Did one man alone resist when Zynga bought out Draw Something developer Omgpop? His reasoning is one I share, especially with regard to being able to fully own and control projects I make on my own time.

cool. eff zynga.

id of taken the cash and got the fuck out of there and spent the rest of my life driving ferrari's and living the player life style

Good on this guy, it would have been really sad if Zynga claimed ownership of his indie game.

Interesting article. Shay Pierce seems like an okay dude.

@Bell_End said:

id of taken the cash and got the fuck out of there and spent the rest of my life driving ferrari's and living the player life style

I would have done that too. But I guess he can make money in the long run.

You do realize you're talking about a non-existing option? He got paid for his stake in the company: "I had a small amount of equity in Omgpop, I received a compensation for that, and that was never at stake in this decision. The amount is not going to change my life [..]"

I don't know the stipulations of Zynga's deal regarding employee retention, or if the OMGPOP guys have to work there for a set number of years to receive the sum, but to turn down 30 million dollars because your employer doesn't share your ideologies is insane. Virtually every mass market corporation that has a wide profit margin bases their decisions on maximizing cash return. Just because you work for a company like that doesn't mean you have to adopt their line of thinking.

I get that the guy loves working independently and has an immense passion for the work he does, and wants to continue working on his own terms. But, the money he would receive would not only change his life, but would enable him to change the lives of those he cares about as well, and would set him and his family for life. Not to mention that working for Zynga doesn't mean that he can't continue to develop side projects of his own on his free time (which he would have much more resources to work with).

At any rate, I wish the best for this guy and hope that he is happy with his decision a few years from now, and that everything works out for him like he's envisioning.

@eloj: It was mentioned on the Tested podcast that all the employees of OMGPOP were offered 30 million dollars to be retained as employees of Zynga.

If any employee were in fact offered $30M just to go over (in other words; excluding money they'd be due in any case from having an equity stake in the company), we can be reasonably sure that Shay Pierce was not in that class given that he makes no mention of it.

Shit just hit the fan. reddit 
"The one omgpop employee who turned down joining Zynga was the weakest one on the whole team. Selfish people make bad games. Good riddance!" -- Dan Porter
"What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many..." -- Dan Porter

Dan Porter is "CEO of omgpop. very poor gardener. Eagles fan, creator of epic game Draw Something"

Hah well, incur the wrath of the anti-dicks-on-twitter brigade at your own risk. This guy won't be able to do anything on the internet anymore without getting 3 tonnes of shit dropped on him.

@eloj:

Don't forget the hoodie shit.

@eloj said:

Shit just hit the fan. reddit
"The one omgpop employee who turned down joining Zynga was the weakest one on the whole team. Selfish people make bad games. Good riddance!" -- Dan Porter
"What's so interesting about success is the number of failures who try to ride on your back. Shay Pierce is just one of many..." -- Dan Porter Dan Porter is "CEO of omgpop. very poor gardener. Eagles fan, creator of epic game Draw Something"

hahaha this is going to blow up in a huge way.