How Game Companies Abuse Passion (The Jimquisition)

[Saucycarpdog]

Been planning this one for a while, and recent allegations toward Starbound developer Chucklefish provided the right avenue.

Young developers are often praised for their passion, and passion can be a wonderful thing. Chasing a vocation with gusto and energy is generally positive, but it can nonetheless be abused by more cynical wielders of power.

The game industry is of course no stranger to exploitation, and you'll often find the word "passion" thrown around liberally. Be wary of this word, honeyed that it is, for it may very well be a trap.

Click to shrink...

 

[TheEchosOfTheCyborg]

Huh, surprised how quite this one is, but yes good video and one I've seen all to often and I'm not even talking about the game industry, websites do this with moderators, I've seen students being exploited by companies because it's good for their "experience" and local sports groups do this all the time around here. It's disgusting and it's just an easy trap to find yourself into, especially when your young and new to a industry.

Arguably companies will use this tactic on their audience as well to make them buy stuff more expensive then it needs to be, don't by this DLC, well you aren't supporting your Esport seen or your fellow players (Hi Capcom), hell this was at it's height during the 90s with the Bit/Console wars with how Sega of America, Nintendo, Atari, the 3DO etc used these tactics to exploit brand loyalty, something we still feel the effects of decades later with how ingrained console fan warring is now.

 

[Phantom]

Same happens with places like Hasbro and particularly Wizards, they have 1000s of people who would give their left kidney for a similar job so the pay is lowered accordingly.

 

[TheEchosOfTheCyborg]

You know it's bad when it becomes hard to distinguish the acts of real world CEOs and Companies with:

Pretty sure SpongeBob episode have called out and made light of companies abusing passion for profit.

 

[SanTheSly]

Glad Jim covered this, gonna link the vid in the Chucklefish thread as well given the relevancy