After having been off doing other things for the past few weeks, I wanted to step in and leave my own 2c.
First off: on Rerolled it's been thrown around that I was an investor who came in and dropped 10k to mod for a day. I didn't even re-donate after the failed Kickstarter, and there I only put up $250. So me donating 10k is not the case.
I was one of the first dozen people invited to this site by Brad himself on Facebook weeks before it ever went live. I then went straight into lead community management working with Tom as the lead moderator AND community manager after doing weeks of cheerleading with my YouTube videos and social media management via my own resources.
Which means I was moderating for a couple of months before the State of the Game thread ever happened. I was not some moderator who was given priveleges for a night and then "fubared" it. I've got all of the emails + private messages saved for verification. I also have/had my own phone # and extension via the Pantheon system, as well as all the admin access to the conference rooms and etc.
I was also behind the scenes doing a lot of outreach that no one here at the forums ever saw, based on Tom and Ben tasking me with projects and putting about 4-5 hours a day into moderating + working as a community manager here at the site.
When the State of the Game thread happened, I locked it. In retrospect, probably could have handled it differently and let people vent more, but I was told by Tom from day one when I was brought on as community manager to "put out fires". I was pretty pro-active about that for the months leading up to that point.
When the State of the Game thread went down, it was a huge lack of communication. No one told me Tom was out of town. I was in tell hell all day moderating various people and threads, submitting tickets left and right, and I called both Tom's phone as well as his cell # multiple times as well as left voicemails asking for help with the moderation when the State of the Game thread started getting heated, and I was getting PMs from various people asking me to step in and moderate. No communication whatsoever from the higher-ups so I eventually just locked the thread because I was told to be proactive about heated debates/etc.
Then, I get a phone call at 11:30 at night from Tom telling me "we need to have an emergency meeting". I call up, and he tells me that Brad had received noticed from 20-30k worth of investors who were threatening to pull their funding unless action was taking against me personally for locking the State of the Game thread. I had my mod rights stripped, was told to go on hold while they looked into the moderation for the past 24 hours, and then within a few hours Tom and Brad both left blog posts that were a little less than truthful about myself and led the community to believe that I was just some temporary moderator and manager; that was NOT the case. I had been here for months working for free for 4-5 hours a day with emails + phone calls and other communication in regards to me being the lead community manager + head moderator.
Then, 24 hours later, I had my moderator rights back, Brad and Tom both said they over-reacted with their posts in emails to myself and the team, and we had a massive group-email between Brad, Tom and the moderator team as well as others from Pantheon, at which point it was promised that certain things would happen. This was on March 15th.
I then sent a letter to Tom and Brad on the 15th stating that I was unwilling to donate any more of my time + efforts as a community manager unless I saw a signed letter of intent stating that I was going to be given a salary as the money became available (I had asked for something at least by May at the latest), as I had already been donating 4-5 hours a day for over two months with phone calls + emails stating things and promises that ended up being completely false as I was thrown under the bus the moment a couple of investors didn't like the way I managed a single thread after months of doing work that had up until then been everything that was expected.
We (the moderator team) also asked for an official page as well as a statement from them stating who we were, as well as email accounts (they had me doing outreach to fansites using my own personal email, to which many replied "well who the hell are you?" because NO official statement was EVER made by the VI team as to who the community manager + moderators were, plus we didn't have green names OR email accounts even though I had a # + extension in the phone system). NONE of this ever came to fruition.
I was then apologized to by Brad and Tom and was told through three different emails between Sunday and Wednesday (March 16th - 19th) by Brad himself that "let's have a phone chat to talk about how we can keep you involved and move forward from here", and nothing ever came to fruition. By the following weekend, March 22nd, no phone call had come to fruition, emails were going unanswered, PMs and messages at the site unanswered, and I completely lost interest in donating any more of my time or efforts as community manager here without a signed letter of intent + some form of official paperwork + professionalism shown.
So I went on about my business. I've got plenty of other clients and as passionate as I was about helping out with Pantheon without official paperwork with signatures and etc. I have zero desire to put any more of my time on the line. I've got a wife and an assistant + my own brand and company to run.
Matt (Kyndread) and I have been gaming together in P99 for quite some time. He knew my stance (refusing to donate any more of my time until I had official paperwork signed + some professionalism shown in the form of phone calls/etc.), and eventually grew more bitter day by day at the lack of communication from Tom (who dropped off the face of the earth and hasn't been heard from in three weeks) as well as Brad (who only on Monday finally sent me a message here on the forums and said "sorry about how that whole moderation thing went down -- it wasn't handled well and I take responsibility."), and decided to delete his account and stop donating time when there was a complete lack of communication.
It was NOT in Matt's intention for the groups to be deleted, so to people accusing him of /ragequitting and deleting things as he left, that it NOT the case. He was completely demoralized and was tired of donating his time for 3-4 weeks with ZERO communication from anyone. I personally quit donating my time back in mid-March because of that exact fact, so I know where he was coming from.
As to those developers who are now leaving (was just listening to the KTAM thing and hearing Tony talk about how he had no idea that the funding was gone until just the other night, as the announcement was made), I don't blame them in the least. These are guys who have been putting 6+ months on the line, a FAR CRY from the mere 2 months I put on the line before I had enough. And I wasn't even one of the official members of the team with a name on the founding "About Page" or part of the official company.
As to those who are sticking around....well, there's something to be said for the "dream" that is Pantheon. And looking at Darkfall, with it's 7+ year development cycle completely bootstrapped, it's possible to make a passion MMO simply by guys working in their spare time on something. But for myself, personally, I've lost all faith in the business management side of things here, and have since March, when it became obvious that they were just using the volunteers as cannon fodder to fuel their development.
Now, I would like to say something here: Brad, thanks for the apology. I've been pretty bitter since the 11:30 at night phone call from Tom being told that "30k worth of investors are upset you locked the thread and we have to get rid of you until we can sort that out, so we are throwing you under the bus", AND since you dropped the ball on ever getting back to me despite three emails saying you wanted to have a phone chat. Enough so that I haven't even logged into the forum until today for the first time since around March 22nd or 23rd.
I'm also publicly saying that I still have no problems being the community manager here in my spare time, something I haven't bothered doing since mid-March, but it would be contingent on all of the aforementioned aspects happening: at this point I would want to officially become part of the team with signed paperwork, be put on the paperwork as a core member, and I would want to be put in charge of social media management as well as community management, something I recommended happen back during the Kickstarter, since Ben's job as a PR guy is lining up interviews, NOT doing social media/community management, which is my speciality, and is an area where he has completely failed at as well (no Google+ presence, not in any of the community groups there, nor in the groups in Facebook or elsewhere, nor the multiple updates per day that need to happpen, and beyond, all things that were suggested by me over the months I was donating my time).
I still believe in the vision that is Pantheon, but not in the management capabilities of the current team. It needs an overhaul. Where did the money go? Where was the communication? Why are people like Tony stating in interviews it came as a shock that they learned on Monday, how could this even be, how they haven't yet received even enough money to make a single mortgage payment or pay their bills (1:13 in the KTAM chat here
http://173.193.205.96:2197/ondemand/...4%202014.mp3)?Why has Tom not replied to ANY messages, phone calls, etc. for a month now?, why has NO social media management been done, where was the social media campaign and actual press campaign above and beyond, etc., all the things covered in that KTAM video plus here at this thread.
Brad and Salim are GREAT at visionary game development, but it's now obvious from the Kickstarter and now this failed mismanagement of funds that they should NOT be making any of the business decisions for this particular project. That being said, as I mentioned, I still believe in the vision of this game. I would even still be willing to continue donating my time + professional expertise in community/social media management and writing, but there HAS to be communication + professionalism.
Darkfall is proof (one of many others) that a game CAN be boostrapped by a passionate, small team of developers. That might be Pantheon's fate. I am personally passionate about The Vision of the game that I'd be willing to be one of those who donates my time + energy to making it happen. But not without official paperwork and represenation, and not unless there was a clearly structured Plan on how things will work from here on out: e.g. weekly meetups on Google+ Hangouts with the dev team stating which goals were met this week (you don't have to work in an office to boostrap, although it's ideal to have one for cohesiveness), more regular communication with the community, share their screens while they are working via Google+ hangouts that take place at the official Pantheon G+ page, Twitch feeds and the like, not to mention regular social media coverage + ongoing lore + artwork + people like myself donating a few hours of day of our spare time towards ongoing development and bootstrapping in exchange for future pieces of the pie and meanwhile we work our "normal" jobs until more money comes in.
But another thing has to happen before then as well: you HAVE to show financials to people. WHERE did the money go? How much is coming in? How is it being allocated? Who is getting what? Who determines that? At this point you've lost ALL trust with the community outside of the few dedicated fans. I was one of those, and while I still have trust in the vision, I have zero trust in the management of the company. I think that represents about 90% of the community at this point.
In any case, to end this TL;DR post:
I believe in the vision, but not in the management. I'm still on board, enough so that I would be willing to continue donating my time + expertise, but only officially, as part of the team, not as a volunteer that can be thrown under the bus. And finally, thank you to Brad for finally apologizing for the FUBAR that was the State of the Game thread + mismanagement that personally drove me away from here and left me with a sour taste in my mouth after cheerleading for 2 months + operating as the lead community manager + lead moderator for 2 months.
