“The lack of surprise should not exclude your disgust.“ Well said.

@ince55ant

2 жыл бұрын

this honestly just feels like my default setting at this point

@arobbo28

2 жыл бұрын

hear hear

@Nobbie248

2 жыл бұрын

I can make a bet on my whole bank that star field is gonna be a jank fest and we all still gonna buy it

@snakething87

2 жыл бұрын

The gaming industry has broken my disgust organ.

@DavidRichardson153

2 жыл бұрын

Indeed. If anything, it has only deepened my disgust. When something is egregiously bad, you might hope that the absolute worst practices were not in place - a naive notion, yes, but an understandable one. So to learn that all of your worst fears are not only fully justified but completely correct, it only makes things even worse.

Imagine being strong-armed into 60-hour work weeks as a bug tester and the game you're testing is Fallout 76. That'd be like signing up as an exterminator, then turning up to a mansion made out of hornet's nests.

@peterclarke7240

2 жыл бұрын

Giant, mutated stingwings, no less, and you've only got a pipe pistol.

@cleanerben9636

2 жыл бұрын

and it's the hornets that called asking you to eliminate the slightly smaller nests inside theirs

@badass6300

2 жыл бұрын

Well you had like 3-4 years of paid vacation, before the graphics were ready for the bug testing to start. Graphics are the main problem with AAA games(well outside of human nature and greed) in terms of development cost they are 90-95%+ of the development budget and they don't get ready until a few months before release, so open world games can't be tested properly.

@HendrikRombach

2 жыл бұрын

@@badass6300 "paid vacation", lol. Most of the time testers get hired ad-hoc, then fired when the game is out.

@cleanerben9636

2 жыл бұрын

@@badass6300 that's not how bug testing works

shoutout to my games design university tutors who said "crunch is an inevitable part of games design" and actively encouraged students to sleep under desks past the computer labs' closing time to wake up and immediately get back to work. y i k e s

@AegixDrakan

2 жыл бұрын

Holy fuckin' shit that guy was an asshole. 0_o It's definitely not inevitable, and I hate that he encouraged that behaviour.

@khodges72

2 жыл бұрын

Jesus

@sechran

2 жыл бұрын

Executives see the demand for entry into the industry as an excuse to run their shops like a 19th century coal magnate. As much as I love gaming, I'm 100% certain actual employment in the industry would lead me to hate it, myself, and existence as a whole.

@andreicrisan5526

2 жыл бұрын

Wow, what a bunch of clowns! My game design university tutors basically told us the exact opposite - that we should aim for small/indie studios because we'd be far more likely to be treated like human beings there than at any AAA studio! And it's true - well, at least in my case. I guess I can't speak for anyone else, but the small studio that I work for (in the UK) treats us all really well and has a strict 'crunch doesn't work, we don't do crunch!' policy. As much as I appreciate Jim/Steph doing these exposés on the s**ttier practices in the games industry, I do wish they'd showcase some positive examples from time to time as well.

@devilmikey00

2 жыл бұрын

American corporations are desperate to emulate Japanese corporate culture where all of what you described is 100% normal every day shit and the vast majority see it not only as normal but frowned upon if you don't partake.

I've gotten to a point where if I hear of a company treating its QA testers like shit, I immediately want nothing to do with them. They seem to be the "canary in the coal mine", at the risk of making it sound horrible, but it's true. If you can't treat your QA people with the same respect you treat your executives, you have no reason to be in business. Period.

@thomasgiles2876

2 жыл бұрын

As a QA, I'll tell you right now, nobody treats the QAs well. Developers can sit on their hands and wait until the last minute to do their work and then when when it comes time to cut staff over the missing work, developers will argue QAs can't meet deadlines without dev but dev can meet deadlines without QA. I've had my entire department laid off while the developers were playing Nintendo Switch and planning pingpong tournaments in office. There's a reason QA departments unionize and devs just tweet "Learn to Code"

@OrgaNik_Music

2 жыл бұрын

@@thomasgiles2876 QA is not very enviable position to be in, I guess. You get shit on by the company, and then you get shit on by the public too for not "doing your job". Even though you did.

@Bozzyshy

2 жыл бұрын

You won't be buying any games if you avoid games by companies that abuse their staff it seems. Which tbh I'm tempted just not buy anything new and get through my backlog as that would probably last me the rest of my life

@hazukichanx408

2 жыл бұрын

That's the reality the privileged few are pushing for... where human beings are just that, canaries in a coal mine; or even less, they are the coal, to be burnt up, burnt out, and then shovelled out in the street as a pile of ash that used to be a person with hopes, dreams, physical and emotional health. It's not disrespectful to take note of this reality - it's disrespectful (and harmful) when people bend over backwards _not to._ We should not ignore this, and we should not accept it.

@ince55ant

2 жыл бұрын

also QA then have zero reason to do anything more than the bare minimum. which, given its bethesda, never bodes well for quality

It always pisses me off when fans side with the companies rather than the developers. It's like in their mind Bobby Kotick created Call of Duty in a void.

@1IGG

2 жыл бұрын

Egoistical people being egoistical.

@Zeverinsen

2 жыл бұрын

Bobby Pockets.

Abusive crunch = the default working environment of most games companies now. Unionizing is the only way to push back against this shit and change the industry.

@Sahdirah

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly. There isn’t enough legal resources to investigate every company. Look how much work it takes to take on just Activision. Unionization, across the industry, is the only thing with any hope of hitting all these companies.

@edwardaustin4369

2 жыл бұрын

I'm in a union and we still have to crunch to get the job done when necessary. If working more is required to get the job done, the union make an agreement and crunch will ensue. More people keep existing and those people want stuff. Crunch will only get worse until everything is automated then we will all complain that there's no work for people to do.

@Alicendre

2 жыл бұрын

@@edwardaustin4369 There is a difference between occasional, necessary crunch that is generally part of a creative project, and the kind of crunch the game industry often operates on - systemic, generally unpaid overtime that lasts for years. Simply put, it is a failure of management. If your company does the latter and your union still bends the knee, you have a shitty union.

@edwardaustin4369

2 жыл бұрын

@@Alicendre was unpaid overtime even mentioned in this video? No, and as for your union comment, I can tell you are not nor have you ever been part of a union.

@Alicendre

2 жыл бұрын

​@@edwardaustin4369 I can tell you're not part of the game industry if you think 100 hour workweeks are generally paid fairly. If you read the articles Stephanie quoted, most confirm that; I think epic games is the only one where overtime was paid.

" . . . a series I previously enjoyed" describes most of my gaming and other media experiences in the last several years. Publishers burn through developers (human workers) and "properties" faster than I do an overpriced tank of gas in my 13yo car - and make a killing for the shareholders at the top while everyone else suffers.

@marciamakesmusic

2 жыл бұрын

@Jetsetbob2 so instead of crunching paid employees, they should have made people pay for a game that they then have to fix on their own time? somehow I don't think this is the revolutionary solution you think it is lmfao

@kingsleycy3450

2 жыл бұрын

Increasingly companies are struggling to find the balance between creative artistry and corporate interest. They have gotten way too greed blind.

@mjc0961

2 жыл бұрын

@Jetsetbob2 How about we don't encourage Bethesda to keep relying on modders to fix their games for free? Having people work for free is as bad as crunching paid employees.

@mjc0961

2 жыл бұрын

@Jetsetbob2 I remember how broken Skyrim was. Had the game break and become unplayable several times, requiring console commands or just reloading and hoping it works this time to finish it. It's why I only played Skyrim that one time and have never gone back to it again.

@SoFarSoGoodSoWhat14

2 жыл бұрын

Indies indies indies! AAA gaming is the worst of the industry

Everytime I hear someone defend this disgusting practice, I bring up Karoshi: literally "overwork death". Japan has had an endemic of people literally working themselves to death for decades now. This practice is literally hazardous to people's health.

@SlapstickGenius23

Жыл бұрын

India probably originated Karoshi culture. It exported Karoshi to the Sinosphere, which in turn exported it to Japan via both present day Koreas (North and South). Karoshi is terrifying.

Sounds about right. With the amount of "roadmaps" they missed over the years it makes perfect sense that they were abusing those staff to breaking point to try and achieve unrealistic goals. 4 star legendaries and pets were suspiciously missing from the last road map and it's because the people who were working on those things left the company. Now I know why. Well I already suspected but now I have it confirmed. Colour me extremely unsurprised.

@poilboiler

2 жыл бұрын

Given the accuracy and trustworthiness of all the roadmaps, I would not get into a car with any publisher.

@fpedrosa2076

2 жыл бұрын

The report mentioned that Fallout 76 has been bleeding Bethesda dry of talent and leading many people to quit because of the sheer scale of mismanagement and stress. People forget it's not a company that make games. People make games. And since these people are usually treated as disposable by the game industry they come and go with very little fanfare and the result is different teams making different games. I've heard that Bethesda was actually pretty decent at retaining employees... until Fallout 76, that is. Shame.

@UlshaRS

2 жыл бұрын

I wonder how much they are paying to the media outlets that praise 76 for its wonderous turn around ALA No Man's Sky and how the game is totally awesome now. Really you guys, is totes best games now! Much play!

@poilboiler

2 жыл бұрын

@@UlshaRS Much play, much pay!

@Tester-sh1mn

2 жыл бұрын

@@UlshaRS Tbf it isn’t a bad game but isn’t a good game either. But hearing this makes you wonder how much better this game would’ve been if they actually listened to their employees…

I was surprised that the crunch wasn’t exposed earlier, I had just assumed it was crunchy as hell due to the shoddy nature of the release.

@livelongandtroll9108

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, we all assumed. The cruelest irony of the game industry: there's no way a game is released that much broken without crunch. People work themselves to exhaustion for a broken game.

@zedorda1337

2 жыл бұрын

The "crunch" was purely on the play testers. People just sitting there playing a game and filling in some paperwork. All were paid volunteers for fuck sakes.

@Mernom

2 жыл бұрын

@@zedorda1337 they don't just play the game for fun. They need to test every aspect of the game, and look for ways to break it so that it can be fixed. Then they need to identify exactly WHAT made it to break, so that they can write up a comprehensive report.

@livelongandtroll9108

2 жыл бұрын

​@@zedorda1337 Both assertions are wrong. 1- If don't think it is a big deal, then strap yourself to your workplace for multiple hours of overtime, if you have one. 2 - "Multiple sources from *both design and QA* stated that crunch on Fallout 76 was mandatory."

@Urelasir

2 жыл бұрын

@@zedorda1337 Thats truly talking off your Burt.

A reminder that the same studio also just put out more details of Starfield yesterday. Mayhaps let us keep this video in mind and its core examples of crunch and dev abuse (QA staff should absolutely be considered devs as they contribute to the development process) as we go into the PR cycle of Fallout 4 in Space.

@Sahdirah

2 жыл бұрын

+

@poilboiler

2 жыл бұрын

More like fallout 76 in space.

@SpottedHares

2 жыл бұрын

Fallout 4.1 but with space on the side.

@NeOmega83

2 жыл бұрын

No Man's Skyrim you mean?

@resileaf9501

2 жыл бұрын

Don't let the shiny new Bethesda game distract you from the fact that Bethesda is shit, folks. We love to meme about Todd Howard, but remember that he has lied to you before, and he will lie to you again. Don't touch Starfield until you know for certain it was made ethically.

Nearly 4 years later and this game is STILL RAISING NEW CONTROVERSIES. I think Bethesda just won an award for longest reoccurring fuck up from a single game in history.

@RottenMuLoT

2 жыл бұрын

In the mean time, Blizzard got the "lowest ever user score for a PC game" award on Metacritic today. Sony won the equivalent honor with Scam Turismo 7. 2022 is definitely looking to be one of those great years.

@adriantallent8557

2 жыл бұрын

A "lifetime achievement award" no doubt.

@iami3rian394

2 жыл бұрын

I'm not saying you're wrong, ESPECIALLY considering the winner, but I'm 99% sure that awared goes to to oblivion's horse armor. Outrageous, to pay $2 for a purely cosmetic item.... and yet, somehow here we are.

@earthwingbomber

2 жыл бұрын

They make Konami look downright quaint...

Developer abuse. Developer abuse never changes.

@edwardaustin4369

2 жыл бұрын

They make more money than me and I work way harder. Stop victimizing AAA game developers, they are well paid. Yeah horror stories exist, but this isn't one of them.

@xXEGPXx

2 жыл бұрын

@@edwardaustin4369 Well considering Bethesda has more money than many countries they could hire some more people and stop crunching, they just choose not too.

@Urelasir

2 жыл бұрын

@@edwardaustin4369 How do you know you work way harder? You work way harder than all the AAA game devs in the industry?

@edwardaustin4369

2 жыл бұрын

@@xXEGPXx just hire more people? Then what do they do with those people when the games done?

@edwardaustin4369

2 жыл бұрын

@@Urelasir and I would say I do work harder than someone who sits in front of a keyboard all day.

You could say that Fallout 76 has 16 times the workforce abuse.

I've started tagging games from abusive companies with the tag "AAAbusive company" in Steam, maybe if more people did it can become a "popular" tag visible to others.

@gamewrit0058

2 жыл бұрын

Excellent idea! Thanks for sharing!

So Homeworld 3 was delayed recently. The reason the devs gave for it was that they wanted to AVOID crunch. That's a shining example to developers everywhere.

@KA-vs7nl

Жыл бұрын

Maybe games need a crunch rating

@SlapstickGenius23

Жыл бұрын

@@KA-vs7nl definitely!

If only governments actually cared about workers and curtailed these companies, because companies will never do the right thing themselves.

@umbralupus6488

2 жыл бұрын

It's the corporations who give the politicians their paychecks, so...

@GuyIncognitoIV

2 жыл бұрын

B-b-but the maRKeT woULD reGuLatE itSeLf wIThOuT gUbmInT

@kaollachan

2 жыл бұрын

@@GuyIncognitoIV it regulat for the rich to make money liek always

@Xxnightwalk1

2 жыл бұрын

yeah, almost like governments should write "workers' rights" and enable labour unions

@1inchPunchBowl

2 жыл бұрын

The EU is an interesting example of this.

The “emergency testing a new build that has no changes” is particularly telling for me. So much of this crunch work is just wasted effort caused by bad management. Between exhausted people being less effective and management being downright incompetent it’s not even getting the work done. It’s purely done to satisfy the cultural demands of a generation of shit managers and unreasonable exec demands. The solution here starts at the top. The industry needs a new management culture where demands are reasonable, competence is both expected (from the managers and execs) and respected (in the staff), and project plans are realistic (and by extension actually exist in the first place).

@scoutbane1651

2 жыл бұрын

Even more than a better managment culture, it needs workers having more input on theit workplace. Be that by removing the monarchic leeches at the top and voting on managers, or if it's a small company like Motion Twin that made Dead Cells they don't really need management anyway, or maybe more unionization (scandinavian countries have highest quality life for a reason) etc. Workers have way too little input on their actual work while making a piece of media, of course the resulting game is going to be garbage.

@stanknight9159

2 жыл бұрын

@@scoutbane1651 Yeah this is true. Just adding to what you are saying, it's much easier to communicate if you have a team of 10 than it is to communicate to a team of 1,000. So in a way smaller teams have more agility and better communication. Now a bigger team might be able to make "bigger things" but then again, per what you said, it also means there are 1,000 different threads for someone to 'screw up' or 1,000 ways to inject bad code.

@AllisonIsLivid

2 жыл бұрын

That new management culture is created by Unionization. The execs and managers all get to team up, it's only fair the actual workers do too. And once they do, they're the ones with the power, because the workers not only do the work, they have the means to advocate for themselves. And if things are as bad as this? The Union doesn't NEED the managers for anything. The Union can run development through a co-op organizational model, ensuring no Vampire executives get free reign to prey on the employees. It's just the developers, working together, and sharing the wealth. It's the only sane way to run a creative industry like game design. "It just works!"

@anon9469

2 жыл бұрын

Like they said: crunch is normal. Crunch is apparently so normal that companies will crunch regardless of if crunching is in any way a good idea, because that's How It's Done.

@OctEddie

2 жыл бұрын

But don't worry, management was sure to write-up those QA people who didn't test the new "fixed" stuff properly. Too many fucking managers doing nothing more than tripping on power.

can I just say, since everything else seems to be noted by the other comments: what an *outstanding* job on that Fallout screen for the live segments! reading the additional info screen, like "surprise; surprise -50", "men with caps added to enemy factions" and "ADHD perk active" made me smile and at least boiled down a little my absolute fury (which at my current point is a bit pointless) about things. the animations and the fast travel were also on point. ...kind of want to play the original Fallout now

@charlottewolery558

2 жыл бұрын

So do I. Only reason I don't is mods are rare and almost never modular. Only good thing Bethesda ever did was make their games modular with data packets that can swapped and mixed and matched

@NiallSkye

2 жыл бұрын

I was just coming to look to see if someone had pointed this out. It gave me a good laugh to see all the little messages pop up.

@zeno_sama3511

2 жыл бұрын

​@@charlottewolery558 fallout 1 is great without mods

@Robstafarian

2 жыл бұрын

@@charlottewolery558 Fallout Fixt with the Purist preset is great!

@charlottewolery558

2 жыл бұрын

@@zeno_sama3511 I know. My favorite fallout game. But I've played it many times over in the past 25. Without new quest mods, I've played that story out.

I was SO unsurprised about this that I could of SWORE you already covered this when 76 came out, and this was just a reupload or something.

@Mernom

2 жыл бұрын

I'm pretty sure that Internet Historian covered this in 'the fall of 76'.

@stevep9177

2 жыл бұрын

I know right? I was expecting another video on Diablo Immortal

@mediumvillain

2 жыл бұрын

@@Mernom There was a recent expose based on multiple employee accounts about exactly how bad the development process was from top to bottom, not just the results

Especially disgusting as Todd in the past has talked about how he would never do crunch again after his expirience being crunched making Morrowind.

@jemolk8945

2 жыл бұрын

Todd's public comments are just glorified PR at this point. His input into the business side of things can and will be overridden by higher-ups from ZeniMax if they feel they could make more money doing so.

@AllisonIsLivid

2 жыл бұрын

Well, it's fine now, because TODD doesn't have to do any of the crunch himself.

@alexdasliebe5391

2 жыл бұрын

@@AllisonIsLivid pointed out : Todd aint lying. He has personally never crunched again.

@mjc0961

2 жыл бұрын

You mean the guy who lies to us in every E3 or similar conference lied? No way.

@TheModdedwarfare3

2 жыл бұрын

@@mjc0961 sixteen times the lies

It’s occurred to me that Crunch is the corporate equivalent and of a report that a student procrastinated on until the last minute and is frantically trying to get a C at the last minute. The difference being that crunch forces others to suffer for the child’s incompetence, but it does show how a lot of executives never grew up as a result of living for so long without consequences. Just remember, when an executive champions crunch, they are actually just children throwing a tantrum that the teacher called them out for obviously waiting till the last minute to start their book report.

The state of the videogame industry reminds me of the anime industry actually. Artists being exploited and abused by idiotic executives to produce products at the expense of everything else.

Recently I talked to an acquaintance about the issues of Last of Us II, and getting rather passive aggressive response: "Well that is just normal, is it not?" Getting desensitzed to the abuse is not normal, much like the abuse itself. Please continue the great work you do. The only thing that would make the vid even better, would be Steph doing the "Bethesda is Bethetic" dance with the NB-flag.

@klisterklister2367

2 жыл бұрын

Agree, the bethesda dance is great

@br2k

2 жыл бұрын

cannot believe i had to scroll this far to see a Bethetic Dance mention - that was fully half of why i watched in the first place!

It's almost as if the corporate apologists have been lying to us this whole time, and cultures of crunch and abuse- rather than being essential to making quality games- actively _ruin_ games far more often than not.

I'm not saying this to compare the bullshit just to say it isn't a simple fix. My last job, that I had for nearly 5 years, was a warehouse job that up until 2020 had decent hours. For the last two years of it though I was working six days a week, nearly 70 hours. That's with a union. Getting a union together is only the first step, effective bargaining and organization is the hard part. I hope, sincerely hope, that devs can organize better than my union or things will not change.

@BigHenFor

2 жыл бұрын

I'm sorry to hear of your experience of unions, but your experience is not the norm. It's sad to say but one's mileage will vary. Where unions are good, they are usually very good, but when they're bad, they're horrid. You may have to take your own fate into your own hands, and find another JOB, if you can asap. You might as well, because 70 hour weeks as the norm in a physical job, will ruin your health, and your quality of life P.D.Q. That tends to be a is straight run on the road to hell, and a early death, my friend. I've seen it. The guys doing OT and working 6 or 7 days a week, are husks after a few years, self-medicating to keep going, keeling over to heart attacks and strokes in their late 50s to early 60s. You owe it to yourself to avoid that. Good Luck.

@Sahdirah

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed The fight is long, but it’s the only path that has a chance of actually tackling things in the long run.

@cardhitman89

2 жыл бұрын

@@BigHenFor my intent was not to say unions are bad. I do believe they are needed, just that you can't stop at setting up a union. The work continues long after that. All need to be involved to have effective bargaining power and that means keeping all informed and organized which is extremely difficult. And if one or two bad actors get into the unions leadership it can be as bad or worse for the union members. As for me I did get another job but at the cost of much lower pay, hoping it pays off though.

@sabrinarosario6499

2 жыл бұрын

Oh yeah. My dad’s job has an “union” that is basically dead and horrible. They do shit for the workers and workers have to defend themselves and their rights. A well organized union can be good but a bad one? Yeah, just useless.

@growingsage

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for pointing out that perspective. My mom was in a union and they were also pretty useless. Sadly it soured her experiences on organizing.

The cruelest irony of the game industry: there's no way a game is released that much broken without heavy amounts of crunch. People work themselves to exhaustion for a broken game.

@nunosilva6574

2 жыл бұрын

It's almost like working people past the point of exhaustion reduces the quality of their output...

@stanknight9159

2 жыл бұрын

There's no such thing as a project without crunch. It's the nature of a project cause random shit happens. One reason there is crunch is cause many people don't do their job or pull their weight.

2 жыл бұрын

@@stanknight9159 and it's the management job to make sure they take all that into account now isn't it?

@stanknight9159

2 жыл бұрын

​ @Énio Fernandes There is bad management but there is bad management everywhere. You are not going to work anywhere without it. So you are correct in that. But it's all a mixture of many many factors. Think of it as a raid with many party members. Something always gets fucked up; Not everyone does their job and shit happens. The ultimate key is IF you love doing what you are doing; Stretching when you get the chance to; And making it a point to level up so you don't have to stay at any one place if you don't want to.

@livelongandtroll9108

2 жыл бұрын

@@stanknight9159 Let's stop pretending that this is the "nature" of any project: "Some sources noted that the project drove an exodus of senior developers who had worked on some of Bethesda’s most prolific titles. Many developers developed physical health issues, such as tinnitus and back pain. One source said it “wasn’t uncommon” for artists to have wrist braces."

Management isn't just "incompetent"; it's wilful, malicious incompetence. Like you said: didn't know, and had even less interest in finding out. That's completely different from people who try at something with good intentions and "fail" because they didn't (yet) have the skill or resources they needed. Forcing crunch and being a griefer are malicious, entitled actions.

@marciamakesmusic

2 жыл бұрын

the thing is, no one goes through life thinking about being malicious. this is the consequence of the broader corporate structure. the problem I have with jss is that they often complain about management, but in a tone that makes it sound like if we just had better managers it would eliminate the problem, but it wouldn't. no one person could effectively manage that many man hours of work. it just isn't possible

@Sahdirah

2 жыл бұрын

@@marciamakesmusic No. That’s bullshit. There are plenty of companies that aren’t in games that are equally evil, but there’s ALSOplenty of places that ARENT run this way. It is absolutely, unequivocally possible for well-meaning people to do better. Many places DO manage lots of human work hours without crunch, withoutgames-industry specific forms of abuse, without these overt levels of ahorrrently abusive sexism.It’s not an inevitability, it’s not the way things always are everywhere. Things CAN be better, and minimizing how possible it is to make different choices is, while well-meaning, not true, and gives into a defeatist rhetoric that says things can’t change. Evenin our capitalist hellscape, there are companies that ARE run better than games. Never let the complexity of running a business be used to assume that everyone involved must be doing their best. There is real failure here. Failure that it’s fair and reasonable to hold them to task for even within corporate culture.

@VillainousMuse

2 жыл бұрын

Deliberate incompetence and malice has a word: Malfeasance. What Triple A companies do is nothing short of Malfeasance.

@jemolk8945

2 жыл бұрын

@@marciamakesmusic The corporate structure doesn't help,; it adds to the problem and sets a minimum level of exploitation just from being a profit-driven company. That said, the abuse doesn't need to be anywhere near this level, and management could absolutely tone it down dramatically without fundamentally restructuring society. Society needs to be fundamentally restructured to remove the last vestiges of the abuse and prevent it from reoccurring, but it doesn't need to be this bad even with the awful structures we have.

@jlev1028

2 жыл бұрын

@@marciamakesmusic "No one goes through life thinking about being malicious". Ever heard of a bigot? Or a serial killer? Or just any kind of extremist? Hateful and evil people exist in the world.

The most shocking thing... Is that I am not shocked... About not being shocked by the crunch of the "AAA" games industry. ~A developer/tester in the general IT industry and amateur game Dev.

@redred1121

2 жыл бұрын

All big industries become like this and it’s a key reason on why the workers must seize the means of production.

I brought up unions to HR in my studio. Until then they were always super nice and helpful and took the employee's side, but for the first time ever I saw them getting livid and scared. My studio is small, and HR is genuinely good, but they know the company won't survive if we unite. And maybe that means it shouldn't exist. So, I've got to look for a new job, just in case.

@redred1121

2 жыл бұрын

ALL POWER TO THE WORKERS ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE. Solidarity friend when the workers take the industries back things will truly change

@LexYeen

2 жыл бұрын

If a company can't survive its workers unionizing, it shouldn't exist in its current form. Bring up the thought of unionizing, reorganizing into a worker-owned cooperative, and firing your bosses to your comrades.

@rudeboyjohn3483

2 жыл бұрын

If HR gets seriously offended, livid, and hostile at the mere thought of you being represented, then that "nice and helpful" bit was just an act. They're upset and hostile now because your livelihood might be in YOUR hands, instead of theirs- your handlers.

@NirielWinx

2 жыл бұрын

@@rudeboyjohn3483 > They're neither offended nor hostile. And it's not an act. If anything, HR got livid because they didn't know how bad things were, because it's not in the Dutch culture to complain. Idgaf, I'm French, I'll strike and unionize all day for fun. We have toxic elements in the house but they're actually programmers. HR had no idea. We're hemorrhaging staff because of the shitty attitude of a few narcissists (those who leave never say why to HR) which causes us to miss deadlines, therefore crunch, and burnouts. Yes, management has failed to recognize the toxic people, but I'm too old to be polite, and since I'm the sole physics programmer I'm a single point of failure, so I have power. I leave, the company's dead. So, me with another programmer started talking and encouraged people to talk. Finally things are happening. The rotten apples are being cut out, but still we're in a terrible state. It's complicated. Anyway, finding a game dev union will be hard, there aren't any in the country.

@PrettyRagdoll

2 жыл бұрын

Exactly. If companies can't pay their employees appropriately they shouldn't exist.

I love you Stephanie. I'm always sarcastic or stupid on here because I've been driven mad by tech industry's abuse of my career since every incompetent developer started tweeting "Learn to Code" and calling themselves "Application Engineers". There is a direct correlation between lavishing your developers with random titles and them trying to get away with abusing their coworkers.

@christraven

2 жыл бұрын

Yup - there's that glorious "corporate speak". The upper management of any corporation I've ever had to interact with seems to have this weird correlation between the number of syllables in a title or phrase, and the absolute dreck they heap on the underlings.

@daveyjoneslocker4703

2 жыл бұрын

Learn to code

@Paperclown

2 жыл бұрын

welcome to the real world. sounds like a bunch of whiney white entitlement. They should be grateful they don't have a chitty expolited factory job like working at a meat slaughter house or construction. Sterlings videos kinda suck since they went on tangents like Kotaku did 5 years ago rather than focus on their indie chit developer games.

@stanknight9159

2 жыл бұрын

If you feel it is abuse then you got options to not work there. Testing is pretty much low on the totem pole of status. It is meant to be where people get started then they move up. You shouldn't take "any abuse" but should also realize that what you call "abuse" is what someone else would gladly take. I started off small then learned the trade then become independent. It's the nature of working anywhere. Learn your craft and then you move up then you keep moving up.

@enfercesttout

2 жыл бұрын

@Stan Knight Someone gladly taking abuse doesn't magically turn it into non abuse.

This needs to stop. Imagine being a 3D artist or game designer or tester, imagine you work 9-10 hours 6 days a week and you get shit amount of money, imagine being treated like shit especially when you are a women in these companies. And to finish all that ... imagine looking at all of these articles, videos and youtubers shitting on your game you were working on these painful, tragic hours. I would consider changing job or leave gaming industry in general. Working on video games was considered dream job.

@edwardaustin4369

2 жыл бұрын

They are well paid.

@maksymiliankossakowski-lan6978

2 жыл бұрын

@@edwardaustin4369 yet they are treated like garbage and getting great salary doesnt fix everything. A large part of this money will go for therapies and for some others maybe on drugs etc.

@lhfirex

2 жыл бұрын

@@maksymiliankossakowski-lan6978 They also aren't "well paid" compared to other programming jobs. Same skillset, big differences in salary and benefits.

Is anyone really surprised by this? After seeing the finished product and how the higher ups hyped it up with overblown expectations that could never be followed on, especially with the engine it was still using, i can't say that the work force dealing with awful crunch was unexpected. If anything this demonstrates how power and money has gone over their heads, resulting in executives becoming extremely corrupt in exorting money from consumers with microtransactions and lootboxes while mistreating it's workforce with hard crunches and sexually harrasing it's own female employees all the while getting away with it scot free because there are no labor unions or any measures to protect the employess and punish executives for misdeeds. That's how Bobby Kotick gets away with all of this without any reprecussions because again there is no law stopping him.

@0LoneTech

2 жыл бұрын

What finished product? They weren't half done when they launched the thing, and I doubt they ever will finish it, even though they did toss in a large chunk of the thing a year later.

@stefanradebach2889

2 жыл бұрын

@@0LoneTech Yeah i agree with this because while i did say "finished product" it's more accurate to say that Fallout 76 required 76 more years for it to even be somewhat playable with that horribly outdated engine it was using that WOULD NOT have worked for a giant MMORPG game.

Game Execs: "Are our games shit because we overwork, abuse, and underpay our employees? No, it's the reviewers who are wrong!"

@resileaf9501

2 жыл бұрын

Nah, the reviewers are paid off. It's the players who are wrong.

So, at this point can we just assume acquisition by Microsoft is basically just an admission of guilt?

Thanks for speaking out about this and being a consistent voice for labor rights. It's crazy how gamergaters were so concerned with "ethics in gaming journalism" but don't care about ethics in game development

It's something I was 100% sure in already, but still am disgusted at nonetheless. Never let your outrage falter when it comes to corporate abuse And thank god for you, James Stephanie Sterling

It's a testament to how fucked the last two years have been that the end of 2018 is "many years ago" now. That said, I have to say, JimSteph, that your Fallout 76 videos were amongst my very favourites of yours, glad to see you tear it yet another new arsehole once again :D

@mjc0961

2 жыл бұрын

It's a testament to math that the end of 2018 is "many years ago" now. Now to the end of 2018 is 3.5 years. That's many. The last two years have been fucked, but that has no bearing on the flow of time itself, or math.

Imagine having to crunch for Fallout 76. The 8th circle of hell.

If I had a nickel for every time QA is asked to work overtime when we don't actually need to work, it's fixes that need doing... So many weekend days sat waiting for a build, only for it to come at the end of the shift.

As awful and stupid as 76 was, we're probably getting more of the same going forward because Bethesda clearly don't give a shit about their reputation. There's never going to be another Skyrim*, not from Bethesda at least, just more pitiful, broken cash-grab bullshit made to squeeze every possible penny out of a once loyal community. *That is, a new open-world RPG that sees _HUGE_ success carried even further by modders for years, not just actual Skyrim re-released for the fortieth fucking time.

@ince55ant

2 жыл бұрын

modding only works when you own the game you bought. these constantly evolving live service models would end mods if possible

@TalesOfWar

2 жыл бұрын

Even Skyrim wasn't all that good. The only thing that kept it alive was the modding community, who they tried to mega shaft. The base game itself was as wide as a lake and shallow as a puddle. It's when I started to lose faith in them given how amazing and in depth Morrowind was, and to a lesser degree Oblivion. At least shit in the world actually changed to reflect your actions.

@keiyakins

2 жыл бұрын

Through Skyrim, Bethesda had a reputation for buggy edge cases. Doing things in weird orders would break. Certain interactions went haywire. Stuff that was, well, not ideal but tolerable. Ever since then the reputation has instead been broken messes that are barely playable.

Time to dig out the legendary "It's time to shit on Bethesda" rave. Why oh why does it never get old? Ah right, cause the AAA industry never fails to unimprove.

Fallout 76 was always a dogshit game regardless of the "but it's good NoW!" crowd's claims, and the abusive crunch is entirely reflective of that.

@originalscreenname44

2 жыл бұрын

Again, I blame everyone forgiving Hello Games for the piss poor launch of No Man's Sky for that. After that is when Todd decided to say "...it's not about how you launch, it's how you finish."

@brendanlyttle7614

2 жыл бұрын

@@originalscreenname44 To be fair, the industry would have likely continued the "release shit game now fix later" trend even if No Man's Sky never got it's redemption story. They've been pulling shit like that for years prior.

And this is the studio, which just promised people ONE THOUSAND fully explorable planets in Starfield. My first thought was "Holy fuck, those poor devs aren't going to see their families until 2024." and my second was "Bullshit."

Thank you for continuing to sound the alarm. People can't stop talking about this because it will just keep happening.

When Todd said "It just works" he was actually talking about the developers who weren't allowed to do anything but.

@evilSapphie

2 жыл бұрын

And yes, utterly unsurprising and utterly disgusting. I've been done with most of the games industry for years, because I can't have giving the Todd Howards of the world even a penny on my conscience, knowing what we know now about the price paid by the rank and file. It's especially bad because labor laws are in a terrible state in most places, (but especially over the pond in the US.)

Once again, thank God for James Stephanie Sterling

I'll be avoiding Starfield. After the hot mess of 76 I have no faith in Todd Howard.

So I've been keeping an eye on your sub count the past few months. No doubt you've noticed the decline, ya made a whole video about it. That said as long as you keep making quality content like this. I'm not going anywhere. Take care, keep at it & best wishes.

@TheAxeLord47911

2 жыл бұрын

You can blame The Gamers for that. Give it time; it’ll stabilize eventually, and really, anyone having problem with Steph’s gender identity doesn’t belong here, either.

The 76* stands for the weekly hours their employees were forced to work.

A big thing to take away from this scandal is also that simply being under Microsoft's umbrella of companies does not suddenly change the corporate culture that exists within it. Which makes me increasingly doubt Microsoft's recent assurances that Activision/Blizzard will also be curtailed once they're an official part of their team and make it feel like a load of bullshit.

I swear these company ceos are committing crunch themselves just to come up with new ways to lose more humanity for their workforce

@AegixDrakan

2 жыл бұрын

Nah, it's actually super easy barely an inconvenience. All you gotta do is be incompetent as fuck and the crunch will just magically appear. :s

@LexYeen

2 жыл бұрын

They're not incompetent, they're short-term-profit-driven. Make all the money as fast as possible, bail on a golden parachute when the Jenga tower collapses.

I mean, I have long since resigned myself to the fact that anything news worthy about Fallout 76 will range from mediocre to outright awful but still the fact that the workers were ground to the bone and THIS was the final product? This abominable trash fire of a game? Unacceptable. An insult to any of the people forced to waste their time, effort, and be underpaid and uncompensated just to bring it squealing into existence.

Whenever i hear these stories i wonder if the late TB was still around how much impact against abuse he would have had. Probably nothing but i cant stop wondering.

@TalesOfWar

2 жыл бұрын

I imagine it would be something he'd shout from the rooftops every chance he got. If that would have caused any actual positive change or not is of course up for debate, but he'd have definitely used his platform to push for it.

You should talk about the crunch that Sega seems to keep doing all the time. Sonic since Adventure 2, PSO2 Global (a rare case of a Post-FF12 JRPG with a terrible localization (in casting (Buckland and Kametz (RIP) were horribly miscast), voice direction (weird random accents and Afin's sister doesn't even have his accent) and translating) and it doesn't even have FF13's excuse of trying to keep things under wraps) and PSO2NGS all seem to have a lot of crunch surrounding them but I doubt that's the end of it. Probably not even the _start_ of it. Heck until recently, I thought Sonic 06 was the start of Sonic's downfall but nope! It was Adventure 2!

@haruhisuzumiya6650

2 жыл бұрын

Sega's crunch is used in hell as a form of torture

@3Rayfire

2 жыл бұрын

@@haruhisuzumiya6650 Damn.

This channel is one of the few that I know of that STILL calls out game companies for "crunching" game developers. I consider that to be a GOOD thing so you won't hear me complaining! The only other KZreadrs I know of off the top of my head that either criticize developers for crunch or will AT LEAST discuss it are Yongyea & Matt McMuscles. Matt McMuscles in particular has a series called "What Happened?" (and used to be called "Wha Happun?"). That series has covered a LOT of games that had troubled productions & the behind-the-scenes issues that usually lead to crunch! (Sometimes for a change of pace he'll cover movies & other forms of entertainment with troubled productions too.) He also has experience working in QA for the video game industry so he's VERY aware of how often management will ignore the people who work in that department! I highly recommend checking out his videos to hear the stories he's heard about a LOT of games! His videos also tend to go into detail on how it was usually the "lead" developers & other such management figures who screwed over their employees HARD!

i know how excited you are after seeing what starfield offers but remember what todd howard once said " IT JUST WORKS"

@TalesOfWar

2 жыл бұрын

*Fleetwood Mac plays from nowhere*

I am shocked to hear that - *Shocked, I tell you!* ...oh, wait. No, not "shocked". What was the opposite of "shocked" again? ... Right, "unsurprised"! *I am unsurprised, I tell you!!*

@MathewHaswell

2 жыл бұрын

Disappointed but not surprised, as is often said.

@BrightSpark

2 жыл бұрын

@@MathewHaswell Frankly, disappointment would imply that I would have *expected* them to do better. They *should* do better, and I *want them* to do better, but they likely *never will* do better. The Starfield team is probably already getting crunched to death and back as we speak.

The management by Todd really speaks to how much Bethesda wants to micromanage it's own IP's despite not having had any good ideas with them, it's the same reason they haven't made more games like Fallout New Vegas, they don't want anyone else doing a better job with the IP they waste.

@marciamakesmusic

2 жыл бұрын

it's not just Todd, these are the consequences of applying the corporate structure to something as complicated as making a video game. how can anyone expect one guy to successfully manage an entire video game? I honestly think the devs and testers could organize themselves better than corporate hacks and washed up developers who got promoted to management and are stuck in the 1990s

@antonioscendrategattico2302

2 жыл бұрын

@@marciamakesmusic Exactly. Aristocracy is an outdated system for running a company as much as it is for running a country.

@VillainousMuse

2 жыл бұрын

Spicy take here: Fallout NV was shit. Sure it had great story and interesting characters but the game was unstable piss tinted garbage that crashed at the slightest provocation. It didn't do anything with the I.P. because it was forced to use Bugthesda's shitty Oblivion engine and graphics. What it did manage to accomplish is nothing short of a fucking miracle because the team were given 6 months to do it.

@Galanthos

2 жыл бұрын

@@VillainousMuse 6 months with a shit engine and it's still better than the 3 other Fallout games Bethesda made.

@FractalShoggoth

2 жыл бұрын

Worth noting that New Vegas wasn't made by Bethesda, but the conditions they imposed on Obsidian for release and pay bonuses are partially responsible for its super buggy state at launch.

Country roads, Take me home, to the place where Bethesda can't find me.

Love this timeline. Not only are games getting uglier, worse, and more expensive, but the labour that goes into them is less rewarding. Fuck the games industry

Indeed; not surprised, but I maintain disappointed disgust. Also the intro was really well done on this one. I liked the little gags with the status updates on the Fallout 1 UI during it. "Oh god not again"

Does.. does Steph's outfit include a shoulder cape? Thats fucking BADASS!

Jesus, that Studios management isn't just incompetent they're actively hostile to their own best interest

@nunosilva6574

2 жыл бұрын

They fit perfectly into Carlo M. Cipolla's definition of "stupid people" in his 1976 essay "The Basic Laws of Stupidity": "A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses."

Not to detract from the repulsive subject matter, but Justin's editing and comments in the Fallout HUD are on point.

We've heard FOR DECADES about how piracy harms the software industry when the truth shows that it's the incompetent, greedy and abusive managers in said industry that are guilty of it!

@TalesOfWar

2 жыл бұрын

Shitty management is the problem in every "industry". From the tiny market stall to national government.

I felt like i was on the receiving end of a shocker after this game, all of that crunch was for nothing.

When will AAA studios learn at the very least that crunch and abuse makes bad games, and bad games make them less money

@badass6300

2 жыл бұрын

The crunch is the symptom, not the cause. The cause are the high graphical quality and fidelity. Many AAA developers and studios have complained that the graphics aren't ready until a few months before the release date. If they lower the graphical quality and fidelity to 2004-2008 levels, fire 80% of the visuals deparment(which is almost 80% of the development team) and develop games cheaply and quickly without the need of crunch, and then there would be 0 excuse for garbage DLCs, micro-transactions and "supply boxes". Hell they wouldn't need to charge 60$ to be profitable, since graphics in AAA games are 90-95% of the budget of the development, reducing their cost 5-10x would make the games much cheaper.

@TheNzFox

2 жыл бұрын

that's the issue though, bad games DON'T make them less money. Just look at diablo immortal, universally panned for its abusive monetization, made more than 7 million USD in the first weekend, just look at 76, garbage on every level and yet sold more than 11 million copies. You would think that maybe making a shit game would mean less people picked up the next one, but again, nope, just look at all the battlefields, just look at all the people losing their minds over starfield.

@Elwaves2925

2 жыл бұрын

Only when the money men are taken out of the equation and aren't running games companies. So never.

@GuyIncognitoIV

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheNzFox amazed people are excited about Starfield as if Bethesda wasn’t the developer

@BotchFrivarg

2 жыл бұрын

The problem is that crunch and abuse makes them money in the short term, sure it means you can't hold onto talent but executives don't care when there are so many people wanting to become game developers, sure it makes many of these games forgettable (at their best) but with many more games in line which are hyped up it doesn't matter there is no long term success, sure it means game studios and developers are thrown under the bus again and again but that doesn't matter the executives already had their bonus. And if worst comes to worst the executives just bail with their golden parachutes, and go on to their next gig. It isn't remotely fair but that is the world we live in, and why unionization is so bloody important! Long term stability should be valued more than short term growth!

F76 was crunched. And it was still that shit on launch. But sure Todd, all of this just works.

@zeprfrew

2 жыл бұрын

It shouldn't come as a surprise. People aren't going to do their best work when they're stressed, exhausted and miserable. Not only do these managers not notice or care about the human cost of crunch, they also miss the diminishing returns that inevitably come with overworking people.

Can we really expect anything good to come out from Bethesda Studios ever again ? Will Starfield turn out to be a "certified classic", or yet another dud to this grotesque charade ? Will the Fallout IP ever fall into public domain one day, and allow creators to bring back its shine and glory ? Find out more, on the next episode of James Stephanie Sterling's "The Jimquisition" !

Thank God for you. Also, great overlay on the intro/outro and use of the fast travel system. Can never be too careful.

You my friend, I commend you, I applaud you, You ARE a beacon of light in gaming journalism, a dam Guardian of shining light at the frontline! We march forthwith! To the executives offices! Exposing ulgy degenerates of predatory practices one slug trail at a time!

Experienced devs from other electronic industries attribute the crunch in the videogame industry to incompetence, and ancient development and testing methods, as well as general inability to change and improve. The problem is that people keep buying their crap and they can get away with it.

@redred1121

2 жыл бұрын

The problem is also workers not unionizing and seizing the companies from the inside

1000 empty procedurally designed planets in 100 empty solar systems. The first 6 months after release of Starlink should be considered Early Access. They said it themselves: "We can't wait to see what you discover."

The remark about QA testers being told to test a build that they already tested just SCREAMS of bullshit jobs/pseudo-work: pointless work just to create the illusion of productivity to the people higher in the food chain. Which is what crunch really is at the core: It's been proven not to work and absolutely destroys the employees doing it. But because "more people working = more productivity," it's done anyways to please boxtickers, and damn the consequences and even the effectiveness of that "productivity." Fuckin' hell.

It’s interesting jumping back in JS Sterling’s content once every so often. Much as I do love to see that the fundamental values from when I started watching the channel (back in the early escapist days. Like I remember when paying for DLC and DRM were the hot button issues Jim was covering) haven’t changed, it really does upset me to see things like subscriber count and engagement dropping. Like, I also happen to be a big fan of Philosophy Tube, and while her content has definitely *intensified for want of a better term over the last year or so, her channel continues to grow. Is it just me or is there a bit of a double standard with the way KZread treats certain trans creators content?

I gave Fallout 76 a go last year during UK lockdown #6. I had it installed for 3 days. Thank god for game pass and, of course, James Stephanie Sterling.

It's really sad that shit like this is expected anymore from the gaming industry.

Man Iove the FMV looking CRT section. Nice work

As long as you point out the AAA BS, I will keep watching this channel. Also you are looking very awesome, glad you are comfortable with your self. Thank God for you. X3

The texas studio was worked to buggery, it's common knowledge of that statement I believe, for those who know the subject. The degrees to which it reached for the staff, however, are a side not really covered. I feel sorry for the workers, and I just regret the game overall.

@lemonutz

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah even that 'Making of 76' thing Bethesda put out made it pretty clear the dev process was hell. Bethesda execs thought the Austin studio could just strap multiplayer to Fallout. But then they had to get the main team to help as well, because it was way more work than anyone thought.

You're right, steph. when you said that I can't even pretend to be shocked, I was just. Blearily staring through my monitor, chin in my hand.

Brilliant episode. I actually wanted to be a game Dev, even tried going to college for it but it was too expensive and I found out afterwards about how horrible the Crunch can be etc. Looking back, it still hurts giving up on my dream but at the same time I can't help feeling like I dodged a bullet.

Love your intros they are getting better and better, awesome work!

Love your work, your an amazing writer! I would love a vid where you use your intelligence and wit to tell us about something that you love!

@AstraVex

2 жыл бұрын

Check out their video on Bloodborne. The passion is real!

As if we needed one more reason to despise that horrible game. Its a game that now have failed in every single aspect a game can ever fail and more. Development, crunch and beta handling, marketing and pr, gameplay, monetization and subscription, life service maintainance, updates, lore and more. For me its conceptually the worst game to ever be called a game in this planet.

4:00 - "It still wouldn't have been worth the torture it put its creators through. No video game is, or ever will be." Oh, I don't know. A video game that exclusively puts Randy "Grease King" Pitchford, Todd Howard, Bobby Kotick and Android Wilson through development hell would be pretty worthwhile, IMO.

I was surprised by the title because I just assumed that this had been confirmed when the game came out. I mean, has there ever been a disasterous video game project where the workers later said, "despite the product, I think we had a healthy and respectful work environment?"

@greed1914

2 жыл бұрын

True. Stuff like this tends to lead to someone deciding to shove the game out the door at some deadline that has little to do with development progress

That is an actual shocker, yes. What did those crunch hours even go towards? Cant be the "game" itself...

@ince55ant

2 жыл бұрын

justt dominion over lessers. the game is just a byproduct of the true goal of bosses/owners desire to control others

@NurseValentineSG

2 жыл бұрын

This is why we keep telling that crunch is useless. Creative work needs creative minds. Crunch is killing creativity. So whatever product is created with crunch will be a soulless husk.

@lued123

2 жыл бұрын

@@NurseValentineSG It also physically exhausts you and makes you work slower, even if you're the most creative person in the world. It's better to work 8 hours at 100% than work 10 hours at 80% and make a bunch of stress-related mistakes, and those are super generous estimates. It really fucks you up a lot more than that, especially if you have to do it daily.

@TheSpeep

2 жыл бұрын

@@NurseValentineSG Oh yeah lets be honest, the reason they were forced to crunch and the reason it can hardly be called a game are one and the same; its a cashgrab. And if youre gonna make a cashgrab, youre gonna cut costs in any way possible, so the first things that go out the door are quality and work conditions.

@AegixDrakan

2 жыл бұрын

Crunch inherently makes the game worse. First because overworked and exhausted developers are more prone to mistakes (duh) Second, because crunch is often a result of incompetent management doing stupid stuff like not considering core mechanics/project needs until it's way too late, or changing core ideas long after the design is baked in and built upon, etc etc etc.

Deeply, deeply appreciate your use of the original Fallout PipBoy as our vehicle into your episode today. It served as a stark reminder - and incidental juxtaposition, given the episode's topic - of what good game design was like, back before AAA needed all of the money.

The most surprising part of this video is me not having realised you were without a studio since moving back to the UK. I kinda figured that this was all a style decision. Thank you for your work!!

I don't know what's worse: The fact that this happened or the fact that it's not even surprising anymore.

i loved the ui you had going during the host parts keep it up!

I made a developer shitlist and... I am honestly shocked at the number of developers I ended up with and I am sure I missed a few. When you actually quantify these things they are all the more shocking.

The editing on the intro and outro were really awesome.

At this point I'm just waiting for the inevitable exposé by Jason Schreier revealing massive amounts of abuse in the development of Starfield, whether or not that article comes out before or after that game launches.

@AegixDrakan

2 жыл бұрын

Considering devs were throwing around the words "this could be the next cyberpunk" before the most recent delay, I basically just plain expect there to be a lot of crunch going on.

@Arcian

2 жыл бұрын

@@AegixDrakan I'd urge caution calling anything "the next Cyberpunk", and I say that as someone who actually, genuinely loved Cyberpunk 2077 in spite of its numerous and inexcusable flaws.

Wait, has it really been "many years" since Fallout 76?

Is the song playing in the beginning "Love you like an alcoholic" by The Taxpayers? I'm going nuts trying to remember it.

The only surprising thing about this story is that Bethesda actually has QA testers.

"free pizza" I bet you a plate of mamá's fresh spaghetti it was a sloppy pile of Little Caesar's