GameXplain in trouble?

[Julius]

2 hours ago, Ronnie said:

Good to finally get the other side of the story. 

The oh so mature chunk of the gaming community (who’ve obviously never made a mistake in their lives) will continue to try and ruin his life regardless of course, but good to see him admitting fault, apologising and already taking steps to rectify things moving forward. From watching his content for a decade I know he’s a good guy and doesn’t deserve the usual online witch-hunt. 

Just gave this a read now, and I agree, it's great that we hear the other side, and that André is more clearly illustrating the steps being taken to make changes there. He's human, mistakes are made, and it's good to see him say he's going to push himself to be better. That's all I'd hope for everyone. 

But I do think there is a point up to which the backlash was necessary, because otherwise - clearly - these changes wouldn't have come.

I haven't followed this too much in terms of actual public reaction, and have more been sticking to the statements made to save myself getting carried away with it, so I can't speak to the "witch hunt".

But, with reference to making mistakes: at the end of the day, for anyone in a leadership role, there is a duty of care, for which André above all else was and is accountable. Forget the flat rates for a second, because overworking can be easily done: forgetting to pay your workers is just as bad as knowingly withholding their pay, if not worse, considering that the solution being used now (automated payments) was seemingly suggested numerous times when the GVG guys were there and swept under the table. Again, it's great that he's taking that step now, but this would have taken a matter of minutes and been one less major knock against him in all of this, and would have given the guys the peace of mind they were looking for. And I still think it was very underhanded of him to sneak in a non-compete clause into Derrick's proposed contract just before his kid was born. 

There's still a lot to learn because this is just the start of him trying to make these improvements, and we still need to see how things shake out with their contacts, as I'm not fully convinced that everyone he had in his address book before is going to be keen to get back to him after all of this. 

Good in him for making a pledge to change. I hope he can keep it. 

[Hero-of-Time]

While the apology is better than the previous one, it's still a case of being caught red handed and then having to react to the backlash. Some of the wording of it seems like it's trying to plead ignorance and shift the blame to the othe guys.

People do make mistakes but I don't really class knowingly withholding payment from your employees as a mistake. It's flat out malicious and he knew what he was doing. It's like when you hear stories about the big publishers not dishing out bonuses and cutting back on staff and pay, all the while the people at the top give themselves raises. They know fine well what they are doing but they just don't care because they can get away with it.

Still, like others on here, I have zero investment in this whole fiasco. If GX rises or falls from this has zero effect on my gaming hobby. I just hope that Andre being caught in the act makes him a better person going forward. He's lost credibility during this whole event and it's in his best interest to sort himself out and start looking after the people who make the content for his channel.

[Ronnie]

If the bit about Steve or Derrick calling Andre 'one of their closest friends' is true, it's a pretty shitty thing to say, and then immediately throw Andre under the bus and unleash the gaming community lynch mob on him. Yes he deserves to be called out but there are other ways of dealing with the situation. 

Sorry situation overall, I hope Andre becomes a better person and the others put it behind them, after they've pretty much ruined his online life for years, let alone potentially his business which made them what they are today.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Ronnie

[Julius]

@Ronnie, out of interest, have you listened to the guys on GVG talk about this at all? Because it provides some much needed context, and if you haven't, well, it's needed if we're going to say we need to hear both sides. 

Steve let it slip that he played on/worked two days straight for the Final Fantasy VII Remake review in their 2020 in Review videos, and as mentioned before, Ash has let it slip before that he's had trouble with some bills too, even back at GameXplain. People ran with it and started connecting the dots, so the GVG/former GX guys put out their statements to be fully transparent about it. 

They couldn't have been clearer in those statements that they didn't want any hate thrown André's/GameXplain's way, and they seem regretful that the situation has got this far in the first place. Steve slipped in mentioning this, but I think that just shows you how much it's still weighing on his mind. And, if you've watched or listened to anything from GVG since, they straight up say that they aren't going to discuss it further, and that their statements are out there if anyone wants to know more. They've even stated time and again that they just want everyone to move on and they want this behind them: they want to focus on GVG now. 

They didn't throw André under the bus, even if he perhaps deserves it to some extent. They've been nothing but professional in how they've handled things, and again, just look at how many key members of GameXplain left over such a short period, all citing similar conditions. Where there's smoke there's fire, so yes, backlash is deserved (again, to a certain extent). 

To reiterate: good on André for pledging to change, but that means nothing without action. Only time will tell how much he really means it. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Julius

[Ronnie]

Fair enough @Julius I hadn't heard the original passing comment on their podcast, I'd only read the statement part, but...

14 minutes ago, Julius said:

seem regretful that the situation has got this far in the first place

Derrick didn't sound regretful in the slightest when he laid it all out, and it's incredibly naive for him to write paragraphs and paragraphs about Andre in his statement, and then throw in a line saying "please don't harass him" at the very end. As if this was his first day among the gaming community!? What did he honestly expect to happen. 

Personally, I don't feel there was a need to go that far. He writes "I am so much happier now"... great, it's just a shame he had to destroy the online reputation of "a close friend" to get him there.

Again, I'm not saying Andre doesn't deserve being called out on things, but there's better ways of going about it. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Ronnie

[Nicktendo]

This whole thing reeks of entitlement and backstabbery. 

Some guys split off and started their own thing, which is their prerogative. It seems to me this was a way of carving off some of the GameXplain audience for themselves. 

If they weren't happy with the conditions at GX, there was nothing stopping them doing exactly what they did, just doing it sooner. They've all spoken about how they have other jobs, so this is not solely about the money. Nobody was forcing anyone to make video content. They do it because they want to be a bigger name and have more influence in the community. If they can't hack it, they should get out. People who air their work grievances over the Internet are only doing it for money, sympathy or to destroy someone's reputation. They could have raised their concerns settled their differences behind closed doors and put out a statement saying: "We at GameXplain have decided to go our separate ways and focus on content we are passionate about". Over. 

I have no real love for Andre, Jon is a complete tool, and Ash is one of the most whiny and entitled "influencers" I've ever had the displeasure of listening to. They all had a hand in ruining GameXplain by shoving their personal politics into the product and chasing the algorithms, like so many other gaming outlets. They all get what they deserve. 

I'll add by saying that if you want your product to grow, stating on your podcast and Twitter that "people with x, y and z political views probably shouldn't be a part of the GX community" Then you shouldn't be surprised if you don't get any sympathy. 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Nicktendo

[Hero-of-Time]

If things had been done behind closed doors then nothing would have changed. It's by bringing these kinds of things to the public eye that allows changes to be made because the accused are forced to do so in order to protect their reputation. Again, had this been kept hush hush then who's to say that the next set of GX employees wouldn't have eventually been met with the same kind of treatment? This all coming out should hopefully make for a better workplace at GX in the future.

[Nicktendo]

1 minute ago, Hero-of-Time said:

If things had been done behind closed doors then nothing would have changed. It's by bringing these kinds of things to the public eye that allows changes to be made because the accused are forced to do so in order to protect their reputation. Again, had this been kept hush hush then who's to say that the next set of GX employees wouldn't have eventually been met with the same kind of treatment? This all coming out should hopefully make for a better workplace at GX in the future.

I would like to think that any competent boss would be self-reflective if three or four of their prominent staff members banded together and left. Someone who doesn't self-reflect after that is never going to change. 

[Hero-of-Time]

2 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

I would like to think that any competent boss would be self-reflective if three or four of their prominent staff members banded together and left. Someone who doesn't self-reflect after that is never going to change. 

You like to think so but in the corporate world we live in, many in charge see staff as disposable and replaceable. As long as the money rolls in and the bottom line isn't effected, most bosses don't care about the work force at all and probably see no reason to change.

[Nicktendo]

Being in the public eye is not normal. It's a privileged position. If I have a problem with my boss, I don't have the Internet to correct it and right the wrongs for me. This stuff should be settled behind closed doors. The drama is just ugly, cringeworthy and tribal. All it achieves is forcing people to choose a side and casting "evil" people asunder. Andre is likely a persona non-grata in the games industry now. Probably doesn't deserve to be, but that's the society we live in. His former employees have thrown him under the bus to boost their own profiles. Doubt he'll get a redemption arc. 

The loudest complainers usually get their way as long as they hit all the sympathy points (such a difficult time, mental breakdown, I didn't know what to do and who to turn to). Why go to a lawyer when online mobs exist? No one takes responsibility for anything anymore. If Andre was exploiting them, then they should've sought legal advice. If they didn't have contracts, that was their own fault. Ash said he didn't sign his new one. Well done, that's what you should do. But I still think this doesn't have to be public. 

4 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

You like to think so but in the corporate world we live in, many in charge see staff as disposable and replaceable. As long as the money rolls in and the bottom line isn't effected, most bosses don't care about the work force at all and probably see no reason to change.

I'd say losing the majority of his staff would be a wake up call. The work they do is not replaceable overnight. The money for GX won't keep rolling in, simply because Andre no longer has the manpower to produce the content. You're not wrong about the corporate world, but a YouTube channel of GX's size is not a corporation, this would've hit him hard in the pocket, with or without the former members going public. 

[Ronnie]

Then leave GX and get in touch with the new crew telling them to be careful, and maybe CC Andre in to make it transparent. Do it behind closed doors, don't run to the internet mob to sort it out for you. And if you absolutly have to tell the world about it then, don't go on for the longest statement known to man, destroying a man's reputation on the notoriously vengeful internet, all to garner sympathy and try to push the community they'd all built up and turn them towards your new thing. Derrick wasn't doing it to "change" anything.

At least Derrick is happy now, and all it took was destroying someone else to get there.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Ronnie

[Hero-of-Time]

Hard disagree with some of your points, @Nicktendo. Gonna have to be a case of agreeing to disagree with this one and leave it at that. 

[Nicktendo]

The operation was a complete success. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm pleased to see Derrick do a trailer analysis. Guess he'll have to look inside himself and ask if it was all worth it in the end. 

A real shame that they chose this option rather than hashing things out seriously with supposed friends. Maybe business and friendship shouldn't be mixed, but I don't like seeing this type of behaviour rewarded and reinforced. They'll be on the end of a cancelling themselves sooner or later, the mob is never satiated. 

[Ronnie]

4 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

the mob is never satiated

ResetEra will dine out on that thread for weeks

[Will]

Agree with the main points of both @Hero-of-Time and @Nicktendo.

The only thing I’d add is that this is not a big corporation, nor are the people involved long term staff relying on these roles for their livelihood and career. Andre is not a fat cat CEO screwing over thousands of people to line his own pockets with millions of dollars.

The way I see it is someone got successful with a YouTube hobby, brought in more people to help and when it needed to be run professionally they didn’t have the first clue what they were doing and things got messed up. Andre has definitely screwed up here but for him to be held to the same standard as experienced people running established companies is incredibly unfair. He seems pretty genuine in his apology and trying to do better in the future.

The whole thing could have been handled a lot better and a lot earlier than it was. They really don’t sound like a very good group of friends.