thread: 2012-03-03 : Ben Lehman: Caveat Scriba: Margret Weis Productions
On 2012-03-04, Fred Hicks wrote:
If there are people who haven't been paid for the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying project, perhaps taking money away from that project will neither speed nor improve the chances of there being money to pay those people.
I'd also caution against turning away from a good design and a good game (which Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is) simply because of issues with the story behind the game.
If that were the case, I'd never play Polaris, due to my large, ongoing problems with its creator's way of conducting himself online.
Ben is trying to simplify this issue down to a single point of view, outlining a single path of action to take in the face of it. This is something pundits do in politics all the time, to make sure that messy, complicated reality doesn't get the messy, complicated respect it deserves.
Ignore pundits. Do your homework.
I've done a little bit of work for MWP in the past. I found the scheduling and timetable planning stuff, which I depend on heavily in order to juggle multiple contracts effectively, lacking, to the point that I had to bow out of continued work on Leverage. But I did get paid—promptly enough in my case—though I'm sure it does not happen for everyone. I probably should have gotten paid more, but it's not an industry (nor a company) where more is really on the table. I absolutely, however, treasured the team I got to work with, and am very proud of the work they and I have produced. The projects that result from the teams Cam build are easily the equal of any indie darling, and they don't deserve to be shat upon by someone uninvolved in their development, however well intentioned the motive.
