Talk:Working Designs

Question About Staffing Facts

Does anyone have concrete information about whether of not in fact working designs does hold around 9 staffed positions. I suspect that the information may be out of date, or based on loose facts from a message board. Minimally it should be updated (w/source) or removed.

Misc

I think this page should be updated. The release list is a good start but it needs more. I can put a section in there about their translation prowess and propensity for humor. If anyone WD fans would like to dredge up material, I'd appreciate it. Perhaps we can even get Victor Ireland himself to come look at it.

--Orporg

I don't think it's best to put the 'Dragon Force' or 'Sega Ages' reference in the upcoming games section as thier really just speculation. What has been noted is only based on second hand discussion by fans on a collection of message boards w/o any confirmation from the company or Vic. For instance, they've also stated that they'd like to do it Growlanser IV, a Growlanser port for the PSP, Tales of Destiny 2 and a large collection of other games. But nothing has materialized, and until it does, I feel it's best that we not fuel the rumors.

If absolutely needed, we should create a 'Speculation' section.

-- 24.209.112.46

about dragon force

in an email to working designs they disclosed to me that were trying to get the chance to bring the re-make (dragon force) stateside, but because I can't really prove that they ever told me that, your re-edit is justified.

Closing

The announcement, via message board, of WD's folding: http://www.workingdesigns.com/forum/showthread.php?t=118916

-- 66.177.100.35

- Added some reorganization and modifications to the closure paragraph. Wasn't trying to make it more 'sterile'. Just tried to add more clarification. Also added the official statement. My guess is that in all likelyhood, the board will eventually go down. Felt perhaps it would benice to preserve it, for what it's worth.

--- 129.89.141.243

Question about the "addendum" in main article text

The addendum, appearing after the reprint of Victor's closure announcement, seems out of place. My impression is that it is too emotionally charged towards the end, and contains much speculation without any effort to back it up. Because of these reasons, I believe it should be removed, as it is not an impartial paragraph, and really adds nothing of substance to the article.

Rayearth "quickly sells out?"

In the section discussing Working Designs' accomplishments, it states that Working Designs quickly sold out of copies of Magic Knight Rayearth. I don't know where this information came from, but I don't believe it's true. I bought my copy new from a third-party seller in 2000, and Working Designs themselves had new copies for sale right up until at least late 2004, as you can see in this archived page: http://web.archive.org/web/20041112193345/http://www.workingdesigns.com/games/saturn/magic_knight_rayearth/contents.htm

I'm removing it unless someone has a trustworthy citation saying otherwise. Vlcice 18:45, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

They mention that it sold out at retailers here

http://web.archive.org/web/20051230103953/www.workingdesigns.com/About_Nav.htm However, this is because only a small number of retailers (Electronics Boutique, Babbages and Software Etc) bought copies usually in very small quantities since the Saturn was basically dead at that point. Working Designs still had a substantial supply of the game which as mentioned they continued to sell until they closed up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.239.130.78 (talk) 20:39, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

North American Distribution Confusion

I'm making a note about this article, as some people seem to not understand that Working Designs was a North American distributor that licensed games from Japan. They were not a game developer and therefore have never produced their own games. The whole point of the company's existence was to bring Japanese exclusives to North America. For some reason, edits continue to be made to this article suggesting that some of Working Designs' games were "Japan Only". This is absolutely proposterous for the reasons stated above.

It seems that the game Parasol Stars is the one that most commonly gets the edit, despite the game being Working Design's first North American localization project. A timeline of the company's history, along with a detailed explanation of every game release, can be found at archive.org. As this is directly archived from the original Working Designs website, this should put to rest the notion that Working Designs has ever released a Japan-only title.

There is no reference anywhere stating that Working Designs has ever released a Japan-only title. Therefore, any attempt to re-assert this falsehood into the article should be regarded as vandalism.

--Mr. Neil 19:32, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

As you can see from his/her contributions, pretty much every edit made by 66.215.28.84 is deliberately misleading or total nonsense. There is no confusion here, just plain old vandalism. NighTrekr 19:41, 31 December 2006 (UTC)

Slight POV with Criticism section

Specifically the Expensive packaging and Including humor in games subsections. It seems POV to put these under Criticism because while some people did have issues with these, other people were highly in favor of them. I agree these should be covered, I just think right now the article makes it seem as if these were negative, rather than some people liking them, others not.76.234.169.49 (talk) 20:58, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Edited this a while ago, but someone who is apparently not fond of this company restored them. Per WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV, statements such as these should be cited:

While it was in operation, Working Designs became notorious within the industry for often changing their release dates producing postponements upwards of a year or more.

Some in the industry and some gamers were frustrated by this approach, while others appreciated the special touches.

These games were packaged in cardboard boxes which drew criticism due to these boxes being prone to shelfwear and fragile overall, making complete copies with unflawed boxes difficult to find, further spiking its second-hand value in addition to these games requiring all pieces for full collector price, because these inserts are often lost by the consumer.

Since the company's demise, it has been speculated that this was intended to drive up demand of their games and increase value among collectors. Many of the company's titles

And indeed, most of the content from the Criticism section is still there. Don't know why I even bother making stuff NPOV anymore, considering that some people seem to love Criticism sections. --Jtalledo (talk) 17:38, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

Demo tapes of Saturn games on YouTube

Heads up, I'm digitizing old publisher preview video tapes pulled out of the archive storage of the gaming magazine I used to publish in the 90's. I've run across three working designs videos so far and posted them to YouTube. They are Shining Wisdom, Iron Storm, and Dragon Force. Enjoy guys. BcRIPster (talk) 07:10, 31 October 2015 (UTC)