Yes, I know I'm the last person on the internet to link to this, but for those readers who haven't yet seen it, here's a fascinating account of life within Rockstar Games, written by an ex-employee. Jeff Williams was brought in as a web designer for the firm at the beginning of the GTA III heyday, but was gradually driven to distraction by mis-management and steadfast corporate incompetence:
"Every Rockstar project turned into a huge clusterf**k. I mainly blame this on a horrendously inefficient company structure combined with a few individuals who thought they were hot s**t but really didn't know anything about either video games or marketing. By that time, Rockstar was arrogant to the point of absurdity."
And that's the upbeat stuff. Amid Williams' revelations are some lovely descriptions of the Rockstar creative approvals process as well as a heartening revelation that many workers within the company had reservations about Manhunt.
Last week, some rather inaccurate characterisations of the post appeared on Kotaku, Joystiq and others drawing in a witless backlash from commenters. Is Williams a whiny self-publicist as many have claimed? No, and I'm not quite sure what they were reading - it certainly wasn't the mild-mannered and considered piece I read. Plus, it appeared on his personal blog, a forum essentially designed for subjective, autobiographical writing.
One thing that seems slightly disingenuous or just extremely naive is Williams' apparent surprise at the coverage given to his post, and the subsequent mega-boost in his daily hits. Rockstar is one of the most high-profile publishers in the business and certainly the most controversial - yet the company very rarely comments on the hysterical media attacks it provokes. Here, though, is an inside account of several infamous episodes - including the 'Hot Coffee' scandal. It's what we've all wanted to know about.
The phenomenon that was EA Spouse (a heart-breaking plea to EA from the wife of one of its hard-working employees) showed that there is considerable interest in industry expose. There are few outlets for this kind of piece - certainly not though dedicated videogame magazines which rely on the patronage of the key publishers, and not through the traditional media which is more concerned with inflating the one or two high-profile scandals that break out each year, rather than analysing the industry that creates them. (But, to be fair, there are few movie or music business exposes either.)
So this is a unique glance behind Rockstar's cooler-than-though corporate persona. And it's not pretty.
