DOTA 2

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That PL fake was one of the better plays of the major.

Caal_sl said:

That PL fake was one of the better plays of the major.

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Was pretty hilarious. Too bad that seemed the only good play for their team entire game.

Production seems much better with that horrible company gone, no problems so far.

James is an ass - By James Harding - Book 1 - Google Docs
James' reply.

Valve seems to have some internal communication issues, Gaben appearing on reddit was more of a damage control that's going to backfire. James wins this round, nothing he said was so bad they couldn't have solved it by managing him a bit more

2gd has lived on that side of the line for a long fucking time. When the whole major started out so poorly Gaben likely just went scorched earth and fired the two nearest people he possibly could.

This is a clusterfuck, but it also clearly highlights why lack of communication is key to stuff falling apart.

A few people say "Do what you do, you crazy bastard!"
A few people say "Don't do that, you crazy bastard!"
Internet laughs at and with the crazy bastard and the event as a whole
CEOs tend to get their input from people beneath them. He makes the call after the "don't do that" and the internet reaction, potentially without realizing what other Valve folks told him

The history of the TIs was interesting, especially the "lets crowdsource people's salaries! trolololol" mindboggle. It always came across to me as a bonus system, I had no idea it was meant to actually be ALL of their payment until they went back and agreed to a base salary.

There really are no winners in all of this. Valve looks dysfunctional and this will hurt James professionally because he provided behind-the-curtain details. Plus, now everyone left in Shanghai is frightened out of their minds, evidenced by the panels being serious as fuck. No one wants to risk offending anyone and ending up like James, but the end result is the entertainment aspect has fallen into the damned toilet and it is hard to even watch the panels for long. Hell, even in pro sports they goof around on these types of panels, because if it is 100% serious the audience gets bored.

Seems like bad idea to have done that. While it might not get Bruno outright fired...I bet it affects his job too. James is done in dota 2, nobody is going to risk association with him. Not saying he didnt get fucked because he did...but he could have been vague about it and maybe have worked things out.

I honestly wouldn't be shocked if the opinions of Valve employees about themselves is inflated. There are quite a few reasons and he lists some valid ones. Higher than average pay, "you're your own boss" attitude, consistently told you're cream of the crop with a pile of resumes that want your job, constant stack ranking showing you're even better than other employees ... I mean the cult of personality over at Valve I don't see how itwouldn'tgo to your head that you're smarter than everyone.

Rofl and the stream just died and twitch chat is ablaze

If you step back though you can understand the issue with referring to someone as bottom bitch in the current climate. I'm not offended by it, waga & sing weren't but its a bit homophobic and I can't imagine too many parents of 12-year olds would be too happy hearing it on stream. (Thought it pales in comparison to voice chat in the average dota game...)

Then dont fucking hire James.

Jesus, he has said 100x worse shit. Its like asking Louis CK to do comedy at your Church's prayer breakfast.

Tenks_sl said:

I honestly wouldn't be shocked if the opinions of Valve employees about themselves is inflated. There are quite a few reasons and he lists some valid ones. Higher than average pay, "you're your own boss" attitude, consistently told you're cream of the crop with a pile of resumes that want your job, constant stack ranking showing you're even better than other employees ... I mean the cult of personality over at Valve I don't see how itwouldn'tgo to your head that you're smarter than everyone.

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I'm reminded of the engineer, Jeri Elsworth or something, who said it was a lot like high school. Valve seems to love encouraging these merit based rewards, like not even paying casters except through signatures. It's so insane, I can imagine they do that sort of shit in their company too and you get these ridiculous sycophantic employees trying to gain favor and climb over eachother

bayr_sl said:

I'm reminded of the engineer, Jeri Elsworth or something, who said it was a lot like high school. Valve seems to love encouraging these merit based rewards, like not even paying casters except through signatures. It's so insane, I can imagine they do that sort of shit in their company too and you get these ridiculous sycophantic employees trying to gain favor and climb over eachother

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Its that way with any company who stack ranks employees. Half of your day is devoted to simply trying to play politics and letting everyone know what you did. Because even if you do good work but mostly keep to yourself (or worse yet allow others to take credit for it) you'll be seen as someone not contributing to the cause. I know at Valve (or at least was, this info may be old now) but a significant amount of your bonus and raise was directly tied to your stack rank. So if you ranked in the top 10% of the company as voted by your peers you were poised for quite a financial windfall. But if you were ranked in the bottom 10% you could actually get your pay cut.

Genjiro_sl said:

Then dont fucking hire James.

Jesus, he has said 100x worse shit. Its like asking Louis CK to do comedy at your Church's prayer breakfast.

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Exercise common sense while representing a company? Comics (though probably not often the big leaguers like CK) are often hired for corporate events and avoid the risque material.

Luthair_sl said:

Exercise common sense while representing a company? Comics (though probably not often the big leaguers like CK) are often hired for corporate events and avoid the risque material.

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Not to be a dick because idk you at all but are you new to watching James/dota?

This is what James has done his entire career casting. This is why the community loves James, for his being a smartass, calling players out, etc. This is what Icefrog TOLD HIM TO DO. Its not like he was hired with the stipulation to be someone different and act like Tobiwan. IF told him to be himself, and if Valve wanted the same ole same ole Redeye was available. They chose James and all that they knew came with James. Fucks sake.

Valve was obviously not all on the same page, it was their fuckup.

Tenks_sl said:

Its that way with any company who stack ranks employees. Half of your day is devoted to simply trying to play politics and letting everyone know what you did. Because even if you do good work but mostly keep to yourself (or worse yet allow others to take credit for it) you'll be seen as someone not contributing to the cause. I know at Valve (or at least was, this info may be old now) but a significant amount of your bonus and raise was directly tied to your stack rank. So if you ranked in the top 10% of the company as voted by your peers you were poised for quite a financial windfall. But if you were ranked in the bottom 10% you could actually get your pay cut.

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How a whole language of the Steam Translation Server was shut down - and why it's important to you : SteamHow a single Valve employee killed a translation community that existed for 10+ years.

Judging by this, Valve needs to get their shit together, because it reads like guys getting creative with what constitutes profit and there is nobody vetting their shitty ideas and blowing up Gaben's inbox every single time this happens is getting old. Many people still seem surprised that there is a word behind the "Valve" and that word is "corporation". So you have people encouraged to profit by any means but none of the oversight. This might work for jobs inside the company, like programming, art, design etc. but it's obviously not working when dealing with the outside world, because you are playing a game of telephone with no clear responsibilities.

On the other hand, James is probably the only person who actually could profit from this shitshow.

Genjiro_sl said:

Not to be a dick because idk you at all but are you new to watching James/dota?

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Hardly.

Genjiro_sl said:

This is what James has done his entire career casting. This is why the community loves James, for his being a smartass, calling players out, etc. This is what Icefrog TOLD HIM TO DO. Its not like he was hired with the stipulation to be someone different and act like Tobiwan. IF told him to be himself, and if Valve wanted the same ole same ole Redeye was available. They chose James and all that they knew came with James. Fucks sake.

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There is a big difference from being cheeky (e.g. self deprecation, 3-million dollar whiteboard, and listing EE as a con) and sexual preference jokes. It may have been acceptable (or ignore-able) when the audience was a couple hundred or thousand late teens or 20s, but its clear that esports are on the verge of becoming mainstream. From Valve's perspective they can't afford to be painted as bigoted by social justice warrior fucktards. (There is potentially a metric shit-ton of money on the horizon)

Genjiro_sl said:

Valve was obviously not all on the same page, it was their fuckup.

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Nope. James failed to exercise common sense. Maybe someone from Valve could have simply pulled him aside and warned him to avoid that shit but we don't know their past interactions or maybe they simply thought it was too risky.

James was told to be James by icefrog.

So james was James.

Valve got mad for James being James.

James is not Redeye, James was *never* going to do anything other than what he did, and everyone who has watched him over the years knows this....so yea, I question how long you have watched dota/James.

He already had blown shit up with Valve. Why not adjust your behavior?

I don't buy his "But everybody knows I'm naughty!" line.