As I write this, the hearing in Seattle today on Catalyst Game Labs’ future is about to begin. For those who have not been keeping score, three parties are seeking for force CGL into bankruptcy in order to recover money they feel is owed to them. In dollar terms, the primary claimant is Wildfire Press, the creators of the CthulhuTech game, who claim that CGL has not paid them royalties which they claim amount to $37K. The second claimant is Paul Stansel, the father of David Stansel-Garner (a former CGL employee), who gave CGL a $20K loan. The third claimant is some guy named Sugarboard who claims that CGL owes him money for work (not freelancing). The underlying action (catalyst?) that set all of this in motion was that Loren L. Coleman, one of the co-owners of CGL, took out a rather massive amount of money (no one knows exactly, but most guess somewhere upward of $600K) from CGL’s warchest through unauthorized withdrawals, and that has left the company capital-depleted and unable to pay all of its debts in a timely manner.
CGL has a response to all of these claims, but at this point its basically “he said, she said” and only the production of documents and testimony at the hearing is going to sort out who is right and who is wrong. So, at the very least, there is a non-trivial probability that CGL will go under, making the debate over the license renewal a moot point. Of course, it will probably take some time for the court case to sort itself out, so the waiting game begins.
I have been silent on this blog about the CGL situation. Some people might have seen a few of my posts on the various forum threads where this crisis is being discussed, and likely have tagged me as “pro-CGL.” That is probably truer than the alternative, but the honest reason why I have remained (mostly) silent is that I am (1) very ambivalent about the whole mess, and (2) I think it is best to withhold judgement in the absence of facts. The rush to judgement by many in the community (particularly the Shadowrun community) has really bothered me, and I can’t help feeling that some level of schadenfreude is involved.
What I find particularly irksome is the tendency of some to declare anyone currently affiliated with Catalyst Game Labs a “bad guy.” It is worth noting two things here. First, the only inappropriate (that’s right, I will not call it “embezzlement”) action here was on the part of Loren Coleman. Second, the people most negatively affected by this action are the other people still at CGL (owners and employees). The only real negative outcomes for fans are publishing delays and the uncertainty associated with the transfer of the license to a new company. The single person most negatively affected by all of this is Randall Bills (because it was his share of the money as a co-owner that Coleman dipped into), and yet he has probably taken more flak on the boards than Coleman himself.
A lot of the hostility is directed at Randall because he is letting Coleman remain with the company rather than canning him. This critique, of course, ignores the fact that Randall can’t get rid of Coleman, because they are co-owners of the company. As I see it, his only real alternative would be to reform a new company without Coleman and compete for the license. But he doesn’t actually have the capital for that does he now? If people would read between the lines here, they would see that Randall is doing his best to save his company in a strategically sensible fashion, moral issues of right and wrong aside.
The bottom line is that, whatever we may think of Coleman’s actions, it is in our best interest (as fans) that CGL survive. I will admit that I have my concerns about the future of CGL with Coleman still at the helm. Even if he has reformed, as Randall claims, CGL’s reputation is sullied as a result of his actions. At the very least, CGL is going to have difficulty acquiring licenses to publish other people’s games after their experience with Wildfire. And the loss of capital is going to create more delays in getting books published (although if that applies to A Time of War, I can’t say I will be disappointed). On a pragmatic level, however, I am 100% hoping for CGL to recover and prosper in the future, rather than rooting for their demise out of some misplaced sense of honor and justice. I am not an aggrieved party, and neither are any of the fans bitching and moaning on the boards. I don’t know what exactly transpired, I don’t know exactly how it is being resolved, I don’t know whether the Bills family will still send the Coleman family a Christmas card, and frankly its none of my business. What does matter is that (1) CGL has been producing great material for Battletech, (2) they have reinvigorated the brand, (3) they have been supportive of MegaMek, and (4) they will never mistreat the universe because they are its biggest fans. Why would I want to risk all of that on a new company that might give us a new version of clickytech, or worse yet, let the license lie fallow, or even worse yet, send MegaMek a Cease & Desist letter? The answer is that I shouldn’t and you shouldn’t either. Let the parties that were actually affected by this fiasco sort it out themselves, and keep your fingers crossed that CGL comes out of it alright in the end.
Taharqa Battletech