Chris Avellone: The Final Frontier

[Blarghagh]

"Proof you shouldn’t ask an owner to do content work, it slows everything down – that’s not even a criticism, just the truth."

 

Ironic.

[Jitawa]

So... Either every single manager and most co-workers Avellon has ever dealt with were incompetent or malignant and have held him back ...

 

I don't it's quite as dichotomous as all that (things rarely are).  I realize Infinitron is posting spicy chunks of things from the codex, but Chris appears to give credit to a lot of co-workers for being competent/skilled/etc.  He even gives various compliments and credit to the management he's been criticizing, though occasionally in a left-handed fashion.  And to other employees (and ex-employees) at various points.

 

Re: management:

 

Feargus kept BIS and Obsidian alive. This does not mean they were always healthy, but they were a place where RPGs could be made, that is true, and that's a good thing. My argument is that there were many things that could be done that would make both our company and our games better.

 

Re: Other Employees:

 

I don’t have any issues with Josh [...] and I think he’s a good Project Director. I also don’t have any issue with Tim, Leonard, Charlie, Tyson, Rich (Taylor) etc. and they are not part of this either - I like them all and respect their work very much. I am looking forward to Project Indiana.

 

 

 

 

As far as Obsidian being more or less dysfunctional than other studios (internally or in terms of finished products), I think that's probably debatable too.

The industry itself seems somewhat messed up in terms of expected overtime, crunch, treatment of staff, etc.  

As far as products, the company has had a reputation for buggy games historically, I don't think that's unknown, since they admitted as much:

 

"Urquhart felt that his company's reputation as a "buggy" developer was fair, and said that while he was proud of what Obsidian had accomplished with New Vegas, he wished that it hadn't been so glitchy when it came out." - here, and other places, iirc

 

Internal issues are a bit harder to judge, though you'll read about various games with troubled development (Mass Effect Andromeda, etc.) as having issues internally.

 

As for the rest of it?  The company has lasted long enough that whatever internal issues they've had don't rise to the level of 38 Studios or others that either shuttered after a single title or never released anything.  

[Ineth]

Wanted to check in on Deadfire hype, and got sucked into this instead... 

 

Ain't nobody got time to read the whole RPG Codex thread, but I've searched for posts by Avellone and think I managed to catch most of them.

 

Even though we all like Obsidian's games here, I don't think we should pretend that there can't possibly be anything wrong with how the saussage is made, and I find the immediately-jumping-to-the-defense-of-the-company-and-denouncing-the-whistleblower fanboy bite reflex exhibited by some here, a bit premature.

 

Below is a summary of what I've seen Chris Avellone claiming, with some comments.

(Orange italic text is paraphrased from Avellone's posts. I didn't bother writing "He claims that..." or "allegedly" each time; consider that implied.)

 

Please do point it out if I misinterpreted something or missed anything important.

 

Unethical business practices

• Employees sacrificed their pay checks when the company was in danger of going bankrupt, but later when the company had enough money again, Feargus and some of the other owners didn't want to pay them back (or even discuss it). [forum post]
  
  Yikes.
   
• Accounting and finances were very non-transparent, with Feargus keeping tight control and outsourcing such work to personal friends of his who worked off-site. [forum post, forum post]
   
• Feargus's wife was on the payroll, and Avellone couldn't find out what (if anything) she was doing for the company. [forum post]
  
  Kinda weird. Codex commenters are going wild with speculations about tax evasion or fraud, but it could also be innocuous.
   
• Feargus wanted to bring his young children on as employees, and had to be dissuaded from doing so by the other owners. [forum post]
   
• Obsidian employees that were funded (?) by Paradox to work on Tyranny, were diverted to work on Pillars of Eternity instead, without compensation. [interview]
  
  Uh oh. I wonder if this is news to Paradox, or if the two companies have already found an amicable settlement in the meantime.
   
• The management failed to reevaluate the company's listed value ever since its founding, so owners selling their shares would not have gotten their rightful portion of the true market value. Avellone tried to start the process of a reevaluation in accordance with the company's bylaws, but was blocked and then de-ownered before that could happen. [forum post]
  
  This is where the story turns to corporate intrigues of the kind we expect to see on TV shows like Suits or Billions, not in beloved mid-size gaming studios... 
   
• Feargus "de-ownered" Avellone, without payout and without Avellone having a choice in the matter. [forum post, forum post, forum post]
  
  This is the accusation where I get the strongest feeling that Avellone isn't telling us the whole story. In particular, he hasn't yet explained how the de-ownering was even possible. Did they have something on him, that they could use as leverage to force him to sign his ownership away? Was he somehow tricked? Did the ownership contract have a loophole (and if so, didn't he get a lawyer to look it over back when he first signed it)?
  
  Still, I'm inclined to believe Avellone that he believes he was cheated here, even if turns out to have been *legally* sound.
   
• During the de-ownering, the other owners exploited Avellone's family situation (sick mother and debt) to try and make him accept an unreasonably restrictive non-disclosure and non-compete that would have prevented him from working on other cRPGs. [forum post, ...]
  
  Presumably, signing those agreements would have gotten him a (partial) payout after all? The "exploit his family situation" part is obviously his subjective interpretation, and may not have been the other owner's actual intention. Still, yikes.

 

Bad management

 

• Obsidian changes publishers so often because publishers "don’t want to deal with Obsidian’s upper management twice in a row". [forum post]
   
• "If Obsidian does well, however, that often doesn’t trickle down to the employees." [forum post]
    
• Whenever the company had money, Feargus tended to spend it freely without consulting the other owners. [forum post]
    
• Obsidian rarely gave bonuses, and their payscale was "on the low end of the industry". [forum posts]
   
• People were given titles such as "Creative Lead" based on politics rather than what work they were actually doing. [forum post]
   
• Feargus'es management style was dictatorial when he held all the cards, and when he didn't (because they became dependent on publishers) he "didn’t take to it well" and caused the company to unnecessarily loose contracts with unprofessional behavior. [forum post, forum post]
    
• Feargus'es and Chris Parker's management style tended to waste people's time, e.g. by pretending to let others evaluate options or find solutions when in fact they had already made up their mind. [forum post]
   
• Owners who disagreed with Feargus too forcefully would get threatened with de-ownering. [forum post, forum post]
   
• Chris Jones just cares about his payout and "consumes resources with no benefit to a project". [forum post, forum post]
   
• Darren Monahan is employee-friendly and probably a good guy, but an "abject coward" who is afraid of Feargus and falls in line with him when it comes to voting etc. [forum post]

 

Hoo-boy.

 

Avellone gets really personal here, ranting about the remaining Obsidian owners. On the one hand, bad-mouthing former colleagues/partners like this is not a good look, even if it's true. On the other hand, it did take Avellone quite a long time, and achievement of financial security, and prodding by the RPG Codex, for this to finally bubble up, so maybe it's healthy for him to get it all out in the open.

 

I imagine he's mostly sincere with these claims, even though they'll of course be clouded by his subjective viewpoint.

 

 

Office drama

• George Ziets was proposed as narrative lead for PoE1 by Avellone and others, but Feargus overruled them and gave the job to Eric Fenstermaker instead. [forum post, forum post]
   
• Eric Fenstermaker drove away other talented writers, including John Gonzalez who left after Eric refused to work with him. [forum post]
   
• The relationship between Avellone and Eric Fenstermaker soured due to how the cuts to Avellone's PoE1 companions (Durance and Grieving Mother) were handled. [interview, forum post, Eric's response, forum post]
  
  A shame really, since Avellone and Fenstermaker are both talented writers.

 

Beyond that, Avellone seems to think highly of Anthony Davis [forum post] and Brian Mitsoda [forum post], doesn't have a problem with Josh Sawyer [forum post], and claims to still be on good terms with many who work or worked at Obsidian and that it's just the upper management that he has a real problem with.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Ineth

[Guest]

I wonder if Chris knows what the word “defamation” means. I’m glad he’s got a hefty war chest; I have a feeling that he’s going to need it soon.

[Flouride]

I just don't believe they would refuse to payback their workforce. That would just lead to massive loss of workforce and no one would ever want to work for them after a stunt like that. It might have been a off-hand comment or meant as a joke. But as serious comment, just seems out of this world and would leave them open to getting sued by their employees.

 

I guess Chris' friends at Obsidian have multiplied, he claimed earlier he only has 1 friend left at Obsidian.

 

It's a **** move from Avellone to bring in others into his arguments. Throwing Sawyer, Fenstermaker, Gonzales and Ziets into the mix isn't a nice guy move. If anything it makes him seem  as a bad as the partners he is commenting on.

 

Proposing Ziets as the Creative Lead seems like weird option as well. He wasn't employed as a full time employee at Obsidian at that point. That's bad management from Avellone right there. While Ziets might be the most talented option out of the group, you can't give a title like that to someone who was brought in as a stretch goal. I can't even imagine how upset the writers at Obsidian would have been at that choice.

[Oner]

At this point Avellone might consider listing all the evil, Satan worshipping stuff Feargus UrukHeat/Obsidian hasn't done yet instead.

[Skazz]

At this point Avellone might consider listing all the evil, Satan worshipping stuff Feargus UrukHeat/Obsidian hasn't done yet instead.

 

Missed the opportunity to go for an Uruk-Hai pun, smh

[Zack Fair]

I just don't believe they would refuse to payback their workforce. That would just lead to massive loss of workforce and no one would ever want to work for them after a stunt like that. It might have been a off-hand comment or meant as a joke. But as serious comment, just seems out of this world and would leave them open to getting sued by their employees.

 

 

The question is, why would MCA make up a story like this, which can be so easily refuted by anyone in the company? He is either believing that nobody will testify against him and makes a bluff like this, or ...you know... it is the truth. And this is true for everything he said. He made soooo many harsh claims in the last few days, and he knows that he has to prove these if he is getting sued for defamation. Now he is either an idiot, or knows that this is the truth.

 

 

I guess Chris' friends at Obsidian have multiplied, he claimed earlier he only has 1 friend left at Obsidian.

 

He might have only 1 friend, but several people he is in good terms with.

 

 

[Yenkaz]

 

I just don't believe they would refuse to payback their workforce. That would just lead to massive loss of workforce and no one would ever want to work for them after a stunt like that. It might have been a off-hand comment or meant as a joke. But as serious comment, just seems out of this world and would leave them open to getting sued by their employees.

 

 

The question is, why would MCA make up a story like this, which can be so easily refuted by anyone in the company? He is either believing that nobody will testify against him and makes a bluff like this, or ...you know... it is the truth. And this is true for everything he said. He made soooo many harsh claims in the last few days, and he knows that he has to prove these if he is getting sued for defamation. Now he is either an idiot, or knows that this is the truth.

 

I guess Chris' friends at Obsidian have multiplied, he claimed earlier he only has 1 friend left at Obsidian.

 

He might have only 1 friend, but several people he is in good terms with.

 

He doesn't have to prove them true, the ones suing him would have to prove that he's intentionally lying (not simply misunderstanding or accidentally misrepresenting) with intent to harm the company.

[Guest]

The question is, why would MCA make up a story like this, which can be so easily refuted by anyone in the company? He is either believing that nobody will testify against him and makes a bluff like this, or ...you know... it is the truth. And this is true for everything he said. He made soooo many harsh claims in the last few days, and he knows that he has to prove these if he is getting sued for defamation. Now he is either an idiot, or knows that this is the truth.

 

A great question.

 

It’s entirely speculation on my part, but the man isn’t shy about relationship with alcohol. Maybe he isn’t as happy and carefree as he would others to think that he is. Who knows.

[Guest]

 

 

I just don't believe they would refuse to payback their workforce. That would just lead to massive loss of workforce and no one would ever want to work for them after a stunt like that. It might have been a off-hand comment or meant as a joke. But as serious comment, just seems out of this world and would leave them open to getting sued by their employees.

 

 

The question is, why would MCA make up a story like this, which can be so easily refuted by anyone in the company? He is either believing that nobody will testify against him and makes a bluff like this, or ...you know... it is the truth. And this is true for everything he said. He made soooo many harsh claims in the last few days, and he knows that he has to prove these if he is getting sued for defamation. Now he is either an idiot, or knows that this is the truth.

 

I guess Chris' friends at Obsidian have multiplied, he claimed earlier he only has 1 friend left at Obsidian.

 

He might have only 1 friend, but several people he is in good terms with.

 

He doesn't have to prove them true, the ones suing him would have to prove that he's intentionally lying (not simply misunderstanding or accidentally misrepresenting) with intent to harm the company.

A libel suit would only have to establish that the thing said is untrue (intent doesn’t necessarily matter) and that the company and individuals were harmed as a result.

 

The latter is a slam dunk, as at least one person has cancelled their pledge and gave Chris’ comments as the reason. He better be dead certain everything he’s said is 100 true re the former.

[Oner]

 

At this point Avellone might consider listing all the evil, Satan worshipping stuff Feargus UrukHeat/Obsidian hasn't done yet instead.

 

Missed the opportunity to go for an Uruk-Hai pun, smh

It was an Uruk-hai pun, I just typo'd UrukHart.

[IndiraLightfoot]

A failsafe prediction of mine: There are things he said that is untrue.

The sad result: In court, he's done for. Most likely, Obsidian will prefer to settle over his transgressions regardless, just to deny Chris further loony tirades in court.

[melkathi]

 

• Accounting and finances were very non-transparent, with Feargus keeping tight control and outsourcing such work to personal friends of his who worked off-site. [forum post, forum post]

 

That isn't all that strange or unethical. You give finances and accounting to the person you trust with the money. And a lot of firms do this out of house. I have a close friend who is an accountant. He has his own little accounting firm and handles a number of big clients, including shipping companies and foreign investors. He doesn't "join" the company for the business. They hire his services. And if I had a larger business so would I, because he is the person I'd trust with such large sums: because he has a proven track record, but yes, also because we have been friends for 20 years.

[Oner]

Truly, the old saying is true. Women hath no fury like an Avellone scorned.

[Ineth]

I just don't believe they would refuse to payback their workforce. That would just lead to massive loss of workforce and no one would ever want to work for them after a stunt like that. It might have been a off-hand comment or meant as a joke. But as serious comment, just seems out of this world and would leave them open to getting sued by their employees.

 

Not if they really didn't promise that the skipped paychecks would be repayed.

 

Avellone nowhere insunuates that the employees had a legal right to be repayed - he simply recounts that he considered it the morally right thing to do, and was shocked how the other owners reacted.

 

It's a **** move from Avellone to bring in others into his arguments. Throwing Sawyer, Fenstermaker, Gonzales and Ziets into the mix isn't a nice guy move. If anything it makes him seem  as a bad as the partners he is commenting on.

 

Well, the Codex guys are specifically asking him about individual people...

Also, he had positive things to say about all four of the people you listed (including Fenstermaker) so I don't see it as malicious that he's talking about them.

 

Proposing Ziets as the Creative Lead seems like weird option as well. He wasn't employed as a full time employee at Obsidian at that point.

 

Maybe he could have been (again), who knows? I don't think it's that unusual in the game industry for project-specific leadership positions to be filled with new hires.

 

Anyway, in that post Avellone isn't complaining that he really wanted Ziets as Narrative Lead and didn't get his way. He's giving it as an example of how decisions were made, i.e. how time was wasted because Feargus had already made up his mind but wasn't up-front about it.

 

I just listed it separately, because I thought some people might find it interesting that a PoE1 main story written by Ziets was a possibility at one point...

Edited May 6, 2018 by Ineth

[Skazz]

 

 

At this point Avellone might consider listing all the evil, Satan worshipping stuff Feargus UrukHeat/Obsidian hasn't done yet instead.

 

Missed the opportunity to go for an Uruk-Hai pun, smh

It was an Uruk-hai pun, I just typo'd UrukHart.

 

 

Oh...my bad. I feel dumb now.

 

Sorry, carry on.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Skazz

[Orogun01]

 

Wanted to check in on Deadfire hype, and got sucked into this instead... 

 

Ain't nobody got time to read the whole RPG Codex thread, but I've searched for posts by Avellone and think I managed to catch most of them.

 

Even though we all like Obsidian's games here, I don't think we should pretend that there can't possibly be anything wrong with how the saussage is made, and I find the immediately-jumping-to-the-defense-of-the-company-and-denouncing-the-whistleblower fanboy bite reflex exhibited by some here, a bit premature.

 

Below is a summary of what I've seen Chris Avellone claiming, with some comments.

(Orange italic text is paraphrased from Avellone's posts. I didn't bother writing "He claims that..." or "allegedly" each time; consider that implied.)

 

Please do point it out if I misinterpreted something or missed anything important.

 

Unethical business practices

• Employees sacrificed their pay checks when the company was in danger of going bankrupt, but later when the company had enough money again, Feargus and some of the other owners didn't want to pay them back (or even discuss it). [forum post]

   

  Yikes.

   

• Accounting and finances were very non-transparent, with Feargus keeping tight control and outsourcing such work to personal friends of his who worked off-site. [forum post, forum post]

   

• Feargus's wife was on the payroll, and Avellone couldn't find out what (if anything) she was doing for the company. [forum post]

   

  Kinda weird. Codex commenters are going wild with speculations about tax evasion or fraud, but it could also be innocuous.

   

• Feargus wanted to bring his young children on as employees, and had to be dissuaded from doing so by the other owners. [forum post]

   

• Obsidian employees that were funded (?) by Paradox to work on Tyranny, were diverted to work on Pillars of Eternity instead, without compensation. [interview]

   

  Uh oh. I wonder if this is news to Paradox, or if the two companies have already found an amicable settlement in the meantime.

   

• The management failed to reevaluate the company's listed value ever since its founding, so owners selling their shares would not have gotten their rightful portion of the true market value. Avellone tried to start the process of a reevaluation in accordance with the company's bylaws, but was blocked and then de-ownered before that could happen. [forum post]

   

  This is where the story turns to corporate intrigues of the kind we expect to see on TV shows like Suits or Billions, not in beloved mid-size gaming studios... 

   

• Feargus "de-ownered" Avellone, without payout and without Avellone having a choice in the matter. [forum post, forum post, forum post]

   

  This is the accusation where I get the strongest feeling that Avellone isn't telling us the whole story. In particular, he hasn't yet explained how the de-ownering was even possible. Did they have something on him, that they could use as leverage to force him to sign his ownership away? Was he somehow tricked? Did the ownership contract have a loophole (and if so, didn't he get a lawyer to look it over back when he first signed it)?

   

  Still, I'm inclined to believe Avellone that he believes he was cheated here, even if turns out to have been *legally* sound.

   

• During the de-ownering, the other owners exploited Avellone's family situation (sick mother and debt) to try and make him accept an unreasonably restrictive non-disclosure and non-compete that would have prevented him from working on other cRPGs. [forum post, ...]

   

  Presumably, signing those agreements would have gotten him a (partial) payout after all? The "exploit his family situation" part is obviously his subjective interpretation, and may not have been the other owner's actual intention. Still, yikes.

 

Bad management

 

• Obsidian changes publishers so often because publishers "don’t want to deal with Obsidian’s upper management twice in a row". [forum post]

   

• "If Obsidian does well, however, that often doesn’t trickle down to the employees." [forum post]

    

• Whenever the company had money, Feargus tended to spend it freely without consulting the other owners. [forum post]

    

• Obsidian rarely gave bonuses, and their payscale was "on the low end of the industry". [forum posts]

   

• People were given titles such as "Creative Lead" based on politics rather than what work they were actually doing. [forum post]

   

• Feargus'es management style was dictatorial when he held all the cards, and when he didn't (because they became dependent on publishers) he "didn’t take to it well" and caused the company to unnecessarily loose contracts with unprofessional behavior. [forum post, forum post]

    

• Feargus'es and Chris Parker's management style tended to waste people's time, e.g. by pretending to let others evaluate options or find solutions when in fact they had already made up their mind. [forum post]

   

• Owners who disagreed with Feargus too forcefully would get threatened with de-ownering. [forum post, forum post]

   

• Chris Jones just cares about his payout and "consumes resources with no benefit to a project". [forum post, forum post]

   

• Darren Monahan is employee-friendly and probably a good guy, but an "abject coward" who is afraid of Feargus and falls in line with him when it comes to voting etc. [forum post]

 

Hoo-boy.

 

Avellone gets really personal here, ranting about the remaining Obsidian owners. On the one hand, bad-mouthing former colleagues/partners like this is not a good look, even if it's true. On the other hand, it did take Avellone quite a long time, and achievement of financial security, and prodding by the RPG Codex, for this to finally bubble up, so maybe it's healthy for him to get it all out in the open.

 

I imagine he's mostly sincere with these claims, even though they'll of course be clouded by his subjective viewpoint.

 

 

Office drama

• George Ziets was proposed as narrative lead for PoE1 by Avellone and others, but Feargus overruled them and gave the job to Eric Fenstermaker instead. [forum post, forum post]

   

• Eric Fenstermaker drove away other talented writers, including John Gonzalez who left after Eric refused to work with him. [forum post]

   

• The relationship between Avellone and Eric Fenstermaker soured due to how the cuts to Avellone's PoE1 companions (Durance and Grieving Mother) were handled. [interview, forum post, Eric's response, forum post]

   

  A shame really, since Avellone and Fenstermaker are both talented writers.

 

Beyond that, Avellone seems to think highly of Anthony Davis [forum post] and Brian Mitsoda [forum post], doesn't have a problem with Josh Sawyer [forum post], and claims to still be on good terms with many who work or worked at Obsidian and that it's just the upper management that he has a real problem with.

 

Some of these are confirmed by just looking at Glassdoor reviews.(the ones that aren't obviously payed reviews)

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Obsidian-Entertainment-Reviews-E151435.htm

[kirottu]

 

I just don't believe they would refuse to payback their workforce. That would just lead to massive loss of workforce and no one would ever want to work for them after a stunt like that. It might have been a off-hand comment or meant as a joke. But as serious comment, just seems out of this world and would leave them open to getting sued by their employees.

The question is, why would MCA make up a story like this, which can be so easily refuted by anyone in the company? He is either believing that nobody will testify against him and makes a bluff like this, or ...you know... it is the truth. And this is true for everything he said. He made soooo many harsh claims in the last few days, and he knows that he has to prove these if he is getting sued for defamation. Now he is either an idiot, or knows that this is the truth.

 

For me it seems like Avellone's resentment towards the owners has been building up for years. In his resent posts he pulled up stuff from the production Fallout 2 and Kotor 2. Fallout 2 is almost 20 years old. I think during all this time his resentment has started color his interpretations. Until he sees pretty much everything owners do in worst possible way.

 

With the payback thing I'm with Fluoride. Loaning money from your employees and not paying it back isn't just evil, it's unbelievably stupid. I can't believe Urquhart would do something like that.

[Zack Fair]

 

The question is, why would MCA make up a story like this, which can be so easily refuted by anyone in the company? He is either believing that nobody will testify against him and makes a bluff like this, or ...you know... it is the truth. And this is true for everything he said. He made soooo many harsh claims in the last few days, and he knows that he has to prove these if he is getting sued for defamation. Now he is either an idiot, or knows that this is the truth.

A great question.

 

It’s entirely speculation on my part, but the man isn’t shy about relationship with alcohol. Maybe he isn’t as happy and carefree as he would others to think that he is. Who knows.

 

May I ask where do you get that alchohol stuff from?

[Valsuelm]

I can't see how someone could be this bad at business and still keep the company afloat. Especially since it's in an industry where most companies last only couple of games before going down.

It's actually quite common to have someone bad at business be in charge in the modern world. Why this is is a complex thing to answer, as there are many whys.

 

Most CEOS are leeches, as are most upper management in any given medium sized or larger company. They excel at spewing BS, having big egos, wanting to be in charge, offering the appearance of work, yet substance and quality is rarely their forte. There are exceptions of course.

 

If the product offered is something enough people want, those in charge can be monkeys so long as the workers are half decent at providing what it is that people want.

 

 

I would expect Obsidian having much bigger turn over of employees if this is true. Or is the gaming industry just so bad they thought it wouldn't be any better if they left Obsidian?

Maybe they have high turnover, maybe they don't.

 

People stay in jobs for a variety of reasons. Even jobs they don't like. A few common ones:

 

a) They don't realize the grass actually is greener elsewhere (super common one here, and also often why people stay in bad relationships ).

b) Unable to move to a new location to take a job elsewhere for whatever reason.

c) They're not good enough at what they do to find a better job.

d) They may not even realize how bad it is where they work. Upper management of company X generally isn't forthcoming with employees for good or bad reasons.

e) Sometimes old loyalties die hard.

Edited May 6, 2018 by Valsuelm

[Flouride]

 

Not if they really didn't promise that the skipped paychecks would be repayed.

 

Avellone nowhere insunuates that the employees had a legal right to be repayed - he simply recounts that he considered it the morally right thing to do, and was shocked how the other owners reacted.

 

That would still leave them with plenty of ****ed off workers who would leave the company pretty much immediately when given an opportunity. That just makes no sense.

 

[Zack Fair]

 

 

• Accounting and finances were very non-transparent, with Feargus keeping tight control and outsourcing such work to personal friends of his who worked off-site. [forum post, forum post]

 

That isn't all that strange or unethical. You give finances and accounting to the person you trust with the money. And a lot of firms do this out of house. I have a close friend who is an accountant. He has his own little accounting firm and handles a number of big clients, including shipping companies and foreign investors. He doesn't "join" the company for the business. They hire his services. And if I had a larger business so would I, because he is the person I'd trust with such large sums: because he has a proven track record, but yes, also because we have been friends for 20 years.

 

Would you employ that friend even if that friend is charging much more than another business which also has a good reputation on the market, but doing the work for e.g. 70% of the price? Because that would be pretty bad management.

[Flouride]

 

Would you employ that friend even if that friend is charging much more than another business which also has a good reputation on the market, but doing the work for e.g. 70% of the price? Because that would be pretty bad management.

 

 

I assume most people would rather pay someone they know and consider a friend rather than giving the business to someone they don't know at all. Not every decision is made based on cost alone even at well ran companies.

[Skazz]

For me it seems like Avellone's resentment towards the owners has been building up for years. In his resent posts he pulled up stuff from the production Fallout 2 and Kotor 2. Fallout 2 is almost 20 years old. I think during all this time his resentment has started color his interpretations. Until he sees pretty much everything owners do in worst possible way.

 

"My son, I am sorry for the lies I have told you these past few seasons, but Skaen demands secrecy - even your mother knows nothing of my furtive service to The Quiet Slave. Curse my name if you must, but never weep for me, for I die for the betterment of our community, to smite our lord's corruption from the face of Eora! Tomorrow my master chokes on his own whip, for tomorrow, I become the Effigy!"