Player One Podcast

[Note: This is a continuation of the story that starts in this post. You may want to read that before going on.]

I don’t know if you’ve ever had to go into your boss and say, “hi, I’m overworked, can I get a little help here?” but when you’re 17 years old and the guy at the top is a lot older than you and already doesn’t like you, it can be a harrowing experience. I’d already been on Ed’s shit list. In one issue of EGM2 I’d used black and white photos of a little Sega PDA/toy device because it was the only assets of it available at the time. I’d written the article, dropped in the pictures and everything was cool–the issue was signed off and went to the printers. But when it came back, I got yelled at for using black-and-white anything in the magazine–even though he (Ed) had supposedly signed-off on those very same pages just a week or two earlier. Surely this was something he saw and could’ve brought up then? Getting yelled at by Ed was the worst part of the EGM job. He had this way of making you feel like you’d committed an unbelievable atrocity for which there was no forgiveness. Something inhuman, immoral, and that your own mother would disown you for. Ask anyone who’s worked for him and you’ll hear similar tales.

But I thought that this meeting would go differently. It had to. After all, Ed had a son/stepson in high school himself and would surely understand. And when you think about it, I was getting paid hourly at that point and didn’t have Sendai’s health insurance benefits or anything, so–what was the harm? Less hours means they wouldn’t have to pay me as much. It’s win-win…right? So I went in, asked if I could have a moment of his time, and began talking. I explained that I was 17, and that since I was going to school full-time, maybe I could cut down on some of the amount of work I’d been assigned (3 sections, 2 magazines, plus special features, deadlines every 2 weeks). By that time I had also been recruited to help Todd Mowatt with a lot of his work as well, so I felt I had a justifiable reason to beg for leniency. If I could offload one section or not need to be Mowatt’s monkeyboy then everything would be fine. Just a little mercy. Please?

EGM2 Issue #2

I could tell just by the expression on his face that my argument was not falling upon receptive ears. But I didn’t know how extreme the backlash would be. It came swift: “Are you telling me that you can’t do your job?” No–that wasn’t what I was saying at all. I can still do my job, just…I’d like to do a little less of it for a while so I could…oh, I dunno…finish high school? “What I’m hearing is that you don’t want to do your job.” At that point the “I can’t believe what I’m hearing’s” began. While my memory’s blurry on some of this, I remember that he insinuated that I was bringing down the magazine and they couldn’t have someone that didn’t pull their weight, and at one point stormed off to get Sendai’s legal counsel guy so I could apparently announce that I was not able to perform my job to someone else. It was not going well. When he couldn’t find that guy, he stormed back in and told me to say that I didn’t want to do my job into a tape recorder. (Probably so he could listen to it in his car and laugh maniacally–or maybe I’m just imagining that.) I refused. After a little more arguing and apologizing on my part, it was made clear that I would do my job and maybe get one small project that I’d been doing for Mowatt taken off of my shoulders.

When I left the office that evening I’d more or less decided that I didn’t want to work at EGM anymore. The pay was good and I loved games and my friends were jealous, but the hours and the people (except for a small few) just sucked beyond all imaginable bounds of suckitude. I’d spent three-plus months there and had only recently received a shitty Mac to do work on at my ramshackle desk and the people I worked with were a-holes. Why would I want to spend any more time there? I talked it over with my parents and made up my mind.

I decided that instead of telling Ed I was leaving and open up another can of worms, that I’d go straight to the top and tell Steve first. I figured–he’d hired me, if I’m going to leave I should break it to him my own way (especially so he didn’t hear any stories of how I “can’t do my job, blah-blah-blah”). So I dropped by his office, handed him a letter that I’d typed saying I was quitting–effective immediately. I stuck around and talked to him for a bit about a few of the reasons why. He understood. He was sorry to see me go. But he also left it open so that if I wanted to come back anytime, I could. And that part cheered me up a bit. Maybe I could come back sometime and do some other work for Sendai that didn’t involve working with Ed. That’d be nice.

Since I didn’t leave any real personal belongings at the office anyway, all I had to do was pick up my backpack and go. I had quit EGM.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Chris Johnston Electronic Gaming Monthly EGM, Electronic Gaming Monthly