[Parte 1]
O sentimento geral daqueles com quem conversei e que trabalhavam no Blistered Thumbs era de que Austin Yorski era um editor-chefe que sabia onde o site precisava ir e tinha um bom entendimento de como chegar lá. Micah mencionou que Yorski poderia ter levado o site a novos patamares, mas foi limitado pela falta de compromisso do Channel Awesome em fornecer a Yorski os recursos necessários para fazê-lo. Na verdade, Micah afirma…
“Austin was promised by That Guy With The Glasses that he was going to get the next-generation consoles to staff writers for them to review, which could potentially bring that traffic back up.” […] “And they fucked him over on it. They didn't give him the money that he needed to get these things.”
“So all of a sudden he was promised and expecting these consoles for launch that they were going to get for him, and they just never ponied up the money and they had no intentions to do so, either. So they lied to him. So everything he had worked on had just went to shit.”
Perguntei a Yorski se era verdade que os recursos do Blistered Thumbs foram negados a ele e se suas mãos estavam atadas por causa disso. Yorski afirmou…
“That may be one of the truest sentences ever crafted by human hands. While I can't promise that I could have turned [Blistered Thumbs] into the next IGN or anything, we had more than enough gifted writers and an established audience; there is absolutely no excuse for the way things turned out.”
Mas esse problema já existia muito antes de Yorski assumir. Micah mencionou que Joe estava tentando desesperadamente fazer o site crescer, mas também lhe foram recusados os recursos necessários. A ex-equipe confirmou de forma independente que havia sérios problemas com a gestão, mesmo antes de Joe ser demitido. Na verdade, Yorski mencionou…
“Even before [Blistered Thumbs] launched, Channel Awesome made a number of promises that were never delivered upon, even years later. Compensation is obviously the big one – quase todo mundo trabalhou de graça do começo ao fim.”
O pior é que o Channel Awesome realizou um campanha IndieGoGo isso gerou quase US$ 90,000, mas, de acordo com Yorski, a equipe da Blistered Thumbs nunca foi paga pelo trabalho que colocaram no site nem viu o dinheiro da campanha de financiamento coletivo, afirmando…
“The crowd-funding was generally for Doug and his various projects, but you can imagine that, from our perspective, the terminally neglected [Blistered Thumbs] site should have been a part of those efforts. In fact, [Channel Awesome] had previously shot down the idea of a [Blistered Thumbs] Kickstarter, saying that they would never resort to such tactics. When they then turned around and raised money for themselves that way while leaving us to die a slow death, you can imagine our indignation.”
“I was under the impression that the IndieGogo campaign was a collaborative effort between Mike Michaud and the Walkers, but I have no first-hand knowledge of the specifics of that arrangement. As you are likely aware, many of the promises made as a result of IndieGogo fundraising have yet to be fulfilled to this day, over a year later. This is a common criticism of [Channel Awesome], and a continuation of the managerial mishandling that is so evident in [Blistered Thumb's] case.”
Jason “Lordkat” Pullara ofereceu sentimentos semelhantes sobre a má gestão do site, especialmente quando questionado sobre o que os administradores poderiam ter feito para resolver o problema e salvar Blistered Thumbs, afirmando…
“After leaving Channel Awesome and realizing just how much of a clusterfuck it actually was, there was nothing that could “save” Blistered Thumbs. The management at Channel Awesome is either completely incompetent or they are criminals. I have not concluded what my opinion is yet. You have to understand that there is zero communication from management to everyone else – Rob, Doug, and Mike will tell a few of their friends what they’re thinking of doing, and will leave it up to them to spread rumors via a Skype chat.”
Com toda a justiça, a campanha IndieGoGo nunca mencionou que os fundos seriam usados para Blistered Thumbs e as metas estendidas alcançadas também não tiveram nada a ver com Blistered Thumbs. No entanto, é fácil ver por que uma seção em dificuldades da rede faria com que a equipe presumisse que o crowdsourcing seria usado para corrigir os problemas técnicos do Blistered Thumbs e potencialmente começar a pagar a equipe. Claro, isso não aconteceu.
Entrei em contato com Mike Michaud para comentar, mas não houve resposta até a publicação deste artigo.
No entanto, disseram-me que seria difícil entrar em contacto com Mike Michaud porque ele não é necessariamente amigo da imprensa. Pullara havia declarado…
“Michaud himself doesn’t actually [make] any company statements, set any goals, provide a vision, or execute any sort of leadership within the company – he’ busy spending 12 hours a day playing on Xbox Live (At least, that’s what he did when I was around). When management is that bad any product you launch is going to be equally as terrible.”
Mas não foi apenas a falta de financiamento que prejudicou o local, foi também a falta de infraestrutura; falta de compromisso em fornecer os meios técnicos para que o pessoal conduza os negócios da maneira mais profissional.
Yorski afirmou que os problemas iam além de Blistered Thumbs, mencionando…
“Perhaps most importantly, the website was so poorly designed as to render it nearly unusable. This is an issue which persisted for the entirety of my tenure, and continues to be a problem for all Channel Awesome ventures. Simply put, company management refuses to make site design and maintenance a priority and everything and everyone suffers.
“I could write an entire book on that one aspect of the situation – a luta para consertar o site Blistered Thumbs é uma verdadeira tragédia grega. Isso é essencialmente um segredo aberto neste momento. Dificilmente precisa de ênfase.”
Pullara mencionou que o site sofreu com Yorski, mas não por falta de seus esforços. Segundo Pullara, muitos dos problemas resultaram do fraco apoio dos executivos responsáveis.
Curiosamente, Micah reiterou os sentimentos de Pullara em uma entrevista separada, afirmando…
“The big thing is that [Channel Awesome's administrators] promoted Austin Yorski – which is a position we needed for a very long time. They promoted Austin but just gave him the site and said 'Try to fix this mess'. And he did his damnedest to do so.
“He couldn't plug the leaks of a sinking ship.” […] “It was the Titanic and it hit the iceberg that I warned everyone about.”
Micah expressou o seu desapontamento com a forma como a gestão lidou com toda a situação e como os superiores fizeram muito pouco para resolver os problemas. Ele mencionou que o Channel Awesome entrou principalmente no controle de danos após Austin Yorski se despedir do Blistered Thumbs, tentando principalmente “amordaçar” aqueles que ficaram. Ele comentou que é como se eles tivessem a “Síndrome de Estocolmo” porque o Channel Awesome ainda lhes oferece uma plataforma e um salário.
Yorski adota uma abordagem mais neutra em relação a tudo, afirmando…
“It's tempting to throw Mike Michaud under the bus for everything that happened. Whether it was Joe or I in charge, whenever [Blistered Thumbs] wanted to get something done, we had to go to Mike to make it happen. So when the inevitable happened and [Channel Awesome] was unable or unwilling to help, Mike ended up as the face of obstruction. Whether or not that narrative reflects the reality of the situation is difficult to say, however. I was not present for the management meetings that ultimately doomed [Blistered Thumbs], so it's entirely possible that Mike represented our interests fully and competently and was simply overruled.”
“This would all be a lot simpler if I could just dump the blame on Mike Michaud and sit back in judgment. Unfortunately, the most likely scenario is that CA management made a number of mistakes and ended up neglecting what they saw as a side project until it was simply too late to fix it.”
Para aqueles que estavam dispostos a comentar ou oferecer algum tipo de visão sobre as negociações nos bastidores do Blistered Thumbs, eles deixaram claro que estavam gravemente decepcionados com o resultado do site e com a abordagem indiferente da administração, tendo ignorado alguns dos aspectos utilitários necessários para fazer tudo funcionar.
Os comentários finais de Yorski sobre Blistered Thumbs ecoam um forte sentimento sobre o talento desperdiçado no Channel Awesome, dizendo…
“The only appropriate emotional reaction to the collapse of Blistered Thumbs is disappointment. It could have been something special. We were let down by forces beyond our control, and, in turn, let down our loyal readers.
“We had a stable of beloved video personalities and unique editorial series. We had access to nearly every industry event and resource, from E3 to Metacritic. We had a parent company with the power to bring all of this together into a great place to share our love of video games.
“It's actually an impressive feat of incompetence that we managed to fail.”
Numa nota positiva, quase todos tinham algo de bom a dizer sobre as relações de trabalho que tiveram com Micah Curtis e “Angry” Joe Vargas. Joe era conhecido por gastar dinheiro do próprio bolso para ajudar a obter cópias de jogos para a equipe que eles não conseguiam dos editores. Observou-se também que ele fez o que pôde para acabar com discussões e atritos dentro da equipe, enquanto estava lá.
Infelizmente, uma mistura de má gestão e pouco ou nenhum apoio estrutural dos administradores levou à queda de um dos sites de jogos mais comentados que nunca atingiu o seu próprio potencial.
