Gaming BS of the week

[Ripper]

Yes, I got that. I'm implying it's the sort of thing an unbalanced person would produce.

 

[Couchpotato]

Yes, I got that. I'm implying it's the sort of thing an unbalanced person would produce.

So call me curious but are you a cop, profiler, or maybe a psychiatrist Ripper?

 

[Ivanwah]

Now I'm gonna be mean: Don't like how things work in the Biz?
THEN STOP PUTZING AROUND.

All creative industries are about extreme overtime. ALWAYS.
Be it film, music, advertising, gaming, TV, whatever -- if there is an uncertainty factor involved ("geez, this is not good enough, work on it more"), there will be crunch.

I'm in the games biz for 25+ years, and I'm not complaining about working hard.
Never complained, never will. This is my job and I love it.

Bottom line:
If you are weak, don't go working in the mines. This is tough guy territory.

If that is the case for the industry, then the industry has a lot of problems. Why is it OK in this industry to have unregulated overtime when such thing is regulated elsewhere? If there is need for crunch, management fucked up somewhere and they should be the ones responsible.

Why don't they work on games longer instead of resorting to crunch? Why don't they take six more months or so to release the game, or hire more people if possible? Why are the ones doing the work often inadequately paid? Why are they often threatened with lay-offs if they don't comply?

Just because you're personally fine with that doesn't mean everyone should be. Also someone can enjoy doing something but not be willing to do it for 60-80 hours a week. And working hard doesn't mean overworking.

Edit: fixed some typos.

 

[Ripper]

So call me curious but are you a cop, profiler, or maybe a psychiatrist Ripper?

I don't talk about what I do for a living. And here I'm just taking the piss for a laugh, so I'm certainly not going to try and back it with any sort of authority.

 

[Couchpotato]

I don't talk about what I do for a living. And here I'm just taking the piss for a laugh, so I'm certainly not going to try and back it with any sort of authority.

Feels like I was close or on the right track though.

Cue creepy music.

Dammit it's not Halloween yet.

 

[you]

Disagree. End of Discussion.

Because they do business in the USA and by using that hash tag they brought it upon themselves, whether they wanted it or not.
Of course, doxxing people over such tweets is not acceptable, but they should hire better PR team in the future. Or re-train the existing team.

 

[Ivanwah]

Disagree. End of Discussion.

Whatever, I just don't want them to ruin their business because people will boycott them because of their careless marketing.

 

[Couchpotato]

Something else for everyone's bemusement.

Link - https://kotaku.com/my-quest-to-be-gay-in-assassins-creed-odysseys-ancient-1829997425

Ever since it was revealed that you could have same sex romances in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, I’ve been chomping at the bit to be gay in ancient Greece. It’s turned out to be harder than I thought.

Another propaganda editorial from Kotaku.

 

[duerer]

If that is the case for the industry, then the industry has a lot of problems. Why is it OK in this industry to have unregulated overtime when such thing is regulated elsewhere?

Easy. Because all creative industries are working "on spec" -- meaning, it is speculative production. The game should be fun, the music should be a hit, the movie should be entertaining.
Since there are no sure-fire recipes to make fun, hit, entertaining products, these projects are inherently unmanageable by traditional means.

Debunking Myth #1: Success can be engineered.
No one knows how the game will perform. The only way to know is to release it and hope for the best. Even sure-fire projects could fail spectacularly.

Debunking Myth #2: Modern methodologies solve everything.
Don't get fooled by "agile", "scrum" and other magical buzzwords. These methodologies are totally worthless in the creative biz. Why? Because they cannot cope effectively with this simple scenario: "the game is not fun enough".

Why don't they work on games longer instead of resorting to crunch?

Again, easy. Deadlines are a must. Else, the game will NEVER be ready.

Why are the ones doing the work often inadequately paid? Why are they often threatened with lay-offs if they don't comply?

Without getting into specific details, practically it is all about the team.
If your team is a bunch of battle-proven, hard-working oxes, your product will be ready on time.
If your team is a bunch of freeloaders, inexperienced daydreamers, or what I call'em "whatever guys", you better be prepared for crisis management and lots of screaming.

Just because you're personally fine with that doesn't mean everyone should be. Also someone can enjoy doing something but not be willing to do it for 60-80 hours a week. And working hard doesn't mean overworking.

Oh, how many times I've heard this.
In this highly competitive industry, working hard is a must. And the definition of working hard is "work till it is ready".
That's why I used to say to all new recruits: game development is passion first and profession second. And passion is always painful. If you cannot tolerate this, and want an easy, lucrative profession, work elsewhere. You have been warned.

My problem is this: all new recruits want to be part of Rockstar's success. Or Blizzard's success. Or Fortnite's success. Or League of Legends' success.
And the sad truth: most of your company's employees are envy of your success, want top dollar and glitzy limelight with minimal effort and zero responsibility. My professional advice to them is: be a politician, drug dealer, pimp -- anything, but no game developer! And oh, go f*ck yourself, buddy.

 

[joxer]

Something else for everyone's bemusement.

Link - https://kotaku.com/my-quest-to-be-gay-in-assassins-creed-odysseys-ancient-1829997425Another propaganda editorial from Kotaku.

I bet it's paid advertisment article. But is bullshit nevertheless. I mean:

I’ve been chomping at the bit to be gay in ancient Greece. It’s turned out to be harder than I thought.

Hard(er) my arse, did whomever wrote the article play the game or just watched stupid twitch streams?

-

My problem is this: all new recruits want to be part of Rockstar's success. Or Blizzard's success. Or Fortnite's success. Or League of Legends' success.

If I was the new recruit then:
no, no, no, yes!

 

[Ivanwah]

Easy. Because all creative industries are working "on spec" -- meaning, it is speculative production. The game should be fun, the music should be a hit, the movie should be entertaining.
Since there are no sure-fire recipes to make fun, hit, entertaining products, these projects are inherently unmanageable by traditional means.

Debunking Myth #1: Success can be engineered.
No one knows how the game will perform. The only way to know is to release it and hope for the best. Even sure-fire projects could fail spectacularly.

Debunking Myth #2: Modern methodologies solve everything.
Don't get fooled by "agile", "scrum" and other magical buzzwords. These methodologies are totally worthless in the creative biz. Why? Because they cannot cope effectively with this simple scenario: "the game is not fun enough".


Again, easy. Deadlines are a must. Else, the game will NEVER be ready.


Without getting into specific details, practically it is all about the team.
If your team is a bunch of battle-proven, hard-working oxes, your product will be ready on time.
If your team is a bunch of freeloaders, inexperienced daydreamers, or what I call'em "whatever guys", you better be prepared for crisis management and lots of screaming.


Oh, how many times I've heard this.
In this highly competitive industry, working hard is a must. And the definition of working hard is "work till it is ready".
That's why I used to say to all new recruits: game development is passion first and profession second. And passion is always painful. If you cannot tolerate this, and want an easy, lucrative profession, work elsewhere. You have been warned.

My problem is this: all new recruits want to be part of Rockstar's success. Or Blizzard's success. Or Fortnite's success. Or League of Legends' success.
And the sad truth: most of your company's employees are envy of your success, want top dollar and glitzy limelight with minimal effort and zero responsibility. My professional advice to them is: be a politician, drug dealer, pimp -- anything, but no game developer! And oh, go f*ck yourself, buddy.

Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, FIFA, GTA, Battlefield are all formulaic, nearly annual releases that sell like hotcakes, yet companies making these are most often associated with crunch. All industries are competitive, some even more than creative ones. Yet you don't hear about crunch in those industries nearly as often as you do with gaming industry. And don't try to sell me that "it's a passion first" bullshit. Everything an be a passion. Cleaning horse stables can be a passion. It's a job like any other and employees should be treated like on any other job.

We're not talking about indie projects where a couple of friends lock themselves in a room until they make the game. We're talking about multi-billion (with a B) companies that care only about profit and make the same game year after year. Those are the ones setting standards and affecting the most people. Most of the profits go to CEOs. They are the real problem in this era of preorders and sponsored reviews. Good games don't necessarily sell good, games with big enough hype do. Anything Star Wars will sell, anything CoD will sell, anything Lord of the Rings will sell, no matter how good the game is.

 

[Couchpotato]

Metro Author called Witcher Author an "Old Fool" & "Ungrateful Schmuck".

Remember he is suing CD Projekt Red for six million.

Link -https://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40980

 

[joxer]

What? Metro author is suing CDpr?! Definetly bs.
Also, "old fool" is bs. "Old fart" wouldn't be.

 

[Couchpotato]

What? Metro author is suing CDpr?! Definetly bs.
Also, "old fool" is bs. "Old fart" wouldn't be.

Nope the Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski is suing CD Projekt Red becuse he took a small lump sum for the game rights, and well it was the worst decision of his life.

"They offered me a percentage of their profits. I said, 'No, there will be no profit at all - give me all my money right now! The whole amount. It was stupid. I was stupid enough to leave everything in their hands because I didn't believe in their success. But who could foresee their success? I couldn't."

Subject: Receipt of a demand for payment submitted on behalf of Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski

Legal basis: Art. 17 of the Market Abuse Regulation _MAR_ – inside information
The Management Board of CD PROJEKT S.A. with a registered office in Warsaw, Jagiellońska 74, hereby announces that on 1 October 2018 the Company received an official demand for payment filed by plenipotentiaries of Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski.

The notice indicates that Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski expects payment of additional royalties beyond what had been contractually agreed upon between himself and the Company. The contents of the notice are attached to this report.

In the Company’s opinion the demands expressed in the notice are groundless with regard to their merit as well as the stipulated amount. The Company had legitimately and legally acquired copyright to Mr. Andrzej Sapkowski’s work, i.a. insofar as is required for its use in games developed by the Company. All liabilities payable by the Company in association therewith have been properly discharged.

It is the Company’s will to maintain good relations with authors of works which have inspired CD PROJEKT RED’s own creations. Consequently, the Board will go to great lengths to ensure amicable resolution of this dispute; however, any such resolution must be respectful of previously expressed intents of both parties, as well as existing contracts.

In the Company’s opinion receipt of the abovementioned demands meets the significance criterion due to the identity of the person submitting the demands.

Now we have the Metro Author calling him an ungrateful fool. He is 100% correct.

 

[joxer]

The next title doesn't really sound as an entry for this thread. Silly, crazy, cheesy, name it, like it or not, there are already other attempts of doing cloud gaming (Kongregate for example) trying to retrain the stone age "feature" of human brain - a need to have, a need to possess.
https://wccftech.com/ea-reveals-project-atlas-cloud-gaming/

Electronic Arts Reveals Project Atlas, Their Vision for Cloud Gaming

Well then, ask why is it here then. Because it's not the title that stinks. It's EA rep.

In a lengthy blog post published on Medium, Chief Technology Officer Ken Moss shared the first details on Project Atlas, something that over a thousand EA employees are working on right now. To begin with, the goal is to unlock the creative potential of game developers thanks to the power of cloud computing and AI.

Etc etc, I got sick while reading the whole quoted blog. Almost every sentence feels like a failed preacher of a religion noone believes in. Here's just one more example:

You can dream, turn your own vision into reality, and share your creation with your friends or the whole world.

No, although reads like one, that is not facebook advertisment.
And for the xth time, I have visions only when I'm on heavy drugs. I know some people can have visions without taking substances, but those are locked up (or are gunning schools). Or, it seems, work for EA.

Is it just luck EA is not the only company in gaming business? If it is, we should consider us very lucky.

 

[Couchpotato]

Wow that old image from E3 2018 was right.

Welcome your new overlord.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Why is it OK in this industry to have unregulated overtime when such thing is regulated elsewhere?

Well, that's a thing I ask myself all of the time as well. I blame capitalism for that. Greed from the owners.

 

[you]

The concept is interesting (using the distributing computing to have a much more complex game) but it only scales if everyone plays the same game (i.e, mmo) which (for myself) destroys the idea. Btw this is not much different than many current multiplayer games in which you have a client that talks to a server. There is nothing that prevents the server from being distributed (or ea terms in the cloud) which makes it a bit perplex as to why you need to 'stream' the game unless 'stream' here does not refer to video (h.265 or similar) but rather they are just calling the chit-chat between client/server a 'stream' (which is a technical term that is used for data flowing over a socket). But if that is the case then what the freak are they actually doing ?

The next title doesn't really sound as an entry for this thread. Silly, crazy, cheesy, name it, like it or not, there are already other attempts of doing cloud gaming (Kongregate for example) trying to retrain the stone age "feature" of human brain - a need to have, a need to possess.
https://wccftech.com/ea-reveals-project-atlas-cloud-gaming/


Well then, ask why is it here then. Because it's not the title that stinks. It's EA rep.

Etc etc, I got sick while reading the whole quoted blog. Almost every sentence feels like a failed preacher of a religion noone believes in. Here's just one more example:

No, although reads like one, that is not facebook advertisment.
And for the xth time, I have visions only when I'm on heavy drugs. I know some people can have visions without taking substances, but those are locked up (or are gunning schools). Or, it seems, work for EA.

Is it just luck EA is not the only company in gaming business? If it is, we should consider us very lucky.

 

[joxer]

https://www.pcgamer.com/ea-imagines-a-world-where-games-are-no-longer-bound-by-device-or-cpu-or-gpu/

"We are planning for the future," he adds in a Q&A later in the call. "We see a world where games are no longer bound by device or CPU or GPU. We see a world where they span across platforms, across business models, across geographies."

I'm seriously starting to think EA is on some heavy drugs even I'm avoiding.
Wither that or they're talking about phonegames.

 

[duerer]

https://www.pcgamer.com/ea-imagines-a-world-where-games-are-no-longer-bound-by-device-or-cpu-or-gpu/

I'm seriously starting to think EA is on some heavy drugs even I'm avoiding.
Wither that or they're talking about phonegames.

Actually, this is no BS. This is a fairly inevitable way how the Biz develops:

In Japan, Nintendo already experiments with Capcom and UBI (a stream-playable Resident Evil 7 and AC:Odyssey are in closed beta)

In the West, Microsoft is getting more and more focused on streaming technology, and adding "perfect" game controllers to phones and tablets, while Google has announced Project Stream, where you can play AAA-games in your browser window.

Actually, it is not hard to figure out where all this leads to.
If you are still clueless, then remember, I've said it first, right here
Games will be played via streaming and thus games will become 100% service.
(Say hello to Netflix!)