted to Lord Blackthorn... Bring back R.G.
At this point R.G. doesn't even want to come back lol, he has already completely moved on and is making his new game, already has about 6 years worth of expansions planned for it so...safe to say he doesn't care much about UO anymore.
 

Aran

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At this point R.G. doesn't even want to come back lol, he has already completely moved on and is making his new game, already has about 6 years worth of expansions planned for it so...safe to say he doesn't care much about UO anymore.
Has there ever been a time he's publicly said he wanted to come back to UO?
 

Captn Norrington

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Has there ever been a time he's publicly said he wanted to come back to UO?
Not recently, I think he said he would be willing to work on the game a little bit for EA many years ago. *shrug* maybe I imagined it.
 

virtualhabitat

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http://www.escapistmagazine.com/new...-EA-Dismisses-Dungeon-Keeper-Mobile-Criticism

Dungeon Keeper Mobile's producer isn't worried about criticsm of the game, because its Google Play Rating is currently at 4.5.

When Dungeon Keeper Mobile came out, one of it's harshest criticsms was that the "free-to-play" version of the game seemed severly crippled in order to try and make players fork out cash for expensive microtransactions. It's a sentiment that is seemingly shared by critics and players alike, but EA Mythic's Jeff Skalski, the game's senior producer, doesn't seem to think there is a problem. Skalski states that gamers upset with the game's microtransactions are playing the game wrong, as "Dungeon Keeper is meant to be played on the go multiple times a day with a few minutes here or there."
Furthermore, Skalski claims that it is only a vocal minority that has a problem with the game, explaining that "One of the important data points we're looking at is our store ratings and downloads. At the time of this interview, App Store ratings currently sit at 4 out of 5 stars and Google Play ratings sit at 4.5 out of 5 stars." He added that he and the team personally think that the game's microtransactions are "fair".

Update: As confirmed by Gamasutra, EA has a rather sneaky way of getting all those 5-star reviews that Skalski values so much. When the game asks you to rate it on Android and you choose to give it less than 5 stars, it doesn't allow you to do so, and instead asks you to message the company with your feedback. Of course, if you pick 5-stars you can still alter your rating later, but nonetheless, it's a pretty underhanded tactic.


Good Luck Jeff.
 
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Cetric

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wasn't he the guy that was pushing for uo.com and stratics to have less say, and told everyone to go check facebook and twitter for any updates on UO? lol... so there would be some info about an upcoming publish but no one knew about it because he posted it on his twitter acct?
 

Petra Fyde

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I set up a special section on uo.stratics to pick up his tweets, though he seemed to tweet about everything under the sun except the games he supposedly worked on.
I'm probably old and fuddy-duddy, but I tend to view twitter as a bit too 'shallow' for the communication of important information.
 

MalagAste

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I set up a special section on uo.stratics to pick up his tweets, though he seemed to tweet about everything under the sun except the games he supposedly worked on.
I'm probably old and fuddy-duddy, but I tend to view twitter as a bit too 'shallow' for the communication of important information.
I agree and I gave him quite a hard time about it. I'm an old fashion girl I guess... I wanted to see updates and such on the splash screen at the start of the game. Thought that was what it was designed for. Would have been super helpful so I didn't have to spend 1 hour 30 times a day explaining to everyone that entered vent what the update was and what it did. They could have seen it right there when the game was loading. But that's me. I also expect to see it on uo.com where it ought to be. FIRST. Not some silly mobile thing... UO isn't a mobile game. I can't play it on my phone... I don't want to see updates about it on some silly social media thing, that should be the LAST place one looks.
 

Tina Small

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I set up a special section on uo.stratics to pick up his tweets, though he seemed to tweet about everything under the sun except the games he supposedly worked on.
Yeah, I noticed that too. Kind of wonder if maybe a corporate policy kicked in at some point that influenced what he could and couldn't say on Twitter.
 

G.v.P

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im surprised at all the negative comments. I met Jeff in person and don't think he deserves all the **** being spewed. Same with Cal. these people can only do as much as their superiors at EA allow them. at least they're interested in doing something, but if the community keeps ****ting on these people, who will want to bother with UO?
 

G.v.P

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I see it this way.....
If they don't post here they never existed in my book.
anyone who doesnt understand why devs might not want to come here only need to read the first few negative comments in this thread. some players are beyond toxic.

jeff told everyone his twitter and replied to people on twitter regularly. he was up front and told everyone he would use twitter over anything else.
 

MirandaLace

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anyone who doesnt understand why devs might not want to come here only need to read the first few negative comments in this thread. some players are beyond toxic.

jeff told everyone his twitter and replied to people on twitter regularly. he was up front and told everyone he would use twitter over anything else.
Right, wrong, or indifferent everyone is entitled to their opinion.
 

Lady Michelle

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anyone who doesnt understand why devs might not want to come here only need to read the first few negative comments in this thread. some players are beyond toxic.

jeff told everyone his twitter and replied to people on twitter regularly. he was up front and told everyone he would use twitter over anything else.
LOL I know I only said what I said was cuz I don't have a twitter, or face book account. Plus I have no phone to twitter with its was play uo or buy a phone. I picked uo I get both worlds people to chat with, and a game to play.
I want to go out and get away not take a phone so the ones a want to get away from call in bother me. All I see my family walking around with phones glue to their faces, texting, twittering etc.
 

G.v.P

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LOL I know I only said what I said was cuz I don't have a twitter, or face book account. Plus I have no phone to twitter with its was play uo or buy a phone. I picked uo I get both worlds people to chat with, and a game to play.
I want to go out and get away not take a phone so the ones a want to get away from call in bother me. All I see my family walking around with phones glue to their faces, texting, twittering etc.
I didn't mean to yell all my thoughts at you specifically :) just saying that jeff did in fact make it clear that he would communicate from twitter if someone did want to get updates or talk.

I think it's unfair to say he wasn't here on Stratics and ergo didn't communicate with the community, which is the gist I'm getting from the posts here. In talking to people like bonnie, cal, and jeff, and tim--hell, tim (draconi) even added fans to his facebook while he was still in his role--anyway, they were/are all passionate about bringing change while also knowing they would--and no one--can satisfy an entire populace in an easy, timely, and game balanced, way.

I can definitely agree with people on certain things, however, like how virtualhabitat brought up a strong reason for why we do need a change of guard at EA for gamers to ever respect the developer at an AAA level. Proprietary software, third party outsourced rootkits, inflated ratings. EA has had a messy history, I've experienced a great deal of it, and I've chosen not to purchase a few titles, like Spore, for example, because of what a disaster that software happened to end up being for users.
 

G.v.P

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Plus I have no phone to twitter with its was play uo or buy a phone
I still do not own a smart phone myself, yet have posted 18.4k Tweets since 2009 lol so yes, I am a bit Twitter bias through my time in social media. I have used text messaging to send text to Twitter, though, lol (you set it up and send them to #40404). Verizon Center wifi and a laptop gets part of the job done for me ;D.
 

Dodger

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Right, wrong, or indifferent everyone is entitled to their opinion.
You would think so right? I have only been back on here for a day and already had two posts removed. Oops I am not meant to discuss that. Forget I said anything, look at the pretty watch, see how it sparkles...now sleep pretty one, sleep and remember nothing.
 

Dodger

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Your right Petra it's not like it was when people used to take the time to climb a mountain and carve wisdom into stone tablets, imagine if Moses had tweeted the commandments they would have much less gravitas.
 

Dodger

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Whassssss you saying pal hic Wanna step outshide and shay *falls over unconscious*

* wets self *

* has a lucid dream about having sex with a sexy avatar he met recently that turns into a greater dragon *

* vomits in sleep on pillow *

* wakes up twenty three hours later with vomit in hair and puzzled expression about a dream he had about his wife*
 
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