Where is Nate?

[gfdgfherytrey]

I have one question for everyone here, "where is nate?" He has not been communicating with us for days and was last online on April 26th.  I would like to know why the people working on this cant come out and just say they lost their jobs, (I know some did, but what about Nate?). My point is that it seems disappointing that we were scammed not by Intercept Games, but by Take Two and Private Division as a whole. Intercept Games never did anything to us. They just made the game. Take Two and PD are the reason behind this.

[MechBFP]

Just now, gfdgfherytrey said:

I have one question for everyone here, "where is nate?" He has not been communicating with us for days and was last online on April 26th.  I would like to know why the people working on this cant come out and just say they lost their jobs, (I know some did, but what about Nate?). My point is that it seems disappointing that we were scammed not by Intercept Games, but by Take Two and Private Division as a whole. Intercept Games never did anything to us. They just made the game. Take Two and PD are the reason behind this.

There is alot of potential reasons, but it basically boils down to this:

No one wants to stick their foot in their mouth.

[The Aziz]

7 minutes ago, gfdgfherytrey said:

I know some did, but what about Nate?

According to Linkedin, he's still working. Not as part of Intercept, which will probably be closed, but as part of "KSP2 Team" at PD.

[J.Random]

20 minutes ago, gfdgfherytrey said:

where is nate?

Too busy having fun with colonies while playing that multiplayer build he once spoke about.

[dprostock]

6 minutes ago, J.Random said:

Too busy having fun with colonies while playing that multiplayer build he once spoke about.

 

[Westinghouse]

Why do we need to hear from him? Everyone who has been following KSP2 development for the past five years should be wise to Nate by now. His credibility is in the toilet.

If he does eventually come out and make a statement, it will probably be excuses along the lines of "...we did a good job, but unfortunately game development is hard..." 
Yes, game development is hard. But a team of over 50 professional game designers should have been able to improve on what a marketing company created as a side project a decade ago.  It's damning that these people were paid salaries for 7 years and were unable to add anything new that the original game didn't have apart from improved sound and music, those godawful cartoon tutorials and the childish PAIGE voice. 

I personally am interested in finding out what kind of narrative story they had planned for the game, but I'm confident this will leak out eventually. Based on what has been hinted at already, it was going to be a 'follow the breadcrumbs to the alien precursor race' kind of thing we've seen many times before. If that was all it was going to be, it's beyond disappointing that people who sold themselves as professional writers and designers were unable to come up with anything better. All the 'Keri Kerman' dialogue we saw was pretty cringeworthy. Its almost as if aiming for the children's game market was just about the right level for the abilities of this team.

I really wouldn't be surprised if Nate ends up at Private Division in some sort of executive role. Corporate types look after their own. The PD marketing executives who worked to falsely sell the 'Early Access' release would have seen a lot to admire in a silver-tongued repurposed bovine waste merchant like Nate Simpson.

[dprostock]

2 hours ago, Westinghouse said:

Why do we need to hear from him? Everyone who has been following KSP2 development for the past five years should be wise to Nate by now. His credibility is in the toilet.

If he does eventually come out and make a statement, it will probably be excuses along the lines of "...we did a good job, but unfortunately game development is hard..." 
Yes, game development is hard. But a team of over 50 professional game designers should have been able to improve on what a marketing company created as a side project a decade ago.  It's damning that these people were paid salaries for 7 years and were unable to add anything new that the original game didn't have apart from improved sound and music, those godawful cartoon tutorials and the childish PAIGE voice. 

I personally am interested in finding out what kind of narrative story they had planned for the game, but I'm confident this will leak out eventually. Based on what has been hinted at already, it was going to be a 'follow the breadcrumbs to the alien precursor race' kind of thing we've seen many times before. If that was all it was going to be, it's beyond disappointing that people who sold themselves as professional writers and designers were unable to come up with anything better. All the 'Keri Kerman' dialogue we saw was pretty cringeworthy. Its almost as if aiming for the children's game market was just about the right level for the abilities of this team.

I really wouldn't be surprised if Nate ends up at Private Division in some sort of executive role. Corporate types look after their own. The PD marketing executives who worked to falsely sell the 'Early Access' release would have seen a lot to admire in a silver-tongued repurposed bovine waste merchant like Nate Simpson.

YESSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another reason why I was suspended in 2021 is that I suspected that Nate was a used car salesman or one of those guys from the Wild West who sold medicinal elixirs.

[Pthigrivi]

Yall. Many of his friends and colleagues have lost their jobs and the project he poured his soul into the last several years is probably cancelled.  Give him a little time. The whole situation is probably really hard on him. 

Edited May 4 by Pthigrivi

[dprostock]

3 minutes ago, Pthigrivi said:

Yall. Many of his friends and colleagues have lost their jobs and the project he poured his soul into the last several years is probably cancelled.  Give him a little time. The whole situation is probably really hard on him. 

It must have been terrible to be rearranged within the company while the rest had to gather their belongings in a cardboard box. He must be desolate in his new position. 

Because he's not one who has to be looking for work, right? And I should have known in advance what would happen, right? 

Sometimes I doubt if these posts are sincere or deliberate. 

[Pthigrivi]

14 minutes ago, dprostock said:

It must have been terrible to be rearranged within the company while the rest had to gather their belongings in a cardboard box. He must be desolate in his new position. 

Because he's not one who has to be looking for work, right? And I should have known in advance what would happen, right? 

Sometimes I doubt if these posts are sincere or deliberate. 

We don’t know that, and even if he’s kept on that doesn’t make it less devastating. These are people dude. 

Edited May 4 by Pthigrivi

[dprostock]

13 minutes ago, Pthigrivi said:

We don’t know that, and even if he’s kept on that doesn’t make it less devastating. These are people dude. 

I can only imagine the pain he must have felt knowing that he was being relocated with a promotion, while the rest would have to look for new airs.

When would that have been? After Space Creator Day or before? 

[Scarecrow71]

To be honest, I am not surprised Nate isn't around right now.  He just found out a lot of his friends are jobless, the project is in serious jeopardy, and the community has been pretty angry with him for a few years.  I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly wouldn't want to be here if that was me right now.

[dprostock]

3 hours ago, Scarecrow71 said:

To be honest, I am not surprised Nate isn't around right now.  He just found out a lot of his friends are jobless, the project is in serious jeopardy, and the community has been pretty angry with him for a few years.  I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly wouldn't want to be here if that was me right now.

Did the visible head of development, the person in charge of the project and the management of the staff, find out about it only on Labor Day?  Oh, boy........

[Snip]

Edited May 5 by James Kerman
Redacted by a moderator

[Westinghouse]

1 hour ago, Pthigrivi said:

Yall. Many of his friends and colleagues have lost their jobs and the project he poured his soul into the last several years is probably cancelled.  Give him a little time. The whole situation is probably really hard on him. 

Maybe I am kicking him while he's down, but if anyone deserves it at this time it's Nate Simpson. He's the prime person responsible for the IP of one of my all time favorite games being in the dust.

I've actually met people like Nate in my travels - smarmy smooth talkers, good at PR and can be useful if utilized in client facing roles. But they're an absolute disaster to have in any leadership position. They're the kinds of confident salesmen with no actual discernable skills who are somehow able to sell your boss or client on their big ideas and the possibility that they can deliver things better and faster than others with a more grounded understanding of the system. They always insist on the fact that they have to be in charge, which inevitably results in hiring a large bloated team of staff, including many of their useless friends and cronies who always seem to end up on the payroll (notice how many of Nate's pals from Uber crossed over to Intercept as 'Game Designers' yet were unable to contribute anything of note to the game in four years). And when the project inevitably fails, they're always quick to disappear and turn up at another company the next town over to sell more snake oil. Always moving on to that next grift.

Nate was the one who sold Private Division on his vision for the sequel, in particular the idea of incorporating multiplayer and interstellar travel, despite Nate not having the technical skills or knowledge to implement those things. It was a classic case of 'oh, we'll figure it out later' that backfired spectacularly when he was unable to build and lead a team to deliver on his promises.

Maybe the situation is hard on him, but he made his own bed here. I worry he's going to wind up somehow doing the whole ruse again, taking someone else's franchise and ruining the legacy of better, more talented developers (seriously, could you imagine him in charge of Outer Wilds 2? That's exactly the kind of franchise Private Division will have their eye on next).

[dprostock]

-"The price is theft"

-"They promised and never delivered"

-"They hurt the youtubers who believed in them"

-"They never improved anything" 

-"They're going to provide maintenance, only Early Access and Science" 

[James Kerman]

A lot of content has been removed.

Please remember that all members are entitled to their own opinion and everyone is entitled to disagree politely but when a discussion devolves into petty bickering and personal attacks that have no bearing on the topic it isn't useful and stifles interesting discourse. If you feel a post has broken the forum guidelines please report it rather than replying and the moderation team will look into it. If you don't like another members opinion then you may either politely disagree or put that user on ignore rather than trying to enforce your opinion someone else. 

We know this is a difficult and anxious time for many but please remember to temper your emotions because we all have this game we love and this great community in common.

[GGG-GoodGuyGreg]

In some Holiday.  Probably soon to become a much much longer Holiday than he’s used to. 

Edited May 5 by GGG-GoodGuyGreg

[Siska]

12 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

Yall. Many of his friends and colleagues have lost their jobs and the project he poured his soul into the last several years is probably cancelled.  Give him a little time. The whole situation is probably really hard on him. 

As far as i know, all games with Nate involved were promised updates and patches but instead were abandoned at the end, not finished and removed from steam.

[Infinite Aerospace]

1 hour ago, Siska said:

As far as i know, all games with Nate involved were promised updates and patches but instead were abandoned at the end, not finished and removed from steam.

Nate worked for Uber Entertainment (former Gas Powered Games) so he worked on Planetary Annihilation and Supreme Commander II, both of which are still available on Steam. 

 

Planetary Annihilation was a fantastic game that could, and should well have been expanded on. But from a creative point of view, it's pretty solid.

[Meecrob]

14 hours ago, Pthigrivi said:

Yall. Many of his friends and colleagues have lost their jobs and the project he poured his soul into the last several years is probably cancelled.  Give him a little time. The whole situation is probably really hard on him. 

They lost their jobs BECAUSE of him! If 0.2.1 is him pouring his heart and soul into something, I question anybody who remained a member of his team. The whole situation is hard on everyone EXCEPT for Nate and his golden parachute.

I get the sentiment that it's a sad state of affairs, but its okay to place blame where it is due. On the project lead. His poor skills lead directly to where we are today. No way around it. He is the worst thing that could have happened to KSP. Prove me wrong.

2 minutes ago, Infinite Aerospace said:

Nate worked for Uber Entertainment (former Gas Powered Games) so he worked on Planetary Annihilation and Supreme Commander II, both of which are still available on Steam. 

 

Planetary Annihilation was a fantastic game that could, and should well have been expanded on. But from a creative point of view, it's pretty solid.

Planetary annihilation was a solid IP they picked up and ran into the ground like KSP2. Its a game from the late 90's that got rebooted.


Edit: I'm not sure Nate has the balls to show his face around here. I know I have a few figurative rotten tomatoes to throw his way - all in good fun, of course, mods. I just want to show the kids that there are consequences to making promises you cannot deliver on. I don't need to get any rage out, its just a vidja game after all.

Edited May 5 by Meecrob

[Infinite Aerospace]

21 minutes ago, Meecrob said:

They lost their jobs BECAUSE of him! If 0.2.1 is him pouring his heart and soul into something, I question anybody who remained a member of his team. The whole situation is hard on everyone EXCEPT for Nate and his golden parachute.

I get the sentiment that it's a sad state of affairs, but its okay to place blame where it is due. On the project lead. His poor skills lead directly to where we are today. No way around it. He is the worst thing that could have happened to KSP. Prove me wrong.

Planetary annihilation was a solid IP they picked up and ran into the ground like KSP2. Its a game from the late 90's that got rebooted.


Edit: I'm not sure Nate has the balls to show his face around here. I know I have a few figurative rotten tomatoes to throw his way - all in good fun, of course, mods. I just want to show the kids that there are consequences to making promises you cannot deliver on. I don't need to get any rage out, its just a vidja game after all.

Yeah that last part is inaccurate, Planetary Annihilation came into existence when John Mavor, founder of Uber Entertainment created it as a Kickstarter. The game you're thinking of, was Total Annihilation, created by Cavedog, of which John Mavor worked for, he created the engine for that game. Planetary Annihilation is the spiritual successor to Total Annihilation (Released 1997).

 

The game (Planetary Annihilation) received Mixed Reviews upon release but after the release of stand-alone expansion TITANS, the fortunes of the game in the eyes of gamers changed and it sits with a solid 85% very positive reputation on Steam.

 

Another game Nate worked on, at Gas Powered Games was Supreme Commander II, sequel to Supreme Commander, another spiritual successor to Total Annihilation (recurring theme here). Again, it was well received and sits with 88% very positive score on Steam. It's objectively a really good game, perhaps not as good in some regards to the first but better in other regards.

 

For the record I played Total Annihilation, when it came out and it was a great game. I kinda wish the fortunes of Kerbal Space Program had have been different, and it remained with Star Theory. I'd love to see what Mavor would have done, I think it might have been better to be honest with him at the helm, no disrespect intended towards Nate.

 

Mavor has since went on to form 'Galactic Annihilation', the title of his new project which is, you've guessed it, a spiritual successor to Total Annihilation, and it looks absolutely awesome!

 

Edit: that last part is slightly inaccurate, Industrial Annihilation is the title of the game.

Edited May 5 by Infinite Aerospace
Clearing up an error.

[jost]

14 hours ago, Scarecrow71 said:

To be honest, I am not surprised Nate isn't around right now.  He just found out a lot of his friends are jobless, the project is in serious jeopardy, and the community has been pretty angry with him for a few years.  I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly wouldn't want to be here if that was me right now.

Even if he wanted (which I highly doubt for all the reasons you mentioned) it doesn't mean that he can. I'm quite sure that everybody at IG (whether they are now employed by PD or not) had to sign a NDA to even get the salary for the last 60 days or the new position. Why should anybody with a working brain risk such a thing? Angry gamers on a discourse server, subreddit or web forum can be ignored quite easily. 
But the need to go  grocery shopping, energy bills or  a landlord are quite harder to ignore 

[Mitokandria]

15 hours ago, dprostock said:

I can only imagine the pain he must have felt knowing that he was being relocated with a promotion, while the rest would have to look for new airs.

When would that have been? After Space Creator Day or before? 

You are getting worked up over a narrative that you created. We don't know what's going on yet.

 

I'm sure we'll have more information soon either because people start breaking NDAs or official statements are released. Until then all we have to go on is our imagination, theories, and justified anger.

Confirm your target before firing. Friendly fire hurts the whole unit.

[dprostock]

3 minutes ago, Mitokandria said:

You are getting worked up over a narrative that you created. We don't know what's going on yet.

 

I'm sure we'll have more information soon either because people start breaking NDAs or official statements are released. Until then all we have to go on is our imagination, theories, and justified anger.

Confirm your target before firing. Friendly fire hurts the whole unit.

All good, it's your right. But... How long are you going to expect them to deign to explain something to you? A month? One year? a decade? a century? And if you expect someone to talk, it's because you don't understand the corporate fabric. Anyone who breaks the line is not going to be hired even in the competition. Marked for life. 

 

[Pthigrivi]

36 minutes ago, Meecrob said:

They lost their jobs BECAUSE of him! If 0.2.1 is him pouring his heart and soul into something, I question anybody who remained a member of his team. The whole situation is hard on everyone EXCEPT for Nate and his golden parachute.

Look, Nate is just the creative director. He’s the highest person up on the totem pole who’s name we happen to know. I think Nate made some directorial mistakes for sure, we all do. But there were also a huge number of really smart and inspired decisions from the very beginning. But in the end the creative director is not the one who decides when a game is released. The entire executive structure at PD and many at T2 are involved. I have little doubt the folks at IG were essentially given a date and forced to make it work as best they could. Of course we have no idea for sure what the internal dynamic was and probably never will. Im just not willing to cast blame on one dude without knowing that. From the very beginning he’s been incredibly passionate and creative and I for one believe he’s a decent dude doing his best to make KSP what it could be.