As some people know, Stardock’s main business isn’t games. We make games because we enjoy making them. Lots of individuals do this every day – they spend their “off hours” doing what they like and their day jobs doing what needs to be done.
That’s not to say that we don’t enjoy making “regular” software. We do. Multiplicity, Fences, ModernMix, Start8, WindowBlinds, etc. are crazy fun to work on.
But games, I just love to work on games. I spent this weekend coding AI on Elemental (Legendary Heroes expansion to FE). There’s business justification to do that. I’m free labor to the games unit so I tend to work on all kinds of things since I’m not “billed”.
I bring this up as a lead-in to a general preemptive apology to our gaming customers who I’m routinely rude to on our forums. I don’t what to posit this as an “excuse” but rather an explanation as to why I have (and only for the past 20 years or so..) taken a different mindset when dealing with gamers.
I don’t think of you guys as customers. I think of you as friends. I’m a gamer. I don’t make games as a “job”. I make it because I love games and – and this is the key part – I like hanging out with you guys. That’s what motivates me. That’s why I’m on so many game forums (even though journalists occasionally plead that I stop doing that since I inevitably say something horrible online).
I make games in order to hang out with other people online talking about games – not the other way around. I only made Galactic Civilizations in order to please my friends on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic. That’s why I work on the AI or other parts of the games. I just plain enjoy interacting with other gamers.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to over my notes regarding DISC and tax planning. If anyone wants to shoot me, they know where to find me to put me out of my misery. 