more heat than light wrote:Gemini73 wrote:Been reading a lot on this sorry tale and I'm stunned that the brass at Telltale are seemingly ignoring calls for staff to be looked after, instead choosing to pander to the pitchfork wielding online mob demanding they finish the games, in particular TWD.
Gamers being self entitled gooseberry fool stains is a title well deserved.
They've paid for a game which they're not going to get. Obviously I and many others are sympathetic with people losing their jobs, but you can't help but feel put out by that. Don't blame gamers for being angry about it, blame the management that let it get to this point.
So first off, there was some more news released that states a huge deal fell through with Lionsgate (for a sort of video game/TV super show) and that this led to the closure. However you are indeed right, it was the upper management that led to a studio with a string of critical and sales-figure successes being forced into bankruptcy on the back of a single failed deal.
However, I remain very much of the view that completion of the games should be a secondary concern to the staff receiving their due, primarily because I think this is simply the right thing to do, but also because this is an issue that ties in with a concerning trend in the industry. Over the last few months, several companies have bowed to pressure put on them by a rabid fanbase in ways that have set very worrying precedents:
ArenaNet fired a female employee after she complained about a fan mansplaining her job to her, and another male employee after he defended her actions. This came after a huge fan campaign to have her fired.
Riot, just after announcing they were planning on measures to quell the toxic masculine culture at the company, fired two employees after they defended a women's only PAX talk. Again, this was after a campaign by insecure man-babies appalled that 'people who work for them' dared to speak back.
And now we have this and the Steam thread linked above. The sense of entitlement on display is shocking; to these people, these
gamers, they have been denied something and, as a group, this is inconceivable. So I do blame these people, these gamers here. I blame their complete lack of objective reasoning. I blame the culture, fostered by GamerGate that continues to permeate and corrupt the fanbase of the hobby I love.
I understand you have paid for a product and want to see this fulfilled. But I think it's worth recognising that, even though your thought process is different and entirely more reasonable, any demand that the company releases further games without taking into account the actual human suffering this is perpetuating unfortunately puts you alongside those braying that the devs should work for free so gamers can get their precious closure.