Now THIS is interesting...

[Arctic Blast]

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?

[LongBlade]

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.

[Huw the Poo]

I reckon both stories are true.  But both parties seem to have been utter bell-ends to each other so...karma?

[Arctic Blast]

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!"

[Huw the Poo]

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?

[LongBlade]

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.

[Huw the Poo]

Here's Brad posting on his own forum after launch: (emphasis mine - pertinent sentences)

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.

[LongBlade]

This statement here might be his saving grace:

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.

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.

[FarAway Sooner]

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...

[bboyer66]

Just wanted to chime in here and say that I would do her (VERSION II).

Thank You

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Dramatic re-enactment for A&E.

[Gusington]

^HA! No means no.