Paizo Jessica Price (ex Paizo employee) spills the beans

[billd91]

The weird inclusion of Phrenology in Pathfinder begins to make some sense now.

I am not at all bothered by phrenology in a role playing game about weird and occult stuff. The fact that they treat things like magic, mythology, and monster as real makes for fertile grounds for even making phrenology have real weight.

I'm much more concerned about the claim that Bulmahn sends around unsolicited dick pics.

 

[dave2008]

Yeah. It starting to look like someone is intentionally derailing at this time...

So as I was saying, what can be done to help fix this situation?

Not sure. The only thing that usually speaks is a lot of people stop supporting the Co., or the threat of a lot of people stopping their support. I think Paizo relies a lot on their subscriptions, so I think that community better situated to spearhead change. Perhaps they could start a petition request certain changes or they will cancel their subscriptions. You get enough people to sign and it might go somewhere.

 

[Retreater]

So as I was saying, what can be done to help fix this situation?

The employees should be able to have a safe work environment, up to the standards of similar offices.

 

[darjr]

It might be a big ooooof, but if it wasn't for Ancalagon's Apothegm, twitter might not exist!


In a way, Twitter is to Ancalagon's Apothegm what the Double Slit Experiment is to the wave-theory of light- kind of a proof of concept.

The. What.

 

[Parmandur]

I am not at all bothered by phrenology in a role playing game about weird and occult stuff. The fact that they treat things like magic, mythology, and monster as real makes for fertile grounds for even making phrenology have real weight.

I'm much more concerned about the claim that Bulmahn sends around unsolicited dick pics.

The cras and the creepy are sort of a piece, though.

 

[RangerWickett]

The weird inclusion of Phrenology in Pathfinder begins to make some sense now.

Wasn't that in the Occult Adventures book? I thought they were just leaning into the Victorian-era vibe with seances, aura reading, and other bunk pseudo-science.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

OK, I'll try and shift the thread in another direction to promote discussion.

I've got a question.

Most of you are probably somewhat familiar with the recent events with Activision-Blizzard. When discussing the topic with colleagues, I hypothesized that Blizzard was one of the few company that benefited from an almost immaculate reputation. That reputation operated in two ways: 1) with the players, most people that I know would almost buy Blizzard games blindly because they knew that everyone would and that they would be incredible games, 2) with the professionals, Blizzard was a bit like the Disney of animation. When recruiting, they benefitted from the fact that people wanted to work for them.

I argued that blizzard lost #1 (or at least it deteriorated) in the last few years with several post releases, and that with the recent events and the lawsuit, they lost #2 (or at least it deteriorated it). Now I wonder how much people will not want to work at Blizzard. That's something really bad, because hiring good people is hard, and the industry at large right now has labour shortages.

If Paizo's reputation becomes seriously affected by this in the coming weeks. What effect do you think that will have on their recruiting capacity? And if they suffer from it and can't keep up the same quantity of releases, what will happen with that empty space in the TTRPG ecosystem?

 

[darjr]

I am not at all bothered by phrenology in a role playing game about weird and occult stuff. The fact that they treat things like magic, mythology, and monster as real makes for fertile grounds for even making phrenology have real weight.

I'm much more concerned about the claim that Bulmahn sends around unsolicited dick pics.

Wasn't that in the Occult Adventures book? I thought they were just leaning into the Victorian-era vibe with seances, aura reading, and other bunk pseudo-science.

Yes, that was their excuse. It is still a blatantly racist thing to bring in brand new to an RPG. Especially D&D where I don't really recall ever seeing it before. But like I said, it now makes much more sense.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Fair enough. I feel I understand your take on it a bit better but I still disagree on a number points.
I feel that one of those is the nature of the medium - Twitter invites discussion from people ranging from bozos who want to troll to well-informed enthusiasts who want to engage. Treating the latter like the former, from my perspective, is not justified. It may happen - everyone has bad days - but it's not right.
As I've said before, you don't have to agree with me. You come to one conclusion, I come to another.

I think "well-informed enthusiasts" are still, at their heart, not professionals. Given how constantly women in workplaces (particularly "nerd" industries like tech and RPG development) have their opinions questioned, doubted, and even disregarded, perhaps more care should be taken with how such things are framed. I think how @Gradine gives context to the situation, Deroir maybe should have been more careful to not only try correcting her on something she knew, but also not assigning an opinion to her that she didn't have.

 

[Retreater]

The weird inclusion of Phrenology in Pathfinder begins to make some sense now.

I didn't know what that term meant. Just Googled it, and I knew the concept. And ... wow.

 

[Ancalagon]

It might be a big ooooof, but if it wasn't for Ancalagon's Apothegm, twitter might not exist!


In a way, Twitter is to Ancalagon's Apothegm what the Double Slit Experiment is to the wave-theory of light- kind of a proof of concept.

I have very mixed feelings about this catching on (like Poe's Law or Halon's Razor)...

 

[Malmuria]

Yeah. It starting to look like someone is intentionally derailing at this time...

So as I was saying, what can be done to help fix this situation?

This reads to me like a story about corporate malfeasance, exacerbated by the fact that the industry relies on so many casual, freelance workers. Exacerbated again by the fact that fans of creative products get territorial about the companies they support and that discussion about it becomes a proxy for the culture wars.

It's illustrative that several of the things she describes are, if true, outright illegal. Even the carpet thing has to do with worker safety. And yet it is unlikely in the US that a handful of employees are going to be able to successfully sue even a small corporation like Paizo on that account. We need better regulations and workers, including freelancers, need unions. Consumer recourses are, in my opinion, weak. That said, maybe focus your gaming money towards independent creators and smaller companies?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

I have very mixed feelings about this catching on (like Poe's Law or Halon's Razor)...

I will make fetch happen.

You’re welcome!

 

[darjr]

I will make fetch happen.

You’re welcome!

You of the blue hat and obviously delicious tea. I find my self almost squirming not knowing what the actual dangnabbit that thing is. I think this is what Danforth must have felt.

 

[JediSoth]

This reads to me like a story about corporate malfeasance, exacerbated by the fact that the industry relies on so many casual, freelance workers. Exacerbated again by the fact that fans of creative products get territorial about the companies they support and that discussion about it becomes a proxy for the culture wars.

It's illustrative that several of the things she describes are, if true, outright illegal. Even the carpet thing has to do with worker safety. And yet it is unlikely in the US that a handful of employees are going to be able to successfully sue even a small corporation like Paizo on that account. We need better regulations and workers, including freelancers, need unions. Consumer recourses are, in my opinion, weak. That said, maybe focus your gaming money towards independent creators and smaller companies?

The National Writer's Union accepts work-for-hire writers, contract writers, and self-published authors. I doubt most RPG freelancers realize that there is a union they can join right now (and join the Freelance Solidarity Project in the process). I didn't even find out about them until today when I started poking around after reading her Twitter thread.

Whether or not they could have been engaged to prevent such a blow up, I don't know. But there are options to explore, should people wish.

 

[Retreater]

From the PF2 reddit

 

[teitan]

I remember Jessica Price from this:

All this.

 

[teitan]

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?

Or more about the author of the tweets. She is a pretty shady person who took advantage of the current political clime to make accusations before and also celebrated a man dying of cancer.

 

[Gradine]

For those catching up, Phrenology was a cornerstone of Scientific Racism. We like to think of it as funny head bump reading these days but its history is inextricably tied to white supremacy.

 

[Justice and Rule]

From the PF2 reddit

Without specifics, I have no clue what to even say about this. If you are going to say that something isn't true, you have to say what, otherwise it comes off as trying to cast doubt on it all. If there is something wrong, then say what you know is wrong. At this point, there's no reason to be vague about it.

Or more about the author of the tweets. She is a pretty shady person who took advantage of the current political clime to make accusations before and also celebrated a man dying of cancer.

You know, I subscribed to TB for a long time, but his help in giving GG credibility was unconscionable and always poorly-considered. To me, it always came off as being out of ego, and him tossing his credibility to a nascent hate movement honestly should not be forgotten. I never wanted the man to die nor would I celebrate his death, but I suppose if I were a women in gaming on the internet, I might not be so inclined to be so kind.