EQ TLP - Mischief (Free Trade / Random Loot)

Secrets said:

I've long suspected that they were a front with the whole Jason Epstein / Columbus Nova thing, under the guise of an actual gaming company. SOE likely sold them off initially as they seemed like a good prospect for a dying studio. I doubt it's actually a laundering front anymore after the EG7 sale, though, but they're likely dealing with the financial consequences of having been under one, such as the introduction of a currency they can't quickly get rid of (Krono) and its tax implications.

It's a far-flung conspiracy, and why I am (and honestly, was back then) concerned for people like Jenn Chan and other studio heads at Rogue Planet / Dimensional Ink / SSG etc. I don't think they're quite 'in on it', and everyone below wouldn't have knowledge of shady dealings either. Nor do I think they care too much as long as they're employed and continue to be. It's a job, even if it's for shady Russian oligarchs.

And who would blame Sony for doing the CN sale, when Dave "Gaia Online" Georgeson was tanking the entire company and had one of the biggest bunches of engineering talent in his hand, and couldn't manage to pull off managing EQN while supporting and not hindering their big titles?

Renova Group / CN was really inclined to let the game die for money, and given that they had direct ties to the Russia investigation (Columbus Nova being named in the Trump tax investigation) and it reeked of laundering when it came to taxes. You'll never see current or former developers openly admitting that their company was a money laundering front for fear of retaliation, and tbh, I doubt most of them didn't know or didn't care.

EG7 is more of a... IDK, gaming-centric company lead by Swedish entrepreneurs and not Renova Group / Columbus Novia / Innova Russian oligarchs? I also posted that before EG7 acquired the full stake. With EG7 acquiring them, I'm a bit more hopeful for the direction of EQ as they're backed by a company that can fund them and, for the most part, seems to be putting its money in the right places. PlanetSide 2 just acquired some phenomenal talent and seems to be progressing in an upwards trend.

IMO, the sale could be the Russian front's way of 'handing the game off' with the sale and wiping their hands clean of the game.

At most, Jenn Chan had to just play along because she actually cares about EQ and realizes the control of the game by Russian money laundering fronts is above her paygrade. She seems like the type that probably has a backlog of pet projects she wants the team to do like the 64-bit upgrade, a proper 'new eq' game, etc... Not the frontwoman for a money laundering operation. She also lets teams 'own' their games, even if they fail on their own merit, like imo what EQ2 is doing under their design direction.

Side note: EQ and specifically Daybreak as a whole has actually one of the most diverse teams in industry, unironically.

They have a 3-woman generalist programming team that seems to be doing pretty fucking good considering the size and scope of their games. It's mainly because they seem to be hiring the people best suited to the job, instead of caring about their gender or other unrelated attributes, they focus on the quality of the work they put out. You wouldn't even know a majority of EQ's code was programmed by 3 women for the last 5+ years unless you were told that directly, and I think that speaks volumes on how good they're doing compared to the rest of the industry who hires based on appearance instead of talent... (looking directly at you Blizz)

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