Category: Uncategorized

Last Friday, I went out for drinks with a friend in the downtown area of Vancouver. Since my friend is older and an early riser, we decided to adjourn early and call it a night. We were at Waterfront Station about to go our separate ways when something caught my attention. On the stairs leading down to the Canada Line trains, I saw a young lady being carried down the steps by her friends. I initially thought they were just having some fun but upon closer inspection I saw that the young lady was unconscious. They were awkwardly holding her with one friend getting the arms and another carrying her legs. There’s an elevator right next to the stairs so I’m not sure why they didn’t just use that.

That wasn’t the most interesting thing I saw that night however. Trailing just behind the passed out girl was a young looking dude, maybe nineteen years of age. He was sober enough to be on his own two feet but when I saw him he was holding onto the staircase railing for dear life. Not only that, he was hunched over, looking like he had seen better nights. It was at this moment I heard cries of “gross!” and “ewww!!!” from the people around him. I looked again and saw that the reason why he had stopped on the stairs was because he had just vomited all over them. Though he was small in stature, he had puked an impressive amount. He had nearly covered the width of the wide staircase with his vomit, causing people to have gingerly tip-toe around the mess. Not only was the amount impressive, the vomit was a fascinating shade of pink with randoms chunks of food that were visible to me even from over 20 feet away. The pink vomit made me think he had been drinking red wine but I don’t know many nineteen year old dudes who go out and get wasted on red wine.

I didn’t stick around to look at the spectacle any longer. I did wonder about two things as I made my own way home. First, who was the poor soul who had the responsibility to clean up the vomit? Do they even have a clean-up crew around near midnight? What if it had to wait until morning for the clean up? Fresh vomit isn’t that great to begin with, I can’t imagine what hours old vomit is like. Second, I wonder if that dude made it down to the Canada Line train on his own. He must have had a terrible Saturday morning.

Well, that was my public vomit story of the day.

UPDATE: EA pleasantly surprised me this morning with a delivery of my plaque and a copy of the game. Thanks for doing the right thing EA!

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March 1st went by and I didn’t even notice that the last game I worked on for EA was released on Tuesday. Fight Night Champion is now in stores for the Xbox 360 and PS3. There are several reasons why I nearly forgot the game was out this week. First, no one from EA even bothered to contact me for a free copy of the game. Usually whenever a developer works on a game for a substantial amount of time (and my six months seems substantial enough) they get a free copy. I suppose they thought I didn’t count because I no longer work for EA and out of sight means out of mind. To be fair, I never really felt like I belonged on the Fight Night team and I could never shake the feeling I was always viewed as a disposable project resource. From the first day I showed up to work for the Fight Night team to the last day when they handed me a box to collect my things, there wasn’t a single day where I felt like I fit in on that team. Very few people on that team really understood what kind of software engineer I was capable of being, so I was stuck doing thankless work that the other software engineers looked down upon for those six months. There were numerous times the other software engineers on that team asked me if I was a junior engineer when they found out what I was working on. Yeah thanks buddy.

So if they weren’t willing to give me a free copy of the game, what do you think the chances are that EA is going to give me a plaque to recognize that I worked on the game? The chances are probably very slim. If you’re not familiar with game development, it’s customary for companies to give people who worked on the game a plaque to recognize their work on the title. It usually has a nice frame and inside that frame is a game disc, the cover art, and a little plate with your name on it. I doubt they’d bother to make a plaque for me, after all, I was about as important to the Fight Night team as condoms are to members of a Dungeons and Dragons club.

Now if you’re wondering what kind of game development team makes plaques for people, even if they’ve been laid off or quit, well that team would be the skate team. Before skate 3 shipped EA had to unfortunately lay off several of my co-workers. Nevertheless, plaques were made out to everyone who worked on the game, even if they left the company one way or another. There was a considerable effort to get the plaques out to people who were no longer working for EA. Those plaques were sent by FedEx, which isn’t a cheap way of delivering things. The feeling is, once you’ve worked on the skate team, you’ll always be part of the skate family. That might sound like some empty line but it’s true. About twice a year, we get together at a bar to catch up and talk about the good old days. It doesn’t matter if you only worked on the original skate for six months or if you worked on all three games, you’re part of the family now, so let’s imbibe some alcohol together. We’ve actually had people who now live in Montreal come back to Vancouver to meet up again. The next event is actually this month, skate Paddy’s Day! We’ve done a St. Patrick’s Day thing for about the last four years or so.

The last thing I’m curious about is if my name made it into the credits for Fight Night Champion. From past experience, my name should be in there. If it is there, it definitely won’t be in the main list of programmers. I joined the project late and because I was laid off, I wasn’t even around to see it completed. Under circumstances like this, programmers in my situation usually have their names in the credits under the heading “Additional Programming”. Then again, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they completely left my name off the credits.

Finally, if you want to know if I recommend Fight Night Champion to anyone, I really can’t answer that question. I got stuck working on part of the game that had nothing to do with the actual game play, you know the part when you actually do the boxing? In six months, I didn’t even play the new mode they have in the game that features Eliza Dushku. The reviews, however, have been pretty good, so keep that in mind. If you do pick it up, let me know how it is and I would appreciate if someone would tell me if I made it into credits.

Though I did not write up this to-do list, it is pretty accurate in terms of what I plan on doing with my Wednesday. I changed the ringtone on my phone today and I thought that was a substantial task. Oh, I also bought a new poof for the shower. Exciting times indeed.

I am receiving second-hand information that there were some small-scale layoffs at EA today. I believe the reductions occurred on the Need for Speed team which is part of whatever remains of Black Box. I’m not sure exactly what the numbers were or why the layoffs happened. In Vancouver, there are now enough unemployed game developers that you could take them all and start up a new studio with probably two teams, each working on a multiplatform game.

Just in the last six months, significant number of unemployed developers have come from: EA layoffs from late October, Propaganda Games layoffs from Pirates being canceled, Propaganda Games layoffs from complete studio closure, EA layoffs from the EA Sports Active team, and of course layoffs from United Front Games when True Crime: Hong Kong was canceled. The games industry in Vancouver has continued to take a beating and there is no end in sight. This not a good time to be looking for a gaming job because there are so many candidates out there right now, just in this city. Add in applicants who are from out of town and you’ve got too few jobs and a lot of people going after the same job.

I am not sure how this will turn out. Could the future become even bleaker? Maybe.

Because I like to let my imagination run wild, I have a strong suspicion that one of the dudes who lives in my apartment building is a pimp, or at the very least, the 21st century version of one. Why do I think he’s a pimp? Let me list what I’ve seen and heard, then you can chime in with your opinion.

First, this guy doesn’t seem to keep regular hours. I’ve seen him around the building well after 9am, in the afternoon, but strangely enough, rarely in the evenings. For a lot of the other residents, I know they’re 9 to 5 types (or thereabouts). I sure don’t see them leave for their 9am jobs but I’ve seen them returning from their workplaces. They’ve got packs and briefcases, they have groceries, and they have their mail from the day’s delivery. This guy doesn’t seem to operate on any regular schedule. Is it possible that his job is in the evening? Sure, I suppose but I just get this vibe that his “work” is a regular job.

Second, every single time I’ve seen him, he’s always got his phone with him and he’s always on it talking to someone. He can’t seem to wait to be on his phone. I’ve been in the elevator several times when he’s stepped on from his floor and he’ll pull his phone out right away to call someone, even if the elevator is crowded. The most recent time he did this, I heard something really interesting which deserves its own point that I’ll get into later.

Third, he’s often got some friend or “associate” with him. One particular guy appears to live on another floor. They’ll often ride the elevator down to the lobby together. Once the dude gets off the phone, they’ll either sit in the lobby chairs waiting for someone or they’ll go for a walk. Where they go walking to or what they talk about while walking, I am not sure. One time I saw them waiting for a third dude. They let some guy in and while the “friend” waited in the lobby, my suspicious friend took him upstairs for who knows what.

Fourth, one time I was going out, dude and a pretty but young girl got on the elevator with me. Dude appears to be in his late 30s or possibly even early 40s but this girl seemed barely out of her teens. They didn’t seem like they were boyfriend and girlfriend. They didn’t say much while in the elevator but they did walk out the door with me. I couldn’t catch all their conversation on the street but he seemed to be explaining a lot of things to her, as if she had questions about something. I never saw her again.

Last but certainly not least, was the conversation that I overheard while he was in the elevator with me last week. He was on the phone and this is what I heard:

“Hey, how many clients does Jasmine have today? And Laura, how many does she have booked? What about Jenny?”

Oh, and I just remembered this now. A few months ago, he was talking on the phone and I heard:

“Please tell Jenny that her first client is at 8.”

What could he be talking about? What type of business could he be running that apparently only employs women? What kind of business employs several different women and refers to clients? Yes, I suppose he could be running a hair salon, which predominantly might only have women stylists, but does this guy seem like a salon owner to you? I’d love to hear what you think of the situation. I really want to discreetly ask him about all of this some time. It’s a delicate thing though because I don’t want outright ask him if he’s a pimp, that’s just not classy. I was thinking something along the lines of, “Um excuse me sir, if I could respectfully ask,  am I correct in thinking you’re independent businessman?” I’d see where it’d go from there since it leaves an out for the both of us.

I’m not going to actually outline each day of my unemployment but we’ll see how far this goes.

Today I met up with two friends of mine for lunch. One of them was unemployed game developer just like me. The great thing that happened during lunch was that he got an e-mail while we were eating to inform him he had just gotten a job with a local and major gaming company. I was quite happy for him. We talked about the industry a bit and he gave me some sense of what the employment scene is like out there for developers. There are a ton of unemployed game makers out there right now.

After lunch, I went home and napped. I can do that because I don’t have anywhere to be. It was my first afternoon nap in a long, long time. After my nap, I cleaned up my apartment for a bit and then got ready for dinner. I was meeting another friend for dinner. This time around, my dining companion was an employed game developer! What a rare breed these days in Vancouver! We settled on having our meal at Kamei Royale, which I think is a very good Japanese restaurant. They currently have a prix fixe menu right now with five courses for $28. The selections are quite decent. The evening was quite enjoyable and it was good to hear what my friend was working on.

What will day three of employment bring? Who knows??!?!?!

Day one of my latest stint of unemployment did not start off smoothly. I forgot to turn off my alarm the night before and I was awoken much too early for a dude that had nothing planned for the day. I managed to fall back asleep for about another hour and a half. I probably should have kept on sleeping but I was now awake a second time and decided it was probably best to get up at this point. I rolled out of bed and went into the living room to look out the windows to see what kind of day it was. It was a bright and beautiful sunny day at that point. I was about to go get some water when some movement in an apartment across from me caught my eye. This apartment had all the blinds up and the sun was shining directly into it so I could easily see into the bedroom and living room. The movement was a young lady moving about in her home while wearing a tight t-shirt and thong underwear. It was clear she was fit and healthy. Whatever problems I might have had with waking up early were quickly forgotten at this point. I proceeded to watch her get ready for the day, putting books into a bag, doing her hair, and looking into a mirror, all while in the t-shirt and thong. I then watched her slide on some black yoga pants. It was at this point I made a mental note to look into buying a telescope. It was my turn now to start my day.

The rest of my day was unfortunately not as exciting. I deposited my last paycheque from UFG at my bank. I wonder when I’ll get another one of those valuable paycheque thingies. I then went to Wal-Mart to buy a bulb for my bathroom light. At a local market, I bought some fruit and vegetables. It was then time to go home.

I had a nap before dinner, then made dinner, and played video games for most of the evening. Not every day of unemployment can be jam-packed with excitement but that’s why there’s always tomorrow.

As I wrote in an earlier post, approximately two weeks ago Activision canceled the game I was working on, True Crime: Hong Kong. This left my employer, United Front Games, in a really tough spot. With no more on-going financial support from Activision, UFG had no means to continue paying a team that numbered around 150. There were attempts to reach a deal with another publisher to get the game finished and out the door but those attempts were not successful.

There was a big team meeting this afternoon where this was plainly and clearly explained to us. We were then all instructed to go to various rooms by disciplines to find out our fates. For the majority of people, that meant sudden unemployment. I don’t know the exact numbers but I heard more than two-thirds of the team were let go. I knew I didn’t stand a chance even before going into any room. I was the new guy, working in an area of the game that’s not glamorous, and I didn’t know any of the important decision makers in the company. No one needed to tell me my services weren’t required any more.

I didn’t get any severance but that wasn’t really a surprise. I had worked at UFG for less than three months. As a new employee, you’re the most vulnerable in the first couple of months of employment. If something bad does go down, you’re not entitled to any compensation because you’re so new. On top of that, no one knows who you are or what you can do, so you’re stuck without any potential protectors who might have shielded you from harm. While three months at a company before getting laid off seems bad, there were people who literally started their contracts the same week the game got canceled. They essentially worked just a handful of days before they got the boot.

When EA laid me off at the end of October, it was the first time I had ever been really laid off. Now less than six months later, I’ve been laid off twice. That’s not something I really wanted to experience again so soon. If you’re wondering what my short term plans are, I have to admit, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Money isn’t an immediate concern right now. I received a generous severance from EA in November, so in essence, I’ve been doubling up on pay since December. Also since I have never lived paycheque to paycheque in my entire life, I have enough money saved up to last me for quite a while.

There are some items that I will need to figure out. When should I start looking for work again? There are now at least three major groups of game developers out of work in the Vancouver area: the remnants of the True Crime team, the whole of Propaganda Games, and the laid off people from EA (from last October and this January). Should I even bother trying to compete with these people right now? Should I take a little vacation first? Where will I apply? What studios are left? Given what has happened to the industry in the last several years, does it even make sense to work in games any more?

I don’t have the answers to any of these questions right now but I’m ok with that. I have the luxury of time on my side and I am going to use that. For example, I am going to reserve the next 8+ hours for sleeping. Tomorrow is another day and I may not do much with it but at least I will be well rested.

The above image is an example, albeit a bad one, of the practice taking a photo of yourself with considerable amounts of cash. Usually, this type of behaviour is reserved for “gangsta” types who think they’re “hard” and have made some measure of success, thus being able to display large amounts of cash in a single photo. Perhaps this is a better example. The photo is supposed to convey how “rich” that person is and that they’re no broke-ass punk. I think it’s the truly dumbest way to flaunt your wealth.

Just consider for a moment a person who has let’s say $10K to show off. If that person gets the $10K in cash and then shows it off, that cash is just sitting there doing nothing. It doesn’t make more money for the gangsta while he’s there holding his money. The smartest thing to do with money is to use it to make more money. There are many ways to do this, starting with the simplest, a savings account that earns interest. The better way would be to diversify the investment into several different sectors, fixed income solutions like bonds, equity like stocks, and even mutual funds. Let’s not forget real estate which is usually a good investment.

Flaunting wealth by taking a photo of yourself with cash just means you don’t know what to do with money. You don’t see Donald Trump or Richard Branson doing these photos. Why? Because they’re too smart to have their wealth in straight up cash. Ask the Donald to show off his wealth and he’ll point you to all the real estate he owns. Ask Sir Richard to display his wealth and he’ll gesture towards his fleet of jets used for Virgin Airlines. Those are real displays of wealth because that money is making more money.

Hell, even the average homeowner taking a picture of his or her home is more impressive to me. They get to live in their money and it’s gaining value at the same time. That sure beats a stack of $20s lying on some gangsta’s Biggie Smalls duvet cover. Show me a gangsta displaying a land title in a photo and then you’ll get some respect from me.

On Friday, some of my network equipment broke at home. When I moved into my apartment, Telus supplied me a router that served as a hardware firewall and also a device that distributed wi-fi throughout my home. That router stopped working on Friday. Lucky for me, I get the Internet piped straight into my apartment. Instead of using a phone line or a coaxial cable that has to go into a modem to get my Internet, I get all my ones and zeroes from a single RJ-45 port that is located in a closet next to the front door.

Anyways, with the router being broken, that means I don’t have any wi-fi anymore, which is really the only inconvenience. That kinda sucks because I use wi-fi for my netbook and my phone, leaving my desktop as the only computer with Internet access. I decided to call up Telus to let them know my problem. Their tech support on the phone was swamped, so I decided to use their online chat feature for tech support. The following is the conversation I had with one of their employees. The chat is not really funny nor entertaining in any way but I have nothing else to write about tonight.

6:30:38 PM :  Welcome! Thank you for using TELUS Chat Support, please be advised that your chat session will be recorded to ensure a quality customer experience.

6:30:38 PM : Erwin Tang: Initial Question/Comment: My 2wire router is showing all solid red lights. It is no longer functioning.

6:37:39 PM :  Dara has joined this session!

6:37:44 PM : Dara: Welcome to TELUS Support Centre, my name is Dara and I will be assisting you today.

6:37:44 PM : Dara: Am I chatting with Erwin?

6:38:03 PM : Erwin Tang: hello!

6:39:09 PM : Dara: In that event, I recommend resetting the 2Wire Wireless Gateway to its factory device default settings. Here are instructions on how to do that.
1) Look on the very back of the device (near the power switch) for a red RESET button.
2) With the tip of a pin or a paper clip, depress the RESET button and hold it in for either 30 seconds or until you notice all of the lights on the 2Wire Gateway go off or blink.

6:39:29 PM : Erwin Tang: should the device be powered on when i do this?

6:40:44 PM : Dara: It should be plugged in.

6:40:49 PM : Erwin Tang: ok

6:44:00 PM : Erwin Tang: depressing the reset button with a pin for over 30 seconds does not seem to have any affect

6:45:25 PM : Dara: Okay, I am going to try from my end, just a second.

6:46:10 PM : Erwin Tang: oh wait, i should probably plug in the network cable back into it

6:46:22 PM : Erwin Tang: but if i do that, i will disconnect

6:47:20 PM : Dara: So, you mean the ethernet cord is not plugged in? Or the cords to the wall are not plugged in ?

6:47:35 PM : Erwin Tang: i had to disconnect the ethernet from it, to get connectivity

6:47:40 PM : Erwin Tang: it has power

6:48:42 PM : Erwin Tang: this is my dilemma, to chat with you, i had to disconnect the incoming ethernet from it

6:49:10 PM : Dara: So, are you still connected to the 2Wire ?

6:49:15 PM : Dara: It shouldn’t be working if it has red lights…

6:49:31 PM : Erwin Tang: no, i am not… it only has power right now, there is no data connectivity to the 2wire

6:49:50 PM : Erwin Tang: i am directly connected to the fibre coming into my apartment

6:50:31 PM : Dara: Oh okay.

6:50:46 PM : Dara: Well, I submitted a request for a new modem, you will receive it in 3-5 business days.

6:50:51 PM : Dara: Once receive install the new modem and you will be good to go.

6:51:13 PM : Erwin Tang: thanks, so it’s gonna be mailed to me?

6:51:26 PM : Dara: Yes, it will be.

6:51:31 PM : Erwin Tang: cool, well that was easy

6:51:39 PM : Erwin Tang: i hope you have a pleasant evening!

6:51:51 PM : Dara: You too.

6:51:51 PM : Dara: If you have some time, please fill out the feedback form at http://promo.telus.com/emailsurvey/Chatfeedback.php so that we can better serve you. (you may have to hold down the control-key and click it for it to work) Thank you for using TELUS Support Centre.

6:51:51 PM : Dara: Thank you for using TELUS Support Centre. If you require assistance again feel free to open another chat or call Technical Support at 1-877-310-8324.

6:52:06 PM : Erwin Tang: bye! you made a difference in my life!

6:52:16 PM : Dara: I’m glad I did 🙂

6:52:21 PM :  Dara has left this session!

6:52:21 PM :  The session has ended!