Jedna kontroverze teď hýbe Amerikou: Slavní i méně slavní autoři RPG, kteří třeba i byli v 90. letech slavní, dnes naráží na zdravotní systém v Americe. RPGčka mimo velké vydavatele nevydělávaly a nevydělávají dost na to, aby si autoři dokázali platit zdravotní pojištění. A i v těch velkých vydavatelstvích často dělali free-lanceři, kteří si zdravotní pojištění nemohli dovolit. Dnes je těm autorům často 40+ a dostávají se do zdravotních problémů spojených s věkem a do těžkých sociálních situací.
Před časem na tento problém jako první upozornil Wolfgang Baur z Kobold Pressu. Teď i Fred Hicks a Louis Porter Jr.
Fred Hicks píše:
Through a combination of: Running Evil Hat (I made $0/month for several years; then we got a little success, enough to justify $450/month for a while; I’ve gotten to increase that since, but I am pretty sure I’m still not quite rating McDonald’s wages, and unless Evil Hat can improve its product output over the next few years, I’m not sure the increase can be sustained; behold part of my motive to grow the company! I should note I don’t charge the company anything else for any writing, development, or layout work I do beyond this monthly draw.) Running Jim Butcher’s online presence (the site has amazon referrals, other referral programs, the occasional ad revenue, cafe press gear, all of which funnels to me to pay the website costs and then pay myself the remainder for doing the work of creating & running all that over the past ten-plus years) Freelance layout work (which is bursty, unpredictable, and can sometimes wind up with late or very late or never-happened payment if you’re not careful)… I am just in the last year or two finally at the point where I’m making about what I made when I started in the internet industry back in 1996. Only without any benefits (save those that I get as a spouse), which is a lot like saying that I am making 30+% less than what I was making in 1996.
Louis Porter Jr. píše:
But there is another side to this. The side of what is "making a living"? I live is South Florida where I own a house, two cars, have a wife, one year old son and mother-in-law all living in the same house. My wife and I do well financially (She's a therapist and I am a graphic design / web designer) and LPJ Design gives me extra money to do a few fun things. But can I live off of it? No. But do I work it like a 40 hours a week job where I get full medical, weekly paycheck, 401k retirement planning, free use of internet, copier fax machine and roughly four and a half weeks off and 2 weeks of sick time? No. But I do know if I worked the LPJ Design business as well and hard as I work my "real" job the out come would be different.