Thomas Mahler, CEO of Moon Studios GmbH, which is developing No Rest for the Wicked, rebuked game designer and consultant Alexander Brazie who attempted to justify DEI hiring practices.
A screenshot from No Rest for the Wicked (2024), Moon Studios GmbH
In response to a lengthy thread justifying DEI practices by Wardog Studios’ CEO Jade Law, Brazie posted, “Yeah, it would help if people understood: Effective DEI is about helping people who historically didn’t have the *network* to get eyes onto their work have a chance *due* to their equal skill. The whole merit smearing is so banal, presumptuous and out of touch with reality. :(”
Alexander Brazie on X
READ: ‘No Rest For The Wicked’ Game Designer Alexander Brazie Attempts To Justify DEI Hiring Practices
Mahler responded to Brazie’s comments and rebuked him in a comment on this author’s coverage of Brazie’s original comments on The Trent Report YouTube channel.
“This person is not affiliated with Moon Studios in any way whatsoever anymore,” Mahler wrote.
He added, “We contracted him for a short stint and he was fired for bringing nothing but friction into our team, just FYI.”
Thomas Mahler on YouTube
In March, Mahler indicated that his company does not “really hire consultants.” He wrote on X, “We don’t really hire consultants, so pardon me if I’m ignoring all your messages. I pretty much agree with what Jobs had to say about consulting.”
He added, “And I know I’ll get some hate for this, but it is what it is.”
We don’t really hire consultants, so pardon me if I’m ignoring all your messages.
I pretty much agree with what Jobs had to say about consulting:https://t.co/udGoR1V5zs
And I know I’ll get some hate for this, but it is what it is.
— thomasmahler (@thomasmahler) March 6, 2024
As for Jobs’ comments, the Apple founder stated, “I don’t think there’s anything inherently evil in consulting. I think that without owning something over an extended period of time like a few years, where one has the chance to take responsibility for one’s recommendations, where one has to see one’s recommendations through all action stages and accumulate scar tissue for the mistakes and pick oneself up off the ground and dust oneself off. One learns a fraction of what one can.
Jobs added, “Coming in and making recommendations and not owning the results, not owning the implementation, I think, is is a fraction of the of the value and a fraction of the opportunity to learn and get it better. You do get a broad cut at companies, but it’s very thin. It’s like a picture … of a banana. You might get a very accurate picture, but it’s only two-dimensional and without the experience of actually doing it you never get three-dimensional. So you might have a lot of pictures on your walls. You can show it off to your friends. You can say, ‘Look, I’ve worked in bananas. I’ve worked in peaches. I’ve worked in grapes. But you never really taste it. That’s what I think.”
He then concluded, “You’re also a variable expense and in hard times you find yourself…”
No Rest for the Wicked released into Early Access on Steam on April 18th. The official description states, “From Moon Studios, the award-winning developers of Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps comes No Rest for the Wicked, a visceral, precision Action RPG set to reinvent the genre.”
Early Access to the game includes the first chapter of the game’s narrative campaign, daily and weekly bounties and challenges, an assortment of quests, boss battles, a variety of weapons and armor as well as a replayable dungeon, and the purchasing and furnishing of a home.
The game is expected to include 4 player co-op multiplayer, an expanded story, more maps, farming, as well as more bosses, weapons, armor, items, bounties, and challenges.
A screenshot from No Rest for the Wicked (2024), Moon Studios GmbH
What do you make of Mahler’s rebuke of Alexander Brazie?
Good for him, though I’m still not sure whether his game is ant-religion or not. It’s always hard to tell, when a church is involved and one of the obvious villains is a clergyman (or woman in this case), whether the game is trying something complicated like Final Fantasy Tactics, or just it’s just cover for an anti-religious tantrum like Assassin’s Creed or Binding of Isaac.
Good take on his part. Now we get to see if he has any backbone when and if the pigs come after him if this gets any wide notice from the usual suspects.
No thanks. The title betrays the game. A witch is their featured “hero” for a reason.
“No Rest for the Wicked” is telling you that this is a wickedness-glorifying, God-hating game. Just like “Suicice Squad: Kill the Justice League” told you that it was a criminal-glorifying, anti-justice game, and “Cult of the Lamb” told you that it was a Christ-mocking (“Lamb of God”) game.
In every instance I’ve ever been in professionally, the more people you add the worse the result is. Not only is there completely opposite desires and directions. You also to have to account for the narcissistic competitive personalities among the “voices” whose only interest is being “seen” to advance their own career. When there’s no personal ownership for a project, why should there be any interest in the success only project. The only Benoit any committee is to the always weakest members that seek being on a committee because they could never accomplish anything on their own merit.