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OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

366 points by lleims 15y ago

chrisdinn 15y ago
Can't help but think this whole controversy must be (at least in part) motivated by that $30-million for "employee retention" mentioned in the article. I suspected as much when I first saw the uproar on Twitter, but didn't know if the Zyna/OMGPOP deal had any such incentive. Does anyone know how those retention clauses usually work?
- muyuu 15y ago
  Yep... I'd be interested in knowing how much did they lose by not keeping all employees, and why wouldn't they just leave Conectrode alone.
lhnz 15y ago
This is probably the most immature and mean thing I've seen for months. But can't we just ignore it?
- ericflo 15y ago
  That would require setting down the pitchforks.
- rbarooah 15y ago
  Why shouldn't this kind of attitude be publicly questioned?
- sehugg 15y ago
  I believe that accepting a portion of a $200 million payout from public investors subjects you to a certain amount of criticism.
tzs 15y ago
The subject misquotes the tweet. It did not say "Shay Pierce". It just said it was the one employee who turned down going to Zynga. However, there was a second tweet that did explicitly mention Pierce. Here's a screenshot showing both: http://i.imgur.com/Dob8n.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Dob8n.jpg The text of the other tweet is "What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many...". These tweets were on March 30, so they are not April fools jokes.
- mattkirman 15y ago
  Shay Pierce was the only employee not to go to Zynga [1]. Even though the tweet doesn't explicitly mention Shay Pierce I'd say that the subject is still fairly accurate. [1] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167244/Turning_down_Zynga_Why_I_opted_out_of_the_210M_Omgpop_buy.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167244/Turning_down_Zynga...
  - latch 15y ago
    I know this is pedantic but the subject is a quote, so your parent is correct. It really should have either used square brackets around the name, or been written differently. Personally, I feel that once you open a double-quote there's a certain responsibility.
    - rictic 15y ago
      The adjacent tweet from the CEO mentions Shay by name. I'm usually a stickler for this kind of thing as well, but this one reads as entirely unambiguous to me.
      - latch 15y ago
        But it isn't about ambiguity. If someone said: Our window for reaching its peak was gone. I sat in our tent, unable to do anything, while my dream of climbing Mount Everest faded It's wrong to quote them as saying "Our window for reaching Mount Everest's peak was gone" Even though the "its" is clearly referring to Mount Everest. There are a couple options, the simplest being: "Our window for reaching [Mount Everest's] peak was gone" What worries me is that people don't know this. That you can just substitute/fill in a quote because it's obvious that's what the person meant. Rather, it should be thought of as a recording device that can only play back exactly what the person said.
zackattack 15y ago
this is the former president/founder of Teach for America...
- usaar333 15y ago
  president. while quite early, not considered a founder
JanezStupar 15y ago
If this is an April 1st it is in extremely bad taste. If it is true, then I gues that OMGPOP will be a great addition to Zyngas "culture".
- FreakLegion 15y ago
  The tweet appears to be real: https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/185901238477537281 https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/185901238477537281
v21 15y ago
Sounds like he's well shot of them. And this seems bizarre behaviour on OMGPOP's part - he was entirely complimentary to OMGPOP and he publicly disclaimed credit for Draw Something. Even if you did hate him and the press he stirred up, the best way to make it go away is to completely ignore it. Why on Earth would you make this the story?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- brooknam 15y ago
  It was a poor decision, but I can see being furious/frustrated that the story of your company's success had mutated into one on how your new parent owner was evil.
  - wpietri 15y ago
    True, but he shouldn't blame Shay Pierce. Porter's the one who decided to do a deal with Zynga. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. Further, Porter's the one who set up the retention process in a way that forced somebody out the door over a perfectly reasonable issue. A manager who's first instinct for a problem is to blame others has a big problem. One who does it publicly is a fool.
tankenmate 15y ago
Sour grapes; makes you wonder if they intended all along to embrace and extend Connectrode.
v21 15y ago
Notch weighs in : https://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/186359914657091585 https://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/186359914657091585
Jare 15y ago
[Edit]: Oups sorry, this was already linked in the original article. Apparently the company's backlash against Shay Pierce had begun on Thursday: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2012%2F03%2F29%2Fbusinessinsiderthe-one-omgpop-engin.DTL http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2012%...
- Achshar 15y ago
  from what that article makes it look like, its simply Pierce's word against the company's. both have their share of things to "fight for". Pierce has his game and public image and OMGPOP has PR and it's recent sale to zynga.
- wpietri 15y ago
  It dumbfounds me when alleged journalists print anonymous slander like this. Whatever one thinks of Shay Pierce's editorial, he signed his name to it and is answering questions about it.
zrgiu_ 15y ago
Like Notch said... "you are an insane idiot!". What did the CEO of OMGPOP had to gain from making those remarks ? He surely didn't expect the world to take his side.. Even if Shay Pierce really was "the weakest link of the team", you just don't say that. You just got bought for $200 million, now it's the time to show that you deserved to be the CEO of that company, by being diplomatic, respecting those around you (or who used to be around you) and now calculating your every move. Your opinion no longer just affects yourself, it affects your whole company, as well as (in a lesser extent), the company that just bought you.
- ChrisNorstrom 15y ago
  True. It is indeed very unprofessional. But how come people like him are held up to such high standards? When you're not anyone important you can be brutally honest and say what you want like everyone else does. But as soon as you're in the public eye you're put on this pedestal. This is what scares the hell out of me. I'm a very uncensored person who says what he means and means what he says (and am an asshole sometimes). So the thought that one day IF I'm successful in getting my business off the ground a life of censorship awaits me. :( Then I see celebrities like Snoop Dog (who owned a porn company), Sarah Silverman (who has some of the most offensive jokes imaginable), lil john (self explanatory), Colin Farrel, Charlie Sheen, Lindsey Lohan, and other well known figures who say and do anything they want yet still have successful careers, keep starring in movies, and even get in on really good business deals and endorsements. Lets not forget the Lady Gaga / Polaroid event where during the unveiling she said "smile you're fucking famous" and other unprofessional phrases. It's like there's absolutely NO consequence for them. I guess because it's their "image" and it's "expected". So I guess the moral of the story is, become an offensive comedian /or/ celebrity known for being crazy and work your way up towards serious entrepreneur. That way you can talk shit and get away with it. OR start out as the well spoken guy, and just 1 accidental F-bomb later, show up on the news as the bad guy and get thrown out by your company board. EDIT: ALSO, wtf did Notch gain by saying "You're an insane idiot"?! What did he gain from his remark?
  - tbsdy 15y ago
    People like him are held up to high standards because they have responsibilities and are paid accordingly. It's called leadership. Leaders watch what they say. As for celebrities acting badly, this doesn't make it particularly admirable. I should point out that no F-bomb was used by the CEO in question - he merely showed a complete lack of class. There really was no upside. A lot of people wouldn't have known, or perhaps wouldn't have cared, that Shay didn't join the new company. I'd suggest that the OMGPOP CEO be very careful about what he says. Saying someone was the "weakest link" in a team with no backup might lead to defamation proceedings.
Uchikoma 15y ago
How low.
- k-a-r 15y ago
  a new low.
ktizo 15y ago
I suspect that the ceo might actually be the weakest employee on the team.
meow 15y ago
Looks like he would fit very well with Zynga.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
geuis 15y ago
Well, I had ignored the whole Draw Something phenomenon until a few days ago. I downloaded the game, and for the last 3-4 days have been finding myself enjoying it quite a bit and anxiously refreshing the app to see if my game partners had updated their drawings. Needless to say, having just read this I deleted the app a couple minutes ago. They can keep my dollar, for all the good it will do them. Remember that if you choose to uninstall the app, also go into Facebook and remove the app from their as well.
mcfunley 15y ago
Classy move
thetron 15y ago
Sounds to me like Shay Pierce was the smartest employee on the team.
RexRollman 15y ago
I don't understand this. Pierce didn't slam OMGPOP, from what I have read, just Zynga's unwillingness to exempt his personal project from its IP clutches. I have to wonder why OMGPOP's CEO felt the need to do this.
- fleitz 15y ago
  He sounds incredibly insecure about it which probably belies a lot of the truth about what Shay Pierce contributed to the team. Shay probably didn't have a lot at stake and it was just a job, as a leader it's a sign of leadership failure if your troops don't follow you which is what the CEO is likely insecure about. He's also working at Zynga and who knows what the management team will think next week about what OMGPOP really contributed to Zynga. Both of them look incredibly insecure, but Mr. Porter is the guy with $200 mm in the bank who is expected to show some class. If Shay's weak why even pay attention, just smile that you avoided bringing a weak link with you.
- ajays 15y ago
  My thoughts exactly. My first hunch was: Pincus (CEO of Zynga) put him up to it (or called him out, "how did you ever hire this asshole?"), and Porter jumped at the chance to please his new boss.
j_baker 15y ago
Porter forgot the number 1 rule of politics: If your opponent is making a mistake, don't stop him. I understand what Pierce is saying (and can't help sympathizing), but I can't help thinking that writing that editorial was poor taste on Pierce's part, and probably would have reflected poorly on him had Porter kept his mouth shut and not turned him into a martyr. I mean, if you disagree with a potential employer's" values", it's career suicide to write a widely distributed Op-Ed about it unless that value is something like "Don't club baby seals" and you have hard proof that said employer is actively clubbing baby seals. Calling them evil over what is essentially a contract dispute (even if it's a perfectly valid contract dispute) would make me think twice before negotiating a contract with him. If he's writing an Op-Ed about them, what's to prevent him from writing an Op-Ed about me if he doesn't like my terms?
- moe 15y ago
  you have hard proof that said employer is actively clubbing baby seals From all we've read about Zynga they seem to fit the bill just shy of actually clubbing animals...
  - nielsandersen 15y ago
    It'd be a great sequel to Farmville. Imagine the viral traffic you could get when people have seen "moe clubbed two obnoxious baby seals" in your facebook ticker a few times an hour for a while.
- roguecoder 15y ago
  I highly doubt dissing on Zynga when he didn't take a job there is going to hurt his chances of being hired by other software shops (for one thing, we all sit around dissing on Zynga too.) I respect honesty, priorities and transparency. I'd hire the guy. We aren't MBAs, after all: our goal isn't to hide behind a web of obscurity while we sell our clients bonds too toxic for us to hold. We want to hire people with side projects as long as they won't distract from their work for us. He will have lost some crappy jobs at crappy companies that want cogs instead of collaborators. I don't think it's going to be a major disappointment for him.
- 15y ago
scott_w 15y ago
What a fool. Shay Pierce's article was incredibly polite and graceful, so there's no way OMGPOP can come off looking like anything but pathetic and vindictive. I think the worst thing I've heard our CEO say about a former employee is "it was time for the company and X to part ways" after X took a job elsewhere, and this was an internal meeting. We don't take to tweeting the inner workings of our company.
- huggyface 15y ago
  "Earlier this week – days after Zynga bought OMGPOP for $210 million – a now former OMGPOP engineer named Shay Pierce wrote a column for gaming news Web site Gamasutra explaining that he would not join Zynga because it is "evil." He said that companies like Zynga think of users as "weak-minded cash cows."" Come on. OMGPOP was a fast rising company with a very green CEO. Expectations that they're going to act like the CEO of Oracle (boom, bad example) or something seems out of place. The CEO is a person just like everyone else, and had a moment of weakness. The CEO took it personally. And rightly so, because in his implications Pierce was saying that everyone else were willing to join an "evil" company that treats people as "weak minded cash cows". When we make personal statements of values and their justifications ("I don't eat meat because I don't like murdering innocent animals, blood on my hands"), we naturally raise the hairs of those who make different decisions. EDIT: Normally I just bear those downvotes, but in this case I find them a little disturbing. The whole narrative around this has taken on a distinctly "we are the 99%!" type of schism. The CEO is a human being too, and there is no reason to value or respect the opinion of Pierce.
  - hipsterelitist 15y ago
    I'd hardly call Dan a "very green" CEO. http://www.linkedin.com/in/danporter http://www.linkedin.com/in/danporter
  - blankenship 15y ago
    "Very green" is a bit of a misnomer here—Porter's been the CEO of OMGPOP since 2009, and was a SVP at Richard Branson's Virgin Group before that. "Moment of weakness" maybe, but not from an inexperienced guy.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
doktrin 15y ago
I'm glad I hadn't yet bought into this particular craze. There is no way I will sponsor a company whose leadership behaves in this manner.
itsprofitbaron 15y ago
FWIW Dan Porter (OMGPOP CEO) has responded on Twitter[1] saying: What I meant to say was... I want to celebrate the people who worked on the game. Who have stuck together. They are everything. Thank you. He also responded to Notch[2] saying: @notch it's been a the craziest ride. So yes I may be temporarily insane. I just wanted my team who stuck with us to shine. [1] https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186436787617529856 https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186436787617529856 [2] https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186439284767719424 https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186439284767719424
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- andypants 15y ago
  He also said this: What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many... Although now he's deleted the offending tweets and posted this: I'm sorry for what I said on Twitter last night. No excuses.
ditojim 15y ago
Stay classy, yc...
mtoddh 15y ago
I'm curious, could these sort of statements made by a CEO in regards to a former employee be crossing the line into defamation? As in, if Pierce is looking for a job in the future and this is what a potential employer finds...
- sgentle 15y ago
  Could well. I've heard a lot of larger companies have a policy of only providing references of the form "X worked here from Y to Z" for that exact reason.
  - tbsdy 15y ago
    I also agree - but then he said something potentially defamatory :-) However, I think if an employee looks up Shay's details, they will first find his op-ed calling Zynga "evil". I guess if they are concerned about the OMGPOP tweet, then they will be REALLY worried about the op-ed!
- sgentle 15y ago
  Could well. I've heard a lot of larger companies have a policy of only providing references of the form "X worked here from Y to Z" for that exact reason.
mattmaroon 15y ago
"Porter’s response to Pierce is being seen by many as petty." If by "many" you mean everyone who knows what the word petty means, then yes, it is seen by many as petty. As a CEO this reflects very poorly on you. If he was so weak, why was he on your team?
- mjwalshe 15y ago
  um I and those with any HR background would call it "bringing the company into disrepute" and "Gross Misconduct"
hipsterelitist 15y ago
I'm glad this happened in such a public way. I once heard him speak at a VC event about his firing practices with the same sort of attitude. I won't get into the details, but I was shocked that such an individual could be so championed, but he's quite business savvy and very personable... I guess as long as you're on his good side. Very good fit for Zynga.
- wmeredith 15y ago
  >Very good fit for Zynga. This was the first thing I thought when I read the headline.
  - Macsenour 15y ago
    I had the same thought. His "explanation" read like spin to me. Which fits well with the Zynga style.
- moocow01 15y ago
  I'm glad these management types cluster at Zynga - its hopefully a few less we all have to deal with everywhere else
  - robgough 15y ago
    I wonder if people said the same thing about EA? And look where that got us :(
- sbisker 15y ago
  I'd be curious to hear what some of his "firing practices" were, if you wouldn't mind sharing. You seem reticent to get into details, perhaps not to add fuel to the fire - but these were practices he spoke publicly and proudly about, on the record, if I understand you correctly - and I'm curious just how people like him tick (if only so I can learn to avoid them).
scoot 15y ago
Draw Something... deleted. (Not that it will make any difference to OMGPOP, but as a matter of principal). Connectrode [1] - purchased. It's not my usual kind of game, but it's the best way I can think of to show support. [1]http://www.deepplaid.com/connectrode/Site/Connectrode.html http://www.deepplaid.com/connectrode/Site/Connectrode.html [Edit - actually it's pretty good!]
- nielsandersen 15y ago
  I bought it too. Any tiny fly in the ointment for the people who brought Farmville on us is worth a dollar to me.
rdl 15y ago
I bought a copy of Connectrode (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/connectrode/id438450056?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/connectrode/id438450056?mt=8) to support the guy, but it's actually a pretty fun game on its own. It'll be hilarious if he ends up on the leaderboard because of his former boss's lack of civility and professional decorum.
- krig 15y ago
  Same here. It's underdeveloped, but I think it could be brilliant with another revision or two. I hope he does well.
- mattvanhorn 15y ago
  Same here.
- sbisker 15y ago
  Me too! It's like Mah Jong meets Dr Mario. My only qualm is that it's a little too easy to master - but that could be easily changed.
- andersh 15y ago
  99% of the reviews are gushing 5-star Zynga-related back pats. Added in the last 4 days.
verelo 15y ago
I would hate to be a recruiter for these guys now. Ignoring that i hate recruiters already...I don't think this will help their case. In general I'm just amazed by this. Is it even legal for your employer (even if it be an ex-employer) to talk about you in this way?
- georgemcbay 15y ago
  I am not a lawyer, but I do know that HR departments at larger companies coach their employees not to speak poorly of any ex-employee for fear of defamation lawsuits. The industry standard even for horribly incompetent employees is to say only when the employee worked for you, what their salary is, and on the very edge of acceptability is "would you hire this employee again?" as a simple yes/no only question. Most employers would have a fit if you got on the phone, even in a private conversation, and bad-mouthed an ex-employee you managed because of defamation lawsuit fears. And that's from a one-on-one, he said/she said deal. Blasting this stuff over twitter is so much worse. tl; dr -- Zynga's lawyers are probably in crisis mode right now.
LVB 15y ago
I'm sure we'll get the real story from Zynga PR on how Porter's was one of the accounts hacked via Tweetdeck. In other news, they're excited to announce the opening of their Siberian office.
amitagrawal 15y ago
Within the same industry there are people like Dan Porter and Notch. Both are at the top of their game. With one major difference.. One bad mouths a former employee because he refused to join the acquirer on grounds of principles. The other distributes wealth among employees. I have no doubt Mr Pincus and Mr. Pierce will have a lot in common at Zynga.
zaroth 15y ago
Most times I see a sensationalized twitter post where everyone is saying, "I can't believe they just said that!" I just look at it and shrug, and wonder where the PC police will strike next. This tweet, however, had me staring at the screen in disbelief. Now, I had read Shay's post when it made headlines on HN. Maybe I have to go back and re-read it, but I didn't click away thinking that OMGPOP's best programmer decided to bail on the buy-out. I don't think Shay claimed they would fail miserably without him. Obviously Shay was seeking to gain some publicity off recent events, maybe even boost revenue on his side-project game. Yeah, I can see how Dan Porter might think Shay's pissing in his soup. So, Dan, respond to the damn allegations, don't just go all ad hominem on Shay's ass. I would have gone with something like "I disagree with what Shay had to say about OMGPOP, we're loving it here at the evil empire, but I wish him the best at his next venture." You even have 2 characters to spare, Dan!
tonetheman 15y ago
Just another pathetic roach who works for zynga... nothing new to see here move on.
subdigital 15y ago
Even more reason to buy the developer's independent game, Connectrode. It's only $0.99. http://www.deepplaid.com/connectrode/Site/Connectrode.html http://www.deepplaid.com/connectrode/Site/Connectrode.html Show him he made the right decision.
- prodigal_erik 15y ago
  I'd like to but can't, because his "actively destructive to the healthy functioning of that ecosystem" also applies to Apple's iOS app store and the independence of my profession. I hope he reconsiders the landlord he accepted.
toddheasley 15y ago
I'm mostly wondering how long these lunches were that they even rate mentioning, let alone mentioning BEFORE code quality?
remi 15y ago
Looks like he just apologized: https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186460580201238529 https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186460580201238529
- jaylevitt 15y ago
  And actually apologized: "sorry for what I said", not "sorry if anyone was offended by what I said". I still don't think it looks good for him - apologies only mitigate, not erase - but that's the right response. If he follows up with a "it was a stressful transition and I was afraid that Pierce's understandable legal concerns would sour the whole deal and frankly I drank way too much", all the better.
  - wpietri 15y ago
    I dunno. Reading his longer explanation in VentureBeat, I'm not sure that's an actual apology. Being sorry for what you said's a little vague. I'd rather see something like: "I apologize unreservedly to Shay Pierce. What I said about him was untrue and unkind. I regret that we X", where X is the mistake he feels he made in handling Pierce's situation.
  - asr 15y ago
    On twitter, it looks like he apoligzed: "sorry for what I said ... no excuses." But then he e-mails VentureBeat with--you guessed it--a bunch of excuses: When the game blows up ... and one employee, who didn’t work on the product, and is more about his own games then the team, jumps in the press and becomes the story, it is very hurtful to all the people who are on team. [W]hen you give blood, sweat and tears on something and someone who doesn’t even work on the project, and prioritizes his own games as his own professional development over the team, becomes the story it is very demoralizing. [M]y point is that it wasn’t about Shay. It was about the 41 other people who made it happen. Those are the people I would throw myself in front of the train for and those are the people I want to celebrate. So, to recap, Shay was fired (for refusing to accept a change in the terms of his employment) and wrote about it. Porter still seems to take offense that Shay wrote anything to distract from OMGPOP's preferred message, continues to call out Shay for not being a team player, and says he would throw himself in front of a bus for every OMGPOP employee except Shay. He didn't apologize. After an apology, you need to back up your words with actions.
alextingle 15y ago
So Porter screwed Pierce over in a way that would be illegal where I live, while pocketing $200m for himself. And now he's libelled him? Wow. Just wow.
loso 15y ago
While I don't agree with how Dan Porter came across on Twitter I think I can understand the frustration. You are having one of the best days of your life and then out of left field someone you know does an article that sideswipes it. I read the Shay Pierce article when it was published and it was very respectful of his former employers...but it didn't have to happen now. Why did he write that article NOW? There is already a well deserved Anti Zynga sentiment and that article made his fellow employees look as if they were traitors to the forces of good. He admits that he has done work for Zynga in the past but then drops lines like "Not everyone shares my values, and not everyone is in a position to pick and choose job offers.". While true I can see how it can rub the people who choose to move forward with the Zynga acquisition the wrong way. I don't agree how Dan Porter dealt with it, but I can understand being upset by that article being published right at this moment.
- Klinky 15y ago
  There is already a well deserved Anti Zynga sentiment and that article made his fellow employees look as if they were traitors to the forces of good. How would holding off on the article change the contents? It wouldn't. Timing matters, he struck while the iron was hot. There is no reason he should self-censor himself for the benefit of a company that looks like it's run by a bit of an ass.
  - loso 15y ago
    I'm not talking about for the benefit of the company. I am talking about for the benefit of his fellow employees who took the deal. His article does not put them in the best light.
    - nknight 15y ago
      They made a choice, why should he be trying to shield them from the consequences of their choice?
- steventruong 15y ago
  Understanding his frustration doesn't excuse his actions.
begus 15y ago
I guess some CEO have contempt for their employees?
jimfl 15y ago
App idea: Twitter client with a breathalyzer.
- read_wharf 15y ago
  That's actually not a bad idea, particularly if you generalize it. You could make a device, or you could do some cool text analysis that predicted whether you are drunk. I have the Thunderbird Confirm-Address addon installed, to give me one last chance to check if I'm sending a message to someone who probably shouldn't receive it. Like the boss. Which happened. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/confirm-address-5582/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/confirm-a... I remember once I sent some email to some friends, after a very hard night of drinking. I knew I was drunk while I wrote, and I tried my damnedest to write coherently, with no errors. I was very proud when I checked it over and clicked Send. I was astounded the next morning when I read it over, at how obviously drunk the writer was.
pasbesoin 15y ago
Like attracts like?
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
samstave 15y ago
My reply tweet: >Loved Draw Something, saddened by your acquisition. Disgusted by your tweet Have deleted Draw Something. Will never use Zynga Games.
samstave 15y ago
You know, this guy just sold his company for ~$200MM -- I'm going to believe that he took several thousand and bought a shitload of coke and was high as a kite when he tweeted this - while saying to himself "There it is, my tweet. There is NO WAY this was a bad idea!"
unimpressive 15y ago
There's a lot of words in the comments; for me it boils down to: Dan Porter has gone from startup to upstart. With all the negative implications that word brings. And with all the brevity a tweet requires.
larrys 15y ago
Damage control: "Porter admitted that the he was harsh in his language describing Pierce. “Yes it was, but my point is that it wasn’t about Shay. It was about the 41 other people who made it happen,” Porter wrote. “Those are the people I would throw myself in front of the train for and those are the people I want to celebrate.” http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3784322 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3784322
spitfire 15y ago
My browser was showing me pictures of fat cats at the bottom of that article. Then I figured out adblock was showing me cats for april fools day, and I was a bit disappointed.
joejohnson 15y ago
Good. This community hadn't had a good Zynga-bashing thread in a few days. Let's repeat the same tired anecdotes and all jump on the bandwagon hating Zynga! Don't forget to downvote any minority opinions or skeptics of the evil Zynga narrative.
- joejohnson 15y ago
  Really?
ThomPete 15y ago
Aprils fool?
michaelochurch 15y ago
Warning: this is going to get very long and ranty. I worked on Wall Street 2006 to 2008, and I had friends on the Street before that. I went into "tech" in 2008, saw the mini-crash and read the Sequoia ScareDoc, and now I'm watching this bubble. Wall Street has a bad reputation, but I've seen far worse ethics and much less professionalism in technology, which is supposed to be above that garbage. On Wall Street, people know what the rules are. They're pretty clear, because the scummiest shit has generally been tried. You front-run your customer, you go to jail. You get a reputation for being unethical, it ruins your career. You defraud people, you get fired for life from the securities industry. You have to take a Series 7, so you have no excuse. Sure, the industry has some slimeballs and some slip through, but not so brazenly, and they at least are supposed to feel bad about it. In technology these days, there are so many people who don't give the square root of a shit about making good software but just want to play the angles. The vast majority of them aren't engineers, those who are tend engineers turning into junior executives by putting their ethics through a fire sale, but none of those fuckers belong here. Google: generally professional and probably ethical macroscopically, but careerist to a fault. Bureaucratically overgrown. Full of horrid legacy systems that are built to flip-- specifically, to be "interesting" enough to merit a promotion for the original architect, who then moves on before it goes into maintenance phase and falls to pieces. That's how you get promoted at the big G. Launch and flee, every 18 to 24 months. Startupland: I can name two major ($100M+ valuation) VC-funded companies that have committed major ethical faults in the past 6 months (one wasn't published and won't be, one developed last week and might be in the next 3 weeks). Both of these startups have some of the best, nicest, and most interesting engineers I've ever met... but are run by scumbag executives that would have fit in better with 1980s private equity people than with the (more decent, much more boring) typical Wall Street quant. I've never met a VC and I'm sure they're not all bad, but my theory is that the scumbaggery in so many VC-funded startups has to come from the top. I assume they fund people who are like them, and that would make sense, given that VCs are mostly MBAs, and something like 60 percent of B-school students at top schools cheat in their coursework. Why do I bring this up? Because it's fucking nuts that some unprofessional, vindictive jerk like this guy was just acquired for $200 million. The world is seriously on tilt here. What are we even doing?
- jpdoctor 15y ago
kapowaz 15y ago
I'm not sure how many folks who read Hacker News work in videogame development, but for any who are, I'd like to propose something simple: refuse to work for Zynga. Extend this boycott to any videogames company that behaves in this contemptuous and insulting manner towards the people who actually generate the real worth in the company. Sentiment towards the likes of EA and Sony are at an all-time low for their consumer-hostile behaviour, and I think the market is ripe for being shaken up. We've already seen in recent weeks that the games-playing public are prepared to reach into their wallets even in the middle of an economic downturn and help fund videogame projects through Kickstarter. If the people who make videogames refuse to be treated like disposable commodities by obnoxious pricks like Dan Porter by boycotting working for them, then eventually these organisations will have to change their ways, or risk being replaced by companies who will treat their staff with respect and humility.
read_wharf 15y ago
Who was the second weakest? Third weakest?
droithomme 15y ago
So this guy Pierce wrote his game Connectrode before he even went to work for OMGPOP. It's completely standard to NOT seize ownership of preexisting IP as part of hiring, unless that's a negotiated part of the deal for which one is compensated. I always have a disclosure list of my preexisting IP as a rider to contracts, this has never been an issue anywhere. Trying to seize ownership without negotiation and compensation is an instant "no thanks" as far as I am concerned; it indicates bad faith. It seems since Pierce is the only one who ran into this problem that he is the only person working there who had actually written an entire game from start to finish and created a company to sell it. That means he is the most experienced and competent person there. The assertion that he is incompetent and they were about to fire him can't be taken seriously at all; it's obviously said in spite. It is interesting that CEO Dan Porter identifies himself in the tagline to his @tfadp twitter account as "creator of epic game Draw Something". This pretty clearly suggests he created that game. Which actually, he didn't. He doesn't even know how to code or to design, and the game itself is a clone of another game so he didn't come up with the concept either. Only in this blow-up's damage control attempts does he even acknowledge that anyone other than himself was involved in creating the game. His assertions that Pierce was stealing credit are obviously psychological projection about his own actions. In his CV we see that Pierce has a long history of positions, quite varied, and none of them held very long. This is consistent psychologically with the sort of person that the rest of his situation indicates he is.
- wging 15y ago
  >In his CV we see that Pierce has a long history of positions, quite varied, and none of them held very long. This is consistent psychologically with the sort of person that the rest of his situation indicates he is. Do you mean Porter, not Pierce?
  - droithomme 15y ago
    Oops, sorry, yes. (Would correct, but edit link has expired.)
shareme 15y ago
by CEO's own twisted logic every non game engineer employee is the weakest link including the company secretary..
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
kamaal 15y ago
When a CEO thinks about his own interests and the interest of his product : He is upholding the ideals of company, competition and capitalism. When a Employee things about his own interests and the interest of his product : He is selfish, evil and a non team player. Good hardworking people != somebody who MUST work for free sacrificing their time and energy to make somebody else a millionaire.

366 points by lleims 15y ago

Can't help but think this whole controversy must be (at least in part) motivated by that $30-million for "employee retention" mentioned in the article. I suspected as much when I first saw the uproar on Twitter, but didn't know if the Zyna/OMGPOP deal had any such incentive. Does anyone know how those retention clauses usually work?

muyuu 15y ago
Yep... I'd be interested in knowing how much did they lose by not keeping all employees, and why wouldn't they just leave Conectrode alone.

lhnz 15y ago

This is probably the most immature and mean thing I've seen for months. But can't we just ignore it?

ericflo 15y ago
That would require setting down the pitchforks.
rbarooah 15y ago
Why shouldn't this kind of attitude be publicly questioned?
sehugg 15y ago
I believe that accepting a portion of a $200 million payout from public investors subjects you to a certain amount of criticism.

tzs 15y ago

The subject misquotes the tweet. It did not say "Shay Pierce". It just said it was the one employee who turned down going to Zynga. However, there was a second tweet that did explicitly mention Pierce. Here's a screenshot showing both: http://i.imgur.com/Dob8n.jpg http://i.imgur.com/Dob8n.jpg The text of the other tweet is "What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many...". These tweets were on March 30, so they are not April fools jokes.

mattkirman 15y ago
Shay Pierce was the only employee not to go to Zynga [1]. Even though the tweet doesn't explicitly mention Shay Pierce I'd say that the subject is still fairly accurate. [1] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167244/Turning_down_Zynga_Why_I_opted_out_of_the_210M_Omgpop_buy.php http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/167244/Turning_down_Zynga...
- latch 15y ago
  I know this is pedantic but the subject is a quote, so your parent is correct. It really should have either used square brackets around the name, or been written differently. Personally, I feel that once you open a double-quote there's a certain responsibility.
  - rictic 15y ago
    The adjacent tweet from the CEO mentions Shay by name. I'm usually a stickler for this kind of thing as well, but this one reads as entirely unambiguous to me.
    - latch 15y ago
      But it isn't about ambiguity. If someone said: Our window for reaching its peak was gone. I sat in our tent, unable to do anything, while my dream of climbing Mount Everest faded It's wrong to quote them as saying "Our window for reaching Mount Everest's peak was gone" Even though the "its" is clearly referring to Mount Everest. There are a couple options, the simplest being: "Our window for reaching [Mount Everest's] peak was gone" What worries me is that people don't know this. That you can just substitute/fill in a quote because it's obvious that's what the person meant. Rather, it should be thought of as a recording device that can only play back exactly what the person said.

zackattack 15y ago

this is the former president/founder of Teach for America...

usaar333 15y ago
president. while quite early, not considered a founder

JanezStupar 15y ago

If this is an April 1st it is in extremely bad taste. If it is true, then I gues that OMGPOP will be a great addition to Zyngas "culture".

FreakLegion 15y ago
The tweet appears to be real: https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/185901238477537281 https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/185901238477537281

v21 15y ago

Sounds like he's well shot of them. And this seems bizarre behaviour on OMGPOP's part - he was entirely complimentary to OMGPOP and he publicly disclaimed credit for Draw Something. Even if you did hate him and the press he stirred up, the best way to make it go away is to completely ignore it. Why on Earth would you make this the story?

deleted 15y ago
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brooknam 15y ago
It was a poor decision, but I can see being furious/frustrated that the story of your company's success had mutated into one on how your new parent owner was evil.
- wpietri 15y ago
  True, but he shouldn't blame Shay Pierce. Porter's the one who decided to do a deal with Zynga. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. Further, Porter's the one who set up the retention process in a way that forced somebody out the door over a perfectly reasonable issue. A manager who's first instinct for a problem is to blame others has a big problem. One who does it publicly is a fool.

tankenmate 15y ago

Sour grapes; makes you wonder if they intended all along to embrace and extend Connectrode.

v21 15y ago

Notch weighs in : https://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/186359914657091585 https://twitter.com/#!/notch/status/186359914657091585

Jare 15y ago

[Edit]: Oups sorry, this was already linked in the original article. Apparently the company's backlash against Shay Pierce had begun on Thursday: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2012%2F03%2F29%2Fbusinessinsiderthe-one-omgpop-engin.DTL http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2012%...

Achshar 15y ago
from what that article makes it look like, its simply Pierce's word against the company's. both have their share of things to "fight for". Pierce has his game and public image and OMGPOP has PR and it's recent sale to zynga.
wpietri 15y ago
It dumbfounds me when alleged journalists print anonymous slander like this. Whatever one thinks of Shay Pierce's editorial, he signed his name to it and is answering questions about it.

zrgiu_ 15y ago

Like Notch said... "you are an insane idiot!". What did the CEO of OMGPOP had to gain from making those remarks ? He surely didn't expect the world to take his side.. Even if Shay Pierce really was "the weakest link of the team", you just don't say that. You just got bought for $200 million, now it's the time to show that you deserved to be the CEO of that company, by being diplomatic, respecting those around you (or who used to be around you) and now calculating your every move. Your opinion no longer just affects yourself, it affects your whole company, as well as (in a lesser extent), the company that just bought you.

ChrisNorstrom 15y ago
True. It is indeed very unprofessional. But how come people like him are held up to such high standards? When you're not anyone important you can be brutally honest and say what you want like everyone else does. But as soon as you're in the public eye you're put on this pedestal. This is what scares the hell out of me. I'm a very uncensored person who says what he means and means what he says (and am an asshole sometimes). So the thought that one day IF I'm successful in getting my business off the ground a life of censorship awaits me. :( Then I see celebrities like Snoop Dog (who owned a porn company), Sarah Silverman (who has some of the most offensive jokes imaginable), lil john (self explanatory), Colin Farrel, Charlie Sheen, Lindsey Lohan, and other well known figures who say and do anything they want yet still have successful careers, keep starring in movies, and even get in on really good business deals and endorsements. Lets not forget the Lady Gaga / Polaroid event where during the unveiling she said "smile you're fucking famous" and other unprofessional phrases. It's like there's absolutely NO consequence for them. I guess because it's their "image" and it's "expected". So I guess the moral of the story is, become an offensive comedian /or/ celebrity known for being crazy and work your way up towards serious entrepreneur. That way you can talk shit and get away with it. OR start out as the well spoken guy, and just 1 accidental F-bomb later, show up on the news as the bad guy and get thrown out by your company board. EDIT: ALSO, wtf did Notch gain by saying "You're an insane idiot"?! What did he gain from his remark?
- tbsdy 15y ago
  People like him are held up to high standards because they have responsibilities and are paid accordingly. It's called leadership. Leaders watch what they say. As for celebrities acting badly, this doesn't make it particularly admirable. I should point out that no F-bomb was used by the CEO in question - he merely showed a complete lack of class. There really was no upside. A lot of people wouldn't have known, or perhaps wouldn't have cared, that Shay didn't join the new company. I'd suggest that the OMGPOP CEO be very careful about what he says. Saying someone was the "weakest link" in a team with no backup might lead to defamation proceedings.

Uchikoma 15y ago

How low.

k-a-r 15y ago
a new low.

ktizo 15y ago

I suspect that the ceo might actually be the weakest employee on the team.

meow 15y ago

Looks like he would fit very well with Zynga.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

geuis 15y ago

Well, I had ignored the whole Draw Something phenomenon until a few days ago. I downloaded the game, and for the last 3-4 days have been finding myself enjoying it quite a bit and anxiously refreshing the app to see if my game partners had updated their drawings. Needless to say, having just read this I deleted the app a couple minutes ago. They can keep my dollar, for all the good it will do them. Remember that if you choose to uninstall the app, also go into Facebook and remove the app from their as well.

mcfunley 15y ago

Classy move

thetron 15y ago

Sounds to me like Shay Pierce was the smartest employee on the team.

RexRollman 15y ago

I don't understand this. Pierce didn't slam OMGPOP, from what I have read, just Zynga's unwillingness to exempt his personal project from its IP clutches. I have to wonder why OMGPOP's CEO felt the need to do this.

fleitz 15y ago
He sounds incredibly insecure about it which probably belies a lot of the truth about what Shay Pierce contributed to the team. Shay probably didn't have a lot at stake and it was just a job, as a leader it's a sign of leadership failure if your troops don't follow you which is what the CEO is likely insecure about. He's also working at Zynga and who knows what the management team will think next week about what OMGPOP really contributed to Zynga. Both of them look incredibly insecure, but Mr. Porter is the guy with $200 mm in the bank who is expected to show some class. If Shay's weak why even pay attention, just smile that you avoided bringing a weak link with you.
ajays 15y ago
My thoughts exactly. My first hunch was: Pincus (CEO of Zynga) put him up to it (or called him out, "how did you ever hire this asshole?"), and Porter jumped at the chance to please his new boss.

j_baker 15y ago

Porter forgot the number 1 rule of politics: If your opponent is making a mistake, don't stop him. I understand what Pierce is saying (and can't help sympathizing), but I can't help thinking that writing that editorial was poor taste on Pierce's part, and probably would have reflected poorly on him had Porter kept his mouth shut and not turned him into a martyr. I mean, if you disagree with a potential employer's" values", it's career suicide to write a widely distributed Op-Ed about it unless that value is something like "Don't club baby seals" and you have hard proof that said employer is actively clubbing baby seals. Calling them evil over what is essentially a contract dispute (even if it's a perfectly valid contract dispute) would make me think twice before negotiating a contract with him. If he's writing an Op-Ed about them, what's to prevent him from writing an Op-Ed about me if he doesn't like my terms?

moe 15y ago
you have hard proof that said employer is actively clubbing baby seals From all we've read about Zynga they seem to fit the bill just shy of actually clubbing animals...
- nielsandersen 15y ago
  It'd be a great sequel to Farmville. Imagine the viral traffic you could get when people have seen "moe clubbed two obnoxious baby seals" in your facebook ticker a few times an hour for a while.
roguecoder 15y ago
I highly doubt dissing on Zynga when he didn't take a job there is going to hurt his chances of being hired by other software shops (for one thing, we all sit around dissing on Zynga too.) I respect honesty, priorities and transparency. I'd hire the guy. We aren't MBAs, after all: our goal isn't to hide behind a web of obscurity while we sell our clients bonds too toxic for us to hold. We want to hire people with side projects as long as they won't distract from their work for us. He will have lost some crappy jobs at crappy companies that want cogs instead of collaborators. I don't think it's going to be a major disappointment for him.
15y ago

scott_w 15y ago

What a fool. Shay Pierce's article was incredibly polite and graceful, so there's no way OMGPOP can come off looking like anything but pathetic and vindictive. I think the worst thing I've heard our CEO say about a former employee is "it was time for the company and X to part ways" after X took a job elsewhere, and this was an internal meeting. We don't take to tweeting the inner workings of our company.

huggyface 15y ago
"Earlier this week – days after Zynga bought OMGPOP for $210 million – a now former OMGPOP engineer named Shay Pierce wrote a column for gaming news Web site Gamasutra explaining that he would not join Zynga because it is "evil." He said that companies like Zynga think of users as "weak-minded cash cows."" Come on. OMGPOP was a fast rising company with a very green CEO. Expectations that they're going to act like the CEO of Oracle (boom, bad example) or something seems out of place. The CEO is a person just like everyone else, and had a moment of weakness. The CEO took it personally. And rightly so, because in his implications Pierce was saying that everyone else were willing to join an "evil" company that treats people as "weak minded cash cows". When we make personal statements of values and their justifications ("I don't eat meat because I don't like murdering innocent animals, blood on my hands"), we naturally raise the hairs of those who make different decisions. EDIT: Normally I just bear those downvotes, but in this case I find them a little disturbing. The whole narrative around this has taken on a distinctly "we are the 99%!" type of schism. The CEO is a human being too, and there is no reason to value or respect the opinion of Pierce.
- hipsterelitist 15y ago
  I'd hardly call Dan a "very green" CEO. http://www.linkedin.com/in/danporter http://www.linkedin.com/in/danporter
- blankenship 15y ago
  "Very green" is a bit of a misnomer here—Porter's been the CEO of OMGPOP since 2009, and was a SVP at Richard Branson's Virgin Group before that. "Moment of weakness" maybe, but not from an inexperienced guy.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

doktrin 15y ago

I'm glad I hadn't yet bought into this particular craze. There is no way I will sponsor a company whose leadership behaves in this manner.

itsprofitbaron 15y ago

FWIW Dan Porter (OMGPOP CEO) has responded on Twitter[1] saying: What I meant to say was... I want to celebrate the people who worked on the game. Who have stuck together. They are everything. Thank you. He also responded to Notch[2] saying: @notch it's been a the craziest ride. So yes I may be temporarily insane. I just wanted my team who stuck with us to shine. [1] https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186436787617529856 https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186436787617529856 [2] https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186439284767719424 https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186439284767719424

deleted 15y ago
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andypants 15y ago
He also said this: What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many... Although now he's deleted the offending tweets and posted this: I'm sorry for what I said on Twitter last night. No excuses.

ditojim 15y ago

Stay classy, yc...

mtoddh 15y ago

I'm curious, could these sort of statements made by a CEO in regards to a former employee be crossing the line into defamation? As in, if Pierce is looking for a job in the future and this is what a potential employer finds...

sgentle 15y ago
Could well. I've heard a lot of larger companies have a policy of only providing references of the form "X worked here from Y to Z" for that exact reason.
- tbsdy 15y ago
  I also agree - but then he said something potentially defamatory :-) However, I think if an employee looks up Shay's details, they will first find his op-ed calling Zynga "evil". I guess if they are concerned about the OMGPOP tweet, then they will be REALLY worried about the op-ed!
sgentle 15y ago
Could well. I've heard a lot of larger companies have a policy of only providing references of the form "X worked here from Y to Z" for that exact reason.

mattmaroon 15y ago

"Porter’s response to Pierce is being seen by many as petty." If by "many" you mean everyone who knows what the word petty means, then yes, it is seen by many as petty. As a CEO this reflects very poorly on you. If he was so weak, why was he on your team?

mjwalshe 15y ago
um I and those with any HR background would call it "bringing the company into disrepute" and "Gross Misconduct"

hipsterelitist 15y ago

I'm glad this happened in such a public way. I once heard him speak at a VC event about his firing practices with the same sort of attitude. I won't get into the details, but I was shocked that such an individual could be so championed, but he's quite business savvy and very personable... I guess as long as you're on his good side. Very good fit for Zynga.

wmeredith 15y ago
>Very good fit for Zynga. This was the first thing I thought when I read the headline.
- Macsenour 15y ago
  I had the same thought. His "explanation" read like spin to me. Which fits well with the Zynga style.
moocow01 15y ago
I'm glad these management types cluster at Zynga - its hopefully a few less we all have to deal with everywhere else
- robgough 15y ago
  I wonder if people said the same thing about EA? And look where that got us :(
sbisker 15y ago
I'd be curious to hear what some of his "firing practices" were, if you wouldn't mind sharing. You seem reticent to get into details, perhaps not to add fuel to the fire - but these were practices he spoke publicly and proudly about, on the record, if I understand you correctly - and I'm curious just how people like him tick (if only so I can learn to avoid them).

scoot 15y ago

Draw Something... deleted. (Not that it will make any difference to OMGPOP, but as a matter of principal). Connectrode [1] - purchased. It's not my usual kind of game, but it's the best way I can think of to show support. [1]http://www.deepplaid.com/connectrode/Site/Connectrode.html http://www.deepplaid.com/connectrode/Site/Connectrode.html [Edit - actually it's pretty good!]

nielsandersen 15y ago
I bought it too. Any tiny fly in the ointment for the people who brought Farmville on us is worth a dollar to me.

rdl 15y ago

I bought a copy of Connectrode (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/connectrode/id438450056?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/connectrode/id438450056?mt=8) to support the guy, but it's actually a pretty fun game on its own. It'll be hilarious if he ends up on the leaderboard because of his former boss's lack of civility and professional decorum.

krig 15y ago
Same here. It's underdeveloped, but I think it could be brilliant with another revision or two. I hope he does well.
mattvanhorn 15y ago
Same here.
sbisker 15y ago
Me too! It's like Mah Jong meets Dr Mario. My only qualm is that it's a little too easy to master - but that could be easily changed.
andersh 15y ago
99% of the reviews are gushing 5-star Zynga-related back pats. Added in the last 4 days.

verelo 15y ago

I would hate to be a recruiter for these guys now. Ignoring that i hate recruiters already...I don't think this will help their case. In general I'm just amazed by this. Is it even legal for your employer (even if it be an ex-employer) to talk about you in this way?

georgemcbay 15y ago
I am not a lawyer, but I do know that HR departments at larger companies coach their employees not to speak poorly of any ex-employee for fear of defamation lawsuits. The industry standard even for horribly incompetent employees is to say only when the employee worked for you, what their salary is, and on the very edge of acceptability is "would you hire this employee again?" as a simple yes/no only question. Most employers would have a fit if you got on the phone, even in a private conversation, and bad-mouthed an ex-employee you managed because of defamation lawsuit fears. And that's from a one-on-one, he said/she said deal. Blasting this stuff over twitter is so much worse. tl; dr -- Zynga's lawyers are probably in crisis mode right now.

LVB 15y ago

I'm sure we'll get the real story from Zynga PR on how Porter's was one of the accounts hacked via Tweetdeck. In other news, they're excited to announce the opening of their Siberian office.

amitagrawal 15y ago

Within the same industry there are people like Dan Porter and Notch. Both are at the top of their game. With one major difference.. One bad mouths a former employee because he refused to join the acquirer on grounds of principles. The other distributes wealth among employees. I have no doubt Mr Pincus and Mr. Pierce will have a lot in common at Zynga.

zaroth 15y ago

Most times I see a sensationalized twitter post where everyone is saying, "I can't believe they just said that!" I just look at it and shrug, and wonder where the PC police will strike next. This tweet, however, had me staring at the screen in disbelief. Now, I had read Shay's post when it made headlines on HN. Maybe I have to go back and re-read it, but I didn't click away thinking that OMGPOP's best programmer decided to bail on the buy-out. I don't think Shay claimed they would fail miserably without him. Obviously Shay was seeking to gain some publicity off recent events, maybe even boost revenue on his side-project game. Yeah, I can see how Dan Porter might think Shay's pissing in his soup. So, Dan, respond to the damn allegations, don't just go all ad hominem on Shay's ass. I would have gone with something like "I disagree with what Shay had to say about OMGPOP, we're loving it here at the evil empire, but I wish him the best at his next venture." You even have 2 characters to spare, Dan!

tonetheman 15y ago

Just another pathetic roach who works for zynga... nothing new to see here move on.

subdigital 15y ago

Even more reason to buy the developer's independent game, Connectrode. It's only $0.99. http://www.deepplaid.com/connectrode/Site/Connectrode.html http://www.deepplaid.com/connectrode/Site/Connectrode.html Show him he made the right decision.

prodigal_erik 15y ago
I'd like to but can't, because his "actively destructive to the healthy functioning of that ecosystem" also applies to Apple's iOS app store and the independence of my profession. I hope he reconsiders the landlord he accepted.

toddheasley 15y ago

I'm mostly wondering how long these lunches were that they even rate mentioning, let alone mentioning BEFORE code quality?

remi 15y ago

Looks like he just apologized: https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186460580201238529 https://twitter.com/#!/tfadp/status/186460580201238529

jaylevitt 15y ago
And actually apologized: "sorry for what I said", not "sorry if anyone was offended by what I said". I still don't think it looks good for him - apologies only mitigate, not erase - but that's the right response. If he follows up with a "it was a stressful transition and I was afraid that Pierce's understandable legal concerns would sour the whole deal and frankly I drank way too much", all the better.
- wpietri 15y ago
  I dunno. Reading his longer explanation in VentureBeat, I'm not sure that's an actual apology. Being sorry for what you said's a little vague. I'd rather see something like: "I apologize unreservedly to Shay Pierce. What I said about him was untrue and unkind. I regret that we X", where X is the mistake he feels he made in handling Pierce's situation.
- asr 15y ago
  On twitter, it looks like he apoligzed: "sorry for what I said ... no excuses." But then he e-mails VentureBeat with--you guessed it--a bunch of excuses: When the game blows up ... and one employee, who didn’t work on the product, and is more about his own games then the team, jumps in the press and becomes the story, it is very hurtful to all the people who are on team. [W]hen you give blood, sweat and tears on something and someone who doesn’t even work on the project, and prioritizes his own games as his own professional development over the team, becomes the story it is very demoralizing. [M]y point is that it wasn’t about Shay. It was about the 41 other people who made it happen. Those are the people I would throw myself in front of the train for and those are the people I want to celebrate. So, to recap, Shay was fired (for refusing to accept a change in the terms of his employment) and wrote about it. Porter still seems to take offense that Shay wrote anything to distract from OMGPOP's preferred message, continues to call out Shay for not being a team player, and says he would throw himself in front of a bus for every OMGPOP employee except Shay. He didn't apologize. After an apology, you need to back up your words with actions.

alextingle 15y ago

So Porter screwed Pierce over in a way that would be illegal where I live, while pocketing $200m for himself. And now he's libelled him? Wow. Just wow.

loso 15y ago

While I don't agree with how Dan Porter came across on Twitter I think I can understand the frustration. You are having one of the best days of your life and then out of left field someone you know does an article that sideswipes it. I read the Shay Pierce article when it was published and it was very respectful of his former employers...but it didn't have to happen now. Why did he write that article NOW? There is already a well deserved Anti Zynga sentiment and that article made his fellow employees look as if they were traitors to the forces of good. He admits that he has done work for Zynga in the past but then drops lines like "Not everyone shares my values, and not everyone is in a position to pick and choose job offers.". While true I can see how it can rub the people who choose to move forward with the Zynga acquisition the wrong way. I don't agree how Dan Porter dealt with it, but I can understand being upset by that article being published right at this moment.

Klinky 15y ago
There is already a well deserved Anti Zynga sentiment and that article made his fellow employees look as if they were traitors to the forces of good. How would holding off on the article change the contents? It wouldn't. Timing matters, he struck while the iron was hot. There is no reason he should self-censor himself for the benefit of a company that looks like it's run by a bit of an ass.
- loso 15y ago
  I'm not talking about for the benefit of the company. I am talking about for the benefit of his fellow employees who took the deal. His article does not put them in the best light.
  - nknight 15y ago
    They made a choice, why should he be trying to shield them from the consequences of their choice?
steventruong 15y ago
Understanding his frustration doesn't excuse his actions.

begus 15y ago

I guess some CEO have contempt for their employees?

jimfl 15y ago

App idea: Twitter client with a breathalyzer.

read_wharf 15y ago
That's actually not a bad idea, particularly if you generalize it. You could make a device, or you could do some cool text analysis that predicted whether you are drunk. I have the Thunderbird Confirm-Address addon installed, to give me one last chance to check if I'm sending a message to someone who probably shouldn't receive it. Like the boss. Which happened. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/confirm-address-5582/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/confirm-a... I remember once I sent some email to some friends, after a very hard night of drinking. I knew I was drunk while I wrote, and I tried my damnedest to write coherently, with no errors. I was very proud when I checked it over and clicked Send. I was astounded the next morning when I read it over, at how obviously drunk the writer was.

pasbesoin 15y ago

Like attracts like?

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

samstave 15y ago

My reply tweet: >Loved Draw Something, saddened by your acquisition. Disgusted by your tweet Have deleted Draw Something. Will never use Zynga Games.

samstave 15y ago

You know, this guy just sold his company for ~$200MM -- I'm going to believe that he took several thousand and bought a shitload of coke and was high as a kite when he tweeted this - while saying to himself "There it is, my tweet. There is NO WAY this was a bad idea!"

unimpressive 15y ago

There's a lot of words in the comments; for me it boils down to: Dan Porter has gone from startup to upstart. With all the negative implications that word brings. And with all the brevity a tweet requires.

larrys 15y ago

Damage control: "Porter admitted that the he was harsh in his language describing Pierce. “Yes it was, but my point is that it wasn’t about Shay. It was about the 41 other people who made it happen,” Porter wrote. “Those are the people I would throw myself in front of the train for and those are the people I want to celebrate.” http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3784322 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3784322

spitfire 15y ago

My browser was showing me pictures of fat cats at the bottom of that article. Then I figured out adblock was showing me cats for april fools day, and I was a bit disappointed.

joejohnson 15y ago

Good. This community hadn't had a good Zynga-bashing thread in a few days. Let's repeat the same tired anecdotes and all jump on the bandwagon hating Zynga! Don't forget to downvote any minority opinions or skeptics of the evil Zynga narrative.

joejohnson 15y ago
Really?

ThomPete 15y ago

Aprils fool?

michaelochurch 15y ago

Warning: this is going to get very long and ranty. I worked on Wall Street 2006 to 2008, and I had friends on the Street before that. I went into "tech" in 2008, saw the mini-crash and read the Sequoia ScareDoc, and now I'm watching this bubble. Wall Street has a bad reputation, but I've seen far worse ethics and much less professionalism in technology, which is supposed to be above that garbage. On Wall Street, people know what the rules are. They're pretty clear, because the scummiest shit has generally been tried. You front-run your customer, you go to jail. You get a reputation for being unethical, it ruins your career. You defraud people, you get fired for life from the securities industry. You have to take a Series 7, so you have no excuse. Sure, the industry has some slimeballs and some slip through, but not so brazenly, and they at least are supposed to feel bad about it. In technology these days, there are so many people who don't give the square root of a shit about making good software but just want to play the angles. The vast majority of them aren't engineers, those who are tend engineers turning into junior executives by putting their ethics through a fire sale, but none of those fuckers belong here. Google: generally professional and probably ethical macroscopically, but careerist to a fault. Bureaucratically overgrown. Full of horrid legacy systems that are built to flip-- specifically, to be "interesting" enough to merit a promotion for the original architect, who then moves on before it goes into maintenance phase and falls to pieces. That's how you get promoted at the big G. Launch and flee, every 18 to 24 months. Startupland: I can name two major ($100M+ valuation) VC-funded companies that have committed major ethical faults in the past 6 months (one wasn't published and won't be, one developed last week and might be in the next 3 weeks). Both of these startups have some of the best, nicest, and most interesting engineers I've ever met... but are run by scumbag executives that would have fit in better with 1980s private equity people than with the (more decent, much more boring) typical Wall Street quant. I've never met a VC and I'm sure they're not all bad, but my theory is that the scumbaggery in so many VC-funded startups has to come from the top. I assume they fund people who are like them, and that would make sense, given that VCs are mostly MBAs, and something like 60 percent of B-school students at top schools cheat in their coursework. Why do I bring this up? Because it's fucking nuts that some unprofessional, vindictive jerk like this guy was just acquired for $200 million. The world is seriously on tilt here. What are we even doing?

jpdoctor 15y ago

kapowaz 15y ago

I'm not sure how many folks who read Hacker News work in videogame development, but for any who are, I'd like to propose something simple: refuse to work for Zynga. Extend this boycott to any videogames company that behaves in this contemptuous and insulting manner towards the people who actually generate the real worth in the company. Sentiment towards the likes of EA and Sony are at an all-time low for their consumer-hostile behaviour, and I think the market is ripe for being shaken up. We've already seen in recent weeks that the games-playing public are prepared to reach into their wallets even in the middle of an economic downturn and help fund videogame projects through Kickstarter. If the people who make videogames refuse to be treated like disposable commodities by obnoxious pricks like Dan Porter by boycotting working for them, then eventually these organisations will have to change their ways, or risk being replaced by companies who will treat their staff with respect and humility.

read_wharf 15y ago

Who was the second weakest? Third weakest?

droithomme 15y ago

So this guy Pierce wrote his game Connectrode before he even went to work for OMGPOP. It's completely standard to NOT seize ownership of preexisting IP as part of hiring, unless that's a negotiated part of the deal for which one is compensated. I always have a disclosure list of my preexisting IP as a rider to contracts, this has never been an issue anywhere. Trying to seize ownership without negotiation and compensation is an instant "no thanks" as far as I am concerned; it indicates bad faith. It seems since Pierce is the only one who ran into this problem that he is the only person working there who had actually written an entire game from start to finish and created a company to sell it. That means he is the most experienced and competent person there. The assertion that he is incompetent and they were about to fire him can't be taken seriously at all; it's obviously said in spite. It is interesting that CEO Dan Porter identifies himself in the tagline to his @tfadp twitter account as "creator of epic game Draw Something". This pretty clearly suggests he created that game. Which actually, he didn't. He doesn't even know how to code or to design, and the game itself is a clone of another game so he didn't come up with the concept either. Only in this blow-up's damage control attempts does he even acknowledge that anyone other than himself was involved in creating the game. His assertions that Pierce was stealing credit are obviously psychological projection about his own actions. In his CV we see that Pierce has a long history of positions, quite varied, and none of them held very long. This is consistent psychologically with the sort of person that the rest of his situation indicates he is.

wging 15y ago
>In his CV we see that Pierce has a long history of positions, quite varied, and none of them held very long. This is consistent psychologically with the sort of person that the rest of his situation indicates he is. Do you mean Porter, not Pierce?
- droithomme 15y ago
  Oops, sorry, yes. (Would correct, but edit link has expired.)

shareme 15y ago

by CEO's own twisted logic every non game engineer employee is the weakest link including the company secretary..

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

kamaal 15y ago

When a CEO thinks about his own interests and the interest of his product : He is upholding the ideals of company, competition and capitalism. When a Employee things about his own interests and the interest of his product : He is selfish, evil and a non team player. Good hardworking people != somebody who MUST work for free sacrificing their time and energy to make somebody else a millionaire.