eurogamer.net

dingus, do gaming w CD Projekt Red devs unionise after its third round of layoffs in three months
@dingus@lemmy.ml avatar

Other devs, please follow suit.

This industry needs class consciousness in it yesterday.

Just because you’re paid well doesn’t mean you’re not being mistreated.

It’s valid to be thankful for what you have but to also know you deserve more.

AlexWIWA,

I wish developers would learn that just because they’re well paid doesn’t mean they’re getting the full value of their work. Your CEO didn’t become a billionaire by paying you the full value of your labor.

There’s always room for more and unions can get that.

tias, (edited )

This is from a Swedish perspective, but: My experience with unions has been that they think it’s more important that nobody is paid more, than to pay everyone what they’re worth. In other words they’d prefer everyone being paid equally over raising the minimum wage. Their motivation seems based in jealousy more than a sense of justice. The money they collect from their members is spent on offering stupid IT courses that nobody (except unskilled people) needs, or stuffing their own pockets.

I like the idea of a union, but to me it seems like the actual unions we have today either lack real problems to solve or forgot about them. Every time a representative comes to visit I just get angered by how out of touch they are. They should focus on their core values and get rid of all that idiotic fluff, so they can lower their fees and recruit more members. But like any organization they grew fat and slow.

dino,

Lack real problems to solve? Wtf. Also your experience with unions seem very biased.

tias, (edited )

*or forgot about them.

Ensuring that people know how to use Excel is not a problem that the union should be spending money on.

At my office we can work at any hours of the day that we prefer, as long as we check with our coworkers and do our agreed 40 hours / week. When the union heard about this they told my employer that we must do all our work during daytime.

Their reasoning was that our liberal hours give us the opportunity to take on more obligations in our personal life at daytime (such as taking kids to soccer practice) which means we have to work in evenings to make up for lost time. And this, in turn, means we don’t get enough rest. So basically they don’t trust the employees to take responsibility for how much rest they need and want to stop them from doing personal chores during the day.

We (the employees) finally won against the union in this, but what I kept thinking during this ordeal was “jeez, don’t they have more important issues to address?” If they did, why would they be meddling with this.

dino,

I think you don’t understand unions or what they are fighting for. Your presumed freedom in working hours is exactly what the unison stated. If you need freetime to fix chores you should reduce your working hours and not work throughout the night.

tias,

Yes, but then that’s my choice to reduce my working hours, not something my union should force on me. It’s patronizing. All ~100 employees disagreed with the union on this. IMO that’s a sign that they are overreaching and forget who they are working for. They need to realize when they are done and just sit back and enjoy what they’ve accomplished, instead of mindlessly optimizing for the wrong target. At any rate, if this is the kind of stuff they pull I won’t want to support them, because to my mind they are making things worse, not better.

Steeve,

Eh, more of a case by case basis in the tech industry imo. Most game studio devs should probably unionize, but it’s not all horror stories everywhere. I’m not against unionization by any means and it’s always on the table, but when me and my coworkers already have great pay, great benefits, stable careers, and great work life balance I don’t really see what additional benefits it would bring. It’s an over-generalization to say that you’ll be earning more money as a union employee when you’re already making more than 90% of the population, I know first hand that some trades even make more than their unionized counterparts in my area.

Blake,

It would being better pay, better benefits, even more stable careers and better work-life balance.

It doesn’t matter how much money you’re already making, or how good your benefits already are. If you have a Union, you can negotiate for improvements. There is always room for improvement, unless you’re working at a fully-mutual workers cooperative.

I know first hand that some trades even make more than their unionized counterparts

I’d be interested to learn more, do you have a source or anything?

Steeve,

I already negotiate. Every couple years I interview around, I get a job offer, I take it back it my employer and they either match it or I leave. I’ve personally increased my salary 6x since I’ve joined the industry about a decade ago, I know people who have increased it more. I don’t know anyone in a unionized field who’s managed to achieved anything like this. I don’t know that it’s impossible, just seems to be much more rare. I’m a specialized individual in a specialized industry, I already have bargaining power and I definitely reject that my compensation, benefits, job stability, and WLB would be better if I had been unionized this whole time.

I’d be interested to learn more, do you have a source or anything?

Like I said, first hand. Purely anecdotal, I’m sure it isn’t the case for all union jobs.

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

I'm not in games, but if/when things start to turn, it's far easier for myself and the people around me to just leave for an employer that treats us right than to try to unionize and force the current one to behave. Those are the benefits of having a job that's very much in demand though, not to mention one that can be worked from home and isn't dependent on geography, so the union isn't necessary because the employees already hold enough power. If the employer has a monopoly on your jobs, being able to unionize is a powerful tool in your toolbelt.

reinar,
@reinar@distress.digital avatar

the funny thing is actual ability to pay is varying from business to business. AAA development with in-house engine is simply inferior as a business compared to mobile gamedev or producing shitty battle royale clones with Unity. If some business can’t compete with big tech or low-effort money grabbers, does it mean it has to go?

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

No, for the same reason that fine dining restaurants don't go out of business when there's a McDonald's around the corner. They're different markets.

off_brand_,

This does suck though. To start, a counter-offer-based model begs discrimination. You should be getting yearly raises commensurate with (at absolute bare minimum, not even necessarily accounting for inflation) the increase in productivity from year to year.

This is to say nothing of work environments. Unions could reduce or end crunch. Not just as hard blockers, but mandating the kind of project management that doesn’t require crunch.

There’s also a history of wage suppression.

inc.com/…/silicon-valley-wage-collusion-class-act…

They’ll only get better at it, especially as the market continues to turn and companies continue to consolidate.

p03locke,
@p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

This does suck though. To start, a counter-offer-based model begs discrimination. You should be getting yearly raises commensurate with (at absolute bare minimum, not even necessarily accounting for inflation) the increase in productivity from year to year.

I see that a lot with just the starting percentages of yearly raises. Most companies never keep up with market value, and by the time you’ve spent ten years there, you’re making much lower than the industry standard.

The worst is employers who have some 1-5 scale for yearly performance and they gatekeep bosses who try to give out too many 5s. It’s not a competition among your peers. If the whole team is doing good and working hard, then reward all of them.

Steeve,

I don’t know about discrimination, you’d have to provide actual statistical evidence of that for me to believe it.

I do get yearly raises, they’ve beaten inflation by a lot every year except for one. I left that job and took a 30% compensation increase elsewhere.

I rarely see crunch time. I have no problems whatsoever with the frequency and intensity of it, but if it became a problem I’d leave and find a job elsewhere.

I don’t work in silicon valley, but they make a lot more than I do and my wage doesn’t feel suppressed lol.

The job market in tech is alive and well in my experience. There was overhiring during the pandemic which ended with some layoffs, I don’t see that as the market turning, but we’ll have to wait and see.

I know Lemmy wants everyone everywhere unionized, but for me in my industry the arguments for it are hand wavy at best. I find it disingenuous to tell people in this industry that they don’t have bargaining power as an individual.

Blake, (edited )

It’s not that you don’t have individual bargaining power. It’s just that if you were unionised, you’d have much more.

The extent to which you are arguing against overwhelming evidence cannot be understated. You are arguing against something less controversial than evolution.

We know that unions promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

But that’s not all unions do. Unions also have powerful effects on workers’ lives outside of work.

High unionization levels are associated with positive outcomes across multiple indicators of economic, personal, and democratic well-being

Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.

Unionized workers are more likely to receive paid leave, have health insurance and pension plans.

Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers.

Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave

How unions help all workers

Workers get significant economic benefits from labor unions

Unionized workers earn 10.2% more than their non-union peers

Supporting workers’ right to organize is a key way to help boost wages and support quality jobs.

Unions provide major economic benefits for workers and families

Steeve, (edited )

Like I said, hand wavy at best

Edit: Lol this dude ran back and added sources to previous comments after I called him out on not providing sources. Before the edit he claimed collective bargaining can get 50% raises for everyone.

Blake,

How is it hand wavy?!

Imagine you are an employer with 100 employees, presented with the following situations.

  1. One employee demands a pay raise of 50%, or he’ll leave.
  2. 80 employees, including the employee above, demand a pay raise of 50% or they’ll all leave.

In which of these two situations are you more likely to be willing to grant that 50% raise?

Steeve, (edited )

Right, and what percentage of unions are successfully negotiating 50% pay raises? Surface level nuance free thought experiments aren’t going to convince me here

Blake,

It was an analogy. The point is that a union gives you stronger negotiation power than you have alone. By not being in a union, you’re getting worse outcomes than you would have in a union. All of the statistics we have demonstrate that unionising results in a big increase in wages and benefits. You’re basically saying “no” because you think you know better than the science. This is just like anti-vax sentiment.

Steeve,

You’ve sent zero statistics and I’ve yet to see any statistics or even anecdotal evidence that pertains to my industry. All you’ve done is promise ridiculous benefits like 50% salary increases through unrealistic analogies. My experience is purely anecdotal, but frankly it’s better evidence than pipe dream analogies.

But sure, go around calling people anti-vax because you don’t know how to put together a proper argument, I’m sure that’s how you get people to change their minds about unionization. Why would I continue this conversation at this point? If this is something you’re passionate about I’d rethink your strategy.

Blake,

The extent to which you are arguing against overwhelming evidence cannot be understated. You are arguing against something less controversial than evolution.

We know that unions promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions.

But that’s not all unions do. Unions also have powerful effects on workers’ lives outside of work.

High unionization levels are associated with positive outcomes across multiple indicators of economic, personal, and democratic well-being

Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.

Unionized workers are more likely to receive paid leave, have health insurance and pension plans.

Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers.

Unionized workers receive 26% more vacation time and 14% more total paid leave

How unions help all workers

Workers get significant economic benefits from labor unions

Unionized workers earn 10.2% more than their non-union peers

Supporting workers’ right to organize is a key way to help boost wages and support quality jobs.

Unions provide major economic benefits for workers and families

Steeve,

Why on earth do you think I’d continue this conversation at this point? You’ve called me an anti-vax flat earther, I don’t know why you decided to resort to insults before sources, but it’s clear you aren’t discussing this in good faith. No thanks.

Blake,

Your position is completely indefensible, and you know it, but you continue to hold it because your ego is more important than reality.

Do you know of any other groups who prioritise the preservation of their ideology over reality?

If you had any actual arguments against me, you would use them. But since you don’t, you’re just acting oh so indignant and high-handed that I had the temerity to call you out on your bullshit.

Maybe next time, if you don’t want an education, you should keep your ignorance to yourself.

p03locke,
@p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Every couple years I interview around, I get a job offer, I take it back it my employer and they either match it or I leave.

I don’t even have to do that. My employer always give me good raises and even better bonuses. Every year.

Benefits are great. PTO is great. Work-life balance is great. No layoffs whatsoever. It’s not just about making money for the company and the owners, but the rest of the employees as well.

I don’t need the strife from trying to start a union here. Save it for companies that have pushed their employees too far. Unionize where it’s going to have the greatest benefit.

Steeve,

That’s great, I’m finally at a point in my career where I think it’ll be the same. As long as there isn’t a major culture shift, I could see myself staying at this job for the next 10+ years

barsoap,

Ever talked to the cleaning staff how they’re faring? Your suppliers in Cambodia (or wherever)?

It’s not that hard for capital to see reason when it comes to specialised, educated, and sometimes right out irreplaceable workers, but that doesn’t mean that capital suddenly developed a conscience.

p03locke,
@p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

We don’t have cleaning staff. Try again.

barsoap,

You know perfectly well what I meant and the intent and purpose behind my comment. Try again.

And even if you’re working in a five person co-op outfit and someone of you indeed does scrub the toilet: What about the dishwashers at that Chinese takeout you order at every other day. How does your actual supply chain look like, even if it’s pizza and coffee.

Steeve,

What are you arguing about exactly? Not a single comment in this chain is anti union at all, and the comment you replied to even argued for unionization where it will have the greatest benefit, i.e. all the jobs you just mentioned.

Why are you acting like this is some sort of prisoner’s dilemma where either everyone unionizes or no one does?

barsoap,

I’m arguing for solidarity.

Steeve,

Nice buzzword answer, but nobody here is against your right to unionize

barsoap,

And I never said anyone was. That’s something you came up with.

All I wanted to do is remind people is that capital giving a fuck about your ass doesn’t mean that said capital is benevolent, or you shouldn’t organise, because it’s still going to fuck anyone over it can get away with fucking over. Like the cleaning staff.

Steeve,

The decision for tech to unionize has nothing to do with how the cleaning staff is treated

barsoap,

How can you force the bosses to pay cleaning staff properly if the engineers aren’t striking for them? There’s a gazillion desperate scabs out there and I can’t even blame them, how can you blame someone with two jobs for wanting a third to pay rent.

…that, btw, is why the likes of the IWW organise companies and industries, and not trades.

Steeve,

Engineers striking for the cleaning staff? What? That’s not how it works

barsoap,

Not without class consciousness, no. But yes that is how it often works in countries that aren’t the US. Occasionally, it also works in the US, e.g. the Hollywood strikes right now. Was it the writers I think who got a proper offer right now and they said they’re going to continue until others got theirs, too.

Steeve,

Not how the writers strike went either, it’s ending and has nothing to do with the other IATSE contracts.

Blake,

I definitely reject that my compensation, benefits, job stability, and WLB would be better if I had been unionized this whole time.

Why? What is your reasoning for rejecting this? Can you justify it? You’re just saying “no” without any thought or explanation. Do you just refuse to believe that things could be better?

Steeve,

… did you not read the rest of my comment?

And frankly that’s not how this works. You’re the one trying to convince me that a union is in my best interest, the burden of proof is on you and you’ve given no substantial evidence.

Blake,

I read your whole comment, but at no point does it explain why you think you wouldn’t be able to negotiate improvements with a union. What you have written essentially amounts to:

“I was able to build a really beautiful cabinet with hand tools. I reject the notion that power tools make it easier to build cabinets. I know people who have power tools but they haven’t made cabinets as nice as mine.”

If you have multiple people as a group who have the power to completely sink a business negotiating together, they stand a much better chance of improving conditions than any of them do alone.

How are you reasoning against such a self-evidently true claim?

Steeve, (edited )

My point is that skilled individuals in specialized fields already have strong individual bargaining power, something that you continue to underestimate in this thread. Collective bargaining is not risk free with one outcome, this is a fact that all the nuance free analogies in the world won’t change. If the sector is overall happy with individual bargaining power you’re going to need more proof than supposed “self-evident” claims.

Let me fix your analogy. A power tool salesman walks up to my door and tells me I have to throw out my hand tools because I can build cabinets much faster without them and then calls me an idiot for not wanting to throw away the tools I’ve mastered over the last decade.

Blake,

I’m in the same field as you are with years more experience. Not only that, I have experience in management in the same field.

I am not denying that you have individual bargaining power that I’m sure you’re leveraging successfully.

I am just pointing out to you that if you were unionised, you’d have even more bargaining power which would almost definitely have resulted in a better outcome for you.

Collective bargaining may not be risk free, but it’s lower risk than individual bargaining, by definition.

There’s plenty of proof, and I don’t see why I need any more. You’re just refusing to acknowledge it, like a flat earther faced with the results of their experiment refusing to accept it. Just because you say “no, I don’t like this scientific proof” it doesn’t mean that I’m somehow failing to back up my argument when I refuse to give you more proof. You have THE proof of the matter. Accept it and be right, or reject it and be wrong. It’s up to you.

As for your analogy, being in a union does not mean you lose your individual bargaining rights, you can continue to negotiate your salary individually if you wish to do so. You do not lose any power or rights from being in a union. You only gain power.

Steeve,

I’m in the same field as you are with years more experience.

Lol is this the point in your argument where you call me a kid?

Collective bargaining may not be risk free, but it’s lower risk than individual bargaining, by definition.

Lower risk often means lower reward, and I already consider individual bargaining in my field low risk.

There’s plenty of proof, and I don’t see why I need any more.

You’ve provided exactly zero links in this thread.

like a flat earther

And there it is! Again! So far you’ve called me anti-vax and a flat earther because your unlinked evidence and shitty anologies aren’t convincing me of unproven theories in my field. This conversation is over and you’ve done more to hurt your cause than help here you condescending prick.

fuzzzerd,

I appreciate the good faith you’re putting into this. I tend to lean your way, but it’s interesting to see this discussion play out. Thanks for being respectful. I appreciate it, even though (up to this comment) I’m just observing the thread.

Blake,

Until this moment you haven’t asked me for any sources for my claim, whereas I have asked you multiple times for yours. Your basis is “just my vibes” and now you’re acting like I’m an asshole for pointing out that your position (arguing against science based on vibes) isn’t rational. Now by claiming I haven’t backed up my claims, despite pretty much accepting that they were valid until this moment, you cast me as irrational, and instead of asking for proof of my claims so you can amend your perspective, you just loftily declare that the conversation is over, because you know fine well that if it continues, your world view will be completely compromised.

Anyone who wants to see the proof can simply Google “average wage difference for unionised workers” or anything like that. You can do the same thing. I’m guessing you already have, but decided “that doesn’t apply to me” because you’re oh so special.

Lower risk often means lower reward

For investment and such, yeah sure, but not everything follows the same pattern. Unionising and collective bargaining is a perfect example, because it consistently has been shown to lower risks and increase rewards, again and again.

Act all indignant if you want to. You’re giving me a perfect platform to demonstrate the superiority of my ideology against your very weak, irrational reasoning. If you think that I’m somehow hurting my cause by revealing the inherent incoherence of your position, then yeah, sure, I’m really destroying my cause right now.

Moonguide,

This, plus, relying on the goodwill of someone who benefits from you earning as little as possible is a terrible idea.

JokeDeity,

Every single industry needs unionized, the country is FUCKED right now for millions of it’s inhabitants.

doleo,

The country.

JokeDeity,

Totally fair point, I am American and I was referring to America, but this is likely true for at least a few other countries as well.

mob,

This article is on Eurogamer.net and CD Projekt Red is Polish. I imagine that’s why they pointed out “the country” being out of place

JokeDeity,

Oh, thanks for clearing it up, I actually didn’t know CD Project Red was Polish, thanks.

pleb_maximus,

They currently are in the process of building up branches in Boston and Vancouver though as far as I know.

reinar,
@reinar@distress.digital avatar

Just because you’re paid well doesn’t mean others are not being mistreated

FTFY
without unions there could be a huge salary disparity between devs in the same role, in the same company, even in the same project. I’ve personally witnessed more than 2x, heard about even more.

Sometimes it’s more than justified with individual’s performance and impact, sometimes it’s not. Some people are just better skill-wise, some people are better at applying pressure on their employer, holding business-critical knowledge hostage or simply negotiating.

Point here is - while unionizing might make things better on average, there would be a very real pushback from people who are benefitting from current system and this is not necessarily management. For management in some cases it would be even a net benefit, since they don’t have to deal with primadonnas and someone tying things to themselves just for leverage.

DreadPirateShawn,

As an engr manager, I’ve often seen disparity as a result of being hired during good years vs bad years for the company. Or when someone gets a better offer to leave, the company may change their pay but no one else’s. Or hiring externally vs a transfer from another internal team. Or whether the team is coding for frontend web vs dev tools, even if using the same language. Or if female.

It’s always a challenge for one person to fix – with HR, with the department head, with yearly budget. And sometimes fixing one disparity means not having the sway to fix another as well.

Which is to say – pay transparency and unions are good for everyone. And if the company can’t afford to treat the employees equitably, then the company shouldn’t exist. (Or it should reduce its avocado toast budget.)

MrScottyTay, (edited ) do games w Cyberpunk 2077 director thanks fans as the game hits a 95% positive review rating on Steam

I hope this doesn’t make them think they can do this again though. This should make them realise they should’ve always gave the Devs more time to cook or been more realistic with scope from the get go

Thatuserguy,

A publicly traded company prioritizing consumer satisfaction over short term profits? Learning from their “mistakes” after they still got a shit ton of money for it anyways and probably will if they do it again? I’m not banking on it.

SchmidtGenetics,

People already seem to forget this isn’t the first time, the release of Witcher 3 was horrendous as well.

billiam0202,

Geralt’s flowing locks caused Nvidia cards to crash comes to mind.

drasglaf,
@drasglaf@sh.itjust.works avatar

Strangely enough, I didn’t have any game-breaking bugs or crashes and I played it at launch. I guess I was lucky.

SchmidtGenetics,

I had the quest glitch where you could no longer progress the story. It was also in the later 25% of the game, so 80ish hours in.

ThunderWhiskers,
@ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not so sure we’re talking about the same scale of horrendous here.

SchmidtGenetics,

It being released in a essentially a beta state with a terrible UI? half the loot being a bitch to access because you always cast igni? Game breaking bugs and glitch’s? Hard crashes?

I don’t think they have released one game that was actually release ready yet.

CP2077 was far worse, but that doesn’t mean the Witcher 3 was okay, it was still absolutely botched.

ThunderWhiskers,
@ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world avatar

CP2077 was far worse, but that doesn’t mean the Witcher 3 was okay, it was still absolutely botched.

This is literally a rewording of what I just said.

SchmidtGenetics,

Sounds more like downplaying the severity of one.

ThunderWhiskers,
@ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world avatar

I’m not downplaying anything, but comparing a dumpster to a dumpster fire and saying they are the same thing is, at best, a little misleading.

The release of Witcher 3 was bad, but it was industry standard bad. Cyberpunk shipped straight up broken and incomplete. It has been fundamentally reworked at least twice since launch.

I don’t think anyone is apologizing for The Witcher 3 at launch, but let’s not pretend they are the same thing. There are more shades than black and white.

SchmidtGenetics,

It’s more like both are tornados and one is an F3 and the other being an F5. You’re being disingenuous in defending CDPR for continually inexcusable work.

An industry standard bad? What’s that even mean? At that point in time games were shipping complete still and not in a beta state.

Its always hilarious the excuses people come up with, neither are excusable, yet here you are justifying one… yeesh, give your head a shake.

ThunderWhiskers,
@ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world avatar

Haha ok so you’re just one of those people whose understanding of the universe isn’t capable of expanding beyond “this good, that bad”.

I haven’t defended anyone and never intended to. I’m just saying get your comparisons straight. “Hey this game has a bunch of annoying bugs” =/= “Yo this shit is effectively non-functional and empty”.

SchmidtGenetics,

I didn’t know a a progress breaking bug at 80 hours in is annoying…? That falls in the latter, non-functional. What about not being able to pick up loot? That’s non-functional…. You’re excusing shitty devs lmfao, this isn’t about good or bad, this is all shades of shit, or like I said previously tornadoes.

Sounds like you just aren’t educated on what the issues actually were, rose coloured glasses or something…. So not only disingenuous now.

Cruxifux,

Lol I was gonna say

What a naive and unrealistic outlook on how the world works

But you already said what I was gonna say but smarter

dsemy,

There’s no chance this won’t happen again IMO (though since they abandoned their own engine maybe it won’t be as buggy this time).

snooggums,
@snooggums@midwest.social avatar

The distributers that set the rrlease date will never learn.

slaacaa,

But they can, because it seems like most gamers have goldfish memory, and they forgot/forgave the shitty launch and first years

Riven,
@Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

My thought coming into this thread. Plenty of people here sucking their dick and forgetting the terrible launch. They earn what they deserve.

umbrella,
@umbrella@lemmy.ml avatar

i bought into it and hate that its getting so much praise.

fixing the garbage they released is bare minimum.

asret,

In my experience it was much less buggy at launch than for example Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. I didn’t experience any game-breaking bugs, just ones that harmed immersion. There was a bit of T-posing, the occasional floating prop/animation bug, and once I got launched into the desert when climbing through a window. No crashes to desktop, no broken progression. It probably helped that I was happy with the game they delivered rather than getting hung up on what may have been promised.

lemmyaccount01,

bethesda games are known to be shit and buggy since forever and they mostly don’t even fix em after years it’s just how they operate . which isnt something ppl should normalize even sea-dogs / not developed by them - morrowind - oblivion all had these issues bethesda is really not a rolemodel on these things

asret,

Yes, just wanted to contrast the reception they got. Bethesda games don’t generally attract as much ire for the bugs. People expect them and tolerate them (to an extent). Cyberpunk 2077 was a totally broken mess according to the internet, while the Elder Scrolls are the greatest thing ever.

I had crashes to the desktop about every 4th area transition in Oblivion and it still didn’t bother me too much, since it had just saved and took less than a minute to get back into the game.

Some bugs - even total crashes - can still be put up with just fine.

IronKrill,

Anecdotally, I feel like there is some survivorship bias going on here. I’ve seen plenty of complaints about Bethesda bugs over the years, but people that are truly bothered by it (me!) have sworn off all their games and thus have no reason to talk about them anymore. The only ones left playing are those that still have some enjoyment/respect for Bethesda games. Cyberpunk felt like more of a “mainstream” hit so it makes sense there was more backlash.

lemmyaccount01,

Because bethesda ( unfortunately ) got grandfathered in to making very good open world games FULL OF BUGS AND kinda got away with it undeservedly so ( kinda like how pokemon gets away with making mediocre games coz they were the first . like imagine call of duty ( as shit as they are ) making 2 versions of games and sellling you different weapons on each and you gottta payy 140 dollars :D if you want full content. but ppl are kinda waking up starfield was criticized more than their last games etc… ( id say cyberpunk was still worse than most elder scroll games though ( but still totally agreee with you different fan bases treat games differently both arent ok.

mriormro,
@mriormro@lemmy.world avatar

I still think this game is shit since I was subjected to the release version and haven’t picked it back up ever since.

Fuck this game and the management that fucked it all up.

clutchtwopointzero,

And steam reviews prioritize reviews over the last 30 calendar days…

Drewelite,

What I think is astonishing to some people lately about Cyberpunk, is that they got most of their information from the popular channels on the internet. Despite its name, these channels (reddit r/all, Twitter, etc) are a (loud) minority of the actual opinions.

Pretty much every one I talked to IRL about Cyberpunk was aware of the controversy, but had a much more nuanced opinion than I was seeing online. Many of them enjoyed it and weren’t really experiencing that many bugs (myself included). But this wasn’t an “allowed” opinion online. Anyone who said the game was enjoyable or they didn’t personally experience many bugs were attacked for being a CDPR fanboy (myself included) and down voted.

Lemming6969,

Winning in the end absolutely means they will do it if this was the most cost effective method.

GbyBE,

Honestly though, I believe the early issues with the game were mostly on consoles. On a decently specced PC, the game would run nicely right after launch, with some bugs, but nothing game breaking. I got it right after launch day and enjoyed myself quite a bit with it. The police and the way the cars drove were the things that bothered me the most.

MrScottyTay,

I remember hearing even some high specced pcs were having issues and you had to essentially be lucky that you had a configuration that they had the time to optimise for. Just having the best gpu wasn’t enough, for example

hswolf,
@hswolf@lemmy.world avatar

thats was just a loud minority talking about super max setting with Raytracing and 4k

maynarkh,

I had a decent AMD card which ran it very well, but still had a bunch of artifacts like Judy’s head blocking reflections for the whole lake.

Riven,
@Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Weren’t they specifically advertising for that? The criticism is valid if they were.

hswolf,
@hswolf@lemmy.world avatar

Not that I remember, true that it didn’t handle the last gen consoles, and that it was marketed as quite demanding

Sadly “minimum” or “recommended” just tells us the game runs, not that it runs well

MrScottyTay,

Recommended is absolutely meant to be “the game runs well on this” not just it runs

hswolf,
@hswolf@lemmy.world avatar

The thing is what is the consensus of “runs well”? Is it a FPS constant? No glitches? Fast loads?

My point is, a game can come shitty and run a constant 30 fps under the “recommended” since that’s what they thought was appropriate

Is a gray area that should be more descriptive, not sure why downvote me

antaymonkey,

I tried playing on the lowest possible settings with a 1070 and averaged around 14fps :/

I still finished the game because it was awesome, but haven’t revisited it ever since.

ripcord,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

And what CPU

shottymcb,

It’s an AMD Athlon!

Totally fine for gaming in 2024.

GbyBE,

I don’t remember it being that bad on my 1070 mobile laptop (8th gen Intel i5 H if I’m not mistaken), but it was sub 25 fps also. On my PC it ran better, but after upgrading to a 3080 with a 5800X3D was when it ran smoothly at higher resolutions, although the game also had received some updates by then.

kautau,

True, though that shouldn’t give anyone dev or publisher the right to release a broken game on consoles because it works on PC. Either postpone the PC release date until the console issues are fixed, or release as a PC exclusive until the same. Part of the reason the game was so successful with phantom liberty is that they stopped previous gen console work so they could only focus on hardware that could actually support the game. As with many devs, their partnerships fucked them, getting pressure from Sony, MS, and Nvidia to release the game before it was a polished product

GbyBE,

You’re certainly right about that!

LwL,

I played it on a pc that was ok at the time and the physics engine glitched out so things that were supposed to be sitting still on top of/next to each other would randomly collide and sometimes fly off. Still had fun with the game though.

GbyBE,

I had some cars that were following an invisible road above where the real road was a few times, and although that broke immersion a bit, I also still had a lot of fun with the game.

stardust, do games w Images leak of Valve's next game, and it's an Overwatch-style hero shooter

I just want a nice story driven single player game from Valve again that isn’t VR.

FeelzGoodMan420,

Me too but it’ll never happen. The age of good single player AAA games are long long gone.

Openopenopenopen,

Wasn’t last years game of the year, Baldurs gate 3, a triple Aaa, single player, game that had an amazing story?

FeelzGoodMan420,

Looks like there is debate on whether that studio is AAA. So maybe, yea.

Quazatron,
@Quazatron@lemmy.world avatar

Hang on, that is a single player game? I now auto-discard AAA games up front because most of them are online multiplayer affairs with fancy in-game items to purchase and silly anti-cheat gimmicks that give Linux users a hard time.

I might look into buying this one, then.

TexasDrunk,

Yep. You can play alone, couch co-op with controllers, or with friends online if that’s what you’re into. I’ve logged a couple of hundred hours alone and another hundred or so couch co-op.

LyD,

I want to play it in couch co-op but I kept hearing that you miss out on content by playing it that way. For a first playthrough, is that true?

TexasDrunk,

You’re going to miss content no matter how you play. It’s the nature of the game. Some decisions lock you out of options.

I can’t think of anything you’d inherently miss from couch co-op.

JimmyMcGill,

I played through the whole game with my gf and didn’t see nor read anything that would indicate that.

Regardless of if you play, solo or with up to 4 people there are 4 characters in your party. Your main character can be one of the predefined ones or not. You will probably have/want a mix of both.

First play through will take more than 100h and you will still have plenty to see for subsequent playtroughs. It’s literally impossible to see all of it first time regardless of how you play.

Just get it, it’s not just a GOTY, it’s one of the best games in a long while.

emeralddawn45,

No. My girlfriend and I are 140 hours in and still not finished, and I’m amazed at how smooth the coop works with the story. You can each be different places doing different things, or you can travel together, you can each have your own relationships with npcs. A lot of conversations with npcs will repeat depending on who’s talking, but important story ones won’t. As long as you mostly stick together and make choices together, you’ll have every option a single player game does.

assassin_aragorn,

Indeed! You can choose to co-op with friends, but it isn’t necessary at all. It’s a really nice model for RPGs.

TexasDrunk,

Year before was Elden Ring. I’ve never played that one online.

PlantJam,

Have you played A Plague Tale (innocence, then requiem)? It’s one of the best story driven games I’ve ever played. It’s entirely linear, so plot urgency doesn’t feel artificial like it does in open world games.

stardust,

I played the first one but not the second yet. I did enjoyed the experience and the hairstyles stood out for the character designs with the ribbons.

terrifyingtuba,

I liked the plot of this game, but I did not like it as a game. I have not played the second one.

tiredofsametab,

Same. Something I can play, save anywhere to deal with life, and pick back up when time allows. I was one of those weirdos who really enjoyed Doom 3 when it came out (with the ducttape mod; that was one mechanic I didn't like) and grew up on old Commodore, Amiga, and PC single-player games and NES/SNES/Genisis RPGs. I want that again.

storksforlegs, (edited ) do gaming w CD Projekt Red devs unionise after its third round of layoffs in three months
@storksforlegs@beehaw.org avatar

Maybe its just me but I’d be way more likely to buy a game if I knew it was made by well treated workers.

jcarax,

Unfortunately, it’s not many of us. A lot of folks don’t even not buy games that aren’t good, if they’re heavily marketed.

kandoh,

Gamers™ are like baby birds constantly screaming for mom to vomit the next meal in their mouths. They want an 80 campaign they can marathon through in a week, then demand the Devs get immediately to work on the sequel which the absolutely want NOW NOW NOW

Renacles,

And they’ll complain even if they get exactly what they wanted.

gk99,

“Good” is subjective. I know CoD is mangled corporate moneygrab trash, but it’s still really fun, so I play it. The only reason I bought Cyberpunk was because I knew everyone was going to be talking about it and I wanted to be able to be part of the conversation, and it didn’t disappoint.

BigBananaDealer,
@BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee avatar

bethesda seems to treat their workers very well, they have a great retention rate

Draedron,

But their recent games suck

BigBananaDealer,
@BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee avatar

no, they don’t

emmie,

Starfield problem isn’t execution but the design. It was the least problematic launch ever

rustyfish, do games w Images leak of Valve's next game, and it's an Overwatch-style hero shooter
@rustyfish@lemmy.world avatar

1000 IQ power move: Valve promotes a fake game with fake trailers and fake reviews.

Day of the release approaches.

People buy and fire it up.

Starting screen says “Half Life 3”.

Thousands die from a stroke.

DarkThoughts,

I'd like a HL3, but not yet another competitive pvp game. So not sure if that would be the right approach if they can't even hit the same target audience.

NielsBohron,
@NielsBohron@lemmy.world avatar

I’m inclined to agree with you, but Valve doesn’t often miss

FreeFacts,

Valve hasn’t released nothing but tech demos since Artifact, and that was a huge miss. And excluding Artifact, Valve hasn’t released nothing but tech demos in over a decade. So you could say Valve hasn’t hit the mark in over 10 years.

acedelgado,
@acedelgado@kbin.social avatar

Alyx came out 4 years ago, and is recognized as one of the best VR titles of all time. It's a full 15 hour game, so not a tech demo. I'd say that's a hit.

misanthropy,

Alex is a tech demo designed to sell headsets.

It also was unplayable for me made me sick and I can play things like super hot or beat saber for hours

Opisek,

Super Hot and Beat Saber don’t cause motion sickness. If you have no idea about how the different kinds of VR movement affect nausea and haven’t developed any VR legs, then that’s absolutely on you. Especially given that Alyx remains accessible to people prone to motion sickness by giving you the option for teleport locomotion and snap turning instead. I know my limits and while I can use smooth locomotion, I still use snap turning. Don’t blame the game if you don’t know your limits and it’s essentially your first VR game in which you don’t stay in a single spot.

TexMexBazooka,

The double negatives hurt my heart here

FangedWyvern42,
@FangedWyvern42@lemmy.world avatar

HL Alyx and Dota Underlords aren’t tech demos lol.

Cethin,

They don’t often shoot either. I would agree when they do shoot they tend to hit though. At minimum, it’ll be interesting to see what the studio with such a large stream of revenue finally decides to release. Even if it’s horrible, it’ll be a moment to remember.

Jax,

-1000 IQ, that’s an instant false advertising lawsuit slam dunk

rustyfish,
@rustyfish@lemmy.world avatar

So we are back at normal 😎

RizzRustbolt,

As long as they don’t do pre-orders they’re fine.

mnemonicmonkeys,

If it’s literally the first thing on startup, anyone annoyed can just refund it

perdvert,

I might actually have some sort of cardiac event.

bob_lemon, do games w Microsoft expected to finally buy Activision Blizzard next week

Sad times for everyone that still believed in antitrust.

probablyaCat,

Meh. A competitive monopoly has a better outcome than the near monopoly PS4 got when it came to exclusives. Yeah a lot of existing IP will be for one or the other. But for third party studios, they will be much less likely to make exclusive games if the console market is more balanced between the two. Nintendo is kind of in a world of its own. And with the steam deck helping push PC into a base level standard, I think we might see some opening up of high quality third party stuff.

Bonskreeskreeskree,

You still believed?

Dark_Arc,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

Honestly I’m okay with this one, but it’s mostly because Activision Blizzard has great IP with some seriously awful management … and Microsoft actually has been doing much better in that department for games.

demonquark,

Yeah… In practice, every time a company gets anything that even slightly resembles a captured market, they stop investing in quality and starting shafting consumers.

Make no mistake, that is Microsoft’s end game. And that’s why they’re buying Blizzard.

leftzero,

Luckily, Activision Blizzard already stopped investing in quality and started shafting customers quite a while back, so worst case scenario (in this particular case, your criticism is still valid for most others) nothing changes, best case scenario Microsoft actually cleans house and the market becomes slightly less anti-consumer with one of the worst offenders gone…

Dark_Arc,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar
Dark_Arc,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

Microsoft even with Activision Blizzard would not have a captured market. Valve, Crytek, Sony (which now holds Bungie), Epic, Electronic Arts, CD Projekt Red, Take-Two, and Ubisoft are all still quite potent AAA capable studio just in the PC space … along with tons of independent studios (e.g., Ghost Ship Games, Shiro Games, Hello Games, Re-Logic).

The Microsoft internal doc leak said they’re mostly after King Games (mobile games) anyways. I’d wager at worst Microsoft will let the traditionally Activision & Blizzard studios do their things… at best they’ll clean up the executive teams and let the devs “play” a bit more with the IPs.

Mojang has flourished under Microsoft.

TheDarkKnight,

343 sucked under MS. Bethesda’s been underwhelming. Rare, meh. Lionhead, meh. Obsidian, meh.

Playground has been good, same with Doublefine. Ninja had Senua, which was good.

Pretty much a coin flip I’d say, but helped by the fact Blizzard has stunk out loud in recent years…change might be good.

Tlaloc_Temporal,

The enshitification of Mojang has begun. Ridiculous privacy policies and bans in singleplayer. And the biggest introduction under MS was the engine rewrite, which was already underway when they were acquired.

Twohandedman,

deleted_by_author

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  • Dark_Arc,
    @Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

    I mean, it’s had plenty of success with its own IP… Heard of Starfield? Minecraft … and it’s nth successful Spinoff? Forza Horizon 5? Sea of Thieves? Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition? Age of Empires IV? Age of Empires XYZ DE? Fallout 76?

    The only major “flop” I can think of that wasn’t corrected (at least so far) is Halo Infinite and … that largely seems to be a 343 issue. There’s also Redfall, but that was a new IP in an over saturated space … it’s not like they’ve stopped developing IPs, fixing games, and trying new things.

    Twohandedman,

    deleted_by_author

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  • Dark_Arc,
    @Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

    Go look at Fallout 76’s reviews, it was unpopular at launch (IIRC) but it’s doing very well now … and that’s the point, they kept the lights on until the majority of players were happy.

    Minecraft has had several games derived from it, that were entirely different games set in the Minecraft universe.

    Microsoft bought Bethesda 3 years ago. To say that they had no ability to influence and/or didn’t take a risk on Starfield is … lazy at best.

    And yes, they own Redfall as well, time will tell if they fix that one or it’s just a straight up failure.

    slaacaa,

    Unapproved language detected, account locked. Drink verification can!

    Pohl,

    Trust = one or more independent organizations making secret agreements to mutual benefit.

    Mergers: not a trust.

    Monopoly = a single organization that controls an overwhelming amount of the market.

    Microsoft buying a publisher that put out 2 games in 2023: not a monopoly.

    ILikeBoobies,

    How many times do they have to buy that 2 game publisher before they reach a monopoly?

    Phen,

    How many of the last 10 games you bought were from Microsoft?

    Pohl,

    How many games game out this year? Thousands. There is absolutely zero possibility that MS or anyone else is anywhere near holding monopoly status on the production of entertainment software. Even if they bought EVERYTHING new creators would enter the space the very next day.

    LinkOpensChest_wav, do gaming w Unity CEO John Riccitiello 'retiring' from company weeks after pricing controversy
    @LinkOpensChest_wav@beehaw.org avatar

    deleted_by_author

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  • AdmiralShat, (edited )

    My only argument against your opinion, is that he actually has a trackable history of poor performance as a CEO and a trackable record of very bad monetization schemes. He’s the reason EA is the way it is.

    This isn’t the first company he’s ruined the reputation of.

    Granted, the board that elected him is still there. That’s an issue that will persist for a while.

    LinkOpensChest_wav,
    @LinkOpensChest_wav@beehaw.org avatar

    deleted_by_author

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  • abir_vandergriff,

    He joined Unity in 2014. I don’t believe for a second that a board of investors agreed on anything for that long.

    tias,

    My only argument against your opinion, is that he actually has a trackable history of poor performance as a CEO and a trackable record of very bad monetization schemes.

    …which could be because he has offered this service to many boards in the past.

    zipzoopaboop,

    Him being fired is a necessary step for unity to regain an ounce of trust

    FireRetardant, do games w CD Projekt CFO does "not see a place for microtransactions in single-player games"

    The time has come for macrotransactions instead

    mp3,
    @mp3@lemmy.ca avatar

    I’m all in for the return of actual game expansions.

    mcforest,

    Nah, only the transactions will be bigger. Amount of content won’t.

    tsonfeir,
    @tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

    Just like bags of chips.

    Hobbes_Dent,

    Soon to be bag of chip. Now in random shapes.

    metaStatic,

    loot bag with 50% chance of chip

    don,

    loot case with 10% chance of loot bag with 50% chance of chip

    variants,

    Mystery container with possibility of contents containing loot crates that may contain loot box that may contain chip for a weekly subscription

    leftzero,

    Paradox, then.

    schmidtster,

    It is kinda funny how people have no issue paying for it all together as bundle, but separate it so people can pay for things individually is silly and everyone is suddenly offended?

    I would rather have a story for $10 and $1 outfits I can ignore, than to spend $30 on a story and bunch of cosmetics that don’t add to the game.

    This is just marketing, nothing more. They make more money forcing you to buy everything than letting you pick what you want.

    ogmios,
    @ogmios@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Eh… It’s more than just paying, but that a lot of the stuff which is now a standard microtransaction used to be integrated into the total experience, so you’d unlock outfits and such for finding secrets or completing challenges. That sort of content was integral to the over all experience, not just an extra to tack on as an afterthought.

    schmidtster,

    That’s also just an affect on the market of people wanting more choice and not wanting to be forced to pay for stuff they don’t want.

    Of course it can be swung in a negative light too, because it affects developers bottom lines, and they always want the most money possible. CDPR is no different.

    snooggums,
    @snooggums@midwest.social avatar

    The outcome of splitting the content is that there are a lot of people who want to have everything and they will end up paying far more for a la carte than for an expansion. The people who wouldn’t have bought the expansion still buy nothing, and pretty much nobody just buys a couple of things to save money.

    Microtransactions is a system designed to prey on completionist whales. Barely anyone only buys a couple of things and doesn’t end up spending more than $30 over time as the content is drip fed and the new hotness comes along to replace the old hotness. Those that don’t spend anything, or just buy one thing before catching on, weren’t going to spend the $30 anyway.

    It is false choice that negatively impacts the game experience.

    schmidtster,

    The outcome of splitting the content is that there are a lot of people who want to have everything and they will end up paying far more for a la carte than for an expansion

    So if they want the content, they can support the devs so they make more.

    The people who wouldn’t have bought the expansion still buy nothing, and pretty much nobody just buys a couple of things to save money.

    So no lose there, but they could buy an outfit if they liked it and want to support the dev.

    …… that’s actually the majority of gamers…… 2% of the player base accounts for most of the purchases, that means the other 98% is still buying stuff, just not everything. So that’s not even remotely close to reality, most people pick and choose the content, which is literally why this because a thing, because the market wanted it….

    metaStatic,

    just like the market wants nothing but superhero movies? This doesn't work anything like a free market. people would buy full games if they where available, devs just figured out they could drip feed the content and make significantly more money at the expense of a good product so you don't get to choose the good product because it doesn't exist. That's not the market choosing crap it's the market makers only providing crap.

    schmidtster,

    They still buy full games though, using old as seats to make new content for an “old” game is a great way to have more income come in. Most would probably prefer to make a new game, but that takes longer as well.

    So if it’s a dlc a year at $15 for 4 years, or a game every 4 years for $60… what’s the difference in the end? Other than what you think is going on inside your head? It’s the same content, same price, same everything, you just get content yearly instead of every 4 years. Bonus for everyone since they can than use that money after the first year to maybe make the other better.

    ogmios,
    @ogmios@sh.itjust.works avatar

    because the market wanted it

    I can’t possibly roll my eyes any harder at this statement, with gaming companies practically competing to go under as fast as possible over the past decade.

    schmidtster,

    What…? Most people want more content more often with more options, not everyone wants a release every 4 years that’s the same content and story rehashed.

    snooggums,
    @snooggums@midwest.social avatar

    Unless the entire game is developed by an independent studio and is entirely funded on microtransactions, buying micro transactions is just there for more company profit on top of the regular game sales by stripping content out of a full release. It isn’t supporting the development.

    The market didn’t want it.

    themeatbridge,

    People did have issues paying for it all together, back when they were called “expansion packs.”

    I don’t mind paying for more of the game. I do mind paying for fixes to a broken game. I don’t mind optional cosmetic upgrades, but I don’t like pay-to-win, even in single player (looking at you, Nintendo amiibos).

    But regardless, people are going to complain, and many of their complaints will be valid.

    schmidtster,

    People had different issues with those, that was because online was a portion of it, and people thought devs were holding content back just to make more money. Obviously some did that, but they started painting every dev with that brush and they needed to adjust to save their bottom line from being affected.

    Every change has been a reactionary effort to adjust for the market changes and people suddenly not wanting what they just wanted a few years ago, and using it to their marketing advantage. Of course not everyone is going to be happy, it’s just funny that certain devs get defended for doing what everyone else does since their marketing gets eating up.

    Bonesince1997,

    I think some people like to know when it ends. Microtransactions can make it seem endless. Once you’ve done that a few times it makes you want to know about as much as you can upfront.

    Carighan,
    @Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

    You know, the way you phrase it I’d be fine. Only in your example, instead of 60 for it all, it is now 60 for 80% of the story, another 2x15 for the remainder, and 10 per Outfit.

    Don_alForno,

    The thing is, you actually get 30$ story and 5$ per outfit instead of a 30$ Expansion.

    And cosmetics do add to the game for a big part of the market.

    SuperSpecialNickname,

    You used to be able to unlock cosmetic content by playing instead of paying. They’re taking advantage.

    Potatos_are_not_friends,

    StarCraft Brood Wars Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction

    People shit on Bethesda but they’ve consistently released banger expansions. Far Harbor was incredible.

    Kedly,

    Even the publicly acknowledged start of Micro Transactions “Horse Armour” was couched in decent medium sized DLC and The Shivering Isles

    GlitterInfection,

    What do you mean by couched in this context?

    I don’t think the horse armor was part of a bigger dlc.

    Kedly,

    Oblivion had a LOT of post release paid content, most of which was decent value per $ spent, including a full on expansion. So while horse armour was a warning sign for things to come, Oblivion ALSO showcased the good side of paid post release content

    GlitterInfection,

    That makes sense, thank you for explaining.

    Now they just re-release the game over and over again and we buy that!

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    I believe that was called phantom liberty.

    metallic_z3r0,

    Or if we’re talking Witcher 3, Hearts of Stone or Blood and Wine. Both of those had an amazing amount of content, well worth it.

    Breezy,

    Ill be getting the Elden ring dlc at 40 dollars day one. Yeah im expecting the game to almost double in size.

    Annoyed_Crabby,

    Yeah that’s what remaster are for

    ampersandrew, do gaming w Twitch "isn't profitable" admits CEO, in wake of recent layoffs
    @ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

    Maybe a few more ads in the middle of the thing I'm trying to watch, with no way to pause or rewind to catch what I missed, will do the trick.

    _sideffect,

    When did that start? I used to be on Twitch 4-5 years ago, but never went back since then.

    I don’t remember ads at all back then

    ampersandrew,
    @ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

    Ads used to be run at the streamers' discretion, and they were beaten by adblock. Now adblock doesn't work on Twitch, because they did the smart thing and embedded them into the stream. Also, a few years back, even though streamers have an incentive to run ads, because they benefit from it too, Twitch implemented mandatory thresholds for number of ads that need to be run or else you lose access to some tier of monetization, so most streamers leave it on auto pilot now. It means that whenever the same stream is running on YouTube, I'm watching on YouTube so I don't miss anything.

    ImplyingImplications,

    I mostly watch YouTube streamers. Once in a while they’ll do a Twitch stream and holy shit it’s night and day. 0 ads on YouTube and 30 second and even sometimes 1 minute unskippable ads constantly interrupting the stream on Twitch. I honestly have no idea how people put up with it. I cancelled cable because I didn’t want to watch ads, I’m not going to a site that does the same.

    fsxylo,

    My adblock blocks the ads, but I still get that stupid purple screen. What really annoys me is that it’s a minute and a half long. Twitch really wants me to disable ad block so I look at an ad on a Livestream for almost two fucking minutes.

    I minimize and do something else until then but that’s asinine.

    Marin_Rider,

    hold on, you mean to tell me a platform that exists and is known purely for LIVE streaming content has put ads OVER the livestream interrupting your view? what kind of idiot would have approved such a service killing move?

    derpgon,

    As a mod, you can postpone an ad by 5 minutes 3 times. You can’t postpone it by 1 minute, you can’t choose to play them during downtime, you can’t do shit but pray an interesting moment doesn’t happen during the 1 minute.

    wurstgulasch3000,

    Adblockers still work so I’ve never seen ads on twitch

    capt_wolf, do games w Steam is now banned in Vietnam
    @capt_wolf@lemmy.world avatar

    Citing it as “an injustice to domestic publishers”, Vietnamese studios reportedly say that local game development “will die” if Steam is able to keep releasing games without the same government scrutiny as domestic games…

    Yeah! It’s so unfair that one person can put their heart and soul into making a game on their own, self publish, and be successful! No way anyone else could possibly do that!

    catloaf, do games w Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection used modder's work without credit

    What do you think would happen if the mod authors filed a DMCA takedown against the game?

    A_Toasty_Strudel,
    @A_Toasty_Strudel@lemmy.world avatar

    They’d have to change the content or pay the man prolly.

    xkforce,

    Ahahahaha I want to live in your world instead of the one we actually live in.

    SchmidtGenetics,

    Their lawyers tie you up with a lot of legal fees trying to get you to defend it, if you don’t they take you to court for a frivolous suit.

    Either way they win and you lose, even if you’re right.

    I don’t see it playing out positive unfortunately.

    andrew,
    @andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun avatar

    I’d fund that GoFundMe.

    Buttons, (edited )
    @Buttons@programming.dev avatar

    Can the lawyers on the receiving end of a DMCA takedown take the other party to court for a frivolous suit? I thought one of the problems was that there is no recourse for those on the receiving end of a bad DMCA takedown?

    What I think would happen is the modders send a DMCA takedown, and EA either does take it down, or they file a “we’re not violating copyright, promise” form and then that’s the end of the DMCA. If they file the “we’re not violating copyright” form, then from there the modders can file a normal copyright violation suit if they choose.

    SchmidtGenetics,

    Sounds like it, not a lawyer, but if you’re wasting peoples time and money, yeah there will most likely be a way for them to get back at you.

    catloaf,

    Right, EA would file a counter-notice. Then the modder would have to get lawyers involved and file an actual legal complaint, and EA would respond with their lawyers.

    But once they file the counter-notice, you could just stop there. They could sue you for filing in bad faith, but I’ve never heard of that happening.

    Son_of_dad,

    Nothing. Modders suddenly feeling they should be paid is really entitled and kind of crazy. Hey I made some fan art of a marvel character, should marvel pay me?

    Modding isn’t a job, and you can’t make money off of someone else’s game

    Potatos_are_not_friends,

    You’re conflating two different things.

    There’s modders who whine about working for free. And yes, modding is a choice.

    Where in this incident is stolen work.

    Son_of_dad,

    It’s not work . I’m currently modding a game, it’s a hobby. And I’d be entitled as hell to think I should be paid for it.

    This “pay the modders” thing will just lead to more micro transactions. You want to download that created wrestler in the new game? It was made by so and so, you now owe. $9.99. fuck that

    ringwraithfish,

    If you make something and give it away for free, that’s fine.

    If you make something and I sell it to the masses for a profit without your permission that’s theft.

    fartsparkles,

    It’s not about pay the modders so much as if the developer of the game took your mod, put it in the game proper, claimed it was their work, and charged people for it.

    QuaternionsRock,

    Can you link your mod files so I can sell them without your knowledge or consent please? Seeing as you have no problem with it…

    Son_of_dad,

    Yeah they’re up on the games site for free

    catloaf,

    dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/…/work

    I found several definitions where this meets the definition of “work”, but I’m interested to hear your argument about how “time and effort spent doing a task” is not work.

    Son_of_dad,

    Nobody hired you to mod someone else’s art. It’s a hobby. I can’t put brush to someone else’s painting and demand payment

    Don_alForno,

    This is the wrong comparison. If you painted a modified version of an existing painting, the original painter can’t take your work and sell it against your will.

    Son_of_dad,

    Actually it’s more like you modifying someone else’s video game and then selling it as your own

    Don_alForno,

    No it’s not. The modder didn’t sell anything. Wanting to be compensated if somebody else makes a profit from your work that you put out for free is not the same thing as selling it.

    Son_of_dad,

    Wanting money for your work isn’t selling?

    Don_alForno,

    No, because they weren’t even offering it for sale. But they also weren’t offering it to be taken to be sold by somebody else for a profit. Which is what the studio did anyway. So now, after the fact, they can either pay a compensation and credit the modder, or they can remove their stuff from the game.

    skulblaka, (edited )
    @skulblaka@startrek.website avatar

    Hey I made some fan art of a marvel character, should marvel pay me?

    When they use that fan art in the next official marvel movie, yes absolutely they should.

    Son_of_dad,

    But it’s their character, you didn’t ask permission to make the art out of a copyright, why should they pay you?

    BlemboTheThird,

    They’re still taking something they didn’t make and selling it as though they did. I have every right to write and film a Batman movie, spend as much time I want making it professional, and then show it to people, as long as I don’t charge them for it. That doesn’t give Fox or whoever the right to take my movie and charge for it instead. Even if I did break the law by making people pay for it, the actual owners would only be entitled to that money, not to go make mroe money off of it themselves. It’s still my work even if it uses concepts invented by someone else.

    There’s a reason every franchise under the sun has mountains of fanart and fanfic without the companies that own them trying to take control of it: it’s blatantly illegal.

    Deceptichum,
    @Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works avatar

    It’s their character, but it’s your work.

    They cant just steal your work for their own monetary gain, just the same as you cant steal their character for your own monetary gain.

    Both sides have contributed something here, but one side is profiting off the other through theft.

    SchmidtGenetics,

    But the rub is, under fair use you can’t profit from it though, so as soon as you accept payment, now they can sue you. So in the end, they win and get it for free regardless.

    Deceptichum,
    @Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works avatar

    If the rights holders enter into a contract and pay you for your work, I don’t think they can turn around and sue you for making a profit off of it. I’m no lawyer, but I don’t think the law is that far gone.

    SchmidtGenetics,

    But how can they make a contract? Signing it would violate fair use exemption before that could be argued.

    Corps are abusing a conflict within the laws, it’s not even a loophole, it’s just the unfortunate way the laws that protect each person/industry don’t agree.

    FireTower,
    @FireTower@lemmy.world avatar

    Contracting someone to use an artwork they made of your character would implicitly grant a license for them to make commercial profit off of that transaction.

    catloaf,

    Profit is not explicitly one of the four factors of fair use.

    CTDummy, (edited )

    That isn’t what a DMCA is for. Someone being compensated for the work they’ve done is unrelated to suing a company for using your art/code/work without permission or reference. Weirdly aggressive to modders though.

    Edit: for your edit, you can’t monetise a mod for someone’s else’s game directly but you can absolutely make money modding. And even if their EULA enables them to do so, taking a modders code without at least a reference is pretty dogshit. Literally a million dollar studio ripping off people who did it out of passion knowing full well they wouldn’t get compensated. I’m surprised a EULA can protect them legally for doing it tbh.

    Guntrigger,

    Well yeah, if Marvel released their next movie and it was literally the fan art.

    Buttons,
    @Buttons@programming.dev avatar

    Their art, their copyright.

    They don’t expect to be paid, but they do expect that their copyright not be violated.

    They might expect pay in exchange for granting a license to use their copyright art.

    edgemaster72, do games w Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick departs in just a few days
    @edgemaster72@lemmy.world avatar

    I could’ve sworn I had NSFW content turned off, but yet there’s a picture of a gigantic asshole on this post

    swayevenly,

    ba dum tss

    Mr_Dr_Oink,

    Da bum tits

    echo64, do games w GTA 6 has patented a new locomotion system to make "highly dynamic and realistic animations"

    And in no other games! Patents aee truely wonderful aren’t they.

    BaroqueInMind,
    @BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

    Or those gigantic multi million dollar game dev corporations could afford to, you know, pay to license that shit for their own games.

    If they can afford to pay the CEOs millions of dollars for their golden parachute as well as their yearly salary, then they can afford that license.

    If you think a game that doesn't have that is a failure, then both your expectations as well as that game both deserve to fail.

    echo64,

    Why license endless patents if you can save money by just not doing that

    Greedy ceos is a bad justification for software patents

    BaroqueInMind,
    @BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

    You sound like you need a refresher on basic intellectual property protections and why they are essential.

    echo64,

    Remember when Amazon, Apple, ARM, Cisco, Facebook, Google, Huawei, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Nvidia, Samsung Electronics and Tencent all had to come together and form a super group to develop a royalty free video codec because something as simple as compressing and decompressing video was so god damn patent encumbered by people who just existed to suck money out of everyone.

    Literally, every time software is patented, it ends up being used to screw with everyone, then eventually the patent expires ten years after the software was useful, or we have to waste huge amounts of effort to sideline it.

    You sound like you need a history refresher on patents in the software industry and the disastrous effect that it has had in hurting innovation and consumers and how it is dominated by trolls and squatters.

    BaroqueInMind,
    @BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

    I don't know how to convey to you how important it is to incentivize innovation without worrying someone else will simply steal your ideas to make millions from your hard work you did inventing something while they literally did nothing.

    If I make something and someone else can simply take it and dominate the market with it and pay me nothing for the work i did, why the fuck should I even bother making anything?

    echo64,

    Again, look at the history of software patents. Tell me a single time it incentivied innovation and wasn’t just used by patent trolls and wasn’t just a huge waste of time and money for the industry to spend time on.

    I think you are wholey unfamiliar with software patents in general and are just going on some basic guiding principal and I can tell you right now, history has not played out in your idilic description at all and you are just coming off as ignorant on the topic.

    BaroqueInMind,
    @BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

    Let's take a look at countries with no patent laws and compare their innovations that contributed to the rest of the world:

    East Timor - nothing
    Suriname - nothing
    Somalia - nothing
    Eritrea - nothing
    Maldives - nothing
    Marshall Islands - nothing
    Micronesia - nothing
    Myanmar - nothing
    Palau - nothing
    South Sudan - nothing
    North Korea - nothing
    
    
    ricdeh,
    @ricdeh@lemmy.world avatar

    This is literally just whataboutism. You must be degenerate if you think that there’s a correlation between the research performance of the listed countries and their patent laws. There are dozens of more useful and much more relevant indicators for why these nations are disadvantaged in this regard. But just stick to your belief that North Korea is what it is because it doesn’t have patent laws lol.

    Also, for you to better understand the harm that software patents caused and are causing, consider reading Free Software, Free Society by Richard Stallman.

    Mchugho,

    There is literally a 1:1 correlation between protecting IP and R&D and innovation. Start ups that patent their ideas are genuinely more successful. You’re naive if you think IP only helps protect large companies.

    BaroqueInMind,
    @BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

    My mistake, you're right. We should completely remove the incentive to innovate novel ideas and no longer protect them if they are created to allow theft.

    I am a hypocrite thief that uses free software in my daily life.

    Mchugho,

    Not worth it mate. People will find all kinds of post hoc ways to justify the fact that they want to use the tech that others have developed for free.

    SuddenlyBlowGreen,

    I don’t know how to convey to you how important it is to incentivize innovation without worrying someone else will simply steal your ideas to make millions from your hard work you did inventing something while they literally did nothing.

    If I make something and someone else can simply take it and dominate the market with it and pay me nothing for the work i did, why the fuck should I even bother making anything?

    TIL that open source doesn’t exist.

    BaroqueInMind,
    @BaroqueInMind@kbin.social avatar

    TIL that morons here don't know the difference between software patents and copyright licenses.

    SuddenlyBlowGreen,

    Oh sorry, I was under the impression that you had at least a basic knowledge about software and software development.

    I now see that that’s not the case.

    Open source is an area where software patents don’t generally protect the product, and yet it’s the most innovative space out there. And in cases where patents are brought in (see the rust trademark incident) they are rejected by the community. And yet open source is still around, and powering most of the internet and present in most devices.

    If what you said about patents were the case, that would not be so.

    Mchugho,

    As someone who is in the field of intellectual property, Lemmy’s views on IP boil down to “I attended Marxism 101 and want to pirate games”. Most here don’t have a clue how much time, effort and money is spent on innovation. They couldn’t even begin to fathom why protecting intellectual property helps people actually helps people get paid for their work, which is ironic as they are all for people being rewarded for their actual labour.

    GreenMario,

    We will get like two games out of this before the patent expires cuz Rockstar takes 3 console gens to make 2 games.

    echodot,

    They made GTA V then GTA V again then GTA V again then GTA V for VR, that’s loads of games.

    Rockstar have just innovated by releasing exactly the same game every single generation.

    WhiteHawk,

    Bethesda will sue them for copyright infringement any day now

    c0mbatbag3l,
    @c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world avatar

    Releasing the same thing is our thing, man!

    Mchugho,

    Patents genuinely are wonderful. The rockstar devs are going to be rewarded for their innovation. They will hire out licenses so that other games can use the tech they developed.

    Draedron,

    Yeah, just like WB did with the Nemesis system, right? Oh wait.

    Mchugho,

    I wish people who base their entire knowledge of intellectual property on video games would just stop attempting to have opinions on things they don’t really understand.

    If you think it’s fine to have a world in which people aren’t protected for their fruits of their labour, then by all means advocate against IP. I would rather live in a world in which people are actually paid for the ideas they come up with and don’t have to excessively keep corporate secrets.

    SuddenlyBlowGreen,

    Yeah, imagine if there was an area of software development where people could freely view, copy and modify each others works.

    Mchugho,

    Open source software is different due to informed consent. When working on an OS project you are doing it out of altruism and/or fun, fully realising that you will never be compensated for this work. That doesn’t mean software devs should never be paid and work for free indefinitely on anything they do. Its still a skill that should be compensated for.

    SuddenlyBlowGreen,

    When working on an OS project you are doing it out of altruism and/or fun, fully realising that you will never be compensated for this work.

    That would imply there are no devs or even entire companies working on open source software and getting paid.

    Just because you work on open source, doesn’t mean you don’t get paid.

    echodot,

    I cannot see how they can reasonably copyright the idea of having characters remember you which is basically all the nemesis system is. There are many ways to implement it that wouldn’t violate patent, of course it’s in WBs interest to not nose that one around too much

    dustyData,

    You can try, but WB will troll you in court for years and drown you out on legal fees to prove it isn’t a violation of a patent. So, most consider it not worth it.

    quams69,

    Where can I get the crack you’re smoking

    Mchugho,

    It’s called working in the field and having a direct understanding of how patents protect people every single day.

    dustyData,

    Dude, maybe you do work on patents and know your shit. But boy are you clueless about the video game industry.

    Mchugho,

    Maybe so, but nearly everybody in this thread is irritatingly wrong on how intellectual property works as a concept and in practice.

    It’s only when you read internet comments on something you actually specialise in that you realise the average commenter is woefully misinformed.

    Regardless, if R* decide not to license the tech that is their prerogative as they created it.

    dustyData,

    You think that patent abuse is right, and that’s why everyone in this thread hates your comments. You think the system is fine. The fact that you are inside but can’t understand how corporations abuse the system and think others are wrong or misinformed when they oppose this abuse, is troubling. You think we are ignorant or misinformed, but no, we do know how intellectual property works. We disagree and find it disgusting for moral reasons that it works that way. That’s very different.

    Mchugho,

    Everyone in this thread is downvoting me because they are trying to out Marxist each other. I have never once claimed the patent system is perfect, but the people in this thread clearly don’t actually understand what is required to even receive a patent.

    It’s typical, people know what systems they are against but never know what they are actually for. People say patents are unfair but never propose viable alternatives. The political analysis on Lemmy is frankly juvenile and utopic. People base their opinions on what team they support rather than any sort of analysis of the problem. Populism is rife here and people gravitate toards populist narratives in lieu of thinking. I’m very glad the demography of Lemmy is not representative of society at large.

    dustyData,

    Patents genuinely are wonderful. The rockstar devs are going to be rewarded for their innovation. They will hire out licenses so that other games can use the tech they developed.

    Comment by you, about 5 hours ago.

    they are trying to out Marxist each other

    Fuck off corpo.

    Mchugho,

    I said they’re wonderful, not that they’re perfect. Clearly you need to work on your reading comprehension. The alternative is giant corporations stealing everybody’s ideas without anybody trying to stop them in any way.

    Fuck off corpo.

    Cringe. One day you’ll have to grow up and get a real job. Then you’ll look back at how embarrassingly assured you were of having the answers to everything after real life smacks you in the face and makes you realise you don’t know shit.

    dustyData,

    Lol, you’re so petty. Trying to ride your magical high horse.

    Mchugho,

    Go on then. How do we replace the patent system whilst still acknowledging mental effort and research as being valued forms of work? Tell me all about it mate, I’m interested in your ideas as you’re so convinced it’s all a big con.

    dustyData,

    Now you’re all riled up and acting stupid. You are the oh so claimed expert who works at patents offices. No, you tell me what does your majestic and awesome field of expertise do to prevent corporate abuse and patent trolling? Tell me, evangelize to me, convince me that the patent system has safeguards to prevent theft of intellectual work, how does patent enforcing works? what do you do, that you work there, to make it a more ethical field? what are the practices and procedures in place to avoid a corporation from using patents to monopolize, bully industries and stifle creativity and innovation?

    Mchugho,

    So you don’t have an answer. Thought not.

    I’ve protected people who have been attempted to be bullied by a larger company into ceasing production of a product. That’s literally my job.

    Patent attorneys are a highly regulated profession which have to adhere to strict ethical standards and rigorous training in the law. I serve the interests of my clients. It doesn’t matter if you’re a large or small enterprise, the law is interpreted exactly the same throughout the process.

    I would suggest reducing official fees to make it easier to purchase a patent, but that just reduces the quality of examination. In reality there is a balance to be struck between affordable patents and quality of patents which isn’t always struck correctly. I would advocate for government funded organisations that provide pro bono legal support for small enterprises as a way to make the system a little fairer. In the US they have a tiered system which makes patents cheaper for smaller companies, which is also something I think that should be adopted as standard.

    Overall there is no simple solution. Life is complicated and messy and anybody who claims it isn’t is and that there are simple solutions to very layered societal problems are snake oil salesmen with an agenda.

    ilickfrogs,
    @ilickfrogs@lemmy.world avatar

    I thought the man was joking then I saw his smooth brained response below. Software patents are cancer and shouldn’t exist.

    starman2112, do games w Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection used modder's work without credit
    @starman2112@sh.itjust.works avatar

    And this is not even beginning to touch content and features from other released versions of these games from 20 years ago not present, like four-screen splitscreen."

    It’s so cool and amazing that we finally have home theatre systems in every fucking house, and that’s when devs decided we don’t get split screen anymore. Modern hardware is wasted on modern devs. Can we send them back in time to learn how to optimize, and bring back the ones that knew how to properly utilize hardware?

    PillowTalk420,
    @PillowTalk420@lemmy.world avatar

    I would go back in time to 1995 and give John Carmack modern tools and maybe UE5 and see what happens.

    ICastFist,
    @ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

    Even if you gave him a current-day computer to play with (otherwise, even supercomputers of the time would struggle to run UE5), he wouldn’t achieve much, consumer grade computers back then really struggled with 3D graphics. Quake, released in 1996, would usually play around 10-20 FPS.

    catloaf,

    It’s not a question of capability. It’s a question of cost-benefit spending developer time on a feature not many people would use.

    Couch coop was a thing because there was no way for you to play from your own homes. Nowadays it’s a nice-to-have, because you can jump online any time and play together, anywhere in the world, without organizing everyone to show up at one house.

    ICastFist,
    @ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

    It’s a question of cost-benefit spending developer time on a feature not many people would use

    Which is super ironic when you look at games that had an obviously tacked-on, rushed multiplayer component in the first place, such as Spec Ops: The Line, Bioshock 2 and Mass Effect 3

    Piemanding,

    Goldeneye 007. Yeah seriously. The most famous multiplayer game of its generation very nearly didn’t have multiplayer. It was tacked on when they finished the game and had a little bit of extra time and ROM storage.

    chiliedogg,

    It also requires multiple copies of the game.

    barsoap,

    4x splitscreen needs approximately 4x VRAM with modern approaches to graphics: If you’re looking at something sufficiently different than another player there’s going to be nearly zero data in common between them, and you need VRAM for both sets. You go ahead and make a game run in 1/4th of its original budget.

    starman2112,
    @starman2112@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I can’t do that, but you know who could? The people who originally made the game. Had they simply re-released the game that they already made, it wouldn’t be an issue. Us fans of the old games didn’t stop playing because the graphics got too bad. Even if we did, this weird half step towards updating the graphics doesn’t do anything for me. Low poly models with textures that quadruple the game’s size are the worst possible middle ground.

    My flatmates and I actually played through a galactic conquest campaign on the OG battlefront 2 like 2 months ago. It holds up.

    barsoap,

    I can’t do that, but you know who could? The people who originally made the game.

    How to tell me you’re not a gamedev without telling me you’re not a gamedev. You don’t just turn a knob and the game uses less VRAM, a 4x budget difference is a completely new pipeline, including assets.

    Low poly models with textures that quadruple the game’s size are the worst possible middle ground.

    Speaking about redoing mesh assets. Textures are easy, especially if they already exist in a higher resolution which will be the case for a 2015 game, but producing slightly higher-res meshes from the original sculpts is manual work. Topology and weight-painting at minimum.

    So, different proposal: Don’t do it yourself. Scrap together a couple of millions to have someone do it for you.

    starman2112,
    @starman2112@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Wait, are you under the impression that this is a rerelease of the 2015 battlefront?

    barsoap,

    I had no idea and it was the game that was listed without “2” or “3” etc. so that’s the specs I used.

    Yeah no the 2004 thing should run in 16x splitscreen on a quadcore Ryzen with a 4G RX 570. With headroom.

    The general point still stands, though, you can’t do the same thing with a 2015 game. On the flipside you should be able to run the 2004 game in different VMs on the same box, no native support required.

    MonkderZweite,

    and 1/4 of it’s original resolution. Seems doable.

    barsoap,

    Output resolution has negligible impact on VRAM use: 32M for a 4-byte buffer for 4k, 8M for 1080p. It’s texture and mesh data that eats VRAM, texture and mesh data that’s bound to be different between different cameras and thus, as I already said, can’t be shared, you need to calculate with 4x VRAM use because you need to cover the worst-case scenario.

    ipkpjersi, (edited )

    Modern hardware is wasted on modern devs. Can we send them back in time to learn how to optimize, and bring back the ones that knew how to properly utilize hardware?

    I think a lot of the blame is erroneously placed on devs, or it’s used as a colloquialism. Anyone who has worked in a corporate environment as a developer knows that the developers are not the ones making the decisions. You really think that developers want to create a game that is bad, to have their name attached to something that is bad and to also know that they created something that is bad? No, developers want to make a good game, but time constraints and horrible management prioritizing the wrong things (mostly, microtransactions, monetizing the hell out of games, etc) results in bad games being created. Also, game development is more complex since games are more complex, hardware is more complex, and developers are expected to produce results in less time than ever before - it’s not exactly easy, either.

    It’s an annoyance of mine and I’m sure you meant no harm by it, but as a developer (and as someone who has done game development on the side and knows a lot about the game development industry), it’s something that bothers me when people blame bad games solely on devs, and not on the management who made decisions which ended up with games in a bad state.

    With that said, I agree with your sentiments about modern hardware not being able to take advantage of long-forgotten cool features like four-screen splitscreen, offline modes (mostly in online games), arcade modes, etc. I really wish these features were prioritized.

    almar_quigley,

    I agree with you on this point. I think”devs” is conflated for the developing company and its management and not individual devs.

    FlashMobOfOne, do gaming w SAG-AFTRA votes unanimously to expand its strike to include the games industry
    !deleted7243 avatar

    Good.

    One of my good friends was one of the voices on LA Noire years ago and gets zero residuals from it. It’s maddening.

    magikmw,

    x_doubt.jpeg

    MJBrune,

    🤷‍♂️I’ve made multiple million-dollar titles and haven’t gotten more than a paycheck from them. I really don’t think VAs should get much if any in the way of residuals. Engineers, artists, and designers should get a huge portion of the profits. Giving VAs even a 1% residual is a slap in the face of the rest of the team who build those games. Not to mention the whole team of LA Noire was laid off later that year.

    mycorrhiza,

    just give everyone residuals

    MJBrune,

    Someone else made an interesting point how a lot of people don’t get residuals. That residuals don’t make sense for some jobs. For a VA in the background of a small indie games, do you think it’s okay for them to require residuals for their work? This lawsuit focuses on large AAA studios but it will set a dangerous precedent. There any many actors who have to find loop holes to build smaller movie projects. “We technically paid ourselves then invested it into the movie” sort of thing.

    That said giving everyone residuals is better than giving no one residuals.

    mycorrhiza,

    I will just say I think everyone involved in a project should be paid a fraction of the proceeds roughly in proportion to the work and sweat they contribute

    MJBrune,

    Absolutely agree. But I think if we are going to start doing that we’ll have to start with the designers, engineers, and artists. Not the voice actors that spend weeks on the project and never think about it again.

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