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“Those employees of TSR who are doing creative work are doing so strictly for the benefit of TSR with regards to their designs,” Gygax explained.
”As you [Arneson] do not wish to sign the statement, we cannot have you continue as research director. Hence forward, you are transferred to shipping. Your hourly rate will be $2.30 per hour, with a basic forty hour week." Cruelly, Gygax construed this demotion as an act of mercy. “Please note that we are transferring you despite the fact that you committed an intolerable offense by leaving the premises today Without the courtesy to notify anyone."

…must not leave the Company premises except on approved Company business without permission of their immediate supervisor.” The end of the handbook also details a list of disciplinary infractions and their associated punishments; its section on “minor offenses” begins with “habit-
ual absence,” then goes to “habitually reporting late,” and “habitual failure to be in attendance on company premises.” No doubt Arneson’s predilection for working from home in the afternoon inspired such restrictions. Workers

Heated words were then exchanged. Arneson made some oblique reference to who had done what for the company besides merely investing money in it, as he felt his own support for TSR in 1974 and 1975, efforts largely uncompensated at the time, entitled him to a say over company direction. Gygax countered that any obligation that TSR had to the Minnesota group—and Arneson felt this was directed squarely at himself—had been amply repaid with the wages of employment. Ominously, Gygax intimated that any employee was replaceable, as money could always buy talent. He furthermore made it perfectly clear that when the company’s interests were at stake, his family’s welfare was threatened, and that he would treat such challenges accordingly.