Cain on Games - Tim Cain's new YouTube channel

[Roguey]

He has family money to invest in businesses and licenses/acquisitions.

Nah, his background may have helped him get started, but he built Interplay from the ground up.

He promoted Feargus to Black Isle's director, the same guy who passed on Battleground Infinity when it was first pitched to him

Feargus was the guy who put his own job on the line going over his boss's head (that's the one who rejected it, calling it "stupid") to pitch Baldur's Gate directly to Fargo.

I don't see why Timmy was so upset over his smaller bonus. A bonus is just that, you're not entitled to one. It was his decision to take responsibility for the delay-causing crash bug and that means accepting the punishment for it. Fargo did nothing wrong there.

Trying to punish an individual developer for a single bug (an off by one error which is one of the most mundane of programming mistakes) is pretty insane management. And the impact of the bug (i.e., delay of the release) is not a programming issue at all but a an issue with management for setting too tight deadlines in the first place. But of course management never wants to take any responsibility for that... so instead the lost two star employees.

I wouldn't consider over three years a tight deadline.

 

[The_Mask]

The more colour we add to the painting, the more I'm starting to notice that both Fargo and Feargus have no place near any place of leadership.

"I would like to see Tim's story corroborated, though." is what I want to say, but I remember MCA had similar issues (May of Rage thread).

 

[Sigourn]

Boyarsky and Anderson resigning with Cain's letter is the broest move I can ever think of. You can even see the incredulity in Tim's eyes at 19:17.

 

[Spacer's Nugget]

That's some Butterfly Effect shit. If Fargo hadn't touched the bonus distribution, we probably wouldn't have Arcanum and Bloodlines.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Feargus was the guy who put his own job on the line going over his boss's head (that's the one who rejected it, calling it "stupid") to pitch Baldur's Gate directly to Fargo.

If your source is feargus, you can disregard it.

BioWare says Feargus saw it and was completely disinterested. But when he heard that they've got a big meeting about it with a competitor, suddenly he got very courteous, smiling and inviting. Told them not to attend that meeting and meet with him instead. The absolute weasel.

 

[Taxnomore]

hey cleve did you work on Fallout 1 and not tell us

 

[vazha]

Edit 2:
lol at Brian Fargo for cutting Tim Cain's bonus for not telling whose bug (for >=) it was.

PS: one of the best Cain Diaries yet. Approaching May of Rage tier. Only with not quite as much rage. Still great tho.

This one's more May of Regret or Sweet Sorrow

 

[d1nolore]

To be fair you have to make hard decisions as a manager, sometimes unpopular. Doesn’t make you clever to pick these things apart in hindsight over 20+ years later.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Fargo comes off as a person who does emotional decisions based on spite. No wonder he lost Interplay and his star talent.

 

[Roguey]

Fargo certainly loved Cain. As Tim said in the video, he demanded his presence on Fallout 2 because the others didn't have the "it" factor. He offered to fire the middle manager giving him problems. When Tim turned in his resignation, he spent over an hour trying to talk him out of it and only didn't spend longer because Tim had a dentist appointment and deliberately didn't talk to Brian again for the duration of the month. The bonus-docking was something he felt was absolutely necessary to crack down on sloppiness.

 

[Volrath]

What have become of this world, people on Codex implying that being a normal person is a positive.
Bad people are bad. Normal people are the worst.

We're the normal people now.

 

[StrongBelwas]

The bonus-docking was something he felt was absolutely necessary to crack down on sloppiness.

Thank god for that, Fargo managed to avoid any sloppiness in Fallout 2.

 

[Sigourn]

The bonus-docking was something he felt was absolutely necessary to crack down on sloppiness.

Programming bugs happen all the time. Fargo is a retard for thinking a bug is the result of "sloppiness".

 

[Roguey]

The bonus-docking was something he felt was absolutely necessary to crack down on sloppiness.

Programming bugs happen all the time. Fargo is a retard for thinking a bug is the result of "sloppiness".

and the bug was so simple it was
literally a for Loop that used a less
than equal instead of a less than

Sloppy work.

Thank god for that, Fargo managed to avoid any sloppiness in Fallout 2.

Well it did ship on time.

 

[Sigourn]

Sloppy work.

Happens all the time, man.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Roguey pisses me off with his gaslighting and dunning-kruger. Programmers ITT telling him it's standard practice. He insists "sloppy work" as if he could code hello world.

 

[agris]

Roguey pisses me off with his gaslighting and dunning-kruger. Programmers ITT telling him it's standard practice. He insists "sloppy work" as if he could code hello world.

It’s just his version of shit posting, best to ignore

 

[Cross]

Fargo certainly loved Cain. As Tim said in the video, he demanded his presence on Fallout 2 because the others didn't have the "it" factor. He offered to fire the middle manager giving him problems. When Tim turned in his resignation, he spent over an hour trying to talk him out of it and only didn't spend longer because Tim had a dentist appointment and deliberately didn't talk to Brian again for the duration of the month. The bonus-docking was something he felt was absolutely necessary to crack down on sloppiness.

Considering Fargo forced them to add the Temple of Trials, it doesn't seem like he was serious about giving Tim the creative freedom he wanted.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

The bug may have been simple, but wth Interplay near bankrupcy at the time, delaying a crucially important release by a few months doesn't exactly help.

 

[Infinitron]

These were a bunch of people still in their 30s making it up as they went along. The entire gaming industry in the 1990s was full of these sorts of fuckups as it grew into a multi-million dollar business. An entire generation of RPG studios collapsed and was replaced during those years. Punishing a guy for programming errors? Maybe that is what you were supposed to do. Who knew?

 

[Infinitron]

TimCain is reading your posts!

I want people to listen to these stories and gain insight into the game development process, but I don't want people to view all of the actors in these stories as either heroes or villains. Please listen with nuance, as most people in these stories made both good and bad decisions, myself included.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Nice try, but we all know Hitler Fargo threatened to put entire Fallout 2 team in the camps , until they were rescued by captain Cain and his team of superheroes.

 

[Roguey]

Roguey pisses me off with his gaslighting and dunning-kruger. Programmers ITT telling him it's standard practice. He insists "sloppy work" as if he could code hello world.

I see a bunch of programmers saying "No, don't punish us for our mistakes!" Well yeah, you/they have an incentive to not want your precious bonuses taken away. Just as Fargo and the bosses have an incentive.

Fargo certainly loved Cain. As Tim said in the video, he demanded his presence on Fallout 2 because the others didn't have the "it" factor. He offered to fire the middle manager giving him problems. When Tim turned in his resignation, he spent over an hour trying to talk him out of it and only didn't spend longer because Tim had a dentist appointment and deliberately didn't talk to Brian again for the duration of the month. The bonus-docking was something he felt was absolutely necessary to crack down on sloppiness.

Considering Fargo forced them to add the Temple of Trials, it doesn't seem like he was serious about giving Tim the creative freedom he wanted.

The Temple of Trials wasn't a Fargo idea, he just let it happen. Just as he let Interplay waste a ton of money on fmv crap and other stupid ideas that forced him to panic when the solid B-title they were depending on slipped from its schedule.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Roguey reads like a fellow who has never done any kind of work in his life. Extremely naive takes on the reality of mistakes when it comes to complex engineering work.

 

[Sigourn]

TimCain is reading your posts!

I want people to listen to these stories and gain insight into the game development process, but I don't want people to view all of the actors in these stories as either heroes or villains. Please listen with nuance, as most people in these stories made both good and bad decisions, myself included.

Should have uploaded this earlier, before I had Fargo's blood all over my raincoat.

"Try cutting my bonus now, you fucking stupid bastard!!"