GYGO: Tabletop Games Have a Big Week as the Activision Blizzard Saga Continues

Hey, and welcome to GYGO! I’m Kael Langdon, your local fried foods enthusiast, and I gave myself an upset tummy by eating too many croquettes not yet ten minutes ago. But when I wasn’t downing breaded meats and potatoes this week I was scouring the internet for the hottest in gaming news. Enjoy!

D&D Podcast “Roles” Out Critical Fan Content Guidelines

This week the actual play podcast franchise, Critical Role, officially updated its content policy to cover fan works. The update allows for the creation of most non-commercial works based on the IP, with the exception of defamatory or offensive content. They also do not allow the creation of games based on the IP, or any monetization apart from passive ad revenue on platforms like YouTube.

Activision Blizzard Faces New Claims

The Communications Workers of America filed a complaint with The U.S. National Labor Relations Board against Activision Blizzard. The union claims that “The employer has threatened employees that they cannot talk about or communicate about wages, hours and working conditions” in the recent filing. Further, it states that Activision Blizzard interfered with last year’s investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing—which is currently suing the company over findings of workplace harassment.

Former Employee Airs Paizo’s Dirty Laundry (and Carpets)

Former Paizo employee Jessica Price took to Twitter this week to talk about her time with the Pathfinder publisher. Price described a hostile workplace sabotaged by management. Among her complaints were that management had not had the office vacuumed in seven years and staff were banned from cleaning the space themselves for insurance reasons. Further, she stated that management responded with hostility to requests and failed to protect its workers from harassment at venues like Gen Con.

Price’s thread prompted Crystal Fraiser to come forward with her experiences at the company as well. She alleged that trans women weren’t sent to conventions (which are vital networking opportunities in the games industry). She also claimed that trans freelancers were subject to different and stricter rules while working with the company.

In other news…

IGDA Women in Games Special Interest Group chair, Jennifer Scheurle, is stepping down following abuse allegations. IGDA confirmed that it had received multiple formal and informal reports about Scheurle, but following an investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing. Even so, Scheurle announced that she was stepping down from her position and withdrawing her name and asked to have her nomination for the gameHERs award to be retracted.

Meanwhile, influencer Alissa Violet, is suing esports organization FaZe Clan. Violet claims that FaZe Clan withheld shares in the company that were promised to her following a previous lawsuit. As part of a settlement with a different lawsuit against Hubrick Limited, Violet released her stock in the defendant’s company. She claims that she entered into a verbal agreement that owed her FaZe Clan stock in return. No dollar amounts in the current lawsuit are public, but FaZe Clan CEO is “confident it’ll be resolved amicably.”

Gen Con, America’s largest tabletop game convention, opened this week as a hybrid in-person online event. The convention ran at half of its 2019 capacity and streamed demos and exhibitions on Twitch all weekend.

As of a recent update Nintendo Switch now allows users to pair Bluetooth sound devices including headphones and speakers.

Toby Fox’s Deltarune Chapter 2 is out (for free!) this week on Itch.io and Steam. The release was so popular it brought down Itch.Io for five minutes at launch.