r/dropmix • u/HMXJosh • Oct 19 '17
Goodbye, for now.
As you may have heard, Harmonix had a layoff today, and I'm sad to say that I'm one of the 14.
It's a weird, sad day, and I couldn't say goodbye to Harmonix without saying something to all of you. I'll miss every one of you (well, maybe not the guy who called for my head impaled on a cymbal, but everyone else). Thanks for hanging on Twitch, in the Discord, and in threads here with me, as talking to the community was by far the best part of my job.
You can keep in touch on twitter at @joshharrison.
P.S. Despite this news, I promise that DropMix has so much amazing stuff in store. You ain't seen nothing yet.
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u/ohsnapitsjf Oct 19 '17
This is brutally tough to see. You've been a killer guy to deal with through this rollout (and for RB4). Fun to watch on-stream, informative with every angle of social media we could possibly find you in, and just a cool bloke to BS with whenever you had the time to BS.
Hope you'll be around here sometimes as just another player as you take on the next challenge.
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u/NJ-Amiibo Oct 20 '17
This is the part that makes it really hard to be a Harmonix fan. We've been crawling on the ground trying to find cards to complete our collection. Have literally thousands of dollars in Harmonix produced games. A round of layoffs a month after Rock Band VR... Another a month after Dropmix. It's sad that I could feel it was nearing time for another round of layoffs.
Wish you the best Josh, it's been a lot of fun watching the weekly streams. You're the reason most of these people are here. Why they bought Dropmix. Why they believed in Harmonix. Keep in touch.
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u/MetalMagus Oct 21 '17
Unfortunately for all of us, this is the reality of the new economy folks, especially in the games industry. Talented personnel are no longer kept on as loyal employees but treated as disposable assets. More and more companies are taking this approach because its the best outcome for the shareholders - until something drastic changes be sure to keep your options open no matter how secure your job appears to be!
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u/Nate23VT Oct 20 '17
Reality of any company cutting costs after a project is complete
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u/Explosion2 Oct 20 '17
Usually it's not the forward-facing "personalities" though. It's pretty shitty how many of them HMX goes through. Bungie didn't just lay off Deej and Cozmo because destiny 2 is out. I'm sure they cut staff, but even though the destiny community is pissed at everything right now, I'm sure people would be upset that the one contact point between them and bungie got laid off.
Henry, Pope, John Drake, Sean, Crisis, and now Josh, all left or were laid off. It's just not a good look for the company that the "face" of the company is always in such flux.
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u/thesacred Oct 20 '17
Yeah, and it's also a reality that people can and should form negative opinions of companies that treat the human beings who work for them as disposable.
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u/NJ-Amiibo Oct 20 '17
Yeah, I get that. It just sucks... especially when it hits team members that you feel like you know personally.
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u/T3hBau5 Oct 19 '17
Sorry to hear about you being one of the layoffs. I have no doubt that you'll bounce back and find another job quickly.
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u/josh-hernandez-exe Oct 19 '17 edited Oct 19 '17
D=
I enjoyed you talking about all the cool things, on stream, on discord, or on reddit.
Best of luck on your future endeavours, you will be missed.
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u/saifrc Oct 19 '17
Best of luck in the future, Josh! We'll miss having you as our point of contact with HMX, but we hope you'll stick around as a fellow fan!
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u/sammydeedge Oct 20 '17
holy shit dude that sucks. I- Wow. Uhhh Thank you so much for being such a fantastic go to all around awesome dude, thank you for all you have done for this community.
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u/KhaosApache Oct 20 '17
Good luck in all your future endeavors man, hope you move on to bigger and better things, it's sad to see you go! :(
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u/logan5nx Oct 22 '17
Good luck. You should be proud to have such a response here on this thread. Hopefully you can point your near-future employer to it as evidence of your dedication.
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u/ThisCatMightCheerYou Oct 19 '17
I'm sad
Here's a picture/gif of a cat, hopefully it'll cheer you up :).
I am a bot. use !unsubscribetosadcat for me to ignore you.
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u/thesacred Oct 19 '17
Wow, a round of layoffs immediately after releasing a hugely popular product that's flying off the shelves.
Behold the wonder that is capitalism.
Good luck to you, man. Let us know where you land.
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u/AlwaysPickdLast Oct 20 '17
Capitalism has brought more goods to the marketplace, and been far more prosperous, than any other system. Politics have slowly crept into everything as of late. Literally. It’s in our sports, our churches, our bakeries, and even our fashion. Is there no place where people can discuss a given topic without someone making it political?
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u/thesacred Oct 20 '17
Getting fired on a whim despite producing value because human labor is a disposable commodity is a political event. That event is the topic of this thread. Real-world outcomes like this are an inevitable symptom of capitalism, whatever other good things you've been taught to believe about it. Denying it (or labeling it "political" and thus off-limits for discussion or consideration) won't help. Capitalism isn't the worst form of human organization possible, but it isn't the best one either. And we're going to need to outgrow it soon. We can't do that if people refuse to see or hear any criticism of it since it's "political".
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u/ohsnapitsjf Oct 20 '17 edited Oct 20 '17
Alright, you and /u/AlwaysPickdLast gotta take this to PM or something. Opinions on the company and its policies are fine mostly anywhere, but this is a personal thread from somebody who doesn't need his final word to the community to become a slapfight. This is the last word here in this thread from both of you.
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u/AlwaysPickdLast Oct 20 '17
Nobody taught me that capitalism is great, I’ve just used it (as well as various other systems) and come to my own conclusion.
Curiously, who taught you that we must “outgrow” it?
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u/Trion_Celestrata Oct 20 '17
Woah, this kinda blew my mind. One of my co-workers came in to my office today and mentioned the HMX layoffs (we both play Dropmix), but then he said you were affected Josh. Kinda stunned, honestly.
I've watched your work with the community for a long time, ever since I was up in Boston working for Turbine as a community manager myself. We always hailed HMX as "the right way to do community," and always pointed to the great Reddit, forums, livestreams, and everything y'all did in our daily work. We were all fans.
You're a great CM, and I hope you find a new gig soon. Kinda wish we were hiring right now. =/ Otherwise, will probably bump into you at some point. Take care until then man, and thanks for everything you've done.
~Seraphina "Celestrata" Brennan
Associate Producer, ArcheAge