The Games Industry And ATVI - Page 23

On August 13 2019 11:35 Manit0u wrote:
FIFA 19 had barely 12.5m players in December 2018. FIFA 16, 17 and 18 each had around 30m (all in Dec 2018) so it seems that even die-hard fans of the series are avoiding it. 60% drop in interest is pretty significant.

On August 13 2019 11:35 Manit0u wrote:
FIFA 19 had barely 12.5m players in December 2018. FIFA 16, 17 and 18 each had around 30m (all in Dec 2018) so it seems that even die-hard fans of the series are avoiding it. 60% drop in interest is pretty significant.

On August 21 2019 05:41 Excalibur_Z wrote:
The reason so many "samey" AAA games sell massively despite poor user reviews is because the more hardcore, scrutinizing gamers will be more likely to post on Metacritic, Steam, Reddit, and so on. They still receive high critical reviews because critics are trained to look at a game from a surface level, and when you list out the user-friendliness and features of many AAA games, they do check a lot of boxes. Core gamers are more likely to compare games against each other and gravitate toward the games that provide the highest value for cost: "oh this Fifa game is too similar to last year's, where's the innovation?" "this Anthem game just feels like a ripoff of Destiny or Warframe, and those games do these things better" "which game should I get, X or Y?"

It would seem that most of the players who buy games that gamers dislike are ones who don't seek out opinions from others. They just like what they like, and are influenced either by their own interests (genre) or by the marketing efforts of the publisher (flashiness or pace).

Back in 2018, Guardian editor Keza MacDonald wrote that “the video games industry isn’t yet ready for its #MeToo moment.” But whether or not that’s still true, people are attempting to hold abusers and their enablers accountable. Over the past day, multiple high-profile men in the video game industry have been accused of sexual assault. Many of the accusations are years old — in some cases, more than a decade — and they all point to a toxic environment where developers not only have to live with a constant fear of abuse, but also the significant professional and personal repercussions of outing their abusers.

Things started with a lengthy blog post from artist and game designer Nathalie Lawhead, bluntly titled “calling out my rapist.” In it, she accuses Jeremy Soule, a longtime game composer behind series like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and The Elder Scrolls, of rape while the two were working together at an unnamed games studio in Vancouver in 2008. The post also points to a severely degraded work environment following the assault, in which Lawhead was disrespected at work, had to fight for pay, and was ultimately let go from her job. These claims are backed up by extensive documentation in the form of dozens of emails.

“I share not expecting to be able to get through the backlash, the lying, the excuses, the gaslighting happening all over again, the fanbase that might come after me because that’s just what happens in games, or hearing more of ‘his side of the story,’” Lawhead’s post reads. “My side of the story was never given a chance. I’m willing to try. I’m sharing this hoping that there will be information about him out there so other women can be informed.”

Following Lawhead’s post, others started speaking up. Zoe Quinn — developer of games like Depression Quest, author of Crash Override, and a focal point of the misogynistic Gamergate movement — posted a harrowing account on Twitter, recounting alleged abuse from indie developer Alec Holowka, best known for his work on Aquaria and Night in the Woods. “I’ve been silent about this for almost my entire career and I can’t do it anymore,” Quinn wrote. The post includes disturbing accounts that include Quinn hiding in a bathroom to avoid an attack. It also notes that Quinn was inspired to come forward in part because of Lawhead’s post, which Quinn says “shook me to my core.”

In a statement on Twitter, Scott Benson, who worked with Holowka on Night in the Woods, wrote that “we believe Zoe’s account of Alec’s actions, we’re very sad and very angry.”

A third incident came to light when indie developer Adelaide Gardner wrote a lengthy Twitter thread accusing Luc Shelton, a programmer at British studio Splash Damage, of sustained psychological and physical abuse two years ago. “It’s been two years and every once in a while, like now, I realize I’m still terrified of him,” Gardner wrote. “He’s a country away and I will never see him again and he has no way of contacting me, and I’m just as scared of him as the day I left his flat for the last time.”

Women and non-binary people in the industry, including Insomniac Games writer Mary Kenney, have similarly come out since with their own stories of abuse and harassment. At the same time, others, like Mina Vanir, have brought up older accusations that previously received comparatively little attention.

This isn’t the first time men in the video game industry have been accused of sexual abuse or assault. But the sheer number of stories — which only seems to be growing — coupled with the prominence of those being accused makes this moment feel particularly significant, and hopefully something that will actually lead to notable change for an industry where sexism, abuse, and toxic behavior are both widespread and systemic.

We’ve reached out to Splash Damage and Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda Softworks, employers of two of the accused, and will update this story if we receive a response.

On August 29 2019 21:07 Zambrah wrote:
How can they pretend this isnt meant to be gambling when they use actual fucking slot machines, I mean christ.

On August 29 2019 23:58 Gorsameth wrote:
The worse gambling mechanics in games get the harder governments will work to introduce legislation targeting them.
Tho I don't know how popular the NBA games are outside of the US, which might be why they did it actually, thinking the EU won't get involved in this particular game so they can get away with more.

On August 29 2019 23:57 deacon.frost wrote:
It is gambling, but if you want to ban it according to the law you have to update the law.

The issue I see is that the public gaming knowledge is that this is a gambling and yet nobody in gaming cares. Where are gaming journalists? Where is a negative public opinion? These games are selling in millions and are creating over a billion in microtransactions, obviously gamers don't care, what's worse, most of them are directly supporting this behaviour because they're buying the games AND paying for the micro transactions!

Edit> I mean why the games get high rating while the PEGI rating is totally off. Why is nobody in reviews giving them shitty score for this? etc.

Edit2> I know why, it was just me getting pissed at "gaming journalism"