Carbine Redux

Why He Sticks to Events, Not Motivations

Tim opens by explaining his deliberate methodology: he reports only documented events — dates, emails, things people said or did — rather than speculating about motivations. He offers two reasons:

• He's bad at reading motives. He admits he often can't understand why people act against their own productivity, the game's quality, or even their own happiness.
• People lie about their motivations — not just to others, but to themselves. He gives the example of someone claiming a personal design preference is "the only way to support this design pillar," when the game would be fine without it. Sometimes they genuinely believe their own rationalizations.

This is why his Carbine stories focus on what happened, not why — interpreting someone's internal state just adds layers of unreliable speculation.

The Secrecy and Communication Barriers

Tim acknowledges a former Carbine employee's comments about pervasive secrecy at the studio. As a director, he attended many meetings others couldn't — but plenty of meetings happened without him too.

The most striking detail: Tim was explicitly forbidden from talking to artists. The art director declared this in a director meeting, and studio leadership backed the rule. When an artist independently came to show Tim a "double jump" feature, that artist may have gotten in trouble for it. Tim's workaround was simple — "if they come to me, that's fair game."

Meanwhile, rumors circulated that "Tim hates artists" or "Tim won't use art ideas." These were untrue, but because of the communication ban, he couldn't walk down the hall and correct them. He couldn't show artists the ideas of theirs already in the game or express interest in adding more.

The Quiet Final Months

Tim describes a dramatic shift in his behavior during his last eight months at Carbine (roughly mid-2010 through early 2011):

• He took detailed notes almost every day
• He stopped resisting any requests — if programming or art wanted something, he simply accommodated it
• He described himself as "not being a director, just being a coordinator"
• The only time he spoke up was to correct factual errors, like pointing out a schedule had two months, not three

People initially assumed he was being passive-aggressive. When no pushback ever came, they realized he was just being passive.

The Producer's Reaction

Eric DeMilt, the producer (whom Tim had worked with before and would work with again), initially celebrated the change. He congratulated Tim for being "so amenable to all these changes."

But then decisions started going in directions Eric himself didn't like — changes he knew Tim opposed too. That's when Eric told Tim: "You've really lost your passion for this game." At least two weeks before Tim's resignation, Eric directly asked: "Have you considered just leaving? If you're not into this anymore, why are you here?"

Tim's answer was practical: someone needed to estimate timelines and coordinate the changes, many of which drew on his experience from previous games. But after the "fun QA incident" (referenced in the original video), Tim resigned. Eric's response: "Yeah, that's probably for the best."

A Message to Former Colleagues

Tim addresses people who worked at Carbine and saw similar things happen to them or their teams — some still afraid to speak about it years later. He won't tell their stories, but encourages them:

• Your stories are yours to tell. He hopes his openness helps others come forward or at least feel better about their time there.
• Carbine had some of the most talented people he ever worked with. The tragedy was that their talents weren't fully utilized — work got lost or redone repeatedly.
• The shipped game was really good, but he can only imagine what it could have been if everyone had been pulling in the same direction for years.

On Enjoying WildStar Despite the Turmoil

Tim closes with the same message he's applied to Fallout 2: if you liked it, enjoy it. Don't let behind-the-scenes stories diminish your experience. Every game has turmoil — some a little, some a lot. Judge the game for what it is, not what happened during development.

References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NtaWFyo1ps