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| [Aug 19, 2008, 03:15 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
The Bill
Roper Interview on 1Up is a Q&A with the cofounder of Flagship Studios about
the developer that is in essence deceased at this point, as well as thoughts on
Diablo III and other topics later on. As to the subject of Flagship, they
ask about what he can discuss (at one point he makes a pointed reference to
Hanbitsoft not honoring their nondisclosure agreements), and he describes
efforts at paying off institutions and employees still owed money by Flagship
and the attempts to save the company from going under. His comment about losing
the Mythos IP, indicates he thinks the new owners got less than they
bargained for: Yeah. But I think part of it is -- the challenge they face
is -- it's like if somebody says, "Hey, I made you a loan against your Ferrari,
[and] now the loan's due, so I want the Ferrari." And I say, "Great, here's a
box of parts, because I didn't actually finish building the car yet." So they
have it, but it's not done, and they don't have any of the engineers that were
there that know how to build the game or use the tools or use the tech or
anything. So yes, you have it, but you have it where it is, which isn't done
yet. It's a lot different from a movie. With a film you can say, "Here's all the
footage. Get some competent guys with an Avid system, and you could piece
something together. Go shoot some more scenes. Release the film." Totally
different situation here. There isn't just a quick way you can slap something
together. So I think that they're facing a big challenge: How to actually get a
shippable title out of this without that team being there anymore.
Unfortunately, it isn't something we didn't kind of warn them about. We said,
"We want to know what you guys will do." We had transition service agreements
that we have done everything we can to fulfill. Flagship at this point is unable
to actually provide those transition services. I don't have programmers anymore,
or artists to work on the title, but we provided them with all the personal
contact information with anyone they wanted. After that the onus is on them as
far as whether or not to bring those people in.
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| 53. |
Re: Also, Bill |
Aug 20, 2008, 04:14 |
Flatline |
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You're really really really really REALLY fucking bad at "doing business."
I've known Bill Roper personally (I wouldn't say we're friends, but I've spoken with him a number of times), and you're right. Think more "charismatic figurehead" than "business acumen magnate". He should have hired someone to run the company and make those decisions while he focused on the things he did best. Maybe he did and he still crashed and burned. It seemed like Diablo meets Quake would be a freakin' no-brainer right?
I would recommend that when you inevitably start up another game, because apparently there are always investors more than willing to fork over cash to retards like you, you have someone with a little more business smarts handle the business side.
Ah you already recommended someone else run the company. Should have kept reading!
He has an impressive resume. Nobody looks at the details in the corporate world it seems. They see Blizzard, Diablo, and Warcraft, and get an instant hardon and the checkbook comes out. Best job I ever had, the company went out of business. Why? Because the guy they hired, after seeing that he was a high up at Verizon I believe it was, ran the massive project they gave him into the ground and bankrupted a 20 year company in 18 months. Nobody knew or cared previously that he lost the phone company 33 million dollars in a botched deal. It's common in the corporate world to hire people who are ass monkeys and recycle them over and over again, figuring that they are part of some elite brotherhood that normal people couldn't possibly be part of. Hell, I can screw up multi-million dollar business for one tenth of what they pay some of these people and everyone will be "happy".
your readers might have wanted to hear a bit more about what Bill Roper was going to do for the fucking GAMERS that bought his ridiculous piece of shit.
Is it even in Roper's hands any more? I thought some korean company decided to pick up the pieces and try to make something fun out of it. I think Flagship is a studio without *any* IP any more.
Knowing the Koreans, they'll turn it into a f*cking billion dollar game by doing something simple like making you pay one dollar real world every time you want to identify a loot drop. To give it mass appeal they'll put kittens on your armor or have 100,000 little ant-demon minions following you around to "do your bidding" though they actually contribute nothing to the game. Some of those Korean MMOs are gargantuan money pits, and the Koreans flock to them like crazy.
This comment was edited on Aug 20, 04:18. |
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Date |
Subject |
Author |
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1. |
Aug 19, 03:57 |
No subject |
InBlack |
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16. |
Aug 19, 09:32 |
Re: No subject |
Undocumented Alien |
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17. |
Aug 19, 09:39 |
Re: No subject |
NKD |
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18. |
Aug 19, 09:39 |
Re: No subject |
InBlack |
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28. |
Aug 19, 11:21 |
Re: No subject |
Undocumented Alien |
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2. |
Aug 19, 03:58 |
its still wrong |
space captain |
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3. |
Aug 19, 05:13 |
Re: its still wrong |
InBlack |
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4. |
Aug 19, 05:22 |
Re: its still wrong |
Prez |
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5. |
Aug 19, 05:27 |
No subject |
space captain |
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6. |
Aug 19, 06:16 |
Re: No subject |
InBlack |
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7. |
Aug 19, 06:23 |
Comments |
peteham |
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8. |
Aug 19, 07:09 |
Re: Comments |
Kajetan |
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9. |
Aug 19, 07:21 |
Re: Comments |
InBlack |
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11. |
Aug 19, 08:15 |
Re: Comments |
nin |
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12. |
Aug 19, 08:19 |
Re: Comments |
HellSlayer |
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19. |
Aug 19, 09:40 |
Re: Comments |
Wowbagger_TIP |
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20. |
Aug 19, 09:48 |
Re: Comments |
InBlack |
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21. |
Aug 19, 10:00 |
Re: Comments |
Wowbagger_TIP |
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22. |
Aug 19, 10:10 |
Re: Comments |
InBlack |
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42. |
Aug 19, 15:38 |
Re: Comments |
noman |
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25. |
Aug 19, 10:51 |
Re: Comments |
peteham |
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26. |
Aug 19, 11:02 |
Re: Comments |
Wowbagger_TIP |
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27. |
Aug 19, 11:09 |
Re: Comments |
VultureMAN |
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29. |
Aug 19, 11:23 |
Re: Comments |
dsmart |
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30. |
Aug 19, 11:43 |
Re: Comments |
NKD |
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51. |
Aug 20, 00:15 |
Re: Comments |
Stormsinger |
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33. |
Aug 19, 12:06 |
Re: Comments |
WyldKat |
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34. |
Aug 19, 12:14 |
Re: Comments |
dsmart |
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35. |
Aug 19, 12:21 |
Re: Comments |
Wowbagger_TIP |
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43. |
Aug 19, 16:25 |
Re: Comments |
Flatline |
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44. |
Aug 19, 17:07 |
Re: Comments |
Wowbagger_TIP |
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45. |
Aug 19, 17:28 |
Re: Comments |
Flatline |
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46. |
Aug 19, 17:43 |
Re: Comments |
Krovven |
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52. |
Aug 20, 04:07 |
Re: Comments |
Flatline |
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55. |
Aug 20, 12:47 |
Re: Comments |
Krovven |
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40. |
Aug 19, 15:07 |
Re: Comments |
Kxmode |
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10. |
Aug 19, 08:15 |
No subject |
space captain |
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13. |
Aug 19, 08:25 |
Re: No subject |
dsmart |
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14. |
Aug 19, 09:00 |
Re: No subject |
InBlack |
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15. |
Aug 19, 09:03 |
Re: No subject |
Fibrocyte |
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23. |
Aug 19, 10:14 |
Re: No subject |
dsmart |
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24. |
Aug 19, 10:32 |
No subject |
space captain |
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31. |
Aug 19, 11:44 |
What is with the hate? |
Ozmodan |
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32. |
Aug 19, 12:02 |
Re: What is with the hate? |
danebramage |
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36. |
Aug 19, 13:12 |
No subject |
space captain |
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37. |
Aug 19, 13:24 |
Re: No subject |
dsmart |
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38. |
Aug 19, 14:05 |
Re: No subject |
VultureMAN |
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41. |
Aug 19, 15:13 |
Re: No subject |
Kxmode |
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48. |
Aug 19, 20:45 |
Re: No subject |
Bone43 |
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39. |
Aug 19, 14:58 |
tuber |
Kxmode |
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47. |
Aug 19, 20:15 |
Hey Bill |
Creston |
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49. |
Aug 19, 20:55 |
Also, Bill |
Creston |
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50. |
Aug 19, 21:17 |
Re: Also, Bill |
Kxmode |
| >> |
53. |
Aug 20, 04:14 |
Re: Also, Bill |
Flatline |
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54. |
Aug 20, 09:20 |
Re: Also, Bill |
Undocumented Alien |
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56. |
Aug 20, 20:32 |
Re: Also, Bill |
Creston |
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57. |
Aug 20, 21:08 |
Re: Also, Bill |
Kxmode |
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58. |
Aug 21, 00:08 |
Re: Also, Bill |
Creston |
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59. |
Aug 21, 09:37 |
Re: Also, Bill |
nin |
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60. |
Aug 22, 20:00 |
... |
theyarecomingforyou |
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