Paizo Jessica Price (ex Paizo employee) spills the beans

[TerraDave]

Thread by @Delafina777 on Thread Reader App

@Delafina777: Welp, Paizo just fired their two most senior customer service people (one a woman, one a POC) for apparently being too willing to push back on abusive management. Of course, this also means that the...…

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Thanks, though this just kind of confirms what a difficult read it is.

 

[Parmandur]

Oh it's definitely possible that nothing actually happens internally, but their reputation will be shot when that happens

Yeah, my prognosis for both internal reform and customer relations is bad.

 

[Parmandur]

No, of course, it's terrible!! As is scientific racism! I'm not excusing its inclusion in a game. What I'm saying is that fantasy rpgs already include a lot of elements derived from late nineteenth century colonial ideology, so if you are playing dnd or pathfinder, those games and the fantasy genre are already enmeshed in a lot of terrible, essentializing ideas. (Also, fwiw, phrenology is not a specifically theosophist idea, and had wider purchase in Victorian scientific communities)

Price's discussion of Mona's interests are beyond just theosophy, but that he was into 19th century pseudo-science and occultism in general, and that editors fought him on including such material in books.

 

[Retreater]

Oh it's definitely possible that nothing actually happens internally, but their reputation will be shot when that happens

I wonder if the damage is already done. Seeing the large number of fans dropping them on their own site, cancelling subscriptions, etc., can't be a good thing. It's not like we're talking about customers like me (who just gets the big rulebooks and the occasional adventure).
Changing direction with PF2 cost them some fans. This might be the death knell.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The US judicial system has failed victims of discrimination, workers, people of color, and sexual assault survivors again and again and again. Though, one could argue that what might be regarded as a bug (the inability of the courts to provide justice) is actually a feature and says a lot about the power dynamics of US society and the way that sexism, racism, and homophobia is not just a matter of individual instances (say, at Paizo), but institutional and systemic.

I won't comment on the situation of the US system's efficiency specifically, but based from personal experience as a public prosecutor, even with the best intentions the lack of funding is a key problem. Justice is a public service nobody wants to fund: many people think they don't need it (and it's true: a large majority of people will never set a foot in a court), a significant part of the population think it's a "service" used by criminals instead of seeing it as a service used by victims, so why bother funding it... If you cut funding to a school, parents will complain about their children's results. If you cut funding to police, residents of the neighborhood will complain about fearing to get out after dark. If you underfund a court... nobody will complain directly. And the regular degredation of the efficiency of this public service that results from chronic underfunding will reinforce the belief that courts are pointless. Add to this that the goal of the judicial system isn't to satisfy victims but provide an equitable decision, so often plaintiff are disappointed with the sentence in criminal affairs) and you have a recipe for having a public service nobody wants to actually pay for taxes for. So if as you mentionned the result in the US judicial system is a feature and not a bug, then "easiest to implement" mean to achieve the goal of not providing an efficient justice is to just let the system underfunded long enough.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Unlike WotC, Paizo has no investors to answer to, and the owners are buds with management. Historically, this means that toxicity is a regenerative cycle that doesn't really ever get fixed.

This is true, but they have less of a shield. Hasbro and their status as the brand titan of the industry allows WOTC to shrug off a lot of stuff. The Orion Black accusations last year stand out in that regard.

In this case, Paizo has to do something to survive: they lack the attachment to larger brand, as well as rely on a devoted customer base. Knowing the owners isn't going to save you when you devalue what's being owned.

We'll see. Mona's response is easily the best, though he had the easiest stuff to address. Jeff and Jason... much less so. We'll see what happens in the days and weeks to come.

 

[TheSword]

Saw this on the paizo Reddit. Read on to the follow up comments.
TLDR the employee says there are definitely issues and the firing was definitely a shocker. Though they claim one or more of Prices allegations are untrue.

 

[TheSword]

Yeah, this statement did go down too well! That won’t cut the mustard!

paizo.com - Forums / Paizo: General Discussion: Staff Change Update from Paizo President Jeff Alvarez

 

[Parmandur]

This is true, but they have less of a shield. Hasbro and their status as the brand titan of the industry allows WOTC to shrug off a lot of stuff. The Orion Black accusations last year stand out in that regard.

In this case, Paizo has to do something to survive: they lack the attachment to larger brand, as well as rely on a devoted customer base. Knowing the owners isn't going to save you when you devalue what's being owned.

We'll see. Mona's response is easily the best, though he had the easiest stuff to address. Jeff and Jason... much less so. We'll see what happens in the days and weeks to come.

I'd say just the opposite: the need to protect investor's meant that WotC actually responded last year, and succeeded. Detached private owners who are themselves toxic may be more inclined to protect their toxic cronies.

 

[Justice and Rule]

I'd say just the opposite: the need to protect investor's meant that WotC actually responded last year, and succeeded. Detached private owners who are themselves toxic may be more inclined to protect their toxic cronies.

They responded by...?