*sigh* This is really getting silly. No wonder I avoided the previous hojillion threads. I can only blame some weird mixture of morbid curiosity and smoldering indignation, for my visits to this one -- indignation because I keep seeing some pretty wild claims and demands being made, and now a pretty ridiculous condemnation of how freelancers are supposedly being treated.
For starters -- wholly independent of any conversation about Shadowrun, Catalyst, IMR, or anyone else specifically mentioned in this thread -- I just want to say something about freelancing in general. As someone who's done freelance writing for several game companies over the course of several years, I can tell you that "utmost respect" just isn't part of the expected job description with
any of them. Aspirations aside, none of us are Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, or Billy Shakespeare (yet), and we know it. Freelance work
is what
it is.
You write, you get your couple pennies a word, you have some fun adding to the canon of a game universe you (hopefully) enjoy, and that's that. You get a thank you when you meet a deadline, you get another contract if they like your work, and if you know someone at the company personally you indulge in some friendly banter via e-mail when schedules permit. You make a few new friends at conventions, shake a few hands and put faces to names...and...well, that's the job. You get paid peanuts, because you sign a contract accepting peanuts in exchange for your work.
Complaining about an outright lack of pay is all well and good -- as someone who collects that pay, I can understand indignation along those lines! -- but no one gets into freelance writing for ticker tape parades, corporate jets, corner offices, and Swedish massage girls. The honest truth is most people don't find
full time work in the gaming industry (of all places) for fancy perks or soft handling. Freelancers are big boys. We know the nature of the business when we approach a company,
any company, with a proposal. We don't get into it looking forward to being beaten with sticks or having bamboo shoved under our nails or anything, but as someone who did temp jobs for part of my college career, I can tell you it and freelancing are an awful lot alike. No one gives temps or interns "the utmost respect," and no temp or intern that's cut out for it
expects "the utmost respect." No one in the RPG or wargame industry gets "the utmost respect," in the big picture. Let's not have unrealistic expectations, here.
Just like shadowrunners don't get into
their business for the medical and dental plan, we freelance writers know full well that "writing equivalent of a sweatshop" is pretty much the whole career description.
Let's not blame one conveniently target-able game company for
the nature of the industry itself, based on one string of unfortunate incidents.
Now, for CGL in particular?
For what it's worth? I can certainly tell you there's absolutely nothing more "sweatshop" about what I'm seeing with CGL than there has been for any of the other game companies I've worked with, at any rate. If anything, the atmosphere has been the
most transparent and community-oriented, with all sorts of brainstorming and idea swapping going on, with communication and coordination to help us all be on the same page. Truth be told, it's jarring compared to the "you write this many words about X,
you write this many about Y, and when you're done we'll mish-mash them together into a cohesive article. What? No, you two don't need to coordinate or anything, I just coordinated you!" atmosphere that I've run into with several previous companies. There's an almost-overwhelming amount of coordination and communication going on, between document sharing groups, instant messenger services, mailing lists, and plain old emails. CGL has also been right in line with handling contract, NDA, and invoice paperwork, every bit as professional as any business I've dealt with (right up there with Privateer Press, to be honest, which is the only other franchise I've operated with that's been anywhere near this businesslike making sure the t's are crossed and i's are dotted). Whatever happened, happened. I can tell they're working hard not to let it happen again.
I'm not going to claim to know every detail of the crap that's happened in the past. I'm not naive enough to think I'm going to get every detail, no matter how many DS threads I read, how much I scour RPG.net for it, or how many posts I find by AH, FT, Jason Hardy, or anyone else, I hunt down to eagerly devour. What I
do know is how I'm getting treated right now, compared to how I was treated by previous Shadowrun line developers, and how I've been treated by other game companies, and I know that just doesn't jive with some of the wild accusations people are throwing around right now.
So, anyways,
there. If anyone cares about what someone who's freelanced for other game companies, and is freelancing for CGL right now, feels, there you go.
If y'all will pardon me, I'm off to write.