Multiple Journalists Callout VentureBeat Article About Quantic Dream's Defense of Alleged Toxic Culture

[Deleted member 18944]

I'm open to scrutinizing media narratives, but doing so (and so forcefully) based on an extensive email with an accused company head and video calls arranged by the company definitely makes me raise an eyebrow. A lot of people doing accountability reporting in games will tell you that, most of the time, their reporting exists in spite of game companies' efforts and not because of them.

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Solidarity with the French journalists who have to deal with this BS. Reporting on labor and shining a light on toxic conditions is difficult enough as it is - we don't need corporate-friendly journalists trying to discredit that hard work. Video game journalism has taken some great strides over the past few years, but there are still those who value access over truth. Which, fine, to each their own. But to use that access to obfuscate truth to protect powerful people is an embarrassment to the profession. Running an article to discredit other journalists' investigation of a toxic workplace based on 1) an email interview with the boss and 2) group interviews with employees arranged by the boss is one of the most pathetic things I've ever seen in the games press. Infuriating. I can't stop thinking about this. Everything about this article is an insult to journalism. It ends on a massive quote about how amazing David Cage thinks David Cage is. As an editor I wouldn't allow most of this quote to be published, let alone to be the story's final words

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If PR arranges a series of interviews to aid you in an effort to debunk genuine investigative reporting, you're not a journalist, you're a mouthpiece.

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Article in question

How Quantic Dream defended itself against allegations of a ‘toxic culture’

Three French publications wrote about "toxic culture" at Quantic Dream. The game studio that made Detroit: Become Human is fighting back.

venturebeat.com

The article does a lot of things wrong, like taking quotes from a group interview session of employees that was arranged by their bosses, and essentially discounting 3 French outlets that covered the story and the cases behind them.

 

[Stop It]

The media should not be in the business of defending companies who are accused of wrongdoing.

It's misguided at best and completely derails a search for justice at worst. Imagine someone like Weinstein being allowed to use a media outlet to try to debunk his accusers like that before facing his own trials, it would be crazy.

More light on what really went on at QD is needed, not an attack on those who first brought attention to it.

 

[Naga]

Also from the french journalists of CPC and Mediapart, which VentureBeat didn't contact at all:



A good reminder that Quantic has already lost several cases in court about this, and has still multiple going on.

 

[Damn Silly]

I said as much in the initial thread about the article, but there were definitely parts that felt like the author was running defence for Cage/Quantic Dream, and that was before D'Anastasio, Schreier and O'Brien dug into it from a journalistic background.

 

[Messofanego]

Has Dean Takahashi done shady stuff like this before?

 

[Video Games Are Dumb]

Has Dean Takahashi done shady stuff like this before?

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Far as I know, the only trouble he's ever been in is being bad a Cuphead. I know he's worked with Microsoft closely for books but nothing unethical as far as I've heard. Seems like a good dude.

 

[Stop It]

I said as much in the initial thread about the article, but there were definitely parts that felt like the author was running defence for Cage/Quantic Dream, and that was before D'Anastasio, Schreier and O'Brien dug into it from a journalistic background.

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And the person who posted the thread has been trying to discredit the accusations for a long time.

It's raises questions on just why people are so keen to defend such horrible things, and if it's just "they make great games" then people need to take a good hard look at themselves.

Investigating wrongdoing at workplaces is notoriously difficult with NDAs and the ability for people to be effectively blacklisted from the industry. We do not need journalists and people who don't like hearing the hard truth getting in the way and trying to discredit those searching for real answers.

Trusting the words of the accused is one thing, discrediting, ignoring and actively lying about those who either have allegations or trying to investigate them is beyond the pale.

 

[Deleted member 4976]

I saw the thread yesterday at work and read it confusingly because I wasn't sure where the allegations were disproven.

I thought I was losing it for a second.

 

[Messofanego]

Far as I know, the only trouble he's ever been in is being bad a Cuphead. I know he's worked with Microsoft closely for books but nothing unethical as far as I've heard. Seems like a good dude.

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Then his puff piece seems surprising, and wondering what the impetus for it was.

 

[YukiroCTX]

That article was awful to read through. It spends a whole last page giving accounts by QD completely uncontested with no varying or opposing view points with actual statements that are completely contradictory to the actual ruling itself that it read largely like a defense article which tries to absolve them of the situation especially when it devolves into giving DC a platform saying Fake news, Haters attacking the game , " Art" and Politics . When DC himself completely whitewashes the image in question which lead to the fines, it highlights how they haven't even learnt from the situation at all.

 

[L Thammy]

Having read the article when it was posted earlier, I initially thought it was measured in offering statements from both Quantic Dreams and the journalists who have covered it, although I was uncomfortable with how much of the article was just a mouthpiece for David Cage to complain about being the victim of journalists and people who cared too much about abusive workplaces. The person who posted the thread for that article was selectively quoting and made it look even more supportive of Quantic Dream and David Cage than that article actually was.

The main questions that jump out at at me are about the accuracy of information that was supposedly pulled from French sources; ideally someone can post some quotes and break them down a little for those of us who used Babelfish to get through French class in elementary school.

Specifically, these are the things that jumped out at me:

- Dean Takahashi's article largely frames this as being one rogue employee looking for a big payout, but it also mentions a few other employees quitting due to the same incident. Is there a reason why all of these people would quit together?

- The list of questions supposedly asked by French journalists. One of them was about how Quantic Dreams' workhours make people who don't work as much uncomfortable, which seems like a question that someone would only ask if they're trying to reframe discussions of crunch as actually being just lazy workers. It would be a pretty horrendous question for journalists to ask.

- Are the organizations that Cage said had evaluated Quantic Dream actually in the position to do so? From what I could find, one was more of a tax collection company, and another was either a warehouse management software company or an electronic voting company.

- Posts in the thread claimed that the article misinterpreted statements by the judge about whether or not the material being shared in Quantic Dreams was sexist, racist, or homophobic. What was the original statement?

 

[Deleted member 10737]

such a weird article, trying to clear david cage and QD's name using lies, selective quotes and misinformation. very unprofessional, if not downright disgusting.

 

[jschreier]

It's hard to overstate how awful and damaging this is, although I'm at least buoyed by how many people have been dunking on the article today.

 

[ImaLawy3r]

The media should not be in the business of defending companies who are accused of wrongdoing.

It's misguided at best and completely derails a search for justice at worst. Imagine someone like Weinstein being allowed to use a media outlet to try to debunk his accusers like that before facing his own trials, it would be crazy.

More light on what really went on at QD is needed, not an attack on those who first brought attention to it.

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I don't know enough about this story just yet. But, defending and persecuting is often crossed by journalists. While you say that the media should not be in the business of defending they shouldn't be in the opposite business of persecuting, unless it's an opinion piece which is clear.

Journalism without the two is just lost today. I'd much rather read pieces that reported as much facts and details without an interjection of opinion first. Then if desired by the author, have a separate opinion portion of it.

 

[FormatCompatible]

The venturebeat article and that thread (which thankfully the mods closed and banned the OP) are seriously gross, happy to see people calling QD out on their bullshit.

 

[ghostcrew]

The article also didn't answer all of the allegations made against Cage/QD. It covered (up) the Photoshopped pictures etc but made no mention of the racist jokes personally made by Cage towards a Tunisian member of staff. Where was the defence for that? Was that the media lying again? Or a disgruntled staff member? Or is to be blamed on... and I can't believe he actually said this... 'haters on the Internet' who don't like QD games because they're too serious and don't have shooting in them?

Haters online don't make you make racist jokes about co-workers.

 

[Tfritz]

"how qd defended itself from charges of a toxic workplace environment" is a really weird angle to approach an article from, imo, and makes it seem like it was just a puff piece, so it's heartening to see all these folks have seen right through it.

 

[the_wart]

The article seemed based entirely on the idea that if a judge has found that you didn't do a particular illegal thing, then that finding exonerates you from all other accusations. In other words, Trump-logic.

 

[Noodle]

Also from the french journalists of CPC and Mediapart, which VentureBeat didn't contact at all:

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So one side literally fabricated a document. What are the odds Venturebeat verified the source of that question list?

 

[L Thammy]

The article also didn't answer all of the allegations made against Cage/QD. It covered (up) the Photoshopped pictures etc but made no mention of the racist jokes personally made by Cage towards a Tunisian member of staff. Where was the defence for that? Was that the media lying again? Or a disgruntled staff member? Or is to be blamed on... and I can't believe he actually said this... 'haters on the Internet' who don't like QD games because they're too serious and don't have shooting in them?

Haters online don't make you make racist jokes about co-workers.

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I'd like to think that this was incompetence rather than malice, because I don't think it was that great a defense of Cage even just taking the article by itself. If you removed all of the parts which were just David Cage talking about how he's the victim here, the article isn't quite as gushing. Like, even this article mentions that the judge made Quantic Dreams pay damages because they should have stopped the picture sharing thing immediately.

 

[Stop It]

I don't know enough about this story just yet. But, defending and persecuting is often crossed by journalists. While you say that the media should not be in the business of defending they shouldn't be in the opposite business of persecuting, unless it's an opinion piece which is clear.

Journalism without the two is just lost today. I'd much rather read pieces that reported as much facts and details without an interjection of opinion first. Then if desired by the author, have a separate opinion portion of it.

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What, with respect, are you fucking on about?

The journalists covering this case done their job with integrity and have been lied about and defamed in this piece.

What persecution are you even talking about here? If it's not to do with this case, why are you raising it other than to try to create FUD?

 

[Deleted member 1003]

The article was a truly embarrassing read. I had trouble wrap my head this, like, are they really defending QD? The article needs to be pulled.

 

[FormatCompatible]

LOL c'mon!

 

[YukiroCTX]

- Posts in the thread claimed that the article misinterpreted statements by the judge about whether or not the material being shared in Quantic Dreams was sexist, racist, or homophobic. What was the original statement?

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You'd have to find the actual ruling in french for the original statement but going by the original article which I think you quoted me on, (quick google translations which may have things slightly lost in translations)

Final opinion which was finally given only two years later, on October 15, 2019, with a judge qualifying certain photomontages concerned as "homophobic, misogynist, racist or even deeply vulgar" , adding that these were disseminated internally "For several years [...] in the company by employees, without the employer, however informed, reacting" , and that"By remaining passive in the face of this more than questionable practice, which cannot be justified by the" humorous "spirit on which society relies, the employer has committed a breach of the security obligation" .

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There's also a translation by the Le Monde Journalist that explains it which various French posters here also came to similar conclusion

Audereau, the journalist from Le Monde, responded, "As for the outcome of the Labor Court: Court described the pictures as 'homophobic, misogynistic, racist, or highly vulgar' and fined Quantic Dream for having failed to their 'duty of security' toward their employees, which is, to my knowledge, very rare. Using a very obscure and risky point of the French labor law, the 'prise d'acte,' the employee asked for [the] resignation to be requalified as a termination, but the court didn't agree on that. Hence he didn't obtain the amount of damages and interests he was asking for, and appealed against the ruling.

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So at no stage was QD absolved from the material. Quantic Dream is taking this ruling of the reduced damages and completely misleading everyone that they won and there was no toxicity when the ruling does not do so.

 

[ImaLawy3r]

What, with respect, are you fucking on about?

The journalists covering this case done their job with integrity and have been lied about and defamed in this piece.

What persecution are you even talking about here? If it's not to do with this case, why are you raising it other than to try to create FUD?

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With respect, I'm generalizing. Said that in the first god damned sentence. You state media shouldn't be in the business with defending. I just wanted to add that they shouldn't be in the business of persecuting either. That's all. Get a grip.

 

[Huey]

It's hard to overstate how awful and damaging this is, although I'm at least buoyed by how many people have been dunking on the article today.

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There was a thread here by someone trying to support the articles claims earlier today - was good to see how uniformly it was shot down, the thread locked and the OP banned (for continuing to defend the article despite people clearly pointing out the issues).

 

[L Thammy]

You'd have to find the actual ruling in french for the original statement but going by the original article which I think you quoted me on, (quick google translations which may have things slightly lost in translations)


There's also a translation by the Le Monde Journalist that explains it which various French posters here also came to similar conclusion


So at no stage was QD absolved from the material. Quantic Dream is taking this ruling of the reduced damages and completely misleading everyone that they won and there was no toxicity when the ruling does not do so.

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Thanks! Tracing back from your post in that thread, I believe I've found that quote in French:

Quantic Dream condamné dans l'affaire des photomontages orduriers

Quantic Dream a été condamné pour avoir laissé circuler en interne des photomontages injurieux mettant en scène des salariés de l'entreprise.

www.tryagame.fr

Le 27 décembre 2017, l'affaire avait été étudiée une première fois par les prud'hommes, mais l'impossibilité d'une entente entre les juges représentants les employeurs et ceux représentants les employés avait entraîné le lancement d'une procédure de départage, signifiant qu'un juge professionnel allait prendre le relai pour rendre un avis définitif. Avis définitif qui n'a finalement été rendu que deux ans après, le 15 octobre 2019, avec une juge qualifiant certains photomontages concernés d'« homophobes, misogynes, racistes ou encore profondément vulgaires », ajoutant que ceux-ci ont été diffusés en interne « pendant plusieurs années […] dans l'entreprise par des salariés, sans que l'employeur, pourtant informé, ne réagisse », et qu'« en restant passif face à cette pratique plus que contestable, qui ne peut se justifier par l'esprit "humoristique" dont se prévaut la société, l'employeur a commis une violation de l'obligation de sécurité ».

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Actual French speakers can weigh in, but knowing the teensiest bit of French and squinting hard enough at the bigger words, it seems to be pretty clear-cut that this isn't declaring that Quantic Dream is free of the allegations of homophobia, misogyny, and racism. I have no idea how Dean Takahashi would have interpreted as such if this is what 's talking about; did he just ask members of Quantic Dream for translation and then didn't get another opinion or something like that? Or maybe it's another quote than the one here?

The only thing was that I can think of this as not being an outright negative for Quantic Dream is that it looks to me - and again, I'd rather have an actual French speaker weigh in - like in that first line the judge might just be bringing up that the photomontages are accused of being these things and not actually weighing in himself? But I'm less inclined to believe that considering how the judge seems to go on about Quantic Dream "remaining passive to this beyond questionable practice".

 

[BY2K]

Thanks! Tracing back from your post in that thread, I believe I've found that quote in French:

Quantic Dream condamné dans l'affaire des photomontages orduriers

Quantic Dream a été condamné pour avoir laissé circuler en interne des photomontages injurieux mettant en scène des salariés de l'entreprise.

www.tryagame.fr

Actual French speakers can weigh in, but knowing the teensiest bit of French and squinting hard enough at the bigger words, it seems to be pretty clear-cut that this isn't declaring that Quantic Dream is free of the allegations of homophobia, misogyny, and racism. I have no idea how Dean Takahashi would have interpreted as such if this is what 's talking about; did he just ask members of Quantic Dream for translation and then didn't get another opinion or something like that? Or maybe it's another quote than the one here?

The only thing was that I can think of this as not being an outright negative for Quantic Dream is that it looks to me - and again, I'd rather have an actual French speaker weigh in - like in that first line the judge might just be bringing up that the photomontages are accused of being these things and not actually weighing in himself? But I'm less inclined to believe that considering how the judge seems to go on about Quantic Dream "remaining passive to this beyond questionable practice".

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The exact opposite, even.

The judge qualified the photoshops as being misogynistic, homophobic, racist and deeply vulgar.

 

[Naga]

Thanks! Tracing back from your post in that thread, I believe I've found that quote in French:

Quantic Dream condamné dans l'affaire des photomontages orduriers

Quantic Dream a été condamné pour avoir laissé circuler en interne des photomontages injurieux mettant en scène des salariés de l'entreprise.

www.tryagame.fr

Actual French speakers can weigh in, but knowing the teensiest bit of French and squinting hard enough at the bigger words, it seems to be pretty clear-cut that this isn't declaring that Quantic Dream is free of the allegations of homophobia, misogyny, and racism. I have no idea how Dean Takahashi would have interpreted as such if this is what 's talking about; did he just ask members of Quantic Dream for translation and then didn't get another opinion or something like that? Or maybe it's another quote than the one here?

The only thing was that I can think of this as not being an outright negative for Quantic Dream is that it looks to me - and again, I'd rather have an actual French speaker weigh in - like in that first line the judge might just be bringing up that the photomontages are accused of being these things and not actually weighing in himself? But I'm less inclined to believe that considering how the judge seems to go on about Quantic Dream "remaining passive to this beyond questionable practice".

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I'm a native french speaker, and that's basically what you say:
The photomontages are homophobic, racist, sexist, etc (you can find some of them on the canardpc article, they made it free for everyone given this new article, caution it's really NSFW), and the judge says that the biggest issue is that the employer was aware of it for years and has never done anything to make it stop, being basically not only guilty by association, but the "violation de l'obligation de sécurité" means that they failed to follow labour laws where the employer needs to protect the physical and mental well-being of their employees. They're not free of any allegations at all.

And it's just one of those cases, they've got some others going on.

 

[L Thammy]

The exact opposite, even.

The judge qualified the photoshops as being misogynistic, homophobic, racist and deeply vulgar.

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To be clear, in the line "avec une juge qualifiant certains photomontages concernés d'", would "qualifiant" mean that the judge themselves is qualifying the photoshops like this or is the "concernés" pointing at it being a description of what they're weighing in on?

 

[Megasoum]

To be ckear, in the line "avec une juge qualifiant certains photomontages concernés d'", would "qualifiant" mean that the judge themselves is qualifying the photoshops like this or is the "concernés" pointing at it being that it's just what they're weighing in on?

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"Concerné" here means "in question"

So "[...]avec une juge qualifiant certains photomontages concernés d'« homophobes, misogynes, racistes ou encore profondément vulgaires », [...]"

translates to

"[...] with the judge qualifying some of the photo montages in question of being "homophobe, misogynistic, racist or even deeply vulgar",[...]".

 

[samred]

I'm on vacation today but will double back on this on Monday. In the meantime:

 

[Deleted member 5028]

It's hard to overstate how awful and damaging this is, although I'm at least buoyed by how many people have been dunking on the article today.

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It felt like Dean had been an access journalist by way of Venturebeat for so long that he's forgotten what true, knuckledusting journalism actually is.
It's not what happens with PR in the room nodding to give permission to answer, but more or less what you and your peers have done by holding people to account.
Thanks for the efforts and sorry if this feels like an affront to your work.

 

[BY2K]

"Concerné" here means "in question"

So "[...]avec une juge qualifiant certains photomontages concernés d'« homophobes, misogynes, racistes ou encore profondément vulgaires », [...]"

translates to

"[...] with the judge qualifying some of the photo montages in question of being "homophobe, misogynistic, racist or even deeply vulgar",[...]".

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To be clear, in the line "avec une juge qualifiant certains photomontages concernés d'", would "qualifiant" mean that the judge themselves is qualifying the photoshops like this or is the "concernés" pointing at it being a description of what they're weighing in on?

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What megasoum said

 

[L Thammy]

BY2K Megasoum Naga
Thanks for the clarification! So if the judge was explicitly saying that the photomontages were homophobic, misogynistic, and racist, it's downright baffling that the Venturebeat article has these quotes:

"The image had no specific angle (not homophobic, racist or misogynist, as the Labor Court confirmed), but it was definitely not acceptable," Cage said. "We also discovered other images that were never shared and that we had never seen before, which were totally unacceptable."

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Cage also said that the judge in the case said, "The photomontage showing [the IT manager] in Supernanny, if it appears vulgar, is neither homophobic, nor racist, nor pornographic."

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Even if it's just quoting Cage rather than asserting it directly, it's horribly irresponsible to just let Cage straight up lie in an article.

 

[srtrestre]

Absolutely disgusting. The thread about it that was locked was an embarrassment. It boggles the mind that the OP thought it was acceptable.

 

[mael]

After the judge ruling on QD's behavior, you have to literally know no French at all to find redeeming qualities as to how QD acted in this whole affair.
I am absolutely not surprised that some access journalists would try to pull this off, I am actually surprised that it wasn't a French journalist.
I mean we had puff pieces about convicted felon Balkany, Carlos Gohn and even a goddamn cottage industry around Polanski so Quantic Dream wouldn't have been the worst case.

e: holy shit at that locked thread about the article!
A literal astroturf wouldn't be as blattant!

 

[scitek]

"how qd defended itself from charges of a toxic workplace environment" is a really weird angle to approach an article from, imo, and makes it seem like it was just a puff piece, so it's heartening to see all these folks have seen right through it.

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I saw the thread and thought I had missed the news of QD being completely exonerated.

 

[Morrigan]

Also from the french journalists of CPC and Mediapart, which VentureBeat didn't contact at all:

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I compared the questions QD claims they were asked, vs the actual questions posted by the journalists... it's mind-boggling. QD is outright fabricating the questions. There's nothing about those questions in the journalists' document.

It's breathtakingly dishonest framing from QD.

- The list of questions supposedly asked by French journalists. One of them was about how Quantic Dreams' workhours make people who don't work as much uncomfortable, which seems like a question that someone would only ask if they're trying to reframe discussions of crunch as actually being just lazy workers. It would be a pretty horrendous question for journalists to ask.

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It is indeed horrendous.

Translated into English, the question in the dropbox asks about overtime that goes "well above the legal weekly maximum of 48 hours", and asks to confirm whether that happened, and if so, were the employees compensated properly. Then it asks the follow-up question:

"Do you consider such heavy workload to be necessary for the production of video games? The video game industry is known for its "crunch" practice (Quantic Dream itself being in such a crunch period in order to complete "Detroit: Become Human"). Do you consider this practice to be indispensable? Some companies in the industry, such as Ubisoft, seem to have some success in doing differently. More broadly, do you think that salaried workplace regulations in France are adapted to your industry? If not, why?"

To frame this ^ as "some people who work less might feel bad about you working more" is just... I can't. So beyond dishonest that it's comical.

Thanks! Tracing back from your post in that thread, I believe I've found that quote in French:

Quantic Dream condamné dans l'affaire des photomontages orduriers

Quantic Dream a été condamné pour avoir laissé circuler en interne des photomontages injurieux mettant en scène des salariés de l'entreprise.

www.tryagame.fr

Actual French speakers can weigh in, but knowing the teensiest bit of French and squinting hard enough at the bigger words, it seems to be pretty clear-cut that this isn't declaring that Quantic Dream is free of the allegations of homophobia, misogyny, and racism. I have no idea how Dean Takahashi would have interpreted as such if this is what 's talking about; did he just ask members of Quantic Dream for translation and then didn't get another opinion or something like that? Or maybe it's another quote than the one here?

The only thing was that I can think of this as not being an outright negative for Quantic Dream is that it looks to me - and again, I'd rather have an actual French speaker weigh in - like in that first line the judge might just be bringing up that the photomontages are accused of being these things and not actually weighing in himself? But I'm less inclined to believe that considering how the judge seems to go on about Quantic Dream "remaining passive to this beyond questionable practice".

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Others already chimed in but I can confirm the original quote says the images are homophobic, misogynistic and racist. The article directly contradicting this is a complete joke.

BY2K Megasoum Naga
Thanks for the clarification! So if the judge was explicitly saying that the photomontages were homophobic, misogynistic, and racist, it's downright baffling that the Venturebeat article has these quotes:

Even if it's just quoting Cage rather than asserting it directly, it's horribly irresponsible to just let Cage straight up lie in an article.

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To be honest, the very premise was irresponsible. If a company is under scrutiny for serious offenses, responsible journalism doesn't make a puff piece with that very same company's CEO, especially not without ever challenging him!

 

[flyinj]

What I find really strange is that there really seems to have been a ton of people that have been adamantly defending Quantic Dream on this forum since the initial articles hit. There seemed to be way more pushback than other similar articles like the abuse at Riot and other companies.

What is up with that? Are there a lot of Quantic Dreams staff on this board?

 

[L Thammy]

It is indeed horrendous.

Translated into English, the question in the dropbox asks about overtime that goes "well above the legal weekly maximum of 48 hours", and asks to confirm whether that happened, and if so, were the employees compensated properly. Then it asks the follow-up question:

"Do you consider such heavy workload to be necessary for the production of video games? The video game industry is known for its "crunch" practice (Quantic Dream itself being in such a crunch period in order to complete "Detroit: Become Human"). Do you consider this practice to be indispensable? Some companies in the industry, such as Ubisoft, seem to have some success in doing differently. More broadly, do you think that salaried workplace regulations in France are adapted to your industry? If not, why?"

To frame this ^ as "some people who work less might feel bad about you working more" is just... I can't. So beyond dishonest that it's comical.

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This is what I expected when I saw that question; it was just too hard to buy that journalists would be framing the workers as lazy here. Hell, it doesn't even make sense when you consider the narrative that the journalists are out for Quantic Dream's blood. Why would they want to frame Quantic Dream as hard workers and their critics as lazy in that case?

David Cage himself probably deserves some heat for this.

To be honest, the very premise was irresponsible. If a company is under scrutiny for serious offenses, responsible journalism doesn't make a puff piece with that very same company's CEO, especially not without ever challenging him!

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I don't disagree. I mean, it's got things like

"They just said they were not victims of anything, which was totally unacceptable to some. What is absolutely astonishing is how people from the outside are eager to save people who are humiliated and discriminated against even when there are none."

which are demonizing people for caring about the welfare of his employees.

 

[makonero]

What I find really strange is that there really seems to have been a ton of people that have been adamantly defending Quantic Dream on this forum since the initial articles hit. There seemed to be way more pushback than other similar articles like the abuse at Riot and other companies.

What is up with that? Are there a lot of Quantic Dreams staff on this board?

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People are very defensive of their video games.

 

[Naga]

What I find really strange is that there really seems to have been a ton of people that have been adamantly defending Quantic Dream on this forum since the initial articles hit. There seemed to be way more pushback than other similar articles like the abuse at Riot and other companies.

What is up with that? Are there a lot of Quantic Dreams staff on this board?

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I mean, you can use the search function to previous threads about the topic or Quantic Dream in general (not their first problems), and you can see some people always ready to say that it's fine because their games are good.

Same happened for Rockstar, Riot, EA, and countless others.

 

[scitek]

People are very defensive of their video games.

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Yeah, I think it's just that more people here play QD's games than Riot's.

 

[DeadmansTheory]

What I find really strange is that there really seems to have been a ton of people that have been adamantly defending Quantic Dream on this forum since the initial articles hit. There seemed to be way more pushback than other similar articles like the abuse at Riot and other companies.

What is up with that? Are there a lot of Quantic Dreams staff on this board?

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Having "blind devotion' for a person/developer/publisher/game always brings out the worst in a person when said thing they like/love is attacked. That other thread was a prime example of that devotion going wrong.

 

[FormatCompatible]

What I find really strange is that there really seems to have been a ton of people that have been adamantly defending Quantic Dream on this forum since the initial articles hit. There seemed to be way more pushback than other similar articles like the abuse at Riot and other companies.

What is up with that? Are there a lot of Quantic Dreams staff on this board?

Click to shrink...

In the thread that was closed the OP literally end his post with this

so I hope this can be put behind since this is one of the best studios out there.

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It's just blind fanboyism at work.

 

[Glasfrut]

Yeah, said shit was weird with that earlier thread. Glad it was locked.

 

[Deleted member 5621]

Howling:

Absolutely disgusting. The thread about it that was locked was an embarrassment. It boggles the mind that the OP thought it was acceptable.

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e: holy shit at that locked thread about the article!
A literal astroturf wouldn't be as blattant!

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It was not the first time that poster did such blatant gaslighting and selective quoting to defend QD, and they were banned before for that too.
Maybe it's Cage 🤔

 

[makonero]

Howling:



It was not the first time that poster did such blatant gaslighting and selective quoting to defend QD, and they were banned before for that too.
Maybe it's Cage 🤔

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If so he would be the Dennis Dyack of Era

 

[Khanimus]

This article paired with the locked thread are almost comical.