Never for a moment think I was ignorant when I made my decisions, I just had faith in Blizzard. It is hard for me to explain, whether it is a cultural thing or just me being me, but I do trust a lot and yes, as a result, in my life I do get screwed over a lot but we are still comfortable financially. I do not feel sorry for myself, and I never expect a reply to my posts. I merely share as much information as I can so that somewhere some kid or person who is in my shoes, or sees themselves going down a similar path can learn from my experience and make a better informed decision.
But that's just it.
You've worked on TOFU from 2010 through 2013. 2010 was the height of WOTLK, and regardless of whether you'd ask me now or back then, I'd definitely agree in either case that it was were 'Blizzards downfall' first started to show (albeit reluctantly when asked back then). While it's not like the company has gone from hero to zero 'MC Hammer'-style, everything pre-WOTLK was universally critically praised. WarCraft 1 all the way through The Burning Crusade, as well as Diablo 1+2 and StarCraft, were the kind of revolutionary games that made your faith in Blizzard grounded. While I'm not going to argue that Blizzard is a terrible company now, every game made since WOTLK has gotten more and more flak on multiple fronts over the years, Wings of Liberty included (aside from Bnet 2.0, there's almost universal hate for the lore and storyline, for example). To top that all off, we never had much hope for monetization or marketization for SC2 mapping to begin with: all we had was a vague announcement on the idea of the map market, and as 2010 went onwards, more and more delays and pushbacks - and in the end, a WoL release without any of it.
Now note that this is the backdrop to which you not only first decided to drop everything you were doing and dive headfirst into Tofu, but continued to make this decision as things looked more and more bleak. While I can understand you feeling like you were committed at that point, it's still a pretty serious case of the sunk cost fallacy rearing it's head. Knowing Blizzard's achievements in the past and your passion for game design, I wouldn't blame you if you had stuck to the project as a hobby, since you simply really enjoyed what you were doing. But it was more than that for you: you threw all your eggs into this one basket that looked a bit shabby to begin with but started showing more and more holes as time went forward. In the posts you're making now you're explaining your mistake as "you being too trusting". That's putting it far too forgiving of yourself, if you ask me. If you don't want me to call you ignorant, then the best I can say is that you consciously made a very risky decision and decided to stick with that after a longer time period, even when some may have started to call that decision downright stupid, and when the probability of reward dwindled more and more.
It's not that I don't feel for you or your situation: I too would love to be a game designer and the state of the industry is just simply less than ideal for newcomers. I mean it with all my heart when I say that I would've genuinely been happy for you if Tofu had given you a big breakthrough and landed you a proper job on an enticing new project within the industry. I feel like an asshole for saying the things I'm typing here, as I respect you as a person and am not out to cut you down in anyway. But right now, your posts just come across as somewhat... what's the word? Evasive, or maybe even arrogant? You say you do not feel sorry for yourself and simply post as a warning/informative source to other mapmakers, but at the same time you blame your entire situation on something that most people would obviously see as a 'martyr'-style good feature; 'having too much faith'. It's not that I think you're being 'evasive' on purpose or that you're simply here to attract attention, but it really is like I said in my earlier post: I'm having trouble responding to your posts because I feel like I can't take much more from them than "I made a stupid decision and stuck with it". It's nice that you want to be informative, but "don't make stupid decisions" seems a bit of a lackluster 'lesson' to be learned from your case.
But that's just it.
You've worked on TOFU from 2010 through 2013. 2010 was the height of WOTLK, and regardless of whether you'd ask me now or back then, I'd definitely agree in either case that it was were 'Blizzards downfall' first started to show (albeit reluctantly when asked back then). While it's not like the company has gone from hero to zero 'MC Hammer'-style, everything pre-WOTLK was universally critically praised. WarCraft 1 all the way through The Burning Crusade, as well as Diablo 1+2 and StarCraft, were the kind of revolutionary games that made your faith in Blizzard grounded. While I'm not going to argue that Blizzard is a terrible company now, every game made since WOTLK has gotten more and more flak on multiple fronts over the years, Wings of Liberty included (aside from Bnet 2.0, there's almost universal hate for the lore and storyline, for example). To top that all off, we never had much hope for monetization or marketization for SC2 mapping to begin with: all we had was a vague announcement on the idea of the map market, and as 2010 went onwards, more and more delays and pushbacks - and in the end, a WoL release without any of it.
Now note that this is the backdrop to which you not only first decided to drop everything you were doing and dive headfirst into Tofu, but continued to make this decision as things looked more and more bleak. While I can understand you feeling like you were committed at that point, it's still a pretty serious case of the sunk cost fallacy rearing it's head. Knowing Blizzard's achievements in the past and your passion for game design, I wouldn't blame you if you had stuck to the project as a hobby, since you simply really enjoyed what you were doing. But it was more than that for you: you threw all your eggs into this one basket that looked a bit shabby to begin with but started showing more and more holes as time went forward. In the posts you're making now you're explaining your mistake as "you being too trusting". That's putting it far too forgiving of yourself, if you ask me. If you don't want me to call you ignorant, then the best I can say is that you consciously made a very risky decision and decided to stick with that after a longer time period, even when some may have started to call that decision downright stupid, and when the probability of reward dwindled more and more.
It's not that I don't feel for you or your situation: I too would love to be a game designer and the state of the industry is just simply less than ideal for newcomers. I mean it with all my heart when I say that I would've genuinely been happy for you if Tofu had given you a big breakthrough and landed you a proper job on an enticing new project within the industry. I feel like an asshole for saying the things I'm typing here, as I respect you as a person and am not out to cut you down in anyway. But right now, your posts just come across as somewhat... what's the word? Evasive, or maybe even arrogant? You say you do not feel sorry for yourself and simply post as a warning/informative source to other mapmakers, but at the same time you blame your entire situation on something that most people would obviously see as a 'martyr'-style good feature; 'having too much faith'. It's not that I think you're being 'evasive' on purpose or that you're simply here to attract attention, but it really is like I said in my earlier post: I'm having trouble responding to your posts because I feel like I can't take much more from them than "I made a stupid decision and stuck with it". It's nice that you want to be informative, but "don't make stupid decisions" seems a bit of a lackluster 'lesson' to be learned from your case.
Yep, you're right.
Don't feel like an asshole.
I have to hold on to something otherwise I will end up in a bathtub somewhere.
In that case, I will share with you. You're far from done, you just need to get past the past and find the future. Hold on to getting better.