"You don´t have to tell us, your rating is too low for our standards DESPITE that."

I'd expect Cline to show no real emotion. He'd have the peon coming to his office and spend one hour or two explaining there is no "I" in "team" and all that crap, listining to the peon personel problems at work and at home, and finally give him some "important project" to carry. If the peon still doesn't change his mind, he'd get one extra hour about as worst as when your girlfriend explains you your relationship cannot go on and that it'd be better for both of us to stop it here. And in the end, everybody else at Horizon would firmly believe this was all the peon's fault.

That's the point. The guy with the larger dice pool raises to and remains on top. Anyone with that kind of dice pool can do it.

Your dice pools are meaningless, unless you know how to apply them.

That simply means you do not have the necessary dice pool for the appropriate Knowledge skills to how to apply them.

What, no one believes Horizon could simply really be a wonderful employer, with strong commitment to employee work-life balance and a genuine desire to better the world? A great place to work where everyone is valued and happy and sings during coffee breaks? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/love.gif)

The Dawkins Group ultimate adept power?

"The Care Bear Stare"

...that leaves me concerned about what is being put in the soycaff (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

I'm beginning get the feeling that there's going to be some Big Trouble in Little Elfland down the road that will make what the former Council of Pixies did look like an ice cream social.

...of course, then there is Hestaby to still deal with.

Maybe I'm still a noob, but "Council of Pixies"? More information please! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

little elfland = tir tairngire.
council of pixies = council of princes (the governing body of tir tairngire, which hestaby happens to be on)

You know Tiger has a point, aren't there enough evil megacorps running around? Can't we have at least one "Sorta okay doesn't eat babies" corps out there? Does that really hose the whole of cyberpunk?

Having black hats and gray hats is a good mix. White hat AAAs are not my style.

My PC likes to deal with Evo because they make stuff for metahumans... but it's biz, and he knows that if they can make more money by scragging him, they're likely to serve their stockholder's interests at any personal or ethical cost.

Well gray hat than. Just because they're nice to their employees doesn't mean their not totally evil to everyone else.

Hell, it might make them and their employees even more willing to totally destroy the competition.

"Fools! Don't they perceive our righteous ascension! Soon they shall understand the true power of the Consensus!
Now Gary, please run these figures down to accounting, and get yourself a free soda too."

Tiger Eyes was being facetious, and if I'm not mistaken is the architect of Horizon and author of the L.A. section. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Ah I see my sarcasm sensors net is down again (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Oh well.

Wait, your telling me they have an AI that has decided it's workforce MUST be happy and someone thinks this might not be evil?

So, Horizon gives its employees 20% of their work time to pursue their own interests, like taking a poetry workshop or joining the inter-departmental soccer team. Then the corp encourages employees to volunteer in the community - reading to little kids in schools, building houses for the poor, etc.

And then you gentlemen jump in and call Horizon scary and evil... You know what? You guys are paranoid. Except DocTaoTsu. He's nice. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

...moi? paranoid...? [looks around suspiciously] (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Nah, we're just realists.

I'm sure it's gonna turn out that Horizon is being run by a Horror or something that clawed its way out of the depths of the LA alchera, and then we can feel all superior and stuff while it eats the souls of its workforce and our characters. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

What I want to know is what happens if the AI doesn't find your poetry esthetically pleasing.

...some of use also still remember the UB.

I don't know why you have to be mean to Horizon! I just stopped by their offices last week to have some strong words with them about their latest memetic purge and now I feel fine!

*Turns to walk away, revealing a giant spike driven into the base of his skull. Spike reads: Product of Horizon corps!*

I think the UB were a little more obviously creepy to begin with.

But you're right, there's a precedent.

Honestly for my game I'm going to run Horizon as a whitish gray hat, they take care of their employees (who perform) but are utterly ruthless in the corporate sector. I imagine runners hunting down or protecting Horizon defectors who are going after employees who tried to get away without "giving their pound of flesh" for all that extra down time.

Though it's probably already been decided in a setting bible somewhere, I think the fact that so many people expect Horizon to turn out to be another UB-style fiasco is pretty much why it probably shouldn't be made into one. The 'secretly evil corporation' trope is nearly as played-out in the cyberpunk genre as 'blatantly evil corp'. Fortunately Shadowrun has largely managed to avoid the latter (Aztechnology and, to a slightly lesser degree, MCT, being the exceptions), and it'd be nice if it could use the former just as sparingly.

And, anyway, it's not like being a good place to work (What's so horrible about a meritocracy, exactly?) actually makes them a good organization. Horizon is still a profit-driven corporation, not a charity. They want your money and they plan to get it, by hook or by crook. So far, the most questionable hijinks Horizon gets up to are their massive datamining operation (which is definitely shady), CalHot production, and their Dawkins Group (literal) culture-warriors. But, honestly, I don't see why that's not bad enough. They just don't seem to be treating the people who help them do it like garbage. I think there's room in the setting for that sort of thing.

And it's not like the truth of the matter would stop the paranoid set from constructing elaborate conspiracy theories around them, anyway. Hell, it's 30 years on, and there are still people who are absolutely convinced that P&G donates a sizable portion of their yearly profits to the Church of Satan. So even if Horizon is 100% legit, there are still going to be people screaming about how 'it's too good to be true!' and looking in the corners for soul-devouring boogins. And every other corp that doesn't do business that way will always be looking for that one irrefutable 'gotcha' bombshell they can use to utterly destroy Horizon and would probably pay well to find it. Which can only help the shadow job market.

"Happiness is mandatory, citizen- er - employee! The Computer is your friend! Have a nice daycycle!"

The fake naivete/sarcasm bit wore out a long time ago.