Thursday, October 20, 2011

The 20%, the 79%, and the 1%


By now everyone will have heard the news that CCP is slashing their staff by about 20%.

First of all, I want to express my condolences to the 20%, many of whom are going through the roughest time in their professional careers. Some of them I knew personally, and they will be missed.

Second, I want to express my sympathies towards the 79%, the remaining staff who, in the coming months, either implicitly or explicitly, are going to be pressured to work longer and harder to help CCP recover from the consequences of disastrous strategic decisions that they had little or no voice in.

And finally, I have a few questions for the 1%, the top staff at CCP who made those decisions.

* Have you really accepted that this is your fault, or do you still cling to the illusion that this is the fault of "pesky" players who just don't understand your awesome vision, and who should feel honored to be permitted to pay you to implement it?

* Are you really sincere about this change of direction by CCP, or do you consider the refocusing on EVE just a temporary bump in the road?

* Have any of you accepted responsibility, either by resigning, accepting demotion, or taking a pay cut?

I wonder what the chances are that any of the above questions can be answered by a "yes"?

20%...? 79%...? or 1%...?

16 comments:

  1. The answer to those questions are obvious to some of the player base, the rest of the player base still have tinted glasses on. After all without eve what do you have left?

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  2. Thank you for stating this so succinctly. These are the questions everyone should be asking.

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  3. Fail in understanding how business works.

    The company is run by the CEO. If he thinks a "suit" needs to be fired or get a pay cut then he will make that decision. It's not yours to make, and no amount of entitlement or arrogance will ever change that.

    The only power you have is your subscription. If you don't like how they are doing things then STOP GIVING THEM MONEY. Your subscription is your vote, and by giving them your subscription you're giving them your vote.

    Oh, and the 1% meme died last week, just so you know.

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  4. @Peter Murphy - lol! Trololololol!

    @Trebor - Shine on, you crazy diamond!

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  5. ^ You are aware that retarded approaches like "if you don't like it, stop paying" are exactly what got CCP into this mess, right? If long-term customers are unhappy with the work you've been turning out, you don't give them an ultimatum or dare them to stop giving you money, you sit down and try to address their concerns.

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  6. Spot on (as usual) but I suspect the percentage will be zero, unfortunately.

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  7. @Peter Murphy

    The fact that the only power we have is to stop giving them money is why we're in this jacked situation in the first place.

    The answer to all of Trebor's questions is an easy "no."

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  8. So they did, as stated in this annoucment. In last few month subscriptions count dropped, so thats whay they've made changes.

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  9. Well written.
    My response would be 3 NO's to your questions.

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  10. Ringing in my ears, Treb. Intelligent post and to the point, unlike mine. :-P

    I agree and thanks for saying it

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  11. This belt-tightening measure could just as easily had to have been done anyway to deal with WOD and DUST cost overruns. What percentage of their subscriber base have they actually lost to justify cutting 20% of their workforce?

    Still watching what they do and not what they say. Stuff for the winter expansion is probably too locked in to be that affected by CCP's recent "refocus". It's what happens next year around DUST-time that we see for ourselves how much we've heard so far about their turn-around is blather and how much is important spaceship business.

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  12. @ Peter Murphy
    I do so love when people accuse others of a failure to understand when it is themselves who have no comprehensive grasp of the complexities of a given subject...trololol

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  13. @ Peter Murphy - What Saren said. A corporate CEO rarely does that. In this case though, the CEO is also a majority share holder, from my understanding of things. So, he can do almost anything he wants with the company up to relieving himself on the servers, lighting the building on fire, then playing the fiddle while cackling.

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  14. This is just business.
    Every Company is technically for sale and every founder must decide when to realise their initial investment plus profit.
    This doesn't change the fact that CCP screwed up their relationship with their customers and their latest round of finance is now in jeopardy, forcing them to lay people off. They are cheaper to buy than they were in 2010. It's unfair to expect them to behave differently to any other business, it's not unfair to want them to deliver a product and experience that customers will pay for and then to hope they invest this profit in their product and in keeping the best talent in the business.

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