Pretty sure plenty of people in the industry have wanted to unionize, but you risk job security in doing so.  You’d need a large swath of developers all at once to support a union for it to get off the ground and command any change.

I’ve been working in games for just a little under a decade now, and have been hit by layoffs, both expected and not, a few times. I’ve started wondering about unionizing and wondering why there didn’t seem to be any momentum. And then I wondered if maybe it’s something I should learn about and take a more active role…

Americans just see the percentage of their salary they “lose” and think a union is a bunch of worthless grifters stealing their money. They ignore the pay raises and other benefits the union results in.

This is hyper capitalism at its core. The executives that (basically) do nothing except focus test everything and make it as bland as possible (and then complain when things don’t meet extremely unrealistic sales expectations, either due to 1) being bland/bad, 2) not enough development time/low budget/crunch, 3)…

Remember when Iwata (and the rest of the board) took a 50% cut to his $770.000 salary because Nintendo wasn’t doing as well as expected?.

A shame that the Activision CEO only makes like $30 million and can’t afford it 

Always feels good and normal when you fire a bunch of employees right after giving your new CFO a $15m signing bonus.

Until I knew of his politics and got educated on jingoism, I appreciated his ability to write an action scene. I don’t think I’ve ever played one of his games, either.

I mean, I get the appeal of his work to people for sure. I haven’t read anything of his in years and I actively avoid Clancy games. The super authoritarian, military and police worship has never been my thing. Totally agreed on McTiernan though. That is just an amazing run of films.

Back in the 80s, as a young teenager, I devoured Clancy books. He had some of the best set pieces I’ve ever read. Then I learned he was a Reagan boot-licker, and never read another thing. Hunt for Red October, however, is still a great movie. I also contend that John McTiernan has the greatest 3-movie run in history:…

This is the correct response. Fuck Tom Clancy games.

Regular reminder to everyone Tom Clancy games, novels, etc. are inherently political. They build and are built upon a world view that US military members, intelligence agents and law enforcement agents could solve all of our problems if the darn bureaucracy and politicians would just get out of their way and let them…

Except

Ding Ding Ding! Absolutely correct. That being said, if you are the kind of asshole who jokes about other people’s suffering, don’t suddenly whine about being called out for it. At least Ubisoft apologized promptly, given that they were probably not going for that kind of comedy as a corporation.

Yes, when you’re suffering comedy can help you cope. But when other people are suffering and you’re just doing comedy about their suffering, then you come across as a massive asshole. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t joke about it - of course you can! You just come across as a massive asshole.

FarCry 5 is going to ask the questions that need asking. It’s going to be gritty, and hard-hitting. It’s going to make you think. Now, watch this ten minute video of all the crazy zany shit we’re going to do! OMG! Is that a pet bear named Cheeseburger!? This game is bananas!

I got to that point and wasn’t enjoying the movie, but by the end I loved it. It fucked with my head so much and is easily one of, if not the best, Black Mirror episode(s).

Don’t go purely by this comment. Even the early, seemingly inconsequential choices early on have payoffs later, so a review of the first five minutes doesn’t tell you much.

Says way more about you than it does about the episode.

Thank you for sharing. Very informative.

StarCraft 2 just had it's best year since the last expansion launched. It's very much alive.