Seems Garth Erlam CM no longer.

Soo seems Garth got the boot.

http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/150904-garth-erlam/

 

Wonder what he did to piss them off. I'm sure I'll check out the reddit rumor mill in a few days. I mean, he was a big voice in the community and reasonably well liked by the players, then that communication privilege got ganked for whatever 'special project' he was working on, then he was fired. Seems ripe for conspiracy theories.

Wonder if we'll ever see him drop in matches. My guess is he changes his handle at the very least.

 

I am not assuming anything, since it can be anything. Who knows? It can easily by a simple disagreement, to workplace changes, to major blowouts or simply that he had a better offer in a different job.

Thanks for your efforts Garth, wherever you go and whatever you do. I am glad to have partaken in the Sarah Jenner event.

 

My Guess: The new Dev Vlog Series killed Garth. The first one was crap. The second was better but still crap. They said they're changing up the format and the audience universally agrees it needs to be better. I'm guessing they hired someone to do it because they didn't have anyone in-house with that skillset. They'll probably make that person the new community manager (but it might have a different title to reduce player backlash).

I just hope they didn't hire someone from NGNG. The podcast is fine for a fan podcast but I don't want NGNG 2.0 from PGI.

 

That would be it for me. I would literally pack it in if PGI hired any of those clowns. Especially if it was Mr "I was a Depot Mechanic Marine"

 

I sure have no idea of how it works, but it's been a while NGNG look like PGI employees to me

 

Considering EVERYTHING announced by the MechWarrior Online facebook page is INSTANTLY also shared by the No Guts No Galaxy page...

 

Err... coincidence? hear:

 

lol, so much hate for ngng that I don't understand. We need as much promotion as we can get, and at least they get some pgi employee interviews that give out a little more information than the official forums. Not all news reporters are attack dogs, so not all fan groups have to be either...

 

Thinking that has more to do with his hands being tied than a lack of effort. I mean, look at Paul and Bryan's posts and communication - if they were the gatekeepers, I'm amazed we ever even heard Garth's name. My theory is that Garth probably had a little bit of integrity and disagreed with his bosses too many times and/or they didn't like his ideas and always got shot down... and got let go for it.

 

Hate is such a strong word but I'll go with loathing. Loathing works and its well earned in my opinion. You may strike me dead for this Michael but Im tellin' it like it is!

First of all, they aren't a "fan group" they are contracted "employees" of PGI. Who at PGI thought that was a good idea should be taken out behind the woodshed and shot. Basically, you may see [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] mouths moving but it is Russ and Bryan (and formerly Garth) who did the finger puppet work. NGNG used to be an unbiased look at MWO but has now become a vehicle for PGI propaganda. They aren't attack dogs and nobody expects them to be but once in a while it would be nice to have someone ask a Dev a tough question, one that hasn't been scripted in advanced.

Next, don't even get me started with their lack of professionalism for what amounted to a "lunch party" rather than a Launch party back when they did that steaming pile of whatever on twitch. It was the blind leading the [REDACTED] (or hiring the [REDACTED] in this case) and frankly one just has to take a look at their supposed MechWarrior Universe or whatever that project was called to see how up to the task they are. Is that thing even still going? Rumor has it that the project fell apart because [REDACTED] and the other "partner(s)" couldn't see eye to eye.

Anything to make a fast buck. Put some lipstick on those guys give them some high heels and put them out on the street cause they turnin tricks 'yo!

So yeah if PGI put any of those clowns in charge of the community mark my words that it will be the Deaths Knell (no pun intended) for the game. Hell it is already in rough shape. I logged on this afternoon and saw Michael and about 20 other people online. I used to have a friends list of like 60+ online any given evening (except maybe Sunday night).

 

Jacob, I have redacted several parts of your post as they are essentially personal attacks. While I encourage people to post their opinions on MechSpecs (good or bad) I also encourage them to do it with some amount of restraint. Please exercise a little more restraint and stay on topic.

 

More like

 

I can only speak for myself, but my line on NGNG wasn't hate at all. They're actually pretty useful and provide PGI with something they really lack of.
That being said, if I had to run a media about Mechwarrior I would certainly not follow the same path (and generate approximately 10 view per day, most likely :blush: )

 

Well thats more with what happened to Garth:

[img width=575 height=323]http://i.imgur.com/wQ4c1c6.png[/img]

I was more referring to what happened to parts of Jacobs post.

 

For the record I don't hate NGNG. I think it is a fine podcast and the hosts are good at what they do. But fans should stay fans whether they have a podcast or not. When fans get invited behind the curtain something is seriously wrong. Firstly, it doesn't seem professional by the developer. Secondly, in some cases it raises the issue of favoritism (both NGNG "slow pitching" to PGI but also the possibility of PGI giving NGNG special treatment).

MWO isn't the only game I've played with this problem. Planetside 2 has a very popular fan podcast which is similar to NGNG in some respects (although unlike PGI the PS2 devs have not one but three regularly produced shows which are all very high quality and produced in-house). And the host of said podcast was given access to a sort of "flying camera" account for lack of a better term. Now, he certainly seems like a stand-up kind of guy and I wouldn't accuse him of misusing it. But that sort of thing should never be given out to non-developers in an online game. Yeah it makes since that such a thing would exist; the devs have it to make pretty videos of their game. But for fuck's sake don't give some random dude access to it because his podcast is popular.

 

Good grief, this company keeps limboing under my expectations.

 

Community Manager for a money grubbing, image obsessed, content missing title with an underskilled and understaffed development team... He's in a better place by default.