Paizo Community Update and a Look Ahead

Paizo's president, Jim Butler, gave a behind the scenes look at what's happened over the last year as well as a look ahead.

In a press release today, Jim Butler talks about what's been happening since he took over as president a little over a year ago as well as a look to the future.

United Paizo Workers​

Before he became president, Jim lead negotiations to create the tabletop industry's first-ever collective bargaining agreement. Working together with UPW, they have created an agreement that works for both the company and the employees.

Rise of ORC​

This biggest story of the year has been the OGL and publishers leaving it to create ORC. This was a decision Paizo did not take lightly, but they could no longer operated under a license that another corporation could change whenever they wanted to. This caused them to push back the publishing of scheduled books in order to bring forward ORC Remastered rulebooks in November. The shift will also necessitate a change in the Paizo Compatibility License and Community Use Policy. Those will be available for public comment soon.

Reorganization​

Paizo has been working to streamline operations throughout the company, merging teams to better share and work toward common goals to support customers, distributors, and local game stores. The merging of the creative team also added the ability to create games outside the RPG fold, the first of which will be Elemental Stones this fall.

With most of the staff working remotely, they will be closing down their Redmond offices and moving their warehouse over the coming months. There will be some downtime for Paizo.com and the forums as they move their servers to a new data center. They will let the public know about it when they get closer to the move.

New Store and Forums​

As soon as they update their finance platform, Paizo will be replacing their store with a new one. The new store will allow for an easier checkout process with more payment options, a more robust reward program, more subscription options including the ability to skip certain books, and provide better organization.

In addition to investing in a better store experience, they are investigating new platforms to provide a better forum experience. They will provide more updates as they finalize their decision.

Pathfinder Fiction and Licensing​

They will be trying out some new strategies to bring Pathfinder and Starfinder to a wider audience. This is why they've partnered with Owlcat, BKOM, Demiplane, and Hero Lab Online. These games and tools bring more people to the table and make it easier to make characters.

More people means more stories. That includes the ability to use the Pathfinder Infinite and Starfinder Infinite programs to allow creators to produce their own work using Paizo's material and make money for their efforts.

Paizo has also greenlit a standalone Pathfinder novel for 2024. This will allow them to tell stories in ways game products can't and reach fantasy readers.

What's your take on the changes that have happened and are coming down the pipeline?

 

[dave2008]

How do you think creative working remotely hurts the final product?

Remember, the VAST majority of RPG creative work has always been "remote" because the vast majority of RPG creative work has been done by poorly paid freelancers.

I am just speaking from experience as a person involved in creative work (i'm an architect) and having gone through remote work (covid and surgery). Not everyone is the same obviously, but I (and our office) have found that our collective creativity and quality of work suffers if we don't have regular in person contact.

 

[dave2008]

Why should fans care if Paizo creatives work remotely or not? I'm more interested in how the workers feel about it . . . I'm guessing they're just fine with the arrangement.

That is my concern as well. As noted in my response to Dire Bear, we (me and my firm) found our creative work suffered without regular in person contact. And from my side, not just the work but the lack of in person contact harmed me on a personal emotional and psychological level. We are pack animals in general.

 

[dave2008]

Probably more feasible for Paizo than paying living wages in Seattle.

IF they can pay better wages because of the reduction in overhead, that is good. However, I think, IME, completely remote is a net negative for creative work.

 

[Velderan]

I am just speaking from experience as a person involved in creative work (i'm an architect) and having gone through remote work (covid and surgery). Not everyone is the same obviously, but I (and our office) have found that our collective creativity and quality of work suffers if we don't have regular in person contact.

From the sounds of things, they've been mostly remote for 3 years at this point and the quality of their books doesn't seem to have suffered. That time period would cover the majority of the stuff they've released for 2e.

As someone who works remotely in a job that requires a lot of collaboration, my experiences with it have shown you have to be a lot more deliberate about setting up time on a regular basis to work together on projects. As long as you're doing that, I find I'm far more productive working remotely than I ever was in the office because it's much easier to block out distractions when it's time to focus on individual work.

 

[dave2008]

From the sounds of things, they've been mostly remote for 3 years at this point and the quality of their books doesn't seem to have suffered. That time period would cover the majority of the stuff they've released for 2e.

I really have no idea if the work has suffered, I've only purchased the core books for PF2.

As someone who works remotely in a job that requires a lot of collaboration, my experiences with it have shown you have to be a lot more deliberate about setting up time on a regular basis to work together on projects. As long as you're doing that, I find I'm far more productive working remotely than I ever was in the office because it's much easier to block out distractions when it's time to focus on individual work.

It can definitely be more productive. However, I find the flow of creative ideas is much less. I can't bump into a colleague at the water cooler and discuss ideas when I'm at home. I find that incidental and accidental sharing of ideas a boon for creative work. Everyone is different of course.

On top of that, I find the human aspect of it very important. We are social creatures and though some can handle remote work very well, others cannot. This move can / could have an impact on the employees and many ways beyond how efficiently or creatively they perform their work. It can have emotional and physical consequences as well (some positive and some negative).

 

[payn]

We just had a huge "everybody back to the office" week. Rabid covid out break and now we are all back at home.

 

[dave2008]

We just had a huge "everybody back to the office" week. Rabid covid out break and now we are all back at home.

That sucks! We've been "back to the office" for over a year and, to my knowledge, the only people who have gotten covid did so on their vacations! Regardless, definitely no outbreaks here.

EDIT: I will say we are 3 days mandatory, 2 days optional in the office. So we often don't have a full office and that probably helps.

 

[payn]

That sucks! We've been "back to the office" for over a year and, to my knowledge, the only people who have gotten covid did so on their vacations! Regardless, definitely no outbreaks here.

I think a major issue is that we have these properties quarterly meetings. Probably around 200 people. Pre-pandemic always in person of course. Well, we gave it a go in a room that was likely 2-3x too small. Now everybody is sick...

My job is very technical and probably not very creative. I work with vendors all over the U.S. every day. So, its not a big deal to be remote since im on the PC all the time anyways.

 

[dave2008]

I think a major issue is that we have these properties quarterly meetings. Probably around 200 people. Pre-pandemic always in person of course. Well, we gave it a go in a room that was likely 2-3x too small. Now everybody is sick...

That is a recipe for disaster - that is for sure. I will also add that I'm a bit lucky, even before the pandemic my boss always said: "If you feel sick - stay home. Don't make the rest of the office sick." So there was a culture of working from home or taking time off if you didn't feel well.

OK, that is enough of a tangent from me! I hope you and your team get better soon!

 

[Staffan]

I really have no idea if the work has suffered, I've only purchased the core books for PF2.

It can definitely be more productive. However, I find the flow of creative ideas is much less. I can't bump into a colleague at the water cooler and discuss ideas when I'm at home. I find that incidental and accidental sharing of ideas a boon for creative work. Everyone is different of course.

My understanding is that Paizo's actual employees generally either handle the stuff that's central to a particular book (e.g. new classes) and/or overview stuff. Most of the actual text, particularly in lore-heavy books, is written by freelancers. And freelancers are already working from home most of the time.