The layoffs have me confused more then anything else. Help?

What other company right before a major patch laid off its CRM and half the QA team? If you can name one I will 100% believe what you say.

Funcom laid off community staff within a year of lauching Age of Conan. The community teams are usually the first go as it's an expendable job.

Heh ya I dont think the CRM is "expendable" lol. Also I wouldnt use AoC as an example. They failed miserably worse than warhammer lol.

Just do Google search. It's the norm. You'll find comments like:

And

And so on.

Had to reply to this because it's funny to read. You don't need many professional skill sets to be a CM. The CM is just the liason between the customer and the owner. Just because you're active on a message board or Twitter doesn't necessarily mean you're a good CM.

Again this isnt a normal lay off. You dont normally lay off the QA people and the head CRM as part of everyday business. I can tell talking to you is like talking to a wall. You completely ignore all facts and post some nonsense. Even tho you have been disproven over and over and over you ignore everything and post something you probably made up as half your argument. With that on ignore you go. I dont mind debating but people like you with your smart aleck comments and lack of ability to admit you might not know everything irritate me to no end.

He was the head community guy he was a big deal. He was at every SWTOR event. He wasnt just some CSR they let go. Also with 1.3 being delayed with no eta in sight you think its normal to go in and layoff half the QA testers? Then the same day put out an ad saying you are hiring QA testers? You think thats normal? What world are you living in?

No, this layoff isn't normal, you're quite right. It has more to do with mistakes and mismanagement, though, than it does with decreasing income. Although the two are not mutually exclusive.

You must not read my posts much. I admit when I'm wrong quite readily, but only when presented with the facts. Hyperbole and ranting is not proof.

The timing (particularly on the QA side) also coincided with failure after failure. Maybe BW wised up and fired that staff who was slacking.

We don't know what was the quality of work he was doing in the office. As a head community guy, it's his responsibility to show up at every SWTOR event. Does that necessarily mean he was doing a good job? You might think so just because he showed up, but we don't know what he communicated behind closed doors at the office.

Also regarding QA work for a game, it's not difficult to replace them. I highly doubt the people that got laid off were SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) engineers. They'd probably be your normal game tester (which get paid very little) e.g. play the game, run through test cases, document, and report back. So in that regard, I think it's normal. I'm more concerned about the other people that got laid off, specifically people who spearheaded design and direction of this game. The CM and QA team are not responsible for that.