[gehrig38]

Originally Posted by Crater

Schilling spoke at a roundtable at MIT a couple of weeks ago, and he gave a pretty bland talk. He went on and on about his love for the industry, and how he wanted to do things "differently" to challenge the status quo. He also mentioned that he was looking for people with "passion", who would stop at nothing to be the best of the best..

Interesting take, I've never been called bland before which is kind of nice actually.
As far as going 'on and on', I won't disagree, I have an immense amount of passion about games in general, especially the ones I play, and about this company and our goals and dreams.
My love for this is in the dream more than anything, and in creating a company that's so vastly different than what's out there, and being part of changing peoples lives, and having the ability to, so ya, I can and most likely will continue to go on and on.

Originally Posted by Crater

Disappointingly, he didn't really provide any real information about his company, or what he planned to do. When pressed by a Boston Globe reporter, he just said "I can't tell you, but it'll be cool". Talking with other folks there, all we could really conclude is that it'll be a high-pressure, extended work-day slog trying to meet ill-defined goals that are changed on a whim by owners with good intentions...

Because at the moment there's nothing you need to know as customers and providing any information at this point would do neither side any good. We are in the midst of a length pre-production schedule, a period of time that sees many iterations of everything as you progress. The only thing I'd be doing is hyping something that may or may not be in the game, which would do neither of us any good. I don't need to hype the game right now, and if the game is great then the hype doesn't need to be done too soon or in excess.
I can only say it's cool because I've been gaming for 25 years, been in the MMO space since Alpha in UO, I know what's out there in the MMO space, I know what's been out there, and I know what's not. I think what we are creating is 'pretty cool', even more than that, but details, as I said earlier, would not be the prudent thing to give now.

Originally Posted by Crater

it'll be a high-pressure, extended work-day slog trying to meet ill-defined goals that are changed on a whim by owners with good intentions...

As an expert in the games industry, which I am guessing you are based on your statement above, I can't refute those conditions might exist elsewhere. Having said that I am not sure how, based on the talk at MIT, you were smart enough to project those things occurring at GMG.
What exactly did I say that allowed you to conclude we'd have a high pressure enviroment? What did I say that gave you enough insight to deduce we have extended work days? What exactly are our 'ill defined goals'? Who's going to be changing them on a whim?
I'm always open to getting better at something, if you think you know more about this industry than I do then by all means I'm all ears.

Originally Posted by Crater

One thing that sounded really interesting was his plan of 50/50 profit sharing with the employees. As skeptical as I am, even I had a Scrooge McDuck moment, where my eyes spun like slot machines, and came up dollar signs. Assuming that they aren't going to play games with what constitutes profit ( like the recording industry does ), it could be a pretty compelling reason to work there..

Baseball has made me more famous and wealthier than I ever dreamed I would be, I am getting into this for neither of those reasons. Plus, simple mathmathics told me that under a 50/50 profit share, if the people that actually MADE the game got rich, then under that formula wouldn't I as well?

Originally Posted by Crater

Overall, I really hope it works out, because more major players aren't necessarily a bad thing. There are already a ton of companies in the market, so what's one more? If anything, good games expand the market and open more total revenue for games to fight over..

I am not sure where revenues and subscription bases will be in a few years, but based on todays economy in the game space it's safe to say both are going to grow exponentially right?

Originally Posted by Crater

But that being said, there's no sort of master plan which is apparent yet. And as such, it's hard not to be more than a little skeptical about an industry outsider who wants to shake things up, learn from the past, but can't provide any details as to how he's going to do it. I wish him the best of luck (hey, I may end up working there someday), but he (and his partners) have a lot of work to do.

Oh there is a master plan, and when legal statutes force me to have to reveal them publicly then I guess that will happen. Don't make the mistake of thinking that because you haven't been told, somethings not being done. Making an MMO, any game, is a massive undertaking requiring tens of millions of dollars and tens of hundreds of people. Budgeting those dollars and taking care of those people is my #1 goal as President of this company. If our game is great, which we believe it will be, does giving you the information before we release it make it any greater?
The details that will be made public will be done so when they need to be on a schedule we deem to be the most beneficial to the game, the company, and the people. If getting the word out early is a requirement to your game being good, you've lost before you started.
And as for partners, there are none. GMG, at the moment is owned 100% by me, R.A., and Todd, have both signed on to oversee their respective areas as leads for the flagship title.