Re: [HOE] Announcment from Cybergames

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

At 03:13 AM 1/13/01, you wrote:
>Now, the questions are before us:
>Is this a good thing?

Cybergames cancelling all PEG releases just before the holiday shopping
season was a very, very bad thing. And given that the Cybergames production
schedule for PEG was basically the same as PEG not existing at all, I guess
I'd have to say that, out of all possible outcomes, this might be one of
the better ones. Unfortunately, that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be one
of the good ones.

>If it's a bad thing, what can be done to help?

Like Shane said, when that online store goes up, empty the piggy bank.
Sounds like filling those orders is going to be a one-man operation, at
least to start with. Although I hear Matt Forbeck is apparently looking for
something to do...

>On a personal note, did the rants help doom PEG?

Actually, I'd say they probably reassured Shane that what he had to do
really needed to be done. I'm definately getting a "Shane has not slept
well" vibe here. 

This is my guess (and its an extremely uninformed guess, mind you) at what
happened:

Shane sold the company first to AEG and then CG for exactly the same
reason: it takes a freakin' lot of hard work to keep the books straight,
and although Shane was doing a pretty damned good job of it for a while, he
had absolutely ZERO time to do what he loved, which was write. So he went
to AEG and said, "Hey, you keep an eye on the books and the production
stuff, and we'll do what we're good at here and write more material." But
what got them into trouble is Shane and company can never do anything
half-assed... and they wanted to do EVERYTHING they could with Deadlands,
not just RPGs but computer games, movies, miniatures, everything. But all
that other stuff sucks up cash... meanwhile, AEG is now running the show,
making production decisions... and amazingly enough whenever a conflict
comes up between dedicating resources to an AEG or PEG product, which one
gets the green light?

Anyway, Shane goes back to writing, but out of the corner of his eyes he
sees that AEG hasn't exactly got complete control of the ball... things are
backing up, the schedule is screwed, and PEG products listed on the online
ordering site still don't have photos (even though they've been available
for over a year), and the problems with minis are basically running them
into the ground. Shane calls the staff in for the Ground Zero meeting, and
they decide they have to kill the mini line or PEG will go under... and
I've seen how die-hard PEG can be about minis, I imagine it was a little
like chopping your own leg off to get out of a bear trap... especially when
that leg was bringing home Origin awards.

Anyway, PEG ditches AEG and it takes them pretty much a full year to get
back up to schedule, but eventually they catch up and stop losing ground.
The problem is everybody had to work 12-15 hour days to do it, and Shane
had to work double that. The staff is burned out, Shane's double burned
out, and he can see that nobody is having fun anymore, which is why they
started PEG in the first place. If they keep going at that pace, none of
them will ever be able to touch another RPG product again. So Shane looks
at his options, and says, well, okay, the AEG thing didn't work out, but
there are other companies out there. Maybe this time it'll work... he gets
an offer on the table, he sees some names of people he knows who are really
talented, and hey, maybe it will work this time. All he wants is someone to
take care of the drudgery of keeping an eye on the books so he and his
staff can get to do the really *fun* stuff. 

I do understand what Shane meant when he said the Cybergames offer was the
best option to keep Deadlands alive and strong. What happened after that I
don't know, but given the recent news it looks like Shane has done what
he's always done, which is do everything he can to make Deadlands the best
game he can possibly make it.