Staff at Hellgate: London developer Flagship Studios are walking out "in droves" according to Guy Somberg, one of the original designers of the RPG/FPS hybrid.

On his blog post (which has now been removed), Somberg doesn't hold back on his feelings about the game and it's community of moaners and claims that a wide range of employees from artists to accountants have walked out on the project, and now there's only a skeleton team left keeping it alive:

"Work is depressing right now. Never mind the fact that Hellgate isn’t as popular as anybody had hoped. Never mind the fact that there exists a term “Flagshipped,” meaning where a company basically overpromises and then screws you. Never mind the fact that the forums are totally populated by people who do nothing but complain and talk about how much the game sucks. Never mind the fact that people do the same thing in the game itself.

Yes, Hellgate is not a big success. That sucks, and it’s depressing. I’m keeping a positive attitude about it because of Korea and China.

If that's a positive attitude, we'd hate to see Somberg when he's really depressed. Fetch the razer blades someone?

It sounds much like Somberg finds the whole situation demoralizing, not to mention the fact that he's stuck having to cope with other people's work. He goes on to say:

Thing is, the way things are going I’m likely to be the only programmer still working on Hellgate left from the original crew. I’ve heard rumours that other programmers and artists are thinking of leaving.

I was so disturbed to learn that all of these people are leaving that I couldn’t concentrate, and I left work early, claiming illness. I don’t want to leave Flagship. I’m happy here. I like the people, I like the environment, I like the pay, I like the location... There’s so much good about it. I’m not considering leaving. It’s just overwhelming and depressing having all of these people go. Every time a programmer leaves, it’s more work for me.

Sounds like he's had a very bad day at the office. Someone call a shrink.

Source :: Somberg Blog cache via Eurogamer