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Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Studio posted:

So, that's not a pattern. GMs went form saying "hey you can have your lgbt guilds just don't talk about them" to "hey your guild is fine but I don't have a way to stop the automated tools from doing this again." They're both problems, but one can be ascribed much more maliciously. The other is more of an oversight - automated reporting tools tend to be really good for fast responses. In the case of name reporting though, a GM should've easily been able to flag a name as a appropriate and immune from autoban. That's an oversight from Blizzard, but without the malice of "don't talk about lgbt."

"Oh it's the system we're in now that's at fault, we can't do anything about it" is still pretty damning!

also they don't have anything to mark it as exempt because

quote:

...customer service had warned them that player reports may see it automatically changed again in the future if other players continue to report it, as there is no way to prevent that from happening.

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Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Kith posted:

yep, and the confederate flag is still all over the place in starcraft 2, unrelated to the faction.

They can't take those flags out now, they're Starcraft heritage.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
Unit testing is a good thing to do, but they should be done alongside real people doing testing too. Only unit testing leaves your quality in the hands of whoever wrote the tests, and won't get more creative or give feedback on how the game looks/feels. QA is essential for games testing and I wouldn't be surprised if the incompetent management at AGS thought they could innovate themselves out of needing QA.

Edit: While I'm here in the Games Dysfunction thread, I'd like to make a general shoutout to any place that does hire QA to pay and treat them well because holy poo poo does this industry treat them like poo poo.

Dieting Hippo fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Nov 27, 2021

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Endorph posted:

the hosed up part is the gun arrest is the one thing i cant blame boogie for

to be fair both people involved were ginormous assholes that were egging each other on in a barfight "YOU WANNA GO BRO?" way, but over twitter

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
https://twitter.com/ABetterABK/status/1468943518248980486?s=20

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
https://twitter.com/TristanACooper/status/1469115364953014272?s=20

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Poil posted:

Speaking of exploitation and abuse. What's better than being paid scraps for it? Why, paying tuition for it of course!

Jimquisition talks about DigiPen: The College That Teaches Crunch Culture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4Nykj5cw2c

I watched it this morning, and memories of going there 15 years ago all came rising back up. Students crying in the bathrooms during finals, some just refusing to come back in to classes, and that was just freshman year. The video also doesn't dip into the art degree side which was rife with its own bullshit.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Pseudoscorpion posted:

Ooh, a video on my alma mater. Very excited to see what Sterling has to say about this. My own stance on Digipen has long been 'I don't regret going but hoo boy if I knew what I was getting into, I never would have gone in the first place'. Eager to see what particular instances of malfeasance they mention.

Yeah, all through the video I was going "I am not shocked that this poo poo is still happening and is getting worse." The place is a crunch factory that will take whatever cash they can get from students while touting their dropout rate internally as "those who made it are the best of the best".

edit: Popping this in just because it was at the bottom of the previous page:

Dieting Hippo posted:

I watched it this morning, and memories of going there 15 years ago all came rising back up. Students crying in the bathrooms during finals, some just refusing to come back in to classes, and that was just freshman year. The video also doesn't dip into the art degree side which was rife with its own bullshit.

Dieting Hippo fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Dec 13, 2021

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Pseudoscorpion posted:

e: Yeah, sounds about right. It was a little light on some details that I would really have wanted (I'm not exactly sure who the 'professor who worked at Nintendo' is, for instance, though there were multiple professors that almost fit that exact mold). The video focuses mostly on the design program, which was definitely mismanaged during my college years. I was in the CS program which was not as disastrously mismanaged, but at its worst I was still doing 80-100 hour weeks to keep up with my project classes and my 20+ credit courseload.

I'm almost certain I know who that professor is, they were considered a great filter for sophomore year that failed out loads of students. Eventually they were moved up to junior year classes, then moved over to the Singapore campus.

Also, funny thing about the Game Design degree! I was there the years before it was implemented and knew a few people involved in its creation. It was a student-led initiative to have a single degree that bridged the gap between the RTIS and BFA degrees. Eventually the professor who was helping that left, and the administration took the degree and made it two separate ones (one again a programmer/art split) which defeated the whole purpose of a degree in the middle of the two. After I left I heard about the hot mess it became, which was supremely disappointing.

Pseudoscorpion posted:

Yeah, the BFA drama du jour when I attended (2011-2015) was a policy the chair of the program installed that we coloquially called 'one strike instant death'. The chair wasn't happy that BFA students were skipping coursework to work on GAM projects, so they instituted a policy of 'any missed (unexcused) assignments = instant F in the class'. That went over about as well as one could imagine.

Say the name Raymond Yan around any BFA student and you'll see them flinch. Dude would institute arbitrary requirements on art assignments for classes to match "what the industry wanted". This changed every semester (or on a whim) from what I heard from my BFA friends. I would not be entirely shocked if he was the one that came up with the batshit instant F policy.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
it got taken down to anonymize photos/names, it'll be back up later

edit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vorBajs3-yE

Dieting Hippo fucked around with this message at 02:12 on Dec 14, 2021

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

ErrEff posted:

Man who usually makes the headlines for being wrong about stuff decides to spend a quarter of an hour defending his good buddy Bobby Kotick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cn0g3NofnQ

the universal constant of "everything michael pachter says is wrong" still holding strong

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Vegetable posted:

Honestly, NFTs are no more a sham than people getting, I dunno, autographed books or certified movie prop replicas or Pokémon card misprints or the brick from the Berlin wall. It’s not about the actual thing but the symbolism or the rarity of it. If they fix the carbon impact (and it’s already totally possible), then what the heck, go for it. Giant corporations will benefit but legitimate artists as well. And if anyone doesn’t want to participate that’s fine as well.

They've been likened to buying a plot of land on the moon from some random-rear end company that sells those, but at least with moon plots they give you a printed certificate you can hold in your hands. And environmental impacts get worse as NFTs go on, not better!

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
https://twitter.com/stephentotilo/status/1516473093405003783

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
Yeah the article's super light and no companies are providing comment. The complaint is linked to from the article, but it's not much other than the main bulletpoints.

quote:

8(a)(3) Discharge (Including Layoff and Refusal to Hire (not salting))
8(a)(1) Coercive Actions (Surveillance, etc)
8(a)(1) Concerted Activities (Retaliation, Discharge, Discipline)
8(a)(1) Coercive Statements (Threats, Promises of Benefits, etc.)

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
Plenty more dirty laundry getting aired out. This poo poo is endemic.

https://twitter.com/iamNode/status/1516517424564097024

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Freakazoid_ posted:

My brother worked as a tester for nintendo in the late oughties and that's exactly what he went through. He had to file for unemployment for those two months every year. If he wasn't living with our parents that would've been pretty devastating.

I've had to deal with similar poo poo in the past, and it was not fun having to deal with unemployment every year. COBRA is a loving joke when you're already making close to minimum wage, your unemployment payout doesn't meet your income you had while working, and you choose to have your taxes taken out so you're not screwed come tax time.

If anyone's interested, I made a tweet thread a few years back that talks about this situation that contractors are put in. Spoiler: This poo poo Never Ends

https://twitter.com/dietinghippo/status/1144492856800731137

Edit: Additional context for the above tweet thread, that was when all the game companies were crowing about how they weren't doing crunch and that their employees don't work more than 40 hours on average! This of course excluded any contract workers that aren't "officially" employed and regularly do way more than 40.

Dieting Hippo fucked around with this message at 00:47 on Apr 20, 2022

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Lazy Robot posted:

You'd think I would know how many people are in my department, but if you have followed this at all, they separated us and spread us out across the company.

Super glad that you all were able to still get the vote through. Now they have a union at multiple company locations.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Abhorrence posted:

I mean, time is precious. I, personally, do not care if some dude who I have never met, and probably never will, is racist. It doesn't affect me and I have no influence over it. So if someone wants me to believe that, it behooves them to present the information concisely, not tell me how they're besmerching the legacy of Halo, and are racist. Because among other things it makes me think that THEY think those two things have the same weight.

Hi, welcome to the thread about how the Games industry is filled with bigots who get away with poo poo because no one will ever meet them and why would it affect them anyway.

Dude literally caught a permaban for this racism:

https://twitter.com/haileyx24/status/1540442441047851010

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Dr. Fishopolis posted:

e: in fact, the premise of the complaint is that the twitter thread sucks because it makes it easy to write off the bigotry that's actually happening because of all the extraneous bullshit.

My premise is why write off actual credible bigotry for any reason?

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

sebmojo posted:

being banned from resetera is not a high bar to clear

Yeah but weird twitter poster aside, the dude did say the thing and I'd assume at-minimum he'd eat a ban here too for it.

also yikes kiwifarms

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
Blow also believes that COVID was developed in a lab as a bioweapon, he's got a lot of brilliant opinions on poo poo he doesn't know.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

ColdPie posted:

I wonder how much Activision et al donate to Republicans.

they actively hired people from the Trump administration, probably a shitload

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Achmed Jones posted:

if a reputable system of record - say the smithsonian - would allow artists to register their works, artists could point to that ledger as an easy way to prove ownership.

you can do this without NFTs. it's called a database. NFTs are just a database with extra steps.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Endorph posted:

Worth noting that this isn't really 'at nintendo of america.'

Of course, NoA turning a blind eye to a company it contracts out to being a shady place to work for is bad, I'm not defending them at all, but it's important distinction. There is mention of one employee who's full time at NoA, though.

Disclaimer because it's a tense topic: I'm just giving information to clarify why it's not so divided between NOA and the contractors.

With this situation, the contract employees work onsite and under NOA personnel. The staffing companies don't do much past placement of workers and taking instructions from NOA on employee actions (like firing). Not absolving guilt from the staffing companies, but Nintendo does have more control over the contractors than one would assume from hearing 'contractor'.

Feels Villeneuve posted:

given how poorly the workers there are treated, i'd imagine they're also used because of low labor costs.

i don't think that's the intent of the post but using subcontractors isn't something you do to give yourself deniability or something.

Both are true in the industry! Contractors are usually on limited-time contracts (a year or less) with mandated month-long breaks between contracts to maintain a legal distance from the contractors being considered "employees" (thus being able to claim benefits). The contracting companies also maintain a culpability if something wrong does happen so companies can shift any issues that occur onto them.

Dieting Hippo fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Aug 16, 2022

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Feels Villeneuve posted:

that said idk how much of this is really worthwhile to hash out without knowing like, the literal org chart on what was happening

With this setup you'll have the contractors as the general work force performing testing, with FTEs in management in the department and at least one FTE on each team acting as a lead for the group performing tasks like interacting with developers or determining assignments for the contractors. Occasionally a contractor will also be designated a "lead" as well but this is at a much lower pay rate than what an FTE will earn, and will still be below the FTE on that team.


Also on terminology, "contracting" here does refer to permatemps that work almost-year-long contracts with month-long breaks between contracts. They are not paid nearly as well as other "contractors/consultants" that are FTEs of the staffing company they belong to.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
Seeing $250/hr rates for a Union VA gig is pretty misleading since a lot of time is spent outside of those recording sessions just auditioning and looking for work. That can either go unpaid, or could be $150/audition via union rates under specific conditions. If these VAs were working a solid 40 hours a week this would be a different tune, but it's gig work with availability that changes on a whim.

A pretty good twitter thread explaining it:

https://twitter.com/MOOMANiBE/status/1582103755172237312

A huge issue here is that the union itself sets a minimum rate that is meant to allow union actors to work on smaller budget works without coming out empty-handed. However, those minimum rates are then used by companies that know full well they can afford to pay more, but are getting away with paying what is essentially minimum wage. There is no SAG-AFTRA video game VO rate that changes based on the income of a product or company, nor requirements for residuals. Hell, Sean Chiplock (Revali in BOTW) revealed that he's made more voicing characters in Freedom Planet than anything for BOTW because he was paid in royalties. Same for his two lines in Detective Pikachu.

https://twitter.com/sonicmega/status/1581321513067683840
https://twitter.com/sonicmega/status/1581330480179208192

The union should be fighting for its members to get royalties, or for them to earn more per session that offsets a lack of royalties or scales with expected gross/net profits. If the companies aren't willing to pay those rates/royalties, the union should strike as they have in the past for similar video game industry VO shenanigans. If the union leadership doesn't want to do this, they are failing their members in the union.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

quote:

The tensions last crested during contract negotiations in 2016 when the union representing many voice actors, the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, orchestrated a strike that lasted nearly a year. One of the sticking points was residuals, meaning compensation for actors when sales of a game outperform expectations. Voice actors gave up that fight in exchange for receiving bonuses based on the number of sessions they work.

Yeah, that's a very sad "called it" after my last post :smith: $15k is still a drop in the bucket for a multi-million dollar franchise.

Also seconding:

a cartoon duck posted:

if you wanna follow taylor's advice and donate to charity, consider donating to a trans charity

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

Stux posted:

called what. if that number is correct thats way over the union minimum.

I was referring to residuals as part of compensation for VO gigs that I had brought up earlier. The union ultimately dropped pushing for them during the last negotiations in exchange for bonuses, but that still won't meet as much of a payout as getting residuals from sales.

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

my cat is norris posted:

It still seems like a much more reasonable wage and above Union standards if it was really only 3 - 4 sessions of voicework. To put it in another perspective: at 8 hours per session, $4k works out to about $500/hr -- maybe not much compared to the series' overall earnings, but still nothing to scoff at in my opinion. Something here isn't lining up, and until Helena provides more concrete evidence for her side of the story, I am much more inclined to accept Bloomberg's reporting as being closer to the truth of things.

That the Union doesn't push for residuals or any other benefits to VAs is a shortcoming of the Union, not Platinum Games. I do wonder if PG would have further entertained that residuals negotiation if she hadn't shot for the moon with that 6-figure salary ask. Not that she was wrong to do so by any means, you should always try to get what you deserve!

I mentioned before that hourly rate is pretty deceptive for gig work. That doesn't factor in time spent searching for new gigs and auditioning. VOs aren't typically hired on as full time, if it was $500/hr for a solid 40 hour/week full time job then that'd be way more fair. Gig work suuuuucks.

Also agreed, the Union itself should be holding out for members to get residuals, but it's super unfortunate that those were dropped during the last negotiations. The members should be pushing the union to go back to the table and re-negotiate for residuals regardless of the work.

Edit: Changed $50 to $500

Dieting Hippo fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Oct 18, 2022

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

quiggy posted:

Did they put out a similar statement after Marty made his Reddit post? I'm assuming I know the answer, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

Nope!

Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO
I don't know if this video's been posted in this thread, but it's still hell of relevant because it's still lovely tactics to prey on people that games still do!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNjI03CGkb4

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Dieting Hippo
Jan 5, 2006

THIS IS NOT A PROPER DIET FOR A HIPPO

BeanpolePeckerwood posted:

L4D was largely a functional game within Valve and TR were contracted to make it look pretty. Turtle Rock spending decades riding the PR hype on L4D is wild.

L4D came from a Counter-Strike zombie mod that Turtle Rock was working on called Terror-Strike. They eventually removed all the Counter-Strike references, made the zombies faster, then presented it to Valve who agreed to fund and publish it.

Sources:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160305142040/http://www.1up.com/features/left-4-dead-afterthoughts
https://www.polygon.com/2014/2/3/5373148/turtle-rock-studio-heads-discuss-conception-of-left-4-dead-and-evolve

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