The comments given by John Gibson are of his own opinion, and do not reflect those of Tripwire Interactive as a company. His comments disregarded the values of our whole team, our partners and much of our broader community. Our leadership team at Tripwire are deeply sorry and are unified in our commitment to take swift action and to foster a more positive environment.
Take note, everyone who wanted to support them. If you already bought something, refund it if you can.
Refund request on two purchases submitted. This company is going to learn that they're going to lose support and the mentally ill nutters they're trying to appease are going to smell blood and redouble their efforts.
And see how much all that virtue protected them, it just took one single statement for everyone on the left to stab them in the back. And now by firing him they've managed to piss off both sides, always a great business strategy.
The more offensive part to me is the new CEO founded the company with him and they have been together there for 16 fucking years. Its impossible that he didn't have some inkling of what side of the compass the guy's politics lay.
And for all those years of professional friendship, he throws him out to the wolves and takes his position like a scab in less than 48 hours (most of which I'd assume was the company forming a lynch mob and paperwork).
That's the takeaway from this as always, its not the mob that's really that dangerous. Its your chickenshit circles who will sell you out for backpats the moment they get nervous.
The sad reality is that you should not expect to find honorable men in high places in the corporate world anymore. They exist but are the exception rather than the rule.
I've seen people who I considered honorable men lose that part of themselves as they started to climb the ladder, and it saddened me to see it.
As far as I’m aware, he chose to step down on his own. Tripwire Interactive is a private business. It doesn’t have a board of directors elected by stockholders. Chances are, he couldn’t handle the negative attention and cucked out, appointing his friend as the new CEO. Of course, I say this with no knowledge of Tripwire’s corporate structure beyond the fact that it’s a private company, but it’s a story I’ve seen play out time and time again.
I think you’re right. They probably didn’t like the heat they were getting and he stepped down but will still hold his shares and make the same amount of money on the company’s success or lack thereof.
It’s not a public company, so there’s no shares to hold. However, he probably does still have an ownership stake in the company. Nevertheless, stepping down as CEO means he no longer has control over the direction the company takes and the ideological positions it endorses. As you can see, the first thing the new executives did was put out a statement denouncing John Gibson’s views and saying that they went against “company values”. (Since when did companies start having values? Oh right, thanks Citizens v. United)
Private companies can and do still have boards and shareholders. They just aren't traded on the public market. Generally happens when you start to bring on investors.
I think if it was voluntary the statement would have been in Gibson's name, or he would have made an official statement somewhere along the way as CEO. But it wasn't, and he didn't. Details like that matter to PR people.
As far as I’m aware, he chose to step down on his own
I very much doubt this is the truth. This is what they always say as a way of forcing you out without the paperwork and legal headache of an actual ousting. Likely by leveraging his own affection for everyone else in the company by convincing him it was "for their protection."
That's how 90% of jobs are lost. You don't get fired, you get convinced to leave. I did it to hundreds of retail and warehouse workers in my days as management, and saw it happen to those above me by their own similarly leveled cohorts.
That’s what I mean. Of course they would try to get him to resign, but in the end if he refused to do so, it would have been exceedingly difficult if not impossible for them to force him out depending on the percentage of ownership he held. So it was his choice to step down. You should never step down for the “good of the company” when the people in the company who are persuading you to leave are the ones who hate your guts. As can be seen by the statement put out by Tripwire, the new executives clearly have no affection towards Gibson.
Of course they would try to get him to resign, but in the end if he refused to do so, it would have been exceedingly difficult if not impossible for them to force him out depending on the percentage of ownership he held
Problem being he still had to work there, and he still needed them to work under him. When you are being obstinate and throwing your weight around like that, you basically shatter any chance of the company continuing to function beyond the bare minimum, or worse malicious compliance. Yes he could technically have done so, but it would have likely unraveled the company regardless.
Its really a rock and a hard place. You can't win when those closest to you turn on you like that, as its clear even his closest compatriot threw him out.
The original ceo had wrote and recorded a heavy metal song about his views on the direction the US is going and his views on abortion are in it. The song is also part of the ost for killing floor2. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who was a fan of the company’s works. This is like when the leftist reeeeeeed when the people from duck dynasty, who are very outspoken Christians, say they don’t support homosexuality.
Thanks for the breakdown. I spend a lot of time on RoyalRoad and am getting real tired of authors who don't seem to know anything about how people actually behave, and trying to ram their political anachronisms into everything.
Sadly the part about the subreddit is true. It's been getting worse lately too. As always small subreddits start out alright, and quickly get taken over.
I still sometimes go to the LitRPG subreddit, it's fun to see people shitting on books that aren't woke. It's a great way to get decent recommendations.
Still, and I can't stress this enough, most of these types of books are trash. Fun trash, but trash nonetheless. Specially from authors who got woke during or after writing a book, cause you can absolutely tell (forced use of neutral pronouns, LGBTQ+++ characters, over simplification of language, removing most if not all sources of interpersonal conflict that aren't woke, etc)
I found the information on this KU system intriguing. Can you share any details on how this business model is functional? I am wondering if the readers are exposed to ads while reading, or perhaps if it is a paid subscription service. For someone to be able to read a book for free but the author still gets paid, that sounds impossible.
A follow-up question, since you publish with it: do you pay any mind to what kinds of people may be most likely subscribing to the service? Or do you - as my creator friends tell me is a healthy mindset - publish without spending effort trying to minmax corraling an audience that's predisposed towards what you provide?
I am no marketing whiz, but what you say about the service and related products would make me hesitant to hope for an audience hungry for non-propaganda. You might not be publishing for the sake of earning a living, but I'm sure you are happier having your writing read than ignored.
Some of the ideas behind the service sound great to me, at least. I hope other services pop up that can build it better. Would be interesting to see this apply to a streaming service - subscribers wouldn't necessarily fund shows they hate then.
The main problem I see with it is a lot of people assume you need a kindle (propitiatory device) when you can read the digital books on any medium. And I am pretty sure kindles show ads, but other platforms, or at least regular computers do not.
I fell into this category until now. I try to stick to physical books, so no biggie, but I like knowing how things work.
Was almost guaranteed to happen - this stupidity has been the norm for nearly 20 years at the moment. Companies are no longer run by CEO's, they're run by the priesthood of Human Resources.
I was going to check out Killing Floor 2. Looks like something I would have liked and I had never paid attention to it. Oh well not anymore. It's a shame I enjoyed Man Eater too. I'm more irritated by forcing a guy out over politics than I am a company's employees just not agreeing with me on politics.
How's that culture war going for you, woke assholes? Since they lack any real skills, everything they touch/take control of is guttering out. It's fun to watch if you hate their world and want them to suffer. Sure, it means pain for me in the short term too, but I'm strong enough to survive it, can't say the same for them.
Promoted a coding guru called Uncle Bob who’s apparently a racist, sexist Trump supporter. People on the factorio subreddit tried to get them to delete the article because it might cause people to become alt-right fascists, to which the lead developer responded (and this is a direct quote) “take the cancel culture mentality and shove it up your ass”.
They don’t have to hire them. They just can’t legally not hire them because they are women. Tons of ways around that. And hiring women is not what got the ceo pressured into stepping down. But it’s not surprising of you trying to equate that hear regardless of the circumstances
It’s funny the person who really believes all women want to kill all men is calling someone else naive. I’m not going around with you on this bull shit again. If you don’t want to hire someone you can come up with a reason that does not come down to their sex (well maybe you can’t). I personally don’t have a problem with all women and would most likely not find myself in that position since I would be hiring based on merit, personality, and run a company that is undeniably not woke with policies that make it clear you can’t publicly deride our customers.
Nah that was a brave move. None of this will stop until a significant number of people start speaking their minds in public. We are all dominated by idiots because they are loud and unabashed.
Take note, everyone who wanted to support them. If you already bought something, refund it if you can.
Done and done.
Time to revert my positive review of Killing Floor 2
Gonna have to do that too when I wake up
Bought, reviewed, refunded, re-reviewed, and downloading the cracked version out of spite.
It’s a shame, I loved killing zombies as Gary Busey.
they dont realise how they contradict themselves by the second sentence.
Refund request on two purchases submitted. This company is going to learn that they're going to lose support and the mentally ill nutters they're trying to appease are going to smell blood and redouble their efforts.
Good luck with that.
And see how much all that virtue protected them, it just took one single statement for everyone on the left to stab them in the back. And now by firing him they've managed to piss off both sides, always a great business strategy.
The more offensive part to me is the new CEO founded the company with him and they have been together there for 16 fucking years. Its impossible that he didn't have some inkling of what side of the compass the guy's politics lay.
And for all those years of professional friendship, he throws him out to the wolves and takes his position like a scab in less than 48 hours (most of which I'd assume was the company forming a lynch mob and paperwork).
That's the takeaway from this as always, its not the mob that's really that dangerous. Its your chickenshit circles who will sell you out for backpats the moment they get nervous.
The sad reality is that you should not expect to find honorable men in high places in the corporate world anymore. They exist but are the exception rather than the rule.
I've seen people who I considered honorable men lose that part of themselves as they started to climb the ladder, and it saddened me to see it.
I'd understand it more if it was someone they hired later, or a ladder climber.
But these two founded the company together. That's a very specific bond made on a hugely risky dream between men.
As far as I’m aware, he chose to step down on his own. Tripwire Interactive is a private business. It doesn’t have a board of directors elected by stockholders. Chances are, he couldn’t handle the negative attention and cucked out, appointing his friend as the new CEO. Of course, I say this with no knowledge of Tripwire’s corporate structure beyond the fact that it’s a private company, but it’s a story I’ve seen play out time and time again.
I think you’re right. They probably didn’t like the heat they were getting and he stepped down but will still hold his shares and make the same amount of money on the company’s success or lack thereof.
It’s not a public company, so there’s no shares to hold. However, he probably does still have an ownership stake in the company. Nevertheless, stepping down as CEO means he no longer has control over the direction the company takes and the ideological positions it endorses. As you can see, the first thing the new executives did was put out a statement denouncing John Gibson’s views and saying that they went against “company values”. (Since when did companies start having values? Oh right, thanks Citizens v. United)
Private companies can have shares they just aren’t traded on a public market
Private companies can and do still have boards and shareholders. They just aren't traded on the public market. Generally happens when you start to bring on investors.
I think if it was voluntary the statement would have been in Gibson's name, or he would have made an official statement somewhere along the way as CEO. But it wasn't, and he didn't. Details like that matter to PR people.
I very much doubt this is the truth. This is what they always say as a way of forcing you out without the paperwork and legal headache of an actual ousting. Likely by leveraging his own affection for everyone else in the company by convincing him it was "for their protection."
That's how 90% of jobs are lost. You don't get fired, you get convinced to leave. I did it to hundreds of retail and warehouse workers in my days as management, and saw it happen to those above me by their own similarly leveled cohorts.
That’s what I mean. Of course they would try to get him to resign, but in the end if he refused to do so, it would have been exceedingly difficult if not impossible for them to force him out depending on the percentage of ownership he held. So it was his choice to step down. You should never step down for the “good of the company” when the people in the company who are persuading you to leave are the ones who hate your guts. As can be seen by the statement put out by Tripwire, the new executives clearly have no affection towards Gibson.
Problem being he still had to work there, and he still needed them to work under him. When you are being obstinate and throwing your weight around like that, you basically shatter any chance of the company continuing to function beyond the bare minimum, or worse malicious compliance. Yes he could technically have done so, but it would have likely unraveled the company regardless.
Its really a rock and a hard place. You can't win when those closest to you turn on you like that, as its clear even his closest compatriot threw him out.
The original ceo had wrote and recorded a heavy metal song about his views on the direction the US is going and his views on abortion are in it. The song is also part of the ost for killing floor2. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who was a fan of the company’s works. This is like when the leftist reeeeeeed when the people from duck dynasty, who are very outspoken Christians, say they don’t support homosexuality.
Well yeah, but they don't actually play the games so they wouldn't know to get triggered there.
He said this on twitter though, their hunting grounds, so now they knew to get the noose ready.
You wrote a book? Can I ask the name?
Is it possible to buy your books in a way that doesn't reward Amazon and you get the full price?
Thanks for the breakdown. I spend a lot of time on RoyalRoad and am getting real tired of authors who don't seem to know anything about how people actually behave, and trying to ram their political anachronisms into everything.
any better suggestions?
Yo, when is the next book in the series meant to be out? I read number 1, I want the next one.
Sadly the part about the subreddit is true. It's been getting worse lately too. As always small subreddits start out alright, and quickly get taken over.
I still sometimes go to the LitRPG subreddit, it's fun to see people shitting on books that aren't woke. It's a great way to get decent recommendations.
Still, and I can't stress this enough, most of these types of books are trash. Fun trash, but trash nonetheless. Specially from authors who got woke during or after writing a book, cause you can absolutely tell (forced use of neutral pronouns, LGBTQ+++ characters, over simplification of language, removing most if not all sources of interpersonal conflict that aren't woke, etc)
I found the information on this KU system intriguing. Can you share any details on how this business model is functional? I am wondering if the readers are exposed to ads while reading, or perhaps if it is a paid subscription service. For someone to be able to read a book for free but the author still gets paid, that sounds impossible.
A follow-up question, since you publish with it: do you pay any mind to what kinds of people may be most likely subscribing to the service? Or do you - as my creator friends tell me is a healthy mindset - publish without spending effort trying to minmax corraling an audience that's predisposed towards what you provide?
I am no marketing whiz, but what you say about the service and related products would make me hesitant to hope for an audience hungry for non-propaganda. You might not be publishing for the sake of earning a living, but I'm sure you are happier having your writing read than ignored.
Some of the ideas behind the service sound great to me, at least. I hope other services pop up that can build it better. Would be interesting to see this apply to a streaming service - subscribers wouldn't necessarily fund shows they hate then.
I fell into this category until now. I try to stick to physical books, so no biggie, but I like knowing how things work.
It's a Litrpg book! I might actually give this a try. I've been reading a few lately, some are quite fun and others... Well not as much haha.
Really think about this: a guy stepped down because he caught incessant flak for not supporting the murder of babies.
This is our society.
Was almost guaranteed to happen - this stupidity has been the norm for nearly 20 years at the moment. Companies are no longer run by CEO's, they're run by the priesthood of Human Resources.
They’re still run by CEOs. You just have to not be a cuck and “step down”.
Already put a bunch of hours into Killing Floor 2 so cant refund. I guess a negative review will have to suffice.
I was going to check out Killing Floor 2. Looks like something I would have liked and I had never paid attention to it. Oh well not anymore. It's a shame I enjoyed Man Eater too. I'm more irritated by forcing a guy out over politics than I am a company's employees just not agreeing with me on politics.
Bummer, I was just about to buy Killing Floor 1 and 2. Guess they don't want my money.
How's that culture war going for you, woke assholes? Since they lack any real skills, everything they touch/take control of is guttering out. It's fun to watch if you hate their world and want them to suffer. Sure, it means pain for me in the short term too, but I'm strong enough to survive it, can't say the same for them.
I was about to buy KF2 today. Fucking crap, this people have no backbone.
Love the Factorio devs. They still have that infamous article that caused the whole controversy pinned on their Twitter page.
Promoted a coding guru called Uncle Bob who’s apparently a racist, sexist Trump supporter. People on the factorio subreddit tried to get them to delete the article because it might cause people to become alt-right fascists, to which the lead developer responded (and this is a direct quote) “take the cancel culture mentality and shove it up your ass”.
Whelp, there goes Maneater off my wishlist and Tripwire on the ignored-creator list.
I held off on buying the game because I expected them to bend the knee.
Honestly, I expected it.
They don't want a Blizzard situation where all the scum go crying to CA authorities or some other female supremacy organization.
I’m sure the CA authorities have a ton of power over a company headquartered in Roswell, Georgia.
Well, they'll go cry to someone. That's what they do. They push their way into power in questionable ways, then use that power to enforce their will.
Every company must hire their future tormentors by law.
How is that fair?
They don’t have to hire them. They just can’t legally not hire them because they are women. Tons of ways around that. And hiring women is not what got the ceo pressured into stepping down. But it’s not surprising of you trying to equate that hear regardless of the circumstances
If you have a company with zero women in it, you will get busted.
Not if you have legitimate reasons for it. None have applied. Those that did were not qualified for the position. Etc
You really are naive if you believe that.
These are the same people who are saying you can't work without literal poison running through your veins.
They absolutely will not allow the excuse of "oh, they just weren't qualified enough".
It’s funny the person who really believes all women want to kill all men is calling someone else naive. I’m not going around with you on this bull shit again. If you don’t want to hire someone you can come up with a reason that does not come down to their sex (well maybe you can’t). I personally don’t have a problem with all women and would most likely not find myself in that position since I would be hiring based on merit, personality, and run a company that is undeniably not woke with policies that make it clear you can’t publicly deride our customers.
So now they taking flak from both sides. Nice going Trip Wire lololol.
What a pussy
Its been clear for some time, only certain views are tolerable in public life under pain of unemployment etc
Guy made the mistake of thinking that twitter was home to people like him. He should have just kept hush and saved his job and continue to do his work
Nah that was a brave move. None of this will stop until a significant number of people start speaking their minds in public. We are all dominated by idiots because they are loud and unabashed.
Not to get too deep into semantic weeds but an ownership stake in a private company can be referred to as shares and can still be sold
https://www.thestreet.com/how-to/how-to-sell-private-shares-of-a-company-15182363
Never played their games. Never will now.
Welp, time to uninstall Chivalry 2.