Latest Avellone DRAMA - accuses Obsidian HR of harassment, regrets signing NDA

[Infinitron]

https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/930266212109393921

https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/930266474588938241

https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/930270844365844480

https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/930342641266442240

https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/930343293979803648

https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/930343783308312576

 

 

  

 

Edited November 14, 2017 by Infinitron

[Infinitron]

Point me to the tweet where he does accuse Obsidian?

Avellone worked for other companies than Obsidian throughout the years you know.

 

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,182285/

 

Chris Parker's wife.

[Messier-31]

Speechless. Not cool.

[kirottu]

I wish Avellone would just tell the whole story. He complains about the owners and management, but at the same time he was both. I feel like I'm missing a crucial point and so I don't know if I believe him or not.

[Hurlshort]

I wish Avellone would just tell the whole story. He complains about the owners and management, but at the same time he was both. I feel like I'm missing a crucial point and so I don't know if I believe him or not.

 

I think it's a matter of perspective for him. He comes across as a guy that really has trouble with authority, even when he is the one with it. Nothing wrong with that, not everybody is a good fit with a corporate type structure, but he does seem to lack awareness about it. Of course, this is all speculation, but there simply hasn't been anything egregious that he has brought up, instead it has just been hints and slights.

[Lexx]

Which probably makes it even worse. Folks now imagine their own stories, and we know how much folks like to imagine.

 

PS: I god damn hate twitter and the way they present text. In the screencaps above I first thought I had to read from bottom to top, then I noticed that no, I have to read from middle to bottom and then the top. How the heck do people not go crazy with this?

[IndiraLightfoot]

There's a huge chip on his shoulder, that's for sure, but I just don't want to know about this, and still I can't resist reading on. It's like watching a car crash. I'm disgusted at myself.

[Infinitron]

lol what? How do you know any of this?

 

 

People who didn't like Pillars of Eternity often assume that Chris Avellone left Obsidian for the same reasons they didn't like Pillars of Eternity.

Edited November 14, 2017 by Infinitron

[majestic]

I wish Avellone would just tell the whole story. He complains about the owners and management, but at the same time he was both. I feel like I'm missing a crucial point and so I don't know if I believe him or not.

 

I find it a bit bewildering that an industry veteran like MCA keeps dropping these childish, passive aggressive comments - and he seems to really enjoy teasing his fans who all want to know what really happened with the fact that he knows and can't - or won't - tell (maybe both).

 

Well that's okay, I did that too.

 

Back in fifth grade.

[Tale]

[HoonDing]

When a woman falls to the darkside, you'd better be at the other end of the galaxy.

[injurai]

When a woman falls to the darkside, you'd better be at the other end of the galaxy.

 

Did a new trailer for TLJ come out?

[GhostofAnakin]

Wasn't Avellone part owner/founder of Obsidian?  The way he talks, it sounds like it's coming from some lowly assistant who was treated poorly by every manager he worked under.

[Messier-31]

I wish Avellone would just tell the whole story. He complains about the owners and management, but at the same time he was both. I feel like I'm missing a crucial point and so I don't know if I believe him or not.

 

 

Wasn't Avellone part owner/founder of Obsidian?  The way he talks, it sounds like it's coming from some lowly assistant who was treated poorly by every manager he worked under.

 

 

Scratch my last post in this discussion. You guys are on to something.

[Zoraptor]

Yes he was an owner and theoretically at least creative manager as well. Said it last time that this stuff came up but ChrisA is not coming across well at all with the passive aggressive stuff and some of what he has said strongly implies a lot of it was his fault, reading between the lines. Only one friend left at a 150+ person company? The old adage about **** applies; if you meet one occasionally it's probably them, if you meet them all the time it's probably you. The passive aggressive stuff is exactly what will make otherwise reasonable people roll their eyes and ignore you because you're being obnoxious, even if you do have a point originally.

 

 

 

That still doesn't explain his opinion that Chris was mistreated or undermined...

 

 

The 'theory' is that Chris left due to clashes with JESawyer, who turned PoE into a bland overbalanced bore fest instead of the vibrant unique awesome that it would have been had Chris been doing it. It's a more prevalent theory on the 'Codex where Infinitron mostly posts and where holy war is waged over the status of PoE as a good/ bad game that makes the 30 Years War look like a sit down picnic.

[Flouride]

 

 

Point me to the tweet where he does accuse Obsidian?

Avellone worked for other companies than Obsidian throughout the years you know.

 

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,182285/

 

Chris Parker's wife.

 

 

Might be, might be other company. From my personal experience a lot of HR in companies (especially smaller ones) were and are handled by spouses or family of the owners.

He doesn't mention the name.

 

 

What other company? Chris has pretty much worked only at Black Isle and Obsidian. This isn't even the 1st attack against the Parkers so it's pretty clear he is talking about Obsidian and Chris Parker's wife in particular.

 

[Valmy]

His hints and accusations without anything of substance do him no credit, but ultimately since nobody will say anything of substance about whatever went down it is not really worth talking about. I do love Chris' work and the whole thing is sad.

[Flouride]

Wasn't Avellone part owner/founder of Obsidian?  The way he talks, it sounds like it's coming from some lowly assistant who was treated poorly by every manager he worked under.

 

This is what annoys the **** out of me as well. I would understand if it was some random designer saying all this. But it's damn partner in the company who makes these claims and he is coloring the picture like he could just watch all this happen around him without having any power at all in the company.

He keeps dropping these small hints here and there, without ever actually telling the whole story. Just enough to badmouth Obsidian's management (that he was part of) every now and then to kick some dirt over them.

 

It saddens me. I had huge respect for the guy, but now it diminishes with every time he pulls out the victim card and signs to write some trivial stuff for some random game.

 

If it was an actual problem, I imagine rest of the partners wouldn't look kindly on Mrs. Parker harassing their workers. Losing Parker clearly wouldn't have hurt the company as much as losing a household name like Avellone did. So, yeah... I doubt that is really the truth behind all of this drama. It might be from Avellone's POV but others don't seem to share his vision on this.

[Gfted1]

Not all "owners" are equal. Perhaps he was further down the totem pole. Just because you put money into a company doesnt mean you "run" it?

[213374U]

Not all "owners" are equal. Perhaps he was further down the totem pole. Just because you put money into a company doesnt mean you "run" it?

 

In my current job I've seen two "owners" being forced out because of constant, public (over Whatsapp groups of all things...) disagreements with other "owners" who had a bigger share of the company, and were higher up the decision-making ladder. Being an owner is great when you need to pull rank on the nobodies, but it amounts to very little against someone in your same weight class.

 

There's always two sides to a story, and we're getting one half (of a side), at best. Dude clearly doesn't care that taking potshots at his former coworkers seems to be hurting his image in the eyes of many people though, so, uh... keep on keeping on? The news value of these outbursts keeps decreasing with each episode, because it's so one-sided. I really don't see the point.

Edited November 14, 2017 by 213374U

[kirottu]

Yeah, only way Avellone's tweets make any kind of sense if he was owner with least amount of shares or something. But still... he's essentially RPG developer royalty. Everybody here knows his face and what he has done. Can you say the same thing about the other owners besides Urquhart? It's just really hard for me to see him as underdog.

[injurai]

I doesn't seem to me that anything which went down involved Josh or the Pillars project directly. The team understands the reality of the industry, and I don't think Josh has so much control over Pillars that there would be any jealousy on him leading a dream project. Plus they seem to remain on amicable terms, or at least Josh has a positive view on MCA.

 

Whatever happened, it seems multiple things must have come to a head. It sounds like it's related to the other owners, and he was forced out to remove a friction. What all was involved in forming that friction we can only guess, and we'd probably be better off not doing so. I can't imagine Avellone is faultless, but it also seems like he's upset that he's the only one that suffered repercussions.

[Tigranes]

*shrug* dude has grievances which may be about Obsidian, we have one side of the story presented in vague terms & will likely never get both sides. Any opinion I could have would just be speculation. A nothing story.

[the_dog_days]

*shrug* dude has grievances which may be about Obsidian, we have one side of the story presented in vague terms & will likely never get both sides. Any opinion I could have would just be speculation. A nothing story.

Quite honestly, we don't have either side of the story which is why the vague hints are so irksome.

[ShadySands]

Didn't someone else also have issues with Parker? Mitsoda maybe?