gamer_152

What a website. This place has given me a lot of laughs and really shaped my connection with games over the years. Here's to many more.

@viralrain said:

This is a huge part of it. People in considerable positions of power were implicated in the harrassment accusations at Riot, Gearbox, and Ubisoft, and it's a pattern that stretches far beyond the game industry. Powerful industry positions are also much more commonly staffed by men and generally less often by people who would be targets for discrimination and have some skin in the game. Broadly speaking, there's little incentive for upper management to properly handle harrassment cases because they don't want to bring negative attention to their company, they don't want to fire useful people, and they don't want to create a workplace system or culture in which there could be consequences for powerful people like them.

Ostensibly, HR departments are meant to deal with workplace abuse, but their effective function is to protect the company itself rather than seek justice for the abused. Why would powerful people create a department inside their own company that could control management like them? Reports get quashed, and investigations into harrassment, in the rare cases they do happen, are carried out by people who are part of the culture and system that created that harrassment in the first place. This deafness to harrassment accusations is one part of creating a culture in which harrassing coworkers seems acceptable to people.

All of this, of course, isn't lost on the harrassed. Challenging workplace abuse means dredging up some painful memories and putting them on display when the first thing that usually happens to harrassed people is that they're called liars and troublemakers and ultimately ignored. The in-group close ranks and the victim is isolated, and may have their job or even career on the line. You could purse legal recourse outside the company, but it is a long, expensive, and arduous process where anyone going up against a big company can expect their character to be assassinated, and again, where plenty of people haven't found any justice. For many victims, especially women, it simply doesn't seem worth it. None of these dynamics are unique to any one company or even the games industry; it's just how society at large treats abuse.

I really appreciate @justin258's post in here, and it echoes a lot of the concerns I have about ownership. And I value that ownership not just because I am worried about my library disappearing one day, but also because I think that preservation of games as a medium is really important. I'm also worried about the potential financial effects of a service like Game Pass, especially for smaller creators. Industry finances are always a bit of a black box, so it's hard to know how many people are or can get their dues under a scheme like this, and the idea of access to games becoming monopolised in this way is disconcerting. I also want a far wider diet of games than you can get under any one of these subscription services.

I am looking to pick up Game Pass myself soon, but for the above reasons, I can't see it as a full replacement for just going and buying games. I'm looking for it to be a way to try new games without having to throw down the retail price and to play AAA titles I'd never otherwise have the money to buy, but I still want to purchase indie games where possible to support the devs and do plenty of exploration beyond Game Pass.

@madmatt213: Thanks, I appreciate it. I have some worries about the larger economic effects of Game Pass on the industry, but I can't deny that it does play a great role bringing people to smaller and more experimental games.

The Teletubbies fan art burns so good.

@retris: Thank you. This is a very encouraging comment.

@zombiepie: I would also have accepted The Apes of Wrath.

Ginsburg did some wonderful things in her lifetime and her death represents a huge problem for people who would hope the American political system would be anything short of abjectly cruel to its citizens. Unfortunately, it's not so much the single event which will reverse the advancement of equality and justice in the United States, as it is one of many. No doubt, there are many more to come. I'd echo roughly what others posters here have said about the Democrats. Frequently, their goals are simply slight variations of Republican goals; this is especially true with regards to big business in the U.S. But even when they genuinely want to oppose the Republicans, that opposition tends to be weak-willed and based on fundamental misunderstandings of the political machine. In practical terms, the best they can do here is draw attention to how dangerous McConnell'a plan is, but I wouldn't guarantee that they'd do that with much effectiveness.

On which note, vote, but be aware that voting won't fundamentally solve these problems. If Biden gets in in November, the president will be the VP from the administration that teed up Trump. Talk to your representatives, get out on the street, and generally become involved in constructive direct action wherever you can. The best case scenario is that things are going to get much worse before they get better and they won't get better at all without a fight.

@pnevares: Thank you. It's always good to hear that.

Locking this thread. While I greatly empathise with your problem, @darthtraitor, there's a lot of damage that could be done by people who aren't mental health professionals issuing psychiatric advice on an internet forum.