Games Journalism 2018: We're taking it back!

Some games go beyond that. Every soldier/scientist belonging to the “evil company/alliance” in Prototype sounds like a supergrim Disney villain. Seriously, you’ll see lowly guards talking about burning babies alive or something of the sort… just so Alex Mercer doesn’t look so bad. Of course, Alex Mercer will eat/consume random innocent people everywhere, but hey, he’s fighting the bad guys, and that’s just collateral damage. The sequel manages to somehow make it even worse. Fun games to play, though.

Very nice. Same basic desktop layout, but much easier on the eyes.

Downer article about a studio I really like, Telltale.

I feel like that title could be about almost any major developer.

As someone who’s worked in technology and development I think of the times I could have sidestepped into the video game industry and I’m just so glad I resisted. I realize not every company is like this, but there does just seem to be this pervading acceptance by developers that you’re just going to work crazy hours for little compensation and at the end, quite possibly be laid off. I am much happier being on the demand curve.

Recently, this story came up, which is a nice pairing with the Telltale article.

https://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/ea-spouse-14-years-later-w517096

Holy crap, that was 14 years ago?

I believe the proper phrasing would be “14 Maddens ago.”

Or 35 developer years.

That was a truly insightful peek into how they (used to) work. People were always wondering how TTG had figured out the logistics of episodic games, but it apparently really came at a price.

Yeah, I started in the game industry before moving over to the broader tech space. Looking back, I’m glad I got laid off when I did.

Good god, yes.

I have no desire whatsoever to work on games any more. Bleh.

But what about gamification?

240px-Roberto

Bwahaha! I guess that whole thing died quietly in a corner. Which is for the best.

You mean you guys don’t play Ribbon Hero every time you fire up Office?

I am betting this study will be used in one way or another in games journalism in the next month or so.

Place your bets on the spin!
“1% of all communities initiate 74% of all conflicts on Reddit.”
https://snap.stanford.edu/conflict/

Really cool article about Stardew Valley and its creator.

There’s been some push to unionize around GDC this week so I imagine this was timed to coincide with that.

Telltale is somewhat unique in the speed and scale at which they grew. It often felt like the management at Telltale were treating their sudden success like a gold rush.