CCP Layoffs: Do players share responsibility?
Fellow blogger Jester wrote an article earlier today about the CCP layoffs. However, he indicated some EVE players might be included in the responsibility for 114 people losing jobs:
One last thing: in a very real sense, EVE's players have to accept a measure of responsibility for this as well. Back in June, when unsubs were at their peak, I wrote:
In context, we know that over the weekend, some 4500 EVE subscriptions have been cancelled and the number is still climbing. That's $67,500 U.S. per month, or enough money to imperil the jobs of 15 or more CCP developers. There's no question that CCP has to respond to "what their players are doing."
Now, this does not not not mean that I'm laying today's actions at the feet of EVE unsubscribers. As I said, today's announcement was caused by CCP management biting off more than they could chew. Simple as that. Still... the choices you make in EVE always have a consequence. I think I heard that somewhere.
I took some exception to this, and wrote back the following:
You should have just left the comments about players out of this; otherwise a well-written and informative article.
Players having any 'responsibility' on the employment of the developer is about as accurate as saying drivers who switch from Ford to Dodge are responsible for lost jobs at Ford.
Jester then published a follow up article, quoting me and another commenter:
I tried twice in the comments to make it clear that I didn't mean everyone that unsubbed or was vocal about CCP's mistakes this year. Just the small majority that was turning CCP's actions into a personal affront against them. I guess I wasn't being clear. Stabs did a great job of responding to Khalia, making it clear what I meant:
In this case though the customers stood outside the Ford showrooms telling people Ford were evil and they shouldn't buy.
It only applies to a small (but vocal) minority but the people who unsubbed and screamed all over the internet about how terrible Eve was and how everyone should unsub as a point of principle DID contribute to this crisis.
Yup, better than I put it myself. Those were the people I meant. Thanks, Stabs!
Now, to be clear, I think Jester is a great writer and don't have anything against him, I just disagree with this point of view. Here is my response, in case he chooses not to publish my follow-up comment (his blog comments are moderated - MLYT doesn't moderate comments),
Honestly, I don't think the "CCP are evil" folks are don't anything wrong either. It is a customer's right to complain about a company, and a freedom of speech right (in countries sane enough to have that right) for them to do so.
Put it another way: If you stand outside Walmart with a sign and protest the company, are you responsible when Walmart closes a store or lays people off?
Stabs said: " ... people who unsubbed and screamed all over the internet about how terrible Eve was and how everyone should unsub as a point of principle ... "
Exactly. As a point of principle. What better way to send a message to CCP then to encourage other people not to play? Players wanted EVE better. CCP hired people that didn't achieve this goal. They got dropped. CCP's fault, no one else's.
What do you think, readers?
18 comments
It is ALL the management's fault. Alas, CCP being CCP, has forced anyone complaining about anything to use bigger and bigger hammers to get the message through. The only way to get Hilmar to listen was to get as many people to unsub as possible since he was only going to look at our actions not our words. Had he listened to our words -18 months ago- and worked on FIS instead of NEX and incarna, subs might be increasing right now. I lay this at Hilmar's feet.
Other than duplicate comments and spam, I've only failed to publish one comment that was left on my blog. It was a two word comment, addressed to me, that I don't think the commenter really expected to be published. ;-)
I just get a fair bit of spam, which is the reason for the moderation.
I'd be very interested to hear what people think on this topic!
I agree with you.
What's more, I think that the actual effects of that "small (but vocal) minority" were likely tiny compared with simply the general negative reaction of the playerbase to the Incarna changes.
Loud echo chamber dwelling fans (or in this case anti-fans) usually wildly overestimate both their numbers and their significance.
Belloche, I'd be interested to hear what FiS change you think could have been made that would have increased the subscriber base? EVE subs were stagnant for at least 12 months before work started on Incarna in earnest. During those 12 months, there were nothing but FiS features added.
Going to have to go with Khalia on this one. If you want to point fingers and lay blame, then you need to follow the action -> reaction chain all the way back to its source.
Sure, people unsubbing their accounts hurt CCP financially and may have contributed to these layoffs, but the cause of these actions (and every player has the right to stop paying to play) was that CCP wasn't developing EVE, instead focusing on Dust and WOD. CCP pretty much admitted this in their devblog.
Players tried "words" and that hadn't worked, so they took it a step further to show that it wasn't all talk and that loyal subscribers have a finite amount of loyalty.
If CCP had continued to develop EVE over the past 18~24 months with all the resources they've been throwing at other projects, who knows where we would be today. Maybe these same people who have been laid off would be working for CCP and the EVE subscriber base would be large enough to support them.
No fault or blame at all can be attached to the players.
The problem with arguing over blame is that blame is a flawed concept, so there's no correct way of assigning it. You'd be as justified blaming Tom Hanks if you could come up with an argument for it.
I'm unsubbed with all of my accounts. I have no problem taking responsibility for people at CCP losing their jobs. Fuck them, and fuck CCP for continuing to churn out shit.
Seriously CCP, your game sucks.
made me smile
@Jester
There is no one FIS feature change(s) I could say that would have increased the subscriber base. I know what doing very little does. Look at all the low hanging fruit they are going after for in the winter expansion. Had they done any part of it before now, I am somewhat confident that the screaming would not be at the fever pitch it is currently. My sub ends in 1 day 19 hours and I am finding it extremely hard to spend the 405M isk for a plex or 800M for a GTC.
[...] Back in the summer, during monocle gate as it has become known, there were alot of players that were doing various protests against what CCP was doing. After the leaked internal e-mail from Hilmar, people un-subbed en-mass, furthering their protests. The subscriber count fell by a sharp 4500 with an estimated $67,000 USD per year. (My Loot Your Tears for reference) [...]
/quote
Do players share responsibility?
/endQuote
No. I never encouraged CCP to follow the "Greed is Good" mentality...
A Player.
Of course we share the responsibility. That's not the same as doing something wrong. In the Walmart example, the protester would also share responsibility. Otherwise, what's the point? The comments and complaints don't exist in a vacuum. And it doesn't mean that those of us who complained should feel bad about it, either.
We should all wake up and soberly realize that what we say has impact, especially those of us that have the privilege (read: right, duty, responsibility) to be barometers of the player base. Look at your download numbers and all the metrics. We serve thousands of people with our content. That content has influence.
Now, there's a difference between "fault" and "responsibility". If none of us had said anything and CCP had gone forward with their questionable strategies, it's very possible that the whole company would have tanked, and everyone could have lost their jobs. Do we therefore share responsibility for the survival of the company?
If the answer is yes, then we must also accept responsibility (in appropriate measure) for other consequences.
Great comment!
The damage is done, the point is moot... or is it?
If it's widely recognized that "with great power comes great responsibility" then can we allow for the equation to be scaled down to show that "with no power lies no responsibility"? How much power does my $14.99 a month afford me? Or looking at the bigger picture and trying to come up with an actual numeric equation -what would that look like? For me, I share no resposibility for anyones lost job- I remained sub'd throughout and enjoyed every quirky, buggy minute of my playtime because there's no other game on the face of the Earth that offers what EvE Online offers, flawed as it may be. Simple. Cut and dried.
But what of those who threw themselves on their swords for the game?
Could it be better? Sure... Will it be better? I can say with confidence that Yes it will! Given time, and patience, and nurturing, and above all else... FOCUS. Direction, is what was missing, it is the common thread that runs through all of the issues that, thanks in large part to a vocal minority who bravely voted with their $14.99 a month and made waves of Tsunami-esque proportion, forced eyes to focus on the lack of 'In House FOCUS'.
Sad, truly sad, is the day that anyone loses a job for doing exactly what they were directed to do by their employer, but that is exactly what happened and I believe that the people holding the mirror up to CCP's mistakes for their executives to take a long hard look at, deserve a measure of praise. Praise for their sacrificing of time and energy in blogging and pod casting, and praise for removing a jagged chunk of their heart by unsubbing. Because anyone who loves EvE the way they obviously do, or did (but really still do even if they are too stubborn to say so) can't have had an easy time letting go of something so deeply ingrained in their lives.
No, the responsibility for failing to deliver falls completely on the entity that is CCP, how they decide to handle their own failure is their choice and by feeling empathy for the people who lost their jobs let's please limit our own focus, else we become enablers for future failures to occur. Oh, and before I wrap another saying just came to mind: "The customer is always right!"
The bitter vets were right about everything (and I was right sooner and louder than most.) The fanbois are twisting themselves in knots trying to find something to mewl about. CCP has nobody to blame but themselves. You fuck with the bull, you get the horns. You treat your customers with contempt, you end up with fewer customers.
I wanted CCP to thrive as long as they treated me and their other customers with a modicum of respect by continuing to devote sufficient resources to the game we pay for that funds all of their operations. They stopped doing that. So I stopped wanting them to thrive. I'm neither happy nor sad that a few schlubs lost their jobs. Most worked on a game I had no intention of ever playing and the rest (fwiu) were 'community managers' who seemed to spend the bulk of their working hours banning me and people like me from forums without cause. Good riddance.
If Amazon started selling literal boxes of shit instead of useful items, then it's their fault for putting those shotboxes for sale on their website.. Why is it the customers fault for not wanting to buy a box full of shit? They should fire those who made the decision to sell them in the first place.
I don't agree (obviously) that its the gamers fault for the layoffs, but I do believe they may have fired the wrong people. It's rarely the devs who make the decision to move forward on a new product and likely the managers/bosses of those devs. This is treating the problem, not the cause.
Unsubs were a symptom, not a causative.
It was CCP executives decisions to pursue business interests and development decisions in areas players repeatedly stated they did not want, and CCP executives choice to lay off the staff.
No player would have unsubscribed if CCP hadn't made the decisions they did, and actually listened to the CSM instead of constantly writing balls about their meetings - therefore, ultimate responsibility lays at CCP's feet if in fact, 4500 lost subscriptions were the cause for these layoffs.
Frankly, I suspect that griefing has led to more ancillary subscription cancellations than people protesting Eve via the forums and in blogs. Didn't that infamous presentation supporting microtransactions say that only about 5% of game players read/post on forums?
Anyway, I completely agree that the users that cancelled their accounts share absolutely ZERO culpability for the layoffs. When management decides to ignore the user base they do so at their peril.