youtube.com

t3rmit3, (edited ) do gaming w The Extreme Disconnect between Game Journalists, Developers, and their Audience

This guy makes several key mistakes, and doesn’t understand the relationship between (or difference between, for that matter) developers and publishers / executives. He pivots in one sentence from talking about number of layoffs to talking about failed games, but those are not direct corollaries. Big publishers and large studios laid off teams with games that performed incredibly well. Lots of teams that were mid-development were killed. Remember Tango Gameworks? The studio that everyone liked, and didn’t have any flops? That was completely laid off? It had nothing to do with their games, and was entirely about Xbox forcing its 1P studios to release on Game Pass, which doomed their sales. It was bad executive management at MS, not bad games, choosing to buy Bethesda and Activision at the expense of budgets for its existing studios. Obviously Redfall and Concord were huge flops, but they were a tiny fraction of the layoffs across the industry.

He correctly points out that Gaming is a subset of the software industry, and that the trends and decisions being made by executives across the industry are the same, but just sort of hand-waves that away by saying it’s not just gaming, and that “people are facing economic challenges right now” in general. Yeah! And guess that those challenges are? Short-term P&L gains via mass layoffs, in order to claw back money from acquisitions, stock buybacks, and executive pay-gouging. But it’s not developers doing that, it’s publishers and executives. No one writing code is like, “I’ve decided to make live-service schlock”. But they’re the ones losing their jobs, not the dorks who did decide that.

“What is unique in gaming, is that this is largely self-inflicted.” (6:40) My brother in Christ… stahhhhhp.

He then turns this into some kind of attack on game journalists, who have been rightfully calling out the game industry layoffs, as though they’re… supposed to only report on things happening uniquely in gaming, and not also in other industries, even if it’s also happening in gaming? The narrative that “if a studio is laid off, it was their fault, or just the economy forcing them to be laid off”, is the false narrative of the publishers, and this guy is (whether he realizes it or not) helping bolster that narrative.

Lastly, this dude is dropping right-wing dogwhistles left-and-right. Listing “ideological soapboxes” alongside “bloated projects” and “garbage games” for failing games tells me everything I need to know. And if you check the comments, his fans definitely heard the whistle too.

Here’s his brilliant take on thousands of line-level developers being laid off for decisions made above their heads by millionaires:

“As a customer I’m going to be honest, I just don’t care or feel anything for any of these internal struggles that these companies go through.” (7:10 in the video)

Big “stop picketing and deliver my Amazon package I paid money for” energy right here.

FarceOfWill,

Thanks for writing this up, sounds even worse than I’d have guessed from the title.

t3rmit3,

I will be honest I stopped after about 12 minutes, so perhaps he says something of value later on… but I doubt it. :P

p03locke,
@p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Remember Tango Gameworks? The studio that everyone liked, and didn’t have any flops? That was completely laid off?

He pointed that out as an exception. But, it’s been mostly the AAA studios that produced massive, massive high-budget flops, and then they laid off a bunch of their staff.

But it’s not developers doing that, it’s publishers and executives. No one writing code is like, “I’ve decided to make live-service schlock”. But they’re the ones losing their jobs, not the dorks who did decide that.

No, but when developers and the rest of the teams see that it’s “live-service schlock”, they should start looking at their resumes, instead of thinking “well, my job is safe because it’s a large corporation”.

Why would anybody working on Concord think that it’s a good game with a good concept that is going to succeed? Or Kill the Justice League? Or Multiverse? You think all of those microtransactions and attempts at catching some unoriginal idea are going to be well-received?

Just look at it for what it is, and realize it’s going to fail. And then plan accordingly.

He then turns this into some kind of attack on game journalists, who have been rightfully calling out the game industry layoffs

No, look at what they did before they talked about the layoffs. Sure, calling out the layoffs is justified and it’s worth reporting.

What’s not worth reporting is what Twitter is saying about any of this, and then going on some soapbox trying to counter it. Thus, promoting this idea that the general public gives a shit about whatever fight this is, when in reality, they don’t even know it exists. He’s literally reading off one of this articles, that goes off on a tangent that a few people on Twitter said something about games being “too woke” and tries to counter that.

Fuck Twitter. Stop reporting on Twitter. It’s a shit platform that is a tiny, tiny microverse of actual people doing actual things that don’t see any of that. Obviously, nobody looked at a game and thought “oh, well, that’s too woke, so I’m not going to buy it”. They didn’t buy it because it was a shit game with shitty microtransactions.

And if you check the comments, his fans definitely heard the whistle too.

I checked the comments. I read the comments on most YouTube videos. I saw nothing of the sort. Most of them are praising him for what he’s saying.

Ideological soapboxes are very real things that games “journalists” push on a daily basis. It’s manufactured bullshit that gets echoed only because they report on whatever some dude on Twitter said. I don’t know why you would mistake that as some dog whistle.

“As a customer I’m going to be honest, I just don’t care or feel anything for any of these internal struggles that these companies go through.” (7:10 in the video)

Right, instead of talking about the discussion as a whole, let’s take some out-of-context quote he said in the video and use that as evidence that he doesn’t care about the industry.

You didn’t even quote the entire sentence: “…especially when it’s mismanagement to blame.” I guess that bit didn’t fit your narrative?

Kichae,

But, it’s been mostly the AAA studios that produced massive, massive high-budget flops, and then they laid off a bunch of their staff.

Those are still failures on the publisher’s part. This isn’t 30 years ago. Most game studios are not independent, they’re owned by the publishers, and the publishers have immense creative control.

No, but when developers and the rest of the teams see that it’s “live-service schlock”, they should start looking at their resumes, instead of thinking “well, my job is safe because it’s a large corporation”.

Really easy to say, but, believe it or not, during a time where the tech industry is actively shedding 10s of thousands of jobs, looking at your resume doesn’t actually do anything for you.

Honestly, you seem to be saying “it’s developers fault because I refuse to understand power dynamics”. You may as well just scream “bootstraps” over and over.

p03locke,
@p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Really easy to say, but, believe it or not, during a time where the tech industry is actively shedding 10s of thousands of jobs, looking at your resume doesn’t actually do anything for you.

Are you just proving his point by saying that the whole industry is laying people off, instead of it being specifically a gaming industry problem?

theangriestbird,

Obviously, nobody looked at a game and thought “oh, well, that’s too woke, so I’m not going to buy it”. They didn’t buy it because it was a shit game with shitty microtransactions.

Except these people are out there, and we’ve known this since GamerGate happened over a decade ago. One of the top Steam curators is called “Sweet Baby Inc detected”, and exists to identify games that are “too woke”:

https://beehaw.org/pictrs/image/6b3a8ca0-1130-433f-8354-9629a321e421.webp

Clearly there are at least 468k losers out there that avoid specific games because “that’s too woke, so I’m not going to buy it”.

t3rmit3, (edited )

I didn’t really want to have to watch any more of this dude, but I wanted to make sure I gave him a fair shake… and hoo boy.

Just look at it for what it is, and realize it’s going to fail. And then plan accordingly.

This is just victim blaming, bruh. Even if a developer sees a project is going badly, it’s not like there are infinite jobs out there that need filling. Changing jobs is not fast and easy, some of the workers are likely on work visas that don’t allow them to just change employers, game companies aren’t all in the same small area such that it won’t require moving homes which is a huge expense, and there’s no guarantee that the project you’re moving to will be any better.

This is a failure of worker protection laws. Framing it as workers just needing to hustle smarter, while executives run companies and families into the ground, is peak corporate apologism.

He’s literally reading off one of this articles, that goes off on a tangent that a few people on Twitter said something about games being “too woke” and tries to counter that.

If you don’t think that alt-right-lite is a huge problem in gaming circles, I don’t know what to tell you. Go play literally any multiplayer game and you will find plenty of gamers spouting anti-DEI/ anti-woke/ right-wing talking points in no time flat. And yes, they absolutely do avoid games based on it. And the problem with just ignoring this is that you’re ceding the narrative to them. Young white men have seen a shift rightwards precisely because alt-right-lite chuds like JonTron capture them via gaming-focused content, and then shift them over to politics-focused guys like Tate/ Shapiro/ etc. It’s a pipeline, that often starts in gaming spaces.

Ideological soapboxes are very real things that games “journalists” push on a daily basis.

He wasn’t talking about ideological soapboxes in reference to journalists, he was talking about developers. And he is using that as a direct euphemism for “DEI”/ “woke” content.

And yes, the comments are agreeing with him, that’s the point of a dogwhistle. There are a bunch of comments being anti-diversity/ anti-woke, referencing another video of his about game companies hiring people who supposedly despise gamers.

Here is a video of his called “The Real Impact of DEI in Gaming”. He uses rainbow/pink/diversity-washing being bad to then ultimately conclude that DEI is a net negative that he (no joke) BLAMES ON OVERREGULATION by the government. He then goes on to suggest that DEI actually is about dividing people in order to (also not a joke) feed a DEI-consulting industry.

“They’re hiring in people that don’t have the merit, that don’t have the skill” (8:40) Classic. He then goes onto blame “DEI hire” developers for games being buggy or releasing too early, as though that is their choice (once again, he clearly doesn’t understand what developers do or do not control).

It’s frustrating seeing these chuds get wiser about the number of levels they couch their ultimate anti-diversity rhetoric in, because clearly it’s working on some people. Instead of saying, “diversity in gaming companies bad”, he says, “regulations force execs to hire diverse devs who lack merit (which is bigoted bs on its own), who then over time lower the quality of games, ** and also** evil DEI consultants intentionally push devs to make diverse games without being sincere about the portrayals and stories… so in the end we should stop pushing devs to be diverse and make diverse games, and just let each group of people make games for themselves (which is back to square one where big companies just hire white guys).”

He’s literally just taking all the Republican anti-DEI rhetoric and applying to to gaming.

megopie, do gaming w Stop Listening to Game Reviewers

The best reviewers are ones where you can know if you’ll like a game based on their review, even if they didn’t like it.

intensely_human, do games w Marvel Rivals - Season 1 Trailer

I was really disappointed with this game. I thought it would be a lot more 3D in its battles.

I was imagining something like the spider man games, but with all the Marvel characters in that kind of cityscape.

cRazi_man,

A lot of characters are short range or melee.

There are a bunch of flying/gliding/wall climbing characters, but a lot of characters don’t have tools to deal with enemies who are not grounded.

The game has been fun, but I’ve given it up now mainly because of balance and match making issues. >80% of the games I play are completely one-sided. One team will never be able to touch the objective or will be completely confined to the spawn point. Even if I’m on the winning team, such one-sided steamrolling is no fun.

Bronzebeard, do gaming w Stop Listening to Game Reviewers

I’m pretty sure people have, in this age of “let’s play” videos. You can see the gameplay play out in real time instead of listening to a brief, curated summary.

DdCno1, do gaming w Stop Listening to Game Reviewers

I would assume that most people are just just listening to their favorite game reviewers as if they were listening to a friend talking about games. It’s a parasocial relationship and it’s more important what a certain person seems to be thinking about a title than how well-founded this opinion is.

LukeZaz,

This is exactly what I do, and I think it’s honestly a very healthy way to engage with that kind of content. If you find someone you like, and/or who has a lot of overlap on preferences, then that’s a great way to get an idea for how much you’d like a game.

Hell, even if you don’t tend to prefer the same things, if the person reviewing is sufficiently passionate or entertaining, you can still develop an appreciation for why someone else likes what they do. I’ve absolutely struggled trying to get into Fallout: New Vegas for a variety of reasons, but I still respect it a lot because Hbomberguy had a very compelling video on what he liked about it.

Varyag, do gaming w Stop Listening to Game Reviewers

Most of them have no idea what they’re talking about, and sometimes those who do, are making a video just for entertainment purposes or got paid (in getting a free game key) to not say anything too bad about it.

Brahvim, do gaming w Stop Listening to Game Reviewers
@Brahvim@lemmy.kde.social avatar

Been thinking like this myself recently.

Steam reviews and only possibly, in only very rare cases, although disappointingly-often not - YouTube video reviews, can be a good source.

The idea is… to not to listen to people who don’t play games the way you do.

A friend, potentially a random Steam user, a Reddi- Lemm- ahem, sorry, a… social media user, a… person who has played the game in question thoroughly and pointed out what they liked - and you know they’re like you, …and they played for similar reasons as you; these are the people to listen to. People who play games, like yourself.

Only they can tell you if the game is totally worth your own time!

Letstakealook, do gaming w Stop Listening to Game Reviewers

Thanks for sharing! Based of that one video, I like homie’s energy, I’ll check out some more of his channel.

turkalino, do games w Marvel Rivals - Season 1 Trailer

Ok new heroes, yeah, cool, but an option for crossplay in competitive would be even better 🙏 My competitive rank is low because I can’t party up with my friends and has absolutely nothing to do with my own skill ^trust^

Also why is this post getting so many downvotes?

simple,

I don’t know, console users playing with PC would break the ranked system. Controllers are at a huge disadvantage and I can easily see people blaming console users on their team for losing.

Also why is this post getting so many downvotes?

Because it’s 2025 and Lemmy users still use the downvote button as a disagree button. It’s so predictable, any post I make about live service games gets instantly downvoted.

Pheonixdown,

They could easily put a toggle on so people can choose to enable cross play, off by default. If console folks want to subject themselves to people using mice, that’s their own fault, and nobody who didn’t want to would need to play with them.

There might be other reasons for the delay that are more contractual in nature to get sorted out.

simple,

Very few people would turn it on though and you’d end up with very long queue times.

Pheonixdown,

Sure, but for those that have to have it a long queue is better for them than no queue.

turkalino,

I get it, people have understandable reasons for why they personally wouldn’t want crossplay in competitive. All I’m asking for is the option to enable it. I’m on PC and almost all of my friends are on console so we always have to play casual. The wild swings in opponent skill level get really annoying sometimes. Solo queuing in this game is exceptionally awful because voice chat is disabled by default, which makes no sense for a game that requires teamwork

And yeah, the blanket live service hate gets pretty annoying. Like this is a great game with purely cosmetic microtransactions that can be easily ignored

Cris16228, (edited ) do games w Marvel Rivals - Season 1 Trailer

Why start removing bots from qp and make ranked games more balanced when we can release new skins/characters?!

Check steam forums, a lot of people complain about bots and it’s annoying as fuck

GeneralEmergency, do games w Coffeezilla does a third part of his CS:GO gambling expose...where he squarely puts the blame on Valve

where he squarely puts the blame on Valve

I know G*mers are far to Stockholmed by the monopolistic hell scape that Valve is responsible for.

But it’s nice to see someone say it.

A_Random_Idiot,

Its the problem with corporate worship. People cant admit that their team might be bad, and by extension…their worship might be wrong, so they just get angry and hostile.

Especially when you point out that a lot of what they praise about Valve, was forced reactions to actual consumer protection lawsuits, or the threat of a possibility of one.

chiliedogg,

I really don’t get the love for Valve. They charge double the fees of some other digital platforms, and people flip the fuck out when a developer is like "we’re releasing on origin because paying Valve would cost more money than the entire net profit of the game.

IceFoxX,

Valve has a huge backbone it also needs for daily traffic. Valve is pushing gaming on linux big time. Crossover wine etc would have taken at least years. Provide space for the community for forum, workshop, other data ( all running costs ) Epic origin uplay purely stock market oriented with junk launcher which is far worse spyware than Steam. Valve offers refunds. Their efforts with Steam link, controller, deck and whatnot. Valve offers the player a hell of a lot. Competitors offer junk spyware launcher mostly for games with rootkit compulsion… do not offer a forum or anything else but refer to steam. Would prefer not to offer anything directly on steam but have a right to use the platform… Would the competitors instead of suing… would invest in the products and think about the players instead of the shareholders… then there would be no monopoly. Damn valve even opens up to others for free… Steamos, for example, will also exist outside the steam deck, whereby competitors could also adapt it directly as something of their own.

chiliedogg, (edited )

They offer a free operating system anyone can use that’s name after their company and designed to play games sold through the included store for a 30% cut of sales.

What saints!

If Google did something similar, I bet everyone would say they’re a great company and not at all evil…

Gabe is a billionaire monopolist, not your friend.

IceFoxX, (edited )

Ask linux Kernel maintainer or mesa, Vulkan, wine etc. what they profit from valves cooperation. Yes, valve is very involved. Yes, Google and the like also contribute improvements from time to time, but for the most part it remains with their proprietary accessories that only they themselves benefit from. Gabe has also built up a lot of things to earn this. As I said, competitors are always welcome to improve their launchers and build a backbone comparable to that of valve.

chiliedogg,

My point is that SteamOS is similar to Android from a business perspective.

They’re making an OS for free that anyone can install, but they’re doing it to get people to buy software from Steam.

Yeah, you don’t have to use Steam as your software provider, but Android users don’t have to use the Play Store.

Guess where almost all apps are purchased on Android? Valve wants to be the Google of the mobile PC gaming world.

IceFoxX, (edited )

You said it! Valve actively supports OSS and that in many projects from which people beyond games also benefit (yes, they also exist). That Valve with Proton has just made sure that MS monopoly position is no longer so secure (oh wonder that in the most popular games devs then simply turn off linux support in anti-cheat…). ). You can certainly criticize a lot, but valve gives back a lot of things differently. Just no other Play Störe alternatives because the competition only complains, offers a junk launcher with dubious methods to offer a game for free every week… ( no risk but because of fixed amount possibly significantly less the developers… besides, the money comes from fortnite addicted children ). epic ubisoft ea use dirty methods anyway and known 30%… what they are hiding is that the 30% is the case with steam keys. however, they also have the possibility to link it to their own store with their own keys while it would be listed for free on steam only they would have to do without any steam feature ( anti cheat, workshop, forum, support, download from steam depotetc. Oh and have enough servers themselves regarding downloads.

By the way, about your comparison with android… Take a look at their Chromebooks. Have fun gaming!xD

drasglaf,
@drasglaf@sh.itjust.works avatar

What a strange way to look at it. Does Valve charge double than other store fronts, or did those other store fronts start charging half in an attempt to undercut Valve?

Also I find it strange how you mention things like publishing fees and people not liking games being released on other store fronts instead of Steam while you fail to write a single mention to Steam’s main competitor in those fronts: the Epic Games Store.

Is there a reason for these 2 points, or are they just a coincidence?

chiliedogg,

I actually typed Origin when I meant to type EGS, which charges 18% to Steam’s 30%.

theonlytruescotsman,

Because they came way after and are willing to take a loss in hopes of taking out valve … And yet they haven’t.

drasglaf,
@drasglaf@sh.itjust.works avatar

I can totally understand a small dev team who self-publish their games taking Epic’s exclusivity deal, even publishing on the EGS instead of Steam, every cent counts if they want to survive. But that’s not the whole story.

_cryptagion,

What a strange way to look at it. Here Valve is, actively working to addict children to their unregulated gambling market, but yeah, let’s deflect the conversation by protecting them and pointing out how mean we think somebody else is being to them.

drasglaf,
@drasglaf@sh.itjust.works avatar

It’s ok, you’ll get over it. Happy new year!

_cryptagion,

Typical ancap response.

drasglaf,
@drasglaf@sh.itjust.works avatar

What a strange way to wish someone a happy new year back. At least I know what I can gift you for next Christmas. Labels!

Agent_Karyo, do games w Palworld Lawsuit
@Agent_Karyo@lemmy.world avatar

Really dislike the style and tone of this particular youtuber. A lot of the clips I’ve encountered with make him sound like a shill or someone whose primary audience is children.

mesamunefire, do games w Palworld Lawsuit

Looks like there has been an update: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKFUr1867U0

I just dont like laws that support things like this…

Kelly,

Looks like there has been an update

TLDW?

anamethatisnt,

The update seems to be about www.pocketpair.jp/news/20241108

anamethatisnt,

polygon briefly mentions what the patents are about
polygon.com/…/palworld-developer-nintendo-pokemon…

ImplyingImplications, (edited )

The “update” is from a month ago. Pocketpair shared the patents they are accused of infringing and the payments Nintendo wants.

The patents are for “throwing an object in 3D space to capture a target” (throwing a pokeball) and “moving characters to a virtual field when an event is triggered” (entering a battle) the payment requested is 10 million yen or 64,000 USD. A paltry sum for a billion dollar company suing over a game that made tens of millions.

The patents were awarded to Nintendo after Palword had already released a trailer for their game showing gameplay. Pocketpair also released an earlier game called Craftopia which is Palworld but the pals are just straight up animals. It has the same systems Palworld does but didn’t sell very well.

A newer update is that Palworld has since released a patch that modified how their capture and summon system works, likely in an attempt to make Nintendo happy.

Palworld Update v0.3.11 Notes:

Player: Changed the behaviour of summoning player-owned Pals so that they are always summoned near the player

UI: The reticle will now only be displayed when aiming

Edit: there are actually 3 patents. The third one is for the player character being able to ride on another character.

Prunebutt,

“moving characters to a virtual field when an event is triggered” (entering a battle)

How is that a legit patent, when there are so many obvious instances of prior art?

KoboldCoterie,
@KoboldCoterie@pawb.social avatar

Even if there weren’t a million examples of prior art, the fact that patents on game mechanics are even allowed is just awful for the industry as a whole, and we as players should absolutely rail against this. Every game borrows from other games’ ideas and mechanics - I’d bet money that there hasn’t been a single fully “original” game in 20+ years. If companies are allowed to patent every little mechanic (even ones they didn’t come up with), the industry as a whole will just become impossible to operate in.

Prunebutt,

the fact that patents on game mechanics are even allowed is just awful for the industry as a whole

Yes, definetly.

Infynis,
@Infynis@midwest.social avatar

Every game borrows from other games’ ideas and mechanics

It’s not only games, this is just straight-up how art works. Culture develops over time. Of course capitalism had to get a middleman in there lol

ImplyingImplications,

It’s a Japanese patent. I’m not sure how it would hold up internationally, but Pocketpair is also a Japanese company and this lawsuit is entirely within the Japanese legal system. That probably gives Nintendo a bit of an advantage since they’re such a large and iconic Japanese corporation.

Prunebutt,

Copyright is already cooked, no matter where it’s located. But the way japan acts as if Pokemon invented JRPG battles is simply ridiculous.

otp,

the way japan acts as if Pokemon invented JRPG battles is simply ridiculous.

Am I missing some bit of context? Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy still exist (and came first).

Prunebutt,

That’s what I meant with “prior art”. Nintendo’s second patent basically explains how any old JRPG worked.

narc0tic_bird,

So…Red Dead Redemption infringes two of these three patents?

  • Throwing an object (lasso) to capture a target
  • Player character being able to ride on another character (horse)

Is Nintendo afraid because Rockstar can actually afford the lawsuit?

ComradeMiao,

Don’t let them know that!

CosmoNova,

It‘s likely a japanese patent so I doubt Nintendo can sue Rockstar.

mhague, do games w Coffeezilla does a third part of his CS:GO gambling expose...where he squarely puts the blame on Valve

I’ve heard more stories about CSGO over the years compared to other gambling games, but never heard people criticize the game like they do FIFA. It’s just my corner of the world, where Valve is a holy corporation.

_cryptagion,

All the sweaty middle-aged dudes with unwashed asses see GabeN as the only good billionaire. They’ll protect him with the same fervor that they use to try and keep women and POC out of gaming.

Joelio, do games w Coffeezilla does a third part of his CS:GO gambling expose...where he squarely puts the blame on Valve

Valve just needs a way to ensure you are over the age of 18, and I know a way they can do that WITHOUT collecting IDs. They need to incorporate an age quiz like leisure suit Larry.

_cryptagion,

Or just fucking turn off trading stupid weapon skins? Idk, seems like the bare fucking minimum of effort.

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