Paizo Expands Leadership Team

No, that was Paizo Gamespace. PF Online was an MMO that did launch but was spectacularly poorly made.

Was PF Online their planned VTT that never materialized but they made a lot of noise over, like their Kingmaker project?

Not sure where this is coming from, missed something.

Pathfinder Online was a failed MMO. Like, from the ground up it was just a random MMO with really weird mechanics with Pathfinder monster skins....

I liked it for what it was but only played it for a few week because they 'released' it while it was still in Beta and so much was broken or not working it was painful.

There is no path for career advancement at Paizo. Jim’s VP position was created for him, it was not something anyone was able to apply for. Staff didn’t even know it existed until we were informed he was hired. Likewise the position Mike is in was not one anyone was able to apply for, it was created for him when he was hired.

And as far as promoting upwards in the company, well after nearly 5 and a half years and still having an entry level title despite doing things like managing the satellite booths at GenCon, and training new hires (all of the CSRs currently at the company weren’t only trained by me, I was also the one who went through their applications, and set up interviews, likewise for some that are no longer with the company) I asked for a promotion in December 2019. After 3 months of leading me on, in March 2020 I was informed I didn’t NEED a promotion. I did finally get one a year later in January 2021, but that was because they had to, not because they wanted to. Incidentally before Paizo I was the front end manager at a Harbor Freight Tools for 2 and a half years, and before that the warehouse manager at a Borders for several years until the company liquidated. So it’s not even that I was unqualified for a leadership position.

There is no getting promoted up through the ranks at Paizo. Either you’re a friend or contact of Lisa or Jeff’s and you get hired straight into leadership positions, or you’re not and you have no career advancement options.

That's pretty horrifying. I'm hoping this is something that the union negotiations can discuss and solve, and that the new executives keep thise very much at the back of their minds that this has to change.

Thank you for speaking up Diego. Having this out in the open is important. Solidarity the whole way.

PF Online and the Ninja Starfinder minis were definitely two reasons people were hesitant to back the Kingmaker project, but I do think it's an unfair comparison, since Kingmaker is still in the works, just delayed due to pandemic and supply chains.

PF Online and the Ninja Starfinder minis were definitely two reasons people were hesitant to back the Kingmaker project, but I do think it's an unfair comparison, since Kingmaker is still in the works, just delayed due to pandemic and supply chains.

Agree with this as someone who backed all 3. Well I bought into the MMO, didn't back it.

I am waiting on Kingmaker and with how long it is taking, and how much I lost on Ninja Division it is making me second guess on if I want to support Arena.

Cori Marie wrote:

PF Online and the Ninja Starfinder minis were definitely two reasons people were hesitant to back the Kingmaker project, but I do think it's an unfair comparison, since Kingmaker is still in the works, just delayed due to pandemic and supply chains.

Agree with this as someone who backed all 3. Well I bought into the MMO, didn't back it.

I am waiting on Kingmaker and with how long it is taking, and how much I lost on Ninja Division it is making me second guess on if I want to support Arena.

The character books from Matthew Lilard's company?

Yoshua wrote:

Cori Marie wrote:

PF Online and the Ninja Starfinder minis were definitely two reasons people were hesitant to back the Kingmaker project, but I do think it's an unfair comparison, since Kingmaker is still in the works, just delayed due to pandemic and supply chains.

Agree with this as someone who backed all 3. Well I bought into the MMO, didn't back it.

I am waiting on Kingmaker and with how long it is taking, and how much I lost on Ninja Division it is making me second guess on if I want to support Arena.

The character books from Matthew Lilard's company?

Arena is a board gaming that is being crowdfunded this month I think.

The books from Beadle and Grimm are supposed to have already arrived but due to Covid and what not hasn't. They are also supposed to be providing the PDF's that are editable too. They are being shipped to their warehouses now, so the books are only a matter of time.

I should see about the pdfs

Tender Tendrils wrote:

Grankless wrote:

I'd like to remind certain posters in this thread that "reverse racism"does not exist in any way shape or form, and there is no systemic oppression of white people in America (or most places in the world, really).

Diego's story also really makes me question what Lisa is even still doing at the company. Does she collect a paycheck as CEO? It's disheartening to see such mismanagement, and though I wish the best for Jim and Mike, I do wish other people could have at least been *considered* for the position.

Exactly. Prejudice or Discrimination can be specific, but Racism/Sexism/etc are historical, structural and systemic. That is what makes them -isms.

No, but it requires a college course in Newspeak and Doublethink to make that artificial distinction. The whole racism = power + prejudice is made to excuse racism against white people by obscuring language.

No, this is a racist talking point used to obscure actual racism.

I'm just kinda confused by this announcement. For Jim Butler, they wrote "He completed the circle in 2017 when he returned to Seattle to work for Paizo as Vice President of Marketing and Licensing." So this isn't a new addition, this is something that happened 4 years ago. Has the role recently changed? For Jim Webb, it says "joined the Paizo team in July 2021" - in what role? If the "change" is that these two individuals were not previously, but now are, considered part of the "executive team," then what does that mean?

I'm glad to learn more about members of the Paizo team. I look forward to seeing them engage with the fanbase here on the boards.

So I'm not trying to be snarky here - I just feel like some explanatory sentences were left out of this announcement, and I really wish we could get a little more context.

And by the way, Jim, thank you for your comments upthread on the ongoing internal discussions of past incidents. Your words definitely give me hope that things are moving in the right direction.

I'm just kinda confused by this announcement. For Jim Butler, they wrote "He completed the circle in 2017 when he returned to Seattle to work for Paizo as Vice President of Marketing and Licensing." So this isn't a new addition, this is something that happened 4 years ago. Has the role recently changed? For Jim Webb, it says "joined the Paizo team in July 2021" - in what role? If the "change" is that these two individuals were not previously, but now are, considered part of the "executive team," then what does that mean?

I'm glad to learn more about members of the Paizo team. I look forward to seeing them engage with the fanbase here on the boards.

So I'm not trying to be snarky here - I just feel like some explanatory sentences were left out of this announcement, and I really wish we could get a little more context.

And by the way, Jim, thank you for your comments upthread on the ongoing internal discussions of past incidents. Your words definitely give me hope that things are moving in the right direction.

It's new in the sense of Executive Leadership. Having a VP title doesn't get you into the Executive Team in most companies. Companies as small as Paizo I would think so, but evidently not.

Executive Team typically means the people at the top who decide the direction of a company. Sometimes it is just the CEO sometimes it is a board, and sometimes it is a group of senior leadership.

Paizo seems to take that route. Before the announcement it was the Owner Lisa Stevens, Publisher Erik Mona and the President Jeff Alvarez.

They are bringing in these 2 now.

"Meritocracy is what produces success. So could non white males have the skill and merit? Yes, but it appears none were as competitive or available for these positions except if you propose a conspiracy theory. Instead you would have 2 good people biased against and not advanced just to put someone else in because they meet your preferred sexual, racial or whatever else distribution. Facts is, you are biased against the meritocratic advance of a white male in this case."

... dood, they were picked because of nepotism, it doesn't get more biased than that.

I am not a dood or male. You are so bigoted. "they were picked because of nepotism"- Where is the proof???

Cintra Bristol wrote:

I'm just kinda confused by this announcement. For Jim Butler, they wrote "He completed the circle in 2017 when he returned to Seattle to work for Paizo as Vice President of Marketing and Licensing." So this isn't a new addition, this is something that happened 4 years ago. Has the role recently changed? For Jim Webb, it says "joined the Paizo team in July 2021" - in what role? If the "change" is that these two individuals were not previously, but now are, considered part of the "executive team," then what does that mean?

I'm glad to learn more about members of the Paizo team. I look forward to seeing them engage with the fanbase here on the boards.

So I'm not trying to be snarky here - I just feel like some explanatory sentences were left out of this announcement, and I really wish we could get a little more context.

And by the way, Jim, thank you for your comments upthread on the ongoing internal discussions of past incidents. Your words definitely give me hope that things are moving in the right direction.

It's new in the sense of Executive Leadership. Having a VP title doesn't get you into the Executive Team in most companies. Companies as small as Paizo I would think so, but evidently not.

Executive Team typically means the people at the top who decide the direction of a company. Sometimes it is just the CEO sometimes it is a board, and sometimes it is a group of senior leadership.

Paizo seems to take that route. Before the announcement it was the Owner Lisa Stevens, Publisher Erik Mona and the President Jeff Alvarez.

They are bringing in these 2 now.

And also Chief Financial Officer David Reuland

Rysky wrote:

"Meritocracy is what produces success. So could non white males have the skill and merit? Yes, but it appears none were as competitive or available for these positions except if you propose a conspiracy theory. Instead you would have 2 good people biased against and not advanced just to put someone else in because they meet your preferred sexual, racial or whatever else distribution. Facts is, you are biased against the meritocratic advance of a white male in this case."

... dood, they were picked because of nepotism, it doesn't get more biased than that.

I am not a dood or male. You are so bigoted. "they were picked because of nepotism"- Where is the proof???

Diego's post will be proof enough for most of us. Not all of us. But that is what Rysky is referencing.

Very funny to claim that the real problem is "anti-white racism" and then start whining about the evils of "woke political correctness", which basically only racists complain about.

If you're just assuming that Diego is lying about the culture of the company he worked at for absolutely no reason, you are obviously just looking to start a fight over nothing because you want to ignore anything that doesn't support your (incorrect) narrative of the big bad forumites bullying the poor widdle oppressed white people. (I'm white btw)

There are good projects and companies on kickstarter - I have had great experiences with Dungeons & Lasers 2 and Dungeons & Lasers 3 from Archon Studios (Both are super high quality and the best value for money for plastic modular dungeons, offer rapid delivery for parts of each campaign (usually any content from previous campaigns you get sent out to you pretty quickly after you close your pledge), and the non-rapid delivery part of Dungeons & Lasers 2 arrived over a month early for me). I think that Battlezoo Bestiary (I know it's not an official paizo project, but it has heavy involvement from people who work for paizo) is probably a better thing to look at when thinking about paizo related kickstarters.

If we minorities would just shut up about the inequity that would help those who benefit from the inequity feel better.

Back on topic! I wonder how long it will be since we get any kind of responses to this stuff? I'm surprised at how much time has passed already since the first info broke. Time flies when you're not having fun, I guess. Think we'll get something by the end of the year?

Imma guess the earliest would be Q1, 2022.

Corporate decisions like this move at a glacial pace. I expect this particular set to move even slower.

sounds like it's time to roll for initiative!

I use to work for a solar power company that was started and owned by a group of TTRPG gamers. Everyone in the company was a gamer. One day, one of the managers is in a heated argument with a team lead on how a job should be done, both were very stubborn people who would not back down. It got to the point the manager got tired of it and just told the team lead he was suspended for the rest of the week. That's when I stepped in and said at least give him a saving throw. The manager stop and said that's a great idea if we only had some dice. So I took a 20 side out of my pocket. The team lead made his saving throw then they rolled to see whose idea they would go with, team lead won again. Everyone accepted the results and walked away happy as if there had never been a fight over it in the first place.

Don't split the party

If the executive team can live and work in another state, why can't the employees?

This is what came to mind for me too! Glad someone beat me to voicing this!

Creating a position just to give it to your friends and not offering interviews to other people, ya, that sounds so above board as to be beyond reproach.

The difference here is that people are advocating that there is no inequality going on and then claiming that to mention the inequality going on is racist against the dominant culture.

Welcome and congrats Jim and Mike. Your work in the industry thus far has been stellar and I hope to see more great things from you in the future.

If nothing else these threads show just how much work is left to be done.

Congratulations to the two new executives. I hope you bring positive change and a fresh perspective to how the company is run.

Congratulations to the new VP of marketing. I hope that in your role you push for the company to live up to the inclusiveness and diversity that has been a substantial part of its marketing.

Congratulations to the new VP of sales & commerce. I hope that in your role you push for the company to have the accountability that will end the boycotts that are hurting the companies sales.

Maybe someone will be able to honor National Native American month in the actual month now.

Hi Terevalis. Paizo has an Indigenous Persons Heritage Month blog scheduled for next week. We have a Developer in charge of Community blogs now, in part because they are directly in contact with the freelancer community. The last Community blog was posted late because of the transition in job duties. We recognize that was not good timing, but that was not her fault and it should be a one-time error. We are aiming to post the in the first half of any given Heritage month. Thanks for making sure we knew about the next opportunity.

The difference here is that people are advocating that there is no inequality going on and then claiming that to mention the inequality going on is racist against the dominant culture.

That's the thing about reverse racism arguments — they usually have to assume that racism is no longer a thing. If it weren't, those arguments would have a little more merit. Considering that people who grew up in a world steeped in the propaganda of racial segregation are around the age of an average DC politician, however...

If racism does exist, on the other hand, it would be immoral not to confront it. And racist to stand in the way of that.

Congrats to Mike and Jim — ya'll sound like good people who are poised awesome things in your new roles. Please listen to your fellows in the Paizo workplace (present and former). There's a bright future ahead when you work together.

To clarify, Jim has been with Paizo for at least 4 years and Mike joined Paizo in July. They were hired as VPs and, as the only two VPs, have been made part of the Leadership Team. I'm sorry that was not clear.

While Paizo's current policy is that employees should be able to report to the office in Redmond, WA even in this work-from-home period, exceptions have been made for years. Members of United Paizo Workers, Paizo's newly recognized union, have stated that they would like to explore a relaxation of the policy. Discussions between leadership and staff continue. We have nothing to announce at this time.

Clarifiction: promotions from within Paizo do occur. I have seen employees in the Customer Service, Editing, Organized Play, and Warehouse Departments promoted with my 3+ years here. I've also seen people promoted to management. We currently have a Human Resources Manager position open, who I hope will bring some needed standardization.

I've just stepped in to removed some really argumentative posts. Healthy debate is fine, personal insults and baiting are not.

It was an absolute pleasure to learn from Diego. He taught with kindness and grace, and led by example. In the short amount of time I worked with him, he earned a great amount of respect from me. I speak for everyone in CS when I say he is greatly missed, and we all wish him the best of luck in his next, well deserved leadership role.

Congratulations to Jim and Mike! We look forward to seeing great things happen!

United Paizo Workers official response is here.

United Paizo Workers official response is here.

Thank you for linking. So it is about what I was thinking it was.

Again, nothing against Jim and Mike, I hope they bring accountability to the leadership team you guys are fostering.

But the UPW statement sums up what I was thinking was going on and pretty much confirming what Diego posted.

Thanks again for being crystal clear about what you guys need from the the leadership and what you guys are pushing for as a union!

And this, folks, is why you need unions.