CGL Speculation #7 Options

[psychophipps]

Going through the threads I see a series of errors that would be best laid out for all to see in plain english so that others perhaps interested in getting into the gaming industry hopefully will learn from them and not repeat them.

Business mistake #1: Small-business partnerships (shareholders with any say, whatever). Big no-no because as shown here you almost always end up with someone wanting to keep the business on line for a reasonable and steady advance and someone else deciding that since they invested in this damn thing, it's about time it paid them back with a damn Porsche. Happens all the damn time, nearly every damn time, and don't let the next damn time be yourself.

Business mistake #2: Not paying your taxes (royalties, whatever). This is the #2 reason for businesses to go down the tubes. Every single sale has taxes or other financial obligations of some sort attached to it and you need (Need! NEED!) to keep track of them and maintain financial reserves to pay for them when they are due. Period. FULL STOP. The last thing you need is Mr. Gov'ment and/or Financial Lawyer shoving his 12" triple-dong up your fiscal rectum sans lube and slamming you between himself and a bed of salt-encrusted butcher knives (a realio-dealio, actually-stated quote I got from someone who didn't follow this rule as a descriptor for his "situation" before he closed up shop, got a divorce, etc. as his life proceeded to fall apart).

Business mistake #3: Not keeping up your books (or just not keeping any books). This is the third most common reason for a business to go down because it directly (as in, do not pass "Go" and do not collect $200) leads to the perception of #1 and #2 even if it doesn't actually exist. You need to keep a daily (yes, daily) account of what is going on in addition to a daily update to a longer-term books system. You need to count your tills every day. You need to write down what you sold, bought, etc by a reasonable category list every day. And you better damn do it every damn day or you will get a clusterf&%k going of truly epic size like the one being discussed here where the lack of information will make you: A) probably criminally negligent, B) seen as directly screwing this section up so you can steal from the company and try to hide it, and C) making it all but impossible to use your own records to help your defense when the follow-up tort(s) is tossed at your head wrapped around a brick. Oh, they might not be able to prove a criminal case and put you in prison, but the endless legal fees and basic long-term BS of a civil suit will almost certainly make you wish you were Bubba's "cuddle buddy" instead.

Take this entire discussion as a lesson of not to do things, and you'll be in pretty good stead as you give it a whirl yourself.

[tweak]

Has Coleman reached out to the fans yet? I haven't seen any public releases by him, nor have I seen anything posted by him. But these threads move so fast that I might have missed something.

[tweak]

I'd rather Posthuman focused on their flagship product, Eclipse Phase, and put all their effort into making that as awesome a game as they can (and it indeed already is very awesome.) Shadowrun is in a bad place right now and I'd hate to see them taking time away from original IPs to clean up the mess that's being made of it.

This makes a lot of sense. Sometimes it's better to just focus on one thing and do it very well.

[Cain]

Look, guys,it's pretty clear that getting the license is more than handing over a bunch of cash and saying "See you in five years!" Topps is supposed to collect ongoing royalties, at the very minimum. A competing company who doesn't have the cash reserves could say: "Hey, we don't have as much up front, but we're willing to offer you a higher percentage in royalties. And since we don't have Catalyst's bad reputation, legal problems, and boycott threats, you'll make more that way." That could work as well.

[Athenor]

If I were putting forward a bid, I'd prolly be as quiet as possible about it too. Just sayin'.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Jyster]

My 2 cents

I think Catalyst will keep the license, unless some other company is going after it, even though I dont want Catalyst to retain it.

[Method]

This makes a lot of sense. Sometimes it's better to just focus on one thing and do it very well.

Nope. He has been largely silent so far as I know.

[Dread Moores]

Does a generic Licensor specifically care about the freelancers? No, probably not, but they care about their property not becoming encumbered with loopholes and just-plain-holes. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Yeah, and I guess this is why I shouldn't go for brief. That's probably a better summary of my point. The care is directed at the property and potential revenue, not so much the people.

[Dread Moores]

I absolutely would love to get some comment from more BT freelancers, even though that really isn't going to happen. Because between the recent fire sale of PDFs that seems to be happening over on Battlecorps and the little "scheduling slip" that advanced a TRO (typically one of the best selling types of BT books) forward quite a bit in the production schedule (so much so that books which detail those years will come much later, if ever), it really paints an ugly picture.

[knasser]

I absolutely would love to get some comment from more BT freelancers, even though that really isn't going to happen. Because between the recent fire sale of PDFs that seems to be happening over on Battlecorps and the little "scheduling slip" that advanced a TRO (typically one of the best selling types of BT books) forward quite a bit in the production schedule (so much so that books which detail those years will come much later, if ever), it really paints an ugly picture.

I don't really know anything about BattleTech. What's a TRO? Sorry if that's a silly question.

K.

[Delta]

Technical Readout, the kind of source books which basically consist of nothing but lots and lots of new mechs, vehicles and so on (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[RunnerPaul]

In short, a toy catalog. The Battletech kids just play with bigger toys, is all.

[BlueMax]

I absolutely would love to get some comment from more BT freelancers, even though that really isn't going to happen. Because between the recent fire sale of PDFs that seems to be happening over on Battlecorps and the little "scheduling slip" that advanced a TRO (typically one of the best selling types of BT books) forward quite a bit in the production schedule (so much so that books which detail those years will come much later, if ever), it really paints an ugly picture.

You can't forget to mention the 25th Anniversary Box Set. Much like our 20th Anniversary Edition, it looks like it will be a year late. At least there was no way to preorder the 25th. Though bough my boys saved money for it over a year, which is impressive for ages 4 and 6. They just want more plastic minis.
I see the XTRO PDFs (X for Experimental) as being like 10 Jackpoints. That statement may play into your angle further.

BlueMax

[Jaid]

Has Coleman reached out to the fans yet? I haven't seen any public releases by him, nor have I seen anything posted by him. But these threads move so fast that I might have missed something.

at this point, if i were in Loren L Coleman's shoes, i would probably want to find myself a nice big rock, crawl underneath it, and firmly attach the edges of said rock to the ground (ideally bedrock) rather than face the fans.

i mean, really, what's he gonna say? "Sorry I took several hundred thousand dollars of money, drove away several major contributors to the Shadowrun setting, and made a lot of people's lives suck. But it was totally accidental! kthxbai."

yeah. that'll go over well.

now granted, this isn't to say that it wouldn't be right* for him to do so. but i really just can't say that i see him as having the moral integrity to actually show up and do that.

* (by which i mean, right as in the right, or just, thing to do... not necessarily the thing to do which will result in the best outcome from his perspective)

[Tycho]

nice to know, that someone takes the situation serious... or not! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohplease.gif)

[Pepsi Jedi]

At this point his lawyer probably has told him not to do anything, say anything or even use the bathroom with out first getting permission from the lawyer. You're not going to see anything from him vocalized because anything he says at this point can be later used to confirm guilt or be construed as trying to dodge guilt.

I don't like the guy, but not saying anything is about the smartest thing he can do right at this second.

[hermit]

Besides, what does he have to apologise to the fans for?

The morally right thing to do would be to apologise to the antagonised authors and the staff of CGL who quit, and all the people CGL owed money. Adam, Bull, and all the others who have struggled to maintain this whole matter on a reasonable level. And of course, the entire BT crew who have suffered just asmuch as the SR crew. And to Jason Hardy, who has been taking the shit in his place.

But the fans? Why? Did he not pay you or steal your books or whatever?

[Adam]

I'm going to do something that I really didn't anticipate doing, and that's stand up for Randall Bills: Randall works like a machine for Catalyst, and if anyone deserves some time off, it's him. It may not be the best time for a vacation, but he's earned it many times over.

[Athenor]

I'm going to do something that I really didn't anticipate doing, and that's stand up for Randall Bills: Randall works like a machine for Catalyst, and if anyone deserves some time off, it's him. It may not be the best time for a vacation, but he's earned it many times over.

This was always the impression I got of randall, and why this news has troubled me so much. He always seemed to have the game and fans best interest at heart, such as with the whole Mechwarrior thing and the Reseen. How he has been portrayed in the last few weeks doesn't mesh, and I don't know which is true. I hope it is a case of trying to do what he thinks is best for the company, and for his friends... perhaps blindly.

[Jyster]

I didnt appreciate Frank mocking Randall Bills for his beliefs, that was uncalled for, forgiveness is something that is very difficult for us humans to do. Coleman was a friend and maybe Coleman was sorry for what he did and is trying to make things right. Plus, what if Coleman is the only FACE guy at Catalyst, the one that deals with all the people and deals. If everyone else are the creative side, getting rid of the only one who knows what he doing isnt the smartest thing to do at chrunch time. Maybe they will get rid of Coleman after the contract is renewed.

Even though I hope they dont keep it. I just cant condone a company that doesnt pay its people (especially the people that create the story for and products for Shadowrun.)

[deadline]

they were right, the SR4 le edition street date of may 3 was wrong...

I got mine april 29 and its available in Montreal.

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/5962/20...29202828421.jpg

[MJBurrage]

Other have mentioned this before, but it generally seems to go unnoticed. Once the apparently main cause of CGL's cash flow issues became known, Randall Bills had his hands tied (at least in the short term).

Even if Randall Bills thinks that Loren L. Coleman is the worst person ever, and even if he wants him gone from the company last year—Coleman is the majority owner, he cannot just be fired, or removed from his position of ownership. Any action that Coleman does not agree to starts an ownership fight guaranteed to end the company.

The only play Bills really had is the one he has taken. Keep moving forward to get the Shadowrun & Battletech license renewed. That means finding the money to pay Topps first. Making other payments right now that return investment very quickly (like paying for withheld copyrights on books that can be immediately sold) happen, while other payments continue to be lagging.

If CGL keeps the licenses, and they get proper financial oversight, they will continue to produce both games, and most of their customers will never know any of this happened. If CGL loses the licenses, the licenses could end up in better hands or worse hands (we just don't know), but CGL is done, and no-one gets paid unless they get the money from Coleman in court.

[augmentin]

Other have mentioned this before, but it generally seems to go unnoticed. Once the apparently main cause of CGL's cash flow issues became known, Randall Bills had his hands tied (at least in the short term).

Even if Randall Bills thinks that Loren L. Coleman is the worst person ever, and even if he wants him gone from the company last year—Coleman is the majority owner, he cannot just be fired, or removed from his position of ownership. Any action that Coleman does not agree to starts an ownership fight guaranteed to end the company.

The only play Bills really had is the one he has taken. Keep moving forward to get the Shadowrun & Battletech license renewed. That means finding the money to pay Topps first. Making other payments right now that return investment very quickly (like paying for withheld copyrights on books that can be immediately sold) happen, while other payments continue to be lagging.

If CGL keeps the licenses, and they get proper financial oversight, they will continue to produce both games, and most of their customers will never know any of this happened. If CGL loses the licenses, the licenses could end up in better hands or worse hands (we just don't know), but CGL is done, and no-one gets paid unless they get the money from Coleman in court.

I can roll with that. I can roll with RNB on vacation. Heck Obama took a vacation to Hawaii not very long before the election and that worked out pretty well for him.

Here's what I can't roll with: 1) RNB claiming religion as the reason for his actions. 2) RNB leaving JMH to bear all of the criticism (and by that I mean bile, hate & venom) that's been directed at CGL/IMR.

1) Claiming religion as a reason for your actions is inherently unethical. Religion is deeply personal. The Holy Texts are interpreted by each of the faithful in a different way. For one person to claim that their actions, that lead others to harm (i.e. single mothers not being paid and/or being paid late for work provided) is to claim that their interpretation of the religion is superior to others' interpretation. I have more to say on the subject, but I'm flirting with the ToS as it is. (Dear moderators: I was very generic.) In short, I don't believe it is okay to claim religion as a cause for supporting a course of action, nor do I believe it is okay for any one else to criticize that religion or that individual's interpretation of his/her religion.

2) You can delegate responsibility, but you can never delegate authority. Yes, powerful people have PR departments, press secretaries and the like. When bad things happen, the buck has to stop at the top. I view it as cowardice to send someone else to get beat up for you. JMH should use the last month and a half for his thesis for his Master of Arts in Public Relations with a concentration in Web-based technology. But, he shouldn't have to. When I screw up, I take the blame. When my employees screw up, I take the blame. When my vendors screw up, I take the blame. Ultimately it's about responsibility. I haven't seen that from the management team. Not yet anyway. And as smarter people than I have pointed out, not beyond emergency measures.

Anyone can do the right thing when they have no other choice. (Withheld copyright, licensor audit, creditors pursuing involuntary chapter 7.) Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is looking. Here's the kicker: they may be doing just that. We don't know. Most of the news has been negative, but JMH has a good point: we really don't know what's going on internally to the management team. He (JMH) might not know. But, if CGL/IMR is interested in winning back the disgruntled portion of the fan base, an open approach would go along way. As AJ pointed out: It's easier.

[Dixie Flatline]

I didnt appreciate Frank mocking Randall Bills for his beliefs, that was uncalled for, forgiveness is something that is very difficult for us humans to do. Coleman was a friend and maybe Coleman was sorry for what he did and is trying to make things right. Plus, what if Coleman is the only FACE guy at Catalyst, the one that deals with all the people and deals. If everyone else are the creative side, getting rid of the only one who knows what he doing isnt the smartest thing to do at chrunch time. Maybe they will get rid of Coleman after the contract is renewed.

Dude. Coleman is an owner. You can't just fire him. He never would have been able to leech money so long and so casually from the company if he was just an employee. You can separate him from the running of the company, which would have been logical, but Bills claimed that his faith instructed him not just to forgive, but to ignore good business practice.

But I pose a question to Randall Bills: Which is the lesser sin, casting judgment on a thief, or taking livelihood from people who trusted *you*? No answer is necessary, he's already answered publicly. We already know that he values friendship over his honor.

I have no animosity towards Frank for mocking Bills' religion. I wouldn't personally go to the extent that he has, but let's be honest, Bills trotted out faith to justify his actions, and thusly, can be judged by his thought process. Otherwise, if saying "bullsh*t" to a man who hides behind his faith is automatically out of the question, it becomes the ultimate cop-out.

And your argument about getting rid of the only "people person" is silly. How much business do you think an avowed thief can conduct? A lot of business is conducted on reputation.

"Hi, I stole 3/4 of a million dollars and refuse to pay my employees, but really I'm a great guy! Let's do some business! Trust me!"

If Coleman was honest about his desire to make good, he could put his house up on the market, liquidate his assets, and pour all that money back into Catalyst. He might even get some of the money back that would have been due to him.

But we won't see that. If Coleman can maintain a way to smooth things out and still profit, he will (Catalyst has said this is basically the "intent" of the company's future). If he can bail out and still profit, it's a small stretch to guess he will do that. At this point, I'd rather be cynical and expect the worst from everyone involved, because if I'm wrong, I can only be happily surprised.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Ok, I missed it, where/when did Randall Bills claim faith and all that stuff? Could someone point me to that?