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Former GameXplain members talk about troubles with the company (heavy crunch, low pay) [Update: André Response]
- Thread starter Magic-Man
- Start date
This is gonna make it all a bit more mainstream. I've seen a number of notable journalists and people in the industry (like Cory Barlog) retweet and comment on it already.
This quote was particularly awful to read:
Not super sure why this should be shared now? The only thing here even remotely relevant is the part about how analyses are draining. But, like, some of these just seem like genuine depressive thoughts and idk about those being made open here. Like yeah he sucks as a boss but that doesn't mean his mental wellbeing is now free real estate to speculate about
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I think they probably posted it mostly from that analysis part, and maybe the Reggie thing. I'll delete the link though. I agree about that.
Yeah it's basically "I acknowledge you were upset by what I did in the pat and I'm troubled by all of this."
Good to see Vice reporting on this. Far from over for Andre and he's only making it worse for himself.
Surprisingly GX hasn't continued to pump out videos despite having a new mario and pokemon snap trailer. GVG even made an analysis on Bowser's Fury before GX did.
Tom I'm guessing? He's the one that stayed afterall...
The GVG staff have handled themselves with nothing but class and professionalism thus far.
They shared their truth, while not wishing ill-will on their former employer. I can't say in the same situation I would have been as classy after being treated like they were.
GX responses to this are on brand based on the stories
For sure. Mad respect to them for showing restraint and taking the high road.
Not sure I know who that is, but the person is Joey? I don't really know the new staff aside from names.
Joey blocked Steve's Wife for liking a few tweets which were critical of his statement about Andre which in a way may have been interpreted as he downplayed the experience that Derrick, Ash, Steve and the rest went through at GX with Andre
Oh ok, I only knew of Chris and Tris as far as the new staffers. Tom has been there the longest, even before Derrick I believe, but wasn't as visible.
Oh ok, thanks for clearing that up!
Hopefully the new people are starting to find new work. The GX ship is starting to sink with this story now starting to get some coverage. I wonder if they'll start getting less review codes.
Wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo terminates the partnership.
All Andre had to do was not close down the reddit posts, and do a "sincere" apology and things would at least be better off than now.
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Weird he gave VICE a statement...and then put the same statement on Twitter.
If VICE never asked, would he have given one this soon?
On the subreddit, Ashley said that Andre told Steve that if didn't have it up by embargo, there was no point in doing it at all. Here's the full post:
This is something I haven't seen brought up much, but the unsung heroes of this story are without a doubt the wives. They seem like such badass pillars of their respective relationships, and I'm sure it's not lost on the GVG crew how lucky they are. Mad respect to those ladies.
Also I've had some drinks and I really want to just go into how disappointed and disgusted I am in the depth of Andre's depravity, but I know that won't contribute anything worthwhile.
I will say, though, that Derrick has the most wholesome voice I've maybe ever heard, and I didn't know who on the GX crew had that ridiculously sweet way of expressing themselves until this whole saga. But goshdarn if I wouldn't love to have the ability to call Derrick and have him reassure me IT WILL ALL BE OKAY whenever I'm feeling down!
Also I've had some drinks and I really want to just go into how disappointed and disgusted I am in the depth of Andre's depravity, but I know that won't contribute anything worthwhile.
I will say, though, that Derrick has the most wholesome voice I've maybe ever heard, and I didn't know who on the GX crew had that ridiculously sweet way of expressing themselves until this whole saga. But goshdarn if I wouldn't love to have the ability to call Derrick and have him reassure me IT WILL ALL BE OKAY whenever I'm feeling down!
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Someone responded to Joey's twitlonger tweet basically saying "Hey it's great to hear he's been good to you, it doesn't disprove or excuse what happened in the past." Instead of touching that subject Joey just straight up says: "Andre has treated me better than any boss I've ever had. Period." Like what an asshole thing to say
Andre's 2nd Statement
Its better than the garbage he first put out, but it still isn't a particularly good apology. Disappointed.
This is definitely a better statement than yesterday's, even if a large number of problems still weren't addressed. Why wasn't this what he led with yesterday? Also didn't disable replies this time.
Unfortunate that it took this long but it is a much better statement. Sounds like an issue of the Peter Principle where the channel rose to the point beyond where Andre could competently run it, and everyone suffered for it. And he finally accepts some responsibility & ultimately apologizes in this one (even if it comes across as weak still imo). Certainly doesn't excuse his actions, but hopefully those affected will at least feel like their grievances were acknowledged rather than hand-waved like the first statement kind of felt like.
This statement, I feel, clashes with what we have heard from the others, so I feel he is lying in this a bit.
This should've been his statement yesterday. It's not perfect, but it's "good enough."
I wonder if the statement yesterday was because of Klepek. He hadn't really put down into words how he was thinking but he wanted to give Klepek something. I don't know. At the end of the day this story is done. People will do as they please in accordance with their morals I guess. I doubt I'll go back to Gamexplain. The stuff with Jon and Derrick is just a bit much. Especially Derrick.
This is without a doubt a better apology statement. He should have never sent the first one out and just sent out this instead when he could put it out. Time will tell if his words mean anything more than just words. Also the news of trying to get people to release statement of support and the no pay for a couple months with constant reminders doesnt really help.
I still feel there should be some type of lump sum payment given back to the former GX members. Unless the GX channel supporting the GVG Patreon is some way of repayment back to them
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Andre didn't handle it well (as we've all gone over) but in all fairness he did not make Steve work those crazy hours for the FFVII review. Steve also expected extra compensation that wasn't agreed upon with Andre either. If Andre says the optics don't make a late FFVII review worth than the investment - well it's possible that's just the truth. In my job at least, statements like this are made sometimes and it's not personal.
Just hope that if anyone's in a position like Steve's, they don't put themselves through 2 all nighters when they don't have to. Or they discuss compensation they can receive from their boss for doing that, before they actually do that (say, maybe a rest day or 2 after the video is posted, idk how flexible Gamexplain work life is).
I have friends like Steve who work super long hours voluntarily and they suffer unnecessarily, and am used to encouraging them to talk to their boss or stop working so much.
Just hope that if anyone's in a position like Steve's, they don't put themselves through 2 all nighters when they don't have to. Or they discuss compensation they can receive from their boss for doing that, before they actually do that (say, maybe a rest day or 2 after the video is posted, idk how flexible Gamexplain work life is).
I have friends like Steve who work super long hours voluntarily and they suffer unnecessarily, and am used to encouraging them to talk to their boss or stop working so much.
Glad Andre' is taking steps to meet bare minimum requirements, like setting up a payroll service to automate payments to his employees. I get where he's coming from though in a sense. He's a gamer... not an entrepreneur, and probably had no intention of running his own business. But, his youtube channel took off and he needed staff, so he tried to do the clerical and accounting work himself, and failed in several aspects. I hope his words are true, and his new staff is benefiting from his hard lessons learned in running a business.
Before you completely let Andre off the hook, just remember that people worked for him for months and months and were never paid for it. I noticed that Andre didn't bother to mention that part in his apology.
I'm sympathetic to the distress the criticism and backlash Andre has faced this week has caused him, but the wording in that statement is gaslighting 101, implying that he is the one being attacked by his former employees whilst dismissing the validity and truth of the specific pay issues they raise.
He offers up various hypothetical possibilities as to why they considered the pay to be '$1 to $2' an hour, positing various 'maybes'. I have witnessed this behaviour personally - it is manipulative gaslighting and indicative of narcissistic personality disorder.
He offers up various hypothetical possibilities as to why they considered the pay to be '$1 to $2' an hour, positing various 'maybes'. I have witnessed this behaviour personally - it is manipulative gaslighting and indicative of narcissistic personality disorder.
Been following this thread since the beginning and these are exactly my thoughts as well. If Andre is stressed about deadlines and such and as forgetful as he says he is, then he needs someone else on board to help him some of the higher level decision making.
The fact that everyone down to the Discord mods had to get approval from him for even the smallest things leads me to believe that he has his hands in too many pies, and doesn't want to offload some of this work because it's "his" channel and brand. And to be fair, it is, but (and this is all just my speculation) his refusal to just let someone other than him make decisions is doing/did far more harm than good.
In salaried jobs you don't get paid by the hour, so there's no obligation for this to happen. Good companies will usually take extra hours worked into account though when giving out raises or holiday bonuses.
Better response and glad he actually did this when though it should've been the first response but days ago. Still done with the channel but glad something was said.
Yeah I agree, its at the very least slightly more sincere.