This might be my most stupid question yet, but what the hell:
I’m reading about the GTA VI leaks on Wikipedia, and it talks about the various impacts the leaks had, one of which was low morale amongst the developers. Why is that? The response from the internet to the GTA VI leaks in particular seemed to be positive and caused renewed excitement in the game. Everyone [seemingly] understood that it was early, non-final work, but were nevertheless impressed/excited, as far as I could tell anyway 🤷 Besides, it’s GTA, it’s not like they’re gonna break much new ground in terms of gameplay mechanics that need to be kept secret. Things were more or less set in stone in that regard in GTA III.
Why so sad?
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If people liked what they saw, this steals thunder from the actual release. All it will do it set expectations higher, and some people will inevitably say “a leak showed the game was working 8 months ago - why is it taking so long to release?”
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If people don’t like what they see it is an unfair judgment of the work and that’s disheartening
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These people live under confidentiality agreements and don’t tell their friends or sometime even family anything about their work. Seeing some jackass leak everything invalidates all that effort and sacrifice. I would not be surprised if the company cracks down on everybody, making their lives even harder, because they don’t know where the leak came from therefore everyone is suspect
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Ever had someone looking over your shoulder providing feedback to something that you’re in the middle of writing the first draft of?
I engraved leather stuff we made with a laser.
Whenever a customer was commenting on white I was typing WHILE I was typing it… I’d swivel the screen away from them so they couldn’t see it until I was done writing.
It’s like “yes I know I misspelled that word… you just verbally told me a paragraph of text I’m writing quickly before I forget it. I’ll fix the spelling and formatting after… just wait. Before I engrave I’ll show you for approval”
Your point? Management already does this constantly. What’s wrong with your actual customer and user base doing it too?
It’s not done and it’s annoying. Logically speaking management knows what you are working on so if you are working on a 25% complete deliverable they have a reasonable expectation what that should look like. When management doesn’t do that it’s also annoying.
Because people on the internet are assholes. Imagine working 60 hours a week on a game that you can’t talk about because of your employment NDA and some chucklefuck leaks your work in progress and complains that it looks shit and doesn’t work despite it is still in progress.
Then those dickheads start harassing employees saying their work is shit, and in some cases should die of embarrassment.
I love that some asshat was triggered by you calling them an asshole and downvoted you.
Besides, it’s GTA, it’s not like they’re gonna break much new ground in terms of gameplay mechanics that need to be kept secret.
Why Would You Say Something So Controversial Yet So Brave?
Honestly, I think it’s relatively simple: eeeeveryone and their dog signs an NDA. The people working on it are excited and have to bite their tongue every. single. day. and they are waiting for the release where they can just talk about it.
Then some douche with access leaks it and so all that effort goes to waste, and they still can’t talk about it, because that would make things worse. Also, if someone says something negative, they can’t show the positive and defend their work.
I worked on big games that got leaked. Companies spend a shitton on marketing with the hope of making a big boom when it’s announced. We’re hoping to see our work revealed in the best way possible. When it leaks, that big announcement possibility is gone, that money is partly wasted, and what’s shown is out of our control.
Game companies are notorious for lying in their announcement trailers. So why should we care about what they want to show?
I mean, if the marketing is lying about the product, it will probably demoralize developers in a similar way and for the same reasons.
