Dec 23rd, the in between day twixt solstice and Christmas, I usually pick this day to send festive wishes and the words I like the best for this were written by Damien Kelly
Category Archives: Worlds Beyond
Comics, books, games, conventions and more!
Extra Credits parts company with The Escapist.
Breaking news is happening more and more often on socail media as people, groups and collectives choose to speak first to the people who are their fans and have connected with them. This is what happened this evening as the ExtraCreditTeam used Facebook and Twitter to announce they have parted company with The Escapist.
Statement taken from the Facebook status page:
http://www.facebook.com/ExtraCredits?sk=wall&filter=2
Hi Guys
I’m sorry about a lot of things over the last month. I’m sorry that I’ve been incommunicative. I’m sorry that I’ve been snappish. I’m sorry that I haven’t talked to you about what’s been going on. It’s been a rough few weeks, but I can finally talk about it, so here’s what’s been happening with us…
(this may take a bit, I’m sorry for spamming you too…)
When Allison hurt her arm all I wanted was to help her. I believe that a person has a responsibility to those near them and you should feel shame when you can’t live up to that responsibility…but I couldn’t. I was near destitute. I had spent all my money on the show.
Dan and I work on it for free and I pay Allison’s salary out of pocket each month, then, in turn, The Escapist was supposed to pay us for our work – not much, but enough to cover Allison’s wages – unfortunately they were never able to.
When Allison hurt her arm, The Escapist had only paid us for four episodes over the course of a year. That meant I was down $20,000. That was the $20,000 I could have put in to help Allison. That was the $20,000 I would have used to get her surgery while figuring out how I could earn more money. It hurt that I couldn’t tell you that then but I was asked not to.
I felt so bad asking without being able to do more than sell a computer and call in old debts…but you taught me a lesson in humanity and the goodness of people. I had never lost my faith in mankind, but that first Rockethub week you redoubled it.And that was truly one of the greatest weeks of my life. Better than releasing games, better than lecturing in the halls of GDC. I really can never say thank you enough.
But since then things have not gone so well. We joined The Escapist because we believed in what was going on there. We believed in the idea of examining games more thoroughly, whether it was Yahtzee’s blunt honesty or ENN delivering game news, we liked the idea that it was a place where consumers and developers could have a real conversation about games. We believed we were all in this together, fighting for the same ideals and goals.
We asked the guys at The Escapist if we could trade some of the debt they owed us for the rights to our intellectual property back if they weren’t going to be able to pay us so we could do things like sell t-shirts or write a book. We thought this was going to be an easy discussion. Instead they responded by telling us that they felt that they were entitled to 75% of the Rockethub money, thus their debt was covered and, despite not paying us for nearly a year, we owed them $9500 dollars
What followed was weeks of legal wrangling, lies and muck. Unless you guys really care about the details I won’t go over them here. I do think The Escapist does some good, and I wouldn’t want to destroy what good it does with how they operate their business. I’m going to work under the idea that our situation was unique and that their other content creators are paid regularly and don’t have a contract that was as onerous as ours.
Again: we don’t want to add to the damage done. I’m already kind of heartbroken that things turned out this way. I had faith in what The Escapist stood for. That faith is in tatters, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t good people doing good things for The Escapist.
What matters is that the show won’t stop. We’ll be releasing it on YouTube every Thursday until we find another site to pick it up. We’ll be posting links to here and on our twitter feed whenever a new episode goes up…but we’ll be counting on you guys to help let people know.
More of the issue esp around money outstanding and the nature of the contracts signed was posted about on twitter. That The Escapist held the rights to all the Intellectual Property rights associated with the Extra Credits show.
http://twitter.com/#!/ExtraCreditz
@ExtraCreditz ExtraCreditTeam
(I’ve now spent more on lawyers than we were ever paid for the show…this isn’t what I wanted at all)
@ExtraCreditz ExtraCreditTeam
The Escapist is still claiming our IP and our back catalog of episodes as “work for hire” though we weren’t paid ;_(
Extra Credits is a show which I have always watched, the content being some of the best which I have see discussing female gamers, gender in games, how achievements play a part in the gaming experience, the socail impacts of games as we learn about the psychology of gaming and how it can be used in other areas of life.
When 1 part of that team needed surgery the many fans of the show who want to see the show go one, chipped in to make it happen and frankly it is galling to read that the powers at be at The escapist tried to say they had a right to that money, esp when they had not been for filling their end of the contract which was in place.
I wish the Extra Credits Team the very best and hope that they will continue their good work else were.
Go go plan crazy!
Ok very shortly I will be leaving the house to get the bus to Galway and then will be getting the mid night bus back from Galway, and well such a caper isn’t that unusual for me, I’ve done it before, popped over to The Salt house for a friends birthday. The bus back from Galway will have me getting home 3am and then tomorrow I will be going back to Galway for Itzacon. A 3 night stay isn’t possible due to parental obligations, need to be here to get the kids to school Friday morning.
But I have to be in Galway tonight, Warren Ellis is getting an aware and doing an audience with. I will save my fangilr squeeing for later, but writers are my rock stars, they open worlds to me, their words delight and haunt me and stay with me, and a round trip to Glaway isn’t that much of an ask to go to a 3 hour gig.
This is part of me making things happen for me, part of being constructively selfish and just doing it and as I contemplate my to do list for ‘go go plan crazy’ which includes packing for my kids to stay in my parents over the weekend and all that entails, and leaving the house in smart conditions as I now my Mother will find some reason to pop in even if it’s just to check on the house, it’s stressful but I am worth it.
The universe I think agrees with me, and in my rss feeds today I was gifted with a new Amanda Plamer song and words on her blog about making things happen.
blog.amandapalmer.net/post/3631846280/new-video-for-in-my-mind-shot-ninja-style-by-jim
They are by Jim Batt who shot the video
On the train home after the shoot, I found myself thinking about what it takes to to make things happen. That it’s not enough to just know what you want. You have put yourself in the path of opportunity, to be bold and quick enough to seize the moment when it happens, but most of all you have to be prepared, so when it does happen you’re ready to go. No excuses.
The world is full of people talking about what they’d like to do ‘if’ or ‘when’. Pick up your tools and make something with what you have. It may not be the best thing you ever create, but it will make you feel good. And it will make the next thing you do better. So do it. Go make things.”
Brave or stupid?
Ok so the last few entries have been filler I admit but fun filler.
I have been pretty busy writing.
Deadlines for essays to be handed in and the terror of Gealcon looms.
After being central compiling hub for the ‘Spectres: Ancient Hordes’ pulling all the
Different parts together and writing the bulk of the descriptive text for it and then
Gming 3 games of it in a row as Warpcon last January; I got it into my silly little head
That maybe I could infact write stuff that may run at Gealcon…..
Brave or stupid?
Guess I won’t have the answer to that until the 1st of November.
I have always written what I term as ‘stuff’,
Hell I still have the copy book which I fill with tales and story ideas when I was 15.
Moving into writing stuff for RPG session was as easy as breathing for me.
Running games on the fly or fleshing out prewritten scenarios a joy.
Being able to take bits from several campaigns and work them into a world story arc
Containing the histories and continuing sagas of the chars in my group was enough
To keep me utterly engaged.
But there is a difference between tailoring a game for your own group of friends /fiends,
And writing one that will run cold at a con. When you choose a table at a con and take a seat you are agreeing to take part in a gaming session. I did learn running the same game
3 times in a row with 3 very different groups as Warpcon how different each game became due to the participation of the players and the direction they took the game.
So with the writing part of what I am doing for Gealcon done I am trying to find the
Balance between telling a story and making it a real game and covering a lot of angles and offering choices for the players. I guess I am used to writing sprawling sagas,
And to my group how could spend 4 hours getting from one town to another one week
And then deciding the following week sod that lets cast Owls wisdom on the
Doodad and have him wind walk the party and the horses in two groups the rest of the way which should have been 4 days travel with encounters which had been painstakingly prepared.
I just hope that I don’t end up with any dice junkies at the table. GM means God Mode and an rpg session is an interaction / reaction interfacing as far as I am concerned.
Honestly anyone starts a trait bidding war and I will go rock paper scissors* on their asses.
I guess we all get protective about our creative endeavours and anyone who tries to ruin a game at a con is not brave.
Not that I have never well not even played out of the box, hell I have been known to trash smash and burn the box leaving
a trail of ashes in my wake ( as some poor gms , usually Salburi can attest to) but it has been in the context of the game
and working with the elements in it and never screwing up other peoples fun.
Yes I would be great to tell the tales in what I have written but I guess it will also be fun to see it morph and change hopefully
into something even more werid and wonderfull on the morning they are run.
in town this evening
Looks like there are going to be a whole heap of people in town this evening.
Those that got tickets to the FireFly movie [I hates you all ],
and those who didnt but are using it as an excuse to see something else
and meet up with people for drinks before and after.
The bar in UGC will be an intresting place to say the least.