Flagship staffer does fast back-tracking on "droves" blog post

Guy Somber, the Flagship developer who authored a blog post saying people were leaving the company "in droves", has told Destructoid has said that the text was aimed at his family and friends and had no bearing on what was happening at the company.

“Things here at Flagship are running business as usual," he said in an email. "We've just put a build of Chronicle 2 onto our test center, which has represented a lot of hard work from everybody at the company, myself included.

”When I wrote that blog post I was frustrated and just a little bit overwhelmed, but it was nothing that a mug of hot chocolate, a few hours of gaming, and a good night's sleep didn't cure. I was surprised and disappointed at the community's response to my words, which were more directed at my family and friends to describe my state of mind at the time, than to give any sort of insight into the company. Personally, I think that the 'Towers of Hanoi' series of posts on my blog is far more interesting and worthy of commentary and analysis.

”I'm sorry to have caused such a ruckus over such a small thing.”

Guy. Dude. When you say things on the internet like, "So why is work depressing? The reason is that people are leaving. In droves, they’re leaving," don't be wildly shocked when people assume you're not lying.

Ivan Sulic, Flagships's marketing communications manager makes a fuller statement on the issue after the link. All an huge exaggeration, apparently. "Very few" people have left the studio. Amazing how those completely ambiguous statements can be whipped up by the evil press, isn't it?

“I'm Ivan Sulic, Flagship's Marketing Communications Manager, Web Manager, and Writer. I attached Guy on this because I'd like to believe I'm not some soulless automaton that cranks out fluff replies and maybe he can help me prove it.

”I'm not going to speak for him, but I'll bet Guy feels like anyone who spent a lot of time and effort on something that wasn't received as well as hoped... And then a few of our friends and coworkers left. It's a bummer. I wouldn't know what he's feeling, but there are a couple things he wrote that I can address.

”First off, our directors are all doing the same thing they've been doing, save for Peter. Peter Hu is a systems programmer and one of our technology directors. Since Hellgate was put out, he's been able to work on other things. Everything else is pretty much business as usual.

”The second thing Guy mentioned was departures. We've actually had very few people leave. Flagship is still fully staffed and working on both Hellgate and Mythos (with the same Seattle / San Francisco distinction we've always had). I think we have about 100 employees now. I know a couple people left because they were moving up on their career path. A close friend of mine is also leaving because he needs a change of pace and scenery. He was even thinking of switching continents just to get away from SF's cold and windy summers. No biggie, though. People finish a game, want to work on something else, and then leave to do just that. It's pretty typical in this industry. I don't know the exact number, but we couldn't have had more than five or six departures. Still, if those five or six dudes are people you work with everyday, it can't feel great.”