Massively interviews Sean "Dr. Aeon" McCann
By
anachrodragon,
Posted on: 2009-11-02 16:21 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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Put it this way Lady Sadako:|
Originally Posted by Lady_Sadako
The Devs didn't just wake up one morning and say 'hey let's hire that guy, he writes good arcs'. They advertised the position of Mission Designer and Feargas was the successful applicant.
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You got a Dev's Choice arc, so did Dispari and many others. Where is your job and where is their job?
My only point is that hiring a player sets a very dangerous precendent. It reeks of favouritism toward that particular player (not that the whole Dev's Choice fiasco didn't do that already). There is the concern that the hired player will show favour to his or her global friends list when examining potential rewards tied to the Architect.
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| Looks like they're hiring a Games Engineer right now. 'Interest in game design and what makes games fun' is preferred. Do you know any PvP experts who might be interested? |
Just as base experts should be considered for that iteration as well.
The developers have opened the door here. If there are no more player-based hires, it will look odd. If there are player-based hires, then this looks great.
Congrats to Fearghas on his new position.
Questions about the game, either side? /t @Neuronia or @Neuronium, with your queries!
168760: A Death in the Gish. 3 missions, 1-14. Easy to solo.
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Hey, check out my sig.|
Originally Posted by The_Killbot_5000
Colour me jealous! Now if only I could get someone, anyone, to play my arcs! 24 days live and not a single play, comment or rating. I iz a very sad panda about that. I've tried placing the details in the Live announcement thread, added my ArcID's to my forum signature, submitted them for reviews, asked my SG members, and even done short, "Play my thread nao!" requests in local while in Atlas Park AE, still nada.
 Congrats again to Dr. Aeon on his appointment, lucky *******!  |
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Originally Posted by Ironblade
Splendid. I stopped working on my first arc when I realized I was going to need 6 or 7 custom enemies.
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I've got a 5-mission arc with I think 13 customs in it. (The Bravuran Jobs)
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
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I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't apply for the position. As for where all our jobs are, I don't expect Paragon to be able to hire an endless string of mission designers. There was only one vacancy, and personally I'm glad it was taken by someone who knows what the heck they are doing. Since Sean took over, we've actually had NEW Dev's Choice arcs.|
Originally Posted by Neuronia
Put it this way Lady Sadako:
You got a Dev's Choice arc, so did Dispari and many others. Where is your job and where is their job? |
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| My only point is that hiring a player sets a very dangerous precendent. |
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| It reeks of favouritism toward that particular player (not that the whole Dev's Choice fiasco didn't do that already). |
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| There is the concern that the hired player will show favour to his or her global friends list when examining potential rewards tied to the Architect. |
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| If there were aspects of games engineering tied to the player vs. player experience (and there most certainly are) then certainly PvP experts should be considered for the position. Just as base experts should be considered for that iteration as well. |
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The developers have opened the door here. If there are no more player-based hires, it will look odd. If there are player-based hires, then this looks great.
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"Player becomes dev" is not news. You know Castle started as a player, right? And Sunstorm? And Synapse? I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that a good portion of the 40+ new devs hired in the past two years were players first, too, to say nothing of the CR staff.
The difference here is that in this case Dr. Aeon's "secret identity" is now public knowledge. This, I confess, strikes me as an unwise move destined to haunt him in the form of conspiracy theories for some time to come.
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I don't have a job with CoH. And I don't want one. For one, I never applied for one. And two, I'm not qualified. Sure, it'd be a dream job to wake up every morning and get paid to improve the game I spend most of my free time on, but just because I like the game doesn't mean it's a good idea for me to be working on it. Really, if I was to be employed, my area of study is programming, so I'd be sitting in the background doing the boring, thankless stuff with pohsyb and friends.|
Originally Posted by Neuronia
Put it this way Lady Sadako:
You got a Dev's Choice arc, so did Dispari and many others. Where is your job and where is their job? |
The devs didn't hire Fearghas because he's a player. They didn't hire him because he makes cute AE arcs. They hired him because he's qualified to do the job they hired him to do. Not only would it be a bad idea to hire people just because the devs "like him," it would put the new employee in a bad place.
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| My only point is that hiring a player sets a very dangerous precendent. It reeks of favouritism toward that particular player (not that the whole Dev's Choice fiasco didn't do that already). There is the concern that the hired player will show favour to his or her global friends list when examining potential rewards tied to the Architect. |
The powers team could have a bias toward stuff their friends want to see. The people implementing new stories could be inclined to give a shout-out to their amigos. Jay could be only making costume parts that his busom-buddies have been asking for. Heck, we already know various devs have personal bias on some decisions. Know why we don't have Clown Summoning, more options for ice/earth customization, and no redside Empathy? Because the devs want it that way. There's no spreadsheet to show why, it's just how they feel it should be.
And as long as we don't reach "screw you guys, I'm doing this" levels of bias like with Mister Jack, we're fine. As long as it's not a hindrance for players and causes an actual issue, there's no reason to skip over hiring a qualified person because they "might" bring bias.
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If there were aspects of games engineering tied to the player vs. player experience (and there most certainly are) then certainly PvP experts should be considered for the position. Just as base experts should be considered for that iteration as well. The developers have opened the door here. If there are no more player-based hires, it will look odd. If there are player-based hires, then this looks great. Congrats to Fearghas on his new position.
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I'd rather our devs play and enjoy the game they work on. As far as I'm aware, all (most?) of them do. I don't see any good reason to hire people who DON'T play the game. I want our AE dev to be someone who makes AE arcs and plays with the system to know where it lacks. I want our PvP dev to be someone who frequently PvPs and knows what players hate and what needs fixing. What I don't want is for our devs to be all number-crunchers and trying to fix things without having a hands-on view of the situation. I want all of our devs to be experts in their field, and the only way to be an expert at "that one part of that one video game," is to actually play the game.
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Originally Posted by PRAF68_EU
Dispari has more than enough credability, and certainly doesn't need to borrow any from you.
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I think Dr. Aeon is very much with Dr. Aeon |
Originally Posted by The_Larker
My only question is are you with the Loyalists Dr.Aeon?
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Big congrats to Fearghas!
I hope there are some more improvements for MA coming up. The file size will be nice, but really the interface could use some serious work.
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I did, and have posted a review request in your thread. Rate me puhleaze, I need validation!!! |
Originally Posted by GlaziusF
Hey, check out my sig.
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Are you suggesting that if the devs don't hire everyone with a dev choice award, that implies favoritism to the one player they did hire? Because that would be an incredibly odd statement to make.
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Originally Posted by Neuronia
Put it this way Lady Sadako:
You got a Dev's Choice arc, so did Dispari and many others. Where is your job and where is their job? |
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They should only hire people who don't like City of Heroes then? |
Originally Posted by Neuronia
My only point is that hiring a player sets a very dangerous precendent. It reeks of favouritism toward that particular player (not that the whole Dev's Choice fiasco didn't do that already).
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The City of Heroes Community is a special one and I will always look fondly on my times arguing, discussing and playing with you all. Thanks and thanks to the developers for a special experience.
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You are looking at it wrong. There is no preside being set here. It's not a reward they gave the player population for winning some type of contest. It's a corporation looking to hire a talented writer for a game designer position they had open. AE gave them a line on a person which could possibly a good fit for the job. No different from getting leads from a headhunter or a referral from an employee.
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Originally Posted by Neuronia
The developers have opened the door here. If there are no more player-based hires, it will look odd. If there are player-based hires, then this looks great.
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I lol'd. |
Originally Posted by EvilGeko
They should only hire people who don't like City of Heroes then?
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Back on topic:
I liked this interview a lot. I love that we have a dev that's dedicated to improving the Mission Architect feature and interacting with the mission writing community. It's cool that he was a player and wrote some good arcs, but that's not the most important thing about this dev.
I'm looking forward to seeing what Dr. Aeon brings us in the future.
A smallish thing I'd like to see would be the Safeguard/Mayhem maps lose the Arachnos Flyer - it doesn't fit with the story very often
EDIT: Maybe it could be the first part of a basic kind of map making - like you can place vehicles on the map yourself, so you could add a Flyer, or Longbow chopper, or PPD wagon to any outdoor AE map?
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Mebbe if they just mention you bribed someone in Arachnos to give you a lift?
@Morac | Twitter
Trust the computer. The computer knows all.
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That still won't always fit |
Originally Posted by Morac_Ex_Machina
Mebbe if they just mention you bribed someone in Arachnos to give you a lift?
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@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
Yes, but it fits more than it doesn't, and trying to come up with something that fits everybody, all the time, probably won't work. I actually think it works better without having explanation, because that way it can let the players come up with their own story (maybe you stole it. Maybe it's your personal aerial vehicle disguised as an Arachnos flyer. Maybe you are just borrowing it from a friend). I don't think the map needs to be changed just because of a lack of imagination.
@Morac | Twitter
Trust the computer. The computer knows all.
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This|
Originally Posted by Morac_Ex_Machina
Yes, but it fits more than it doesn't, and trying to come up with something that fits everybody, all the time, probably won't work. I actually think it works better without having explanation, because that way it can let the players come up with their own story (maybe you stole it. Maybe it's your personal aerial vehicle disguised as an Arachnos flyer. Maybe you are just borrowing it from a friend). I don't think the map needs to be changed just because of a lack of imagination.
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To GG:
Bwuh?
I always thought that the arachnos flyer was in there as a the getaway vehicle for those robbing the bank (either you in mayhems or the npcs you need to stop in safegaurds). Seeing as how it's usually an arachnos-related broker giving you the robber . . .
It always made sense to me. *scratches back of head*
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I'm looking at it more as a form of map customization - it's not really building your own maps, but it's letting you place and move stuff around on the maps
I think it'd work a bit like the base editor - when you were wrokign on your arc, you clcik the "edit map" button, which would bring up a view of the map like you view your base, and then you'd select the objects you wanted to put on the map, and if they clashed with anything already on the map, they'd show up as red, and would't be able to be placed.
Like you want Mole Mahcines on the Atlas Park map for your Nemesis invasion story - so you bring up the Atlas Park map, click "edit map", and from the objects menu, pick a few Mole Machines - you can't place them on City Hall, so they color red when you move them too close to it - but you can place them in the parks or car parks, or in the streets, so they color blue there.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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Yes, but what if you're using the map as part of a heroic mission where you're helping Longbow defeat a 5th Column attack on Atlas Park? |
Originally Posted by Aura_Familia
This
To GG: Bwuh? I always thought that the arachnos flyer was in there as a the getaway vehicle for those robbing the bank (either you in mayhems or the npcs you need to stop in safegaurds). Seeing as how it's usually an arachnos-related broker giving you the robber . . . It always made sense to me. *scratches back of head* |
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
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That would be neat, yes. Also, just sayin, I didn't see your added edit until just now.
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Originally Posted by Golden Girl
I'm looking at it more as a form of map customization - it's not really building your own maps, but it's letting you place and move stuff around on the maps
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@Morac | Twitter
Trust the computer. The computer knows all.
FYI: many of the job postings for CoH explicitly preferred fans of the game.
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Major Major Grats Fearghas!
Espically on getting the best Dev name
I don't suffer from altitis, I enjoy every minute of it.
Thank you Devs & Community people for a great game.
So sad to be ending ):
Grats to the mad Doc...
Someone ELSES Job I'm after now!
Jay, Aeon...the list grows.
Gotta say, that would be an ideal job. Working on CityOf.
I'll need to check out his arcs someday.
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Originally Posted by Zwillinger
GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.
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Originally Posted by Captain_Photon
NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.
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Looks like they're hiring a Games Engineer right now. 'Interest in game design and what makes games fun' is preferred. Do you know any PvP experts who might be interested?