Good Luck, Arlie

[Draft Dodger]

http://www.400softwarestudios.com/in...howtopic=63420

Arlie Rahn is leaving 400 Studios.
I know he put a tremendous amount of time and effort into that company. I'm sure this decision is leaving him with similar levels of relief and disappointment. I have a feeling he'll be successful at wherever his next stop is, but good luck all the same.

[CamEdwards]

wow. I remember interviewing Arlie when his first game was released (back when I was doing sports talk). Best of luck to you, my friend.

[CraigSca]

Arlie,

I've always known you to be a straight-up guy. You have a bright future in this industry and I know any development company would be lucky to have you. Continued good luck in the future...

[Crapshoot]

hmm- his wife is staying on ? that's interesting...

[Bee]

That's interesting. I also wish Arlie the best. I consider him a good programmer and game developer and hope he can continue a full-time commitment to developing games, otherwise it's a great loss to the text sim community. IMO, it's another major blow to .400 Studios to lose what I consider their top game developer. It will interesting to see who takes over the development of his games.

[Subby]

Interesting, to say the least.

Seems like so much is going on under the surface there...whatever became of the druez/stallings accusations?

I notice that Arlie does not directly thank Stallings and referes to him as "Joe Stallings", not Joe or anything like that...

I respect Arles' desire to keep the personal stuff private, but that doesn't mean I can't wildly speculate

[kurtism]

subby - if you link over to the offtopic forum, there is a thread about 400 ownership near the top. apparently, stallings was fired and there is litigation pending which is attempting to force a sale of his 50% share of the company...

[Ksyrup]

Man, the soap opera continues.

[SirFozzie]

Quite frankly, to me at least, it looks like we're seeing the slow implosion of .400. This immediately takes the driving force behind TPF2 and TDCB2 out.. anybody taking over the code will have to figure out Arles various idiosyncracies in coding (every programmer has them)

It's sad really.

I wish Arlie best of luck, and here's hoping .400 survives this.

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by kurtism

subby - if you link over to the offtopic forum, there is a thread about 400 ownership near the top. apparently, stallings was fired and there is litigation pending which is attempting to force a sale of his 50% share of the company...

So...would that mean Farrah is the sole owner, if this is successful? And Arlie left the company? What's left of the company - this makes no sense.

[Ksyrup]

From a post by Farrah:

Joe Stallings remains a 50% owner. However, since he is no longer employed with .400 Software Studios, and has since started a competing gaming company, he is not listed on the staff page.

Since this information is publically available for anyone who knows where to find it, I can explain a little on why Mr. Stallings is still a legal owner, even though he was terminated. Upon termination, the terminated member is required to surrender their ownership in the LLC to the company in exchange for cash equal to the fair market value of their interest. Mr. Stallings has yet to submit a price which represents fair market value, and as such he continues to be a member. The company continues to burn up cash in legal fees trying to force him to do so, legal fees which decrease the amount of cash the company is willing to pay for his interest.

As of Friday, July 30, 2004, I acquired the remaining 25% interest in the company. Combined with my original ownership, I am now the other 50% owner, and the managing member of the LLC. Arlie Rahn is no longer an owner in the LLC that owns .400 Software Studios. Any future development services or projects Mr. Rahn decides to provide to .400, including TPF 2, will be on the same terms as the other developers. Unfortunately, I cannot go into those terms as they are confidential between the company and the developers.



And then there is a link in that thread to Joe's new company, but the specific link to the games section no longer works. And, it turns out Power Politics is one of the games that Joe worked on with his new company, but there's also a promo tie-in between PP and .400. Whew!

[Bee]

. Any future development services or projects Mr. Rahn decides to provide to .400, including TPF 2, will be on the same terms as the other developers.

This kind of implies to me that Arlie leaving the company could be much more a legal issue in the Joe Stalling saga than of him actually "leaving the company". Perhaps they needed someone to have an equal share in the company to that of Joe? Just a thought...

[Subby]

I wonder *why* Stallings was fired...

[SirFozzie]

Bee, this is from Arlie's "farewell" post in the .400 forum.

How does this impact you and the games you have come to love? Well, .400 owns Total Pro Football and Tournament Dreams College Basketball. The company tells me they will continue to sell both. I have agreed to offer tech support and will continue to post and monitor the forums for technical issues for both of those products for the next year.

I will not be producing any future games for .400. Any projects that I was working on stay with .400, and .400 can do what they wish with them. I am walking away empty handed.

[miked]

Well, then he could still program and not be an owner or whatever. I poste dover there that it's too bad .400SS seems to drive customers and developers/programmers away. They have pretty crappy management from what we've seen, all their releases are buggy and either late or comletely fubared. Hopefully Arlie will go the way of Markus and just do it himself...but I have to imaginge 400SS owns the code and Arlie would have to start from scratch or something. Maybe he can join SI and give us a cool "American Football" game.

[Crapshoot]

meh- I cant say it makes much sense to me to sell your ownership stake in your company to your wife, and then quit, when you are the biggest asset of that company- seems flawed, IMO. Then again, I know nothing about the circumstances, so who knows.

[SirFozzie]

That's what makes me believe that .400 is in the process of winding up.. Arlie even said he's looking for another company (whether his own creation or an established company wasn't said) in the future

I certainly hope this is not the case.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Subby

I wonder *why* Stallings was fired...

Do a little search on this board from a month or ago, and you'll see.

[GrantDawg]

I want to say good luck, too. Arlie is one of the good guys in this business, and I hope he does well at whatever he gets into.

[Bee]

They also could be establishing a sell price for their stock by doing this, which could hurt Joe's lawsuit if he's asking for more. Again, just a thought.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Quite frankly, to me at least, it looks like we're seeing the slow implosion of .400.

Which remains IMO the scenario that will produce the most customer satisfaction in the long run. (Note: that's different than "selling the most units in the long run")

My concern when the company was originally formed was that several individual developers would ultimately produce products that were less than:
a) their own vision and/or potential
b) their most satisfying work to date
c) what they might have accomplished under their own power
d) some combination of the above

My concerns might be summed up with the old saying that goes
"Too many cooks spoil the broth"

Overall, my belief is that my concerns proved true, due to a variety of circumstances.

Perhaps that's a function of having too much/unrealistic faith in what the developers would have/could have accomplished as stand-alone operations.

Or perhaps not.

None of us really know for sure I suppose, but that doesn't preclude having a belief one way or the other.

I harbor no ill-will toward the current management of .400 (heck, I think Farrah is one of the more interesting & intelligent characters I've run across in the gaming world ... not to mention being a whole lot easier on the eyes than most of 'em ), nor do I have anything particular against any of the contract developers (who are all at the very least above the curve in their field IMO).

But there's a ... taint ... associated with the past of the company that, in all honesty, I don't believe I would ever be able to completely forget.

[Daimyo]

Since Arlie pretty much is the company, doesn't him leaving drastically reduce the "fair market value" of the company and thus lower the amount they'd have to pay? I wouldn't be surprised if he's back once the thing with Joe Stallings is settled or if the company just dies and a new, remarkably similar one is founded shortly thereafter.

[Bee]

Originally Posted by Daimyo

Since Arlie pretty much is the company, doesn't him leaving drastically reduce the "fair market value" of the company and thus lower the amount they'd have to pay? I wouldn't be surprised if he's back once the thing with Joe Stallings is settled or if the company just dies and a new, remarkably similar one is founded shortly thereafter.

401 Studios?

[Ksyrup]

Actually, the whole .400 Studios name doesn't quite work, since they've lost both OOTP and PureSim. Maybe that refers to 3-point shooting now?

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by Daimyo

Since Arlie pretty much is the company, doesn't him leaving drastically reduce the "fair market value" of the company and thus lower the amount they'd have to pay? I wouldn't be surprised if he's back once the thing with Joe Stallings is settled or if the company just dies and a new, remarkably similar one is founded shortly thereafter.

This is what I was cooking up in my head as well. Now I apparently missed the thread here a month ago that went into Joe Stallings departure, so I am not fully appraised of all the rumors regarding that situation. This, however, seems like it might be another required step in the process of screwing a shareholder.

[Subby]

Someone have a link to the thread about the reasons behind Stallings getting fired? Couldn't find it on a search...

[Arles]

OK, a couple things here. First, I am not doing this to "stick it to" anyone. For the Joe situation, the fair market value for his redemption is based on the company's state on the date of his termination (which was back in March or April). So, my leaving does not impact that discussion one bit.

The basic situation I was left in was as a member of a company where half of everything I made would go to someone no longer working on the games. When we setup .400, I agreed to put all of my development shares into the company to help build it. The agreement was that Farrah, Joe and myself would then get an amount of money from the company after expenses as compensation. So, regardless of the person, the fact that half of what I would make on future games would go to someone no longer involved in the capacity agreed to when the company started just made little sense to me. Staying in .400 and paying for a new person to do graphics out of my pocket and then seeing half of the money leave after that made developing no longer a feasible option in .400.

Since there were no indications that Joe ever planned to sell off his shares in .400, I didn't see the situation ever changing. Therefore, I had to do the only possible thing I could and leave all the work I did in .400 and pretty much start anew. If Joe does, however, choose to sell his shares it will be based on the state of the company in March, not August.

I have learned a great deal since TDCB and TPF, and would do things drastically different for a future game (based a great deal on comments from people in this and other forums). I also would probably choose different business practices had I the ability to start over again. So, I'm taking this as a new opportunity. Certainly it will take some time and effort for me to get all this setup. But, in the end, I think that the games that I work on will be in better shape because of it.

Again, I want to make sure people understand that this was not a move to "screw the current .400 shareholders", especially since one is my wife. And, I don't think that would be a wise life decision for me The point is that I needed to get out from under all this uncertainty and start in a new situation where I have the freedom and financial ability to once again make games. I also didn't want any current TPF or TDCB owners to feel slighted so I agreed to continue to support for both games with no financial compensation from either Joe or Farrah. Remember, since Farrah is still a 50% owner and we are married, it behooves me to see the company do well as it will help my wife.

For myself, I think this will be a positive move for the future, while certainly more difficult in the interim. I now have the ability to take a blank slate approach to the next game I make without being tied to some aspects of prior games I would probably want to change if given the opportunity. So, I want to thank all of you for the kind words and let you know I will probably rely more on this community than ever for future projects.

I also want to wish future success to Gary, Adam, Farrah and the entire current .400 team and I will do what I can to help with TPF and TDCB. I also wish Joe the best in his future endeavors.

Arlie

[Crapshoot]

Well - good for you then Arlie. good luck. makes more sense now.

[Buzzbee]

Originally Posted by Subby

Someone have a link to the thread about the reasons behind Stallings getting fired? Couldn't find it on a search...

Don't have a link, but the nutshell is that Druez accused Joe of trying to get Druez to write a bad review of FOF2k4 (which I think Druez agreed to do). Then Druez' conscience kicked in a few months later and he tattled. As a result, it came out that Joe's marketing practices/ethics were a little less than stellar. That's the nutshell version as I remember it.

[Bee]

Thanks for clearing things up Arlie. The best news IMO is that you still plan on developing games and I, for one, am looking forward to see what direction you go. Please keep us informed!

B

[SirFozzie]

(sorry.. this is in response to Buzzbee's comment, and not to automatically take the other side)

And as we all know, druez is not above starting shit just to watch the chaos and fun.

There are three sides to every story. Person A's side, Person B's side and the truth. Where you think the truth belongs, closer to Person A or B, is up to you. I know who has credibility and who doesn't to me.

[Fritz]

I guess now would not be the time to discuss publication of my yet to be released game: Sim Dwarf Tossing.

[Ksyrup]

Who are you using for the graphics?

[MrBug708]

I wonder how many other forums get posts from so many other designers and producers of games?

[MrBug708]

Dola

Arlie, feel like moving to New Hampshire?

[Arles]

I don't know, is it less than 105 today there?

Originally Posted by MrBug708

Dola

Arlie, feel like moving to New Hampshire?

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by Arles

Again, I want to make sure people understand that this was not a move to "screw the current .400 shareholders", especially since one is my wife. And, I don't think that would be a wise life decision for me

Actually, I've heard rumors that this is how babies are made.

[Buzzbee]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

(sorry.. this is in response to Buzzbee's comment, and not to automatically take the other side)

And as we all know, druez is not above starting shit just to watch the chaos and fun.

There are three sides to every story. Person A's side, Person B's side and the truth. Where you think the truth belongs, closer to Person A or B, is up to you. I know who has credibility and who doesn't to me.

Wasn't taking a side. Merely replaying the facts as I remembered them. In my opinion, Joe and Druez are both sleaze. Joe for soliciting Jason (Druez) to write a bad review and Jason for writing it.

I hope my post wasn't seen as being pro-Druez and anti-Joe. It wasn't intended to be either. I'm actually anti-both.

[SirFozzie]

What I meant to say was, is there any proof, besides druez's words that Joe actually asked Jason to write that bad review. I didn't see any, and I'm sorry, after druez's many run ins here and at .400 (and probably everywhere else he's been), I wouldn't believe him if he told me water was wet.

But that's cool :d

[Cuckoo]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

Actually, I've heard rumors that this is how babies are made.

Well played.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

What I meant to say was, is there any proof, besides druez's words that Joe actually asked Jason to write that bad review. I didn't see any, and I'm sorry, after druez's many run ins here and at .400 (and probably everywhere else he's been), I wouldn't believe him if he told me water was wet.

But that's cool :d

There was more alleged than that, but without rehashing it all let's just look at it this way. Joe was 50% owner of the company and got fired. You do the math.

[Zippo]

good luck arlie and thanks for the hard work.

[Eaglesfan27]

Good luck Arlie. I look forward to trying out and maybe buying your future work.

[SFL Cat]

Good luck Arles.

[sabotai]

I wasn't all set to beleive druez (nor am I now), but with all of the events that happened after what occured, I have to beleive that Joe was at least up to no good in some respect.

As for Arlie, after his post it does make sense for him to leave. It also, IMO anyway, make it pretty clear that .400's future is that it doesn't have one. All of the developers would probably be better off just going back out on their own. (Then Arlie and the Mrs. could start a new company. One that Joe isn't involved in...oh my god...I just stumbled on their secret plan....I wonder how much Joe would pay for this information...mwahahaha)

[Draft Dodger]

geez - now that I know this is more about getting all their ducks in a row, and not about burnout, I take back all the nice things I said.

[The_herd]

On one hand, I'm glad to see this. Arlie is a good programmer and one of the hardest working people out there. He deserved better than what .400 studios has become. Nothing is going to repair the damage that .400 has suffered through over the past several months.

On the other hand, I was looking forward to seeing how TPF2 would turn out with the experience Arlie picked up from the 1st version. I'll be keeping an eye on what Arlie decides to do and I hope the 1st game he starts working on is new pro football game. SI and Arlie, or Jim and Arlie (I can dream) would be great from a fan's perspective, but Arlie has definately earned the right to take his time and make the best decision for himself.

On a side note, sometimes I wish the gaming community had never evolved to the point it has. I miss the days of just picking up a game and playing it because it was fun and not thinking about the stuff that you can easily read about on message boards.

Good luck Arlie.

[Maple Leafs]

So... if Arlie's games went away, what exactly does .400 have left?

[The_herd]

Originally Posted by Maple Leafs

So... if Arlie's games went away, what exactly does .400 have left?

The games aren't gone. TPF and TDCB are still the property of .400. I'm just not optimistic that the games will be as good as they would have been had Arlie stayed at .400.

Also, TPB 2 is due out soon. Total Extreme Wrestling seems to have quite a following over there. There is a Hockey game that will be releasing its 2nd version. .400 isn't dead, but with Arlie gone, unless TPB 2 and TPF 2 become must haves, I don't think the future of .400 is all that good.

[Buccaneer]

All very interesting. I, too, echo the sentiments that Arlie is one of the good guys and I do wish him much success.

There was a question back when the poop hit the rotary blades that a few of us asked but don't think ever got a clear answer. If you own 50% of the company, who fires you? I would assume in a LLC that such 50% entitles you to 50% of the votes.

But as much as this is interesting, it is very small potatoes in what has gone on in the larger gaming world. Imagine this same soap opera but dealing with multi-million gaming and developing companies.

Finally, I do hope Arlie keeps a presence here and let us know what's next for him. I would be very interested in anything that comes from him.