Jerks in high places in the game industry

[elmuerte]

There have been numerous examples of complete jerks (maybe even assholes) in upper management in the game industry.

The latest entry would be Dan Porter, CEO of OMGPOP:

The one omgpop employee who turned down joining Zynga was the weakest one on the whole team. Selfish people make bad games. Good riddance!

https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/185901238477537281

What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many...

https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/185901564131688448

[Roderick]

WHELP, that calls for a protest uninstall. Let's get really knee-jerk on this jerk.

[ysbreker]

Also read the article by the one dude who didn't go over to zynga so you know who he's talking about: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167244/Turning_down_Zynga_Why_I_left_after_the_210M_Omgpop_buy.php

[IHaveAShrinkRay]

I wonder how many execs, both in the gaming industry and otherwise, feel this way, but are checked by PR handlers before letting their thoughts go public.

[Roderick]

What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many...

No, the interesting thing about success is that it seduces bad people to show their true colors.

[toblix]

Just when I had gotten all those new games going, this asshole had to make me go uninstall it.

[MrHoatzin]

This industry isn't going to fix itself until more people in the shit lift the middle finger at their owners.

[toblix]

More here.

[Lu]

What a classy guy. I thought that OMGPOP was a developer at first, but they're just a publisher of stuff?

[Chris]

What a classy guy. I thought that OMGPOP was a developer at first, but they're just a publisher of stuff?

OMGPOP is a developer that was acquired by Zynga last month.

[Roderick]

For millions and millions.

[Roderick]

Interesting apology at the end of that link, by the way. It sounds quite sincere. Those tweets were still in very poor taste (particularly because they had a mocking tone to them), but I'll believe the guy isn't essentially awful, after his letter.

[subbes]

I bought Connectrode because of this.

[elmuerte]

Interesting apology at the end of that link, by the way. It sounds quite sincere.

To me it sounded more like damage control, specially the last part of his apology. Yeah, he was doing stuff for kids, years and years ago.

If you check his linkedin profile you see some different things: http://www.linkedin.com/in/danporter

[Henroid]

I'd read Shay Pierce's story over on Gamasutra and figured, "Well, kudos to him, he wanted to maintain some integrity and money wasn't that important to him."

And I guess now that makes him selfish, for turning down a lot of money? What a dick.

In all seriousness though, this Dan Porter guy sounds like he was personally ribbed by Shay Pierce not coming along with them. And he lashed out in the worst way - like a highschool airhead.

[Forbin]

I totally understand both sides of this story. Shay was grandstanding, and profiting...

(the dip right near the end is right before the CEO tweeted, and then it gets a second wave of income)

People have moral objections to working at Zynga, I get it. And it's frustrating to lose a job in such a rapid corporate shuffle. But the people working on the team at OMG Pop are the kind of people that would see the graph like the one I just posted, and be upset that someone that didn't contribute to the game was smearing them for essentially selling out.

And of course, the CEO enters the scene butt hurt and acts like an idiot. There's no excuse for any of it, but I believe his apology is mostly accurate.

[brkl]

You think he worked the CEO like a puppet and made him lash out on Twitter (because he knew this would get people to buy his game), and is now raking in money because his game is now temporarily selling as well as a month ago? He must have made like $400 from this affair, what a master manipulator.

[Forbin]

No, he made the most money before the CEO lashed out. The dip i was referring to was a small one. He shows up on the graph after starting to talk publicly about why he wasn't going to Zynga. He probably only made a couple grand out of it.

I'm not siding with the CEO at all, but if he said the team was upset about Shay's behavior, I do believe it. They also likely had spent more time in the company, and had more stake in it, and were upset at someone new trying to taint their success.

Also, assuming the rest of the team was in a similar position. Having a day to sign an agreement to work at Zynga. Then they'd would have some uncertainty and wouldn't want to someone challenging the decision they had to make in such a short time.

But it's easier to be upset and have a job, than it is to be upset without one so they should have just dealt with it silently.

[Nachimir]

You think he worked the CEO like a puppet and made him lash out on Twitter (because he knew this would get people to buy his game), and is now raking in money because his game is now temporarily selling as well as a month ago? He must have made like $400 from this affair, what a master manipulator.

I'd struggle to believe Shay has been a dick in this, Forbin. They tried to take the rights to work he'd done for himself, and that fucking sucks.

The CEO of OMGPOP just sold his company for $210M. Nobody can be trusted to evaluate or express things in an honest or fair way after such a large transfer of assets.

Even if it is pretty standard for a studio contract to state work done outside of projects belongs to the studio, it seems that wasn't the case at OMGPOP. Shoving that that into a company buyout is a dick move. Another dick move: Claiming all creative output regardless of field or medium. For instance, I know of a programmer that paints in his spare time, and has to stay quiet about that or his studio will claim copyright on his work.

[Forbin]

I'd struggle to believe Shay has been a dick in this, Forbin. They tried to take the rights to work he'd done for himself, and that fucking sucks.

I don't really think that's the case at all. Their motivation was to sell/buy the company as fast a possible. Nobody ever said that he'd have to give up his game directly, but that a clause in the contract was ambiguous enough to imply he may have to. It sounds like he asked for clarification, and they said "just sign it or get out of the way". They didn't want Connectrode at all, they wanted Draw Something. Likely they would have never even done anything about his game. But as he explains, that uncertainty is nothing to them, and everything to him.

[Nachimir]

I don't really think that's the case at all. Their motivation was to sell/buy the company as fast a possible.

Hardly a moral imperative. If it was accidental, they should be more careful to not be monstrous dicks to creators, and certainly not push back when called out or queried on it.

[toblix]

For instance, I know of a programmer that paints in his spare time, and has to stay quiet about that or his studio will claim copyright on his work.

What? What the fuck?

[Nachimir]

Seriously. The studio contract claims rights on all creative output of any kind done by anyone whilst working there. In practice, everyone just keeps quiet and no one suffers for it. The studio employ hundreds and are hardly about to chase things like paintings down.

[Roderick]

Seems like a practice that really stifles the personal creativity of people. Not a good idea in a creative industry.

[elmuerte]

I've heard about those clauses before, it's really terrible. A better clause would be non-competing activities outside of work. claiming ownership of something that was created in somebody's personal time seems like theft to me, specially when there's no compensation.

Luckily in the Netherlands those clauses are illegal. Even non-compete clauses are borderline acceptable.