Monty Markland leaving Obsidian?

[funcroc]

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mmarkland

 

[undisclosed]

[undisclosed]

(Entertainment industry)

March 2009

[Pop]

His profile shows he hasn't been on the forums since the 19th of February, which was about a week after the rumors of cancellation and layoffs first hit.

 

We wish him luck if it's true.

[crakkie]

He confirmed it on RPGCodex, in a thread I'm not going to link to.

 

Best of luck Monty.

Edited March 5, 2009 by crakkie

[Gorth]

If it is indeed so, best of luck Monty

 

Now, about Purgatorio?...

[Tigranes]

That was.... quick.

 

I liked Monty.

[Dagon]

Producer/Designer

Obsidian Entertainment

2008

Edited March 5, 2009 by Dagon

[Zebranky]

Whoa.

 

For what it's worth, I talked to him on his Obsidian office phone well after the rumors hit. Based on that and what he posted on rpgcodex, it sounds like it was totally his choice. While the fanboy in me can't imagine wanting to leave Obsidian, I wish him the best!

 

And if he wants to work on Purg, nothing's stopping him

[kirottu]

Producer/Designer

Obsidian Entertainment

2008

[Nightshape]

*shruggs* I wanted to like the guy, but to be brutally honest I didn't like him all that much.

 

That said, I hope the guy stay's in industry, he seemed to have some talent, and it's hard to get a real impression of a person on a forum.

[funcroc]

OT: According to LinkedIn, Matt Campbell, ex-programmer at Valve's Left 4 Dead team joined Obsidian in March. (Valve's L4D team, formerly Turtle Rock Studios and Obsidian are in the same office building.)

[Morgoth]

(Valve's L4D team, formerly Turtle Rock Studios and Obsidian are in the same office building.)

Cool I didn't know that.

[funcroc]

Fryda Wolff's LiveJournal

 

Kind of nuts.

* Dec. 9th, 2008 at 9:20 PM

 

The company I work for, Obsidian, just moved into a brand new office space in a spiffy pristine building. We took over an entire floor.

And Valve (the Left 4 Dead team) is on another floor.

And Red 5 is on yet another floor.

And Blizzard is down the street.

 

It's like I'm sitting on the steaming throbbing pile of video game development ectoplasmic goo and we all converge somewhere in the middle because we've all worked with each other at one time or another, Spanish royal family style.

 

Ridiculous! This should be a good time.

Edited March 5, 2009 by funcroc

[Epirote]

While I didn't know him, best of luck, from me too. Does anyone round here know and may disclose, if he did any work for NWN2?

Edited March 5, 2009 by Epirote

[Zebranky]

While I didn't know him, best of luck, from me too. Does anyone round here know and may disclose, if he did any work for NWN2?

Yes, he's credited with "Additional Production" on SoZ.

[mkreku]

This might sound harsh, but.. does anyone really care about these personnel transitions anymore? Game developers are like McDonald's employee's: easily replaceable, no company loyalty whatsoever.

 

Would be interesting to see the average employment time per company for the average game developer. I'd bet 2+ years is actually uncommon!

[Montgomery Markland]

I am leaving Obsidian. It is by choice; but that is not a reflection on Obsidian -- I simply have an opportunity any reasonable person would pursue.

 

Obsidian is a great studio. I would love to work with all of the owners again in the future.

 

I'll miss working with many of the game creators at the company; but I intend to see them all socially as I am not leaving Southern California.

 

As for "company loyalty" and that other nonsense... The average time spent at a single company is dropping across all industries. This isn't the 1950s; I'm not going to sexual harass the secretary and I'm not going to hold onto some vestige of feudal fealty in the form of "corporate loyalty."

 

Business is business.

[Zebranky]

I am leaving Obsidian. It is by choice; but that is not a reflection on Obsidian -- I simply have an opportunity any reasonable person would pursue.

Since when are you "any reasonable person"?

[Montgomery Markland]

I am leaving Obsidian. It is by choice; but that is not a reflection on Obsidian -- I simply have an opportunity any reasonable person would pursue.

Since when are you "any reasonable person"?

 

Haha, fair enough.

[crakkie]

Let us know where you're going whenever you can.

 

 

Will it be in the same building?

 

[Horred the Plague]

Great for you Monty, best of luck!

 

P.S: If you ever feel like slumming w/ us folks over at Rogue Dao again, I'm sure we can offer great pay and ideal work conditions as well *almost chokes from prolonged coughing*

[funcroc]

Brock Heinz, former programmer on Obsidian's the Aliens RPG, moved to Valve's L4D team.

[Zoma]

Not sure I'm supposed to be feeling happy or depressed. dilema.gif

[mkreku]

How about feeling apathy instead? I mean, if you were working for McDonald's and Burger King offered $2 more per hour, wouldn't you say "Screw you, McDonald's!" in a heartbeat and switch? Business is business. Games are not art.

[Tigranes]

Because business = pay, right? Games are not art so nothing else factors in right?

 

We need a "SIX GALAXIES AWAY FROM REALITY" macro.

[Montgomery Markland]

How about feeling apathy instead? I mean, if you were working for McDonald's and Burger King offered $2 more per hour, wouldn't you say "Screw you, McDonald's!" in a heartbeat and switch? Business is business. Games are not art.

 

Mixing business and art is a feat rarely accomplished, but it is not an impossibility as many great novels and films attest. The game industry is still in its nascent stages. For most of the early days of "movies," the "art form" consisted of nickel arcades showing nudie flicks. One of the first great "works of art" in the film industry was the unabashedly prejudicial The Birth of a Nation. Movies had been around in various forms, primarily exploitative, for the better part of two decades when D.W. Griffith's epic hit the screens.

 

As for equating Obsidian to McDonald's, the analogy is so absurd as to not warrant challenge.