GMG continues the leeching

If their first goal was weaken SOE I guess they hit it (press release):

Maynard , MA . – December 6, 2006 – Green Monster Games, LLC (GMG), a company dedicated to producing innovative massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), today announces that Scott Cuthbertson has been appointed Vice President of Creative Development. Cuthbertson will oversee GMG’s internal creative design process, working closely with creative visionaries Todd McFarlane and R.A. Salvatore to bring their unique and unprecedented vision to life.

“Scott Cuthbertson has a proven track record of developing successful games with a global appeal. Drawing such talent from a source like Disney brings something very special to our company. Signing Scott to our team broadens GMG’s capabilities as a game studio and raises the bar for creative contributions,” said Curt Schilling, founder of the recently launched online game company based in Maynard , MA . “We are honored that he has accepted our offer to lead the creative talent at GMG.”

In his 15+ years of experience in production management and creative direction in the videogame industry, Cuthbertson has specialized in managing high-profile properties for the world’s largest entertainment companies, including Disney, Warner Bros., Vivendi Universal, and Nintendo. His credits include games based on such renowned properties as J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings ™ , Namco’s Ridge Racer ™ , Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean ™ , and TSR/Wizards of the Coast’s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons ™ .

“The vision of Green Monster Games is to build a company driven by creative ideas, a strong team dynamic, and a single-minded focus on pushing the boundaries,” said Cuthbertson. “It’s a privilege to have been chosen to oversee the formation of the creative foundation of GMG, and I am quite frankly in awe of the team that is coming together from all corners of the creative world – whether it’s from videogames, film, novels, comics, toys, music… wherever. This team is unified in its goal to craft an exceptional MMO gaming experience.”

Today GMG also announces other additions to its creative team:

Billy Ahlswede joins GMG as a Senior Character Artist. Ahlswede comes from Sony Online Entertainment. With 6 years of experience in the games industry, he has worked on Untold Legends™ Dark Kingdom™ for the PlayStation®3, NBA 05 (PSP®), NBA 06 (PSP®), and NBA 07 (PS3) . Prior to SOE, Ahlswede worked with Breakaway Games.

Josh Singh joins GMG as a Senior Character Artist. Singh is an award-winning character artist with 11 shipped titles during his time in the games industry. He comes to GMG from Sony Online Entertainment. Prior to SOE, Singh was with Iron Lore Entertainment.

Niraj Desai joins GMG as a Senior Animator. Desai’s career in games began with Sony Online Entertainment in 2002. He helped ship PlanetSide®, PlanetSide® Core Combat™, PlanetSide® Aftershock , EverQuest® II , EverQuest® II Desert of Flames™, EverQuest® II Kingdom of Sky™, EverQuest® II Echoes of Faydwer™ , and Untold Legends™ Dark Kingdom™ for the PlayStation®3.

Damarcus Holbrook joins GMG as a Senior Environment Artist. Over the past 6 years, Holbrook has created zones for many games in the MMO and first-person-shooter worlds. His environments can be seen in Valve Corporation’s Half-Life® 2 , EA Games™ From Russia With Love™ , and in Sony Online Entertainment’s Untold Legends™ Dark Kingdom ™ for the PlayStation®3. Holbrook was previously an environment artist in the film industry, having worked on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for Big Red Pixel.

About Scott Cuthbertson they omit saying he worked on Matrix Online (or so says Mobygames), which would be pertinent for a MMO, while they underline he worked on AD&D. Twelve years ago (Menzoberranzan).

Celebrity catwalk?

To comment I’ll use an excerpt of a reply I wrote on the GMG thread on FoH:

Now when assembling that team is your focus on people who are cool, creative, and innovative but have no experience at actually launching a game?

That’s a mistake, it’s obvious.

But it would be interesting coupling experience with inexperience. It’s not a choice between one or the other. It’s about taking something out of both so that one feeds the other. A game project for a brand new studios is also a constant learning process.

In the longer term it is also essential that you don’t just have experienced old guys on the same chairs, but also that you TRAIN new talent. So that you don’t just “leech” big names and “worth” from nearby companies (only to be leeched when at the worst time by someone else) but also produce that talent. Become a stimulus for other people, introduce new faces in the industry. A laboratory of ideas that keeps things alive.

As I wrote somewhere else: a company that pushes the evolution of the genre instead of being victim of it.

I think that good game companies should become academies when you build a culture and produce talent instead of just “stealing” it from somewhere else and using it up.

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