JET1971 said:
I donated so Allison could get her surgery and EC can keep going as it was clearly stated at the time I donated. nothing but that.
I feel this needs to be emphasized. I, like many,
many contributors gave money
to pay for Allison's medical costs and keep EC going during her absence. The usage of the money as James has announced is, though laudable, a misdirection of those funds. If he had started a fund on Rockethub that stipulated that it was for indie game devs, I would have contributed to that -
separately.
It must be said:
there is no good guy/bad guy/Kotick here. There are, on the main, good people who have made mistakes/misjudgements/whopping horrible communication errors, yes. But there's not anyone in the background rubbing their hands in glee because they 'got ahead' or 'won'. I was very disappointed in James at the outset for the manner in which he started this whole debacle. (Seriously, James? Social media? Oy.) When I read his initial post, I didn't read it as 'OMG, teh Escapist is ebul!' Instead, after reading it, I thought, "This man is aware that he is speaking to a crowd of compassionate people who are very passionate about what they believe in, and he is telling his side so that
they will support him." In other words, I felt
manipulated. I read Alexander's response, and felt the same thing (though he tried to use logic/reason rather than emotion).
I have worked unpaid (often for long stretches at a time). I have worked for companies that promised and didn't deliver as well as those that were honest about not being able to deliver. And yet, for a myriad of reasons, I continued to work in those companies after not getting paid, for reasons completely unrelated to money. In those same companies, I saw people leave when it was announced that we wouldn't get paid. I respected them because they left without a fuss when the announcement was made. I also saw some people work unpaid, knowing full well that they were getting unpaid, knowing that there was no clear date as to when they would get paid, then leave and sue because they weren't getting paid. That, I had no respect for. I still have one former employer (who I parted ways with amicably) that owes me over $30,000. I do not ever expect to see that money, but technically it is owed me in back wages (and this was after taking a 'pay cut', mind, so in real wages it should be far greater). Do I regret working for them?
No. They were honest with me the whole time I worked there, and I continued to work there for other reasons (obviously) than for pay.
Also, there are *legal* aspects about how a company may dispense their revenue. I'm not sure of the order, but I know that employees (i.e., the guy who works on the servers) legally *must* be paid before contractors (i.e., the contributors) according to California law (having been on both sides of that revenue stream myself). I'm not sure where bills/vendors come in, but I'm pretty sure that the bills need to be paid before either employees or contractors, or *no* revenue will be coming in (no electricity, no servers, no more money *at all*).
TL;DR version:
1) Both sides have flamingoed up (like a cock up but worse).
2) Not getting paid is bad, but not the end of the world, and is only one aspect of why someone should stay in a job.
3) Anyone who compares this situation in any way to WWII is an AW of the first order with no sense of taste or discretion
4) Thank you, Gav, for being reasonable. I'm sorry you are getting attacked for being honest.
