The company has been dead for a couple of weeks now — if not more; it seems so long ago — but there are still bits and pieces of news coming out concerning 38 Studios, as well as its subsidiary Big Huge Games. Or should I say: Epic Baltimore?

Massively published a wrap-up post just recently, remembering Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning as something that was “pretty cool” (which it was).

Somewhat more interesting is the emergence, in the last couple of days, of “38 Studios Spouse”. But whereas the well-known EA Spouse broke the news about labour practices at Electronic Arts and in the wider gaming industry, 38 Studios Spouse’s tale is in some respects more personal, and in some respects more harrowing: it’s a “what now?” story of a family of five who relocated to Rhode Island and are now left in a tight spot indeed.

I want to tell a different, but not impartial, side of this story. I am telling this for two reasons. First, to raise awareness and help for any of the family or employees involved. Second, so other people know what companies can do.

I am not a 38 Studios employee, a big baseball star (who may or may not have trusted the wrong people), or some politician trying to prove a point. I am very involved though and affected by this disaster, as a wife and mother, who has moved the most important people in my life to a new state. I knew Rhode Island would be different, but hopefully still an adventure and maybe a home eventually.

We moved to Rhode Island at the end of December 2011. We opened our presents on Christmas Day, took down our tree on the 26th, and began packing and loading moving trucks on the 28th, all because my husband was hired by 38 Studios and told he had to start work as quickly as possible. We spent a month living out of a hotel searching day after day for a house to rent. My children could not get back into school and could not start a new life until we found a place to settle. Finally we found a place to live, paid deposits on the house, utilities, etc. and moved. We registered all three children at all three new schools, because we do have one in each – elementary, middle, and high school. Finally, our stuff is delivered and our life can start again. It’s always hard to move and this is our second big move, but we finally made it to the point where we can re-build our support system and boy were we ready.

My husband has been in the gaming world for a long time. Most of his life has been spent working in this industry and he is well equipped to deal with the problems that go with it. He is usually hired when things are ready to be tied up and finished or they need someone with experience who can tell the left hand how to work with the right hand to meet the release dates set.

The first week he worked at 38 Studios he was concerned about the different teams and their ability to work together. He went to more than one executive during the weeks that followed encouraging them to make changes or deal with the release date issue. The company was not ready for him to do the job he was hired to do, therefore he was placed on other projects to wait it out.

It gets worse from there, and it’s something that — as a working family man myself, whose wife and kids depend on his income for their day-to-day needs — cuts me deeply to read. It’s a terrible circumstance, and the family in question has been hit very hard. One can’t even begin to imagine their circumstances or the stress it must be causing them.

But I think 38 Studios Spouse’s message is one that the rest of the gaming industry, and all industries really, should take to heart: there is a human cost to blind ambition, and to putting the almighty dollar ahead of common sense. The more that comes out about 38 Studios, the more it becomes clear that they never should have moved to Rhode Island…and I for one doubt whether they should have been so dogged in their pursuit of Project Copernicus. They had the start of something huge with Reckoning; it’s a waste and a shame that its promise and potential have gone to waste.

And it’s nothing short of a crime that hundreds of people are likely now in exactly the same dire straits at 38 Studios Spouse and her family.