Revolutions are Always Verbose: Effecting Change in the TTRPG Industry

[Dannyalcatraz]

Re: tipping

I’m a 18-20%er. If I tip you more or less, it’s because of something you did.

Your service has to be truly bad to get less than 15%. Ive never tipped $0, but I did leave a one penny tip at an Easter Buffet when the waitstaff really pissed me off.

 

[slobster]

Agreed on everything you wrote- a structural change (so that employees would have benefits and a living wage, instead of tipped amounts depending on the whim of individuals) would be best. But that's not our world.

I prefer the socially-set amount (20-30%) of restaurants to the uncertain amounts you get in other situations; valets, housekeeping, subcontractors doing certain house repairs ... there are so many social situations where the amount you tip (or sometimes if you tip) is uncertain, and can be stressful.

On the other hand, I have learned the value of a good tip. For example, if you are planning on staying a while, an immediate tip of a $20 to the bartender does wonders.

Yeah, I should add that in my ideal world, the restaurant raises prices and then puts all that money right into their workforce. I'd like to live in that world, but we also live in the world where some people would raise prices 20% to give their employees a 3% raise...

I should note that I am a small business owner, an avowed capitalist, and someone who employs several people in my business. I know how hard it can be to make ends meet as a small business, how things are stacked towards larger corporations who can afford to navigate the tangle of overregulation that exists in California (it is a real thing, I promise!), how expensive it is to provide meaningful benefits to employees (health insurance is important to have, but man if you can't buy the subsidized ones on Covered California, the insurance companies charge you tens of thousands a year for coverage that is quite frankly terrible), etc., etc.

I'm not trying to excuse awful employers who don't pay their employees a fair wage. I know they exist, I've had several of those jobs myself. I try to do better, but at a certain point it's not enough for people to demand fairness from the businesses they frequent or their own employers, that has to be backed up by real power, whether governmental (probably in the form of legislation) or union organization or what have you. But there needs to be a fist inside the glove or some people will just get away with whatever they can, and those employers who try to do the right thing will suffer for being suckers.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Well, I note that Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” is clenched right now, and is definitely swinging in the labor market. And I think a higher percentage of workers are aware of their rights and power than has been seen in decades.

….and there are more allies in the customer base, too. (At least, for now.)

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Yeah, I should add that in my ideal world, the restaurant raises prices and then puts all that money right into their workforce. I'd like to live in that world, but we also live in the world where some people would raise prices 20% to give their employees a 3% raise...

I should note that I am a small business owner, an avowed capitalist, and someone who employs several people in my business. I know how hard it can be to make ends meet as a small business, how things are stacked towards larger corporations who can afford to navigate the tangle of overregulation that exists in California (it is a real thing, I promise!), how expensive it is to provide meaningful benefits to employees (health insurance is important to have, but man if you can't buy the subsidized ones on Covered California, the insurance companies charge you tens of thousands a year for coverage that is quite frankly terrible), etc., etc.

I'm not trying to excuse awful employers who don't pay their employees a fair wage. I know they exist, I've had several of those jobs myself. I try to do better, but at a certain point it's not enough for people to demand fairness from the businesses they frequent or their own employers, that has to be backed up by real power, whether governmental (probably in the form of legislation) or union organization or what have you. But there needs to be a fist inside the glove or some people will just get away with whatever they can, and those employers who try to do the right thing will suffer for being suckers.

I hit on this in section 2 in the OP, with this summation-

Of course, another factor that can't be ignored is that it is fundamentally unfair to make all of this the consumer's fault. We have seen this emerging argument in a number of areas- that, in fact, companies are more than happy to make us blame ourselves for our consuming decisions at the micro-level, when effective change is best done through collective action (regulation at the macro level). How can we research the companies and supply chains of every product we buy? Why not just have better wages and benefits in general?

It's completely accurate, what you're saying. It is difficult, because it can be a competitive advantage for some companies (and people) to get away with whatever they can, and the employers that do the right thing get screwed. Karma is justice without the satisfaction.

But we have such a weird system in so many ways- as you correctly note, there can be so much overregulation (as in California, for small businesses) that does so little. Here, in the America, we seem to have opted for the worst of all worlds; government regulation that chokes businesses while providing little benefit to the people that most need it.

But moving back to the OP (before the thread gets shut down), that's why we would need collective action (through government, or on the labor side with a SAG-like union) to benefit the creatives in the TTRPG space.

..... I am not holding my breath.

It would be great if consumers demanded more, but ... for the most part, those effects are too attenuated. It's easy to get companies to do things that don't greatly impact their bottom line, but it's hard to get them to re-align their incentives to distribute more money to the labor force and less to shareholders- because we just aren't set up for that.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Re: tipping

I’m a 18-20%er. If I tip you more or less, it’s because of something you did.

Your service has to be truly bad to get less than 15%. Ive never tipped $0, but I did leave a one penny tip at an Easter Buffet when the waitstaff really pissed me off.

I've done that once. That involved having to wait while watching the server chat for 20 minutes before coming to the table, which glancing over, making eye contact, and then going back to his chat. When he did finally come over, he reached ACROSS ME to grab my wife's (then fiancee) shoulder and say "we'll start with you," clearly trying to flirt. Things actually got worse from there, with a 40 minute wait for food (which was desserts and coffee). We (it was us and another couple) left a lemon tip -- which is where you place a lemon wedge in the middle of a cleaned plate, centered on the table, and stick a single penny upright into the wedge, making it absolutely clear that the penny is intentional. All of us had been servers at some point.

I grew up a bit after that, though, and the next time I had terrible service, we spoke to the manager about it. I've also asked to speak to a manager so I could praise the server and/or staff. I've done the latter far more often than the former -- you have to really be doing a bad job for me to speak to the boss about you. Since I've been a server before, and know what it's like to get in the weeds, my tolerance is pretty high.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh yes- service above & beyond earns you a chat between me and higher ups!

I ordered some sides to go with a big Christmas meal I was planning. I went to pick it up 30min before closing, and my order (from weeks before) had not only disappeared, it seemed as if it had never been processed. Even though the hour was late, the assistant MoD kept the store open and personally stayed late, filling the order himself by cooking fresh sides.

I contacted the corporate offices to tell them how he rescued our meal.

I didn’t see him again for nearly 18 months. He remembered me- not just because of the events of that night- but because my call had been a major factor in his promotion.

 

[slobster]

But we have such a weird system in so many ways- as you correctly note, there can be so much overregulation (as in California, for small businesses) that does so little. Here, in the America, we seem to have opted for the worst of all worlds; government regulation that chokes businesses while providing little benefit to the people that most need it.

I own a small business in California that supplies healthcare services. I cannot possibly express how much I agree with your "worst of all worlds" diagnosis, in regulation in general and in our healthcare system in specific. I know we are off-topic and I respect your attempts to steer the thread clear of moderation, so suffice it to say that what I see in how our healthcare system is stocked full of perverse incentives and "not technically illegal" behavior literally makes me sick.

But anyway, RPG creators. The DMs Guild is literally called a "guild", but doesn't really act as such. It's more a marketplace where any and all comers can reach consumers directly, and compete with each other for attention (and dollars). I mean don't get me wrong, that is cool, but maybe by taking a little inspiration from actual guilds, it might be possible to help out RPG creators?

A guild membership used to mean an indicator of quality, that the person had put in the time or proven themselves (or just paid the dues, but let's avoid that model), and so was able to assess higher fees for a known quality of service. I'm not up to the task of rebuilding such a model for the Uber age right at this moment, but maybe that could provide some models to work from.

 

[Thomas Shey]

This may or may not be relevant to this thread....

But one thing I've noticed as I've gotten peripherally involved in publishing indie material here in the US, is how much the internationalization of art and publishing services has undermined attempts by artists/writers/editors in the indie RPG space here in the US in hoping to demand a living wage.

Its a version of the classic "race to the bottom" you see with some kinds of industries in the U.S. especially, where its hard for the place with the least regulatory structure/taxes to control what everyone else does, because otherwise the industry moves out of the state and takes its jobs with it. Its often really difficult for places to say "Don't let the door hit you on the butt", but without that...

Edit: And now I notice you used the term yourself at the end of your post, so I'm preaching to the choir.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Toyota has the benefit of having developed an ethos that others merely copy, usually incompletely.

See: Just-in-time supply networks.

 

[dragoner]

But moving back to the OP (before the thread gets shut down), that's why we would need collective action (through government, or on the labor side with a SAG-like union) to benefit the creatives in the TTRPG space.

I will join in beating that drum!

Yes, as a business professional, I agree that government rules are stacked towards the larger industries to the detriment of the smaller. Even with tipping and wait staff, where I will tip at 20% usually because I am lazy, and it is easy to figure. It is customary here, I wish I didn't have to tip, except I figure it is the price of going out. Worst case scenario for non-tippers is to be called Mr Pink, and nobody wants to be called Mr Pink. Also beyond the borders, going to the pyramids at Giza, the driver stopped 500m short and asked for an extra dollar to take us closer, and one guy started complaining, and I gave the driver an extra dollar for him and said: "I didn't come thousands of miles to hear someone complain about a dollar!"

Helicopter owners as RPG writers is rather irrelevant, as I am almost sure no-one is making that kind of money writing RPG's, but if they are, kudos for them. The idea for organized labor is not to limit the top, except to help the rank and file. Why socialism is feminism, vs capitalist patriarchy in social-economic theory. I can go on with the business theory stuff, I wrote my thesis of "Rise and Fall of the MegaCorp" about IBM, they loved the title, and I didn't have to tell them I ruthlessly stole it from sci-fi/cyberpunk, and did a huge powerpoint project on kickstarter as growth of "creative-funding" mixed with marketing (this was 2013). It was interesting stuff, and I basically went back to school because the economic downturn of 2008, and had already been working in project management as managing engineer in California.

Circling back to the labor, creatives, issue; like the wait staff, nobody wants to have to think about tipping so they can make it, mostly people only want to think of what impacts their own pocket. That is ok, nothing wrong with that, except it is also the reason for writers, staff, labor, to organize in order to take care of themselves.