Confessions of a Middle-aged Rockstar... Kind of.

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An interesting blog entry titled "My 'life' at Rockst*r Games" surfaced over the weekend from a supposed employee of Rockstar Games describing the hardships of working at Rockstar San Diego during the creation of Red Dead Redemption. It was written by Zero Dean.

The first thing to read is the disclaimer:
"[Let me just say before I start this — and to clear up any potential misunderstanding as to why you should question my credibility here — because for obvious reasons I have to say this — as far as working at Rockst*r goes:

I was totally incompetent. Lazy. Disruptive. A rebel. An instigator. Disrespectful, not only in general, but of authority as well.

Not only was I totally clueless and had no real understanding of the actually going-ons at the company, I was basically an all-around trouble-maker. Oh yes, and an ignorant know-it-all. In fact, most of what you are about to read is probably lies or the work of a totally delusional person.

Also, not only do I clearly have my own agenda here — I am also trying to make myself look good, as if I am a model employee, but I am not. I was a bad, bad employee.]

The following is most likely a complete fabrication — unless it’s all true. Who knows, right? Any reference to anything resembling actual people, places, or events is purely coincidence."

So perhaps this is exaggerated. Or maybe it isn't. He starts with his initial search for jobs and getting the call to work for Rockstar Games. Things were awkward at first and he made many suggestions to improve the office and communication between different groups designing and building the game. As time goes on, things get tight and frustrating to a point where he ends up being downgraded for speaking out.

"I immediately sensed something was “off” on my first day when they failed to give me a tour of the facilities or really explain anything — I mean, was the food in the kitchen for employees? How does the coffee machine work? Where are the supplies? When did people take lunch? And so on. Simple stuff that most people don’t think about — because they are never an issue — they just sort of “happen” at other places. It’s customary for someone to watch out for new employees to make sure they’re comfortable and that they have a clue what’s going on."
...
"It really wasn’t until after my first year at the company when people (higher ups) started freaking out about how long the project had been in development, how much money was being wasted, and — and this is the big one — release dates.

And that’s when the increase in the deception and manipulation by management began — slowly at first — and then over time it got totally “nuts” (by my standards).

Some folks didn’t seem to have an issue with it (yet) — hell, they were happy to be working at Rockst*r—Effing—Games! —(just like I was initially)— it’s AWESOME!"
...
"My status as a team lead lasted for about 6 weeks — I think — until I sent what I thought was a private email to 3 people on my team. I talked about how “I knew everyone was working hard, but that it was probably unwise to be watching Youtube videos or browsing websites unrelated to work while at work — especially when we were under such intense scrutiny. I mentioned how I knew the schedule we’d been given was unrealistic, but…”

Well, a few minutes later I was called into a meeting and was subjected to a complete fit of swearing & screaming at for about 10-15 minutes by a “I’m obviously in charge here” higher up (who was — let’s just say “not very popular” amongst some — or maybe most — employees I ever came in contact with).

About what? About that email, of course! — I mean, who would’ve guessed — all email was monitored. Clearly, there was a lot of trust here."
...
"It wasn’t “ok” — It was actually far from “ok”.

But it wasn’t until my boss took credit for my work — and politely argued with me about who had actually created it (I had the original documents on my desktop) — that I went back to my desk and started “cleaning” it — and then I realized I wasn’t cleaning it. I was packing.

I was pretty upset with him over that for a while — but I realize now he deserves my thanks — he pushed me out of hell.

And thank you Rockst*r. You taught me exactly how I don’t want to run a business or treat employees (or human beings) ever.

And thank you to all my great Rockst*r co-workers who gave me the 11 recommendations on linkedIn"

True or not it makes for a good read. Problems at the San Diego Studio had been made known previously. The original blog is here but if traffic is still too much the Google cache is here.

Is it real or fake? Is it just a disgruntled employee speaking out against Rockstar Games? Let us know what YOU think in the comments below and join the discussions in our Red Dead Redemption forums!

UPDATE: The story has been removed from the original posting but the cache still has it. There are some reaction comments on the orignal page. - those are gone too, now.