Working in entertainment is privileged. It’s not a job you just happen to end up with by accident. Most people are there because they want to be there.
And yes, the shitty mega corporations will use that against you. And yes, again, your small indie company can get purchased and suddenly your boss is the shitty mega corp. But you have a choice even then. Try to get out on your own terms or stick around until it’s time to cut the fat and get fired.
You can think I’m a dick all you want. I have my principles and I live by them. I have taken jobs most people don’t even know exist, because they can’t even imagine themselves in a position that would ever warrant something like it. And I’ve quit jobs for less than how game developers get treated. I don’t care what I do, I care about who I work for and how they treat the people around them.
We probably all have our own factors that go into determining whether or not someone deserves our sympathies.
And there’s definitely some circumstances where I’m more understanding. Like, Ubisoft as you mentioned. I have zero relation to their products nor the company it self. They’ve never really been on my radar. So I can’t speak to that.
But then we have something like Microsoft. A giant among giants in the corporate world. You don’t become a 3 trillion dollar company by playing by the book. And I understand why people would want MS on their resume, but I can’t understand wanting to work for them.
But that’s just a part of my little black book. I imagine you have your own, most people do.
Even the Devs out of a job isn’t necessarily something you should concern yourself too much with.
Games development is a fairly privileged job to have and for the Devs working for big dubious companies…? Let’s not pretend like they didn’t know who they worked for, what they worked on and what the personal risks attached were.
Shadow dropping isn’t a new thing Bethesda just invented, so I doubt Oblivion would have anything to do with it.
Valve does what Valve wants to do. Always have. And they don’t have a tendency to announce anything years in advance to generate hype, because frankly, I don’t think they care.
The cost of developing games hasn’t skyrocketed. Developers have more means than ever. Many things that was handcrafted on crappy slow computers then are auto-generated in seconds now.
There’s no massive shipping costs or printing of physical mediums anymore. And no losses if the already printed cassettes or CD’s didn’t sell.
If a game costs hundreds of millions to develop, in this day and age, it’s by design and/or because of bloated companies.
I have no personal vendetta against any of these individual Devs.
My stake in this is slightly different. Like, when I heard about how Blizzard treated it’s own staff and then the whole sexual harassment thing popped up, I was done with them. From that point on, that company didn’t deserve to exist and I blacklisted them. So i try to keep up with gaming related news.
More studios have joined that list since, for various reasons, and I find myself mostly playing indie titles from small upcoming developers now. I feel better about that.
I do believe we should be(e) kind. But I also believe kindness is a two way street.