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After seeing the ongoing outpouring of writers in games journalism calling out abuse, given my own experience, I can't stay silent on some thoughts from my own time writing at Hey Poor Player. This is not an accusation of abuse dealt me there, but please follow me here.
After seeing the ongoing outpouring of writers in games journalism calling out abuse, given my own experience, I can't stay silent on some thoughts from my own time writing at Hey Poor Player. This is not an accusation of abuse dealt me there, but please follow me here.
For background, I started writing at Hey Poor Player in summer 2012, and left in Spring 2018. I left with several other individuals, but none of what I am going to say inherently connects to them. I want to keep this as anonymous as possible for everyone else who has been at HPP.
I never suffered firsthand abuse at Hey Poor Player. EIC Francis DiPersio was good to me, and was someone I considered a good friend. Deputy Editor Jonathan Trussler and I butted heads at times, but I was never a direct target of anything.
Currently, I am actively friends with several other people who left HPP at various points in time. In speaking to those people over the years, a common thread was a feeling from writers of being asked to do more and more work with very unclear incentives.
I will leave more details on that to those who faced those problems firsthand, should they want to. But I want to highlight the power system I became aware of at this point.
We - and I include myself - were bringing in new writers and encouraging them to generate content for HPP, which was fine in cases where people had come in specifically as a hobby, as I had; that is, with the understanding that it was just a fun thing with no payment expected.
Then over time the site became profitable enough to make a bit of money off of, and so we started offering what money we could to writers, and brought some new ones on board with the understanding that they would be to some degree paid.
This was where the shitshow began.
This was where the shitshow began.
The payment system operated based on the amount of income the site was making at the time, which was frankly not nearly enough to adequately support the number of people writing there; I want to say we crested 25 for a while, but don't have exact numbers.
And it has become clear to me that several people we brought on were not adequately filled in on that fact. So we had people making $2 a month off 3 reviews and any number of news posts, writing up every single press release that came into our inboxes.
Whenever a writer brought up an issue with the way the payment system was managed or communicated, they would be met with this mentality of "why aren't you being a team player," while not being given any more detailed explanation than before.
I watched Jonathan Trussler react with nothing but abject condescension to people who tried to explain that what they were offering just wasn't enough to make anyone want to stay.
And then Jonathan reworked the system in a way that resulted in many people making less.
And then Jonathan reworked the system in a way that resulted in many people making less.
Trussler also raised a frankly weird amount of issue with the fact that I was vaguely seen at his senior at the website despite him being much older than me. Francis defended me on this every time, to his credit.
Meanwhile, I told Trussler each time, truthfully, that I did not see him as under me in any way. We were both there doing our jobs at the site.
Every time I told him this, he seemed to get more annoyed. Which I now see as a stark look into his head when making pay decisions.
Every time I told him this, he seemed to get more annoyed. Which I now see as a stark look into his head when making pay decisions.
But there's another point here that I have let myself get a ways away from.
A while earlier in this thread, I mentioned that I too had done plenty of outreach and, frankly, grooming of newer site members. Some were my friends. Some were people I lived with.
A while earlier in this thread, I mentioned that I too had done plenty of outreach and, frankly, grooming of newer site members. Some were my friends. Some were people I lived with.
What I worry about most is the idea that I myself may have unknowingly been in some way an abuser of power over others at the site.
In late 2016, I left HPP for a while and then came back. When I did, I did so already knowing deep down that things weren't great.
In late 2016, I left HPP for a while and then came back. When I did, I did so already knowing deep down that things weren't great.
