Editorial 2012: The Year in Review

[MicoSelva]

These are always great to read. Well worth the wait.

 

[Infinitron]

inXile are lucky in that Brian Fargo is probably the only guy in the RPG industry who actually knows how to run a fucking business.

Is this a joke? Fargo turned a behemoth of a company, with one of the largest shareholding and value per share in the 90's into a failed company. Had it not for him, Black Isle may still have been going strong and we would be eagerly awaiting IceWindDale 5 today (non kickstarted to boot!)

He's the one who founded that behemoth, creating Interplay in Ye Good Old Days™ as a small team of developers. He then turned it into a publishing behemoth - including funding Blizzard before they were even Blizzard (and before they went to shit) and Parallax. He created Black Isle Studios. It only went to shit after he IPO'd, failed to make enough money and was booted out by Herve who'd bought a controlling interest.

He should've made enough cash out of Interplay's IPO to sit pretty for a while at least (although he also would have lost a lot as well).

Since then, he's kept a small studio alive for 10 years making cheesy iPhone games while others have laid off hundreds of staff and crumbled. He's probably the only RPG developer in the industry who knows both sides of the business (developing & publishing) and that's right from a board level perspective, all the way through to owner and developer. Ok, so some of the stuff he's done has been shit and maybe he's lost his touch but he's got 30 years experience in an industry that he effectively helped create.

This is actually all irrelevant since Fargo is being compared to the other people doing Kickstarters, not to the industry in general.

 

[IDtenT]

I scrolled down and saw no score. What a shit review.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

This is actually all irrelevant since Fargo is being compared to the other people doing Kickstarters, not to the industry in general.

That... makes no sense.

Let's now compare Fargo to "other people doing KickStarters" instead of "the industry in general"...

Oh look, you get the same thing. Fargo has lots of experience doing these RPG things and making this game stuff. And they don't.

 

[Infinitron]

This is actually all irrelevant since Fargo is being compared to the other people doing Kickstarters, not to the industry in general.

That... makes no sense.

Let's now compare Fargo to "other people doing KickStarters" instead of "the industry in general"...

Oh look, you get the same thing. Fargo has lots of experience doing these RPG things and making this game stuff. And they don't.

That's what I'm saying.

If Andhaira's point is that, say, "Bioware survived, but Interplay died, therefore the Biodocs were better managers", well, that's not relevant here.

 

[Roguey]

He's the one who founded that behemoth, creating Interplay in Ye Good Old Days™ as a small team of developers. He then turned it into a publishing behemoth - including funding Blizzard before they were even Blizzard (and before they went to shit) and Parallax. He created Black Isle Studios. It only went to shit after he IPO'd, failed to make enough money and was booted out by Herve who'd bought a controlling interest.

He should've made enough cash out of Interplay's IPO to sit pretty for a while at least (although he also would have lost a lot as well).

Since then, he's kept a small studio alive for 10 years making cheesy iPhone games while others have laid off hundreds of staff and crumbled. He's probably the only RPG developer in the industry who knows both sides of the business (developing & publishing) and that's right from a board level perspective, all the way through to owner and developer. Ok, so some of the stuff he's done has been shit and maybe he's lost his touch but he's got 30 years experience in an industry that he effectively helped create.

Interplay only went public because Fargo's bad decisions already sent them spiraling down the drain.
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/mar/24/business/fi-32010

Irvine-based Interplay Entertainment Corp., a money-losing developer of video games, filed plans to raise up to $72 million in an initial public stock offering, according to an SEC filing. Proceeds will be used to repay $33.6 million in debts, a $1-million bonus to founder Brian Fargo and $1.5 million to distributor Universal Interactive Studios, according to SEC documents. The company, which has not turned an annual profit since 1995, has a reputation for outrageous marketing campaigns.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The company, which has not turned an annual profit since 1995, has a reputation for outrageous marketing campaigns.

Truly outrageous

 

[Wyrmlord]

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/mar/24/business/fi-32010

Irvine-based Interplay Entertainment Corp., a money-losing developer of video games, filed plans to raise up to $72 million in an initial public stock offering, according to an SEC filing. Proceeds will be used to repay $33.6 million in debts, a $1-million bonus to founder Brian Fargo and $1.5 million to distributor Universal Interactive Studios, according to SEC documents. The company, which has not turned an annual profit since 1995, has a reputation for outrageous marketing campaigns.

This pattern seems familiar.

A lot of poorly performing companies go for fund-raising and IPOs. The former CEO is usually given a huge amount of cash and then booted out. Why is this done? Because continuing to have the underperforming CEO on board is so costly, it's less costly to pay him a huge cut in order to have him leave. In other words, the infamous "golden parachute".

On one hand, it does seem normal that Fargo as a founder and promoter would expect a big payoff from an IPO. On the other hand, I can't help but feel that it resembles the pattern of many companies that have undertaken golden parachutes, particularly since Fargo was not allowed to stay on board and particularly since Interplay was losing money.

If it's the latter, it makes Fargo look like the guy who fucks up things so badly that people have to pay him a million dollars to keep his hands off of things.

 

[Infinitron]

http://articles.latimes.com/1998/mar/24/business/fi-32010

Irvine-based Interplay Entertainment Corp., a money-losing developer of video games, filed plans to raise up to $72 million in an initial public stock offering, according to an SEC filing. Proceeds will be used to repay $33.6 million in debts, a $1-million bonus to founder Brian Fargo and $1.5 million to distributor Universal Interactive Studios, according to SEC documents. The company, which has not turned an annual profit since 1995, has a reputation for outrageous marketing campaigns.

This pattern seems familiar.

A lot of poorly performing companies go for fund-raising and IPOs. The former CEO is usually given a huge amount of cash and then booted out. Why is this done? Because continuing to have the underperforming CEO on board is so costly, it's less costly to pay him a huge cut in order to have him leave. In other words, the infamous "golden parachute".

On one hand, it does seem normal that Fargo as a founder and promoter would expect a big payoff from an IPO. On the other hand, I can't help but feel that it resembles the pattern of many companies that have undertaken golden parachutes, particularly since Fargo was not allowed to stay on board and particularly since Interplay was losing money.

If it's the latter, it makes Fargo look like the guy who fucks up things so badly that people have to pay him a million dollars to keep his hands off of things.

Fargo has said in the past that he wanted to make some radical changes to the company (I think in his speech at the Unity conference he said he wanted to "sell the company to the Chinese") but the main shareholder (ie Herve) wouldn't let him. In another, more recent interview, he said he wanted to downsize the company and try to make it into more of a PC-exclusive indie type outfit, but Herve wouldn't let him.

So yeah, I don't know how much we can trust Fargo's stories about the fall of Interplay. It's possible we'll never know the exact truth.

 

[Darth Roxor]

One thing is for certain, however

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERVE

 

[Brother None]

Besides, while Interplay ended up failing as a big publisher, inXile is a small development house and intends to remain that. If Brian was asking for the keys to run a big publisher his past with running a big publishing company would be more relevant. As-is it's still still relevant, but less so. I imagine overseeing a company of inXile's size where he's dealing with pretty solid budgets and people he all knows is significantly different from being the head of a company with hundreds of employees (and from what I gather, rather a relief).

So yeah, basically;

Since then, he's kept a small studio alive for 10 years making cheesy iPhone games while others have laid off hundreds of staff and crumbled. He's probably the only RPG developer in the industry who knows both sides of the business (developing & publishing) and that's right from a board level perspective, all the way through to owner and developer. Ok, so some of the stuff he's done has been shit and maybe he's lost his touch but he's got 30 years experience in an industry that he effectively helped create.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Blatant apologetic marketing

Silence, shill! :

 

[Sceptic]

No Dopefish, no brofist

Andhaira's point

lol oxymoron

 

[laclongquan]

Why should we care about their business histories? I only care about what game they made.

On that point Fargo is in.

 

[Scruffy]

DU one thing is a crazy experiment where you handpick dumbest imbeciles on Codex and make them mods

i like it when people talk about me

 

[oldmanpaco]

Well that was worth the 7 month wait.

 

[Endrosz]

Dear Codex members. This is my first comment here. This website and the comments here are a constant source of amusement for me, and this Year in Review is the high point so far.

Yes, bring forth the soap box, step right on it, and preach about dumbed down gameplay. Let me ask you: is there ANY (just a single) Codex member who bought a CoD game? If not, why do you even care what the mind-poison of choice of others is? Yours is better, are you insinuating that? If yes, do you really believe that? If yes twicefold, then "pathetic" is an understatement about you...

It is very fitting that one of the linked Codex reviews praises one of my worst game experiences of 2012, namely Legend of Grimrock. A game where "old school" actually means "it's a constant, excruciating pain to play it on just a very basic level, without spellcasting or other fanciness". ** Yes, you should totally play LoG, you DESERVE it.

So am I a troll or what? Maybe. But unlike most of the trolls on the internet, I will end my rant on a very unusual notion:

THANK YOU.

Keep up the torrent of narrow-minded, stuck-in-the-past, no-sense, ultra-grumpy wailing. RPGCodex makes for hilarious reading.

----
** You should read the top user review on GoG if you want a more detailed breakdown of what's wrong with the game. Actually, the same things the Codex reviewer rated as "pretty fun" and such... 2 stars, yeah, no more. http://af.gog.com/game/legend_of_grimrock?as=1649904300

 

[Monty]

See, DU's article is already attracting new members.

 

[Infinitron]

See, DU's article is already attracting new Drog alts.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

HERP I DON'T LIKE STUFF THAT YOU GUYS LIKE, SO YOU ARE STUPID.

Would not read again.

 

[Scruffy]

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO EAT SHIT IF YOU'VE NEVER TRIED IT? I TRIED IT AND I LOVED IT! SO YOU MUST TOO!

 

[Kz3r0]

Fuck, you people are really going to great lengths to make my ignore list grow bigger.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Bros, seriously now.
Lack of Stones of Arnhem in this article is an outrage!!!

I mean, c'mon! 2011 the Year in Review has a rape drama! And now all we get is a dry summary.

 

[Septaryeth]

Bros, seriously now.
Lack of Stones of Arnhem in this article is an outrage!!!

I mean, c'mon! 2011 the Year in Review has a rape drama! And now all we get is a dry summary.

There is rape drama in 2012, it just happened in a different review.

 

[Roguey]

Let me ask you: is there ANY (just a single) Codex member who bought a CoD game?

Lesifoere owns Modern Warfare 2 and has played multiplayer for 41 hours. Couldn't even last an hour in the single player campaign though.