Curt Schilling Opens Up About 38 Studios Collapse
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
He didn't give a damn about the success or failure of 38 studios, he questioned the taxpayer subsidy of 50 million to a company with 400 employees, that is 12500 per employee. For the same money you can build a new car plant that employs 2000, as a cost/benefit for Rhode Island tax payers it doesn't make sense.Sylocat said:
really? i mean just cause you love playing them doesn't exactly mean they are cash cows here. WoW is a really bad yardstick for the MMO Market.
So he pretty much threw everything into making a WoW clone because he wanted to be "Bill Gates rich"? It sounds like he didn't quite understand what he was getting into, not only that making a WoW clone is not going to work but also that making a AAA MMO as your studios first game is not the best of ideas.
Hell it sounds like he didn't even give a damn about the game and just wanted to make "SUPER MONEY" with an MMO like WoW does.
Hell it sounds like he didn't even give a damn about the game and just wanted to make "SUPER MONEY" with an MMO like WoW does.
Wow... that article actually made me lower my opinion of Schilling from "incompetent self-aggrandizer" to "delusional asshole". My favorites:
1) Schilling's wife defending him. Looked like standard spousal loyalty at first, I thought nothing of it. But then I found out that she and half her family were working there in management positions. Spousal loyalty is one thing, trying to defend nepotism is another. Is it wrong of me to accuse someone's wife of unfair bias? (I guess just being a good wife is fair bias.)
2) "Bill Gates rich". Seriously? I doubt even Gates himself treats wealth as a high score, and I doubt Bill Gates expected to be "Bill Gates rich" back when he was violating New Mexico traffic laws.
3) ... rich by making an MMO. Seriously, that is a fatal misunderstanding of the market. That's like saying - more appropriately - you'll be Bill Gates rich if you make a new operating system. Just because there's ONE guy making a mint doesn't mean EVERY guy will. If anything, it's better evidence that you won't because you've got an 800 ton monopoly gorilla to deal with. You want to be rich on an MMO? Easy. Build a time machine, and go back and build World of Warcraft before Blizzard does. (And not having an existing IP, good luck with the initial traction in the world of Ultima Online and the established Everquest.) I thought the MMO thing was stupid but knowing he expected to be the next Blizzard makes it WORSE.
4) Giving people presents to make the company look flush while going back on your disclosure promises because "I didn't know what to say" is a dick move, plain and simple. They're called words. FIND THEM. Hell's sake, you hired enough VPs, get one of THEM to write it.
5) The business world is not baseball. His only interaction with the Real World and business dealings was through endorsements. Apparently he never figured out that you don't just "win" investments by walking in and shaking hands. Walking into an endorsement deal, he was the product and his lawyer and agent were the negotiators, and the people on the other side of the table desperately wanted the product. He didn't seem to realize that in the real world, HE was doing the lawyer/agent job and AMALUR was the product, and it was a product that didn't beat the Yankees in three straight games or whatever.
6) In baseball there's two teams: One winner, one loser. Life is never so simple. Not getting investments you need is LOSING. He seemed to think that because people smiled and shook his hand that meant he had won something. If baseball was like the gaming business, you'd be playing 500 teams at once, and one of the teams would be some Swedish guy who somehow manages to win games while playing all the positions himself. Really, maybe he should have laid off WoW for a few nights and spent time reading gaming media. Never mind Company 101 or Business 101, he needed Life 101 with a side of Gaming 101.
7) Negotiating when he didn't know how. Hiring people when he didn't know how. Giving game design direction when he didn't know how. Micro-fucking-management. 'Nuff said.
8) What's the old adage? You can be stupid but surround yourself with smart people? He surrounded himself with his in-laws and ignored everyone else.
9) "I've been around situations where you can make people believe something they don't believe." Name ONE. He doesn't, probably because they involve some baseball pundit saying his team won't win X games in a row. And like I said, one winner one loser. Winning X in a row is barely improbable, never mind impossible. He seems to confuse "hard" with "impossible", and thus set out to eat the sun.
Anyway, there's more but I need to get back to work. My bank account number will be bigger at the end of the day, I guess that makes me a better businessman.:/
1) Schilling's wife defending him. Looked like standard spousal loyalty at first, I thought nothing of it. But then I found out that she and half her family were working there in management positions. Spousal loyalty is one thing, trying to defend nepotism is another. Is it wrong of me to accuse someone's wife of unfair bias? (I guess just being a good wife is fair bias.)
2) "Bill Gates rich". Seriously? I doubt even Gates himself treats wealth as a high score, and I doubt Bill Gates expected to be "Bill Gates rich" back when he was violating New Mexico traffic laws.
3) ... rich by making an MMO. Seriously, that is a fatal misunderstanding of the market. That's like saying - more appropriately - you'll be Bill Gates rich if you make a new operating system. Just because there's ONE guy making a mint doesn't mean EVERY guy will. If anything, it's better evidence that you won't because you've got an 800 ton monopoly gorilla to deal with. You want to be rich on an MMO? Easy. Build a time machine, and go back and build World of Warcraft before Blizzard does. (And not having an existing IP, good luck with the initial traction in the world of Ultima Online and the established Everquest.) I thought the MMO thing was stupid but knowing he expected to be the next Blizzard makes it WORSE.
4) Giving people presents to make the company look flush while going back on your disclosure promises because "I didn't know what to say" is a dick move, plain and simple. They're called words. FIND THEM. Hell's sake, you hired enough VPs, get one of THEM to write it.
5) The business world is not baseball. His only interaction with the Real World and business dealings was through endorsements. Apparently he never figured out that you don't just "win" investments by walking in and shaking hands. Walking into an endorsement deal, he was the product and his lawyer and agent were the negotiators, and the people on the other side of the table desperately wanted the product. He didn't seem to realize that in the real world, HE was doing the lawyer/agent job and AMALUR was the product, and it was a product that didn't beat the Yankees in three straight games or whatever.
6) In baseball there's two teams: One winner, one loser. Life is never so simple. Not getting investments you need is LOSING. He seemed to think that because people smiled and shook his hand that meant he had won something. If baseball was like the gaming business, you'd be playing 500 teams at once, and one of the teams would be some Swedish guy who somehow manages to win games while playing all the positions himself. Really, maybe he should have laid off WoW for a few nights and spent time reading gaming media. Never mind Company 101 or Business 101, he needed Life 101 with a side of Gaming 101.
7) Negotiating when he didn't know how. Hiring people when he didn't know how. Giving game design direction when he didn't know how. Micro-fucking-management. 'Nuff said.
8) What's the old adage? You can be stupid but surround yourself with smart people? He surrounded himself with his in-laws and ignored everyone else.
9) "I've been around situations where you can make people believe something they don't believe." Name ONE. He doesn't, probably because they involve some baseball pundit saying his team won't win X games in a row. And like I said, one winner one loser. Winning X in a row is barely improbable, never mind impossible. He seems to confuse "hard" with "impossible", and thus set out to eat the sun.
Anyway, there's more but I need to get back to work. My bank account number will be bigger at the end of the day, I guess that makes me a better businessman.:/
