RPG Codex Interview: Chris Avellone on Pillars Cut Content, Game Development Hierarchies and More

[Latro]

He's gone isn't he?

It's the weekend and Friday was probably date night. Guy can't stay up all night posting on the Codex forever.

you trying to say MCA is better than me?!

 

[Alexios]

Remember when you were in high school and thought working on video games would be your dream job?

Really dodged a bullet on that one.

 

[toro]

So, I guess a moderator position on Obdisian's forum is out of the question for Infinitron now ...

 

[Crescent Hawk]

Fuck I really to play Stonekeep and BG3 from an alternate universe where Western culture didn't become and arthritic parody of brave new world. Larian wont deliver it, they would be better making Asterix games.

 

[The Wall]

Remember when you were in high school and thought working on video games would be your dream job?

Really dodged a bullet on that one.

Hey, it's only when you're working for big, soulless, faceless big publishers like EA, Ubisoft and the like. Smaller companies like Obsidian treat you like you're member of family and...Oh.

Sucessful game companies full of happy employees are all alike. Every falling apart,full of unhappy employees game company is managed by relative of Obsidian's upper management.
Chris Avellstoy

 

[m_s0]

So what's all this the...

I didn’t get anything when I left Obsidian. There were no share payouts, no equity, and this was in addition to the other logistical problems around the departure – the sudden cancellation of my health insurance, problems with my 401K, errors in Obsidian’s accounting, and several existing independent contracts they refused to uphold.

Realizing my family issues and the debts therein, however, they did make an attempt to leverage that into a far more confining separation agreement that would remove my right to work on RPGs, and my silence on all issues that could pertain to Obsidian or any other company they were involved with or the CEO had a % in (Fig, Zero Radius, Dark Rock Industries, etc.). This included an inability to critique games I’d worked on – much of my critiques on my own games tend to be blunt, and not being able to speak to them felt unnatural to me.

The company involvement silence worried me more, however, as it meant that if anything illegal happened with any of those companies (these could include serious charges like accounting issues, silence on harassment issues with regards to employees, perjury related to company documents and payments), I couldn’t speak about the issue, even if I felt strongly against what was being revealed.

While all this is good for Obsidian's upper management and is what is sometimes considered "good business," I did feel it showed a lack of ethics.

Still, that attempt at leverage did cause me to re-evaluate aspects of my life. Realizing debt was affecting my decision, I instead focused on working as hard as possible to make up for the amount Obsidian tried to use as leverage to force a signature – and succeeded.

When that happened, I realized I was free of the situation – completely free, for the first time. Feargus and the owners had no hold on my voice, my time, and my creativity any longer. And it was great.

...

Also, realizing there was no restitution for the issues mentioned, I made a promise to myself that nothing I would do would ever cause Feargus and the owners any further financial gain. If my silence was that important to them, then there's no need to be silent because that right hadn't been signed away. Simply put, I like the developers at Obsidian very much, I work and correspond with many of those who are there or have left, and I would work with the developers again. I do feel upper management at Obsidian has serious flaws that need to be addressed, and I stand by that statement.

Waaaaaaaaait a minute. "Sudden" cancellation?

It usually extends a month beyond the date of departure (the time is granted so you can schedule health appts, which you can’t usually do quickly). I got 2 days.

Fuck. Me.

 

[Chris Avellone]

I do not know how effective this will be Bester. First, is this a matter of tax fraud or accounting fraud (e.g., embezzlement)? Your main description does not allege that Obsidian is dodging taxes or paying less in taxes (if anything, paying more taxes), but rather that friends and family are holding sham positions and being paid. This could be a crime (I have further questions about it in point #2), just perhaps not one that involves the IRS. Instead, this may fall under the review of state authorities that investigate accounting fraud/embezzlement.

...

You are more than welcome to file this, it is your choice. I just do not see much coming from it. If anything, this would be a State of California matter.

I haven't read all the posts since the last time I was on, but if this ghost employee practice is indeed illegal (which wasn't mentioned whenever it actually happened), I'd be curious to know.

If so, Bester, I do appreciate what you did, plus making me aware of that as an issue. If there's a step-by-step process anyone knows on how to file these complaints, I'd love to hear them.

On a related note to this issue, this wasn't the only family members who Feargus attempted to bring on. Feargus did try and have both his young children added as employees at the studio during my last year there, but the other owners fought back and made it clear that (1) not only was it illegal b/c of the age requirements, (2) there was no way to defend against someone being able to prove his two children didn't work there (obviously, Feargus's children are far below age of employment so if it was somehow proven, there would be additional problems), but most importantly, on a higher level, it was seen an unethical and wrong thing to try and do.

The conversations about this were difficult because it was an issue related to employment + family, which made an otherwise easy decision of "no" increasingly angry and complicated, which was frustrating. It was something that shouldn't have been suggested, discussed, or brought up at all.

 

[polo]

Oh wow, i did not expect MCA going along with Bester aka Civic duty champion. This thread keeps on giving.

 

[Projas]

That's hilarious, because if I remember correctly, one of Feargus' kids is like 10. It's like the last 2 centuries of labour laws didn't happen to Feargus.

 

[frajaq]

Bester haters blown the fuck out

 

[Darth Roxor]

On a related note to this issue, this wasn't the only family members who Feargus attempted to bring on. Feargus did try and have both his young children added as employees at the studio during my last year there, but the other owners fought back and made it clear that (1) not only was it illegal b/c of the age requirements, (2) there was no way to defend against someone being able to prove his two children didn't work there (obviously, Feargus's children are far below age of employment so if it was somehow proven, there would be additional problems), but most importantly, on a higher level, it was seen an unethical and wrong thing to try and do.

 

[Delterius]

Smaller companies like Obsidian treat you like you're member of family and...Oh.

And every day is thanksgiving.

 

[Roguey]

Just give your kids an allowance like a normal person, Feargus.

 

[Goral]

Feargus did try and have both his young children added as employees at the studio during my last year there, but the other owners fought back and made it clear that (1) not only was it illegal b/c of the age requirements, (2) there was no way to defend against someone being able to prove his two children didn't work there (obviously, Feargus's children are far below age of employment so if it was somehow proven, there would be additional problems)

 

[aratuk]

So, I guess a moderator position on Obdisian's forum is out of the question for Infinitron now ...

To accept a moderator position on an official forum would be to undermine his journalistic integrity, so it was never going to happen anyway.

 

[Mustawd]

rpgcodex.net > for all your tax and fraud consulting needs

 

[Jacob]

bester is bester than you

 

[J_C]

Jesus, I never expected Chris was going along with this IRS stuff. The situation between him and Feargus is worse than I thought. I just hope Chris treads lightly and only says and does things he can defend with evidence if all things go haywire.

 

[Prime Junta]

Chris Avellone another question (although I would still be interested in the matter about the word count) -- how did the commercial failure of Alpha Protocol affect your standing at Obsidian?

There's a noticeable change of course in your gameography since then -- it's been mostly supporting work, and a lot of it outside Obsidian, even before you left. It's obvious this situation took a quite a while to fester, so I'm wondering if this had something to do with it. Did it get you permanently on Feargus's shitlist?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I do not know how effective this will be Bester. First, is this a matter of tax fraud or accounting fraud (e.g., embezzlement)? Your main description does not allege that Obsidian is dodging taxes or paying less in taxes (if anything, paying more taxes), but rather that friends and family are holding sham positions and being paid. This could be a crime (I have further questions about it in point #2), just perhaps not one that involves the IRS. Instead, this may fall under the review of state authorities that investigate accounting fraud/embezzlement.

...

You are more than welcome to file this, it is your choice. I just do not see much coming from it. If anything, this would be a State of California matter.

I haven't read all the posts since the last time I was on, but if this ghost employee practice is indeed illegal (which wasn't mentioned whenever it actually happened), I'd be curious to know.

If so, Bester, I do appreciate what you did, plus making me aware of that as an issue. If there's a step-by-step process anyone knows on how to file these complaints, I'd love to hear them.

On a related note to this issue, this wasn't the only family members who Feargus attempted to bring on. Feargus did try and have both his young children added as employees at the studio during my last year there, but the other owners fought back and made it clear that (1) not only was it illegal b/c of the age requirements, (2) there was no way to defend against someone being able to prove his two children didn't work there (obviously, Feargus's children are far below age of employment so if it was somehow proven, there would be additional problems), but most importantly, on a higher level, it was seen an unethical and wrong thing to try and do.

The conversations about this were difficult because it was an issue related to employment + family, which made an otherwise easy decision of "no" increasingly angry and complicated, which was frustrating. It was something that shouldn't have been suggested, discussed, or brought up at all.

So man have you played the Outcast game or its remake and what do you make of it?

 

[Alpan]

I would have sooner expected MCA to acknowledge the existence of Josh Sawyer than actually approve of what Bester's doing. His magnanimity ITT knows no bounds.

 

[Maculo]

I do not know how effective this will be Bester. First, is this a matter of tax fraud or accounting fraud (e.g., embezzlement)? Your main description does not allege that Obsidian is dodging taxes or paying less in taxes (if anything, paying more taxes), but rather that friends and family are holding sham positions and being paid. This could be a crime (I have further questions about it in point #2), just perhaps not one that involves the IRS. Instead, this may fall under the review of state authorities that investigate accounting fraud/embezzlement.

...

You are more than welcome to file this, it is your choice. I just do not see much coming from it. If anything, this would be a State of California matter.

I haven't read all the posts since the last time I was on, but if this ghost employee practice is indeed illegal (which wasn't mentioned whenever it actually happened), I'd be curious to know.

If so, Bester, I do appreciate what you did, plus making me aware of that as an issue. If there's a step-by-step process anyone knows on how to file these complaints, I'd love to hear them.

On a related note to this issue, this wasn't the only family members who Feargus attempted to bring on. Feargus did try and have both his young children added as employees at the studio during my last year there, but the other owners fought back and made it clear that (1) not only was it illegal b/c of the age requirements, (2) there was no way to defend against someone being able to prove his two children didn't work there (obviously, Feargus's children are far below age of employment so if it was somehow proven, there would be additional problems), but most importantly, on a higher level, it was seen an unethical and wrong thing to try and do.

The conversations about this were difficult because it was an issue related to employment + family, which made an otherwise easy decision of "no" increasingly angry and complicated, which was frustrating. It was something that shouldn't have been suggested, discussed, or brought up at all.

I do not have first hand knowledge of California law (nor am I licensed to practice in Cali), but I am confident having a ghost employee is illegal in some form -it is taking money from the business. The question, however, is whom to submit the allegations to. In this case, I do not believe this is a matter the IRS would handle outright, because it seems to pertain to an owner/employee collecting paychecks from sham employees, as opposed to an owner/business avoiding taxes . Hence, I would make the distinction between tax fraud and accounting fraud (e.g., embezzlement).(See Mustawd's post about constructive dividends) In my mind, the better resource is the local district attorney's office for Orange County (where Irvine sits).

Next, a local attorney or investigator would have to distinguish between a ghost employee and just a badly run business. This is where your testimony would come into play, because the authorities would need specific allegations.

Edit: I believe this would be the best resource for now: http://orangecountyda.org/howdoi/reportfraud.asp

This is where my knowledge of California law and enforcement ends.

Edit2: A better course of action may be just to start with Irvine Police Department (949 724-7000), and they can forward it one above.

 

[Blakemoreland Hybrid Boss]

 

[AwesomeButton]

Well... the gloves are definitely off.

 

[Prime Junta]

man, this thread