You Can't Reinvent Wing Commander! (August 11, 2011)

Bandit LOAF

Bandit LOAF

Long Live the Confederation!
It's not just pretty pictures today--we also have an absolutely insane sound file dredged from the depths of Origin history! Labeled "Maverick Mix", this four minute combination of music, sound effects and conversations is one of the strangest things you'll ever hear. It was part of an internal product pitch for "Shadow Force," and it begins with a Chris Roberts immitator, goes on to play some new music and ends with a conversation about what the new game was going to include. Warning--contains some language. Download it here:

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Original update published on August 11, 2011
 
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Finally got around to listening to this. I get the feeling it might not have meant to be a stand-alone track, that there is actually supposed to be some video to go along with this. Is there any possibility of this?

Also, I'm guessing the language warning is reference to coarse language - maybe it's because I couldn't hear everything being said, but I didn't notice any foul words thrown in. No big deal.
 
That's in reference to something the fake Chris Roberts at the start says (rhymes with ducking.)

We listened to this clip with Billy Cain the other night and amazingly he was able to identify all the different Wing Commander Prophecy team members speaking in the last segment. I am pretty sure it went with a slideshow or video presentation of some sort... but we don't have that. (This was a backup CD from Origin's sound department, where they apparently had this professionally mixed.)
 
Ah, that first part I couldn't make any sense out of, so I missed it. Probably for the best.

Having it go together with some sort of visual presentation makes much more sense. Glad to know they weren't completely bonkers for making something like this just for the sake of it!
 
One thing Billy talked about was how teams at Origin had to learn to 'manage upwards' if they wanted to save their project--spend time and effort continually selling what they were doing to management/EA in addition to working on the game itself (this was in the context of that incredibly detailed Privateer 3 pamphlet, which was weeks of work that would only be seen by management).
 
Oh, you wouldn't believe how much time and effort game developers all over the world have to spend doing that. It's pretty crazy... but of course, it is kinda par for the course. I mean, there's no reason why the upper management would be super-enthusiastic about your particular project, so naturally you want to get them on your side.

The downside of it all is that developers frequently wind up keeping quiet about potential problems - if you've just spent the last three weeks preparing materials to persuade management that your project is fantastic, the last thing you really want is to explain why it might fail. I've heard a few stories where the producer in charge of a project would present it to the management as a guaranteed top-seller, while all the time telling his team that he doesn't believe in the project.
 
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