Monday, March 22, 2010

Negotiations are a gamble

JavaScript and the HTML 5 canvas are the things that were going to be discussed yesterday but too many other things prevented me from writing the post. I wrote an interesting email today. The contents of that email was "I did not authorise or send any press release as the project was still being negotiated and is currently in an impasse. I assume that this press release was sent by my potential client prematurely, for which I apologise." Perhaps it is best that my "weekly" post was delayed as I have a different topic now.

There is a song about poker that states "you have to know when to walk away, and know when to run." This applies to negotiating as well. There were many warning signs that should have been picked up on, but I don't enter negotiations very often so never acted on them. The problem is that the project sounded rather interesting and if successful would have really given a boost to Blazing Games. When there were more and more misunderstandings, I should have walked away. The problem appears that I came at the project from a web developers perspective while the potential client was looking at the project through a commercial game perspective. Our assumptions simply did not match.

While it is possible that things could have been worked out, this morning I found some strange emails about a press release that I did not send. Worse, the emails were to my private email address that I rarely give out and would never use for a Blazing Games related press release if I ever made a press release.  The press release was about the proposed game. It is possible that this was a mistake and that whoever issued the press release did so by mistake. The cynical side of me, which sadly is right far too often, thinks other things. Too many false assumptions when combined with this premature announcement clearly are telling me it is time to run.

Sadly, the only time negotiations are worth-while is when they end in a deal. The rest of the time they just waist time. Time is my most precious resource so it is truly a sad day today. At least Penny Arcade cheered me up.

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