bvhv Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/24/ark-survival-evolved-lawsuit/ Read the article and tell me if you guys think that Trendy Entertainment is doing the right thing? If any developers come by here I would like to know how you would feel if you were in the position of Trendy I believe what Trendy is doing is wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdr.Keen Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Trendy is doing it right. Stieglitz used his wife to front for his ideas because he knows that he's not allowed to do. Trendy was way more successfull than Wildcard is, so i'm 100% sure that he "steals" some of the ideas he also used for current Trendy projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvhv Posted March 28, 2016 Author Share Posted March 28, 2016 Well I checked out the game trendy made dungeon defenders and I have to say I don't believe ark stole any audience from that xD they are two completely different game genres but do you think it's right that trendy may stop development of Ark because of this? I like your opinion it's much more refreshing than those in the comments of that article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makkenhoff Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Speaking as a person who has been subject to an agreement similar to the one that the former employer (Trendy) claims he signed; I can honestly say agreements like that are not optional for employment in some cases. They are required, and in my mind having been "victimized" by a company who does not care about my well being after I leave their employment (on good or bad terms, legally speaking it matters not.) it speaks volumes of what kind of company it is. Poaching talent is nothing new, the employer I signed an agreement with was well known for its poaching practices, and would use agreements like this specifically to prevent good employees from going anywhere else. They have you over a barrel and know you can't do anything about it. I completely disagree with the practice of legally excluding people from finding work in a related field - I feel extremely strong in this position because of my personal experience with it. Mind you, I specifically did not challenge my agreement, nor did I seek employment which could have been considered "competitive", so by no means is it directly related to a negative experience with the legal system, it did however restrict my ability to find a job and quite a bit because of legal concern that I could be subject to a lawsuit for holding even a slightly similar job. All this said, from a business standpoint, technically your investing in your employees. The trouble I think from that same standpoint is that the average lifespan of an employee working for you is not long enough to justify the legal work UNLESS said employee suddenly makes a bunch of money. I think it is a legal trick in this case on both sides trying to justify taking profits while not violating agreements made. I think it will be a hard case to prove if it ever goes to court, more than likely it won't get to it. I'm no lawyer but it seems to me that liability should be on the consultant, not the one who hires said consultant. I think it is a stretch to say that Trendy should be entitled to any profits earned by ARK itself, even if the violation of his contract is upheld. That said, using the claim that "well its his wife so obviously he's doing all the work" is a poor claim at best. Would you make the same claim if it was not his wife but someone he worked with 10 years prior at a different studio? Just some food for thought. I just hope it doesn't cause Ark financial problems, because I personally would be very angry with Trendy if it caused the collapse of an otherwise healthy studio. Think if it happened with Project Zomboid and someone on the team here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdr.Keen Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 As i read in kotaku.com/investigation-a-video-game-studio-from-hell , Stieglitz quit with Trendy because of the claims of his employees. So at some point it looks like it was his own fault why he lost his agreement. I compare the situation to sports, where players get banned for "illegal actions". Stieglitz got an agreement for a time and broke it before it was finished. Maybe he got an offer from ARK but can't agree by hisself. So he used his wife as excuse to get involved into the project. I'm not sure if they can get caught for such actions, but for me it got a bad taste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
makkenhoff Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Interesting Cdr.Keen - Abusive workplace; I don't have to wonder why after being publicized that the owners of the company took action. I would be very curious to hear from the first few hires at Trendy how employees were treated before it got to impossible deadlines and stress filled crunches. If it was always abusive or if it wasn't until it got stressful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keepbro Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 I'll be honest - my initial impressions were the usual "dev being contractually prevented from being creative makes out that suing company are bad guys" but having read the articles and looked at the info gathered by journalists what I've come to believe is that that Stieglitz guy is a manipulative shit. He instituted a reign of coding horror and horrific working conditions in one company and when caught out and sidelined he wanted out. Management figured that he would cheat them so they insisted on some anti-competitive stipulations which he unsurprisingly broke by using his wife as a proxy for another company, poaching talent and most probably other stuff that we know nothing about. He's attempted to manipulate public opinion and make it look like his former employers are the bad guys by screaming out that they are stifling his creativity and other such but actually I think that he's simply been too clever by half and simply been caught. This is a clear example of someone who is a bad apple using peoples innate hostility to lawyers to his own advantage but in this instance I think the lawyers are right. In short I think that this ass clown deserves what he gets. As for Ark I'm sure that they'll be fine without him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cdr.Keen Posted April 16, 2016 Share Posted April 16, 2016 Wildcard will pay 40 million to Trendy and they will cancel the lawsuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomwa Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 IMHO: If your employees are being "Poached" then they clearly didn't want to be there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitt Frostpaws Posted April 25, 2016 Share Posted April 25, 2016 11 hours ago, Tomwa said: IMHO: If your employees are being "Poached" then they clearly didn't want to be there. That or they were made a better offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.