38 Studios Big Huge Games and Curt Schilling what a fellow business owner thinks

38 Studios...seems to be all the talk right now and it's for all the wrong reasons.  No one can shut up about this...not even me and it's for a damned good reason.  I am mad as hell.

Now I'll begin by saying that I am a huge Red Sox fan and I love that Curt Schilling was able to break the curse.  What he couldnt do?  Break even after 75 million was dropped in his lap along with 30 million of his own money.  Now Curt is personally worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 110 Million or 80 after the investment.  He was loaned 75 Million by the city of Providence.  So he puts in 30 and somehow gets others to put in more than double what he did...when he can damned well cover it all.  Why not cover it all? you pay no one back and if it fails you still have enough to have a nice life with.  That's some amazing bullshit powers.  "Hey buddy I have a great idea and I really believe in this project all I need is lots of your money.  Huh? what? no this idea is SO great and I believe in it so much that my money isn't good enough for it!"  Providence probably swooned over the Red Sox legend who expressed interest in their town.  However when creating a video game one's resume should read more than just "Good baseball player"...you would think anyway.  Even here at my company a good idea alone won't land you the job.

So we have 105 Million to make ONE game with.  Again I will be blunt and tell you that it does not take 105 million to make a game-hell you could nearly invent a new console with that money.  Well that's if you weren't an idiot anyway.  So Curt is a huge WOW fan-okay.  So he wants to create a WOW like game-okay. And he's going to do this even if he doesn't know how-okay...actually that isn't.  He's never made a game before why such a big one why so ambitious?  Hell that's like never shooting a gun before and being sent off to a World War...ok that shit happened bad analogy but you get my point.  No one should take on such a grand ambitious game as their first title.  Even Darksiders was a smaller scope project and largely because of that Vigil games gets to live on.

So anyone who pays at least a little attention knows that WOW makes billions of dollars.  What people forget is that WOW didnt happen over night.  Blizzard put out a bunch of titles and spin offs and sequels and other crap prior to WOW.  When WOW came out Blizzard had a customer and fan base.  It took YEARS of products already to market to allow Blizzard to release WOW.  38 Studios had no previous fan base and no proven track record so let's go huge and try to muscle in on some of that WOW money...what could go wrong?  Surely this won't be a decision that ruins my studio before we even have fans...surely.  WOW's players are notoriously loyal and typically despise competition-Curt had to have known this going in to this.  Why would anyone in their right mind want to go toe-to-toe with a game like WOW as their first project?  Sure someone will de-throne WOW one day but 10-1 says it wont be a company's first project.  Even BioWare with SWTOR couldn't do it and they have an established reputation and a fat war chest worth billions.

I hate to say this about a man I admire but I think there may be some crooked business practices here.  The more I find out about this company the more I feel like this was a snatch and grab.  I'd love to see records of payroll.  Who got paid what to do what because I guarantee that the 400 people who were fired were not making 6 figures.  Let's be honest (because I like to be) Kingdom of Amalur or KOA did not implement new technology meaning they did not have to create technology from scratch.  So we're using existing programming engines linking scripts etc.  Art? Art has to be created so from concepts to final renders we need people on cintiqs and maya or 3DS Max or whatever program the studio chooses.  EVEN IF all 400 employees that were fired were artists we come out to just shy of 1 Million to equip them all. Need to use existing engines and software? ok even with licensing fees and software we again come just shy of a million.  This puts us at 2 million IF all 400 employees have BOTH programming and art software and equipment...KOA took two years to make and at 15 bucks an hour for a 40 hour work week for two years all 400 employees (and you KNOW some got way less than 15 an hour) comes to 13,5 million. 13.5 plus the 2 to equip them we're at 15.5.  Providence wanted a pay back of 1.2 million per month for two years we'll round it off to 38 million...we're at 53 million. Not only that this equation pays people more than what they got AND gave them equipment they didnt need so we're more around 40 something million...That is of course rough math but a discrepancy of roughly 35 million?  I'm gonna have a ball after this tax season after the numbers are released.

Also let us not forget that a man worth 110 (80)Million supposedly did not use any of his personal finance to help his employees-so much so that he fucked his workers for a month.  No one was paid for the month of May before the studio was shut down.  Now not for nothing but personally if I am worth 110 (80) million and my company can't pay the employees for the month I would shell it out of pocket for as long as I felt necessary. These are human beings with lives and responsibilities and they depend on me for their money to survive.  I did the math it costs just over 1 percent of Curt's worth per month to pay all 400 employees at 15 bucks an hour.  Wow dude, I don't know what to say.  And I dont want to hear this crap that he's broke.  if he put in 110 million (all of his money) and RI put in 75 million then we're REALLY messed up on the accounting books.  So yeah I don't think Curt really cared for his actual employees, not as humans anyway. Proof- you need proof?

Sure well 38 Studios opened in Massachusetts and was lured to Rhode Island by the money.  The employees were told there would be a relocation program.  If you owned a house in Mass then dont worry just buy one in providence and 38 studios will take on the task of selling your old home in Massachusetts.  Well no, they didnt.  Many employees are being slapped with double mortgages turns out 38 didn't sell their old homes for them like they promised.

So what? need more proof? Ok well in addition to not paying people that work for you i.e. slaves we had a lay off policy that looks like it was hatched in a coward's ass.  An email was used to lay off 400 people.   What follows is the actual email-no joke.  So you know you come into work, get your coffee, shoot the breeze a bit, sit down at your station open your email and read:

“The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a companywide lay off is absolutely necessary. These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary. This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.

Or maybe you're like me when I was at a major video game publisher and don't read your emails. (I am different now) so you don't know this is going on and you see all of the people down the hall with their personal items and maybe tearing up or something and you think "Whoa shit! they're fired!" so you go out there to find out what's going on and you ask them why they're fired.  They tell you that you are fired too.  Shit!  Where was the leadership here?  Nothing like treating your employees like people.  Would have been nice if at the beginning of the month someone of power rounded everyone up and said something like "Hey it isn't going so well here.  We're not sure how long we can keep at this.  It might be a good idea to put your resume out there-list me as a reference."  But no.  No the ship is sinking so you chain everyone to it?  What happened to the captain goes down with the ship?  Nice move Curt.


Who cares about fallout and bad publicity if employees go home and talk about the company dying?  What does it matter?  Nothing can be hidden forever obviously so you might as well be honest.  I'm sorry I am angry at this type of thing.  As a business owner myself and after being treated like garbage most of my working life I can't imagine how or why someone could do this to their workforce.  If you can think of excuses please by all means start a video game company since this looks to be par for the course.

I mean it.  Although we are small and fledgling I mean it-we treat all employees with dignity and respect.  We see them as humans first and workers second.  I swear and I have sworn numerous times that I will not follow this model.  Hold me to it-be hard on me, do whatever you want I'll never surrender this promise.

Profits go up Challenge goes down

Why are video games today not as hard as the ones I had as a kid?  I mean yeah sure shitty controls and half baked programming was a big time culprit making games harder than they should be back then but no-no.  Games, great games like Megaman and Contra were hard as shit and they had fluid controls and solid programming for the day.  Ninja Gaiden II and III? yeah-add those too.  It seems like games today can be beaten in my sleep.  Most rely on cheap shots to kill you and once you figure out how they set them up the game becomes predictable.  OG's like myself have relatively no problem cruising through popular titles-why is this?  I think well rather I know that it boils down to one factor: Consumerism.

When I was a kid gaming was nothing like today-you had to wait for a game worth buying to come out.  There were only a handful of major labels and once in a while you found a nice small development sleeper hit.  It wasnt like today where there is a plethora of developers and choices and a new game comes out every week...whether you have heard of it or not.

So I'm a kid I get bored easily and the next installment of double dragon wont be out for a while...so...make the game hard.  Make it so that I have to soak days worth of time hell weeks even.  Make it so that I have no choice but to play unfair levels and ridiculously tough enemies in late stages.  Bullshit timers that run out way too early.  One life and no continues?  yeah I suffered that shit.  By time you beat it you felt satisfied and wanted to tear a hole into the next game...you would still have to wait but you remember that challenge and you counted the days-you checked up in Nintendo Power as to when you might expect the new game you wanted.  You were gonna make the next game pay-oh yeah.

Nowadays?  Pfh who cares?  Add some multiplayer and we're done.  Let them play against hackers and people who memorized the gameplay.  So let me get this straight...You as a developer are supposed to provide fun and challenge to your gamer yes? Yes.  Ok and you do this by allowing me to duck behind cover and wait for my health to replenish in a game that focuses on and sells the "realistic combat feel"?  Yeah ok.  So your fun and challenge doesnt really come from the game itself but rather the PLAYERS you play against or with?  Hmmm doesnt sound like any real care went into level design and balance.

Now when I say level design I dont mean "It looks realistic with the trucks by the house" and bla bla bla.  No I mean like designing the level in such a way to either trick the player into a trap or making them solve a problem either with force or smarts you know something like that...it allowed us to play in a way that was unique to oneself.  Nowadays you just kinda wander the map looking for a guy to shoot-boring.  Major snooze.  In the unlikely event that I do get hit it is nearly impossible to die in Single player these days.  Just duck and wait.

We don't have to go back very far where the standard was health pick ups.  And you couldnt grab that health when you were at 100% to save for later.  No you had to leave that crap there and hope to be able to get back to it should you need it.  A lot of times I would survive a bad ass fight and on my way to the health previously in the level I would be fragged.  This was aggravating but part of the game.  I had the PATIENCE to play the game as designed.

I say patience because a lot of us arent.  So to regenerate health just sit there...you are now a bad ass gamer with great tactical mindset.

And before I forget about balance and design...typically in these shooters you take five maybe six bullets and within a seven second window and you die.  Ok so the 9mm handgun is noticeably weaker than the shotgun...Part of what a game is supposed to do is frustrate and scare you.  Where is the health bar?  When I was younger and you saw a bad ass enemy for the first time you would gasp in horror as you saw your health bar drop by 80% in one hit.  Hell sometimes you took the hit just because you were curious.  And when that health was gone it was gone baby.  Nowadays-no health bar no way to really gauge how much fight you have left...just lay somewhere quiet until your sight straightens out.

 My original point is that these games are designed like cotton candy.  It's sweet goes down easy and there is always more of it.  Franchises launch titles sometimes twice a year you can't tell me that isnt catering to people's impatience.  There is also fear.  There is so much competition out there that if you take too long to put out a game the fans may find a new favorite and your sequel will meet bitter middle fingers.  Back then it wasnt so.  There was competition yes but not like today where literally dozens of major labels are slugging it out.

Because of this we are left with milktoast games that most of us veterans can clobber with one hand.  I know some people that will not play a hard game since they have become too spoiled.  They dont see the challenge as a reward.  They'd rather play some easy crap and feel that they are a bad ass gamer.  Developers also cater to this mindset as well.  Back then games were fun and if you played them you werent judged on your skill but rather HOW you played them.  The wannabe badasses who stomp easy games?  back in my day you'd be reserved to Sesame St on NES...in my opinion you're doing that anyway with these hold your hand easy to beat games so...say hey to Oscar on the way to pick up your uh "Plasma Rifle".