http://kotaku.com/5940401/pc-gaming-studio-said-she-ruined-their-game-but-only-after-she-sued-the-boss-for-sexual-harassment (http://kotaku.com/5940401/pc-gaming-studio-said-she-ruined-their-game-but-only-after-she-sued-the-boss-for-sexual-harassment)
Quote
Elemental: War of Magic was not a rousing success of a game. The August, 2010 strategy title was a buggy, muddled mess at launch that even publisher Stardock felt was a broken game, badly in need of mending.
This August, two years after Elemental's disastrous debut, Stardock filed a lawsuit against former employee Alexandra Miseta, claiming that actions she took immediately before her departure were a major contributing factor to Elemental's failure. However, Stardock vs. Miseta is not the first time Miseta and Stardock CEO Brad Wardell have faced off in court—and the timing of the new lawsuit suggests it could have more to do with the other court case than it does with Elemental.
Miseta was the manager of marketing at Stardock when she left the company abruptly three weeks before Elemental shipped. Documents obtained by Kotaku show that when she left in August, 2010, she was threatening a suit against Wardell for sexual harassment. That suit was filed in December, 2010, seeking unspecified damages in excess of $25,000. (According to Michigan law, an employee must first file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before he or she can proceed with a lawsuit; the EEOC may then take up to 180 days to review the complaint.)
Court records from the lawsuit show several troubling messages from Wardell to Miseta.
Court records from the lawsuit show several troubling messages from Wardell to Miseta, as well as allegations of problematic in-person behavior. E-mail messages included in the records go back as far as March, 2008, and include a link to a sexually explicit YouTube video, a comment that Miseta was chosen to go to a conference "not just because you're 'hot'," and a 100-question "purity test" that he asked her to take and then send him her score from. The purity test includes questions like, "Have you engaged in group sex?," "Have you engaged in intercourse with an unconscious person, while conscious?," and, "Have you had anal intercourse?"
Witness depositions included in the case documents refer to multiple comments from Wardell to female employees about their breast and bra sizes, and one incident where he asked Miseta to attend a media tour because "[her] nipples look better on TV." They also describe a time on a media tour when Wardell's visit to the hotel room Miseta and another female colleague were sharing made Miseta feel uncomfortable.
In May 2010, during a dinner on a media tour, Wardell touched Miseta's hair. It was evidently the last straw for Miseta, who, on June 6, after the media tour had ended, sent her boss an e-mail asking him to change his behavior:
1. Please never touch my hair or any of my body parts; not even jokingly.
2. Please do not talk about my private life or about my boyfriend/future husband in any terms especially negative terms.
3. Please be careful with your "jokes" which are at many times inappropriate, sexist, vulgar and very embarrassing not only to me, but everyone present.
4. Please keep your negative personal opinions of others (including family members and/or coworkers) not present at the time of your comments, to yourself. I feel, at times, it puts me in a very uncomfortable position.
With the above few behavioral changes, I'm hoping our previously friendly and professional relationship can be reestablished.
Wardell's reply began cordially, "Thank you for bringing these up to me as I certainly do not want you to feel uncomfortable at work." He promised to be more careful in the future regarding items one and two, but then continued:
#3, however is not acceptable to me. I am an inappropriate, sexist, vulgar and embarrassing person and I'm not inclined to change my behavior. If this is a problem, you need to find another job.
#4, Again, I am not willing to adapt my behavior to suit others. If you find my behavior problematic, I recommend finding another job.
I'm not some manager or coworker of yours. I own the company. It, and your job there, exist to suit my purposes, not vice versa. The company is not an end unto itself, it is a means to an end which is to further the objectives of its shareholders (in this case, me).
Miseta took Wardell's advice: she looked for another job and left Stardock as soon as she had one. On August 3, 2010, she quit Stardock and began her new role elsewhere shortly after.
Miseta vs. Wardell, meanwhile, has been making its slow process through the court system for the last year and a half. Discovery—the process in which depositions are taken, documents exchanged, and so on—took approximately 16 months. After discovery, Wardell's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. The motion for summary dismissal, just over 250 pages long, lays out Wardell's case that the allegations are untrue and that, even if they were, they do not constitute harassment under the law: "In his response, Mr. Wardell also made some unadvisable statements, which undoubtedly is the raison d'être for the current litigation. While intemperate, and perhaps insensitive, these statements are neither sexual nor harassing. Mr. Wardell certainly regrets making them as even Plaintiff would not have had the temerity to file this lawsuit otherwise."
Miseta's attorneys said that such motions are usually part of the process, and Miseta's lawyers then filed a response to the motion to dismiss.
It took until this summer for the court to hear oral arguments about the motion to dismiss. On July 13 of this year, Judge Robert Ziolkowski heard the arguments and denied the motion to dismiss. Miseta vs. Wardell will go to trial, though a date has not yet been set.
Wardell's reply began cordially, "Thank you for bringing these up to me as I certainly do not want you to feel uncomfortable at work."
Attorneys representing Stardock filed the complaint of Stardock vs. Miseta on July 30, less than three weeks later.
This second suit seeks in excess of $1 million in damages from Miseta, claiming that just before quitting, Miseta "deleted, destroyed, and/or stole" the Elemental marketing materials, analytics, and trade show information. Without that information, the complaint argues, Stardock had to spend "vital time" leading up to Elemental's release "attempting to re-create" the marketing materials, "rather than programming, debugging, and otherwise readying Elemental for release."
Wardell did not reply to requests for comment from Kotaku to share his side of the story. If he does, we will update the story. (Update: see below)
Miseta's attorney told Kotaku, "It is our opinion that Mr. Wardell's lawsuit against Ms. Miseta for allegedly deleting files, etc., is baseless and was brought solely in retaliation for her sexual harassment lawsuit. We firmly believe that Ms. Miseta's leaving Stardock had absolutely nothing to do with any failures pertaining to Stardock's release of Elemental. It is our further belief that Mr. Wardell has publicly admitted that the failures of Elemental were due solely to his actions and/or inactions."
Many records from the first suit, Miseta vs. Wardell, cast doubt on Stardock's recent assertions. The defendant's motion for summary dismissal—the document filed by Wardell's attorneys to try and have the case dismissed—does make brief reference to deleted files, in the context of arguing that Miseta's claims against Wardell are spurious: "Stardock later learned that Plaintiff's last act while at Stardock was to delete her computer account, including all of the marketing materials and files that had been produced for Elemental. The deleted files also included emails from her Stardock account in order to eliminate evidence contrary to her claims of 'constant' harassment by Mr. Wardell."
Witness statements found in the response from Miseta's attorneys, however, contradict the claim. One employee specifically testified in her deposition that Miseta gave her a week's advance notice that she would be leaving Stardock, so that she "knew where [Miseta's] files were" and had access to relevant Google docs. Others had no recollection of Wardell or HR manager Angela Marshall (Wardell's sister-in-law) ever mentioning missing documents causing trouble with Elemental.
A former Stardock employee, speaking with Kotaku on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that a mere two weeks before launch, Elemental had many technical issues that had nothing to do with its marketing. The employee also added that at the time, nobody mentioned any materials having gone missing or any sabotage having taken place and showed Kotaku communications from Wardell that indicated satisfaction with how Miseta's staff replacement was taking over the review kit and review guide process.
Both cases are still in active progress in the court system. Kotaku will be following any developments and keeping readers posted with any major updates.
He sounds like a class act.
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on September 06, 2012, 04:05:02 PM
He sounds like a class act.
There are always *at least* two sides to these stories.
Take care not to rush to judgement on either side.
Quote from: LongBlade on September 06, 2012, 04:08:42 PM
Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on September 06, 2012, 04:05:02 PM
He sounds like a class act.
There are always *at least* two sides to these stories.
Take care not to rush to judgement on either side.
That's why I said
sounds, not
is.
I stand corrected :)
This appears to be her. cute in a dorky sort of way.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.gawkerassets.com%2Fimg%2F17w3g7ncs6bvijpg%2Fxlarge.jpg&hash=8a99c984796b04d23c31b07433aa943455d5c9bf)
Interesting.
I would not harass her. Not in the way I harass everyone else anyway. She kinda looks like trouble.
Wardell has always seemed like an earnest and sincere business person in his public postings on the Stardock forums, and I followed those for a long time. That said, many CEOs can behave very differently towards their client base than they do towards their employees.
If that e-mail from Wardell is in fact accurate, then it's pretty damning. Workplace environments can get under a lot of pressure sometimes, especially around the release of a huge product, but that's still no excuse for the responses to requests #3 and #4 below. Being a CEO doesn't mean that you shouldn't follow the Golden Rule just like everybody else.
But, as has been said above, there are always two sides to these stories. I'd be curious to hear what the other side is, if in fact we ever get that far.
Quote from: Gusington on September 06, 2012, 05:30:11 PM
I would not harass her. Not in the way I harass everyone else anyway. She kinda looks like trouble.
She looks like a character in an SNL skit.
If this is true it is certainly unsettling and would make me even more unhappy that I gave that company my money.
However, like others have said I will reserve judgement until both sides of the story have been heard.
Quote from: TheCommandTent on September 06, 2012, 06:17:31 PM
If this is true it is certainly unsettling and would make me even more unhappy that I gave that company my money.
However, like others have said I will reserve judgement until both sides of the story have been heard.
Yeah, this is pretty much my sentiment exactly.
Quote from: Gusington on September 06, 2012, 05:30:11 PM
I would not harass her. Not in the way I harass everyone else anyway. She kinda looks like trouble.
That's the impression I get from that photo of her. :-\
Quote from: Gusington on September 06, 2012, 05:30:11 PM
I would not harass her. Not in the way I harass everyone else anyway. She kinda looks like trouble.
Take it from the guy who used to let hot models do lines off of his bald head. He knows trouble when he sees it.
Quote from: LongBlade on September 06, 2012, 07:27:34 PM
Take it from the guy who used to let hot models do lines off of his bald head. He knows trouble when he sees it.
Damn, you guys had all the fun before I got here!
No amount of marketing will save a fautly product.
Did he do it? That's not for me to decide.
but the fact that he is actually openly discussing this on the Quarter to Three forums when it's still due for trial seems like a pretty dumb move.
^Link?
Here's where he comes in : http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?s=539973eb2c6adc9d4da34391f3755211&p=3211297#post3211297
Wow. Probably not a good idea to be talking about it at all on a forum, I agree.
Quote from: Gusington on September 06, 2012, 10:28:29 PM
Wow. Probably not a good idea to be talking about it at all on a forum, I agree.
Particularly the parts where he's saying things like "Yeah, I sent that, but I totally meant it like this..."
Are you TRYING to help her lawyer?
Comments like those say to me that he may be the type of person that is not as smart as he thinks. Which links to what some above said about being a little upset that they spent money with Stardock. Which also links to my first post in this thread...it comes across a little like blaming the victim which isn't right.
All that said...I bet that chick is crazy in the sack :) In a good way.
I dunno.. I've worked at a couple places where the environment was very friendly & close enough to make raunchy & dark humor a constant occurrence. Yes, most everyone participated and the ones who didn't like that kind of loose environment didn't stick around very long. But none of them sued somebody for being 'picked on' at some after work party.
I'd like to hear what all her past co-workers there have to say. But I think it's just a lawyer ramp-up at thi$ point.
I have met Brad and I like him. I hope this isn't true.
Quote from: Arctic Blast on September 06, 2012, 10:18:28 PM
but the fact that he is actually openly discussing this on the Quarter to Three forums when it's still due for trial seems like a pretty dumb move.
Oh my god! Really? After the War of Magic debacle, he hasn't learned his lesson? Brad is a total idiot.
Communication people always say: write an email but wait one day before you send it. Most people would rephrase what they write in an email if they read it after a good night. And besides, some things shouldn't be written down but communicated orally.
If i was the auditor of Stardock, i would tell them to revise their backup policies...it's an internal ICS problem if an employee can just delete "years" of marketing material.
Quote from: Anguille on September 07, 2012, 02:40:43 AMIf i was the auditor of Stardock, i would tell them to revise their backup policies...it's an internal ICS problem if an employee can just delete "years" of marketing material.
If I was advising Stardock, I would try to make the case to them that the people responsible for debugging code and prepping it for launch are probably not the same people you want responsible for generating marketing materials, graphics, trade show booths, etc. Coders are seldom very good at PR/corporate communication work, and you don't want any AD/PR guys trying to write code.
If your product failed b/c you pulled code guys off of fixing your product for marketing materials, you made about 4 blunders right there, and you've got no one to blame for the product failure than yourselves.
Expect Stardock will try to settle before this goes to trial.
I am sure there are multiple sides to this story, but after reading his own responses, doesn't seem like he is denying sending the email that paints him in a very bad way. For a company owner to send something like that out, regardless of the situation, shows very poor judgement and I am stunned he didn't realize "written" communication would come back to haunt him. If I were to have sent something like this at my job, I would have been escorted out of the building the next day. So regardless of whether this person deleted marketing stuff or not, the email and the way the office is run is a separate issue that to me is even more disturbing. I also have a hard time believing the marketing information alone would have caused all the issues of the game (also as someone else mentioned, where are all the backups), but I have to admit I really never followed that game to know for sure. Even if he had to pull staff from other areas in the final weeks, it seems the game was more than a couple of weeks behind anyways so even if they all kept coding, I doubt there would have been a different outcome...but I guess that is what the courts will decide.
Just wanted to chime in here, and say that I would do her.
Thank You
Quote from: bboyer66 on September 07, 2012, 07:19:25 AM
Just wanted to chime in here, and say that I would do her.
Thank You
I am sure she's a lot more attractive than on this picture.
Quote from: bboyer66 on September 07, 2012, 07:19:25 AM
Just wanted to chime in here, and say that I would do her.
Thank You
<chuckle>
Maybe Stardock could hire you as the HR person?
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on September 07, 2012, 06:57:12 AM
I also have a hard time believing the marketing information alone would have caused all the issues of the game (also as someone else mentioned, where are all the backups), but I have to admit I really never followed that game to know for sure. Even if he had to pull staff from other areas in the final weeks, it seems the game was more than a couple of weeks behind anyways so even if they all kept coding, I doubt there would have been a different outcome...but I guess that is what the courts will decide.
Yeah, this is exactly right. If the woman did what Stardock have alleged, she deserves to be punished. However, the claim that it had a massively detrimental impact on the quality of the game at launch is laughable to any of us who played the beta and played the game after launch. The game was a mess for ages, and even when it finally got into a semi-working state (
months later) it was still crap.
Disturbing news indeed. Not sure what to think of it, although I'm going to be disgusted if it's true.
Certainly, Brad has been known to run off his mouth in his forums when it probably wasn't the smartest thing for him to do.
It's also not uncommon for him to be extremely blunt when doing so, so it wouldn't surprise me if he indeed made...unwise comments to this chick. (I'll bet you he gives his personal attorney more ulcers than the rest of his clients put together!) Whether or not said comments constitute sexual harassment is a question that has no answer at the moment, and I will therefore reserve judgment for later.
Regardless, I do agree that whatever actions this gal may or may not have taken, there's no way it would've measurably affected WOM's release state. By all accounts, the was going to be borked at release no matter what.
Quote from: eyebiter on September 07, 2012, 06:50:04 AM
Expect Stardock will try to settle before this goes to trial.
Not in a million years. Maybe -- maybe -- if Brad was absolutely convinced it would go very, very badly for him...but even then, I strongly doubt it.
Brad reminds me of my old boss Randy when I was a debt collector: My boss had (not surprisingly) been sued on a number of occasions, and if he felt he was in the right (at least legally), he was perfectly willing drain every last resource he had to clear his name. Randy made it clear he would gladly throw away his fortune, his business, his entire life, before he would admit to guilt or wrongdoing if he felt he had broken no laws...and Brad very much strikes me as being cut from the same cloth.
Quote from: bboyer66 on September 07, 2012, 07:19:25 AM
Just wanted to chime in here, and say that I would do her.
Thank You
Seconded!
As
Jarhead put it, she's cute in a dorky sort of way...and I'm a sucker for that type. ;D
Quote from: bboyer66 on September 07, 2012, 07:19:25 AM
Just wanted to chime in here, and say that I would do her.
Thank You
*eyeroll*
tankers....
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 06, 2012, 05:09:45 PM
This appears to be her. cute in a dorky sort of way.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.gawkerassets.com%2Fimg%2F17w3g7ncs6bvijpg%2Fxlarge.jpg&hash=8a99c984796b04d23c31b07433aa943455d5c9bf)
That is a picture of actress Judy Greer playing the insane secretary Kitty from Arrested Development.
Not the litigant.
But Judy Greer is very cute in a dorky way.
See same picture here: http://www.inquisitr.com/148001/judy-greer-talks-reluctantly-healthy/ (http://www.inquisitr.com/148001/judy-greer-talks-reluctantly-healthy/)
Judy Greer:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages2.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb20100521204338%2Fbigbangtheory%2Fimages%2F8%2F8f%2FJudy_Greer.jpg&hash=626a4dac61fbbc3f9c7698cb47d84841f7894b28)
^Hmmmm...that's odd. That was a photo on one of the news sites indicting that was her.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 07, 2012, 04:20:34 PM
^Hmmmm...that's odd. That was a photo on one of the news sites indicting that was her.
Well, someone got duped then.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 07, 2012, 04:20:34 PM
^Hmmmm...that's odd. That was a photo on one of the news sites indicting that was her.
And we all know that every fact, quote, and image is vetted and re-vetted by Media before going live. It is Their Code, it is Their Way... ::)
I'm reminded of the guy who wrote a piece about the actress/model/bimbo who got bitten by the snake on her store-bought boob during a photo op. He finished the piece with a sarcastic 'and the snake died of silicone poisoning' just for fun. Imagine his surprise when major media outlets started reporting the snake's demise in deadly earnest. The tidbit just got tossed from one story to another until it was all but fact.
She be the one on the left...
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh4.ggpht.com%2F-i64falm0o7Y%2FS2GkwzzDeKI%2FAAAAAAAAATA%2F5xJWTF4E0tY%2FP1050866.JPG&hash=69039eaaa89bb8ffef80e28887f1038dc7c814ce)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh6.ggpht.com%2F-ykmVKn_unDo%2FS2Gkn9oZbsI%2FAAAAAAAAAS4%2Fp6C08Nufrzw%2FP1050864.JPG&hash=018abb05217e28ade2cdc0e46cf4654cbb68783e)
Quote from: LongBlade on September 07, 2012, 06:30:53 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 07, 2012, 04:20:34 PM
^Hmmmm...that's odd. That was a photo on one of the news sites indicting that was her.
Well, someone got duped then.
I thought that looked oddly like a TV cap judging by the pic quality. LOL!
hard to judge if her nipples are really that good.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 07, 2012, 07:02:57 PM
She be the one on the left...
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh4.ggpht.com%2F-i64falm0o7Y%2FS2GkwzzDeKI%2FAAAAAAAAATA%2F5xJWTF4E0tY%2FP1050866.JPG&hash=69039eaaa89bb8ffef80e28887f1038dc7c814ce)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh6.ggpht.com%2F-ykmVKn_unDo%2FS2Gkn9oZbsI%2FAAAAAAAAAS4%2Fp6C08Nufrzw%2FP1050864.JPG&hash=018abb05217e28ade2cdc0e46cf4654cbb68783e)
Yep, I'd do her. (Just sayin'!)
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on September 07, 2012, 07:02:57 PM
She be the one on the left...
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh4.ggpht.com%2F-i64falm0o7Y%2FS2GkwzzDeKI%2FAAAAAAAAATA%2F5xJWTF4E0tY%2FP1050866.JPG&hash=69039eaaa89bb8ffef80e28887f1038dc7c814ce)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flh6.ggpht.com%2F-ykmVKn_unDo%2FS2Gkn9oZbsI%2FAAAAAAAAAS4%2Fp6C08Nufrzw%2FP1050864.JPG&hash=018abb05217e28ade2cdc0e46cf4654cbb68783e)
She definitely looks crazy alright and I know crazy. I'd do Judy Greer though.
Okay I'd do the other one too.
The complaint and motion for dismissal make for interesting reading.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/105042009/Complaint-and-Summons-12-30-10
http://www.scribd.com/doc/105240546/Defendant-s-Motion-for-Summary-Dismissal
Does anyone else think Stardock's counter suit makes absolutely no sense on the face of it?
For those who don't know, 'conveniently' following the suit against Wardell happening, Stardock sued her for causing what they claim as $1 million in damages to Elemental as they scrambled to fill marketing gaps after she supposedly deleted the entire marketing plan, leaving them to pull devs off of bug squashing to work on marketing.
1. I don't seem to recall this being mentioned in the days after Elemental's disastrous release. In fact, the public statements that they had messed up as developers and that was the reason for the game being a mess would seem to refute their own lawsuit.
2. So, an employee in marketing can just delete your entire marketing plan permanently? You have no backup of anything? This seems...odd.
3. I also don't remember any gaps in marketing the game in the final run up to release. Wouldn't there have been some if this sudden incident occurred without warning?
4. Why in the Hell would you pull DEVELOPERS to re-do your marketing plan?! This makes absolutely no sense at all. Do you have a marketing department of one person?
Quote from: Arctic Blast on September 08, 2012, 03:13:39 PM
Does anyone else think Stardock's counter suit makes absolutely no sense on the face of it?
For those who don't know, 'conveniently' following the suit against Wardell happening, Stardock sued her for causing what they claim as $1 million in damages to Elemental as they scrambled to fill marketing gaps after she supposedly deleted the entire marketing plan, leaving them to pull devs off of bug squashing to work on marketing.
1. I don't seem to recall this being mentioned in the days after Elemental's disastrous release. In fact, the public statements that they had messed up as developers and that was the reason for the game being a mess would seem to refute their own lawsuit.
2. So, an employee in marketing can just delete your entire marketing plan permanently? You have no backup of anything? This seems...odd.
3. I also don't remember any gaps in marketing the game in the final run up to release. Wouldn't there have been some if this sudden incident occurred without warning?
4. Why in the Hell would you pull DEVELOPERS to re-do your marketing plan?! This makes absolutely no sense at all. Do you have a marketing department of one person?
I don't know the precise facts but it used to be that Stardock was a pretty small outfit. It's highly likely that this girl, as marketing director or whatever her title was, was in fact the entire PR department.
And by causing "developers" to be pulled off of development, it's probably one of the managers (possibly Brad himself) who had to pick up the slack.
Mind you that is all speculation on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if that turns out to be the story. Or most of the story.
I reckon both stories are true. But both parties seem to have been utter bell-ends to each other so...karma?
Quote from: LongBlade on September 08, 2012, 03:56:09 PM
Quote from: Arctic Blast on September 08, 2012, 03:13:39 PM
Does anyone else think Stardock's counter suit makes absolutely no sense on the face of it?
For those who don't know, 'conveniently' following the suit against Wardell happening, Stardock sued her for causing what they claim as $1 million in damages to Elemental as they scrambled to fill marketing gaps after she supposedly deleted the entire marketing plan, leaving them to pull devs off of bug squashing to work on marketing.
1. I don't seem to recall this being mentioned in the days after Elemental's disastrous release. In fact, the public statements that they had messed up as developers and that was the reason for the game being a mess would seem to refute their own lawsuit.
2. So, an employee in marketing can just delete your entire marketing plan permanently? You have no backup of anything? This seems...odd.
3. I also don't remember any gaps in marketing the game in the final run up to release. Wouldn't there have been some if this sudden incident occurred without warning?
4. Why in the Hell would you pull DEVELOPERS to re-do your marketing plan?! This makes absolutely no sense at all. Do you have a marketing department of one person?
I don't know the precise facts but it used to be that Stardock was a pretty small outfit. It's highly likely that this girl, as marketing director or whatever her title was, was in fact the entire PR department.
And by causing "developers" to be pulled off of development, it's probably one of the managers (possibly Brad himself) who had to pick up the slack.
Mind you that is all speculation on my part, but I wouldn't be surprised if that turns out to be the story. Or most of the story.
It just seems like a smokescreen to me. "Hey...and she is the reason Elemental sucked, too! Yeah, all her fault!"
Quote from: Arctic Blast on September 08, 2012, 03:13:39 PM
1. I don't seem to recall this being mentioned in the days after Elemental's disastrous release. In fact, the public statements that they had messed up as developers and that was the reason for the game being a mess would seem to refute their own lawsuit.
This is entirely correct by the way; Brad himself 'fessed up a few weeks after launch. It's the reason a lot of us are getting Fallen Enchantress for free. Surely if that woman's lawyers are even half decent, they'll have the case laughed out of court because of this?
Quote from: Huw the Poo on September 09, 2012, 02:27:49 AM
Quote from: Arctic Blast on September 08, 2012, 03:13:39 PM
1. I don't seem to recall this being mentioned in the days after Elemental's disastrous release. In fact, the public statements that they had messed up as developers and that was the reason for the game being a mess would seem to refute their own lawsuit.
This is entirely correct by the way; Brad himself 'fessed up a few weeks after launch. It's the reason a lot of us are getting Fallen Enchantress for free. Surely if that woman's lawyers are even half decent, they'll have the case laughed out of court because of this?
Given that statement, I'm afraid even if he's innocent he's about to meet that uncomfortable place where honesty and the legal system are about to get ugly.
Here's Brad posting on his own forum after launch: (emphasis mine - pertinent sentences)
Quote
Stop Stop Stop. And I'm not just saying that because it takes like half a minute to load up a page from here.
There is a phrase they use in the movie industry "Kill your darlings".
The person green lighting a production should NEVER EVER be the one working on said production. Writing AI on GalCiv or helping design the game mechanics on Sins of a Solar Empire kept me at a reasonable distance from the actual GAME.
The problem with Elemental was that I am in love with it. To me, it's not just a game. It's a whole world that we can expand and build on. During the months of July and August, when I was working on the game non-stop, I literally had a hard time distinguishing the difference between the GAME, the MODS and the future. It all merged into one fuzzy centrality.
Stardock will be working on Elemental for years to come. Literally. Let me be specific: Stardock will NOT release a new game next year. It'll all be Elemental related. Releasing it in August wasn't a financial decision. Hell, Stardock's games aren't funded by PC game revenue. I wanted you guys to get the game ASAP.
I think most people would agree that Elemental has tremendous potential. The reason it was released when it was was because we thought it had reached that level ready to be shipped. When you're living, breathing and eating something 24/7, your perspective changes.
From a personal pride point of view, it would be much easier to say "Whohaah, my jet fuel requires Elemental to ship in August!". To give you guys an idea of how certain I was that the game was ready for everyone to ship, I didn't just give copies to reviewers, I sent copies to my friends who used to be reviewers (long story but the gaming media has changed a lot in the past 18 months) because I was dying for them to see this masterpiece.
Tom Francis's debiliating PC Gamer preview only was possible was because I personally compiled a version for him (of v1.0) for him to see because the v1.0 version doesn't work outside North America (region checking). In other words, that negative PC Gamer UK preview was only possible because I was so confident in Elemental's readiness that I bypassed Stardock's PR people to get a friend of mine in Europe a copy.
I don't think there should be much disagreement that Stardock absolutely blew it with the launch. Holy cow that should be obvious by now. In my mind, anything less than "game of the year" (in a year with Starcraft 2 and Civ V in it) means we totally screwed up.
The real question, and the question I think every single person who shelled out $50+ for this game should ask is this: What is Stardock going to do to make me whole?
And the answer, I hope, is in the coming months because, like I said, most of Stardock's revenue doesn't come from making PC games.
Having my idiocy shown on a global stage is humbling but probably very constructive for PC gamers. I think most people would agree that Elemental is a fantastic game -- once you get past the idiotic UI decisions, balance, etc.
We are very fortunate to be in a position to make the situation right. We're our own publisher. We don't have the same financial constraints as other companies so we can spend months or even years if necessary to do right by you guys.
Hopefully, this message will make it up to the forums, (because it was long) but if it does, please take it as it is meant. I failed you. I failed you because I love what we're doing and out of sheer hubris -- that the basic law of programmer != guy who decides if it is done somehow didn't apply to me. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Elemental is getting pasted in reviews and deserves that pasting. I'm glad many people are having fun but our eyes have been opened. Like I said before, I'll be writing a lot more about this when I get back to an Internet connection that measures bandwidth with an M instead of a K.
This statement here might be his saving grace:
QuoteI don't think there should be much disagreement that Stardock absolutely blew it with the launch. Holy cow that should be obvious by now. In my mind, anything less than "game of the year" (in a year with Starcraft 2 and Civ V in it) means we totally screwed up.
So if a game goes out the door that isn't perfectly polished, in Brad's mind it is a huge error on Stardock's part.
That's actually a very high bar, but one that we, as gamers, respect. How many other software companies won't be satisfied with anything less than "Game of the Year" levels of polish and construction? Not many.
As such, although he admits they screwed up, the truth is the game could have been pushed out the door in an acceptable state to, say, EA, Ubi, or Paradox, but still wouldn't meet Brad's standards.
Further, admitting that as devs, they screwed up, he doesn't have to single out one person's role (or departure) as the cause.
Lastly, he's just conducting good PR. He takes ownership for a mistake (you can't blame the customer) and offers to correct it.
So after I think about it I don't know if his statement dooms him.
I like Brad. Don't know him well, but I have met him. I hope the harassment charges aren't true, but it's going to take more than wishful thinking to figure out what happened here.
Yeah. Brad's posting tone has always seemed sincere and credible in the past.
But, as I said before, some CEOs are very good at taking a humble, sincere tone with their clients and still being a total douchebag to their employees. It's not common, but it's not unheard of, either.
Something about living a self-imagined "hero narrative" in the eyes of their customers while viewing their workers in the same way a disinterested watcher might view all those poor Trojans standing between Hector and Achilles...
Just wanted to chime in here and say that I would do her (VERSION II).
Thank You
Dramatic re-enactment for A&E.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv320%2Fbogaty%2Ffunny-gifs-shes-not-into-you.gif&hash=59ff8c909110a34f667474e3cea4363305b13908)
^HA! No means no.