Oh. Why?
Well, this is how it began. First off, during my browses over at The Corporation aka the worthwhile part of the Waterthread community, I saw this thread. The title of the thread?
Themis Group Hires inFamous Joe of Waterthread.
Okay. You know who Themis Group is right? They are the MMOG guru consulting group that helps small games succeed? Their primary target is MMOGs, and they’re supposed to know everything about MMOGs? One might even say, without MMOGs there is no Themis Group. Oh hell, let me quote.
ENSURE SUCCESS FOR YOUR ONLINE GAME
The Themis Group is an international provider of marketing, management, client generation and customer support services to developers and publishers of online PC and console games, websites, and other community driven services within the interactive entertainment industry.
Whether you are in a game concept development mode, preparing to launch and support an online game, or looking to salvage an effort gone awry, our team of industry veterans and pioneers stand ready to bring their knowledge to bear on the problems you face and the problems you may not yet realize you will face.
We understand and embrace the components behind online success and the benefits that result from proper preparation.
Most online games crash and burn. A few become highly successful. We can make the difference for you. And we have the track record to prove it.
Well, I pretty much ran them over in the past when they cemented a deal with IGE. I was none to pleased, and basically told them they were idiots and going to die (as a company) a horrible flaming death.
You know though, when I call somebody an idiot, I say it full of love. Hell, I like ooze it, syrupy, sticky sweet. Plus it was an attack at them as a company, not the people behind the company who I actually quite like. Since then, they have apparently broken it off with IGE (which makes me like them more) but then they did something I certainly didn’t expect.
Our friend Joe of Waterthread (remember Joe?) was involved in the community scandal of ‘selling out’. During his brilliant era of selling out, he had some choice words to say about MMOGs. Some of these words included gems like this one:
“Now, the sites obviously haven't been completed on the new server yet. As such, feel free to poke around on the media area of the site. That's where movie and book reviews from Haemish and me, as well as a few new faces, will appear. Gasp, more content on the front page. And even better: it's content I fucking care about.
Let's face facts. I don't play mmogs anymore. I'm willing to bet most of us don't. Those of us who do play one, and don't really give a fuck about what's regurgitated on the front page. We stick around for the message boards, the inbred cockwaving, and year-old, unfunny, inside jokes.”
Now, Themis was looking for some, you know, really friendly, really personable people to expand their company. One of the positions was Customer Service. I’m not entirely sure what this position required, but assumably it involved dealing with people on some level in regards to MMOGs.
Well, hot damn, who could be a better candidate than Joe? Good old hateful Joe. The guy who no longer cared about MMOGs, nor did he play MMOGs. Well, considering it seems often this industry is all about the sadistic qualities of making games people hate to play, perhaps there was no better person for the job than somebody who hates the games, and hates the people who play the games.
Admittedly, the best part about this entire thing is an MMOG consulting company hiring on somebody who has said in the past that they don’t play MMOGs. That my friends, is irony like butter, it just melts in your mouth. Of course, there’s some better stuff coming up. Indeed.