Farethewell, John Deere Tractors Online, we barely knew ye. (John Deere Tractors Online is what we jokingly told people we were working on. Because, hey, tractors.)
So, I’m unemployed today.
Lots of games never ship. I’ve worked on two now. Suffice to say that it is getting old. 
I don’t really want to talk too much here about my last project. As a condition of my severance I can’t discuss a great deal, and anything I say here will most likely be picked up by the MMO news sites (wave, wave!). Plus I’m still a bit sore since I think what we were working on was pretty damned cool (if nothing else, it was *nothing* like World of Warcraft) and I’m a sad panda that it won’t make it out the door.
This is also the first time in almost a decade that I don’t have something already queued up and ready to go the day I pick up my severance package. Which, given today’s climate, is KINDA FRIGHTENING, YOU KNOW? I have some possibilities (most of which involve our entire team – having the proven ability to come up with a client/server MMO prototype in 6 months is Kinda A Big Deal) but nothing definite.
Today I get to file for unemployment, for… um… pretty much the first time, ever.
Whee.
So, tomorrow, I’ll get back to snarky Youtube videos, promise.
#1 by GTB on October 27th, 2009
FUCK!
Well, borderlands just popped.
#2 by Jason on October 27th, 2009
Man, that sucks, Lum. Good luck landing another killer job, though. I know there have to be companies here hiring. I’m staying in tech support right now, though. Bioware’d be a good option to try for, yes.
#3 by xzzy on October 27th, 2009
“Tractors are overpowered.” – Lawnmowers
#4 by Rivs on October 27th, 2009
I wish you the best of luck. Sometimes though its for the best.
#5 by TheTick on October 27th, 2009
Sorry to hear that, man. I hope you find a new way to make the little green rectangles soon (preferably in time to sock the severance away). Take care.
#6 by geldonyetich on October 27th, 2009
I was thinking of dropping a line on that too. Sort of an interesting ‘current state of MMORPGs’ game, really… it’s not really an MMORPG at all… but with more immersion than most, and with better group play opportunities and loot… exactly what’s the MMORPG benefit again?
#7 by foolsage on October 27th, 2009
Damn man, sorry to hear that. Best of luck in your search.
#8 by JuJutsu on October 27th, 2009
Best wishes.
#9 by Tem on October 27th, 2009
Good luck, Lum. At the very least, enjoy your time off.
#10 by Jesus McNice on October 27th, 2009
You can always go back to Mythic.
(DO NOT GO BACK TO MYTHIC.)
#11 by Triforcer on October 27th, 2009
That sucks, Lum- best wishes and good luck. Everytime we all see a barrel filled with water, we think of you. That’s immortality.
#12 by Scrote on October 27th, 2009
Sorry to hear this Lum
#13 by Jerid on October 27th, 2009
Just tacking on my own “Hope things pick up soon” for you.
#14 by Kemor on October 27th, 2009
Good for you Lum, even though it might seem as semi-suckage today. Take this as an opportunity for real rebound, out of the box thinking.
#15 by Stupid on October 27th, 2009
Ouch! The ironic thing (to me anyway) is that my girlfriend is currently TRYING to get laid-off from her current gig. Wanna trade? Good people usually find work quickly, so you shouldn’t be out too long.
#16 by Slyde on October 27th, 2009
ouch. im sorry to hear that scott. i know you were pretty darn proud of whatever it is you were working on.
#17 by Ant ButterNut on October 27th, 2009
Trully sorry to hear that, Lum(p) of Mad.
And I was looking forward to playing Hello Kiity Online Island Adventures.
Best of luck to my favorite psychotic.
#18 by Gx1080 on October 27th, 2009
Damn. That just plain sucks. Hope you find another job. Although it sounds like you still have some offers. So good luck in those and in anything that pops.
#19 by kaozz on October 27th, 2009
Good luck on your projects!
#20 by ubvman on October 28th, 2009
You won’t be unemployed for long IMHO.
BTW, whats wrong with working for Blizzard (and/or WoW)? The great satan has a good dental plan I hear…
#21 by pharniel on October 28th, 2009
Much sympathies, hope you get a good bit of ‘time off’ then get the entire team on a new gig.
#22 by bonedead on October 28th, 2009
WTB snarky youtube videos!
#23 by Outlawedprod on October 28th, 2009
I know it’s not much of a consolation but …
At least your life was not destroyed by Darkfall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQaMArkki34
#24 by Lee Quillen on October 28th, 2009
Have you taken a look at Torchlight?
It’s fun, fairly inexpensive (20 bucks), looks pretty polished, and I expect it will do very well relative to it’s development cost.
I don’t mean take a look at it for something to do with your newly acquired free time. I mean look at it for what could be done by a micro-small team with a plan. There’s still a market for small developers with polished products who believe in their ideas. At this point in your career you have enough name recognition to at least talk to investors.
Even if you don’t want to deal with investors yourself, teaming up with someone who has that as a strong skill is worth thinking about. You’re probably already considering that (as I felt was implied in your post about your team), but if you aren’t you should. It seems like the sort of environment you would enjoy as opposed to just working for another large company and additional layers of bureaucracy.
#25 by D-0ne on October 28th, 2009
It’s only a recession if you’ve got a job. It’s a depression if you’re unemployeed.
Sorry to hear it Scott. Review all the states you’ve lived in in the last year and a half and file for unemployment in the one with the best Unemployment check.
Also, start looking for a good catastrophic insurance package. With a family you won’t be able to afford COBRA for very long if at all.
Good luck.
#26 by Not Richard Garriot on October 28th, 2009
Sorry to hear you are another victim of The Obama Recession.
That trillion dollar stimulus sure helped!
#27 by Scott Jennings on October 28th, 2009
Yes, actually it did. I can actually afford COBRA coverage (one of the parts of the stimulus is the federal government covering 65% of the cost) while looking for a new job.
Thanks for trying to score political points off my misery, though. It really does make me consider your views when voting!
#28 by Hatch on October 28th, 2009
Sorry to hear this Lum, game design is truly a segment of the IT sector when it comes to job security. My fear of unemployment is why I ended up working for the government at a job I loath in exchange for a considerable amount of security. I’m sure you’ll have a few phone calls by the end of the week based on your reputation.
#29 by Ark on October 28th, 2009
@Not Richard Garriot: Save your fucking ignorant comments for the next local Sarah Palin rally. You may find people appreciative of your lack of wit there.
As others have stated, Lum, I’m sure you won’t be out of work long. I know it’s easier for me to have that confidence given that I’m not the one who just got laid off, but there it is.
#30 by Muckbeast on October 29th, 2009
Sorry to hear about your news Scott. Hopefully there is a new project out there for you and your team – and soon.
Perhaps even a way to buy your work/code from the current owner so you can continue it elsewhere.
#31 by Dan Magaha on October 29th, 2009
@Muckbeast: sadly, that’s not really an option given the circumstances of the project.
#32 by Doug on October 29th, 2009
@ Not Richard Garriot
I may have slept with my fair share of retarded chicks, but at least I didn’t vote for one.
#33 by geldonyetich on October 29th, 2009
The sad thing about people of NotRichardGarriot’s view is they’re apparently unaware that this recession was doing nothing but gaining momentum during the Bush years, while not wasting any time to whine their assess off that it hasn’t stopped yet when our current conductor is doing all he can to ride the breaks.
#34 by D-0ne on October 29th, 2009
Not trying to be a know it all but I was laid off in 2008 for a month and a half and the COBRA (no government help at the time) was $2,900/month for my wife, four children and me.
They did give me the wonderful option of just COBRA for just one child or just myself or any combination that I could afford.
I went with a catastrophic plan that had a monthly deductible of $1,000 for $250 a month, but it expired in three months and was non-renewable.
I was lucky to get a job right away. Godspeed man.
#35 by Scott Jennings on October 29th, 2009
Well, we’re lucky in that we don’t have kids living with us (benefit of being old I suppose!), and that my wife’s medical plan goes open enrollment in a few months so we can switch me over to that if necessary. Our COBRA with the stimulus package is about $300 a month which would be unpleasant but bearable (and as part of my severance my ex-employer is covering that $300 until the end of the year). Without that it’d be unaffordable, even with our savings. So yeah, without the stimulus subsidy it’s mostly a bad joke.
It’d be nice if we had a real national health care plan like every other Western nation, but that’s a separate rant entirely!
#36 by gyrus on October 29th, 2009
Well, my guess was that your secret employer was KingsIsle (on their secret project)… but I guess not since they are hiring?
#37 by Muckbeast on October 29th, 2009
@Dan Magaha: Ugh. That stinks.
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I don’t want to hijack the thread too badly, but a huge pet peeve of mine about our industry is the tremendous amount of code, art, animations, design, etc. that is just rotting on some hard drive somewhere (or for Tabula Rasa – floating in space) totally unused and underutilized.
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I understand why companies hoard it, I do. But I hate it. Philosophically, I also do not believe this is what Intellectual Property was all about. This is not “furthering the useful arts” at all when all someone does is stuff it in a vault and never use it.
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When I think of the possible games we would have if companies would sell off unused assets, or even release it into the public domain 5 years after it is unused… *sigh*
#38 by Cosmik on October 30th, 2009
@Muckbeast There’s more to IP than “furthering the useful arts”. There’s money, which unfortunately factors into the decision Scott and co.’s former employer made.
#39 by geldonyetich on October 30th, 2009
Money ruins a lot in gaming and other arts.
That said, all that “tremendous amount of code, art, animations, design, etc” isn’t exactly something you’d want to give away if it were in your position. You’d probably gone through quite a bit of blood, sweat, and tears to make the damn thing (not to mention what you put others through). Why would you give it to somebody else to make money off of without paying you a dime?
Basically, those properties sit in their possession hoping that some investor would come along and say, “hey, I know that thingy was a collosal failure for you guys, but tell you what, I’ll buy it from you for a tremendous amount you can use to recoup your losses in exchange for seeing what I can do with it.”
#40 by RIckard on October 30th, 2009
As a note, it is my understanding you can wait till you actually need the Cobra insurance and then pay the back dues before you use it. Perphaps things have changed.
I don’t know about your wife’s insurance, my my wife’s had a enrollment exceptions: New baby, getting married, spouce loosing job. You should at least check if this qualifies as an exception event under her plan.
Best of luck looking for new work!
#41 by Muckbeast on October 31st, 2009
@Cosmik: I was referencing the part of the Constitution that for all intents and purposes, created IP law. Article 1, Section 8: (The Congress shall have power…) … To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.
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When I read that, I do not interpret that as intending to give people the right to bury things for years, decades, or centuries for no purpose other than preventing anyone else from making use of the work.
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geldonyetich: I am certainly not saying people should just give things away. I am a Capitalist. My point is simply this: it is an absolute tragic waste when companies hoard such works when they have absolutely no intention of using them AND they are totally unwilling to sell them for any reasonable price. I am not calling for any kind of government action here. I am saying I think it is incredibly tragic when companies hoard elements of unfinished or shut down games just because they can.
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I don’t buy the argument that a company would be financially harmed by releasing work into the public domain if they have no intention of EVER using it and no interest in selling it. I actually remember a mech type game many years ago that did this. I still play games to this day that I swear use some of the sound effects they released.
#42 by Muckbeast on October 31st, 2009
One more point: What I think happens in a lot of cases is publishers don’t want to sell the work and watch someone else actually succeed with it. And this is not for financial reasons (the gaming market is NOT a fixed pie) but for pride reasons. If someone else makes the game work, when they couldn’t, then they look incompetent.
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Take Tabula Rasa for example. What if someone was willing to buy all the source code and rights to the game for a couple million bucks. That’s actually a pretty good deal for NCSoft if they truly have ZERO intention of ever releasing the game or using its assets.
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I think the reason NCSoft would not do the deal has less to do with money and more to do with pride. If that company does better with TR than NCSoft did, they have to face the fact that they are pretty might the Asian EA when it comes to utter MMO failures (Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Dungeon Runners, etc.).
#43 by mandrill on October 31st, 2009
Sorry to hear that man, hope you find something soon.
#44 by geldonyetich on October 31st, 2009
And I was explaining why there’s more to it than “just because they can.”
#45 by Muckbeast on November 2nd, 2009
> And I was explaining why there’s more to it than “just
> because they can.”
And I am saying that those “more” reasons you mention are not always present. In fact, they very often are not, and that’s an example of our IP laws being used for a very unintended purpose.
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Further, some of those “more” reasons do not benefit the market or nation as a whole, and are thus not compatible with the initial reason for IP laws.
#46 by geldonyetich on November 2nd, 2009
I tend not to insist upon matters of conjecture.
#47 by wowpanda on November 2nd, 2009
@Muckbeast that is a interesting one on IP. There are people who holds patents and asking for more money than others want to pay for and just create a big inconvenience for everyone else, but without IP big company can push the inventor asid with their money.
@Scott I am not a big fan of national health care plan, but I did think about what if I was unemployed. My though is we should be responsible for our own health care, but a disaster out of no where should not make us bankrupt. I think it will be best if they make a high deductible government health care plan (i.e $5000/year), and the private insures can take the under $5000 part.
#48 by Muckbeast on November 3rd, 2009
@wowpanda: I don’t want you or anyone else to think I am anti-IP laws. I am very pro. I own a small indie game development company. I don’t want my IP to be stolen by a “big guy” either.
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But IP protection was never supposed to be absolute and infinite. The way IP law is developing now is a complete abomination compared to its intended design.
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And just from a general business sense, I think it is a net loss to the industry (and therefore even a loss to the companies doing the hoarding) when companies hoard content they have ZERO intention of ever using.
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As much as many of us dislike the MPAA, RIAA, etc., at least those industries have made an effort to work together for the good of their members. What do we have as game developers? Not much. In the long run, we will need something. We will need to find a way to care more about our industry as a whole while still caring about our own companies.
#49 by wowpanda on November 3rd, 2009
@muckbeast, I didn’t think you are anti-IP, I just thought your post is interesting. IP-laws got its pros and cons, this is real life problem so nothing is prefect.