Ok, so Sulake is just a company - they do not owe me anything, and even if I (might have) spend quite a lot of money on it (I have, don’t ask), if Habbo goes offline, they still don’t. I paid for entertainment, I got it, and it looked awesome (thank you). While that sits straight in my mind, I never considered Habbo really able to vanish in near future. Today, not so sure.
2012 ended with Paul LaFontaine, CEO, announcing he resigned his position. That triggered me to browse some fansites/tweets and all that, people seem to cheer upon/be glad he left. Which sorta made me frown, I mean, 2012 was not a good year, seemingly, but do we know his real role in all that? There was a scandal, but that was a sloppy, cheap TV channel (investors were way too serious about it, agreed). There was/is - serious issue - laying off 2/3 of workforce (Helsinki - [AS]), do you know his role? I don’t, I just know he sorta responded to users, and I laughed when he got pissed at them. So I’m not gonna waste my time on any opinion - prove me wrong with decent arguments/facts, or just shut up. He seemed like a really nice guy to me, though it was clear he didn’t manage to turn things around.
Edit: Puhekupla dug up a nice video showing this guy had a clear mind: here.
Edit #2: Paul LaFontaine’s view: “Responsible for business performance of Sulake Oy. Led company through restructuring, strengthening and media scrutiny. Ended with company on stable footing and bright future.” (linkedIn)
If you look at that simple thing, getting rid of 2/3 of workforce, there’s your demons, though. Do you know who got made redundant? Well, I don’t, or maybe partially, or actually, maybe I spend a bit of January 1st browsing linkedIn. It’s what I know that scares my. They are ****ing kicking out my heroes! Tbh, I’m not sure any of them is left.
Before I even write this down, gotta tell I’m going to “pull off a Coryza”. That’s sort off a private expression, in my mind, that makes me giggle. Coryza/Yukka/Koen is a Dutch Habbo fan, think still at Puhekupla, who sorta is a staff stalker. Dug really deep. I sorta relied on his facts, just partially, as he jumps to conclusions sometimes. Point is, I giggle, but I’m a hypocrite, I’m doing the same thing. Got myself a linkedIn account to peek into CV’s, google my guts out, I wanna know. I do not publish, but if I can use to contact ex-employees, I will. Being a bit informed helps a lot, actually.
Anyway, here comes serious part, Sulake equals EVIL! Ehrm, no. But there was a Sulake, once, it had 2 founders and a bunch of really-into-it-early people, and they were gonna do it. Some left, some stuck around. Aapo Kyrölä, ofcourse, was one of founders. Guess to him it was just one project, he was involved for a few years after, but he truly had bigger goals. Like become the most smart person in the world (he might have achieved that by now). Basically, not involved that much anymore. He still had some inactive linkedIn account he only re-uses to do a positive review on people he likes being forced to leave Sulake… it seems. Maybe because he’s an all-around nice guy willing to support old mates. Recommendations on linkedIn too much get written when people are forced to find a new job though.
Now here’s my first real shock, he wrote one for armasK/Ilkka Kallasmaa, May 17, 2012. I’m just gonna quote it. “I worked with Ilkka very closely during the first two years of Sulake/Habbo Hotel development. Ilkka was extremely dedicated to the project, and put all his talents into use. He was instrumental in defining the ‘character’ of Habbo, and really understood and helped define what Habbo is. As evidence of Ilkka’s dedication, his perhaps most critical contribution to Habbo was actually technical: he found - by exhaustive experimentation - just the right settings for Shockwave Director (which run Habbo at that time), that allowed us to have highly customizable avatars. Without his discovery, the richness of Habbo would not had been possible at that time. Because Ilkka is a unique and uncompromising talent, he is not always easy to work with: he has very strong opinions and really puts all his heart into the work. If you want a silent worker who never questions the managers ideas, do not hire Ilkka.” If you did not know, armasK and Drken where the first two designers that helped shape Kultakala into what it is today. The original HC furniture, Frank, the duck, lots we don’t know - his work. And they kicked him out. Just this fact re-shaped my opinion on Sulake - they crossed a limit. Well, not really, but before, I did think of Sulake as being a bit more than just a company.
So it was only Jan. 1st I noticed another recommendation by Aapo, dated October 30, 2012. “Otto was the first programmer I hired to Sulake, back in year 2000. From the chaotic beginnings, Otto was great in taking responsiblity and getting things done. But while Otto is a capable programmer, his real talent is in leading people. After Otto became the lead of the Habbo development team, we really saw his potential. He is a great leader, mentor and gets things moving and is invaluable especially in crisis situations. He is respected by everybody in his team, in the whole company, a solid and calm decision maker. Highly recommended.” Toto/Otto Nieminen, not confirmed, but - just my word - out. First recruitements were mostly designers, much needed, first developer to work on the core, next to Aapo was Toto.
Tomorrow I might find out Retiisi and painimies are gone. I found a lot of people on linkedIn that abandoned ship. Rovio, Supercell, Grand Cru are doing well. Please hire (rest of) my heroes too.
I’m putting in another relativizing comment, in case you think we have something at stake here. For Habborator, this is of no concern. We realized us being fans sorta was beyond its highlight. Our content is mostly about past features. What we wanted to/did research was about past things, and we’ll just continue doing that. For me, this is not the one and only website, do think there’s a place for some decent int@rweb facts, and Kultakala/Habbo, well, it made its mark.
They kicked out Dionysus/Mark Bamford (Sisyphys/Kitano, darn, our philosopher). Puffin, formerly Aurora (.no) - mission reads: “G’bye - and thanks for all the fish”. What was wrong with Mhalttu?
This all prolly lacked a point, so I’m coming to my last non-point. I’m a bit scared by what’s left, did you remember to keep some of designers/coders/server dudes ? New CEO, Markku Ignatius, gonna give him all credit and all that, but legal department. Management - currently - includes 2 people doing something with money, and a HR (Human Resources - moving puppets around) woman. I mean, she’s hired to organize lay-offs. Nice smile, but she’s with companies 1-2 years to do some cleaning.
Edit #3 (Jan. 7th): another person from legal department added to management. 5 out of 30 not involved with product directly, not sure on the amount of people below that, for which same is true. CTO function skipped, I guess. Is the thing run by accountants and such, my question, or is there something left?
Conclusion: not do-able (the conclusion, that is). Can I do my Joulikalenteri quests next year? Hrmph..