Old School RuneScape -
Jagex
During my time at Jagex I managed the team of designers working on Old School RuneScape. This was a larger team than I had managed previously, however my responsibilities on the team were primarily management focused without any design responsibilities. Instead my focus was on managing People, Process, and Projects.
In terms of people management, I had regular one-on-ones with every member of the design team, getting to know each team member, helping to facilitate and clear up blockers, and encouraging designers to set professional development goals for themselves. Responsibilities also included interviewing, conducting performance reviews, and working closely with HR to help team members through personal issues.
Process refinement required working closely with production as well as the Art Director to improve velocity by clearing up bottlenecks. This ended up establishing a greenlight process with specific stakeholders and contingencies if unexpected delays occurred or unanticipated revisions were required.
Projects had a tendency to exceed allotted time, leading to crunch which was not something I supported. The needs of each project were different, and oftentimes close oversight was required to keep things on track and address issues as soon as they appeared where otherwise they might not have been noticed until a deadline approached.
Old School RuneScape has an incredibly dedicated fanbase. Almost everyone on the design team started out as a Runescape player, as Jagex recruits heavily from their sizable player community. This is fantastic in a lot of ways, as designers understand the game in great detail and have an in-depth understanding of what the community will want to see. This dedication can have a downside however, when the needs of the studio and the desires of the players aren’t in alignment. This is never an ideal situation, however there are times that inevitably business decisions don’t go over well with the community.
While many MMOs allow mods in some form, OSRS has a large number of players using entire third party clients. Jagex would prefer if this was not the case, however third party clients have many features players find important to their play experience that the official client lacks. During my time at Jagex a plugin for the most popular unofficial client RuneLite was poised to release with a major lighting update that improved the visual quality of the game substantially. Fearing this would push even more players toward unofficial clients and put the official client even further behind, Jagex sent a cease and desist notice to the developer the day before the highly anticipated plugin was set to be released.
When the developer of the plugin didn’t release it as planned and announced what had happened, there was an extreme amount of negative sentiment, both from the community and the design team. To address the concerns of the team, the SVP in charge of Game Development at the studio held a meeting and Q&A session to explain the company’s actions. Following this meeting I met individually with each of the designers, compiled a list of ongoing concerns, and discussed them with the Executive Producer along with steps for addressing them.
One individual in particular was extremely upset, and over the following weeks sent messages to everyone in studio leadership up to and including the CEO. I discussed the situation with HR and set aside time to talk with this individual every day, and ultimately convinced them to seek professional help. Ultimately Jagex ended up reversing the decision and allowed the lighting mod to be released, and the individual was prescribed new medication and was able to resume working as a productive member of the team.