QUOTE (Cain @ Apr 3 2010, 12:47 PM)
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But according to what's been posted, these checks are for only a select group of freelancers. Obstensibly, payments are made in order of the importance of their projects; the cynical part of me says they're going out to those who are toeing the party line.
More seriously, here's my problem. Your own accountant, someone with a more complete financial picture than you, says the situation is dire. You're not able to pay off all your freelancers, for reasons you either don't know, don't understand, or cannot reveal. And even then, only a "special" group of them are getting paid: the one who quit due to ethics, for example, isn't getting paid; while Patrick Goodman, who has staunchly defended CGL, is. So the question is: who's deciding which freelancers get paid? Is it you? If not, then who, and why are they going over your head on this one?
For the record, I am receiving some payments along with quite a few other freelancers who forced the hand of Catalyst by withholding copyright. My beliefs may be irrelevant, but I
believe that checks would not have been sent out at this time if copyrights had not been withheld. I also believe that public opinion -
your all's opinion! - helped push CGL to do the right thing. The people I mentioned before, the other people I know are waiting for payment? I do not believe that they have all received payments. All the contracts I'm owed for - including
Vice and
Corporate Guide - I am not being paid for at this time. I do not know how the decision was made on which contracts to pay, which not to pay, and I won't speculate on those decisions. I only know that decisions were made. I'm getting paid for a few of my contracts (
Dusk,
Seattle 2072, and
6th World Almanac). I imagine there are a lot of authors/artists/editors/freelancers who are *not* getting paid for any of their outstanding contracts. I chose to be vocal. I got paid (partially). The other freelancers, who need and deserve and
are owed the money as much as I am? Probably out of luck. Do I hate that? Yes. Absolutely. Do I think all the people who contributed should be paid in full, and hate that those of us who started screaming got paid, and those who are patiently waiting did not???
YES. Is it fair?
NO. Every dollar that paid me did not pay another debt of CGL. Did I deserve it more than another person or company? I honestly don't know.
I chose to draw a line in the sand. I chose to state, "I am unwilling to accept more promises of payments to come and let you keep on publishing and selling my work." I chose to. And yes, I have knowledge of the situation that may have colored my decision. Perhaps other decisions I saw being made caused me to lose faith in CGL. The other freelancers who chose to withhold copyright did so for their own reasons.
I will state, however, that I remain a huge fan of Shadowrun. I still play in a weekly game (gonna start a new one that BishopMcQ is GMing for us, in fact, can't wait, building a technomancer for it). I love the universe. I think that some of the best books have been produced in the past few years, although I still have fondness for some of my 2nd Edition books. I know that some of the products in the pipeline (let's not speculate on where the printing money is) are
AMAZING.
6th World Almanac? Seriously, amazing. The rest of the DotA series? The fourth one has one scene that Aaron wrote that honestly made me laugh so hard I almost burst. Corp Guide has my write up on Horizon and Aztechnology, and I've been dying for those to go to print for months and months. I have confidence that there is a lot of great works in the pipeline.
Like Bobby, however, I have little confidence in the current Director team's ability to do them justice or to keep CGL viable. That's my personal beliefs, which, like personal ethics, are impossible to quantify.
And, perhaps because I'm a girl, or because I'm a single mother, or because I've visited Loren's house, my heart
bleeds for all the freelancers who should be getting paid, and aren't.