green monster games

[SolomonGrundy]

Green Monster Games, LLC is preparing to burst onto the online gaming scene in epic and remarkable fashion. A company founded on character and integrity, GMG will turn the industry on its ear with a product release and business model never before seen. Todd McFarlane (yes, the Todd McFarlane of www.spawn.com fame) is serving as GMG's Art Director. R.A. Salvatore (yes, the R.A. Salvatore who created the world's most famous dark elf found at www.rasalvatore.com), is GMG's Creative Director. Collaborating with GMG President Curt Schilling (he of the 2004 curse-breaking Red Sox and avid hardcore MMOer), this trio is assembling the world's most creative talent to produce what will be seen as the most epic, industry-changing game in the history of online gaming.

has anyone heard anything about this?

[DanielElliot]

A comics artist, a writer of D&D novels, and some baseball guy making an MMO. Yeah, that'll be great. Do they have any actual game people calling the shots?

[Mark Crump]

Schilling is also very hardcore (the guy drags a laptop around with him to raid during baseball season).

We may get the ultra-hardcore came people have allegedly been clamoring for.

[Zuwadza]

I can't WAIT to play that business model!

[Odysseus]

They're still hiring for a lead programmer.

[DanielElliot]

The newbie quests will be given by a fearsome dark elven outfielder wearing an enchanted leather thong.

[Jaysun]

A couple coworkers of mine just left to go work there. It's a really small team right now. They are located in Boston. I have no idea what they are making and I'm not sure they even know. It's basically a really well funded start-up.

[Mark Crump]

Schilling's rented 30,000 sq. ft. of space up in Maynard--I think up in the same complex that Iron Lore is in.

Both Moorgard and Schwayder just left the EQ2 team, so maybe they are headed up there.

I wouldn't discount this game just because no one big-names from the industry are involved yet. With how much cash Schilling has, this is not going to be a low-budget indie release. Plus, Schill is an endorser of SOE and gets along with their PR head quite well. Expect this to be published by SOE.

[DustyTheHamster]

I actually heard about this at the Dark Age of Camelot Las Vegas roundtable where R.A Salvatore was the keynote speaker.

[mouselock]

Originally Posted by Mark Crump

I wouldn't discount this game just because no one big-names from the industry are involved yet. With how much cash Schilling has, this is not going to be a low-budget indie release. Plus, Schill is an endorser of SOE and gets along with their PR head quite well. Expect this to be published by SOE.

I think it's going to depend a ton on what type of experience they can draw in. They'll need someone who understands what's hard about MMOs from the inside to guide their programmers, and all empirical evidence tends to indicate that there's probably not enough of these people to cover the already existing high profile games out there (judging by how often some of them encounter the problems that would be linked to this type of stuff).

[HRose]

I "predict" it will fall apart within one year, maybe two.

But you are allowed to believe.

[Mark Crump]

Originally Posted by mouselock

I think it's going to depend a ton on what type of experience they can draw in. They'll need someone who understands what's hard about MMOs from the inside to guide their programmers, and all empirical evidence tends to indicate that there's probably not enough of these people to cover the already existing high profile games out there (judging by how often some of them encounter the problems that would be linked to this type of stuff).

Yes. But Schilling's got the money to attract them. He's not some guy hoping to get venture capital. He's got the cash to fund this himself, and he's retiring in a year. Even IF he's going after venture capital, he's got the personal funds to back it up.

I'm expecting they are going to try and make this a big spash, mostly because Schilling doesn't strike me as the type to do things small.

Stop looking at this like a baseball guy and no one who knows what they are doing starting a game company. Instead, it's an MMO fan with a shitload of money; a well-respected, highly-talented author; and a talented visual artist making a game. Those resumes alone are worth serious talent lining up, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's poaching heavilly from SOE the same way Sigil was. Schill's been involved with SOE for a long time, so he knows the people there real well.

[deccan]

Wow, just imagine if it had been Rob Liefield instead. What kind of an MMO world would he make?

[Backov]

I think it's possible for a well funded, well designed MMO to take a big bite out of WoW.

... in 5 years. :)

[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[EvilIdler]

Originally Posted by deccan

Wow, just imagine if it had been Rob Liefield instead. What kind of an MMO world would he make?

One where you get lost more easily than usual, but never lack storage space
in your numerous belt pouches.

[HRose]

Originally Posted by Mark Crump

I wouldn't be surprised if he's poaching heavilly from SOE the same way Sigil was.

Yeah, and look at the results.

[Menzo]

How much money do you suppose a guy like Schilling has saved up? Because the fastest way to eat through $30 million or so would be to start an MMO developer from scratch.

Come to think of it, maybe this is some sort of weird Brewster's Millions thing?

[Bill]

Originally Posted by HRose

I "predict" it will fall apart within one year, maybe two.

But you are allowed to believe.

It doesn't count unless you put it in your blog.

[Damien Neil]

80% chance the company vanishes without a trace, 15% chance they produce something bland and uninspiring, 4.9% chance they make a profit, 0.1% chance anything they do is any good.

Wait. Todd McFarlane. Add a few 0s to that last 0.1%.

[VegasRobb]

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.

Is profit sharing with employees not a common thing for software companies? From time to time, I read about companies being bought and sold and the comments talk about "money hats", "set for life", etc.

[mouselock]

Originally Posted by Mark Crump

I'm expecting they are going to try and make this a big spash, mostly because Schilling doesn't strike me as the type to do things small.

I expect everyone in the business has tried to make their games a big splash, quite a few with plenty of funds backing them. I think the only ones who've succeeded have been Blizzard, really. At best everyone else has made little ripples.

I'm not saying Schilling is a figurehead or anything like that. Just that having a desire, a popular (I hesitate to use the word "good") writer, and a popular (there's that word again!) art director isn't really a sufficient pedigree to end up at "good game".

I don't know how or why, but everything points towards these games being harder to make than regular ones by far. Maybe that's not true and we're just seeing the same success rate in MMOs that we would expect in regular games, but if so those odds are extra-shitty when your up-front costs are 10s of millions rather than millions of dollars, y'know?

Stop looking at this like a baseball guy and no one who knows what they are doing starting a game company.

I'm not. I'm looking at it as some guys wanting to make a game that, really, nobody knows how to make. We have one example of a blockbuster hit and a couple more of really solid niche products (EQ, DAoC if you're generous and the niche is PvP, UO). Of those, the niche games all tended to be bolstered by "Look at this new game type we invented" syndrome, rather than having to be compared to WoW.

Maybe some of the guys at the frontlines will weigh in here, but my impression is the "free money printing here!" days are pretty much gone, and at the same time nobody's really nailed down the fundamental ingredients of the genre well enough to know how to incrementally increase the success reliably from product to product (unlike, say, an FPS or an RTS). That's a pretty volatile situation to throw oneself into, no matter how much funding or true desire the guy has. If you want to argue that somehow because he's a ball player with lots of bucks that he inherently understands these games better than most other people trying to make them, well, I'll have to disagree.

[Damien Neil]

Originally Posted by VegasRobb

Is profit sharing with employees not a common thing for software companies? From time to time, I read about companies being bought and sold and the comments talk about "money hats", "set for life", etc.

That'd be from stock options, I would think. Profit sharing is pretty much unheard of.

[Mark Crump]

to mouselook:

You may very well be right. I'm hoping a story written by Salvatore and art direction by McFarlane might do better than a story done by an amateur.

That said, it's possible it will simply fail on that regard because of the scale of it. I might also fail if Schilling is a pain to work for, or it might simply fail.

Who knows. It's way to early to tell.

[dogbert]

You may very well be right. I'm hoping a story written by Salvatore and art direction by McFarlane might do better than a story done by an amateur.

Did art direction by McFarlane help the previous games he's been involved in?

[steve]

Originally Posted by Menzo

How much money do you suppose a guy like Schilling has saved up? Because the fastest way to eat through $30 million or so would be to start an MMO developer from scratch.

He's making well over $10 million a year in salary alone, plus endorsements. But I doubt it's all his money in this; one of the nice things about having famous people is the ability to secure more funding. He's probably seeding the thing out-of-pocket, but there will be no shortage of people willing to invest. Hell, just think of rich Red Sox fans. Maybe Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will toss a couple million in the pile.

Schilling also has a board game company that makes Squad Leader add-ons.

[SlyFrog]

Not Squad Leader add-ons. That's not accurate.

The guy already owns a board game company. He also happens to be a pretty diehard Advanced Squad Leader player (about the most complex regularly played board game you're going to find). When Avalon Hill sold out to Hasbro, he literally liked it so much, he bought the company (okay, not really, but he owns the company that has the licensing rights to all ASL stuff - we're talking the main rulebook, all the modules, basically the game).

They seem to be doing fairly well. Nothing will guarantee great things out of this, because you wouldn't guarantee that with any other normal, start-up company that didn't involve Curt Schilling. But I see no reason why this has any less of a chance than any other; if anything, as previously stated, it may have a better chance simply because it is unlikely to be capitalized on a shoestring.

[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.

[gehrig38]

Originally Posted by Mark Crump

Schilling's rented 30,000 sq. ft. of space up in Maynard--I think up in the same complex that Iron Lore is in.

Both Moorgard and Schwayder just left the EQ2 team, so maybe they are headed up there.

I wouldn't discount this game just because no one big-names from the industry are involved yet. With how much cash Schilling has, this is not going to be a low-budget indie release. Plus, Schill is an endorser of SOE and gets along with their PR head quite well. Expect this to be published by SOE.

When the times are right, announcements to hires will be made. I think, based on the talent here so far, we are matching the tech side with the talent side tit for tat.
I won't fund this myself, I have put the seed money in to get the company up and running, but ultimately we will have one or two partners. Those partnerships will be ones that enhance the parties involved more than just monetarily.
Yes I have had a long and very prosperous relationship with SOE, they've been great to me and to my family. If it can be worked out SOE and GMG will certainly partner in some way, down the road.
This industry is a very small one and very tight knit. Almost like a high school campus. Everyone knows everything about everyone else, or thinks they do. Hiring tech and lead talent means finding studs, which means finding people that have been there and done that, which means finding people that are already employed and secure. To do that you better bring alot more than money to the table to hire these people, and I think that's something that's working incredibly well right now and will as we go forward.
We opened our offices last week in Maynard, Mass. 30k square feet that will hopefully be jam packed a few years from now. The first of the core team is in house and pre-production has already begun and the pace will be picking up over the next few months as more talent comes into the company.
It's certainly not boring!

[Hawkeye Fierce]

Man, I don't get wobbly over a celebrity often, but that's pretty freaking cool.

Good luck with your games, Curt. I don't know if they'll be something I enjoy, but high profile video game supporters are always a good thing in my book.