[cgarvey]

Was he really using 100% heart here or capitalizing on the gravity of the situation to slingshot himself in to the limelight and boost his app sales and reputation? That's the feeling I got from this post at least.

Surely there were other developers who had "side projects" they really loved who happily went with Zynga. I really have to question why this guy was the _only_ one who didn't jump ship. Sure you can write a post claiming to be the white knight and not another corporate zombie like the rest, but that's very rarely the case.

I see this as a power play. Instead of being a "Zynga acquisition", I think he saw it as much more beneficial to be the David vs. Goliath. Good for him, I guess.

[yojimbo311]

This seems like an exceptionally cynical perspective. While I don't suggest we should ever stop questioning things or explore what possible motivations could be involved, I'd love to see less of this automatically accusing people of having perceptually negative motivations that don't have any empirical evidence to support them.

He seems to be pretty clear that he heavily debated the idea with himself and ultimately realized that his long term beef with the way he understands Zynga to operate doesn't work for him. The rejection of his addendum seemed like it was just icing on the cake. He deserves the praise he's getting for being honest with himself and the reader, not accused of making a "power play" just because you, or anyone else, can't rationalize the decision any other way. This is the kind of reaction that keeps us from having nice things.

[roc]

It read to me as a bit of both. He had reservations (who wouldn't) but he'd also already had the taste for working for himself.

So he's simultaneously got a reminder that his own work is important to him, a bit of breathing room from his chunk of the buyout and an opportunity to start off with a bit of a "bang" PR-wise.

What entrepreneur would pass up on that?

[joezydeco]

I think he's pretty clever for using the very tiny window of opportunity to gather some publicity for himself. Remember, the guy just lost his job.