Paizo Jessica Price (ex Paizo employee) spills the beans

[Doug McCrae]

A classic example is the post Diego, showing that he resigned, and wasn’t fired. Will this fact be corrected for Jessica’s 25,000 followers?

 

[AtomicPope]

I remember Jessica Price from this:

 

[humble minion]

I think we have a different view of corroboration. Crystal said the carpets were dusty and it took 7 months to sort. Her views on the many other accusations and different incidents aren’t known.

Given Crystal posted this in response to Jessica's initial post (which had nothing to do with carpets), and conspicuously did not post anything along the lines of 'hey, that's not how I remember it' or 'I don't think it was THAT bad because...' or 'who, hold your horses, don't go overboard here...' as the thread developed I think that's a pretty extreme stretch.


I don't know the truth here. I only found out about this because I follow Crystal on twitter in her capacity as a Mutants and Masterminds designer. However, because I do follow Crystal on twitter, I know she's alluded to Paizo not being a fun place to work before.

Regardless, Paizo absolutely has to respond. Jason Buhlman in particular has been accused very directly and unambiguously of some extremely unpleasant sexual behaviour.

Worth mentioning though, that both Jessica and Crystal are explicitly not calling for a boycott of Paizo in any way (as they believe there are a lot of good people working at Paizo on the creative side who would also be affected by a boycott) although they accept that some people may feel obligated to do so.

 

[darjr]

The carpet issue IS NOT a minor issue!

having lived through similar issues and once had a major medical issue because my inhaler and backup inhaler broke at the same time, “just wheezing, get back to work” is irresponsible, ignorant and dangerous.

 

[darjr]

Alvarez Named Paizo President

As Founders Lisa Stevens, Vic Wertz Pull Back from Day-to-Day

icv2.com

 

[darjr]

Wait…. I can royalties on web site code like at Paizo?

 

[TerraDave]

Its hard to wade through, as serious things are mixed in with less serious things. But there are some serious things, besides the carpet.

I guess we will get the lowlights at some point.

 

[TheSword]

Given Crystal posted this in response to Jessica's initial post (which had nothing to do with carpets), and conspicuously did not post anything along the lines of 'hey, that's not how I remember it' or 'I don't think it was THAT bad because...' or 'who, hold your horses, don't go overboard here...' as the thread developed I think that's a pretty extreme stretch.

Not outright contradicting someone is not the same as corroboration and being willing to offer corroboration isn’t corroboration. We have no idea which of the dozen or so accusations have weight, or which are just opinion.

Also on a personal note I don’t have strong opinions on Paizo’s management team… how can I, I haven’t worked with them. They may be Dark Lords of the Sith for all I know. In which case I hope they change their ways. I have a fond nostalgia for Paizo from the dark days of 4e, and I’ve always seen the writing as being fairly progressive. That said Im not a fan boy, haven’t really used the Paizon forums for 5 or 6 years and haven’t bought a product since 5e.

I just take issue with the largely unregulated, unaccountable dismantling of people and business via social media.

Good to see Jessica made a correction though. She didn’t apologize for giving incorrect information though, as many people may not see that correction… as I wouldn’t have, unless I was given the link. I get the impression that contrition or considering the other side is not high up on her priority list.

[Edit: In fairness, it appears some grudging backhanded recognition has appeared about early editorial decision in the first year. Otherwise it’s a pretty brutal character assassination of every exec at Paizo. It will be interesting to see how they respond to it.]

 

[Grendel_Khan]

I just take issue with the largely unregulated, unaccountable dismantling of people and business via social media.

Just say what you mean. You're upset about the dreaded ... cancel culture! You know, that thing that doesn't actually exist, except in the fever swamps of right-wing rhetoric. In the real world there are very, very occasionally consequences for bad workplace behavior, but in general management types can survive just about any accusation, whether it's backed up or not.

But also, the person she was saying was fired didn't quit the company amicably. They left in protest because of a colleague's firing. That's still an extremely bad look for Paizo! You can go ahead and complain about the travesty of a non-journalist posting on Twitter without living up to some sort of journalistic standards of source-checking and corroboration, but, ultimately, you're flipping out about a relatively minor detail that has almost no bearing on the larger accusations being presented here. And yes, you'll die on this hill for a while, railing about how "Facts matter!" and such, but this story is exponentially bigger than your rage over a mistake (again, from someone who isn't a journalist, and has no relevant professional code of ethics that they're violating). This is simply how it goes in the real world. Social media is messy, people are messy, the way news travels is messy, that's just how things have always been, long before Twitter threads were a thing.

 

[Nilbog]

It's not a great look for paizo and I'm not doubting the veracity of the post in anyway, but before any conclusions are made it must be worth hearing paizo's side of the story?