Honest question here.

For the folks all claiming that Coleman "got off scot-free", how exactly do you know that?

Did someone leak the details of the settlement or something?





-k

If my use of the word narrative seemed condescending, I apologize; that was not the intent. I understand that people have their perspectives on events, and they might not mesh with mine, and that was my way of saying that we each have our narratives, and neither view is going to just disappear because one or the other of us does not agree with it.

There are points I can--and have--addressed, but other things that, for a variety of reasons, I can't. Is everything the same at Catalyst? No--changes have been made. One thing that dismays me is that changes being made were referred to in the letter from Randall that you very cavalierly dismiss. There was much more in that letter than "he's sorry, so it's cool"; reducing it to that does not do justice to Randall and what he wrote.

Things are working differently. Payment procedures, contracting procedures, and other financial operations have changed. Audits have been sent to freelancers to get an accurate picture of who is owed what, and to set specific plans to pay everyone what they are owed (and a large portion of the back debt has already been paid). I can't offer all the details, again for multiple reasons. One is that I don't know all the details; I'm busy enough with my own job, and overseeing the re-arrangement of administration, especially from my remote location, is not easy. Also, some of it is simply confidential. People are private about their finances; I'm hesitant to offer any details about payments in public. But new people with considerable accounting experience and skills have been brought in and have been leading the re-arranging of internal procedures.

But there's a reason I keep talking about getting back to business, and it's not just so that people will ignore what happened. It's because if practices continue as they had, business as usual will be impossible. Writers, authors, and freelancers will not work with us, staff turnover would continue, and books would not be printed. And then Catalyst would lose the Shadowrun license. The only way to get to where we want to be is to fix the problems that were present. If books come out regularly, it's because the normal processes of contracting, printing, and paying are taking place. If freelancers want to continue working for us over time, it is because we will be treating them as they should be treated. That's why I keep emphasizing that perspective--so that you don't have to take my word for it. If books and other products come out, if we do our job, then that means that processes are working better than they had been in the past.

Jason H.

One thing to remember, Raven... CGL is a Private Company. We as consumers have no right to ask for full transparency. Would it be nice? Hell yes. However, in the end, what we want and what will be are not always the same.

I got an email that mentioned a voucher, but I didn't actually get a voucher. More accurately, I got 3 emails over 19 minutes that all mentioned a voucher, but no voucher. It seems those darn editing errors creep into everything. ...

I know some vouchers have come through--check your spam filter to see if it got caught there. If it didn't, let me know.

Jason H.

The settlement details are a matter of public record. I believe someone gave the PACER link earlier in this thread.

The document had no details on the settlement, simply noted that the settlement was completed and the judge signed off on the order.

When you're shooting for the impossible, might as well shoot for the moon. I don't expect it, but it's worth at least asking.

Jason:

Let me be the first to tell you that I'm happy that you're looking to establish a system in which the company does what it's supposed to do. You do work, you get paid - that's one hundred percent how things are supposed to work.

However, you're curing the symptoms, and not the cause. Loren L. Coleman still has a part in this company. You and I disagree about this. And until LLC is removed from the equation, those symptoms are going to continue to rise up, no matter what systems or goodwill you generate.

That right there is the crux of the argument. Remove Coleman, and magically, things might improve for the better.

Ah, simple solutions for complex problems. It's like politics!

I also got three emails, but none included a voucher. I checked my spam filters; No other emails stuck there.

You're right--we disagree about that. Additionally, from where I sit, there's not a whole lot I can do about it. I couldn't remove Loren if I wanted to. The best I could do is quit myself, which doesn't really change a whole lot (though I suppose it would make a few people happy). Most importantly to me, though, it would just slow down the Shadowrun line, slow down the generation of income, and slow down payments to freelancers. From my perspective, the problem is not paying people; if I do things to continue making it so people don't get paid, I'm not helping.

Jason H.

Same here. I wasn't all that worried about it, but since others are having the same porblem, I figured I'd mention that it happened to me as well.

That raises an interesting question. Do you believe in Shadowrun, in Catalyst, or both?

I think you believe in Shadowrun. I don't know if you believe in Catalyst. Certainly every time I've asked you for a demonstration of faith in Catalyst, you've deflected it to a question about Shadowrun.

You're asking us to not just believe in the game line, but in the company behind it. Why should we put our faith in Catalyst? And don't say "Shadowrun", that's clearly not enough anymore.

What do you want the guy to do, Cain, talk bad about his employers on a public forum? How many other businesspeople do you interact with like this, day to day? Do you hound the manager at your local McDonald's like this until he apologizes for the unhealthy food? Hassle your bank manager until he admits he works for a soulless money monster? Harass your own boss until he, in writing and in public, badmouths those above him on the corporate ladder?

I don't know if there's something unique about RPGs and wargames when they cross streams with internet forums, or what, but I think some of you guys really just have some unrealistic expectations about what a businessman can, or should, say about his company on a public forum. In fairness, it's not an issue that's unique to any one poster here (so I apologize to Cain for being the one I'm singling out this way, but he's the most recent and so the natural "target" or whatever), and it's not even unique just to Shadowrun, or even Catalyst Games. I've seen it with 40k guys in years past, I've seen it plenty over on the Warmachine/Hordes forums, I've seen it with MMO/video-RPGs...but it's just something that mystifies me, every time I run across it.

Gamers seem to expect more from game developers on a forum than most voters expect from their politicians, in real life. Why do we have these wild expectations of transparency, up to and including asking a professional employee to bad mouth their own bosses in public?

I have to agree with Critias. This constant badgering is getting to the point of trolling. Questions have been asked and answered, even if not to your satisfaction. Move on to new subjects. The next time this thread is locked, it will not return just to allow the continued dredging up of the past.

Same thing happened to me. 3 emails over a 19 minute period. No voucher details in any other email.

Damn, I called that one when they asked for the bonds.

QFT

If voters talked with this kind of fervor, our country would be far different.

He's doing his job, and he's coming to the UNOFFICIAL forum to continue answering questions. Be happy with what we can get. Most gaming systems don't get near this involvement.

Making that image even more interesting is that Loren, for whom growing facial hair is not a strong suit, would be twirling a fake mustache with glee. It might even come off, breaking him out of his reverie to glue it back on and resume.

I see a lot of hero worship for the position, a certain respect because Jason is Shadowrun line developer. But the longer this mess gets drawn out, the more attention I pay to the person sitting in that seat and the quality of his message. The quality of his message hasn't gotten any better, spin is spin. The content is still "it's all cool, trust us", and we have been shown nothing yet that we can trust.

Personally, I'd find it to be a bit of karma if the freelancers are getting paid with checks from LLC's personal account. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Long as they get paid..

Who cares.

I would like to see Catalyst actually put forward War! It was really going to be one of the first non-remakes they were going to put out. I'd like to see what the quality of their vision is, when they're not just re-hashing shit.

I just want more shadowrun stuff, and perhaps if the company were a little healthily a more reasonable prices. Most of my shadowrun crew buys the fluff and campaign books to read the in game world stuff. But the 6th world alminac at 45 dollars was more than any of my 5 players wanted to buy. Need cash flow but if cost was down.

I do. I'm a fan of irony. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)



I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping it'll answer a decent amount of questions regarding all the military stuff that's cropped up in recent threads.

For those who received an e-mail about getting a Battleshop voucher but didn't get the voucher, there's a new news item up. To cut to the chase, send an e-mail to customerservice.catalyst@gmail.com to get your voucher if you were supposed to have one!

Jason H.