Your Work Will Be Destroyed, Your Efforts Wasted. Avoid at All Costs.
Pros
I want Firaxis to succeed. I've been a fan of their games for my entire life, and I really do see the good in Firaxis. I genuinely want what's best for the studio. However, if Firaxis is going to save itself, the c-suite will have to have a lot of uncomfortable conversations, a lot of self-reflection, and a willingness to stand up for what is right, even if that means going against their friends. I wouldn't bet money on it.
Cons
I worked for three years as a UI designer. Throughout the entire process, I was treated as the game design department's toy to abuse and hurt. Production was too asleep at the wheel to help save me, and the c-suite only cares about their next vacation. There's a mountain of examples of times I was treated poorly by game design, and the c-suite tacitly endorsed that mistreatment by sheltering their friends from the consequences of their own actions. This scheme, where game design tortures artists while the c-suite makes excuses to shield them, resulted in three years of my life's work being destroyed, without evidence, and the entire project's launch being ruined. The people who asked "why would you shoot us in the foot like this?" are all fired now. The people who architected this scheme are still cashing their checks to this day. I can not stress enough, that if you have respect for yourself, respect for the medium, or respect for art-- this is not the studio for you. I can tell you from experience that you will be lied about, your work destroyed to satisfy the egos of designers who stopped caring about games a decade ago, and you'll still be dealing with the professional fallout over a year later. You owe it to yourself, you owe it to your career, and you owe it to your peers to stop building UIs for a company that refuses to see the value in your time, effort, or skill.
