“You’re Never Weird on the Internet” by Felicia Day (a quickie book review)
I've known Felicia since working as her (Unpaid) VFX Supervisor for Season 2 of "The Guild".
It just boggles the mind that someone who has built a self-described "Multi-million dollar empire" on the backs of unpaid labor can whine, bitch, and moan about how unfair she has been treated by everyone from the TV and Gaming Industries to the many fans (and former labor and talent) who have been burned by her strident over-stated sense of, I don't know, self.
In one chapter she goes from talking about how George Ruiz, her then agent, secured the Microsoft deal for "The Guild" that would allow her to keep full ownership of Intellectual Property rights for the show while having all production costs (plus some) paid by Microsoft in exchange for a first-play exclusive on XBox,, then announcing on every platform, from Late Night TV to every Podcast she could book, that this signaled a new day for creators who now would be compensated fairly while not being stripped of ownership of their work.
Fast forward to 2015ish, when she launched a vlog series of young creators who were expected, by Felicia, along with her co-producers Sherri and Kim, sign away all ownership to their work in perpetuity.
At one point she comments that she was proud that nobody working on The Guild Season Two would go unpaid. Hah! I'm calling Shenanigans there.
At the time the Microsoft Negotiations were going on, I was working through a three-week hiatus from my day job at a major VFX studio in the Bay Area, which extended from 3-weeks of 13 hour days to several weeks of after-work overtime to finish the big effects sequence at the end of the Season Finale where Codex dies a Warcraft-like death at the site of Zaboo making out with another girl.
My compensation?
A DVD signed by the principal cast, while everyone on set got paid... Not a lot, but it was cash $US.
Felicia recognizes that her neuroses and various mental health disorders drives her neurotic behavior and has caused damage to key relationships, like the rift that arose between Felicia and her producing Partner Kim Evey Benson, during the early days of Geek & Sundry.
At the same time I feel disabused, as many of Felicia Day's former "volunteers" (who had no idea we were signing on to something that was going to make Felicia and her "Key People" good money, I also feel sorry for Felicia, as she is lost in her own world of Pop Culture issues and squeezing every drop of blood from anyone who will help her.
Felicia quotes the often misattributed statement, "The only thing necessary for Evil to succeed is for good men (and women) to do nothing, yet she will burn anyone who stands up to her, or her equally morally-bereft and ethically bankrupt D-List Hollyweird fans.
She neglects to mention facts like her Director and Editor for Season 2-5 of the Guild wound up homeless and destitute after leaving Geek & Sundry.
Meanwhile, Kim, Sherri, and Felicia set up multiple shell companies to avoid/evade paying union benefits to anyone but their "preferred" talent.
Thanks for the memories, Felicia, oh, and for the two lunches and DVD... The DVD is going on eBay with the rest of my "The Guild" swag, as Disability isn't paying the bills, and I need to cash in on the only benefits I received from helping you build your Flagship product. More in depth on dougluberts.com later...
