[Dio 1]
Općeniti osjećaj onih s kojima sam razgovarao, a koji su radili u Blistered Thumbs, bio je da je Austin Yorski glavni urednik koji je znao kamo stranica treba ići i dobro je razumio kako to postići. Micah je spomenuo da je Yorski mogao podignuti stranicu na nove visine, ali je bio ograničen nedostatkom predanosti Channel Awesomea da Yorskom osigura potrebne resurse za to. Zapravo, Micah navodi...
“Austin was promised by That Guy With The Glasses that he was going to get the next-generation consoles to staff writers for them to review, which could potentially bring that traffic back up.” […] “And they fucked him over on it. They didn't give him the money that he needed to get these things.”
“So all of a sudden he was promised and expecting these consoles for launch that they were going to get for him, and they just never ponied up the money and they had no intentions to do so, either. So they lied to him. So everything he had worked on had just went to shit.”
Pitao sam Yorskog je li istina da su mu uskraćeni resursi u Blistered Thumbs i jesu li mu zbog toga ruke vezane. Yorski je izjavio...
“That may be one of the truest sentences ever crafted by human hands. While I can't promise that I could have turned [Blistered Thumbs] into the next IGN or anything, we had more than enough gifted writers and an established audience; there is absolutely no excuse for the way things turned out.”
Ali ovaj problem je postojao mnogo prije nego što je Yorski preuzeo dužnost. Micah je spomenuo da je Joe očajnički pokušavao razviti stranicu, ali su mu također odbijeni potrebni resursi. Bivše osoblje neovisno je potvrdilo da je bilo ozbiljnih problema s upravom, čak i prije nego što je Joe otpušten. Zapravo, Yorski je spomenuo...
“Even before [Blistered Thumbs] launched, Channel Awesome made a number of promises that were never delivered upon, even years later. Compensation is obviously the big one – gotovo svi su radili besplatno od početka do kraja.”
Što je još gore, Channel Awesome održao je kampanja Indiegogo to je generiralo gotovo 90,000 dolara, ali, prema Yorskom, osoblje tvrtke Blistered Thumbs nikada nije bilo plaćeno za rad koji su uložili u stranicu niti su vidjeli novac od kampanje masovnog financiranja, navodeći...
“The crowd-funding was generally for Doug and his various projects, but you can imagine that, from our perspective, the terminally neglected [Blistered Thumbs] site should have been a part of those efforts. In fact, [Channel Awesome] had previously shot down the idea of a [Blistered Thumbs] Kickstarter, saying that they would never resort to such tactics. When they then turned around and raised money for themselves that way while leaving us to die a slow death, you can imagine our indignation.”
“I was under the impression that the IndieGogo campaign was a collaborative effort between Mike Michaud and the Walkers, but I have no first-hand knowledge of the specifics of that arrangement. As you are likely aware, many of the promises made as a result of IndieGogo fundraising have yet to be fulfilled to this day, over a year later. This is a common criticism of [Channel Awesome], and a continuation of the managerial mishandling that is so evident in [Blistered Thumb's] case.”
Jason “Lordkat” Pullara iznio je slične osjećaje o lošem upravljanju web-mjestom, posebno kada su ga pitali što su administratori mogli učiniti da poprave problem i spase Blistered Thumbs, navodeći...
“After leaving Channel Awesome and realizing just how much of a clusterfuck it actually was, there was nothing that could “save” Blistered Thumbs. The management at Channel Awesome is either completely incompetent or they are criminals. I have not concluded what my opinion is yet. You have to understand that there is zero communication from management to everyone else – Rob, Doug, and Mike will tell a few of their friends what they’re thinking of doing, and will leave it up to them to spread rumors via a Skype chat.”
Iskreno govoreći, kampanja IndieGoGo niti jednom nije spomenula da će se sredstva koristiti za Blistered Thumbs, a postignuti ciljevi rastezanja također nisu imali nikakve veze s Blistered Thumbs. Međutim, lako je vidjeti zašto bi dio mreže koji se bori s problemima natjerao osoblje da pretpostavi da će se skupljanje sredstava iskoristiti za rješavanje tehničkih problema Blistered Thumbs i potencijalno početi plaćati osoblje. Naravno, to se nije dogodilo.
Obratio sam se Mikeu Michaudu za komentar, ali do objave ovog članka nije bilo odgovora.
Unatoč tome, rečeno mi je da će biti teško stupiti u kontakt s Mikeom Michaudom jer on nije nužno prijateljski nastrojen prema medijima. Pullara je izjavio...
“Michaud himself doesn’t actually [make] any company statements, set any goals, provide a vision, or execute any sort of leadership within the company – he’ busy spending 12 hours a day playing on Xbox Live (At least, that’s what he did when I was around). When management is that bad any product you launch is going to be equally as terrible.”
Ali nije samo nedostatak sredstava naštetio mjestu, već i nedostatak infrastrukture; nedostatak predanosti pružanju tehničkih sredstava osoblju za obavljanje poslova na krajnje profesionalan način.
Yorski je izjavio da se problemi protežu dalje od Blistered Thumbsa, spomenuvši...
“Perhaps most importantly, the website was so poorly designed as to render it nearly unusable. This is an issue which persisted for the entirety of my tenure, and continues to be a problem for all Channel Awesome ventures. Simply put, company management refuses to make site design and maintenance a priority and everything and everyone suffers.
“I could write an entire book on that one aspect of the situation – borba da se popravi web stranica Blistered Thumbs prava je grčka tragedija. To je u biti javna tajna u ovom trenutku. Teško da to treba posebno naglašavati.”
Pullara je spomenuo da je mjesto stradalo pod Yorskim, ali ne zbog nedostatka njegovih napora. Prema Pullari, mnogi problemi su rezultat slabe podrške rukovoditelja.
Zanimljivo, Micah je ponovio Pullarine osjećaje u zasebnom intervjuu, navodeći...
“The big thing is that [Channel Awesome's administrators] promoted Austin Yorski – which is a position we needed for a very long time. They promoted Austin but just gave him the site and said 'Try to fix this mess'. And he did his damnedest to do so.
“He couldn't plug the leaks of a sinking ship.” […] “It was the Titanic and it hit the iceberg that I warned everyone about.”
Micah je izrazio razočaranje načinom na koji je uprava riješila cijelu situaciju i kako su viši rukovoditelji učinili vrlo malo da riješe probleme. Spomenuo je da je Channel Awesome uglavnom otišao u kontrolu štete nakon što je Austin Yorski napustio Blistered Thumbs, pokušavajući uglavnom "ugušiti" one koji su ostali. Komentirao je da kao da imaju “stockholmski sindrom” jer im Channel Awesome i dalje nudi platformu i plaću.
Yorski ima neutralniji pristup cijeloj stvari, navodeći...
“It's tempting to throw Mike Michaud under the bus for everything that happened. Whether it was Joe or I in charge, whenever [Blistered Thumbs] wanted to get something done, we had to go to Mike to make it happen. So when the inevitable happened and [Channel Awesome] was unable or unwilling to help, Mike ended up as the face of obstruction. Whether or not that narrative reflects the reality of the situation is difficult to say, however. I was not present for the management meetings that ultimately doomed [Blistered Thumbs], so it's entirely possible that Mike represented our interests fully and competently and was simply overruled.”
“This would all be a lot simpler if I could just dump the blame on Mike Michaud and sit back in judgment. Unfortunately, the most likely scenario is that CA management made a number of mistakes and ended up neglecting what they saw as a side project until it was simply too late to fix it.”
Za one koji su bili voljni komentirati ili ponuditi neku vrstu uvida u zakulisne radnje Blistered Thumbsa, dali su do znanja da su ozbiljno razočarani ishodom stranice i nemarnim pristupom uprave koja je zanemarila neke potrebnih utilitarnih aspekata kako bi cijela stvar funkcionirala.
Yorskijevi završni komentari o Blistered Thumbs odražavaju snažno mišljenje o protraćenom talentu pod Channel Awesome, rekavši...
“The only appropriate emotional reaction to the collapse of Blistered Thumbs is disappointment. It could have been something special. We were let down by forces beyond our control, and, in turn, let down our loyal readers.
“We had a stable of beloved video personalities and unique editorial series. We had access to nearly every industry event and resource, from E3 to Metacritic. We had a parent company with the power to bring all of this together into a great place to share our love of video games.
“It's actually an impressive feat of incompetence that we managed to fail.”
S pozitivne strane, gotovo svi su imali nešto lijepo za reći o radnim odnosima koje su imali s Micahom Curtisom i "Ljutim" Joeom Vargasom. Joe je bio poznat po tome što je trošio novac iz vlastitog džepa kako bi pomogao osoblju da recenzira kopije igara koje nisu mogli dobiti od izdavača. Također je zabilježeno da je činio sve što je mogao kako bi otklonio svađe i trvenja unutar osoblja, dok je bio tamo.
Nažalost, mješavina lošeg upravljanja i male ili nikakve strukturalne podrške od strane administratora dovela je do pada jedne od web stranica o igrama o kojima se najviše pričalo, a koja nikada nije ispunila vlastiti potencijal.
