So I take it that you know of the blackout because you are under it? Give a wink and a nod if you're chained to a CME work station, and I'll send in an extraction team for you. I'll skip the de-programmer at this stage, but one "Gary Whiting is great" post from you, and he'll have to lock you up in a hotel and beat the Stockholme Syndrome out of you.
But seriously, though, I'm sure you can understand when I say that I cannot take your "blackout charge" as anything other than conjecture at this point. The possibility is just too great that either you, or your source is a disgruntled ex-employee looking to spread a smear campaign out of personal angst.
I look forward to when you are able to reveal some of your info more clearly, though... so for now I await either that, or some more half-assed screenshots from CME.
In the end, facts are facts, and the truth is only what one believes the facts mean. Ex: Fact - I went to bed, and when I woke up, there were presents under the tree, and parents said "Santa did it." The "truth" that is extrapolated from it - Santa is real.
So I take it that you know of the blackout because you are under it? Give a wink and a nod if you're chained to a CME work station, and I'll send in an extraction team for you. I'll skip the de-programmer at this stage, but one "Gary Whiting is great" post from you, and he'll have to lock you up in a hotel and beat the Stockholme Syndrome out of you. But seriously, though, I'm sure you can understand when I say that I cannot take your "blackout charge" as anything other than conjecture at this point. The possibility is just too great that either you, or your source is a disgruntled ex-employee looking to spread a smear campaign out of personal angst. I look forward to when you are able to reveal some of your info more clearly, though... so for now I await either that, or some more half-assed screenshots from CME. In the end, facts are facts, and the truth is only what one believes the facts mean. Ex: Fact - I went to bed, and when I woke up, there were presents under the tree, and parents said "Santa did it." The "truth" that is extrapolated from it - Santa is real.
Unless something is backed up with a link to an official site or interview then what I say is merely conjecture or opinion. I am making an assumption based upon information I've been given from several sources, people that don't have the job security of Brad Wright. I don't take any of it as gosspel truth either, I link the dots and clour in the piucture to the best of my ability.
Even if I believed it to be fact (and I do) I'm not going to state it as fact. If I'm wrong then I can take that, I have no problem with debating my opinions unless you're a FanORI (a couple of chevrons short of a gate address).
I think you're right in that there are people still at CME working as hard as they can on the game. But they aren't the problem, CME has/had alot of talented people. The problem is upper managment, mainly Whiting. It's similar to what was happening at Sigil, a CEO with a drug addiction and messiah complex that actually impeded work on the product rather than encouraged. Whiting is just a scam artist with galloping meglomania, he knows even less than McQuaid about making an MMORPG (and that's not much) and has even less experience. The big difference is that Whiting is a better liar and more creative when it comes to financing.
MGM need to take control of this game, the only way I see it happening soon is if all the DEVs at CME went on strike and refused to work until someone else took control. I know Americans are allergic to socialism, but they do have unions and strikes every now and then and there has to be a counterbalance against insane meglomaniac capatalists like Whiting!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
Frankly, this is all you need to explain a news blackout:
"We are currently negotiating several deals that will cover our financial responsibilities and fund the remainder of development."
It's very possible they are negotiating for a buyout. When such talks are going on, you don't want anyone with inside info to say anything at all. And especially if MMOGULS would go belly up at the same time
Turbine went through the same thing while they were buying out Vivendi's (I think) ownership in MEO, which then became LOTRO.
But I wouldn't think you'd need this kind of blackout for just a case of finding new investors.
I am a HUGE stargate fan but I lost interest in this game a while back. I knew things were going down hill when i saw asgard as a playable race. I totally lost interest when I saw the first vid and it looked to play very similiar to Tabula Rasa. I would love a SG MMO but I haven't thought this would be it for a long time.
Unless something is backed up with a link to an official site or interview then what I say is merely conjecture or opinion. I am making an assumption based upon information I've been given from several sources, people that don't have the job security of Brad Wright. I don't take any of it as gosspel truth either, I link the dots and clour in the piucture to the best of my ability.
Much of Agricola's conjecture's are accurate, or close enough to accuracy for forum wars anyway. Not sure where he gets *his* information, I know where I get mine and seeing his posts often corraborates what I already knew. I will say though that he's wrong on his assumptions about how much Gary Whiting has control of day to day.
Gary is definately a pain in the arse at CME however Gary's in the office even less frequently than Tim Jenson (the CEO who has a 2 day a week contract... part of the endemic problems at the company from the start). Gary rarely, if ever directly communicates with any CME employees, not even via e-mail. Most of the employees are controlled by Tim Jenson, who is sometimes a Whiting shil and sometimes has his own agenda (why on earth did a video game company acquire a business information development company for 2 million, which 2 years later was sold to Tim Jenson directly for nothing but some CME stock? This is the same stuff Jenson was convicted of at Merisel by the SEC).
Gary controls the money. Few employees enjoy his presence but they do appreciate his ability to raise funds (regardless of source, MMOGULs or otherwise it does pay payroll). But Kevin Ballentine doesn't talk to Gary before he makes a PR startement. He *might* talk to Tim Jenson who rarely, if every, converses with Gary on such things.
Now what MGM will do about all of this is the giant unknown. MGM just audited CME's books last week and flew in to see the game. Mum's the word on how that went.
Much of Agricola's conjecture's are accurate, or close enough to accuracy for forum wars anyway. Not sure where he gets *his* information, I know where I get mine and seeing his posts often corraborates what I already knew. I will say though that he's wrong on his assumptions about how much Gary Whiting has control of day to day. Gary is definately a pain in the arse at CME however Gary's in the office even less frequently than Tim Jenson (the CEO who has a 2 day a week contract... part of the endemic problems at the company from the start). Gary rarely, if ever directly communicates with any CME employees, not even via e-mail. Most of the employees are controlled by Tim Jenson, who is sometimes a Whiting shil and sometimes has his own agenda (why on earth did a video game company acquire a business information development company for 2 million, which 2 years later was sold to Tim Jenson directly for nothing but some CME stock? This is the same stuff Jenson was convicted of at Merisel by the SEC). Gary controls the money. Few employees enjoy his presence but they do appreciate his ability to raise funds (regardless of source, MMOGULs or otherwise it does pay payroll). But Kevin Ballentine doesn't talk to Gary before he makes a PR startement. He *might* talk to Tim Jenson who rarely, if every, converses with Gary on such things. Now what MGM will do about all of this is the giant unknown. MGM just audited CME's books last week and flew in to see the game. Mum's the word on how that went.
Oh wow, so part of the 40-50 million to fund SGW went to purchase Knowledge Relay? I would suspect that CME was also assisting in funding Knowledge Relay operations and payroll as well? Would make sense why CME ran out of money!!
So if this company was given to Tim Jenson (maybe to stop the bleed on CME?) Why does Knowledge Relay still advertise and run day-to-day business operations under the CME Logo? Why do they use CME HR Resources (see advertisements on monster.com or flipdog)? Why does Roger Piskulick still work for KR and not CME ?So many questions!
Certainly, someone knows something about the MGM two-day visit. Maybe they were auditing the books to find out the true investment in SGW to pay off CME and get the license back ! <one can hope>
Unless something is backed up with a link to an official site or interview then what I say is merely conjecture or opinion. I am making an assumption based upon information I've been given from several sources, people that don't have the job security of Brad Wright. I don't take any of it as gosspel truth either, I link the dots and clour in the piucture to the best of my ability.
Much of Agricola's conjecture's are accurate, or close enough to accuracy for forum wars anyway. Not sure where he gets *his* information, I know where I get mine and seeing his posts often corraborates what I already knew. I will say though that he's wrong on his assumptions about how much Gary Whiting has control of day to day.
Gary is definately a pain in the arse at CME however Gary's in the office even less frequently than Tim Jenson (the CEO who has a 2 day a week contract... part of the endemic problems at the company from the start). Gary rarely, if ever directly communicates with any CME employees, not even via e-mail. Most of the employees are controlled by Tim Jenson, who is sometimes a Whiting shil and sometimes has his own agenda (why on earth did a video game company acquire a business information development company for 2 million, which 2 years later was sold to Tim Jenson directly for nothing but some CME stock? This is the same stuff Jenson was convicted of at Merisel by the SEC).
Gary controls the money. Few employees enjoy his presence but they do appreciate his ability to raise funds (regardless of source, MMOGULs or otherwise it does pay payroll). But Kevin Ballentine doesn't talk to Gary before he makes a PR startement. He *might* talk to Tim Jenson who rarely, if every, converses with Gary on such things.
Now what MGM will do about all of this is the giant unknown. MGM just audited CME's books last week and flew in to see the game. Mum's the word on how that went.
And I thought it was no longer possible to be shocked by Whiting's shady business practices! I didn't say Whiting is there day to day, I was comparing his managment style to that of McQuaid as in being rather hands off but when he is there work tends to grind to a halt. I know that Gary spends most of his time scamming saps to pay off his debts, not raising money out of benevolence to pay the wages of the staff to complete the MMORPG we all love. You say they appreciate his ability to raise funds to meet the payroll, but it was his business practices that left them unpaid for months and got many co-workers laid off. He spent the $40 mil long ago, certainly not on SGW by looking at the state of it so I believe their appreciation is misplaced.
It seems from what you've said that Jenson is just another corrupt low life hell bent on getting his slice of the pie before the ship goes down. Selling off assests to eachother for stock that Whiting and Jenson know will be worthless soon, tells me they're expecting CME to go down in the near future. I guess it's really no different than those bankers being given £1 mil pensions after screwing up the economy, being rewarded for failure whilst the common worker gets the punishment for their failure.
I believe MGM is looking for an opportunity to pull the license and team Whiting knows it, I hope MGM remove this cancer from not just SGW but the entire gaming industry. This guy makes Smedley look like a choir boy in comparison!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
You say they appreciate his ability to raise funds to meet the payroll, but it was his business practices that left them unpaid for months and got many co-workers laid off. He spent the $40 mil long ago, certainly not on SGW by looking at the state of it so I believe their appreciation is misplaced.
Whiting is the Chairman of the Board. Jensen is the CEO. On a day to day, company basis, the CEO makes the call. The CEO controls the budget and the spend. Jensen decided to open 3 other game studios. Jensen decided to buy knowledge relay. Jensen was responsible for ensuring the money received from Whiting's fund raising was spent correctly.
That doesn't mean Whiting is innocent. His ownership of the company meant at any time he could step in and make demands and he did frequently and too be fair, he took control of all funds late last year when he decided that he would determine when and how to pay employees through the money crunch (there was a large dispute i believe over when/how/if to pay payroll taxes before paying employees).
A search on either will reveal an extremely shady business past. Whiting has multiple lawsuits (no convictions, they were all civil suits) and Jensen has been found guilty by the SEC of corporate securities fraud and banned from operating a public company (offly fishy given that Whiting promised the "out" for investors on CME was to make the compnay public, tough to do when you know your CEO can't legally run a public company).
As for knowledge relay, the books are secret but the reality is Knowledge Relay was revenue generating and unlike CME profitable for many quarters. in fact when the money crunch first hit, they used KR funds to pay CME payroll at least once. However employees perceived KR to be yet another "waste" of money. Jensen was all to happy to "sell" it to himself (for worthless CME stock) when money got tight and the perception was the company needs to scale back to just SGW. However, it wasn't as if KR was "free" for CME. Jensen operated it with CME staff (CFO, Finance, HR, were all shared, offly hard to grow a game company focused on game development when management staff also had to grow an entirely different business and model as well). What's worse is even after he bought it he continued to run it with CME resources. So employees and fans have a right to feel management wasn't really focused on building SGW as much as it was on making money off investors anyway they could.
You speak witht he authority of inside information. What you say coincides with the picture pieced together in my head, so I want to believe. But why should I? Can't you tell us how you know all of this stuff?
As for knowledge relay, the books are secret but the reality is Knowledge Relay was revenue generating and unlike CME profitable for many quarters. in fact when the money crunch first hit, they used KR funds to pay CME payroll at least once. However employees perceived KR to be yet another "waste" of money. Jensen was all to happy to "sell" it to himself (for worthless CME stock) when money got tight and the perception was the company needs to scale back to just SGW. However, it wasn't as if KR was "free" for CME. Jensen operated it with CME staff (CFO, Finance, HR, were all shared, offly hard to grow a game company focused on game development when management staff also had to grow an entirely different business and model as well). What's worse is even after he bought it he continued to run it with CME resources. So employees and fans have a right to feel management wasn't really focused on building SGW as much as it was on making money off investors anyway they could.
Whiting and Jensen are very good at playing good cop, bad cop – they are two peas in a pod. Also, don’t forget that Jensen works for the Board of Directors, which is Whiting.
I believe there were many administrative employees shed over the payroll tax payments, or lack thereof. The officers of the company didn’t want to be on the hook for not paying the taxes. Whiting made a choice to pay employees in January over the taxes, they had some signed agreements that the officers weren’t liable the lack of tax payments.
Now onto scaling back to just SGW -- that just never happened! They still have a bunch of losers at these other companies/studios that do not contribute to SGW, even when asked. Of course, Hand Cranked was formed by putting the folks from SGW’s that couldn’t cut it into that company. The stuff that Mass Illusions produced looked like poop. The stuff that Hand Cranked produced, looked like worse poop. Overall, they don’t have enough employees at these ‘fake’ studios to even begin to write a design document, so most of them are just sitting around collecting paychecks week after week, to keep the façade of multiple studios, and therefore keeping Mr. Whiting out of jail. But they are probably all mormons at these fake companies, too so I'm sure this makes it all okay.
Whiting is the Chairman of the Board. Jensen is the CEO. On a day to day, company basis, the CEO makes the call. The CEO controls the budget and the spend. Jensen decided to open 3 other game studios. Jensen decided to buy knowledge relay. Jensen was responsible for ensuring the money received from Whiting's fund raising was spent correctly.
That doesn't mean Whiting is innocent. His ownership of the company meant at any time he could step in and make demands and he did frequently and too be fair, he took control of all funds late last year when he decided that he would determine when and how to pay employees through the money crunch (there was a large dispute i believe over when/how/if to pay payroll taxes before paying employees).
A search on either will reveal an extremely shady business past. Whiting has multiple lawsuits (no convictions, they were all civil suits) and Jensen has been found guilty by the SEC of corporate securities fraud and banned from operating a public company (offly fishy given that Whiting promised the "out" for investors on CME was to make the compnay public, tough to do when you know your CEO can't legally run a public company).
As for knowledge relay, the books are secret but the reality is Knowledge Relay was revenue generating and unlike CME profitable for many quarters. in fact when the money crunch first hit, they used KR funds to pay CME payroll at least once. However employees perceived KR to be yet another "waste" of money. Jensen was all to happy to "sell" it to himself (for worthless CME stock) when money got tight and the perception was the company needs to scale back to just SGW. However, it wasn't as if KR was "free" for CME. Jensen operated it with CME staff (CFO, Finance, HR, were all shared, offly hard to grow a game company focused on game development when management staff also had to grow an entirely different business and model as well). What's worse is even after he bought it he continued to run it with CME resources. So employees and fans have a right to feel management wasn't really focused on building SGW as much as it was on making money off investors anyway they could.
I don't disagree with anything you say, the only point I'd like to make is if you say Whiting is the Chairman and it's not his direct responsibility to oversee day to day running of the business, it's a bit of a cop out in my opinion. For sure Jenson sounds like a shady character but it reminds me of the Chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland being questioned about £25 Billion going poof. He shrugs his shoulders and says "well it's not my fault as I'm not involved in all dealings and I'm not responsible for these loans, it was someone else". Then it's pointed out that he's paid to be responsible for the day to day overseeing of the bank and keeping it above water and running it properly, if not what exactly is his fat paycheck for?
The facts are that everyone will pass the buck, but it has to stop somewhere and as in all companies the buck stops at the chairman. If one of the executive officers ballsed up the companies finances it's the Chairmans responsibility ultimately, he's the one tied to the whipping post since Jenson can always quit and walk away.
It seems from what you're saying that Jenson and Whiting are both birds of a feather and no doubt Whiting is/was aware and/or doesn't care about how CME is run. Let's face it if Jenson had been acting without the knowledge of Whiting and Whiting took control last year, his first action would be to fire Jenson right? Instead he gave him a free company!
I know you're saying they are equally culpable but I'm saying that Whiting is more culpable as without the nod from him this whole circus would never have happened. With a half decent Chairman Jenson wouldn't have even got the job of janitor and SGW would have been released by now!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
Back to the subject of this thread for just a moment, please.
CME staff talked to Brad Wright, and Brad's response that was "what I said was taken out of context".
I am having a hard time visioning how anything that was printed in those interviews could be ‘in context’ and still not damaging.
Now I realize that some reporters like to put a spin on words, but if Brad’s words were misrepresented and he believed in the SGW game & CME staff, wouldn’t you think he would take a moment to correct it?
Heck, even Paula Abdul has corrected her ‘out of context’ statements that were printed!
Back to the subject of this thread for just a moment, please.
CME staff talked to Brad Wright, and Brad's response that was "what I said was taken out of context".
I am having a hard time visioning how anything that was printed in those interviews could be ‘in context’ and still not damaging. Now I realize that some reporters like to put a spin on words, but if Brad’s words were misrepresented and he believed in the SGW game & CME staff, wouldn’t you think he would take a moment to correct it?
Heck, even Paula Abdul has corrected her ‘out of context’ statements that were printed!
I agree, if he was taken out of context why is he only saying that to CME? If CME is doing fine like the PR staff posting on the forums say, why doesn't Wright make another statement to Gateworld or even MMORPG.com to clear up any misunderstanding?
I read what he said and I'm wondering what context was it meant to be taken in exactly? He said CME are broke and the game should be out by now or not at all, I don't believe any of that was subject to context was it? If so I don't see how someone at Gateworld (who are SGW fanbois BTW!) could have missed that or deliberately quoted him oute of context to in order to malicously damage CME or SGW. Although to malicously damage CME any further would be a Herculian task at this point!
It sounds to me that he wanted to apologize for what he said to the staff there but didn't quite have the nads to do it properly. Instead of saying "Sorry guys, but I called it as I saw it and CME is up the creek in my opinion" he said "Darn, those bastards in the press have taken my quotes out of context again in the name of sensationalism".
Also Brad Wright talked to them, so he was at CME? I wonder why he was there at all, surely not to speak to the staff? Maybe he's there with the MGM bean counters looking over CME's dirty laundry?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
Rumours are that Whiting has once again failed to meet payroll at CME, not sure if it's fact or not but this does coincide with the MGM audit. Perhaps team Whiting are finally abandoning ship after selling all the non-toxic assests to themselves?
If not perhaps a CME DEV might do an interview to dispell all these rumours? They keep denying it on their website, so why not have the PR manager do an interview with Jon Wood? Invite him to their offices to clear it all up and test out the game that should be going into second phase of Beta before June?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
well CME have done a interview on gateworld that says they are still alive www.gateworld.net/news/2009/04/cme-stargate-worlds-is-coming/ just cause they never gave a interview to mmorpg.com means nothing. CME are in a media blackout at the moment get over it agricola.
I wouldn’t call it a blackout, more like a “pass out”. So many have left CME, whether it by layoff or attrition, there just isn’t anyone left with enough authority to promote, defend or possibly guide the game to the finished marketplace.
The lack of an experienced online community management (the few board monkeys dont count), does not help the news "pass out" either. If this game was coming out in the next 4-6 months, they would have a publisher, advertising, and possibly some servers for the game to run on. Oh, lets not forget it would also be in beta too!
The lights are still on, only to reveal all those empty cubes.
well CME have done a interview on gateworld that says they are still alive www.gateworld.net/news/2009/04/cme-stargate-worlds-is-coming/ just cause they never gave a interview to mmorpg.com means nothing. CME are in a media blackout at the moment get over it agricola.
I understand the FanORI dogma of "CME are in a media blackout, they'll speak to us when ready", but after 6 months most have just lost interest and/or hope in CME.
CME/Firesky have a PR guy who is paid to promote SGW, all he's done is go to Gateworld and lent creedence to what Brad Wright said earlier, I qoute from Kevin Balentine's interview,
“We are pursuing several financing deals that will allow us to complete and publish Stargate Worlds "
So by his admission they don't have the resources to complete the game right now. They blew $40 mil and have laid off most of their staff, are running a pyramid scheme to try and meet payroll (which rumour states they've missed again!) and now MGM are looking over their books.
Yeah fills me with confidence that this game will get finished soon ... NOT!
If this guy is the senior marketing manager at CME like he told Gateworld then either he's doing a really bad job (when he does anything at all that is!) or CME is up the creek without a P90!
Also If this is true,
"The company said that its publicity is currently in a “dark period,” attempting to stay out of the swirl of negative news that is currently surrounding the video game industry as a whole."
What was he doing at Gateworld giving an interview exactly? I thought they were in a media blackout to avoid the swirl of negative news (mostly perpetuated by their media blackout itself!)? None of their excuses make sense about this blackout, it is perpetuating the bad press surrounding CME, not preventing it. Also Kevin Balentine is a PR guy, it's his job to create a good vibe about SGW. All he's done is go to Gateworld and say "We're broke and need investors to pay our bills so we can complete SGW and publish it, but don't worry guys we're hard at work and it will release!". I don't see how doing an interview with any gaming site and giving them a tour of CME and letting them try out the Beta could be worse than what he did at Gateworld?
Also they talk about the negative press surrounding the video game industry as a whole, who else do they mean? Aventurine has actually got a product that is more of a closed Beta than a release but they still did it. The only negative press surrounding the game industry is coming from CME, and in the midst of a "media blackout" Balentine jumped into the eye of the storm an told us all they were broke and couldn't finish the game! I guess if you pay peanuts you get monkeys right?
Don't worry though, I'm sure when CME is lowered into the grave and it's being filled in (spoiler alert!) the Ark of Truth shall open and the FanORI shall be struck by a blinding light. Then they'll all begin to weep and blubber and beg for forgivness. Either that or they'll disappear quietly pretending that this never happened and/or blaming people like myself for what happened!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
Originally posted by Agricola1 ......“We are pursuing several financing deals that will allow us to complete and publish Stargate Worlds ".......
Welcome to the real world, where MMORPG developers meet potential investors.
Hopefully one of their financing deals involves large quantities of drugs coming across the Mexican border, otherwise I'm not too sure how they are going to raise the cash necessary to finish the game in the current economic climate.......
There's a poster over at f13.net who is (supposedly, to be fair) a former CME staffer name Jerrith (and FYI, there is a user on the SGW forums named Jerrith who is identifed as a CME staffer).
To the statement: "Team members are in the office seven days a week to deliver Stargate Worlds."
His comment was: "Until I left at least, it would be safe to say "Team members" = people who meet with potential investors, not the programmers, designers, or artists."
From another post, he left sometime close to Feb 20. Of course, the above statement does not really quantify anything. It could have meant there was a large staff, just not working 7 days a week. But the implication is not that. We'll have to wait and see.
Jerrith left CME right after the New Year when there were still many programmers still showing up at the office, but not very motivated (who could blame them).
Management was 3+ paychecks behind (with no promise to pay anytime soon) so everyone was heading out on interviews as fast as they could. Right about that time, the VP/Technology Director left taking a handful of the better programmers left to his new gig.
As of this writing, I hear there are only 3 programmers (none of which are 3D engine programmers) and a intern left in Jerrith's department. Not very promising.
Jerrith left CME right after the New Year when there were still many programmers still showing up at the office, but not very motivated (who could blame them).
I based the date on a post of his on Feb. 20 saying "Yes, I'm on my way out of CME." But I have no inside knowledge of when he was or wasn't there.
This link is also from that same site of Jarreth saying that work is still being done. As usual, the evidence is murky and on both sides of the fence. His outlook certainly doesn't seem promising, but not necessarily dooming based on his posts on f13.
I really hope that *insert game name here* will be the first game to ever live up to all of its pre-release promises, maintain a manageable hype level and have a clean release. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
Ack, my bad. I got the timing of Jerrith leaving confused with Steve Williams (Aruspex) who was in a completely different department to boot! It was like dominos with everyone leaving, hard to keep up with it all.
It still doesn’t change the rest of the post: No programmers = no server = no beta. No pay = no developers = no new investors (if they are still doing investor tours). No new investors = no game.
Comments
So I take it that you know of the blackout because you are under it? Give a wink and a nod if you're chained to a CME work station, and I'll send in an extraction team for you. I'll skip the de-programmer at this stage, but one "Gary Whiting is great" post from you, and he'll have to lock you up in a hotel and beat the Stockholme Syndrome out of you.
But seriously, though, I'm sure you can understand when I say that I cannot take your "blackout charge" as anything other than conjecture at this point. The possibility is just too great that either you, or your source is a disgruntled ex-employee looking to spread a smear campaign out of personal angst.
I look forward to when you are able to reveal some of your info more clearly, though... so for now I await either that, or some more half-assed screenshots from CME.
In the end, facts are facts, and the truth is only what one believes the facts mean. Ex: Fact - I went to bed, and when I woke up, there were presents under the tree, and parents said "Santa did it." The "truth" that is extrapolated from it - Santa is real.
Unless something is backed up with a link to an official site or interview then what I say is merely conjecture or opinion. I am making an assumption based upon information I've been given from several sources, people that don't have the job security of Brad Wright. I don't take any of it as gosspel truth either, I link the dots and clour in the piucture to the best of my ability.
Even if I believed it to be fact (and I do) I'm not going to state it as fact. If I'm wrong then I can take that, I have no problem with debating my opinions unless you're a FanORI (a couple of chevrons short of a gate address).
I think you're right in that there are people still at CME working as hard as they can on the game. But they aren't the problem, CME has/had alot of talented people. The problem is upper managment, mainly Whiting. It's similar to what was happening at Sigil, a CEO with a drug addiction and messiah complex that actually impeded work on the product rather than encouraged. Whiting is just a scam artist with galloping meglomania, he knows even less than McQuaid about making an MMORPG (and that's not much) and has even less experience. The big difference is that Whiting is a better liar and more creative when it comes to financing.
MGM need to take control of this game, the only way I see it happening soon is if all the DEVs at CME went on strike and refused to work until someone else took control. I know Americans are allergic to socialism, but they do have unions and strikes every now and then and there has to be a counterbalance against insane meglomaniac capatalists like Whiting!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Frankly, this is all you need to explain a news blackout:
"We are currently negotiating several deals that will cover our financial responsibilities and fund the remainder of development."
It's very possible they are negotiating for a buyout. When such talks are going on, you don't want anyone with inside info to say anything at all. And especially if MMOGULS would go belly up at the same time
Turbine went through the same thing while they were buying out Vivendi's (I think) ownership in MEO, which then became LOTRO.
But I wouldn't think you'd need this kind of blackout for just a case of finding new investors.
I am a HUGE stargate fan but I lost interest in this game a while back. I knew things were going down hill when i saw asgard as a playable race. I totally lost interest when I saw the first vid and it looked to play very similiar to Tabula Rasa. I would love a SG MMO but I haven't thought this would be it for a long time.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
Much of Agricola's conjecture's are accurate, or close enough to accuracy for forum wars anyway. Not sure where he gets *his* information, I know where I get mine and seeing his posts often corraborates what I already knew. I will say though that he's wrong on his assumptions about how much Gary Whiting has control of day to day.
Gary is definately a pain in the arse at CME however Gary's in the office even less frequently than Tim Jenson (the CEO who has a 2 day a week contract... part of the endemic problems at the company from the start). Gary rarely, if ever directly communicates with any CME employees, not even via e-mail. Most of the employees are controlled by Tim Jenson, who is sometimes a Whiting shil and sometimes has his own agenda (why on earth did a video game company acquire a business information development company for 2 million, which 2 years later was sold to Tim Jenson directly for nothing but some CME stock? This is the same stuff Jenson was convicted of at Merisel by the SEC).
Gary controls the money. Few employees enjoy his presence but they do appreciate his ability to raise funds (regardless of source, MMOGULs or otherwise it does pay payroll). But Kevin Ballentine doesn't talk to Gary before he makes a PR startement. He *might* talk to Tim Jenson who rarely, if every, converses with Gary on such things.
Now what MGM will do about all of this is the giant unknown. MGM just audited CME's books last week and flew in to see the game. Mum's the word on how that went.
Oh wow, so part of the 40-50 million to fund SGW went to purchase Knowledge Relay? I would suspect that CME was also assisting in funding Knowledge Relay operations and payroll as well? Would make sense why CME ran out of money!!
So if this company was given to Tim Jenson (maybe to stop the bleed on CME?) Why does Knowledge Relay still advertise and run day-to-day business operations under the CME Logo? Why do they use CME HR Resources (see advertisements on monster.com or flipdog)? Why does Roger Piskulick still work for KR and not CME ?So many questions!
Certainly, someone knows something about the MGM two-day visit. Maybe they were auditing the books to find out the true investment in SGW to pay off CME and get the license back ! <one can hope>
Much of Agricola's conjecture's are accurate, or close enough to accuracy for forum wars anyway. Not sure where he gets *his* information, I know where I get mine and seeing his posts often corraborates what I already knew. I will say though that he's wrong on his assumptions about how much Gary Whiting has control of day to day.
Gary is definately a pain in the arse at CME however Gary's in the office even less frequently than Tim Jenson (the CEO who has a 2 day a week contract... part of the endemic problems at the company from the start). Gary rarely, if ever directly communicates with any CME employees, not even via e-mail. Most of the employees are controlled by Tim Jenson, who is sometimes a Whiting shil and sometimes has his own agenda (why on earth did a video game company acquire a business information development company for 2 million, which 2 years later was sold to Tim Jenson directly for nothing but some CME stock? This is the same stuff Jenson was convicted of at Merisel by the SEC).
Gary controls the money. Few employees enjoy his presence but they do appreciate his ability to raise funds (regardless of source, MMOGULs or otherwise it does pay payroll). But Kevin Ballentine doesn't talk to Gary before he makes a PR startement. He *might* talk to Tim Jenson who rarely, if every, converses with Gary on such things.
Now what MGM will do about all of this is the giant unknown. MGM just audited CME's books last week and flew in to see the game. Mum's the word on how that went.
And I thought it was no longer possible to be shocked by Whiting's shady business practices! I didn't say Whiting is there day to day, I was comparing his managment style to that of McQuaid as in being rather hands off but when he is there work tends to grind to a halt. I know that Gary spends most of his time scamming saps to pay off his debts, not raising money out of benevolence to pay the wages of the staff to complete the MMORPG we all love. You say they appreciate his ability to raise funds to meet the payroll, but it was his business practices that left them unpaid for months and got many co-workers laid off. He spent the $40 mil long ago, certainly not on SGW by looking at the state of it so I believe their appreciation is misplaced.
It seems from what you've said that Jenson is just another corrupt low life hell bent on getting his slice of the pie before the ship goes down. Selling off assests to eachother for stock that Whiting and Jenson know will be worthless soon, tells me they're expecting CME to go down in the near future. I guess it's really no different than those bankers being given £1 mil pensions after screwing up the economy, being rewarded for failure whilst the common worker gets the punishment for their failure.
I believe MGM is looking for an opportunity to pull the license and team Whiting knows it, I hope MGM remove this cancer from not just SGW but the entire gaming industry. This guy makes Smedley look like a choir boy in comparison!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Whiting is the Chairman of the Board. Jensen is the CEO. On a day to day, company basis, the CEO makes the call. The CEO controls the budget and the spend. Jensen decided to open 3 other game studios. Jensen decided to buy knowledge relay. Jensen was responsible for ensuring the money received from Whiting's fund raising was spent correctly.
That doesn't mean Whiting is innocent. His ownership of the company meant at any time he could step in and make demands and he did frequently and too be fair, he took control of all funds late last year when he decided that he would determine when and how to pay employees through the money crunch (there was a large dispute i believe over when/how/if to pay payroll taxes before paying employees).
A search on either will reveal an extremely shady business past. Whiting has multiple lawsuits (no convictions, they were all civil suits) and Jensen has been found guilty by the SEC of corporate securities fraud and banned from operating a public company (offly fishy given that Whiting promised the "out" for investors on CME was to make the compnay public, tough to do when you know your CEO can't legally run a public company).
As for knowledge relay, the books are secret but the reality is Knowledge Relay was revenue generating and unlike CME profitable for many quarters. in fact when the money crunch first hit, they used KR funds to pay CME payroll at least once. However employees perceived KR to be yet another "waste" of money. Jensen was all to happy to "sell" it to himself (for worthless CME stock) when money got tight and the perception was the company needs to scale back to just SGW. However, it wasn't as if KR was "free" for CME. Jensen operated it with CME staff (CFO, Finance, HR, were all shared, offly hard to grow a game company focused on game development when management staff also had to grow an entirely different business and model as well). What's worse is even after he bought it he continued to run it with CME resources. So employees and fans have a right to feel management wasn't really focused on building SGW as much as it was on making money off investors anyway they could.
tigam,
You speak witht he authority of inside information. What you say coincides with the picture pieced together in my head, so I want to believe. But why should I? Can't you tell us how you know all of this stuff?
Geeked for FFXIV
Freelance FFXIV guide author for Ten Ton Hammer.com
Whiting and Jensen are very good at playing good cop, bad cop – they are two peas in a pod. Also, don’t forget that Jensen works for the Board of Directors, which is Whiting.
I believe there were many administrative employees shed over the payroll tax payments, or lack thereof. The officers of the company didn’t want to be on the hook for not paying the taxes. Whiting made a choice to pay employees in January over the taxes, they had some signed agreements that the officers weren’t liable the lack of tax payments.
Now onto scaling back to just SGW -- that just never happened! They still have a bunch of losers at these other companies/studios that do not contribute to SGW, even when asked. Of course, Hand Cranked was formed by putting the folks from SGW’s that couldn’t cut it into that company. The stuff that Mass Illusions produced looked like poop. The stuff that Hand Cranked produced, looked like worse poop. Overall, they don’t have enough employees at these ‘fake’ studios to even begin to write a design document, so most of them are just sitting around collecting paychecks week after week, to keep the façade of multiple studios, and therefore keeping Mr. Whiting out of jail. But they are probably all mormons at these fake companies, too so I'm sure this makes it all okay.
Happy Easter and Good Passover!
Whiting is the Chairman of the Board. Jensen is the CEO. On a day to day, company basis, the CEO makes the call. The CEO controls the budget and the spend. Jensen decided to open 3 other game studios. Jensen decided to buy knowledge relay. Jensen was responsible for ensuring the money received from Whiting's fund raising was spent correctly.
That doesn't mean Whiting is innocent. His ownership of the company meant at any time he could step in and make demands and he did frequently and too be fair, he took control of all funds late last year when he decided that he would determine when and how to pay employees through the money crunch (there was a large dispute i believe over when/how/if to pay payroll taxes before paying employees).
A search on either will reveal an extremely shady business past. Whiting has multiple lawsuits (no convictions, they were all civil suits) and Jensen has been found guilty by the SEC of corporate securities fraud and banned from operating a public company (offly fishy given that Whiting promised the "out" for investors on CME was to make the compnay public, tough to do when you know your CEO can't legally run a public company).
As for knowledge relay, the books are secret but the reality is Knowledge Relay was revenue generating and unlike CME profitable for many quarters. in fact when the money crunch first hit, they used KR funds to pay CME payroll at least once. However employees perceived KR to be yet another "waste" of money. Jensen was all to happy to "sell" it to himself (for worthless CME stock) when money got tight and the perception was the company needs to scale back to just SGW. However, it wasn't as if KR was "free" for CME. Jensen operated it with CME staff (CFO, Finance, HR, were all shared, offly hard to grow a game company focused on game development when management staff also had to grow an entirely different business and model as well). What's worse is even after he bought it he continued to run it with CME resources. So employees and fans have a right to feel management wasn't really focused on building SGW as much as it was on making money off investors anyway they could.
I don't disagree with anything you say, the only point I'd like to make is if you say Whiting is the Chairman and it's not his direct responsibility to oversee day to day running of the business, it's a bit of a cop out in my opinion. For sure Jenson sounds like a shady character but it reminds me of the Chairman of Royal Bank of Scotland being questioned about £25 Billion going poof. He shrugs his shoulders and says "well it's not my fault as I'm not involved in all dealings and I'm not responsible for these loans, it was someone else". Then it's pointed out that he's paid to be responsible for the day to day overseeing of the bank and keeping it above water and running it properly, if not what exactly is his fat paycheck for?
The facts are that everyone will pass the buck, but it has to stop somewhere and as in all companies the buck stops at the chairman. If one of the executive officers ballsed up the companies finances it's the Chairmans responsibility ultimately, he's the one tied to the whipping post since Jenson can always quit and walk away.
It seems from what you're saying that Jenson and Whiting are both birds of a feather and no doubt Whiting is/was aware and/or doesn't care about how CME is run. Let's face it if Jenson had been acting without the knowledge of Whiting and Whiting took control last year, his first action would be to fire Jenson right? Instead he gave him a free company!
I know you're saying they are equally culpable but I'm saying that Whiting is more culpable as without the nod from him this whole circus would never have happened. With a half decent Chairman Jenson wouldn't have even got the job of janitor and SGW would have been released by now!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Back to the subject of this thread for just a moment, please.
CME staff talked to Brad Wright, and Brad's response that was "what I said was taken out of context".
I am having a hard time visioning how anything that was printed in those interviews could be ‘in context’ and still not damaging.
Now I realize that some reporters like to put a spin on words, but if Brad’s words were misrepresented and he believed in the SGW game & CME staff, wouldn’t you think he would take a moment to correct it?
Heck, even Paula Abdul has corrected her ‘out of context’ statements that were printed!
I agree, if he was taken out of context why is he only saying that to CME? If CME is doing fine like the PR staff posting on the forums say, why doesn't Wright make another statement to Gateworld or even MMORPG.com to clear up any misunderstanding?
I read what he said and I'm wondering what context was it meant to be taken in exactly? He said CME are broke and the game should be out by now or not at all, I don't believe any of that was subject to context was it? If so I don't see how someone at Gateworld (who are SGW fanbois BTW!) could have missed that or deliberately quoted him oute of context to in order to malicously damage CME or SGW. Although to malicously damage CME any further would be a Herculian task at this point!
It sounds to me that he wanted to apologize for what he said to the staff there but didn't quite have the nads to do it properly. Instead of saying "Sorry guys, but I called it as I saw it and CME is up the creek in my opinion" he said "Darn, those bastards in the press have taken my quotes out of context again in the name of sensationalism".
Also Brad Wright talked to them, so he was at CME? I wonder why he was there at all, surely not to speak to the staff? Maybe he's there with the MGM bean counters looking over CME's dirty laundry?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Rumours are that Whiting has once again failed to meet payroll at CME, not sure if it's fact or not but this does coincide with the MGM audit. Perhaps team Whiting are finally abandoning ship after selling all the non-toxic assests to themselves?
If not perhaps a CME DEV might do an interview to dispell all these rumours? They keep denying it on their website, so why not have the PR manager do an interview with Jon Wood? Invite him to their offices to clear it all up and test out the game that should be going into second phase of Beta before June?
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
well CME have done a interview on gateworld that says they are still alive www.gateworld.net/news/2009/04/cme-stargate-worlds-is-coming/ just cause they never gave a interview to mmorpg.com means nothing. CME are in a media blackout at the moment get over it agricola.
Does the whole SGW thing remind anyone else of the "Bring out your dead" scene from Monty Pythin and the search for the Holy Graile?
I wouldn’t call it a blackout, more like a “pass out”. So many have left CME, whether it by layoff or attrition, there just isn’t anyone left with enough authority to promote, defend or possibly guide the game to the finished marketplace.
The lack of an experienced online community management (the few board monkeys dont count), does not help the news "pass out" either. If this game was coming out in the next 4-6 months, they would have a publisher, advertising, and possibly some servers for the game to run on. Oh, lets not forget it would also be in beta too!
The lights are still on, only to reveal all those empty cubes.
I understand the FanORI dogma of "CME are in a media blackout, they'll speak to us when ready", but after 6 months most have just lost interest and/or hope in CME.
CME/Firesky have a PR guy who is paid to promote SGW, all he's done is go to Gateworld and lent creedence to what Brad Wright said earlier, I qoute from Kevin Balentine's interview,
“We are pursuing several financing deals that will allow us to complete and publish Stargate Worlds "
So by his admission they don't have the resources to complete the game right now. They blew $40 mil and have laid off most of their staff, are running a pyramid scheme to try and meet payroll (which rumour states they've missed again!) and now MGM are looking over their books.
Yeah fills me with confidence that this game will get finished soon ... NOT!
If this guy is the senior marketing manager at CME like he told Gateworld then either he's doing a really bad job (when he does anything at all that is!) or CME is up the creek without a P90!
Also If this is true,
"The company said that its publicity is currently in a “dark period,” attempting to stay out of the swirl of negative news that is currently surrounding the video game industry as a whole."
What was he doing at Gateworld giving an interview exactly? I thought they were in a media blackout to avoid the swirl of negative news (mostly perpetuated by their media blackout itself!)? None of their excuses make sense about this blackout, it is perpetuating the bad press surrounding CME, not preventing it. Also Kevin Balentine is a PR guy, it's his job to create a good vibe about SGW. All he's done is go to Gateworld and say "We're broke and need investors to pay our bills so we can complete SGW and publish it, but don't worry guys we're hard at work and it will release!". I don't see how doing an interview with any gaming site and giving them a tour of CME and letting them try out the Beta could be worse than what he did at Gateworld?
Also they talk about the negative press surrounding the video game industry as a whole, who else do they mean? Aventurine has actually got a product that is more of a closed Beta than a release but they still did it. The only negative press surrounding the game industry is coming from CME, and in the midst of a "media blackout" Balentine jumped into the eye of the storm an told us all they were broke and couldn't finish the game! I guess if you pay peanuts you get monkeys right?
Don't worry though, I'm sure when CME is lowered into the grave and it's being filled in (spoiler alert!) the Ark of Truth shall open and the FanORI shall be struck by a blinding light. Then they'll all begin to weep and blubber and beg for forgivness. Either that or they'll disappear quietly pretending that this never happened and/or blaming people like myself for what happened!
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience"
CS Lewis
Welcome to the real world, where MMORPG developers meet potential investors.
Hopefully one of their financing deals involves large quantities of drugs coming across the Mexican border, otherwise I'm not too sure how they are going to raise the cash necessary to finish the game in the current economic climate.......
They are not alone.
There's a poster over at f13.net who is (supposedly, to be fair) a former CME staffer name Jerrith (and FYI, there is a user on the SGW forums named Jerrith who is identifed as a CME staffer).
To the statement: "Team members are in the office seven days a week to deliver Stargate Worlds."
His comment was: "Until I left at least, it would be safe to say "Team members" = people who meet with potential investors, not the programmers, designers, or artists."
From another post, he left sometime close to Feb 20. Of course, the above statement does not really quantify anything. It could have meant there was a large staff, just not working 7 days a week. But the implication is not that. We'll have to wait and see.
Jerrith left CME right after the New Year when there were still many programmers still showing up at the office, but not very motivated (who could blame them).
Management was 3+ paychecks behind (with no promise to pay anytime soon) so everyone was heading out on interviews as fast as they could. Right about that time, the VP/Technology Director left taking a handful of the better programmers left to his new gig.
As of this writing, I hear there are only 3 programmers (none of which are 3D engine programmers) and a intern left in Jerrith's department. Not very promising.
I based the date on a post of his on Feb. 20 saying "Yes, I'm on my way out of CME." But I have no inside knowledge of when he was or wasn't there.
This link is also from that same site of Jarreth saying that work is still being done. As usual, the evidence is murky and on both sides of the fence. His outlook certainly doesn't seem promising, but not necessarily dooming based on his posts on f13.
I really hope that *insert game name here* will be the first game to ever live up to all of its pre-release promises, maintain a manageable hype level and have a clean release. Just don't expect me to hold my breath.
Ack, my bad. I got the timing of Jerrith leaving confused with Steve Williams (Aruspex) who was in a completely different department to boot! It was like dominos with everyone leaving, hard to keep up with it all.
It still doesn’t change the rest of the post: No programmers = no server = no beta. No pay = no developers = no new investors (if they are still doing investor tours). No new investors = no game.
stop spamming your preachy posts.