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Chapter 15: Not so SupraNet
October 5th, 1994
Down in San Francisco fog had started to roll off the bay in thick droves like froth overflowing from a coffee cup, spilling down the streets and through the gridwork moats of downtown. There were even a few autumn leaves dancing on the grey cement streets, gold and auburn, defying the logic of the local climate, dancing beneath the thick white soup. San Franciscans, unaccustomed to this sort of weather, wrapped themselves in sports jackets and sweaters, huddling their suitcases close for warmth and dipped into pubs for something warm for lunch, like beer and beef au jus.
Will and Kendra stood outside their newly acquired head office. Looking up at this giant, silver, reflective monolith stretching upwards and upwards, warping into the cool fall sky in front of them it was hard to believe they owned this thing. This thing had grown out of their garage. Bizarre Quest, Kendra thought. Actually, they didn't really own this thing?they just rented the top four floors?but that was unbelievable enough.
The big revolving doors seemed to suck in the fog from the street as they passed through and spill out nothing on the other end. Passing the busy bodies they found their way to the elevators and began ascent. Kendra really didn't have any business down here today?but she was along for the ride?and she was trying to give Kathy the feeling of free reign on the next Fantasy Quest. Not being there forced Kathy, and herself, to come to terms with Kathy's new responsibility. The author had officially started working for them just over a month ago. No official work on Fantasy Quest would be started until Kathy got adjusted. In the meantime, Kendra was surprisingly without work.
It was these ups and downs of game design, Kendra thought. She was appreciating the downtime: reading books in her office, doing general support work, resting her brain?trying to think of some other type of game to make besides Fantasy Quest?but so far only drawing blanks. Kendra was still in her rest period, though, so she wasn't worried about it yet. And since they'd hired Newman a huge workload had been taken off her and Will?she should force herself to enjoy the slowdown. This was the first time she'd been down since they'd first inspected the office. It had been Will's third time since they had hired Newman.
It seemed like they spent forever sitting in this metal box riding up to the top. Kendra couldn't imagine having to ride in this contraption, up and down, just to visit staff on other floors. The two floors of the Madre office were enough. Stairs were great, as far as she was concerned.
The doors opened up onto a cubicled wonderland, sleek blue and silver. It wasn't that different from the Redwood office but it seemed more?professional: a business environment rather than a gaming family. But that's what they needed. The colours of the cubicles were more modern, more serious?and there were no sounds of people shooting monsters on a game break. No free Kepsi Kola machine, either, but a lot of suits and a lot of faxes and printers. It was a different world. Kendra was glad they'd shipped this side of the business down here. It was kind of depressing in some way. So organized, so stiff? Now Madre would just be a creative outlet. They'd hit their pinnacle - reached their goal?pure entertainment.
Will led them down the rat maze of cubicles to a door on the far end. It seemed like most of the people here didn't even know who they were, that they were paying their salaries?which was fine with Kendra, but it was odd having all these employees that she didn't even know and vice versa. Will knocked on the door and Newman came to open it. They were both motioned to come inside.
Kendra was impressed with Newman's office. It was certainly suitably proportioned to his big title. The desk looked almost insignificant down on the one end it was so far away?and it was a big end. The office was six or seven window panes long and required a large number of potted plants in the corners and along the walls to make it looked lived in. There was some nice art up on the wall and several - very mod - couches and tables for informal meetings.
"Great to see you again," said Newman motioning them to sit down. He took their coats and hung them up on the coat rack. "Would you like some coffee?"
Will didn't feel in the mood for stale office coffee. "No thanks."
"Really? I've got caf? latte."
Will looked over. Sure enough Newman had a small cappuccino machine in the corner. Now there was an idea! Maybe he wouldn't have to buy from Che's! Surely he could afford a cappuccino machine?he was the boss! Except?he wouldn't hoard it in his office. He'd put it in the lunch room. What a great idea!
"Yeah. That sounds great!"
Newman went to work on two cinnamon topped caf? lattes. Kendra and Will were both quite impressed. They finished their lattes through various work and non-work related chit-chat. Afterwards Kendra excused herself to go and explore downtown. The latte had put her in the mood for a walk. She loved autumn?even in a city that had no changing colours?there was still that cool, fall feeling. Will and Newman had to discuss business anyway.
Stepping out into the unusually chilly afternoon Kendra headed down the street to window shop the quaint old stores along the way - antique furniture, card shops, art, candles. She liked to just browse. Perhaps she could find a game idea here? She really liked the atmosphere. Solemn, secretive, fun, friendly. But you couldn't just make a game about quaint shops...
She stopped into an underground mall later, created to provide San Franciscans respite from the rain, and found a local independent coffee shop. This was hard to find even in San Francisco, but she'd half-way taken up Will's cause. She'd only had a caf? latte an hour ago, so she ordered this half-coffee half-hot chocolate mix to warm herself up. Delicious. Sitting down she picked up and read one of those free independent newspapers - you know, the ones with 30 pages of content and 50 pages of advertisements, especially for single and gay sex date lines, at the back.
Meanwhile back in the top half of the monolith, Will and Newman had gathered in another, smaller room, to discuss business-of-the-week stuff. There had been a lot of changes since Newman had arrived - nothing that anyone at Madre had noticed?and that was good. Mostly just streamlining stuff. Changing processes, adjusting systems and policies. Small, efficient business stuff. Stuff Will had hired Newman for. Stuff Will didn't want to do, and looking at it now, stuff Will wasn't sure he could do. Newman was good at what they'd hired him for, organization, efficiency?seeing the forest and separating the trees.
Will wondered if he should bring it up. He hadn't discussed it with anyone else. Usually he did?but it was a touchy subject. He'd talked a little bit about it with Kendra?but not in the sense of doing anything about it...more just feeling around. He wondered if he should consult Newman's opinion on it at all. Will was worried that once he said something about it there would be no turning back. The proverbial cat would be out of the proverbial bag. But then, Will thought to himself, if I can't feel free to bring this up?to leave the decision on this up to Newman or at least consult him on it?then I've hired him for nothing.
"What about SupraNet?" asked Will.
Newman looked up at him. "What about it?"
"Well, it's never made any money. In fact, it's making more now than it ever has?but I doubt it will break even unless we sink a bunch more money into it to compete with the Internet and KillNet, etc? which may be a hopeless cause."
"Well," Newman looked a little relieved, "Actually, I'm glad you brought this up. SupraNet, as my tech research guys tell me, was a great idea. But about ten years ahead of its time. They tell me that, in a lot of ways, it's still ten years ahead."
"Yeah, it could be."
"But the problem is that now it's getting sunk, ironically, by more primitive competitors - who've caught up on the craze and cherry picked the best ideas out of SupraNet. In a way, you've done the R&D and they're picking up the ball and running with it to the goal line."
"Yeah. I noticed. Actually, I'm kind of sensitive about all this," conceded Will. SupraNet had been his idea. It had been a great idea?but it had never caught on. "The reason we've hung onto it for so long is, well, because it was a great idea?and we kept waiting for it to catch on?and we sunk so much money into it that backing out would mean we did it all for nothing. It had the potential to make so much money?just like the guys over at KillNet are making now. And it's still an idea I believe in?and I think if we put more money into it we could easily beat those guys in terms of service?but?" Will hesitated, "This could just go on sinking and sinking like a?" Will tried to think of something that sank really slowly over time?and despite all attempts to keep it afloat, eventually would sink - rocks? Styrofoam? Seaweed? He couldn't think of anything. "It might just sink for good and take us down with it. One half of me wants to hang on - I feel like I'm giving up just as it's about to get good, like if I just held in there for a little while longer?it would work out. It's like giving up on a child?or admitting you were wrong?but I don't feel like I was wrong?just unlucky. But then the other half of me?well?even my own daughter, who represents a true hardcore SupraNet fan, is abandoning it. And it's FREE for her. So?I don't know. What do you think?"
"Well," began Newman, "Maybe I can provide a fresh viewpoint on this. I'm not personally attached to it at all. Basically, it's like a white elephant vacuum. A great beast?but it's been sucking profits out of you - even put you into debt with shareholders - which isn't a really bad thing because stocks really put you in position to expand and boost your resources - but even if we did continue to put money into SupraNet it would still have to make some enormous profits just to break even with the total losses. Right now it's not adding value to the company. Now, if this is a pet project, maybe you don't mind losing money on it. But you've got to ask yourself, at the end of the day, how bad you really want a white elephant?"
Will didn't know what to say. Newman put it pretty well?but Will still didn't know. In a way he felt intimidated by the big city talk?by the decision. But he'd hired Newman to do this job. "I think you should make a decision on it. I'm too close to the issue?and that's why I hired you. To make these hard decisions."
Newman grimaced a little bit. "Look, I know this is a tough decision?and I don't just mean personally?but from a business perspective. We dedicated a lot of time to SupraNet. How about we take this topic off-line for now and I'll approach it on a 'move-forward' basis."
"Yeah, that sounds good."
"Now, I'm assuming from this conversation that you're leaving the decision up to me, after I've looked at it closely, on what to do with SupraNet."
"Yeah." It came suddenly, quickly out of Will's mouth. That was it. He'd let go of SupraNet. In a way it felt great?as if a great white elephant had been lifted from his back. But he was fond of that elephant. It was his third child - Heather, Mark, SupraNet - the lovable, disabled white elephant; the sad, innocent boy who dies at the end of the movie; the white elephant among his herd of cattle.
Newman pulled out another folder. "Now I'd like to look at some of our distribution routes."
Distribution logistics. Now Will could talk about that 'till the cows came home.
"I've gone over a lot of it and I think we could cut down costs and hassle while increasing our reach?both nationally and internationally. Your distribution up into Canada is a little backwards and yet, it is a sizeable portion of your adventure game market."
Will smiled to himself. Canadians. What a funny word for a people. They did buy a lot of product, though?
Kendra was walking briskly back towards the monolith now?their monolith. The sun had come out a bit, though the wind was still strong, and it beat down, highlighting her hair and warming her face. It felt really nice against the cold of her cheeks. No doubt Will and Newman would be wrapping up their business talk now. Surely they couldn't talk about business all day. Besides, they had to leave soon if they wanted to get back to Berney at a reasonable time.
She had no trouble finding her way back to the tower. People in their business outfits were now leaving the offices, rolling out with the fog. Kendra reached towards the handle on the revolving door but the group of people coming through the other way did all the work. And that's when she saw the face. Her heart stopped for a moment. It terrified her in a way?though it was such a cartoonish face.
It was Dan Destroyem. Right there. Coming the other way through the revolving doors. She could have reached out and touched him were there not a pane of glass between them. He looked just like he did in the game?with his spiky nuclear-orange hair, sun-glasses and ear-rings. And he was looking right back at her, locking onto her pupils through his sun-glasses. The world froze?for a moment or two. The revolving door stopped revolving. The people in the other section of the door were frozen, oblivious that time had turned into molasses. And Kendra and Dan Destroyem stared at each other?for just a moment?maybe two.
And then Dan Destroyem broke the gaze, looking in front of him as if he hadn't seen her at all. Time, as if nothing had happened, resumed, instantaneously, and Kendra flowed into the warm office building, poured out the other end of the people gate. Pausing for a moment she quickly took the revolving door back out and looked both ways down the street. She couldn't see him anymore? There was a guy with spiky orange hair a ways off?but it wasn't him?it must have just been her imagination?it had only been a second. She hadn't really seen him?and he was wearing sun-glasses. And he'd looked away from her. It must have been somebody else.
Of course it must have been somebody else!! Kendra felt like slapping her own face to bring her out of it. Dan Destroyem is a computer game character! Man, she was losing it. There must have been more caffeine in that chocolate coffee drink than advertised. Kendra turned around and headed back up the elevators to meet her husband. On the way up she had thoughts that maybe Dan Destroyem had planted a bomb?and the building was going to explode, taking them all with it! But she laughed it away as some strange paranoia. Maybe her period was coming? Anyway, Dan Destroyem was supposed to be a good guy?right?
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