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What's it like working at NovaQuark...?


michaelk

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I wonder about the morale at NQ -- the development velocity is mystifyingly slow despite years and years of foundations. 

 

I stumbled on these reviews about the (alleged) workplace culture:

Quote

If you're looking to work for a company where you'll be a puppet and a yes man, this is the place for you.

Good luck with the team located in Paris. They'll make sure you hate your job in no time.

Stay. Away.

Quote

Du crunch si besoin, logique pour du jeux vidéo, mais aussi une ambiance start up et peut de visibilité, un management complément pourrit du projet, une déception cette boite.

(google translated)
Crunch if necessary, logical for video games, but also a start-up atmosphere and little visibility, a rotten additional management of the project, a disappointment this box.

https://ca.indeed.com/cmp/Novaquark

 

The second review is from 2016 and first is from 2019...well before the bandwagon of hating on NQ in these forums lol. 

 

How is it that the dev team is crunching (even in 2016) yet nothing is getting done...? The upcoming 0.24 patch is very big relative to past updates...but even then seems to be pushing very incomplete features relative to the time in development and size of NQ's team. 

 

I really feel for the devs at NQ...no wonder NQ has trouble communicating with players; they won't even listen to their own employees...

 

I have plenty to say about JC's never working in game dev before NQ...but running a toxic workplace? No wonder production data got screwed up with the schematic prices and dev velocity is slow: why should the devs care...? 

 

Demoralized devs find a way to look productive while doing the absolute minimum. And if there's a perception that your ideas won't be heard? That you aren't really a part of the creation of the game...? You'll hold your tongue instead of offering good ideas. You'll never really go the extra mile or add your full potential to the project. Not like you really want the boss to be successful. 

 

Look....this is just a game for us. It's really not a huge deal if the game thrives or dies for us. We'll live. The devs at NQ have to go to work every day -- this is their livelihood and their lives -- and if they're facing toxic management and constant crunch, that's just not something I really want to support with my dollars.

 

NQ could make every mistake with the game itself and I'd still probably be interested enough to maintain a sub, but not if they're running their employees into the ground. 

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Haunty is right, its trully too many assumptions, considering quality of info we have (while I like to make them myself!). Obviously NQ have their internal challanges, as every company -- its kinda normal. Especily in difficult creative field.

 

But, I must say, that my personal (short) experience with french working/buisness culture was honestly... very bad. Being russian (likely with my own annoying quirks) I sometimes felt like I'm on edge of total meltdown from their style of doing things, french meetings is something! Interestingly, in other short experience, I really liked how americans roll things, much less BS, to put it bluntly.

 

 

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Yeah, it's only two perspectives...years apart that say the same thing.

 

It's odd that NQ is given a presumption of innocence while employee complaints are given a presumption of exaggeration or lies. This isn't specific to NQ; it tends to be how people view employee complaints in general. 

 

Most people have worked under rotten management. It is absurdly common. A lot more common than two people lying on Indeed years apart just because. 

 

Two accounts is hardly rock-solid proof, but that doesn't mean they don't count. Deciding that these complaints don't count is also a value judgement that is also based on assumptions. 

 

It's weird that when NQ deploys a change people don't like that's proof they are incompetent or malicious, but toxic workplace that actually affects livelihoods? Nah, we don't care about that.

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38 minutes ago, michaelk said:

Yeah, it's only two perspectives...years apart that say the same thing.

 

It's odd that NQ is given a presumption of innocence while employee complaints are given a presumption of exaggeration or lies. This isn't specific to NQ; it tends to be how people view employee complaints in general. 

 

Most people have worked under rotten management. It is absurdly common. A lot more common than two people lying on Indeed years apart just because. 

 

Two accounts is hardly rock-solid proof, but that doesn't mean they don't count. Deciding that these complaints don't count is also a value judgement that is also based on assumptions. 

 

It's weird that when NQ deploys a change people don't like that's proof they are incompetent or malicious, but toxic workplace that actually affects livelihoods? Nah, we don't care about that.

You are certainly making a lot of assumptions in all this. People whom leave a company often don't have many positive things to say. So yeas if their sole amount of negative indeed reviews is 2 people separated by 3 years then I would certainly give NQ the benefit of the doubt. 'Toxic' work environment means wildly different things to different people.

 

That being said , NQ has shown some gross mistakes when relating to the game community, or standard business practices like fixing exploits. Also the 'inner circle' information flow is a valid reason to bring their ethical practices in questions. 

 

In the end crusading for the 'employees' is a total waste of time. This smacks of cancel culture for overblown 'outrage' reasons than any reasonable judgement against NQ.

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8 minutes ago, Xennial said:

In the end crusading for the 'employees' is a total waste of time. This smacks of cancel culture for overblown 'outrage' reasons than any reasonable judgement against NQ.

Right, I forgot -- this is the place to talk ad nauseam about PvP, rollbacks, and exploits...stuff that really matters.

 

Discussing how NQ treats their employees is totally less important than those vital topics with 5000 pages of people rehashing decisions NQ made about their video game, but employee treatment...totally "a waste of time". 

 

That you associate a discussion about how a company treats employees as "cancel culture" is a projection and says more about your perspectives than it does the actual topic. 

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46 minutes ago, michaelk said:

Right, I forgot -- this is the place to talk ad nauseam about PvP, rollbacks, and exploits...stuff that really matters.

 

Discussing how NQ treats their employees is totally less important than those vital topics with 5000 pages of people rehashing decisions NQ made about their video game, but employee treatment...totally "a waste of time". 

 

That you associate a discussion about how a company treats employees as "cancel culture" is a projection and says more about your perspectives than it does the actual topic. 

Yup, it says that I utilize a game forum to talk about the game. If you want to go white knight employee rights and treatment at NQ , then I'm sure there are plenty of forums about worker rights out there.

 

Your pandering for attention now. Get off your high horse, your no ones champion here. We pay to play a game and that is what we care about and what we talk about here. 

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3 hours ago, michaelk said:

It's odd that NQ is given a presumption of innocence while employee complaints are given a presumption of exaggeration or lies. This isn't specific to NQ; it tends to be how people view employee complaints in general. 

 

Heres the thing though, as with most things in life you rarely see a review if things are good. If you work for a job that you neither hate nor love most wont leave a review. It takes someone who truely loves the job and workplace to leave a good review.

 

However, most people who are angry are FAR more willing to leave a poor review of a company for even the smallest slights.

 

Keep in mind most employees who get canned are usually angry. Doesn't matter WHY they got canned, they will be angry. They could be slovenly layabouts who never do a damn thing and spend all day leering at the women while rubbing parts south until someone says enough is enough. Or they could be amazing talent with a racist as hell boss who has zero problems exploiting them then trashing them. Once fired they will be pissed.

 

And the same applies to any other area someone could get angry. Perhaps they feel slighted because someone else got promoted over them. Maybe they dont fit into the company. Maybe the work they are good at is unfufilling. Maybe the hours are poor and result in family problems and a million other such cases.

 

These are all the type of people and situations that are likely to leave a poor review regardless of what actully happened. As a result of this knowledge, most reasonable people wont trust just one or two bad reviews that are spread far apart over years in a company of hundreds. We only get one side of the story and only from someone who is likely angry ontop of that.

 

Instead they will take such reviews as a collective thing. If you have a ton of close together bad reviews then odds are something is wrong. However, if you only have a bad one here and there, then that is entirely normal for any average company and can be disregarded. Hell its common for any product, service or job just because as a rule angry people tend to blow a problem up much bigger then it actully is. Hell in their heads they may even be telling the truth as THEY understand it, though its not what actully happened.

 

Hell you are doing it with your posts right now. You are at some level angry at NQ for the problems the game has. Something many of us here likely even can agree with to varing extents. And the proof of this is your trying to conflate 2 bad reviews over 3 years, with NQs poor communication and game problems and imply this is a toxic workplace.

 

There is little/no evidence of this. We dont see CMs quitting in droves, we dont see NQ scrambleing for devs with open positions constantly, we dont see lawsuits against them by former employees nothing. You just have 2 posts from 2 angry ex employees and a simile of events.

 

Honestly this just seems you are trying to stir the pot.

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3 hours ago, michaelk said:

Two accounts is hardly rock-solid proof, but that doesn't mean they don't count. Deciding that these complaints don't count is also a value judgement that is also based on assumptions. 

 

I don't think anyone said that those complaints don't count.  But if you're looking for someone to pass a verdict, i don't think anyone here is a judge or jury.

 

Would i be interested in what those former employees have to say, if i was applying for a job at NQ? sure.

 

Am i going to boycott NQ as a customer because two former employees had a slightly unpleasant experience? no i don't think so.

 

 

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I'd say the Montreal one is clearly from someone who came in with different expectations but the general sense of disconnect and lack of communication skills is not exactly an unknown..
 

One does not really need these comments to have a sense of the way NQ operates and I'd hope that certainly the last one is seriously exaggerated. As those of us who have been around the game for a long time are well aware, there is a core of truth in this opinion that we've all seen here. Some may close their eyes to it but that does not make it go away.

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13 hours ago, CptLoRes said:

I just did a quick search (mostly linkedin) and from the original team of 24, only 8 people (9 if we include JC) are still working there.

This translates to a 65% turnover rate (excluding JC from the team of 24).

 

Who surived more -- actual devs or all sort of bosses/managers?

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It is Saturday and since I am not spending any time playing DU, I decided I might as well kill some time doing more research.

This time I looked at high profile hires, and it is not looking good. And since these where published in the news, I can use names.

 

- Dual Universe Adds EVE Online’s Hrafnkell Oskarsson

Linkedin: Mar 2018 – Oct 2018, Employment Duration 8 mos

 

- Dual Universe developer christens new Montreal studio opening by hiring former Eidos executive Stéphane D'Astous

Linkedin: Feb 2019 – Sep 2020, Employment Duration 1 yr 8 mos

 

- Dual Universe developer Novaquark hire former CCP Technical Director as new CTO

Linkedin: Nov 2019 – Sep 2020, Employment Duration 11 mos

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On 2/12/2021 at 11:02 PM, CptLoRes said:

I just did a quick search (mostly linkedin) and from the original team of 24, only 8 people (9 if we include JC) are still working there.

This translates to a 65% turnover rate (excluding JC from the team of 24).

 

This actually says allot. Tnx for this info. 

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23 hours ago, CptLoRes said:

This time I looked at high profile hires, and it is not looking good

So they actually hired professionals. But they did not like the professional answers.

 

Yea, i have seen this in my company too. 

Ppl think they are an expert in a certain area. But because they dont have any experience, they hire some real expert to back what they are saying. 

But often the real expert has a different opinion, mostly because real experts tend to think that saying the truth and not compromising their integrity by sucking up to the boss is what made them experts. 

But from the arrogant boss's perspective, the expert is clearly wrong. And what use does a company have for a wrong expert? 

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5 hours ago, joaocordeiro said:

So they actually hired professionals. But they did not like the professional answers.

In my opinion it is probably a combination of clash with management style (especially for the 2018 case) and leaving the sinking ship,  you know before it actually sinks.

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