[DL] My 10 cents worth

["David Wilson" <iamdavew@hotmail.com>]

Ok I simply cant sit back and watch any longer. Some of you may recognize my 
name (Dave Wilson). For the others I will be up front and let you know that 
I am one of the ex Pinnacle employees. I want to make it perfectly clear 
that what I'm about to say are my personal opinions. I spent nearly a year 
with the company and it was by far my most rewarding position ever. The 
staff and fans were tremendous and many will be friends for life. About a 
year ago Shane offered me a position as the office manager. Pinnacle was 
emerging from its relationship with AEG and while Shane has been nothing but 
kind in his version of this situation, I want to make it clear that AEG left 
the company in dire straits. Shane wanted to devote himself to keeping the 
creative quality as high as possible and I was to come in and take some of 
the management responsibilities.

When I started my position it was my opinion that things were going to be 
very tough. Shane shouldered quite a large debt to take the company back. He 
did this primarily for the following reasons, first of all he loves what he 
is doing, second out of loyalty to his employees and to the fans. Trust me, 
Shane could very easily leave this industry and do very well for himself and 
honestly so could the other employees. But we decided that we truly enjoyed 
working as a group and everyone who was there decided to sacrifice a bit of 
personal gain to try to make Pinnacle work. After emerging from AEG things 
were really turning around if very slowly.Sales were climbing steadily and 
slowly things were getting back on schedule. I have never seen a more 
devoted staff nor more devoted fans. Unfortunately the lifeblood of this 
industry is cash flow and product flow. Its a sad fact that our entire 
industry suffers from this problem. It is not my place to itemize the 
business decisions that were made but I will damn well say this. Shane 
always placed his employees and I dare say even the fans before himself. He 
made sacrifices that I think few other CEO's would have made.

At this point I think the staff was at 7 which I feel was about the 
appropriate number. There came a point where printing and freelance delays 
were not allowing us to meet our schedule. Even though sales were going up 
and costs were going down any sort of delay jeopardized the ability to make 
payroll. Shane simply wasnt willing to let this happen and decided to pursue 
the offer by Cybergames.

It seemed that Cybergames would have the cash reserve to make it through the 
gaps between products allowing for a much more even release schedule. Not to 
mention the possibilty of increasing the marketing that would be possible. 
It was hoped that this would also allow the Pinnacle staff to stay together. 
As a company it was decided to pursue this and I have to say that Shane 
probably had other options that would have benefited him more personally but 
thought this would be a chance to keep the staff together.

Im gonna end this by saying that almost immediately I began to disagree with 
Cybergames philosophy. I left the company shortly afterwards and although I 
still remain close friends with the Pinnacle staff I feel that Cybergames 
has made one mistake after another. There intentions were probably good but 
I really think they were attempting to use business models from other 
industries that really dont apply to the game industry. They never grasped 
the fact that this an industry driven by creativity and that in this 
industry that means new products on a regular basis. Every product that has 
been mentioned as being released soon was actually already finished months 
ago when I was still there. I havent seen Cybergames do anything except make 
cuts. They see a negative cash flow and their reaction is to cut the staff 
and schedule. How on earth do they expect sales to go up if they take this 
shortsighted approach. (again this is my opinion for what its worth) I 
certainly dont think they have done anything out of malice but I think they 
have made terrible mistakes.

Ok that being said, Shane is still with the company and is still committed 
to Deadlands and to the fans. I will continue to support him to my last 
breath and if anyone can get this to work it is him. You can be as 
dissatisfied with Cybergames as you want but please try to be constructive. 
When they do something positive be supportive maybe they will get the 
message. If you simply cant agree with them then please continue to support 
Shane. He deserves it.

Dave Wilson

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