Early final yr, whereas engaged on the subsequent entry in the Life Is Strange franchise, a few builders at Deck Nine stumbled upon one thing that didn’t belong of their game: Nazi symbols.
Initially, builders seen a reference to the number 88, and flagged the challenge to their bosses assuming it was an harmless mistake. But in the ensuing weeks, others discovered more problematic indicators and in-universe labels, comparable to references to a racist meme, the number 18, and the Hagal rune. As the quantity of potential hate symbols mounted, workers grew more and more involved that somebody was placing these things of their game intentionally as a canine whistle to white supremacists.
Nazi imagery could be inappropriate in most video games, however in a Life Is Strange title the dissonance was particularly scary. Since its inception, the collection has been lauded for considerate portrayals of marginalized people. Its most up-to-date entry, Life Is Strange: True Colors, gained Games for Impact at The Game Awards in 2021 and a GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Video Game. With such a status, builders inform me, there was an expectation that any whiff of hate speech could be instantly eliminated and totally investigated.
But as weeks glided by, management remained silent and workers unrest grew. This wasn’t the first time executives had didn’t act when marginalized people at the studio felt unsafe. According to over a dozen present and former workers throughout a number of departments, most of whom spoke to me on situation of anonymity for concern of reprisal, Deck Nine’s management has long let a poisonous work tradition fester at the studio. They declare the C-suite has protected a number of abusive leaders, inspired crunch, and allowed bullying of people advocating internally for more genuine illustration in Life Is Strange.
Now on the cusp of saying its subsequent game and struggling to secure different tasks, Deck Nine management is dealing with rising inside discontent from these harmed by its inaction. While the builders of Life Is Strange love and imagine in the collection, many of them more and more wrestle to reconcile the values the video games promote with the tradition during which they’re made.
Deck Nine Games was based beneath the title Idol Minds in 1997 and for many of its historical past, labored on video games very totally different from Life Is Strange. For a long time it targeted on PlayStation video games comparable to Cool Boarders 3 and 4, Rally Cross 2, and Neopets: The Darkest Faerie. Idol Minds additionally assisted on a number of Ratchet & Clank video games. The studio briefly pivoted to cellular game improvement in the early 2010s earlier than vanishing for a few years, reemerging as Deck Nine in 2017.
This wasn’t simply a title change. Equipped with proprietary toolset StoryForge, Deck Nine introduced it could deal with narrative video games, starting with the Square Enix-owned Life Is Strange. Deck Nine first took the reins from collection creator Dontnod Entertainment on a prequel, Life Is Strange: Before the Storm. Though Dontnod adopted up with Life Is Strange 2 in 2018, it officially left the series behind after that, making Deck Nine the logical successor with Life Is Strange: True Colors in 2021 and the Life Is Strange Remastered Collection in 2022.
Deck Nine’s first crack at Square Enix’s standard narrative collection concerned vital crunch, and whereas efforts had been made to improve workloads on True Colors, additional time by no means absolutely vanished. One nameless particular person instructed me they labored 70 to 80 hours a week for an whole month straight on True Colors. Another described taking up weeks of crunch to guard different crew members, saying it was “never mandated” however that there was at all times an excessive amount of to get accomplished in the allotted time.
Much of the crunch, builders say, was the direct end result of the relationship between Deck Nine and Square Enix. Several people instructed me it felt as if Square Enix had offered Life Is Strange to the lowest bidder, and that this was incessantly mirrored in manufacturing schedules with tight deadlines and small budgets. Multiple people had been conscious of producers being pressured by their bosses and Square Enix to remodel manufacturing schedules so it regarded like each milestone match inside a very restricted improvement time body, regardless of their arguments that it was inconceivable. One referred to as Square Enix – and particularly, Square Enix London, who Deck Nine labored with straight – “bullies.”
Another source elaborated, “Square always put a lot of pressure on our people, so that toxicity started to bleed into our environment too.”
Others I spoke to expressed frustration at Square Enix for a totally different purpose: it was far too hands-on with the script. Sure, Life is Strange is a Square Enix’s owned IP, however sources instructed me Square Enix appeared oddly reluctant or outright hostile to the numerous themes and concepts that Life Is Strange followers love. For occasion, a number of people recalled an incident during True Colors improvement the place Square Enix instructed a number of builders it didn’t need Life Is Strange to be thought of as the “gay game.”
“There’s a lot of press out there praising True Colors for having the first bisexual lead in a Life Is Strange game,” stated Mallory Littleton, a narrative designer who labored at Deck Nine on a number of Life Is Strange titles. “Even in our press guides from Square Enix, all the way up until [review copies were out], we were not to say anything about Alex’s sexuality, period, at all. And then they did the advance copies, and all of these reviews came out saying how amazing it was to finally see an explicitly bi protagonist, and after that, Square was like, just kidding, Alex is absolutely, canonically, 100% bisexual.”
Square Enix declined to remark for this text, however as an alternative pointed IGN to Deck Nine’s response, which we’ve included in full at the finish of this text.
Fraught as the relationship with Square Enix was, some people I spoke to at Deck Nine laid the blame for the troublesome relationship not at the toes of the writer, however Deck Nine management. They stated that managers at Deck Nine by no means appeared prepared to ask Square Enix for more time or push back on notes the builders disagreed with. How, then, was Square Enix even speculated to know the studio was struggling?
Multiple sources gave the impression in our conversations that Deck Nine’s relationship with Square Enix for Life Is Strange was largely one of comfort somewhat than any deep appreciation for the collection. Square Enix preferred that Deck Nine was prepared to do the game for a decrease price range than different studios, and it had the StoryForge device, which was made for narrative journey video games. Deck Nine, for its half, needed a good IP to pair with StoryForge. Telltale already had rights to many of the most interesting ones, and different massive licenses weren’t prepared to work with an untested studio. However, many builders instructed me Deck Nine management appeared unprepared for coping with a game with “serious” themes, particularly in terms of considerate portrayals of numerous people.
Alongside complaints of low pay, issue getting promotions, and the aforementioned crunch, many people I spoke to expressed frustration that management allowed quite a few situations of poisonous habits to go unaddressed for months on finish. These included a quantity of particular accounts of sexual harassment, bullying, transphobia, and in any other case poisonous work tradition that a number of people corroborated. In only one instance, a number of people remembered a senior programmer who incessantly made sexist remarks and crude “jokes” with each racial and sexual overtones. One particular person recalled him repeatedly harassing a younger, feminine producer, incessantly talking over her, invading her private space, and blocking her from grabbing gadgets. He additionally incessantly screamed and swore at different junior programmers sitting close to him. One nameless source with insight into management choices recalled management preventing to maintain the programmer regardless of quite a few stories, opting to maneuver his crew to desks distant from different departments so others couldn’t hear him yelling. He was finally let go, not long after an incident the place sources recalled overhearing him screaming at an HR consultant.
Every girl I spoke to for this piece had at least one story of being handled poorly or harassed during her time there, and nearly all stated they felt they needed to fight exceptionally arduous to obtain raises or promotions. “We’re usually treated as a marketing or PR asset, that’s how higher ups often talked about us,” stated Madeleine Tate, a former producer at Deck Nine on Life Is Strange. “Every promotion where a woman got promoted took a team effort, everyone suggesting them, sending emails, both men and women, dozens just trying to get them promoted.”
While Deck Nine’s myriad points impacted a quantity of departments and groups at the studio, the narrative crew was significantly impacted. Consistently one of the most numerous groups in the studio, these I spoke to inside and outdoors of the narrative crew recalled the group coping with sexism, harassment, bullying, transphobia, microaggressions, alienation, and different poisonous habits from these outdoors the division. But whereas these broader points pervaded the day-to-day of the crew’s work, sources say narrative confronted inside battle as properly largely centered on its chief: narrative director and eventual Deck Nine CCO Zak Garriss.
Garriss joined Deck Nine in 2016 as the narrative director for Before the Storm. He is claimed to have shortly endeared himself to Deck Nine’s executives together with his charisma, pitching skills, and uncommon willingness to efficiently disagree with Square Enix. But elsewhere in the studio, Garriss cultivated a totally different status. As Deck Nine started work on True Colors, sources say Garriss started forming close relationships with a quantity of youthful ladies, typically in conditions the place he had some type of mentorship or different energy over them, together with at least one of the ladies on his crew. Multiple ladies described him as “love bombing” them after they first met, showering them with compliments and convincing them he might get them promotions or raises. Sources say he incessantly stayed late at the studio speaking to those ladies – inviting them to lunch, dinner, drinks, motion pictures, and even to his home after work. While in all these conditions, sources say he would instigate private conversations, and would even textual content some of them after work hours about private topics.
“He would walk me to my car, I’d open the door, say goodbye, and he’d sort of linger,” Littleton recalled. “We’d keep talking, I’d sit down, and he’d linger again next to the open door. He never made a particularly overt move, it was always subtle enough. It felt like it was maybe always just a vibe that I was getting. I felt stupid, first of all, for ending up in that situation with him in the first place. But because he never clearly made a move, maybe I was just reading too much into the whole thing. It wasn’t until I explained it in great detail to others that someone clued me in.”
Multiple ladies who skilled this habits from Garriss described a pervasive feeling of being unable to inform him “no” when he crossed private boundaries as a consequence of his standing at the studio. This feeling solely elevated over time and bled into the office, with a number of of these I spoke to reporting quite a few incidents of him lashing out towards those that disagreed with him at work. This was very true of these preventing for more considerate, genuine, or delicate portrayals of numerous characters. Tate, as an example, recalled being formally reprimanded for criticizing Garriss’ seeming reluctance to permit ladies in his scripts to precise anger. Littleton recounted Garriss telling her that he didn’t suppose illustration mattered as a result of “he didn’t necessarily identify with every white man protagonist, and so other people shouldn’t identify with characters because they look the same.”
“At a certain point our job became finding a way to couch feedback in a way that Zak would hear, more than it was coming up with the feedback,” Littleton added.
Others recalled being reprimanded by Garriss for asking questions on the removing of a transgender character from True Colors that occurred pretty deep in improvement. Two nameless people instructed me that when the Deck Nine social crew needed to submit one thing in assist of Black Lives Matter, Garriss pushed back, calling BLM a hate group. In one other instance, a number of people instructed me that Garriss fought arduous for a twist on True Colors’ closing alternative that a quantity of writers identified included a problematic portrayal of migrant staff and needed to be modified (it will definitely was). And a number of sources recalled a assembly during which Garriss instructed those that had pushed back on this choice that they had been getting too hung up on “political ideologies” and requested everybody current to go round the room and checklist their political affiliations.
Many people instructed me about a scene Garriss wrote for True Colors that the writers felt they needed to fight him excessively arduous to alter. In the closing script of True Colors, the most important character Alex is taken into the woods by Jed, who she thinks is a buddy. He betrays her, taking pictures her and lacking, inflicting her to fall into an deserted mine shaft. However, in Garriss’ authentic model, Jed spikes her drink at a bar and takes her out to the woods for an tried homicide. When they noticed this model of the scene, a quantity of people pushed back, arguing that the scene would unintentionally set off associations with date rape. Multiple people, together with a quantity of ladies, recalled having to fight extensively with Garriss about this scene earlier than it was finally modified.
“It took a three hour meeting in the writers room and one of the writers sharing an extremely personal story to get Zak to agree to get the content out,” stated Littleton. “It wasn’t about us not wanting to have difficult topics in there, but Life Is Strange shines because that type of content is chosen extremely deliberately and it’s given runway, it’s given space to breathe. This detail is irrelevant to the plot, it would have been traumatic for players, and there was no space to unpack it. We don’t have time to talk about what it means for Alex to be roofied by a man she trusted.”
She added that after Garriss lastly agreed to take the element out, he “went on a long tangent about how the writers need to be creatively brave enough to go to ugly places for the sake of our art.” Another nameless source recalled Garriss suggesting that this pushback was solely occurring as a result of he was making a game about a girl, and that he wouldn’t must deal with this if he was making a game about Nathan Drake.
“All the stuff people have praised in the queer community [about True Colors] was hard fought for,” Tate stated. “[Garriss] had senior, queer people on his writing team that he refused to trust. The theme of the game is empathy, the power is empathy, but he didn’t really have any of his own. He would talk about how he felt so empathetic to people, but he genuinely seemed so repelled by any experience he couldn’t personally identify with…If someone talked about their lived experience as a marginalized individual, his response was always ‘Is that true?’”
Tate instructed me she went to HR repeatedly about Garriss’ habits during his time there, however was merely inspired to attempt to see issues from his level of view. Another source, nearer to management, was conscious that Garriss had been instructed by HR to stop taking younger ladies out to dinners; he didn’t. However, these I spoke to say that as True Colors wore on, Garriss distanced himself from his crew of writers. He and one other lead would make most of the story choices, rewriting work from different writers with out permitting them the alternative to offer suggestions, even on tales centering marginalized characters.
Toward the finish of True Colors, Deck Nine carried out a new, nameless efficiency analysis device. As a end result, a quantity of people instructed me they lastly felt comfy being trustworthy with management about Garriss’ points. But management, they are saying, didn’t take action. Some time later, Garriss stop voluntarily. But this wasn’t the finish. True Colors launched to vital acclaim, and in the wake of its success, Deck Nine was making ready to develop its portfolio. But it was fighting one story pitch specifically, and Deck Nine’s management pitched bringing Garriss back to repair it.
Once information obtained out, the narrative crew erupted. Multiple people begged management to not convey back Garriss in a collection of conferences, messages, and emails. One particular person conversant in management at the firm recollects HR stepping in, noting that management was actively underpaying a quantity of staff, particularly ladies, whereas contemplating a large wage for Garriss. HR allegedly steered that Deck Nine could possibly be legally accountable for Garriss’ habits in the event that they invited him back after the bevy of stories. When the firm CEO and CFO endured in arguing that they needed Garriss, a number of writers handed in resignations. Finally, management relented. Garriss didn’t return.
At least, not formally. Following his departure, Garriss landed at Telltale Games, which was working at the time on a mission in close writing partnership with Deck Nine. Only a few months after his departure, a number of of those that had protested Garriss’ return had been instructed that a few narrative crew members had been holding story breaking periods at Garriss’ home.
In a assertion to IGN, Telltale Games asserts it was “not aware of any concerns about Zak prior to his hire” and declines to touch upon inside Deck Nine points. It additionally notes that due to the transfer to distant and hybrid work during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has develop into “common” for workers to fulfill at each other’s properties. The firm provides:
“We can say that, during his time at Telltale, Zak was one of the most talented, balanced and inclusive game directors we have ever worked with, and that is evident in the games he has delivered.”
In response to a request for touch upon this piece, Garriss pushed back on a quantity of the allegations above. Though he acknowledged having “mentored” many ladies, he says he additionally mentored many males, and by no means straight provided promotion however as an alternative supported the present promotion course of. He says the crew at Deck Nine was “very close” and sometimes attended lunches, dinners, drinks, motion pictures, and different engagements collectively, and that he hosted get-togethers at his home “a small number of times” “with both male and female devs” and that his 73-year-old mom who lives with him was at all times current. He added that he by no means engaged in “any aberrant or inappropriate behavior” in texting his coworkers and that “many of the devs in the studios…text often, about all manner of things.”
Garris went on to assert that the narrative crew on True Colors was “initially characterized by torpor rather than toxicity” as a consequence of “a smaller portion of the group not collaborating well.” He stated, “In all of my career, I have never worked with writers who were as creatively inflexible, antagonistic toward difference, or less inclined to listen or compromise as a select few of this group.” Garriss claims that the work on True Colors previous to his presence on the crew was “so poor, the game was under real threat of cancellation when I returned,” and that at a sure level he selected to cut back the “influence” of sure members. He claims that as a end result, “Their conduct became unprofessional, more antagonistic, and accusatory toward me of the toxicity that, from the perspective of many people in the studio, was in actuality a result of their behavior.”
Garriss moreover stated he doesn’t recall referring to Black Lives Matter as a “hate group,” and says he “made every effort to handle the discussions” round the exclusion of a trans character from True Colors “with kindness and care.” He denies that the rejected story angle in True Colors’ ending relating to migrant staff was a dangerous one, and says the crew was “divided” on the challenge of Alex being drugged by Jed and that he opted to alter the level “because of the passion and the earnestness of their case.”
Finally, Garriss alleges that the quantity of complaints towards him in 360 evaluations was “not significant” and that “the majority of the feedback on me personally was positive.” He additionally reiterates Telltale’s assertion that assembly at people’s properties is “quite common” on sure groups given the nature of distant work.
He concludes as follows:
“If you are looking for clarity around the views of Deck Nine – the studio and its leadership, myself included – look to the content the team created as a reflection of the intentions and beliefs of that team. No game is perfect, and no production is ever easy. Before the Storm and True Colors were very difficult. But earnest hearts working tirelessly for years prevailed in the production of those games, and I am proud of what the team produced, grateful for the chance to have been a part of it, and honored to have touched the lives we have with the content we created; please do not let the biased viewpoint of a select few blind you to the truth of the whole.”
In the wake of Garriss’ departure, many of those that had labored carefully with him instructed me that they felt optimism about the future of their work. As Littleton put it, the crew hoped they might work to build Deck Nine into a “home for people like us.”
“Queer or trans or women of color or just writers of color, folks who are not typically comfortable, able to be at home in the games industry just because of the way that it is,” she continued. “Zak left, we managed to reshape the story into something that we liked and cared about and really, genuinely believe in. I think [the upcoming Life Is Strange game] is a really good game, and we built this incredible, diverse team of writers who are very, very good at their jobs, but on top of that extremely good to one another. It was such a supportive, open, honest place to work.
“And then everything hit the fan, one thing after another.”
Near the finish of 2022, as management was preventing to convey back Garriss, somebody seen one thing odd in the in-development new Life Is Strange game. It was an in-game signal that included the phrase “Sheeeit” in what appeared to be a reference a racist meme. The particular person flagged the asset as problematic, and was reassured at the time that it could be modified.
But the meme quickly surfaced again. A number of months later, one other particular person noticed the similar scene and seen a drawback with a totally different asset: the quantity 88, which is extensively used as a hate symbol referencing Hitler. This particular person flagged the challenge to their superiors, presuming it was unintentional. But as phrase unfold round the studio and more people regarded at the scene, even more symbols had been discovered. These included (amongst potential others) the number 18, an obvious Hagal rune – extensively utilized in Nazi Germany to suggest devotion to Nazi philosophy – and the similar obvious racist meme reference earlier than, albeit shortened to “Sheee.” Developers flagged these to numerous crew leads and managers, and obtained reassurances that it could be regarded into. But weeks was months, and the property remained unchanged. By the finish of June, workers had been instructed an HR investigation was ongoing, however had obtained no different suggestions.
Meanwhile, involved workers had been pressured to take care of the notion that a coworker was utilizing Life Is Strange to advertise hate speech. Multiple people instructed me that whereas they might simply imagine somebody may unintentionally and innocently use the quantity 88 or 18 with out figuring out what it meant, the sheer quantity of racist and Nazi gadgets in that one room made it troublesome to imagine it was all simply a huge coincidence.
“I have tried to hold space for the idea that one person made a bunch of extremely unfortunate coincidences,” stated Elizabeth Ballou, a former narrative designer at Deck Nine, once I approached her about the content material. “It is really hard for me to believe that. Especially because we asked them to remove the sheeit meme, and they kept it on there but smaller. So either this was a case of the worst miscommunication known to mankind…or Occam’s Razor, simplest explanation is that someone was trying to see how many of these things they could get away with before someone noticed.”
One nameless particular person identified that given the explicit fanbase Life Is Strange served, having imagery like this appeared like a recipe for sure catastrophe.
“To put that in this game in particular feels targeted,” they stated. “It feels like a way to say, ‘You don’t get to have this either.’…It’s not a little thing. If you meant it as a joke, it doesn’t matter. It reads the same.”
Finally at the finish of August, after quite a few stories of the hate speech, management lastly addressed the property. In a message posted in Slack, CEO Mark Lyons knowledgeable workers that it had eliminated the symbols and investigated how they got here to be there. Lyons claimed that following the investigation, management decided that this was “not an intentional action.”
“Regardless of intent, we will not tolerate any form of hate speech in the games. It doesn’t matter if we accidentally put such symbols in the game, unaware of their meaning, if some segment of our audience perceive them to be espousing hate speech.”
In response, Lyons introduced the firm could be instituting an anti-hate speech coverage, an inside web page outlining what such symbols entail, speaking a course of for investigating future situations of hate speech, and creating a obligatory annual coaching course to raise consciousness of hate speech with the goal of stopping it from showing in video games.
The message was met with combined responses, with some workers asking for more info, some expressing gratitude, and others showing defensive and even mocking. One particular person steered that everybody reacting to the authentic submit with the “100” emoji (which usually signifies settlement, as in 100%) ought to “receive written warnings for their racism,” referencing this.
Other workers felt deeply uncomfortable with how the complete scenario had performed out: the size of time and the quantity of complaints it took for management to take action, the lack of transparency round the investigation, and the response of some of their coworkers to management’s message. Several people I spoke to stated they tried to speak with management after the reality to gain more info, however that whereas management heard their considerations, Lyons specifically simply appeared…confused.
“Our CEO seemed taken aback in that he had never considered this, that people might feel unsafe, that someone would intentionally put this stuff in a game,” one particular person stated. “I don’t know what year you’re living in, but people do this kind of stuff all the time.”
Another particular person steered that management appeared sheltered and unprepared for the troublesome conversations that a collection like Life Is Strange prompted. “You’re not going to learn this stuff overnight, but at least show more aptitude toward having these conversations and giving space to people to let them tell you,” they stated. “They’re more reactive than proactive. They’re not going to be proactive in looking for these things until we hold their hand to the fire.”
Weeks later, Lyons introduced that Deck Nine could be investigating the incident additional, saying that Deck Nine was not geared up to take action on its own. Deck Nine claims to have employed Denver-based firm Investigations Law Group to look into the scenario — as of the publication of this piece, no additional info has been given to workers about the investigation, what it entailed, or its outcomes. Additionally, present workers say none of Lyons’ guarantees of anti-hate speech insurance policies, coaching, or processes have but been carried out.
While all this was happening, Deck Nine was being rocked in different methods. In spring 2023, the studio underwent two rounds of job cuts. The first was smaller, impacting a single-digit quantity of people. And in May, Skybound Entertainment canceled a deal with the studio to work on a sequel to Telltale’s The Walking Dead (Skybound declined to remark for this piece). Roughly 30 people throughout all Deck Nine tasks misplaced their jobs, decreasing the studio to round 100 people. Team leads had been instructed to decide on who to cut, a transfer that resulted in Littleton and a fellow narrative lead volunteering to put themselves off to avoid wasting two of their coworkers (a third member of narrative was additionally laid off involuntarily).
With her remaining weeks at the firm, Littleton recollects having to “haul ass” and to “write more and write faster than we had the entire project” to make sure the the rest of the Life Is Strange crew was set up for achievement transferring ahead. “It’s difficult to describe the mental and emotional toll it took to crunch when you know you’ve already been laid off.”
Then, not long after, there was one other blow, this time at Telltale Games. Deck Nine had been engaged on a pre-production script for The Wolf Among Us 2. But Telltale was having its own money points, and finally pulled the funding from Deck Nine. Telltale itself underwent its own layoffs, and Deck Nine discovered itself down two main tasks and a lot of crucial funding. In a assertion to IGN, Telltale Games says that The Wolf Among Us 2 “remains in production internally at Telltale. We value our relationship with Deck Nine and continue to explore ways we can work together."
The cancellation of two major projects and multiple rounds of layoffs have not inspired confidence internally. Among those I spoke to, there was a strong perception that Deck Nine leaders were bad dealmakers who were unwilling or unable to advocate for their studio to get resources even when their deals were successful. Just this past February, Deck Nine experienced yet another round of layoffs, with management citing an inability to sign a new project after the loss of both The Wolf Among Us 2 and The Walking Dead. A total of 23 individuals were impacted, leaving Deck Nine at just over half the size it was a few years ago during the height of True Colors. Leadership took pay cuts, but impacted staff only received two weeks of severance pay regardless of time served at the studio.
This leaves those remaining at Deck Nine once again reliant on Life Is Strange. For now, sources says development on the current project is progressing well despite some early struggles. For better or worse, Deck Nine has become the steward of Life Is Strange, and their fates are inextricably linked. In order for the studio to survive, developers say studio leadership needs to rebuild trust, especially from the developers advocating for the diverse and empathetic stories that have been a beloved hallmark of Life Is Strange since its inception.
“I worry that True Colors and Before the Storm are important to the queer community, and I just worry people will think they can’t play these anymore,” Tate stated. “But every good thing we got in those stories was fought for hard by female writers and queer writers, and games aren’t made by one person…If you’re marginalized you have to love games so much more to make them because you have to put up with so much more shit.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].