RichiRamjag
Member
I definitely agree with this, but I do think there is one major thing being overlooked here.
It seems like this is the sort of space that publishers have fostered and created via their marketing and their exploitation. The people actually doing the labor are being made responsible for the ways that publishers find ways to pleasure and extract money from consumers in very deceitful ways, so the relationship between consumer and seller is highly mistrustful.
And the thing about being candid, I am not so sure about, at least in terms of the bigger developers. NDAs are a huge thing and publishers keep a tight lid on almost any form of project and working conditions. Again, publishers are shutting down transparency in order to control the message and sell as much as possible. People here on GAF go through LinkedIn and Twitter to see what projects are being worked on, and we have to rely on anonymous sources via Jason Schreier to get a modicum of insight of how the people who work on these games actually feel. And I don't buy the toxic consumers being responsble for a lack of transparency - in my own experience and interaction with the industry, NDAs is always the obstacle that force workers to remain anonymous.
At the same time, whenever developers actually appear in interviews, readers and consumers are fed a whole lot of of horseshit that the marketing director has orchestrated with a whole lot of buzz words and empty platitudes in order to build up hype once more for the next AAA product about killing people. Then when the game underperforms or don't meet the lofty expectations set up by the marketing director, consumers are then told afterwards that the developers have learned from their mistakes and they promise that the next one will be much better, so please go out and buy the next game!
Mind you, I am only referring to big publishers in the above, and keep in mind that I do recognize and acknowledge the toxicity of gamer culture and how much of a cesspool it is. I just think it's important to understand where the animosity comes from and how publishers cultivate this particular cesspool with their constant pleasuring *and* exploitation. I also acknowledge that gamers don't have any idea how fucking complex it is to create a video game and they can be very stubborn in terms of learning this.
I dont see how most of this contradicts what he is saying though, especially when NDAs dont appear to be the obstacle according to him. At least not enough to say theyre always the obstacle.