Midway clings to life after favorable court ruling

That's Majesco, and they're doing fine...

That's a pretty horrible thing to say. You wouldn't mind people losing their jobs? The videogame industry is getting a bit of a pounding due to the current climate and your flippant view frankly disgusts me.

IF people are doing a shitty job why the hell should they keep them?

Don't be a dick

Even if they didn't make the greatest games ever, it's never cool for people to lose their jobs. They've got families and everything you know.

If I had employees that produced as much garbage as Midway I wouldn't hesitate to fire them. If they were on your payroll I doubt you would too.

I don't cry like a little baby everytime someone loses their jobs. Sometimes they actually deserve it, and in Midway's case, they absolutely deserve it. Jobs are earned, not given freely, and if you suck at your job, you don't deserve to keep it.


This is called Capitalism.

If you don't like how it works, perhaps some of you socialists could go cry to Obama about the people at Midway, talk him into giving them a billion dollar governement bailout while they continue to produce crap like GM and Chrysler did.

Yeah, but if you told your employees to produce garbage, then YOU should be fired and not them.

Naturally such a situation would result in the entire company going bankrupt, thus the position Midway is in.

It is after all a team effort. I really doubt that anyone there was ever ordered to make nothing but bad games, so it's a failing of the entire team, not just the leaders. Therefore, they all deserve to find new jobs. Hopefully something not related to gaming.

AkaMagi is right. What kind of mentality is it to say "cry cry people have jobs, it's not fair for them." If you're in a company that's been driven into the ground do to bad leadership or corruption, to freaking bad. Go hunt for another job. Capitalism is built on failure. Why Ford and Crystler still exist is only because of the massive Unions they have and their connections to Washington. Giving them money was nothing more than you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Once you no longer allow failure, you start heading down towards Communism. This stupid mentality of things not being "fair" is the kind of tantrums little kids throw... to bad so many adults and political leaders have forgotten their age and what it means to work hard, traverse through hard times, and succeed.

We just want to SKIP the hard times now... news flash, it's going to get way way worse than this... try reading some of the BS our "leaders" in Washington just passed in their power grab... er "Stimulus." Get ready to wear a grey jumpsuit and make solar panels all day while you rely on the government to feed your family and give you housing... wow this sounds so familiar... too bad most of the people in this nation have no concept of world history.

And so we'll see what you say if YOU'RE bosses make bad decisions and YOU end up being cut because of it no matter how good you are at your work.

The reason I said what I did is that you assume that everyone there has done a terrible job and deserves to be cut because the direction of the company was flawed or their leaders made bad decisions. Or even that they know they work for a bad company so they need to look for jobs anyway. What's wrong with being happy for an entire company's demise is that not everyone deserves it. I'm sure they had some great people working for them who did their best and were amazing at what they did, and they are still getting fired.

It's not about shedding tears but if you were in their shoes, I'm sure you'd at least appreciate enough respect from the gaming community by not being lumped in with the bad ones. It's more about NOT treating them ALL like crap, just the ones who deserve it.

Example: Game needs to go out on time. Testers need more time to test more bugs. Leaders decide to forgo that release without appropriate testing despite the recommendation. Are the bad at their jobs or at fault in that case, or would the leaders who chose to cut a corner be the ones that such? They both work for the same company. See what I mean?

Also, I never said anything about giving Midway any money. I don't think we should for any company. I'm just talking about not being a dick to those who don't deserve it.

I am against your logic as well jumpshot.

"And so we'll see what you say if YOU'RE bosses make bad decisions and YOU end up being cut because of it no matter how good you are at your work."

It's happened, and it's part of life. A few really nice people in QA just got let go at EA Mythic (working on Warhammer Online). They did their job fine to my knowledge, yet they had to make cuts. When you join a company you accept that the people above you in power and decision making are responsible for your well being. If they fail, and it costs you your job, you have to deal with it.

"It's more about NOT treating them ALL like crap, just the ones who deserve it."

That mentality screams of socialism. Life is not fair. Stop being brainwashed by all the "we need to make things fair in America" junk. Yes, the people in charge deserve to get the axe, while the people below who worked hard deserve a different and much nicer fate. But that's not how the world runs... ever. It's a complete fantasy to expect accountability to hit the top and no where else, on the grand scheme of things. In the Military, you will find the leader gets busted and those below are safe, but not so much in the corporate world if your leader stays in power long enough to bankrupt the organization you work for. Great people get the crap end of the stick. Those people just need to move on, and if they continue working hard the end result will be an even better situation than they were ever in, in the bad company.

"Example: Game needs to go out on time. Testers need more time to test more bugs. Leaders decide to forgo that release without appropriate testing despite the recommendation. Are the bad at their jobs or at fault in that case, or would the leaders who chose to cut a corner be the ones that such? They both work for the same company. See what I mean?"

You don't understand how games are developed. Take a look at Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. That game was never finished by Obsidian, yet they were forced by LucasArts to release it. That's why the game has hours of unused voice overs, designs for an extra planet that was never made, and a completely different and far better ending segment on Malachor V. Producers are responsible for keeping milestones in order, checking off the action item list in meetings, and making sure the budget is in line. Sometimes you simply do not have the time to do extra testing due to pressure from investors, or lacking in money to extend development time.

Everyone in a gaming company is a part of a team. If the team fails on account of a few individuals, everyone fails. That's how life works.

Stop trying to rationalize how things need to be fair and accept that failure is a part of life, and "unfair" things happen to good people.

I never said it was unfair that they loose their jobs. That's life. I'm a programmer, and I've had my fair share of unfair layoffs and I'm saying "woe is me" about them. Such is life. What I did say is that you don't need to assume they did a bad job because they were laid off. Big difference.

I'm not American. I'm Canadian and I am a conservative. I don't believe that those who did well and worked hard and were good at their jobs should not be without a job like the rest. I'm talking about kicking them while they are down. These are hard times, and it's tough to keep a job and all the others here are saying is have a heart and some sympathy in your attitude. That has nothing to do with Capitalism vs. Communism, it's just about being a decent human being. I never said that they didn't deserve to be laid off because they were in a company that failed. I said they don't deserve to be branded as people who are terrible at what they do because they were still on a sinking ship. Try and understand that.

And of course, I meant I'm NOT saying "woe is me". Sigh.

jumpshot

I'm not some kid who is all wrapped up in idealism, I'm 40 years old, have worked for bad companies, and suffered through more than 1 layoff myself. One thing I know for certain is that great workers will find new jobs.

And let's make one thing perfectly clear here. I don't think they are bad workers because they got laid off, I think they are bad workers because they've produced nothing but crap since the mid 1990's. Great workers don't produce crap, they produce great works.

Midways problems start at the top, and go all the way to the bottom. Sure there must certainly be some good people there, but with a 10+ year history of producing nothing but garbage, certainly they are in a tiny minority in a company that is otherwise filled with inept and underperforming morons.

The really good workers will get new jobs. Probably not tomorrow, but eventually they'll get hired by a quality company who respects the work that they do. In the end, they'll be better off for it, I know I am.

As for the rest, they'll get what they deserve as well. A job at McDonalds if that's all they are competent enough to handle. But clearly the company as a whole is better off shut down than it would be continuing to lose money and living off credit that the rest of us have to pay for since they can't pay it back.

Jumpshot.

If there are people "branding" the individuals beneath the leaders then that's foolish. The first thing I think of when I see the Midway failure is how inept the leaders of the company have been. Just like in a movie, you don't really think about all the people who made the movie work, like the key grip, set construction etc. You think about the actors sucking or the director dropping the bomb. The actors and director would be metaphors for the executives of Midway. They are the face of the company... so I don't understand why you think all the people under them are being tarnished. There were people who worked in Enron that had nothing to do with that mess, and I doubt their lives are ruined for it.

So, if that's you're point Jumpshot I'll agree with you on this misunderstanding of ideals.

Again for others, it is the leaders job to make the product work. Programmers, artists, engineers etc, for the most part can do their job. But it is the lead game designers, producers, and executives who are most responsible for the product being a success or a failure... not all the people who work under them.

Also like Magi said. The quality people in that company will get a great job elsewhere. Most people, once they've been in the industry for a while have a ton of connections. If they're known as quality workers they will get work.

Stupid comments system... my response is further down. Sorry.

Bankruptcy seems like a very poor plan.

GAH! This was meant in reply to Aka.... sorry.