City of Heroes Interview, Part One
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Q: Briefly, what happened in the build up to you leaving the position of lead designer of CoH? What was this like for you?
A: Well, like I said earlier, Jack and I had switched roles and I'd become kind of grumpy I guess. To be honest, I can't actually tell you what the precipitating event was that led to me being asked to leave. I know I pissed some people off, probably by being a jerk or not working late enough. I thought I was getting a lot better actually in the week leading up to my firing.
When I came in Monday morning and then Mike told me that he wanted to switch my role from game design to just writing and backstory stuff, I was pretty shocked. Then the rest of the founders had a meeting and I was told I was fired but that they wanted me to keep working as a contractor. So they still valued my input and creativity, just not enough for me to continue vesting stock or drawing a salary and health insurance. It was pretty grim, and of course very awkward - I was renting a house from Mike at the time, but I pretty much immediately decided I was moving back to Florida.
Leaving was hard, and it's been an up and down ride since then, although everything's worked out for the best by this point. But still, I was pretty pissed when the game came out and I was credited only in the "special thanks" section. I would have liked even just a design credit, which I think I deserved for the massive amount of work I did as a contractor in 2003 alone, much less for my original work conceiving of the game and working on it for 2.5 years before I left.
