So Trendy Entertainment seems to be a terrible place to work.

http://kotaku.com/investigation-a-video-game-studio-from-hell-511872642


I could just let the article speak for itself.

Some highlights!

• 
  
• Hiring women just because they can get away with paying them less
  
• Seven-day work weeks.
  
• Intentionally sexualizing the under 18 characters from DD1
  
• An office environment so toxic, employees are terrified to speak up for fear of losing their jobs.
  

^That's dangerously pedophilic Mr. Stieglitz


"One employee tells the story of a cousin who passed away. The employee was too terrified to ask for time off. "I was so afraid of losing my job that I didn't go to his funeral," the employee told me. "It was probably one of my lowest points."

^ See this? People should never be so scared to ask for time off as to miss the funeral of a relative.


I am absolutely terrible at summarizing, what i've listed doesn't even completely cover it.
From what i've read, the staff is great. Stieglitz is the problem.

What is wrong with you Stieglitz?



I am entirely expecting this thread to be deleted, possibly even a forum ban. Maybe even banned from the beta.

This doesn't seem legit, just saying.

[quote]Trendy president Stieglitz declined to address any of the specific allegations in this story, but the company sent over the following statement:

Trendy is a fairly young indie videogame developer experiencing some of the unfortunate issues associated with new companies finding their footing: long hours, quick growth, and on-going challenges stemming from working in a highly creative environment. Our management is focused on continuing to grow and develop a positive workplace despite these challenges. We are excited for our upcoming release of Dungeon Defenders 2 and hope that consumers appreciate the results of our efforts.
[/quote]

I always get bad vibes from companies that give these sort of generic "everything is good" responses that don't answer any of the questions and don't specifically deny anything either.

This doesn't seem legit, just saying.

They claimed they received their information from employees. If there to wasn't a good amount of truth to it, I would think that Trendy's lawyers would have had it taken down for being slanderous.

Leisure Suit Larry hero on DD2 to come??

I am entirely expecting this thread to be deleted, possibly even a forum ban. Maybe even banned from the beta.

I would not be surprised if you did.

I would not be surprised if you did.

Neither would I.
Don't get me wrong here guys, until today i was by no means an anti Trendy / DD person. I've put 500+ hours into the game, bought every bit of DLC. But after seeing this, I can't honestly support either games anymore.

Also, at least now when people give me guff for buying the latest Battlefield or CoD game, I can use the article and explain the that the little guys are no better and in fact, sometimes even worse.

Just a friendly reminder, keep the tone civil and everything is fine. We won't be banning people simply for speaking their mind. We only ask that you follow the forum rules, as always. Thanks!

I'll just gonna deny this ever existed, and it's all unicorns and tower defense. I have a goal, still.

this might be the cause for the delay.

http://kotaku.com/investigation-a-video-game-studio-from-hell-511872642

trendy, your boss is a double ****. you have my condolences

now we know why the sudden shift in gameplay. wow, thier boss needs a slap.

I'll just gonna deny this ever existed, and it's all unicorns and tower defense. I have a goal, still.

Agree.

As for the article

Everyone needs to see this. Expecially the old players like me.

I feel as if everyone needs to see this.
http://kotaku.com/investigation-a-video-game-studio-from-hell-511872642

After about 1500 hours on pc and console combined, this really ticks me off. I havnt played the game in months (about 8 months maybe?) and i was so excited for DD2. Well apparently Jeremy Steiglitz has other ideas (and ive known this for a while) but a complete copy of LoL is just rediculous. I can not explain enough how pissed I am. I am not mad at Trendy (they obviously all work hard), I am solely mad at Steiglitz. Why would you do this? And Jeremy if you see this, please explain your thoughts on this, i want to hear your side of the story.

Why would you do this? And Jeremy if you see this, please explain your thoughts on this, i want to hear your side of the story.

He already explained it. They're simply the challenges faced by a young, indie game company.

Serious Accusations - Is a Response from Trendy Coming Soon?

These are some serious accusations, it's currently all over Neogaf and numerous other gaming forums:

Neogaf Discussion

Kotaku Investigation

The article seems very in-depth. Are these things really going on at Trendy? If they are... I don't know...

The eighteen million dollar investment info made my jaw drop, I had no idea. The treatment of woman is disgusting if true. I've heard whispers about Testers bullying other members out of the community, but I had no idea this was a company-wide thing going on with the actual employees?!

"Artists have been hired (and very quickly left the studio) on the motto of, 'Hire a woman—we can pay women less than we can men,'" one person connected to Trendy told me. "Before 2012, according to two people, the studio had some serious financial difficulties. Staff would go unpaid for long periods of time, and many worked 80-hour weeks because they felt they had no choice. Last summer, when Trendy received an $18.2 million investment from a firm in New York City, some at the company thought conditions would get better. They didn't. Today, employees say the hours are just as excruciating. Worse, people connected to Trendy say, progress on the game is constantly interrupted by Stieglitz's interference."

A lot of questions. Would appreciate a response to this soon.

Please tell me this isn't true! Say it ain't so Trendy! :(

He already explained it. They're simply the challenges faced by a young, indie game company.

That's a terrible excuse, if it's true. There's no excuse for being... Belligerent, even if the environment is "challenging."

Edit: The members of Trendy I've talked to, I can easily say I've grown to love and respect, and some, even admire. As an example, Mia is my inspiration, one of few who still keeps me drawing, I love her job and I'm not gonna lie; I kinda want it!

If the Trendy peeps I look up too are being treated this way, someone will need to get their crap together and stop being the bully on the playground.

Now I see why Josh left.

You get a feeling of a company, its ethos and the way its ran. Some companies come across as friendly. But Im afraid trendy comes across as lazy, uncaring and i believe these accounts could easily be true.

"if League does it, we do it."

"Interesting, creative ideas [were] thrown by the wayside because 'we don't have time,' or 'Does League do it? No? Then it's a waste of time, we need to do what League does,' said another person."

Wow... this kind of depresses me. :(

some of the stuff could be false but like the women being paid less could be because the female was less qualified also the skype chat could have honestly just been typed up and made it quoted from stieglitz but im not denying the entire article

Now I see why Josh left.

That is what i thought too. Also, now i know why everything has horrible dating and everything is pushed back.

...
Worse, people connected to Trendy say, progress on the game is constantly interrupted by Stieglitz's interference."

No wonder why half the issues in DD1 still haven't been addressed, since over an year.

This is going to be a PR nightmare for them for a while. I wish the Trendy team the best.

yeah, i dont care if i get kicked out of the beta, its pretty lame right now anyway. though make no mistake, i will take it as retaliation for my comments in the thread if i do get my access revoked.

that said, the article is highly disturbing, highly alarming, and down right boycott inducing. make no mistake though, all of that is directly solely at stieglitz and anyone anyone who is complacent of his alleged actions (read: anyone who levies the same authoritarian management practices or enforces them).

sadly, it was pretty apparent his method of development based on the types of responses he generally posted to legitimate player questions on the old forums, and what did it for me was his response to all of the questions crzyrndm, dingle, and the others posed in response to simple changes to the loot system that was clearly broken. his response to the direct question was arrogant, belligerent, and insulting to players who were frustrated with what was clearly a broken mechanic in the game.

reading this article, playing the MOBA beta, and remembering everything from DD1, it really sours my desire to want to support stieglitz, and by extension, trendy. which is depressing, because the collective trendy is not the ones to blame here. unfortunately, there is no board of directors that can boot him out if it turns out these are things that are actually happening and are actually true (which is pretty likely, all things considered).

unfortunately, because of steam's policies, i cannot ask for a refund on the money i have spent on DD1, but more importantly, i have no way of asking for a way to make sure the money i spent supports only the people working under this intolerance.

i mean, really, you want to make a hard-on inducing robot that looks like a Brazilian super model who has a nice personality and is under age? what the cake.

god forbid what sort of design discussions that were had over the spider princess should be leaked. "not enough 15 year old tittie visible, go back to the modeling board. HEY, ITS IN THE CONCEPT!!"