Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
General: Matt Higby Speaks Out on Smed Stepping Down as CEO
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Matt Higby, formerly with SOE and Daybreak Game Company, has penned his thoughts about John Smedley stepping down as president and CEO of DBC. It's an interesting, inside look at the man and his profound effect on those he has worked with. We present it here in its entirety without comment.
It's tough to overstate how gigantic of an influence Smed has had on my life and the lives of many of my friends, both through the games he helped create, the company he built, the mentorship he shared and the opportunities he opened up. Although we argued about a ton of things over the years, one of the best things about him as a leader is I never felt like I wasn't allowed to make my case - I even won a couple of those arguments from time to time. He taught me a ton and always treated me super well - I owe him a great deal.
John ran SOE like a family, he knew just about everybody and did everything he could to take care of people over profits, promote from within, and make the workplace fun and rewarding for everyone. Loads of people there are 5,10,15 year vets - that's not normal in games. I think his loyalty to the people he worked with is something generally omitted from his public persona which is really a shame since it feels so central to his identity to me.
Something else a lot of people don't really get is that he was also extremely hands on - with everything - at all levels. I remember watching him do tech support for a network routing issue at a place we were doing a market research study for FreeRealms - 5 other engineers in the room and John was the first one rolling up his sleeves to diagnose the DMZ problems. He would personally approve game design docs for sub-features, webpage layouts, advertising verbage, art style, promotions - the works. If it happened at SOE, Smed was involved; he knew everything about it, and if he didn't write the original plan he sure has hell made some changes to the original plan for it at some point. Definitely not a corner-office, bean counting CEO type - he wanted to get his hands dirty.
For us gamers, he's the kind of maverick, passionate, risk-taking leader you want running a company. He loves to push the envelope - for better or worse. One of the #1 things I always hear said about Smed is that he's a "bull in a china shop" - couldn't agree more. This can create a lot of havoc of course and makes reliable product development & management a bit of a challenge, but it's better than the alternative of insipid reliably-profitable clones that most industry CEOs are interested in cranking out of the cookie-cutters. The games landscape today would be way more bland without Smed - there can be no arguing this.
Smed will be back pushing a giant envelope full of something that will blow our minds over a mountain of freshly smashed china soon. For now, I am happy he's taking some time off to get some rest, I hope he takes plenty. I think he needs it, and I know he deserves it.
Participate in the discussion on Reddit, linked above.
Comments
And there you have It lol, perhaps now those people who didn't read the title or miss it through there blind hate now understand.
Smed has not left the building.
Avatars are people too
This have been a good conversation
This guy is speaking about a Smed from a long time ago,a LOT has changed over the years.
Cookie cutter?hmmm H1z1 is about as cookie cutter as it gets and jumped all over the zombie bandwagon and a year later than everyone else.
Treats them like family,yes that is why as part of the changeover they got rid of a lot of staff and the front face Georgeson.
The sad reality is awhile ago he promised the SWG fans a successor will arrive soon..lmao ya whatever.The next release i see from them is expected to be UNFINISHED work,the way they have always released games.Also imo the worst developer on the planet for releasing bugs,they must be severely rushed and do little to no actual testing and likely have 1 person working on bugs.
I'll leave this one tidbit...
Freerealms with little competition in the kids gaming market once had at least 57 million gamer's.10 million PC and a predicted 40 million on PS3,Smedley predicted a possible 100 million players,well 5 years later the game closed.
How does the most successful mmo of all time with positive reviews from gaming sites close down in 5 years?It takes a real brilliant leader to pull that off....good job Smedley !!.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Lol, are you serious ?
You do realise that they were working together up until a few months ago ?
So you know him on a personal level?
If not, then you should leave your biased assumptions at the door.
Maybe if Smed had ever been capable of delegating some of those endless things he was involved in the guy may have been able to keep his temper in check with the fans.
added note.. I do find it amusing how this dedication is written like an Eulogy.
Over a decade of continual online harassment (effecting you both on and off the jobsite) tends to stress a person out.
Most people would have put a bullet in themselves long ago had they been subjected to the level of extreme harassment that this man has been, yet you're so quick to criticize him without ever having walked a day, a minute, or even a second in his shoes.
He has handled himself amazingly well, and the only reason anyone shits on him is because of pent up angst and hurt feelings due to the loss of SWG.
Time to get over it and grow up.
Over a decade of continual online harassment (effecting you both on and off the jobsite) tends to stress a person out.
Most people would have put a bullet in themselves long ago had they been subjected to the level of extreme harassment that this man has been, yet you're so quick to criticize him without ever having walked a day, a minute, or even a second in his shoes.
He has handled himself amazingly well, and the only reason anyone shits on him is because of pent up angst and hurt feelings due to the loss of SWG.
Time to get over it and grow up.
And what makes me laugh is they really haven't figure out that Smed still works for DBG,he has gone on leave and will be back with a new title.If anyone think the new title will be Smed making the office tea then they are dreaming.Expect the new title to be just as powerful as the old title.
Time will tell, he had sort of an "Evil King Midas" touch on some games - it was for sure a time of Fame and Drama.
Fare thee well Smed!
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
If SWG was the sole reason to be less than pleased with his performance as a CEO, then you would have a point.
But instead we have numerous cases of games that have failed to build upon their own initial success, games that had promise, that never seemed to be realised, it is far too disingenuous to blame all the negativity on a relatively small group of people who SOE managed to upset so successfully with their handling of SWG. Instead we have a decade of mediocrity, of failed promises and games that should have been better, were better in some cases, but somehow slipped through the cracks into mediocrity, Planetside 1&2, DCUO, Everquest 2, games that somehow, despite initial success, managed to tailspin into the ground, relatively unchecked, which seems to also be the future of H1Z1, unless something radical changes things in the near future, and i doubt many will be holding their breath for that one either.
SOE was sold off for a reason, time to get over it indeed.
SO what, it's still the same thing... In the end it's a bunch of nonsense over a video-game(S), making it personal, is extremely distasteful. There's no excuse in the world to make harassment of that kind okay.
What I find funny is those same types, call him the "man-child".
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
You do realize we're on a forum dedicated to the discussion of video games don't you? You do understand that Smedley was running a company which makes games, right?
What the heck else would it be about?
Would it make more sense to you if people attacked him for his screw-ups in the laundry detergent business? Oh wait, no, it probably wouldn't because he wasn't in that business.
The difference is that, just like Derek Smart before him, he engaged those detractors publicly on social media and fanned those flame wars himself. That was a choice... a choice not chosen by 99.9% of game developers and game company CEOs. I don't have to have walked in his shoes to know that this has always been unusual behavior for the CEO of SOE or DBG.
It may be popular behavior with the throngs of pathetic people who want to live vicariously through the lives of twitterverse celebrities... who love hearing what type of machiatto they just consumed or whether they just had a successful bowel movement, but it's playing with fire.
That public engagement with all comers doesn't just attract devoted fans, it attracts trolls and detractors as well -- some of those sociopaths who will harass you and your family.
It takes some kind of ego to persist with that behavior as some sort of inalienable right after you've already been targeted with bomb threats and swatting like he was... and a complete disregard for how your compulsive public actions are endangering the lives of your loved ones and the company you are the CEO of.
I don't dislike Smed for his role in some silly perceived gaming wrong, but I have always questioned the wisdom of his very public flame wars just how I questioned Derek Smart's similar antics on Usenet 20 years ago.
He has no one to blame but himself.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
This makes me wonder whats up
Quote from Matt Higby above "Smed will be back pushing a giant envelope full of something that will blow our minds over a mountain of freshly smashed china soon."
Hmmm???
So you didn't read the OP?
good post
You spew a lot of nonsense around here. This is your best so far. You are telling us, from the perspective of someone that has never known or worked for Smedley, that a lot has changed ?!?!? F***ing instant classic internet troll shit right here. Good job.
I make spreadsheets at work - I don't want to make them for the games I play.