Fans Take Videogame Damsels Out of Distress, Put Them in Charge

[Jacob]

Ok, I'm sold.
If there is money to be made, I'm all for it.

[Neil]

So would Dragon Age count?  Seems like I saw some fancy ads for that one

Yeah, although it was somewhat niche.  The real bigtime is stuff like Call of Duty or Gears of War.

I'd add your GTA, FIFA, Rockband/Guitar Hero (when they were around), your Drake's, Assassin's Creed. Not just shooters, at least not the way I use the word.

But yeah, if you see substantial advertising in major markets then it's AAA.

Yeah, the EA Sports titles have pretty much been the definition of AAA over the long term.  From what I hear, working in those studios is like being fed into a woodchipper feet-first.  But my intel isn't exactly up-to-date.

[Razgovory]

You can play as the Princess in Super Mario Brothers 2.

The international version of Mario 2 was not developed by Nintendo. The original Japanese Mario 2 was considered to be way too difficult, so they took a completely different game and overwrote characters from the Mario world on top of them. As the game had 4 characters, they had to pick up two more characters to add besides Mario and Luigi, and it's only because of that that Toad and the Princess became playable.

I'd recommend to watch the videos by Anita Sarkeesian, the feminist critic mentioned in the article. IMO she puts it very clearly and in an eloquent way, and is not vitriolic at all about it. Here they are:

Damsels in Distress part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6p5AZp7r_Q

Damsels in Distress part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toa_vH6xGqs

I am well aware of that though it was still developed by Nintendo.  I also know about the videos and the weird scandal around the kick starter.

[Jacob]

Yeah, the EA Sports titles have pretty much been the definition of AAA over the long term.  From what I hear, working in those studios is like being fed into a woodchipper feet-first.  But my intel isn't exactly up-to-date.

As I understand it, it is possible to be a comfortable cog in the machine if you're content with that, you know how the machine operates, and you're lucky not to have psychopaths in your immediate chain of command. Generally, the higher you go the more stress. And, of course, there's always the risk of being laid off to improve shareholder value at the appropriate time of the fiscal year; though apparently you often get hired back a bit later.

[CountDeMoney]

though apparently you often get hired back a bit later.

Well, isn't that just lovely.

[Neil]

though apparently you often get hired back a bit later.

Well, isn't that just lovely.

It's important to deceive your shareholders.  You cut the jobs because that's what predatory hedge funds like, but then you just hire them back because you can't actually sustain operations without them.

[Jacob]

though apparently you often get hired back a bit later.

Well, isn't that just lovely.

Actually, at least in Vancouver, it's not that bad because you get a significant severance package (if you've been there for a while) and then get hired back for more money than you earned before. I've known several people who stayed in purely because they were waiting for the lay off and severance. I'm sure plenty of people got screwed too, along the way, but it seems to me that Neil is right - it's much less about screwing the employees or actually saving money, and much more about manipulating some spreadsheets so shareholders and the markets feel good.

[Razgovory]

though apparently you often get hired back a bit later.

Well, isn't that just lovely.

Actually, at least in Vancouver, it's not that bad because you get a significant severance package (if you've been there for a while) and then get hired back for more money than you earned before. I've known several people who stayed in purely because they were waiting for the lay off and severance. I'm sure plenty of people got screwed too, along the way, but it seems to me that Neil is right - it's much less about screwing the employees or actually saving money, and much more about manipulating some spreadsheets so shareholders and the markets feel good.

That's kind of a screwy system.

[CountDeMoney]

Actually, at least in Vancouver, it's not that bad because you get a significant severance package (if you've been there for a while) and then get hired back for more money than you earned before. I've known several people who stayed in purely because they were waiting for the lay off and severance. I'm sure plenty of people got screwed too, along the way, but it seems to me that Neil is right - it's much less about screwing the employees or actually saving money, and much more about manipulating some spreadsheets so shareholders and the markets feel good.

Fuzzy math.  No wonder video game companies come and go.

[merithyn]

I will never understand why EQ is so special to you.  It struck me as pretty similar to the other MMORPGs and CRPGs that I have played.

It was my first. I'd never played anything like that before.

[Neil]

Actually, at least in Vancouver, it's not that bad because you get a significant severance package (if you've been there for a while) and then get hired back for more money than you earned before. I've known several people who stayed in purely because they were waiting for the lay off and severance. I'm sure plenty of people got screwed too, along the way, but it seems to me that Neil is right - it's much less about screwing the employees or actually saving money, and much more about manipulating some spreadsheets so shareholders and the markets feel good.

Fuzzy math.  No wonder video game companies come and go.

So long as you keep churning out hits, you can get away with it.  The problem with game production (at least for the mid-size studios releasing on 3+ platforms) is that it's really expensive, and your development cycle is two years (18 months if you don't mind rushing your release, 8 months if you're doing an annual sports game).  The big guys have multiple teams and can stagger their releases to keep the money rolling in, but the mid-sized guys get into trouble with cash flow, and get bought out by either the big publishers or hedge funds.  Once that happens, they'll generally be ripped to shreds for their usable parts and intellectual property and closed down within a few years.  That's how the system works.

[Jacob]

Yeah, there's a serious squeeze on the mid-sized guys and there is some fear even with the big ones, I think.

[Habbaku]

I will never understand why EQ is so special to you.  It struck me as pretty similar to the other MMORPGs and CRPGs that I have played.

It was my first. I'd never played anything like that before.

Nostalgia does weigh heavily on stuff that I know to be, objectively, pretty rough--especially by today's standards.  I loved Ultima Online and still have a lot of affectionate memories for it, but I've tried several independent shards (servers) and they've all been pretty atrocious.  I tolerated a lot more when UO was really the only game in town.  EQ didn't hold a candle to it, for example.

[Admiral Yi]

Yeah, there's a serious squeeze on the mid-sized guys and there is some fear even with the big ones, I think.

Which does suggest the business model has flaws to it.

[Neil]

Yeah, there's a serious squeeze on the mid-sized guys and there is some fear even with the big ones, I think.

Which does suggest the business model has flaws to it.

Yeah, there's a real problem for game studios to survive in a world of financial predators.  At the same time, there will always be market space for people to make AAA games.  There really isn't a lot of room for variability in your model.