Why, no, I don't mind working FOR FREE. Dickhead.

At the beginning of this month, the game company I’d been working for, for the last three years, went under. I’d been expecting it for a while now, so it really came as more of a relief than anything else. Still, as I was living paycheck-to-paycheck, a new job was a necessity. I officially became a nervous wreck. Being unemployed sucks.

A friend of mine had been wanting to hire me for a while to work on his company’s game. His company had been trying to get their funding nailed down, though, and so he hadn’t been able to hire me… but when they found out that they might lose me to some other company, the guy they were producing the game for said, “hire him”. According to him, the contract was all but signed, and we’d ramp up into full production.

I worked there for two weeks. I was in bliss. It was exactly the sort of game I wanted to work on, for exactly the sort of game company I wanted to work for.

The past few days, however… sigh

It turns out that the money guy essentially had no intention of getting us a contract. As near as we can tell, all he wanted to do was finagle a percentage of the company, and then sell us off. To this end, he stopped paying us. We’ve officially gone turtle today… and what’s more, I won’t get paid for the last two weeks, since he already owes us money. In other words, I’ve spent the last two weeks working full-time, and I’m not even going to have any income to show for it. I don’t blame the guys I’ve been working with- they were just as screwed as I was. No, I blame the money guy- he knew what he was doing, and knew that he’d be screwing with the lives of ten employees and their families.

Luckily, he’ll be going into breach of contract, and will lose all the money that he’s given us already… well, unless he can do some fancy footwork.

But goddammit, in the meantime, I DON’T HAVE ANY WORK! I’ve got bills that are piling up, that I’d intended to pay this Friday- and I don’t have the money for 'em… all because this pus-dripping twatknocker got greedy.

I’m so furious… this motherfucker has fucked with my life, and I have no idea just how much money he’s screwed me and my friends out of. The only thing keeping me going, at this point, is the dream that he’ll have to come HERE, to my town, to deal with it. This is TEXAS, fucker- we’ve got guns. We’ve got snakes. We’ve got fucking FIREANTS. We’re gonna get Alamo on your ass.

Goddammit.

"We’re gonna get Alamo on your ass. "

And I wouldn’t blame you for a single moment. How much were you paid per hour?

That blows hardcore.

Are these game companies as in RPGs? I just think of that because your talking about game companies and are in Austin, home of Steve Jackson Games.

Best of luck to you. Again that really sucks. The guy deserves an ass whooping from the court.

Beat his ass. Or start the legal proceedings. Maybe an injunction on selling the company? Can that be done?

All of the above?

They’re game companies as in computer games, if Lightnin’ is who I think he is. I don’t know if Steve Jackson can help out much in that department.

And yeah, it does blow big monkey chunks. I’m sorry to hear it, and I hope you get something else soon, Lightnin’. Any chance of someone (the Evil Empire, for example) buying your company up and you getting some money that way? Good luck finding something new… I’m sure you will, in short order.

Nah, Steve’s a friend, but Avalonian is right- I’m in the computer game industry- and he wouldn’t be able to help us.

Right now, we’ve been advised to not do a damn thing… and, since we’ve upheld our part of the contract and the money guy hasn’t, we’ll eventually win. “Eventually” being the operative word- I can’t afford to be out of work for the 2-3 months this’ll take.

I imagine we COULD sue him… but hey, that’s more money…