I don’t think his career is over. His brother is Porter Robinson, a pretty well-respected (and busy) producer and musician. That tie isn’t going to dry up because of this. I think Nick will probably take some time off, then get back into video/audio production. He won’t work for Polygon, and he may not work in videogames audio/video, but there’s plenty of work out there for a good video production guy.
Still don’t even know what he did. Hit on people on twitter? Or something worse that can’t be overtly mentioned in the public exchanges because it may embarrass/hurt people.
As far as I can tell it might have been a case of “send nudes and it might help a 10/10 score on your next game” because it doesnt look like he was hitting on vidya groupies (if such a thing exists)
If guys who works at Polygon has groupies, I’m officially going to kill myself.
PewDiePie says the Nazi stuff was just a misunderstanding. He didn’t know there were real Nazis out there!
“At this point, I’d really just want to distance myself from all of this,” Kjellberg said. “I remember back when everything happened in February, I was sort of like, ‘I mean, they’re just jokes. There’s not actual Nazis out there, what are you talking about?’ And then I look at this, and I’m like oh, I see. OK!”
“It sort of gave me a little bit of perspective, because technically I got grouped in with these people somehow,” Kjellberg said.
“Believe it or not, I want nothing to do with these people,” Kjellberg continued. “I have no hate in my heart. I only have hate for hateful people.”
“So I thought now would be a good time as any to say, I want nothing to do with these people,” Kjellberg said. “I don’t think anyone that watches me think I’m an actual Nazi, but I know that some people might have some doubts, mainly because of all the jokes that I’ve been making.”
“I’m gonna stop doing it,” Kjellberg said. “Nazi memes are not even that funny anymore. It’s sort of a dead meme. So, just to make it clear. No more. OK? It’s not me censoring myself, it’s more like, I don’t want to be a part of this. OK? Just want to move on with my life.”
“There are actual real-life Nazis!? Who could possibly have known that? Boy, I sure do have egg on my face! Lulz. Also, these Nazi jokes are sooooo last year, amirite? Oh, well!”
Should we file that under: Millennials Ruin Satire
Seems fine.
Not sure why it took Charlottesville to prompt this perspective, when an actual Nazi killed 77 people rather closer to home not too long ago.
He should fit right in with the social justice brigade.
Somewhat funny:
Ah! Sweet! We get these every so often, but it’s been a while since the last time a veteran dev defended crunch.
Listen: someday you will find yourself Crunching on someone else’s project, hating every wasted second. You will rant and rage and pray to gods in which you don’t believe, begging them to strike down this corrupt system so that something pure and good may grow in its place. Your prayers will go unheard, but take heart — you have not been forsaken. The system is not broken; it is, in fact, working exactly as designed.
When you choose to enter a collaborative field, you become a cog in a machine. It is inevitable you will work on a project you do not like, under terrible conditions, for miserable pay. When it happens, take comfort in the knowledge that you are not being melodramatic. Your situation is truly as bad as it seems. Afterward, once you’ve stopped feeling sorry for yourself, be happy with the fact that your sacrifice is helping bring someone else’s vision to life. You may think the vision is terrible — and I’m sure it is — but even shitty ideas mean something to someone. If you find no pleasure in helping others achieve their shitty dreams, then you can always quit. Or, you can Crunch hard, keep your wits about you, and try not to lose your head. If you manage that, someday you may get to be the asshole building their dreams on the backs of those less fortunate.
Crunch is my chase, and it leads me to a high that’s like Vegas, Amsterdam and Bangkok rolled into one. See, there are few things I love more than being in a fight. It fills my need for power, pain, and righteous indignation. If I win, I’m a god. If I lose, I’m a martyr. Both feel fucking stellar. No sir, there’s nothing bad about a fight. And Crunch is a fight from start to finish. It’s the entire development process condensed into a never-ending string of dustups, like in Game of Death, starring Bruce Lee. Except instead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, you’re fighting tech, memory, art, design, publishers, players, reviewers, budgets, schedules, weekends, egos, studio closures, unpaid royalties, cultural relevance — the list goes on and on.
Walt Williams is an industry veteran, having worked on Bioshock, Civilization, Borderlands, Mafia, The Darkness, and the acclaimed, genre-bending Spec Ops: The Line. This piece is an excerpt from his first book about his experiences writing games, called Significant Zero.
I certainly have plenty of problems with Polygon, but this article is not one of them.
I read it this morning before I realized that The Internet Is Mad At Thing, and I thought it was a fairly obvious cry for help and a demonstration of how the industry’s obsession with and approval of crunch exploits addictive tendencies.
The headline is pretty provocative, as it should be, but I don’t think the subtext is very hidden beneath the surface, and that the author absolutely does not endorse or condone crunch. The author himself clarified as much since The Internet Is Mad At Him right now:
-
Hey. I’m a mess of a human being who also makes video games. I wrote a book about that. It’s a memoir, not essays or an expose. Just me. 1/
-
Crunch is destructive. It is not necessary (w/ good planning), and should not be forced on people. It is also seductive to certain types. 2/
-
For w/e reason, I’m broken in certain ways. Destroying myself to make something fills an emptiness that I can’t shake. That’s bad. 3/
-
The excerpt is from a moment in my life when I was at my lowest & giving in to my most self-destructive tendencies. 4/
-
I wanted you to see that through my eyes; to hear the things I tell myself when I consider throwing my life away for a work binge. 5/
-
Living and working that way led to a breakdown. I’m healthier now, but you know what? I still crave it. It is a CONSTANT fight for me. 6/
-
As an industry, we need to talk about crunch - how we define it, and especially how exploitative it can be. 7/
-
I didn’t go into that, b/c I didn’t want it to seem like I was forced to work this way. I did this to myself. Still do, tbh. 8/
-
And, if I’m being just really open about it, I wasn’t sure I could do that discussion justice b/c I have a hard time seeing it clearly. 9/
-
But, we’re talking now, and that’s good. My hope was that by being honest, it would encourage others to do the same. 10/
Honesty was his first mistake. People hate that.
Nothing like a bit of staged controversy to publicise your new book.
Ugh RockPaperShotgun is playing a looped non skippable video ad (with loud audio) for me.
This the same for everyone or am I just in some “lucky” cohort?
I get a static page ad for Castle Story. No audio or video.
Same as Telefrog here. I haven’t gone there for a few years, so your post was a good excuse to check it out after a while.
Thanks both! Well I suppose I should be happy. I will just hope it blows over.
I get some car ad then some chicken ad. I refuse to let the brand names into my mind.
I leave this here:
Hard-hitting investigation from Kotaku UK.