Chris Avellone var tidligere instruktør hos det berømte rollespilsstudie Obsidian Entertainment, og i dag arbejder han som forfatter på blandt andet Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Avellone forlod som bekendt firmaet for en del år siden, og i et interview med VG247 fortæller han nu, at det primært skyldes den dårlige kommunikation imellem firmaets diverse departementer.
"So there's a few things. I think the most important thing is just communication on all levels, because what was really strange is that - even amongst the owner's circle - there might be two owners who might actually really know what was going on with a certain project, with a certain issue, and the others might be in the dark. And that would happen at all levels."
Desuden afslører Avellone, at der ikke er et standardiseret lønniveau, som betyder at alle får noget forskellig, ligegyldig om de laver præcis det samme. Avellone siger at dette har skabt "a lot of imbalance and morale issues", såvel som hvad Avellone kalder nepotisme.
"I don't think nepotism ever works in the game industry. Even if your friend or your family member is the best at their job, bringing in someone like that causes problems. Other people will view them differently. They could be the most well-behaved person in the world, but they'll assume that because that person has connections to the CEO, or the executive producer, the person has more weight over your future, whether they do or not."
"One complaint that kept popping up was that, often when there were layoffs - for Sega, for Armored Warfare, whatever it happened to be - there would always be some people that were always retained, and those would usually be in the nepotism circles. You might even actually have a good reason for keeping that person, but that connection, that's going to be employee favouritism, so it's best to just remove that from the equation entirely."
