Innovation is Nothing Without Retrospection

deathgiant

A few issues I would like to point out, that correlation might be found between them. This is mostly for the doomsayers and for the disturbing number of people who seem to think (or not) about the releationships between money and the perception of worth.

 

The order of things:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07/02/funcoms-ceo-steps-down-on-the-day-of-the-secret-worlds-launch/

((Funcom CEO steps down on day of launch))

 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/news/funcom-shares-tank-following-secret-world-launch-6385871

((Funcom stocks drop))

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119539-Former-Funcom-CEO-Faces-Insider-Trading-Allegations

((CEO in trouble for trying to sell shares about the time of his stepping down))

 

***

 

Dunno about you, but what appears to me to have happened, is the game launches as the CEO steps down (insert doomsayers). Stocks go down because of the CEO leaving (insert more doomsayers). And then charges rise against CEO for taking a less active role in the company and trying to sell stocks as he changed his role in the company.

 

Sounds to me like he has a family to support, college bills to pay . . . or perhaps game devs do not need to eat..

 

Just like game servers do not use electricity.

 

Anyone else not see the relationship? I know there are other factors at play . . . but just from press releases and easy google searches, it seems that no major site has expressed these sentiments.

 

But then again, "five murdered in new york" will sell much better than "lots of people survive night in new york."

 

Wanted to put this out there for discussion and deliberation.

 

Thank you.

jayfeeler69

You do realise that the ex ceo actually legally sold his shares off. I dont know why the defenders of funcom keep blaming him for funcoms woes. The guy will be found innocent. Funcom's problem is they claim innovation when what threy do is rip off a concept and call it something else. If you pull back the blanket of deception you realize there is nothing innovative.

Kuppa

Your first mistake is pin pointing him as the only reason the stocks dropped. If you look at their inverstors meeting right after the game launched they say the mayor reason why the stocks dropped is probably because they didn't meet their expectations of sales and surprisingly the metacritic scores. Stocks aint going to drop that massively because a CEO leaves, there are a number of reasons they plummeted horribly.

jayfeeler69

Originally posted by Kuppa
Your first mistake is pin pointing him as the only reason the stocks dropped. If you look at their inverstors meeting right after the game launched they say the mayor reason why the stocks dropped is probably because they didn't meet their expectations of sales and surprisingly the metacritic scores. Stocks aint going to drop that massively because a CEO leaves, there are a number of reasons they plummeted horribly.

Hell funcom has been tanking for years it was not him selling off worthless stock

fallenlords

The whole incident with the Ex-CEO sums up the company as a whole.   I am all for supporting companies that try their best and falter, but with Funcom there is something missing and not right.

 

Having just had Dishonored delivered the other day and playing that, I am just going wow this is a brilliant game with an interesting concept in a world that is deep and involved.  Something like this blows TSW out of the water.  It's not an MMO, but when you just look at what can be produced with people that have true imagination you wonder why a company like Funcom can't do the same. 

 

MMO's at one time use to be at the cutting edge of story telling, gameplay and complete immersion into a game world. The majority now can't hold a candle to a decent single player game. The evolution of the MMO seems to almost be stuck in a reverse gear.

 

The post mortem on TSW is simple, people didn't like the vision of Ragnar.  He thought people would, they didn't.  Will it limp along, probably for a while. Is it ever going to have mass appeal, no.  Because it brings nothing new to the table.    Funcom are in trouble because they bet the farm on one mans vision.  They got it wrong, very wrong. Ex CEO realised that at the 11th hour, didn't fancy his investment going down the toilet and bailed.  He had no faith in the game.

JeroKane

Originally posted by jayfeeler69
You do realise that the ex ceo actually legally sold his shares off. I dont know why the defenders of funcom keep blaming him for funcoms woes. The guy will be found innocent. Funcom's problem is they claim innovation when what threy do is rip off a concept and call it something else. If you pull back the blanket of deception you realize there is nothing innovative.

You're totally wrong. If he was innocent, he wouldn't be facing court and an Insider Trade investigation.

He stepped down a day before release, so he could remove himself from the Insider Trade list and then rightly after that he tried to dump 1,5 million stock secretly!

Because as CEO you are forced to make any stock sale publically at least a month on advance. Those are the rules.

Stepping down and quickly removing yourself from the Inside trade list isn't gonna change that fact, as he still had Inside Information (like Pre-order sale figures, etc) not available to the stakeholders.

He was caught by another stake holder (as the Norwegian stock market is a small world) and didn't came further than 600.000 shares of the 1,5 million he tried to dump.

When this information was made public later on, then directly after the whole Funcom stock collapsed at that right moment!

The Norwegian stock market is really small and much more vulnarible. Hence, why the legislation is even more strict in Norway then for example in the US, where the stock market is huge.

I have no idea what he was thinking and how he thought he could get away with this. /shrug

Keylogger

It seems to me they have good ideas but poor follow through.

TSW needed more content and polish here and there - functionally it's a good game, and the quests are some of the best I've ever did anywhere, but just not enough to do.

Quality can only make up for quantity so much (and vice verse)

Zinzan

Originally posted by deathgiant

A few issues I would like to point out, that correlation might be found between them. This is mostly for the doomsayers and for the disturbing number of people who seem to think (or not) about the releationships between money and the perception of worth.

 

The order of things:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/07/02/funcoms-ceo-steps-down-on-the-day-of-the-secret-worlds-launch/

((Funcom CEO steps down on day of launch))

 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/news/funcom-shares-tank-following-secret-world-launch-6385871

((Funcom stocks drop))

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119539-Former-Funcom-CEO-Faces-Insider-Trading-Allegations

((CEO in trouble for trying to sell shares about the time of his stepping down))

 

***

 

Dunno about you, but what appears to me to have happened, is the game launches as the CEO steps down (insert doomsayers). Stocks go down because of the CEO leaving (insert more doomsayers). And then charges rise against CEO for taking a less active role in the company and trying to sell stocks as he changed his role in the company.

 

Sounds to me like he has a family to support, college bills to pay . . . or perhaps game devs do not need to eat..

 

Just like game servers do not use electricity.

 

Anyone else not see the relationship? I know there are other factors at play . . . but just from press releases and easy google searches, it seems that no major site has expressed these sentiments.

 

But then again, "five murdered in new york" will sell much better than "lots of people survive night in new york."

 

Wanted to put this out there for discussion and deliberation.

 

Thank you.

Im not sure how your post relates to the thread title, care to elaborate on how innovation is relative to this discussion?

Vhaln

Originally posted by deathgiant

Sounds to me like he has a family to support, college bills to pay . . . or perhaps game devs do not need to eat..

 

I somehow doubt Trond Aas was having trouble putting food on the table...

sumdumguy1

There is so much discussion and finality as if we all know exactly what is going on and happening.  All of us have only partial information yet there are statements condeming him and professing his innocence.  We actually know very little but what the information says (which may very well be misleading, unknown yet) and what opinions we arrive at based upon said information.

fenistil

Originally posted by Vhaln

Originally posted by deathgiant

Sounds to me like he has a family to support, college bills to pay . . . or perhaps game devs do not need to eat..

 

I somehow doubt Trond Aas was having trouble putting food on the table...

This.