allowed to partake in playtests of their own projects because they were seen as insufficiently skilled at the game's competition. "Trash talking" from the CEO and some other employees was prevalent. There was a great deal of toxicity in the playtest room, leading to occasions of employees quiting the playtest in a fury, or the CEO shutting off other employee's machines during a playtest because their performance in the playtest was jeopardizing victory within the competition. - Very cliquey. An inner circle would be regularly invited to paid lunch with the CEO, "boss lunch", and said employees were largely given independence and influence over their own projects and others. Passing commentary from said individuals could become the new direction on a whim. - Micromanaged. It became a matterof defacto policy that the project should be hidden if the CEO was approaching, so that an impression of incomplete, in-progress work wouldn't lead to a drastic change based on an inaccurate impression of what the work would ultimately represent. - Ethically questionable business model practices. Whichever new character was to be sold would be constantly playtested by the CEO, but if the CEO was not victorious at the end of the playtest, the character would be made more powerful. This pattern lead to newer characters being unfairly capable in competition, motivating the players to purchase the latest character, only to have them properly balanced for fairness after the fact.