The Flagship Story: Interview with Bill Roper from 1UP

[Talon-]

There's been a lot of speculation and misinformation up in the air concerning Flagship Studios, and 1UP's Jeff Green managed to nab an interview with Flagship Co-Founder and former Blizzard bigwig Bill Roper (http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3169356).

It's a good eight pages, but it's definitely worth a read. Roper's pretty candid in terms of addressing the company's missteps with Hellgate in general.

[Sazime]

Also important, it's done by Jeff Green, who is just an awesome games journalist. Loved his rant on "water."

[Quinefer]

Like Icarus, they reached for the sun but scorched their wings instead.

[Telefrog]

BR: No, I think that...well, part of the challenge was that when we originally came up with the concept of doing the game, the whole idea of continuing content was pretty amorphous. How that was going to happen, who pays for that -- we all kind of assumed that would come out of the revenue. The subscription money we did get, we all poured directly into keeping the game online, keeping it up and running. But the development demands far outstripped the revenues. There just wasn't a good contemplation early on of how that would work. It wasn't like: This is the budget that comes in every month; we'll do whatever we can do with that. We just said [that] development will get done out of the revenues, and whoever pays for development, they get paid back out of the revenues. And there wasn't really enough revenues coming in to cover the expected and required development costs.

When it became obvious that Hellgate was built on nothing but pipedreams and bad code, I said that Bill Roper's financial plan for Flagship must've come from a fantasy dreamworld. It's obvious to me that he's a great idea guy and pitchman, but a terrible manager and even worse CEO.

[Talon-]

When it became obvious that Hellgate was built on nothing but pipedreams and bad code, I said that Bill Roper's financial plan for Flagship must've come from a fantasy dreamworld. It's obvious to me that he's a great idea guy and pitchman, but a terrible manager and even worse CEO.

That's the feeling I got as well. If you've ever heard Bill Roper talk, it seems like he's the happiest man in the world, and it's clear he took the same attitude with work at Flagship. He even admits that they just assumed that things would fall into place financially before they got had by T3.

Despite all that, I've got to respect those guys (him and the Schaefers) for paying their employees out of their own pocket. At the same time, it wouldn't have come to that if these guys were a bit more responsible and realistic in terms of running the company. Sounds like the Flagship staff is keeping in touch, so, hopefully, these guys can learn from their mistakes in their next venture.

[TrackZero]

Nice catch Talon-, I was waiting for this interview.

[Amalor]

I really hope things bounce back for Roper he is a really talented guy. I, for one, liked Hellgate though I never liked it enough to subscribe. I get really frustrated when I look at everything they achieved and all that might have been. Cheers Bill!

[Exodus]

That's the feeling I got as well. If you've ever heard Bill Roper talk, it seems like he's the happiest man in the world, and it's clear he took the same attitude with work at Flagship. He even admits that they just assumed that things would fall into place financially before they got had by T3.

Despite all that, I've got to respect those guys (him and the Schaefers) for paying their employees out of their own pocket. At the same time, it wouldn't have come to that if these guys were a bit more responsible and realistic in terms of running the company. Sounds like the Flagship staff is keeping in touch, so, hopefully, these guys can learn from their mistakes in their next venture.

I think it's funny when he says 'he didn't give gamers what they wanted'. In other words, Hellgate London is what he wanted. He just didn't realize that nobody else would like it. I am glad he did recognize that the game had too much of a broad scope. It barely had any content and probably the worst thing was the re playability.

This game sucked and it sucked because of not gamer dislike. It sucked because they chose to do things in a way that were obvious in 'making you give them money'. Hey is your life difficult? Do your feet hurt? We made this race track to hurt your feet but we also sell these shoes that will allow you to walk in comfort. After you do a lap you realize your shoes only last for on lap so they market you the two lap shoes. Do you see where I am going here?

Hellgate London is a marketing mechanic way of thinking.

That's why it failed. It's not meant to make players happy and enjoy the game fully. Bill, you get some respect but seriously you fucked something that could have been so damned awesome it makes me angry.

[digitalErich]

Caught this earlier from Shawn Elliott's Twitter stream and it's definitely worth a read. Green doesn't hold back on the questions and Roper only once (due to NDAs) holds back on the answers.

I've never had an interest in Hellgate or Mythos, but this was a great read.

[Wyrm]

Just read the whole thing. It took awhile, but it was worth it.

They wanted so badly to emulate the success they enjoyed at Blizzard, but they sold their game before it was made in order to pay for it. Add in poor management and a terrible business plan and you've got a perfect model for how not to run a company.

I wanted so badly to like Hellgate, but as Roper mentions, their focus was so spread out, no one particular aspect of the game ever shines. The setting is cool, the context is not, and it's apparent from the start that it will never become anything particularly special.

There are some great ideas floating around in that game, and somewhere, deep in that engine, is a great co-op dungeon crawler. At the moment, that bitch is buried.

[Spooky]

Kudos to Jeff Green taking the time to deliver to us such a glory days of print worthy expose on the Rise and Fall of Flagship Studios & Hellgate: London. Even more kudos to Bill Roper for being brave enough to give him the opportunity to do it.

[Mashidar]

Interesting to note that today the recalls for Hellgate:London happened at my Wal-mart.

It's a shame because I wanted to like the game.

[digitalErich]

It seems like one of their biggest mis-steps was taking all of the solid [non-development related] infrastructure they enjoyed at Blizzard for granted when forming their own studio.

[vallor]

I am sad that they are gone and especially that they were basically torn to bloody bits and pieces during the process. I am sure they felt that their blizzard petigree they would be relatively safe and attract all sorts of funding. As many others have pointed out, knowing they can't churn endlessly like they could at blizzard and *knowing* they can't do that are two different things. It's a sad lesson that a lot of people paid the price for.

That said I am extremely happy that Hellgate failed. Their subscription model was the worst idea I've ever heard. Hopefully with the complete and utter failure with this type of model will make other companies think twice before they not only charge for the box but then nickle and dime their customers to death to ensure a decently playable experience.

[TrackZero]

I think it's funny when he says 'he didn't give gamers what they wanted'. In other words, Hellgate London is what he wanted. He just didn't realize that nobody else would like it. I am glad he did recognize that the game had too much of a broad scope. It barely had any content and probably the worst thing was the re playability.

This game sucked and it sucked because of not gamer dislike. It sucked because they chose to do things in a way that were obvious in 'making you give them money'. Hey is your life difficult? Do your feet hurt? We made this race track to hurt your feet but we also sell these shoes that will allow you to walk in comfort. After you do a lap you realize your shoes only last for on lap so they market you the two lap shoes. Do you see where I am going here?

Hellgate London is a marketing mechanic way of thinking.

That's why it failed. It's not meant to make players happy and enjoy the game fully. Bill, you get some respect but seriously you fucked something that could have been so damned awesome it makes me angry.

He actually says that in the article. You did read the entire thing right?

[Katslover]

Interesting to note that today the recalls for Hellgate:London happened at my Wal-mart.

It's a shame because I wanted to like the game.

To be fair, tons of computer games were recalled at Wal-Mart today, as a really big mod change dropped today. I don't know if you were implying anything, but I'm throwing that out there so that context is known.

[PopoWRX]

Very good interview. Part of me feels for Roper as I think he is a good guy but man, were the execs naive about game development. Everything happens for a reason and I hope this lesson helps the guys at Runic Games as well.

That said, this interview makes me sad the GFW mag is gone. The GFW guys are top notch. ;_;

[ElectricMonk]

Well I know travis baldree personally (the guy who was heading flagship seattle), that guy is an incredible game dev, it's too bad that t3 or whatever will never know how badly they f-ed up letting him get away.

Still though I have to think roper has got a metric fuck-ton of money from the sale of blizzard. If he doesn't maybe he's not the best biz-dev guy in the world after all.

[Tremorlor]

Love that quote: "Some of them were just bad timing in the PC market. The PC market was lousy last year."

Bad timing = released way too early.
Lousy market last year = we weren't the only ones that released bad games on PC.

[Telefrog]

Still though I have to think roper has got a metric fuck-ton of money from the sale of blizzard. If he doesn't maybe he's not the best biz-dev guy in the world after all.

I would imagine that a lot of that money is now gone thanks to the Flagship debacle. Bill pretty much alludes to it in the article.

[Exodus]

He actually says that in the article. You did read the entire thing right?

Yup I did, and he said it a dozen times. I'm just going to pound away at the nail because of the angst built up about this. You did read my entire post right? about how angry this makes me? Here let me put it back up just in case you can't mouse wheel up.

That's why it failed. It's not meant to make players happy and enjoy the game fully. Bill, you get some respect but seriously you fucked something that could have been so damned awesome it makes me angry.

[Exodus]

p.s. - I was one of those 'angry forum posters' bitching and moaning about the game in the beta. We were right. The blind sheep who were like 'this game is awesome' were Bill's yes people.

Look at them now. No more game. No more studio. Talk about a total fucking twisting of what games are meant to be.

[Mondopest]

What will be interesting is to see what the new owners and T3 do with it. There is a chance they could renovate the whole project into a 'free-to-play' title, and charge for items, etc. Then again, they only have one other project listed on their site, so a dedicated monthly subscription game could be good for them. Unfortunately, Hellgate's name is sullied which does not bode well for acquiring new players.

[Lactose]

Well I know travis baldree personally (the guy who was heading flagship seattle), that guy is an incredible game dev, it's too bad that t3 or whatever will never know how badly they f-ed up letting him get away.

Still though I have to think roper has got a metric fuck-ton of money from the sale of blizzard. If he doesn't maybe he's not the best biz-dev guy in the world after all.

Gotta jump on this one!

"In 1994, the same year that the first Warcraft game came out, Blizzard's founders sold the company to a Los Angeles firm called Davidson & Associates for $7 million."

Bill Roper's first game at Blizz was Warcraft1, he wasn't a founder. How much shares of ownership do you think he amassed while working on his first game there? Also, consider that dept to the publisher may have cut into the $7 million.

So I dunno the exact size of a metric fuck-ton but I don't think Bill got it.