Well well well! Very Illuminating! NCSoft Reviews / Glassdoor

Here's an interesting find!

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/NCs...ews-E23242.htm


I just now discovered this website googling for info on NCSoft.

The Glass Door post anonymous reviews by employees about the companies they work for. Just for comparison's sake I checked for Apple.com. Not surprisingly Apple gets glowing reviews from employees and a high rating.

I also checked on Blizzard, SOE, and Bioware. Results about what I expected.

I'm not necessarily surprised at seeing negative reviews of NCSoft. It's the degree of negativity and the vitriol compared to other gaming companies reviewed on this site that's incredible.

The comparative reviews about the other gaming corporations I saw and the reviews by NCSoft's OWN EMPLOYEES are very telling:

Blizzard: 3.4 Star Rating 84% Approve of CEO Mike Morhaime
Bioware: 3.5 Star Rating 86% Approve of CEO Ray Muzyka
SOE: 2.5 Star Rating 21% Approve of CEO John Smedley
NCSoft: 2.3 Star Rating 18% Approve of CEO Kim Tack Jin

Reviews by employees of NCSoft:

--------------------
“If only they didn't believe that pigs could fly..”

Current Employee in Austin, TX – Reviewed last week – New

Pros – Almost free lunches. Some of the community.

Cons – Immediate ''fire you now'' reaction. An itchy finger to redlight certain games that are not making the cut and currently that involves all Western influenced MMOs. I can tell you that even with knowledge of the business, finances, NDA disclosures, and how HQ runs it's still difficult to maintain an open connection with both my side and employees and theirs. Trying to get through to someone in Korea is like tapping a pencil on a manhole in New York during rush hour. You won't catch anyone's attention, and that's just the way it always has been. Honestly, being fluent in Korean doesn't much either as they detest foreigners with knowledge of their ''native'' tongue. Ridiculing our Office more than aiming to help.

For anyone who is interested all I can say is don't be. Move on to a Western owned and Western run Company.

NDA: NCSoft is going to be insourcing more so than outsourcing. You can expect the full shutdown of all NCSoft Western-Run/European Run Offices with in the next two years.

Advice to Senior Management – After your meltdown please do not attempt to re-open to the United States. Stay in Korea. Thanks.

--------------------

“Working at NCsoft, was the closest I'll ever come to leaving the video game industry.”

Former Employee in Seattle, WA – Reviewed last week – New (< take note!)

Pros – If you're good at what you do, you'll be a rockstar, even if you work less than 40 hours a week.

Competitive salaries for minimal work

Cons – Leadership in Korea does not trust America or Europe to make their own decisions, and as a result, the decisions made reflect what Korea leadership wants to see, and not what needs to happen for the benefit of players, or the business.

There is no clear career path, because the company is restructured every other year.

Having a good boss at NCsoft is like winning the lottery. Unfortunately, even if you win, your awesome boss will wise up or get laid off during your employment.

The only culture that exists, is what employees make for themselves; however, with so much turnover, office culture changes frequently, and is often more of an "inner-circle" kind of experience.

Benefits are not great. They are bare bones, and change a lot.

When I was working there, I had to pay hundreds of dollars per month for my own parking spot

Truly creative people are not treated well at NCsoft.
Advice to Senior Management – To leadership in Korea:

Get your hands out of the darn cookie jar and EMPOWER your employees. You've guaranteed the failure North America and Europe operations because of your bureaucratic, and unnecessary approach to a global business. What works in Korea, doesn't mean it will in other territories. Look at Riot Games for god sake. They empower their Korean HQ to make their own decisions, and they are frequently different than the ones made in America. While they flourish in multiple territories, you're only truly successful in Korea, and even there, you haven't lived up to your potential in years.

--------------------

“Extremely poor management. The worst I have ever had in fact.”

Former Employee in Austin, TX – Reviewed 5 weeks ago

Pros – Other than it being a video game company. None really

Cons – Management! The US operations is always afraid of what HQ wants, so they make rash hiring decisions, especially bringing deadbeat directors that have been let go from other electronic studios.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop trying to constantly change or micromanage. If you want to do it the HQ way then bring over HQ management. Bringing in washout from other electronic studios makes it much worse.

--------------------

“So if you have no choice or don't want to improve your skill”

Former Employee in Seattle, WA – Reviewed Jul 17, 2012

Pros – As a developer, the team is pretty solid.

The benefit is Okay, at least better than Amazon's health insurance.

You can spend 2 hours a day at work... they don't care

Cons – the management mess up.
you can't learn anything here, not good fot career path.
Korean never trust ppl here.
no one knows whats going on.
some "lead" like to play small game, to waste ppl's time
ppl escaped a lot in past few months, lots of...

Advice to Senior Management – let ppl know whats going on...
better management
too many management roles

--------------------

“Getting better day by day”

Current Employee in Seattle, WA – Reviewed Dec 14, 2011

Pros – First of all, there area number of different teams in Seattle. There is a game studio that works on localizing Korean games into American, there is marketing, creative services, interactive services and hr. Your satisfaction with the company is going to depend entirely on what team you are in. The company is based out of South Korea, and that can be extremely strange to understand if you haven't been familiar with their hierarchical nature or thought processes. It was hard for me to comprehend, honestly. But, if you stick it out and learn the ropes, you can do well here. The company has a new CEO who made some large scale changes when she came in. This inlcuded layoffs and a freeze on new hires. This was in Sept. Since then, it has been in the process of strengthening, and I can only speak for my team, but I have a great boss who is transparent about what is going on, fair, flexible and has high standards. It is making me better at what I do, and that is important as a means of growth and my advancement as someone trying to hone my craft. I like my team and respect them all for what they are doing. I have the best manager I have ever had at this company. I can not speak for all departments, but, she is very very good. The people I deal with above me are all fair and trying their best. Any rumors of the company or office tanking really make no sense. Check out NCsoft on the Korean stock market. Only growth since 2008. There are two western games Guild Wars 2 and Wildstar which are coming out in the next 2 years. You bet they are going to need an American studio to support these products. GW2 is going to blow many MMORPGS out of the water. Yes, it is really, really good. And i say that as a gamer, not an employee

Cons – Korea can be crazy and make illogical request at the last minute. They do not comprehend that the American market is much different than theirs, and when they try to force their solutions on us, it can frustrate our gamers. BUT, they are learning. The Seattle office has some articulate people trying to strengthen relationships with them, and they seem to be responding well. Honestly, the hardest things related to the job are related to the Korean/American cultural divide. But, I have a strong team and I like the people I work with. Sometimes it is weird in that we just wait for Korea to toss things over the wall, and we have little conversation with them.

Advice to Senior Management – There is so much miscommunicaiton with Korea that at times this feels like an episode of Keystone Cops. We have to sort this out, or people are going to be continually frustrated. You had better start converting many of your long term contractors to FTE, or they are going to be picked off by headhunters. This should be a huge concern to you. On a positive note, keep shedding ineffectual people and focusing on company-wide skill set increases, and we will be as robust as a reputable agency in town.

--------------------

“If you have a choice, don't choose NCsoft”

Current Employee in Seattle, WA – Reviewed Nov 22, 2011

Pros – There are some really bright and fun people working at NCsoft and the Seattle location is right in the middle of downtown.

Cons – Unfortunately all the bright and fun people from NCsoft either left, were let go, or have the resumes out and are looking. As for the fun location, rumor has it that's going away soon too.

While it might still be a good place to work if you are in one of the studios, the Seattle and Austin offices are in complete turmoil. Don't bother trying to talk to HR, they are more of a mess than most of the other departments and most anyone there who had experience has already jumped ship. There is a huge disconnect between the Korean office, Seattle leadership, and most of the employees and mixed messages are the norm. If you have other opportunities, I wouldn't even answer NCsoft's call.

Advice to Senior Management – If you only listen to the people who tell you what you want to hear you shouldn't be shocked with the general lack of performance and ever increasing turnover.

--------------------

“A bad thing that's getting worse”

Former Employee in Austin, TX – Reviewed Oct 15, 2011

Pros – Casual atmosphere. Remodel of the Austin, TX offices.

Cons – Many of the major groups in NCsoft West (Operations, Billing Software, Web Development) are experiencing downsizing while those jobs are being returned to Seoul. After 3 or 4 changes of senior management in 5 years, it seems as though the folks in Seoul HQ are done with almost everything to do with North America/European offices. I'm not sure I would even consider the folks that are not losing their jobs "lucky" in any aspect.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop think that you are fooling people by holding back information. Everyone knew the layoffs were coming. Everyone knew about the leadership transitions. Have more all-hands meetings like the old days, including P&L.

---------------------

“Stay Away”

Former Employee in Seattle, WA – Reviewed Oct 14, 2011

Pros – Some good people work there.

Cons – Circling the drain pretty quickly. Danger.

--------------------

“Organized chaos, consistently shifting leadership”

Current Employee in Seattle, WA – Reviewed Sep 05, 2011

Pros – View of city. Not many people out to get one another, friendly culture. I have heard bonuses happen but yet to receive.

Cons – Lack of direction, constantly changing direction. Erratic and uninformed decision making. Huge accountability in some groups while none in others. Dissent between geographic locations resultos in feeling that nobody is really succeeding. Everyone is pretty much waiting for Guild Wars to ship and then they are out.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your people, let them drive the business and manage up. You are there to keep it funded. If you are ineffective, leave.

--------------------

“Terrible environment, unorganized, lack of leadership and absolutely no support”

Former Employee in Seattle, WA – Reviewed Mar 09, 2011

Pros – The only reason was the location of the office, downtown Seattle.

Cons – There is not enough words to explain how terrible this place is. There were people who would last one day, on average employees would leave every 3 months, just enough time to realize how messed-up the company was. No leadership, complete chaos caused by the HQ and the lack of professionalism in the Seattle office. I could not wish this company to my enemy. The joke at the end of every week was how many emails we would get from HR informing us that people were leaving (though usually, HR would send an email per exec. request 3-4 weeks after the employees had left). The exec. team tries to hide everything. Employees are treated like idiots. No support, no recognition, no raise.

Advice to Senior Management – Shut down this mess and at least do yourself a favor...or go through a total revamp.

--------------------

“This company has peaked, and is on its way down.”

Former Software Engineer in Austin, TX – Reviewed Sep 07, 2008

Pros – It's a great start in the game industry, and if they happen to make a game you love, it could be worth it to work there.

Cons – Company direction changes with the wind, and directives from above are rarely followed by the support (budget, manpower, etc.) to actually follow them.

Advice to Senior Management – Analyze the way the MMO marketplace is today, not the way it was ten years ago. Trying to do the same things you did ten years ago to be successful - that stopped working a few years ago - is not the path to success.

--------------------

“Almost like a real job!”

Former Employee in Austin, TX – Reviewed Aug 13, 2008

Pros – If you're mediocre and are looking for a place to just dog it, maybe punch the clock? This is the place for you. Also, if you speak Korean you can write your own check.

It is a good place to be in QA or CS, though. Those departments are pretty solid.

25 cent sodas and snacks.

Cons – Hmm, let's see. Stability is poor, absolutely no coordination between Korean management and US management, weak strategic vision, poor portfolio, weak creative development, terrible marketing, etc.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire talented people and get out of their way. It would be easier to execute on your vision if people knew what it was, and it didn't change every other month.

--------------------

“Good people and teams, confusing corporate direction”

Current Employee in Austin, TX – Reviewed Jul 21, 2008

Pros – Development teams are given a fair amount of autonomy to create the game they want to make.

The company was willing to take risks on some technologies and ideas.

They are the leading MMO developer in the world with many titles under their belt, they have the experience to create some fairly polished MMOs and to support them.
Cons – Senior management and corporate direction comes down without any feedback from the development teams whose fates are being decided.

Coordination amongst various development teams and knowledge sharing is not practiced, reinventing the wheel happens alot.

The lack of follow through on some project ideas and letting projects die creates frustrated employees.

Advice to Senior Management – More transparency in the decisions that are being made and the direction the company is going in, from highest level to lowest level.

--------------------

“Wonderful worker bees, confused upper management.”

Current Employee in Austin, TX – Reviewed Jul 21, 2008

Pros – Lots of wonderful peers to work with and great opportunities to learn and work with interesting technologies.

Cons – Upper management seems unsure of what they want to do and repeatedly change direction. Each occurrence kills morale and reduces confidence in the company as a whole.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop chasing the trends, focus on the future.

--------------------

“Used to be a good place to work, now not so much”

Current Employee in Austin, TX – Reviewed Jul 21, 2008

Pros – Working in Austin, competitive salaries, often good opportunities for career advancement, company generally tends to do the right thing for its employees (layoffs postponed as long as possible so that people can find positions elsewhere)

Cons – Rapid changes in direction from management, lack of focus, many burnouts especially in high-ranking positions, currently great deal of uncertainty due to high profile failure (Tabula Rasa). The Austin location especially is having serious morale issues.

Advice to Senior Management – Find a focus and stick to it, the whiplash is getting old. Politics between divisions is also getting more than a little old.

--------------------

“Heavily managed from the top in Korea, not great at paying their employees”

Former Employee – Reviewed last week – New

Pros – Stable, good game pedigree. There is a care about the quality of the product.

Cons – Korea runs the show mercilessly, and there are many layers of bureaucracy to go through to do anything. It adds to the pipeline when your studio has to use the central QA, and the central customer service even if they have those services in house. It's redundant and costly, both financially and time-wise. Decision-making sometimes seems arbitrary.

--------------------


And it just goes on and on and on.

So what do you think? I'd say this confirms everything I've ever suspected about NCSoft since this whole debacle began -

They couldn't find their own A__ with a flashlight, a roadmap and a native guide.


Pathetic.

Ouch, sounds like this ship is sinking.

This has been posted last week as well but without the bulk copy/paste.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=296854

Sounds like every big business I've ever worked for, regardless of their field.

Sad really. Not how a game company should be run if you ask me. Where's the optimism? The happiness?

Those comments from former NCsoft Employee's line right up with what a former Paragon Studio member said about PS' attempts to get other projects off the ground.

Korean headquarters has it's head planeted firmly in it's *** and refuses to see the appeal for any project not solely focused around the Korean gamer culture.

It's why we never got COH 2 after the name was copyrighted, and why they just up and closed down COH( COH wasn't profitable in Korea or the rest of Asia =to NCsoft it was a failure western and european sucess didn't matter to them in the least). I truley believe they have such little understanding of this game, it's community, and The "western" culture that they never expected any sourt of truley damaging fallout.

Their stock has been declining all month too. It's not as bad as it was in August, but there's a definite downhill slope from a peak.

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stock...mbol=036570.KS

This is the first review I see when I click the link.

“It is a great place to work with a lot of opportunities to learn about the MMO development industry.”
4/5 stars
Current Employee in Mountain View, CA – Reviewed 3 weeks ago
Pros – Flexible hours, great team great work environment.
Cons – The commute could be shorter!

That had to be one of our devs. Sad to see such happiness a mere week before the ax fell.

It completely tallies up with certain events; the complete closure and minimal support for the European branches and servers particularly.

I was certainly concerned when that happened as I'm in the even more marginal category of the Asia-Pacific region and should've had an inkling then that there were contractions happening in the company.

It's likely given that scenario Guild Wars 2 could be their last big North American game; and it's not alone. The Old Republic announced today server consolidations and that's within a year of release.


S.

Wouldn't surprise me if the entire market has shot itself in the foot thanks to the big companies pulling stupid tricks. Microtransactions too, some games don't just double-dip your wallet they freakin' quadruple-dip it if not more! No shock if consumers can't be bothered any more.

Indie is making a nice comeback though.

hm. in this light.. perhaps the watershed event is a good thing.

From what I see, NCSoft has had no ability to manage a foreign project for some time and are now realizing that and pulling out.

Feel sorry for the new studio pickups.