Wrong. Sociopaths though not quite the same always as psychopaths make great CEOs and sometimes surgery doctors (not distracted by empathy versus just attempting to repair an organism).
it depends on how fuc*ed up the board of directors are.:) if they are also psychopaths then its a done deal. and they will just run the train off the rails. i refer you to the little banking problems we are having. the banks and financial industry are in much worse shape then they were. and they took a huge dump on the whole economy which is not the sort of thing you want to do if thats your bread and butter. unless psychopaths like to eat shit sandwiches. which is essentially what north american and european economies are at this point from a financial point of view.
it depends on how fuc*ed up the board of directors are.:) if they are also psychopaths then its a done deal. and they will just run the train off the rails. i refer you to the little banking problems we are having. the banks and financial industry are in much worse shape then they were. and they took a huge dump on the whole economy which is not the sort of thing you want to do if thats your bread and butter. unless psychopaths like to eat shit sandwiches. which is essentially what north american and european economies are at this point from a financial point of view.
Not all sociopath are created equal. Also as well part of the behavior is taking needless risks especially if it backfires, it effects others more versus self. If all a sociopath cares is for his own power and wealth. Yes, he would take the short term approach as why should he care? He made soooo much off it. With the amount of money he gained in a that transaction, with the worse economies, his power has >increased<.
With that amount of money 4 medium size studios (80-150 people) could still live for a year!
I agree.
But that money needs to go to studios that would actually be able to turn that into more money, otherwise you are just setting a big pile of money on fire.
yes there are lots of shades of gray here (no relation:)). and i agree that a sociopath is a bit more benign then a psychopath. an attribute like risk taking combine with a good sense of reason is vital to a decision maker.
reading some of the comments that come out from these ceo's and executives, the stories about mismanagement, corruption greed etc. it seems like we are dealing with psychopaths and not benign ones, very destructive ones. just the sort you mentioned who will stand on the deck of a ship after he has murdered all the crew and revel that he is the last man standing. not seemingly aware that there is no one to sail the ship.
does that sort ever create real wealth and property that keeps the system going and growing? perhaps, but i don't see it. i see the last 20, 30 years of north america and europe as a failure. the common people are being pushed under and the system is falling apart. the superiority and technological advantage has evaporated. that is the engine that keeps it all going not financial services and wall street profit.
the sort of slash and burn at everyone's expense and play the system has put all of these powerful corporations in a much weaker state then they were before the psychopath style came in.
what you see in asia is the opposite. very conservative careful reasoned business. much like what we had before. and they are growing and prospering at a much faster rate then the west. and in every other way technology etc.
keep in mind Henry Ford the prototype for business and the rise of the industrial revolution and prosperity made sure that every worker in his factory could afford the cars they produced. which means they had enough to have there expenses cover plus enough surplus capital to make the economy successful and to profit from innovation.
i don't think he was a psychopath nor a sociopath, but a very smart an clever man with a vision and compassion for his fellows and the average man.
But that money needs to go to studios that would actually be able to turn that into more money, otherwise you are just setting a big pile of money on fire.
The days of the purely mercenary business are numbered. A lot of modern business schools are beginning to realize this, and are adjusting their curriculums accordingly.
Money is a powerful motivator, there's no doubt about that. But it isn't the only motivator, and it isn't even the most effective motivator.
A full-time professional business leader like Robert Kotick may be motivated by money above all else. Maybe that's his bag. And if that's what drives him, I don't blame hime for that. He makes no pretensions about being a game developer. He's a business man first and foremost, and that's fine.
However, this industry, and the publishers who have come to power in it, are being phased out as the driving force behind game design. They've converted their developers into production mills. And the practical factors that made them a necessary evil in the past are dissappearing.
In the future, there will be a real demand for publishing executives with a greater understanding of the development process. This new breed of publishers aren't going to be purely motivated by money. The future measures of success for this industry will be time, and player retention.
that last bit sounds positive. i sure hope so. i think that digital distribution will change the face of games and film distribution and the two mediums will merge into one pipe of interesting stuff to entertain the masses. more then likely no one company will ever own the internet infrastructure. it is in no nations interest for that to happen. there will be a much broader range of distribution possibilities.
How? Learn Mandarian, accept Authoritarian control, then move to China???
pretty much. that is, if you want to keep going in this industry. It's either move or dig in early as a core member of a local company. Make your self overly valuable.
(shrug) Just look at the signs. It's already starting to happen. Digital distribution is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the industry's revenue. Even Nintendo, who are known for being behind the times in the on-line space, posted record-setting revenue from digital distribution. A lot of the new, smaller developers are abandoning the traditional publishing model en-masse, and are focusing on platforms that give them more direct access to their audience. (Steam, Facebook, mobile, etc...) Even the big hardware platform holders are starting to wise-up, and are making genuine efforts to court this new generation of game developers directly. (instead of using the mega-publishers as a middle-man)
This push for smaller, more nimble development without publisher control is going to be the real basis for the next hardware cycle, as well as the foundation for continued progress for PC, mobile, and web gaming. I am hopeful that it will also revitalize the market for mid-tier game development and pricing. (which would go a long way toward keeping the next console hardware cycle viable)
yup, i agree 100% on that. i buy steam games on Linux not only because its fun but because its a political and cultural statement. put your money where you want the future to be etc.
^ yeah me too.
It's a state of mind I've done my best to follow the last couple of years. I don't want to go back to using disks again or have an entire shelf in my house dedicated to storing the digital products I own on cartridges or anything physical, I'd rather just have a hard drive or a service like steam provide all my games (collectors editions excluded ofc, I still like those ). I think we'll see a netflix type of game service (like Onlive but better) popping up in a few years where you pay to have hd games streamed to your tv/reciever/controller.
And on topic, well, business is business. Sure it's a bit sour that they lay off people to the left and right and then reward their ceo with more money than most of us will probably make in a few lifetimes each year, but this is what unregulated corporatism is all about.
Replies
it depends on how fuc*ed up the board of directors are.:) if they are also psychopaths then its a done deal. and they will just run the train off the rails. i refer you to the little banking problems we are having. the banks and financial industry are in much worse shape then they were. and they took a huge dump on the whole economy which is not the sort of thing you want to do if thats your bread and butter. unless psychopaths like to eat shit sandwiches. which is essentially what north american and european economies are at this point from a financial point of view.
Not all sociopath are created equal. Also as well part of the behavior is taking needless risks especially if it backfires, it effects others more versus self. If all a sociopath cares is for his own power and wealth. Yes, he would take the short term approach as why should he care? He made soooo much off it. With the amount of money he gained in a that transaction, with the worse economies, his power has >increased<.
http://www.cix.co.uk/~klockstone/spath.htm
Edit: Also some times members of boards are CEOs of different companies.
But that money needs to go to studios that would actually be able to turn that into more money, otherwise you are just setting a big pile of money on fire.
yes there are lots of shades of gray here (no relation:)). and i agree that a sociopath is a bit more benign then a psychopath. an attribute like risk taking combine with a good sense of reason is vital to a decision maker.
reading some of the comments that come out from these ceo's and executives, the stories about mismanagement, corruption greed etc. it seems like we are dealing with psychopaths and not benign ones, very destructive ones. just the sort you mentioned who will stand on the deck of a ship after he has murdered all the crew and revel that he is the last man standing. not seemingly aware that there is no one to sail the ship.
does that sort ever create real wealth and property that keeps the system going and growing? perhaps, but i don't see it. i see the last 20, 30 years of north america and europe as a failure. the common people are being pushed under and the system is falling apart. the superiority and technological advantage has evaporated. that is the engine that keeps it all going not financial services and wall street profit.
the sort of slash and burn at everyone's expense and play the system has put all of these powerful corporations in a much weaker state then they were before the psychopath style came in.
what you see in asia is the opposite. very conservative careful reasoned business. much like what we had before. and they are growing and prospering at a much faster rate then the west. and in every other way technology etc.
keep in mind Henry Ford the prototype for business and the rise of the industrial revolution and prosperity made sure that every worker in his factory could afford the cars they produced. which means they had enough to have there expenses cover plus enough surplus capital to make the economy successful and to profit from innovation.
i don't think he was a psychopath nor a sociopath, but a very smart an clever man with a vision and compassion for his fellows and the average man.
The days of the purely mercenary business are numbered. A lot of modern business schools are beginning to realize this, and are adjusting their curriculums accordingly.
Money is a powerful motivator, there's no doubt about that. But it isn't the only motivator, and it isn't even the most effective motivator.
A full-time professional business leader like Robert Kotick may be motivated by money above all else. Maybe that's his bag. And if that's what drives him, I don't blame hime for that. He makes no pretensions about being a game developer. He's a business man first and foremost, and that's fine.
However, this industry, and the publishers who have come to power in it, are being phased out as the driving force behind game design. They've converted their developers into production mills. And the practical factors that made them a necessary evil in the past are dissappearing.
In the future, there will be a real demand for publishing executives with a greater understanding of the development process. This new breed of publishers aren't going to be purely motivated by money. The future measures of success for this industry will be time, and player retention.
that last bit sounds positive. i sure hope so. i think that digital distribution will change the face of games and film distribution and the two mediums will merge into one pipe of interesting stuff to entertain the masses. more then likely no one company will ever own the internet infrastructure. it is in no nations interest for that to happen. there will be a much broader range of distribution possibilities.
pretty much. that is, if you want to keep going in this industry. It's either move or dig in early as a core member of a local company. Make your self overly valuable.
(shrug) Just look at the signs. It's already starting to happen. Digital distribution is becoming a bigger and bigger part of the industry's revenue. Even Nintendo, who are known for being behind the times in the on-line space, posted record-setting revenue from digital distribution. A lot of the new, smaller developers are abandoning the traditional publishing model en-masse, and are focusing on platforms that give them more direct access to their audience. (Steam, Facebook, mobile, etc...) Even the big hardware platform holders are starting to wise-up, and are making genuine efforts to court this new generation of game developers directly. (instead of using the mega-publishers as a middle-man)
This push for smaller, more nimble development without publisher control is going to be the real basis for the next hardware cycle, as well as the foundation for continued progress for PC, mobile, and web gaming. I am hopeful that it will also revitalize the market for mid-tier game development and pricing. (which would go a long way toward keeping the next console hardware cycle viable)
It's a state of mind I've done my best to follow the last couple of years. I don't want to go back to using disks again or have an entire shelf in my house dedicated to storing the digital products I own on cartridges or anything physical, I'd rather just have a hard drive or a service like steam provide all my games (collectors editions excluded ofc, I still like those
And on topic, well, business is business. Sure it's a bit sour that they lay off people to the left and right and then reward their ceo with more money than most of us will probably make in a few lifetimes each year, but this is what unregulated corporatism is all about.