Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Latro]

how does someone with football sized biceps get bullied so much?

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Doesn't mean much, one company I worked for had three owners, two of them had 90% of the ownership, the third didn't put up much of a fight, even when one of the owners with the bigger stake was doing retarded things that hurt the company

It means everything! Even if you don’t have a controlling interest and you’re constantly outvoted by your partners, owning equity in an enterprise is very different from wage labor. When you have a real chunk of equity (which MCA surely did—I would be shocked if he owned less than 5%), you’re working for yourself. Maybe your partners screw your over at the margins, but when you’re simply working for wages, you get exploited every day of the week. That’s doubly true in a creative industry where your employer owns your ideas. Really, though, being a capitalist is always better than being a worker, at least until the barricades go up and the masses feast on the blue blood of the one percent.

It wouldn’t shock me if MCA was getting ripped off on all his outsourced work for other developers after he became a human stretch goal, given that all the money went to Obsidian. But he could’ve renegotiated that contract with ease.

Based on everything he’s said, it sounds like Chris is the kind of guy who prefers to avoid conflict until he finally can’t take it anymore and then he flips out, burning all his bridges. I imagine most of his differences with Obsidian could’ve been ironed out if he’d just been straight with the other co-founders about his needs. If he told Feargus, “it’s Chris Parker’s wife or me,” does anyone doubt this woman would’ve gotten the boot?

It’s really too bad. I wish he had the attitude necessary to start his own studio, but nobody’s perfect.

 

[Grauken]

If he told Feargus, “it’s Chris Parker’s wife or me,” does anyone doubt this woman would’ve gotten the boot?

I doubt that

 

[Infinitron]

Holy fuck.

More stuff:

 

[Cael]

"ALSO - beware the manager that never puts anything in writing."
This. So this. I cannot, really CANNOT, emphasize this statement enough.

Even if there are witnesses to the conversation, do NOT believe that your ass is covered. You will be surprised at how people's memories can go missing at the most inconvenient of times.

Always write things down in an email and shove it up the manager's ass:
"Hi, XYZ.
This is just to confirm the instructions/decision/direction tendered in the meeting just now. You want me to do A, B and C with regards to the situation with Client D.
Please confirm that this is the case and I will get on it right away.
Best regards, JKL."

 

[Grauken]

I tell that younger colleagues all the time, but most of them want to learn it the hard way

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Bloody, bold, and resolute live all men to scorn.

 

[Cael]

I tell that younger colleagues all the time, but most of them want to learn it the hard way

Trust is the first thing abused by incompetent managers. Then, comes the defamation and career destruction.

Having seen the damage ONE guy out of a division of 80+ can do just because he happens to be the boss... It is staggering.

 

[Prime Junta]

Wowza indeed.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

Need to point out again that Chris WAS management, just lower on the food chain than Feargus or Parker.

That said, if he didn’t sign an NDA because he hates these guys and wants to be able to stick the knife in, when is he going to finally spill the details? Today’s tweets are the most explicit we’ve gotten right? It must have been really bad if he’s still this pissed off.

I want to know how and why they tried to withhold his compensation (or maybe it had to do with his ownership interest).

 

[Prime Junta]

I want to know how and why they tried to withhold his compensation (or maybe it had to do with his ownership interest).

/init baseless speculation

Could be the original Obsidian shareholders' agreement had some nasty clauses in it that everybody signed without thinking twice, e.g. that if a shareholder leaves the company he can be forced to sell his shares to the remaining ones at some shitty price. SHAs normally have that kind of clause but it's usually set to expire in three years or so.

Since Obsidz isn't publicly listed, it's pretty hard to arrive at a "fair" price for shares in it anyway so in that kind of situation butthurt is just about guaranteed however things play out.

/end baseless speculation

 

[TT1]

I really enjoy Chris's work and I have a lot of respect for him, but he talks too much. Instead of writing a text where he exposes the whole story, he throws little chunks of resentment at every turn. This is questionable and at least unprofessional.

Come on, Chris, tell all you have to say and get it over with.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

At this point I wonder who the assholes were and if this guy has a complex or not.

 

[Roguey]

In lighter news, today I learned Avellone designed the needler and solar scorcher in Fallout 2. I liked the needler, it was one of the few weapons where AP ammo actually worked.

 

[Cael]

In lighter news, today I learned Avellone designed the needler and solar scorcher in Fallout 2. I liked the needler, it was one of the few weapons where AP ammo actually worked.

It is also one of the best non-energy weapons you can use properly if you had Str < 5.

 

[Prime Junta]

In lighter news, today I learned Avellone designed the needler and solar scorcher in Fallout 2. I liked the needler, it was one of the few weapons where AP ammo actually worked.

It is also one of the best non-energy weapons you can use properly if you had Str < 5.

That's our MCA.

 

[Quillon]

if he didn’t sign an NDA

He did sign it and regret-tweeting about it, no?

I don't understand really, wasn't he a fucking owner? He shouldn't have let people below him ran all over him in the first place.

 

[Cael]

I don't understand really, wasn't he a fucking owner? He shouldn't have let people below him ran all over him in the first place.

He was A owner, not THE owner. The ones who ran him over was not below him, I don't think, or they have people who were not below him in their back pockets.

Fair warning to youngsters out there: It is frequently not the managers whom you have to look out for, but their cronies.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I don't understand really, wasn't he a fucking owner? He shouldn't have let people below him ran all over him in the first place.

He was A owner, not THE owner. The ones who ran him over was not below him, I don't think, or they have people who were not below him in their back pockets.

Fair warning to youngsters out there: It is frequently not the managers whom you have to look out for, but their cronies.

And HR are a bunch of ineffectual idiots.
No wonder most financial companies don't even take them seriously.

 

[BlackGoat]

Spoiler

Holy fuck.

More stuff:

 

[Fairfax]

More stuff:

I've chosen never to sign NDAs like this b/c the terms of silence aren’t (ever) worth it. (1/2)

This suggests he wasn't talking about his own NDAs.

I really enjoy Chris's work and I have a lot of respect for him, but he talks too much. Instead of writing a text where he exposes the whole story, he throws little chunks of resentment at every turn. This is questionable and at least unprofessional.

Come on, Chris, tell all you have to say and get it over with.

How is it unprofessional? He was giving advice to people in the industry, particularly newcomers.

 

[Neanderthal]

In lighter news, today I learned Avellone designed the needler and solar scorcher in Fallout 2. I liked the needler, it was one of the few weapons where AP ammo actually worked.

Might well have been inspired by Jerry Cornelius' signature weapon, or it could be coincidence as design suits Myron to a t.

 

[TT1]

I really enjoy Chris's work and I have a lot of respect for him, but he talks too much. Instead of writing a text where he exposes the whole story, he throws little chunks of resentment at every turn. This is questionable and at least unprofessional.

Come on, Chris, tell all you have to say and get it over with.

How is it unprofessional? He was giving advice to people in the industry, particularly newcomers.

He can give as much advice as he wants, that's not the problem. The problem is to drop phrases such as "I worked with the HR woman, who was the owner's wife, and she is a horrible person."

This is just gossip and resentment thrown in the wind.

He knows that we all know who this woman is. And that, besides gossip, is totally unprofessional.

 

[Sentinel]

jesus Obsidian sounds like a disgusting place to work at. Avellone makes it sound like it's run by an inbred circle.

 

[Roguey]

If I had to guess:

How she treated and discussed employees in the big layoffs in 2012 (she became HR director in 2011) and probably before/after as well.

That's only part of the elephant. The guy said that he couldn't even attend company events because she would be there. What did she do/say at these things? Surely other Obsidian employees know and can leak.