Doom 4 Multiplayer Allegedly Outsourced

[Diabolical]

Things don’t sound good at Doom 4 developer Id Software. It’s no secret a bunch of the team has left for Oculus and that the latest Doom game has had a rough development. But an employee, writing on the website Glassdoor, makes it sound like the multiplayer beta you’ll get access to for buying Wolfenstein might not even be made by Id themselves.

Glassdoor doesn’t seem to verify if people actually work at the company they write about, but gaming insider Superannutation said he believes it’s a legitimate employee account. Furthermore, the employees complaints match with a Kotaku report about Doom 4’s development. The game has been restarted several times and reportedly doesn’t even resemble a somewhat working game.

For more:https://gotgame.com/2014/05/14/doom-4-multiplayer-outsourced-and-what-that-could-mean/

“There is a lot that needs fixing at id Software.” [/SIZE]

I worked at id Software full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein. I got into the game industry because of these games, and the amazing talent that created them. I came to id software because I wanted to learn from these developers. The pay is pretty decent, and they used to give bonuses before the current management issues.

Cons – None of the amazing talent that created id’s iconic games are left - they’ve all fled the current management team. There are a few issues id software needs to work on to turn things around:

The lack of professionalism: Expect lots of inappropriate jokes, comments and a generally unprofessional work environment. Our HR director quit recently over the many internal issues.

The lack of opportunities: The Management has openly stated in team meetings that when they are looking to give raises and promotions, they care more about how they get along with the prospect, rather than skill, experience, or previous work done.

The hiring practices: They’ve turned away good candidates in all departments because the leads have expressed a desire to hire only students or people they’ve worked with before.

The broken technology: The entire tech team at id software has quit and moved to Occulus - they all left this past February all together on the same day to protest the managements treatment of people.

The non-stop attrition: When all of the teams merged together to create the “new” Doom team 2 years ago, there was around 140+ developers to make the game. Now, there is only around 50. The non-stop attrition has gotten so bad, that they had to contract outside the company for the multiplayer portion of the game, and we have contractors doing a bulk of our art work.

The non-stop reboots and changes of direction: Every 4 months or so, they tell us that the current direction is all wrong for doom, and will re-boot most, if not all, of the game. This means that for over 2 years of work, there is no game to show, beyond 1 or 2 blockout levels and numerous prototypes.

The non-stop spin doctoring: Instead of meeting the issues head on and working for positive change, the people at id are awash in spin doctoring by the management.

Advice to Senior Management – This company is at a crossroads. The last two years have been generally bad for this company, and has cost id software much in the eyes of the industry. If you want to turn this around, you need to make a positive change. Encourage the bright, capable developers who actually produce, and stop playing politics. It shouldn’t be about who is your friend and who isn’t, id software needs everyone to work together as a team! These sort of games might have worked at the old id software, but this is not how you run a successful AAA studio today. Zenimax needs to step in and take over the management to ensure these changes are met.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I’m not optimistic about the outlook for this company

For more, visit Glassdoor’s wesite:https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Employee-Review-id-Software-RVW4012058.htm

[xalener]

Pretty much exactly what I’ve been hearing here and there. I don’t expect much from future Id titles.

[Lemonz_amp_amp_orang]

i always knew there was something wrong with id ever since doom 3 came out

now i loved doom 3, but even there i still knew it was pretty generic and uninnovative on many levels:
-all-grey monster colorscheme

-hell is more of a red-tinted-gothic-void rather than an endless plane of warped landscapes of flesh and charcoal and rivers of blood that warps everything that enters it, moons included

-doom 1’s phobos/deimos moonbases had that colorful 80-90’s retro-sci-fi vibe to it (also the Tower of Babel); doom 3’s was all grey metallic corridors without much lights and blood splatters everywhere; i saw more warped flesh on martian base than hell itself

i did like the whole ancient martians thing though, wished it was more fleshed out

maybe i just liked it better when the levels had East-asian jungle environments for skyboxes (doom 1’s terraformed phobos)

[Alyxx]

This is pretty worrying but yeah, as much as I liked RAGE when it came out, it’s obvious the id that is legendary simply don’t exist anymore. Carmack has left the company, Romero left the company long ago and frankly, I doubt they will ever reach those levels again. It is sad to see id falling like this of course and it’s worrying for the future of id and for Doom 4.

No doubt I am still hyped about Doom 4, I am sure I will probably enjoy it as long as it feels like a Doom game. I personally loved Doom 3 and Doom 3 BFG Edition so I still have hopes it will be entertaining.

[Maxey]

Well, I guess whatever team they chose to outsource it to it must be in better shape than current-day id software…

[Dadster]

What will be released first, Doom 4 or Half-Life 3?

[Maxey]

At least Doom 4 has been confirmed…

[Alyxx]

@Maxey

Well, I guess whatever team they chose to outsource it to it must be in better shape than current-day id software…

Yeah that’s true, and kind of the only hope I am holding on to.

[Lemonz_amp_amp_orang]

@Maxey

At least Doom 4 has been confirmed…

well technically hl3 is confirmed as well…confirmed in existance