I don't know if the discussion is hating on the employees, per se, but rather the practice of widely varying wage scales and labor practices in each of those areas...at least from my end. I like Blades and the games that are supposedly developed by the Shanghai team. It's because of that liking, quite frankly, that I think that team deserves to be treated on an equal scale as the rest of Gameloft's studios. And if they aren't, well, then that's a problem.
First of all, I start up the topic with no intention, so there is no defense or offence here. Yes, Im making assumption here, let me rephrase: - Actually, not all gameloft games are make from China, the title should say SOME. - It is not a couple names is Chinese, but whole team, from Producer, 3D Visual, Game design, Programmer to QA, all is Chinese names, so I believe it is a team from somewhere china. Except positions are not Chinese is sound effect, marketing person. Well, thats making sense, and thatll be the TREND definitely in the future for most of the global game companies, where theyre outsourcing their projects to either China/India. Think about Global companies like IBM, Microsoft, SAP and etc. They all have teams from 200~500 employees in both China and India. Our companys customer support team is outsourcing to Philippines (100+ ppl lost their jobs here). Why, read below. I apologize for my word cheap labour, if that hurt your feeling, Im so sorry. So no hard feelings ok. I dont mean Chinese people are cheap labor; but I have been told a programmer in china can only make around 5k Chinese Yuan per month that roughly equivalent to 700 USD (*8k per year), still his income is 3~4 times more than an office clerk in china. But compare to a developer here, hes getting 70k ~100k per year; devs in China are making much less money than devs here, and roughly 10 times less. So if Gameloft outsource their product there, I can understand. If I own a company, Ill do the same. The discussion is here - many individual developers or small companies feel greatly threaten by those big publishers like Gameloft: - They have no enough resource - They cannot compete the game quality - They cannot finish game on time / or in short time - Well, not enough money to promo their product - etc *so Gameloft can create/clone many games similar to those individual or small companies working on. Gameloft clone it quick, release it fast & sell in cheap. When those individual or small companies release their game, Gameloft similar one will drop its price to 1.99/.99 that hurt their product sales. So you can tell, for sure Only one of you can't beat 10 Outsourcing Developers (*if you do math right from above*), and those Outsourcing people are great developers with intelligence & programming quality. Although they may not be innovation, but they can do thing well if you give them the blueprint. May I say they can CLONE things well? Well, thats Gameloft business strategy; they try to clone/transplant games from other platform to iPhone. And where is the great place to clone things? (*again, take it easy, no hard feeling ok*) Yea, China. They can do great product with low price. Think about their great success on clone(fake) LV hand bags, clone(fake) watch, clone illegal DVD/CD, clone(fake) Nike T-shirt, clone(fake) Disney toy/doll w00t fake milk powder for infant, that hurt ... fake this fake that (j/k) and even fake(clone) egg, no kidding read here: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/fake-eggs-china.shtml So why not clone game (j/k) Fake iPhone in China?! Sure, it wont be miss, fake iPhone in China called iOrange Article talk about fake iPhone (iOrange) in China: http://www.electronista.com/articles...one.copy.seen/ Official site: http://iorgane.com/ (*it is a not a apple web site in Chinese, but again, a clone web site in Chinese) Again, I love gameloft if I'm a consumer (like you mom love to shop in Walmart), in the other hand I hate it if I'm a iPhone developer in NA I apologize for my word and rudeness, just wanna share some info and create thought here.
If it bothers you, don't buy the games. If it does not bother you, buy them if you like them. Neither side will win their argument so it should go quiet here, pointless continuing.
Avoid doesn't mean boycott. I make a deliberate and concentrated effort. The result is that I rarely buy Chinese products. There are plenty of other poor Asian countries being exploited by developed nations to choose from. To be concerned about the environment isn't environmentalists anymore, there are people who are aware of their effects on the planet and people who are willfully ignorant. We'll just have to see how history remembers those two.
