eurogamer.net

jordanlund, do gaming w GAME staff discovered zero hours contracts move via mass Microsoft Teams calls
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

American here, what’s a “zero hour contract”?

You’re an employee but not guaranteed to work any hours at all?

tabris,

Yep, exactly that. There are laws that say if you work more than a certain number of hours per week, you’re entitled to benefits like pension, paid holiday, etc. Zero hours contracts let companies get away with not providing those, as they’ll keep each individual staff member below the required hours, because there’s no guarantee of a minimum number of hours in their contract.

It’s absolutely atrocious, but the government spins it to make it sound like a benefit by saying you have extra time, you can lead a flexible life. What it means in reality for most people is that they need multiple jobs and still get no benefits that a full time job would provide.

jordanlund,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

In America it’s called “Full Time” vs “Part Time”.

Full Time is generally 35 to 40 hours, benefits like sick pay, vacation pay, 401K, etc.

Anything under 35 is Part Time, no benefits. But you can still be guaranteed hours up to 35, generally 20.

I don’t know of anyone here who would take a 0 hour job, unless it were a “no show job”. But that’s a different deal. ;)

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-show_job

tabris,

We have part-time jobs as well, but those usually come with a minimum number of hours. Zero hours contracts were brought in to bypass those rules. Since zero hours contracts came in, part-time contracts practically disappeared.

Admetus, do gaming w Roblox Studio boss: children making money on the platform isn't exploitation, it's a gift

I saw the video about a year ago, the one posted by gamma on this thread and the general summary I got from the video is that:

  1. For the immense time and expertise these children are putting into the game, they get a very small cut. And their social life and education will probably suffer so hey!
  2. A job comes with security and rights. These children get no rights as they are not on contract.
  3. There are predators on Roblox which the company is overlooking (as they are making huge games there, like the Sonic the Hedgehog Roblox game).

It’s a very grey area that isn’t regulated well.

princessnorah,

Was it the People Make Games video? Because there was a follow up to it. Am going to link both for anyone that wants a deep dive into how scummy Roblox is:

youtube.com/watch?v=_gXlauRB1EQ

youtube.com/watch?v=vTMF6xEiAaY

skulblaka, do games w Helldivers 2 has a Dungeons and Dragons-style GM behind the scenes
@skulblaka@startrek.website avatar

This is the most absolutely buck wild and inefficient version of this idea I’ve ever seen, ever. Director AI’s have existed over a decade, and have already been used to solve problems exactly like these. If I was Joel and was woken up at 2am to go drop a couple more bugs on Leedle III I’d tell my entire management team to eat shit and do it themselves. What the fuck. Who came up with this? This is half baked as hell

Sanctus,
@Sanctus@lemmy.world avatar

I agree who the fuck thought this was a good idea? What happens if Joel suddenly kicks the bucket or is injured? Why is this not an automated system that has the option of being manually adjusted? This sounds like a downgrade from L4D.

e8d79,
@e8d79@feddit.de avatar

No this is a reasonable approach. Arrowhead are a a rather small company of around 100 people and automating things is easier said than done. They also never anticipated the game to be as successful as it is so at the time it probably wasn’t high on the priority list. Now they pay Joel overtime (I hope) and can think about how to implement an automated script to adjust the game.

Goronmon,

Director AI’s have existed over a decade, and have already been used to solve problems exactly like these.

My knowledge of Director AI’s is that they control the individual matches, but this is about the campaign as a whole.

This person isn’t calling down a dropship on individual players, he’s controlling how the campaign progresses at a higher level.

catloaf,

It sounds like he also writes the events. The article gives the example of one part ending faster than expected, so he added a bit about the forces pivoting to mine the planets. A director AI can’t make stuff up from scratch. (ML-AI could, but it wouldn’t be very good.)

NOT_RICK, do games w Helldivers 2 has a Dungeons and Dragons-style GM behind the scenes
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

So the Director from L4D?

TheQuietCroc,

It’s literally a dude named Joel.

crypticthree,

he did a good job cleaning up the place, but his bosses didn’t like him so they shot him into space

nrezcm,

Robot roll call!

ampersandrew,
@ampersandrew@kbin.social avatar

No, as per the article, this is a person pulling strings.

Goronmon, (edited )

Was there a level of “meta” in the Director of L4D? My understanding was that handled the flow of an individual match, but there wasn’t influences of the matches on other matches.

Since this is about the overall campaign that encompasses a level above the individual matches.

NOT_RICK,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

Not from what I recall. It is neat how each HD2 mission contributes to the state of the in game universe. Just reminded me of the Director from L4D taken to the next level.

vasus, do games w Dark and Darker dev says Nexon's "trade secret and copyright" lawsuit against it has been dismissed

The title feels misleading, this isn’t the actual main lawsuit, the case is far from over. I doubt Steam will want to display the game again given that they are still in hot water legally

Kira has been covering the situation from the start and he has a great video talking about this development

steal_your_face,
@steal_your_face@lemmy.ml avatar

Didn’t want to watch the video so used kagi’s ai summarizer:

  • Onepeg, a gaming YouTuber, tagged KieranTV in a tweet claiming that Nexon’s case against IM had been dismissed in both US and Korean courts, which was factually untrue.
  • When KieranTV questioned this, Onepeg doubled down and accused KieranTV of historically taking Nexon’s side without cause.
  • Reports from Korean media indicate that while the preliminary injunctions from both sides were dismissed, the judge noted it was likely Dark and Darker illegally stole from Nexon’s P3 game.
  • The case has not been fully dismissed and will continue to a full trial on the merits to determine the truth of Nexon’s claims.
  • Onepeg apologized for misrepresenting the facts but KieranTV remains skeptical of his motivations given his repeated doubling down.
  • KieranTV’s consistent position has been to want the truth determined fairly in court, not to take either side without cause.
  • Coverage of legal cases can be complicated as the truth may not come out clearly even if the right party wins or loses.
  • Fans of the game have previously harassed KieranTV for his neutral reporting on the case.
  • Onepeg should have fact checked before tagging KieranTV and making claims about the case’s outcome.
  • Both sides will continue arguing their cases as the full trial moves forward.
Caligvla, do gaming w E3 is officially dead
@Caligvla@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Good riddance. The Game Awards next please.

Rekhyt,

I think there’s absolutely a space for an industry achievement/recognition award like the Oscar, Tony, etc. The Game Awards just seems like the most cynical attempt at forcing one into the video game space.

dreamer,

What I don’t get about all the criticism lobbied at The Game Awards is that other gaming award shows do exist, and have existed, but people don’t fucking watch them and then they criticize TGA for doing what other awards shows didn’t: get millions to actually watch it.

GhostMatter, (edited )

[removed]

acastcandream,

I kind of miss seeing the pot shots they all took at each other at E3 tbh

GutsBerserk, do games w Baldur's Gate 3 out now on Xbox

10/10 game. Xbox players can enjoy and well polished goty from the day 1.

Franzia,

Don’t say that! The devs have been fastidiously fixing bugs. Thousands. And there have been a few Quality of Life changes / additions.

Stez827,
@Stez827@sh.itjust.works avatar

Did they say they weren’t?

Franzia,

Yes the comment literally says “polished from day 1” 🤔 and mine explains that the game has been being polished regularly for months.

Which is great, it’s cool to see a GOTY level game come out and its even better to know what a GOTY game looks like - not perfect on launch, but immediately receiving the necessary fixes.

Skyhighatrist,

I’m pretty sure they meant day 1 on x-box. X-Box players get to play the polished version of the game from the moment they get it. They get the version that already has all of those patches on day one.

Franzia,

OH. Thanks! Jeez my reading comprehension really did screw up on that.

stopthatgirl7, do games w Baldur's Gate 3 out now on Xbox
!deleted7120 avatar

It’s such a good game; Xbox players, enjoy!

Case, do gaming w Cyberpunk's storytelling makes Starfield seem ancient - Opinion

Unless things change drastically for their RPG division, I’ll repeat what I’ve said since oblivion. Bethesda makes great modding platforms, the content within the game is a loose theme that modders can play with.

Yes the new Fallouts are just TES in the Apocalypse.

Yes starfield is little more than TES in space.

I buy Bethesda games for mod potential.

If they said no mods to all future games I wouldn’t buy another one. I don’t play ESO and I have never touched fallout 76 for this reason.

Swedneck,
@Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I mean ESO isn’t a bethesda game, it’s made by zenimax.

And from what i remember it’s actually pretty decent for what it is, it definitely looks nice and iirc while it has microtransactions to catch the whales, it isn’t an absolute twat about it and there at least was a membership system that was/is quite reasonable.

scottmeme, do games w Capcom would "gracefully decline" an acquisition offer from Microsoft
@scottmeme@sh.itjust.works avatar

Fuck gracefully, I would publicly say fuck no.

Pxtl, do games w Payday 3 players endure second consecutive day of server issues, preventing them from playing
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

P2P and player-owned dedicated servers need to come back. This “everything runs on the cloud” stuff is so bad on so many levels.

orca,

It also means players get rugpulled whenever the suits decide the game is no longer worth maintaining.

Pxtl,
@Pxtl@lemmy.ca avatar

Exactly. I wonder if it’s possible to make a commercial game that’s fully decentralized. Sell the licenses as NFTs, use activitypub for the masterserver so you just toot out your games, release the game and dedicated server as free binaries. I hate NFTs but they’d be more consumer-rights friendly than the current approach of steam owns everything.

mindbleach,

Seriously, it’s a four-player game. Not some MMO clusterfuck. Not an arena shooter bragging about 128 codblops on a single map, like it’s Stand On Nuketown. You need matchmaking - you want anticheat - you’ll do some DRM bullshit. Other than that you should want to offload bandwidth and latency to your players. They’re all on the same team!

greenskye, do games w EA confirms The Sims 5 will be free-to-play and co-exist alongside The Sims 4

I’ve basically never seen a free to play title cost less than a paid one (for similar content). Typically free to play has some sort of completely uncapped money-sink as well. Given that Sims 4 already costs $500+ for all content, I can only surmise that Sims 5 will cost thousands for the same amount of content.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup, my wife has spent far more on Lost Ark than she ever spent on WoW…

I hate F2P, so I’ll be passing on this, but the model does work.

TurnItOff_OnAgain, do games w [Rumor] Mass Effect 4 will ditch an open world and return to its "classic format", insider teases

Maybe in the minority here, but I like Andromeda. I like the open world aspect, the combat is fun, interesting story.

mihnt,
@mihnt@kbin.social avatar

I liked the game, however, I fucking hate sudoku.

TurnItOff_OnAgain,

Oh, I love sudoku too. I’ve got like 500 games done on the app I’m using right now.

mihnt,
@mihnt@kbin.social avatar

I was referring to space sudoku.

TurnItOff_OnAgain,

I know. It’s pretty much the same thing as regular sudoku. I gave the different symbols names to make them easier to do.

jeffw,
@jeffw@lemmy.world avatar

It was a good game, but paled in comparison to the original trilogy

ISOmorph,

Same here. It’s not because the trilogy before was a 9/10, that Andromeda was garbo just because it was a 7 or 8/10

RxBrad, do games w BioWare lays off senior writing staff as part of its recent job cuts
@RxBrad@lemmings.world avatar

Would Mass Effect Andromeda’s writers be considered senior staff at this point?

UrPartnerInCrime, (edited )
@UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works avatar

That’s what I was wondering. This may not be a terrible decison.

Edit: because I didn’t read I was wrong

TheMinions,

From the article:

As part of its recently publicised cutbacks, BioWare has “let go of” Lukas Kristjanson, the lead writer behind Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2, and the writer of the first three Dragon Age games, Mary Kirby.

killeronthecorner,
@killeronthecorner@lemmy.world avatar

Welp

GreenMario,

I didn’t even think they had anyone from the BG era still there.

Imagine having the same job for 23 years and then going “fuck you bye”.

circuitfarmer,
@circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

There is no social contract anymore.

TWeaK,

I wouldn’t mind it, typically that level of service comes with redundancy pay. Depends where he was based, if he was working in the US then he’d probably be left high and dry, because US employment is shit.

MrScottyTay,

Could’ve been a mutual decision. They may have taken the hot because they were already thinking of leaving at some point anyway. That sort of thing happens sometimes.

naticus,

Lol I don’t even have to imagine that. It’s funny you point out 23 years because that’s exactly how long I worked at my previous job before moving on in 2022.

Steeve,

Dude could be getting a severance package over a year long at this point, I don’t know if that’s a “fuck you bye”

GreenMario,

The good ending.

Blizzard,

The fuck? Hope he gets hired at Larian.

verysoft, do games w Microsoft will sell Activision Blizzard streaming rights to Ubisoft

Nice, the 5 people who subscribe to Ubisoft+ will be thrilled I'm sure.

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