He was at fanfest talking to CPM1 so I'm going with: yes, he is still with CCP.

We partied with CCP Rouge at Fanfest. He is just a very very busy person who does a great many things behind the curtains.

I hope one of those many things are new heavy weapons.

Ripley, JC isn't so much "employed at" CCP Shanghai, so much as JC "runs" CCP Shanghai.

Potayto Potahto

he ..New Eden politics ..well my tinfoil hat speculates the following :

If Rouge is still on CCP's payroll ..and I mean hes a pretty expensive asshat ..then there must be some high end development going on that we are not aware of.... Whether it be Dust or Legion..and if that's not case then CCP prob pulled him into another project ...that will be such a shame.

My money is still one Legion ..with some big surprises in the future.

..with some big surprises in the future.

Very simply it comes down to 2 reasons why he isn't communicating much with us:

1) His job is not to do front-end relations with customers. That's why he has Rattati. His job is to basically run CCP Shanghai and be in charge of everything which that entails. Basically everyone has to report up to him. At the end of the day, short of bug fixes, any major change / feature is something that eventually worked it's way up to him and got Okayed. (Just like at any company)

2) Ever since Fanfest of Last Year CCP has been undergoing a sea change from "Showing a Grand Vision" to "Working on new things". Basically CCP has taken too many large hits over the years from constantly speaking up a big game, then failing to deliver on promises that were never technically scoped, only dreamed of. (Like what led to Incarna / Summer of Rage)

Since then CCP is playing with their big visions close to the chest, and only revealing to players what they are prepared to release, or at least prepared to release pending player feedback. (Think of all the features that Rattati has pushed forward for community feedback. Most of those are in game, or are still being talked about) In short, things only get revealed to us now when they are ready for release in let us say 1 - 3 months max. (Bigger changes having more time for feedback)

Even when they announce new things though, it's general purpose is to release it to their semi-final stage of "community feedback" which is now a relatively strong part of their development cycle. With an exception for features such as SKINs or Matchmaking which are less a "feedback" process, and more of a "technical improvement"

In this culture, CCP Rogue doesn't really have a reason to come out and talk with us because he is in charge of the "big vision" that CCP has learned, the hard way, is not something they want to share, as it's proven to be their undoing too many times. (And has cost them both money and people)

After last year's FF, I imagined they told him to fade to the background, Dust side, for PR stuff. Pitchforks and stones were at the ready

I'm going to go with "no"... I think that about covers it.


Well, except this part, this part may be on to something



FWIW
~Cross