The Wages of Cheap

Unity's CEO, John Riccitiello has some ideas about what it takes to succeed in games and chose to express them in a really careless way. General sentiment towards Unity was falling at least among some developers due to shifting priorities, and a recent round of layoffs. The latest outrage came not so much from an …

Bringing Your Whole Self to Patch Notes

On March 8th the developer of Domina (bignic) decided to moonlight as a health authority/life coach and suffered backlash as a result. The opinion expressed is stupid and uninteresting, but for reference, the note that sparked the response was: TAKE OFF THE FCKN MASKS - Next time you're at the grocery store, try showing a …

Why do I need to know which Activision Blizzard executives worked in the Trump administration?

Activision Blizzard's executives have been criticized for a series of progressively tone deaf responses to the lawsuit brought by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the resulting labour action. The company has done nothing to earn any sympathy, and the most charitable reading of the executive response would be 'failed to rise …

Should companies be allowed to buy games?

Drake Star Partners, an investment banking firm, published a report on deals in gaming made in the first three quarters of 2021. The report states that the total dollar value of acquisitions (announced or closed) is already twice that of 2020 in its entirety. The comparison to 2020 is even more striking considering that 2020 …

Store Wars: Imperfect views of imperfect markets

Economics has something of an edge when it comes to respectability among the social sciences, but it is often squandered by talking heads acting like everyone else is an idiot on TV. The benefit of taking an introductory economics class is not prestige or a set of talking points but rather a set of tools …

The maturity trap

Insecurity Tabletop role-playing games have sense of insecurity hiding just beneath the surface. They haven't become the cultural phenomena video games are and certainly don't bring in the same kind of revenue. When they did have a cultural moment, part of it was being the subject of a moral panic. The outside perception of the …

The Networks of Cultist Simulator

Cultist Simulator reveals its world through fragments and its lore is discovered by considering these fragments in relation to each other. The game's Discord server has an active community that discusses the lore of the world (now known as the Secret Histories), and there is plenty of room for interpretation about what is going on. …

Thoughts on a game engine from someone who doesn’t know about game engines

Epic released a demo for the latest iteration of their game engine, Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). The demo looks magnificent and has a bit where the roof opens up and lights a room with 500 detailed statues. Once I looked at Twitter I was informed that the demo, apparently, wasn't all that good. The objections …

Objectively the most objective review of objectively the best game of 2000

It was a project helmed by a legendary game designer at a studio recently buoyed with cash from a large publisher. It took on theme of the forces hidden in plain sight that affect our choices and the world we live in. The game spawned three sequels with the latest entry appearing in the later …

Response: Data science will not save you

This article is a critical response to the Gamasutra blog "Steam has a lack of data scientists." While it is an opinion piece, the article was widely shared and contains a number of contestable statements with regards to Steam's role, Valve's capabilities, and the ability of data science to solve structural issues for game developers. …