I assumed Geko was a lead producer, mainly over systems. However, looking at his LinkedIn (a fleetmate mentioned something else on there), I see that he was placed over design altogether but that his current title is now Principal Designer.

Reading up on this title, it sounds like he's either the final authority on all areas of the game's vision, from systems to content to monetization.

If I'm reading this right, the areas Stahl would be over would be more managing development schedules, labor budget, HR issues, and communication.

So if I understand this right... Geko is in charge of the vision and Dan handles the logistics of executing Geko's vision?

At this point I'll simply say... interesting.

Dan Stahl's title is "Executive Producer".

In any creative structure, the Executive Producer is the person in charge. It's not the same "Executive" as in "Executive Officer"... In this case, it refers to the position's ties to the Company Executive - the decision makers, money holders and sign-offs.

So Stahl is Geko's boss, but for all creative intents and purposes, STO might be driven by Geko, with any decisions requiring sign-off by Stahl.

(I am assuming that the position "Principal Designer" is analogous to "Producer"... This might not be the case, and if STO has a "Producer", then it would be them that holds the creative reigns.)

There's also internal office politics to think about. Whichever one is technically in charge, sometimes you come to a point where a boss-on-paper knows that others work best with a loose leash and lots of autonomy, or when they basically treat each other as equals and have confidence in one-another's decision-making abilities, so an "okay" from one is an "okay" from both.

Unless money is involved in said decision... This is generally true. It's a healthy work flow, but it still puts "ultimate discretion" in the hands of the EP.

I'm curious because in a lot of fields, a "principal designer" is seen as a partner or part owner of the company. Geko's LinkedIn doesn't specify STO with the current position. But even then, a lot of companies use "principal designer" to refer to someone who gets the final say, who is the supreme leadership position, minus management responsibilities.

As Cryptic is 100% owned by Perfect World, I don't imagine Geko would be seen as a "Partner" in the company...

In a creative or media company, I have certainly never heard the term dropped in terms of management. I'd interpret it as being another term for "Lead Designer" (Just as there are 3D, 2D and Animating Lead Artists) and thus, outside the game's executive management level.

Really, the only person Stahl should be answering to is Cryptic's managing director, and maybe - as he has hinted before - the CEO.

Cryptic has a CEO, a CFO, CTO (D'Angelo) and a CCO (Jack Emmert).

It was a position Geko was promoted to FROM Lead Designer.

This is his current position:

His former positions were:

He describes himself as a strategist and architect behind STO's F2P model.

I wondered if maybe the reason Stahl 2.0 feels different is because, basically, Dan was brought into to be the figurehead/spokesman for Geko's regime. Basically, full responsibility but with the control carved out to a developer who might be seen as better at managing the ideas than the people and the community.

I used to be principal trader for a commodity trading company. They gave me total control over the company's trading direction but i need sign off from the executive officer and the board for certain things.

I left and started my own trading desk and hired a principal trader to do my bidding while i shoot down borgs :-)

So im guessing it works the same.

That would not be good news for the KDF as he pretty much hates the Klingons.

I remember his talk about the HEC getting a hull increase and if any KDF ships like would be getting a hull increase.

His response was - ha ha ha (chuckle,chuckle chuckle followed by ) yeah, well - NO(full stop) with the tone in the "no" of how dare you waste my time talking about improving the KDF!!

Kind of like this - but without the sense of humor as his is dry and well not there:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4