Evil Genius Games bleeding personnel?

[Nylanfs]

On the employee / contractor issue the federal government (USA) is revising these and will be active March 11, 2024

This is kinda driven by the more gig type economy like rideshare and food delivery, but will affect regular freelancers also.

 

[JLowder]

Isn’t it standard ttrpg practice these days to use freelancers to write and design books? From what I’ve heard, very few ttrpg companies have enough revenue to have a stable of full time game designers and artists. They all deserve to be paid fairly, but I’ve heard this is pretty much the only way they can stay in business. They are mostly very small businesses that pay per project.

It has become increasingly common in TTRPG publishing circles in the past ten to fifteen years, following the lead of big companies such as Microsoft, to hire what formerly would have been essential staff position under contract. I was the executive editor for Chaosium, but still a contract freelancer, for example. This is very different from hiring a designer or artist for a specific project under contract, and it's only possible because of the way large companies have expanded (and abused) the definitions of employee status. It's a problem across the entire economy but is the standard operating procedure for many TTRPG publishers now. The number of jobs that are staff position, with access to benefits, is small and shrinking with each wave of cuts at Wizards.

 

[jdrakeh]

It's great that you've had that experience. Very happy to hear it. That is not the norm in publishing, especially in tabletop RPGs. I've had both large and small companies fail to pay or delay pay or fail to honor other parts of a contract (reporting sales and royalties, for example.) This is staggeringly common with TTRPG publishing, as it is with comics and genre fiction publishing, as well.

I guess I just lucked out. I have friends who've worked for "big" publishers in TTRPGs who didn't get paid, didn't get paid on time, or didn't even get their contributor copies of games they developed, so I know what you say is true (which is why I alluded to such in my original post).

 

[Sacrosanct]

Man, this is why ignore lists make things confusing. I though James was replying to the person above initially, and thought "how rude" before figuring out there must have been a reply quote I wasn't seeing.

Mod Edit: Image removed. ~Umbran

 

[Umbran]

Man, this is why ignore lists make things confusing. I though James was replying to the person above initially, and thought "how rude" before figuring out there must have been a reply quote I wasn't seeing.

Mod Note:
And, in the process, did you not realize that you'd be informing EVERYONE ELSE exactly who is ignoring who?

This thread is not about ignore lists. Please leave them out of it, or we will have to take it that you are willfully going out of your way to be rude about them.

 

[TheOldDragoonRDG]

It has become increasingly common in TTRPG publishing circles in the past ten to fifteen years, following the lead of big companies such as Microsoft, to hire what formerly would have been essential staff position under contract. I was the executive editor for Chaosium, but still a contract freelancer, for example. This is very different from hiring a designer or artist for a specific project under contract, and it's only possible because of the way large companies have expanded (and abused) the definitions of employee status. It's a problem across the entire economy but is the standard operating procedure for many TTRPG publishers now. The number of jobs that are staff position, with access to benefits, is small and shrinking with each wave of cuts at Wizards.

I work for a college, and for a period of time we had a contractor as our vice chancellor's second-in-command. At one point we'd hired a ton of contractors because it was faster than going through the state-mandated HR process for hiring, only to lose them all when the contractor money ran out. All their contracts were prematurely terminated two weeks before Christmas, like, 40 people. They lost their income, we lost their expertise, and because it was done without any prior notification of contract or permanent staff, there were no notes, instructions, or otherwise continuity of their projects. Everything was lost.

So it's not just the RPG industry. This sort of f***ery is happening in places you wouldn't expect it.

 

[billd91]

Since he hasn't linked it in yet, here's the result of Morrus's investigation.
The Rise and Fall of Evil Genius Games