Forget Declining Games Journalism, What About Declining Unhappy Spouse Manifestos?

[Matthew Gallant]

This reads like it was written by Mike Tyson.

P.S. Might not have missed this if not for Troy G.

[Angie Gallant]

[Charles]

Tip: Have someone proofread your shit before showing it to the entire internet.

[Adree]

[RepoMan]

What about declining use of the active voice?

Originally Posted by Teh Manifesto

There are understandably times when crunching in work is needed and extended working time is expected. However; as with all systems known to man, there must always be an effort for balance. Ergo, where there are times of acceleration, there are other times of deceleration in order to recuperate. This is not being practiced though, and instead of valued employees, a sentiment grows that they have lost not only the sense of being valued but turned into machines as they are slowly robbed of their humanity.

All the passive voice is robbing me of my humanity, as well as everyone mentioned in that whole friggin' unreadable wordsoup crapfest.

[Angie Gallant]

In all seriousness, it sounds like the Rockstar San Diego guys deserve much better advocacy than this.

[rowe33]

That manifesto is fascinating....ergo, my life has been ameliorated, ergo, thusly.

[alexlitel]

Originally Posted by Matthew Gallant

This reads like it was written by Mike Tyson.

As someone who factors a developer's QoL into every game purchase, it's distressing to see both the flippant--possibly bordering on sexist--attitude in this thread and the godawful writing (write like a human being, not a fake lawyer) in that post.

I've had a strict policy of only renting Rockstar games since that Alphabet City post, though, and this sort of thing only reinforces my position.

[Adree]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

As someone who factors a developer's QoL into every game purchase, it's distressing to see both the flippant--possibly bordering on sexist--attitude in this thread and the godawful writing (write like a human being, not a fake lawyer) in that post.

I've had a strict policy of only renting Rockstar games since that Alphabet City post, though, and this sort of thing only reinforces my position.

As someone who factors a poster's worth as a human being into every thread I read, I think you deserve a prize.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

As someone who factors a developer's QoL into every game purchase, it's distressing to see both the flippant--possibly bordering on sexist--attitude in this thread and the godawful writing (write like a human being, not a fake lawyer) in that post.

I've had a strict policy of only renting Rockstar games since that Alphabet City post, though, and this sort of thing only reinforces my position.

[malphigian]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

I've had a strict policy of only renting Rockstar games since that Alphabet City post, though, and this sort of thing only reinforces my position.

I read a good bit of that post (I'll admit, not all of it), and it really reads like someone getting his first job and not knowing every business is full of assholes who have no idea what they are doing, huge process issues, and projects that go to hell regularly.

Welcome to the working world kid!

Your boycott is bizarre. Do you boycott sweatshop clothing, or are you pretty much only focused on the plight of the upper-middle class and college educated?

[Justin Fletcher]

Originally Posted by Matthew Gallant

This reads like it was written by Mike Tyson.

After he busted out a thesaurus.

[alexlitel]

Originally Posted by malphigian

I read a good bit of that post (I'll admit, not all of it), and it really reads like someone getting his first job and not knowing every business is full of assholes who have no idea what they are doing, huge process issues, and projects that go to hell regularly.

That was not his first job, though. The stance on Rockstar also comes from many other stories I've heard over the years about their development studios, though.

Originally Posted by malphigian

Your boycott is bizarre. Do you boycott sweatshop clothing, or are you pretty much only focused on the plight of the upper-middle class and college educated?

Why, yes, I do not buy sweatshop clothing; I also don't buy Tecmo games because of the smut they publish. And probably no Sega games after they choose to publish Bayonetta. Every purchase is an ethical vote--from media to fruit and everything in between.

Originally Posted by Justin Fletcher

After he busted out a thesaurus.

No, Tyson's a pretty eloquent dude, if you've seen or read recent interviews.

[ShivaX]

I got this far:

The turning for the worse came approximately in the month of March of 2009. Till present, the working conditions persists to deteriorate

Then I stopped and prayed for the death of the person who wrote it.

[Skipper]

So I'm a little confused, not being in the game industry myself. Wasn't quality of life a huge issue a few years back, so much so that there was a large amount of talk about it and work to steer companies to do better? Is this a one-off situation here or is it still the same? I'm guessing that adding to a shitty work environment is the fact that times are tight and moving somewhere else is much harder at this point.

[Matthew Gallant]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

And probably no Sega games after they choose to publish Bayonetta.

[drake113]

This reads like a third-box-of-wine manifesto. On the bright side, it's nice to see that Rockstar employees are making enough to afford mail order brides.

[alexlitel]

Originally Posted by Skipper

So I'm a little confused, not being in the game industry myself. Wasn't quality of life a huge issue a few years back, so much so that there was a large amount of talk about it and work to steer companies to do better? Is this a one-off situation here or is it still the same? I'm guessing that adding to a shitty work environment is the fact that times are tight and moving somewhere else is much harder at this point.

Pretty much still the same it seems, perhaps marginally better. A major problem someone like Rockstar is that the allure of their brand makes them instantly attractive to every green applicant desiring to be in the industry, and there are dozens eager to fill your position if you were to ever leave; that readily available supply of people to ensure incompetent management remains incompetent.

I would recommend reading the comments, many of which are decently written.

Oh, how I wish I had written this, as its all true.
It includes a bit, but not nearly the amount of detail it should.
Where is the detail about people getting performance warnings for not working 11hrs+ a day?
The running joke is that donuts were taken away every other week (about $200 in savings per month), yet Rockstar flies in people from all the other studios (Vancouver, Leeds, Toronto, New England, etc..) and puts them up in a luxurious rental home, give them per-diem, and rent cars for them. At one point, it seemed like half the Leeds staff was in the San Diego studio! How was Rockstar San Diego able to create great games like Table Tennis and Midnight Club, but suddenly they are utterly incapable of doing the simplest task without the help of people who have half their experience?

How about the temporary appointment of a new studio president who spent thousands at a time on drinking outings, only to give up the position after a few short months?

Please, someone explain why the profitable and very functional Midnight Club team was ripped apart, their technology thrown away (after Midnight Club Los Angeles), and everyone who wasn't fired or quit was shoved onto a project that has been struggling for well over 4 years?

And why were the people who led said struggling project down its path of waste and destruction the ones who were promoted to lead the studio!?!?

R.I.P. Rockstar San Diego.
You had a tremendous amount of talent. You destroyed the best of it first, firing many and forcing many others to quit with the actions outlined above. Now you've gone and made it so nobody still working there looks forward to the next work day.

And don't believe for a second that it's just the management at Rockstar San Diego. It goes straight back to the boys in New York. Their lack of understanding of the development process has led to this whole mess. When you let a team create a game for 2+ years, building technology with little or no feedback, then jump in months before the project is to be shipped and *DEMAND* sweeping changes, you're going to have deadlines slip, unstable fixes, and unhappy workers.

Of course, Red Dead Redemption has been in development for four-and-a-half-years at this point--an amount of time that suggests a clusterfuck behind-the-scenes.

[MattKeil]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

And probably no Sega games after they choose to publish Bayonetta.

Yes, how dare SEGA publish the best hack and slash game in half a decade. They should be ashamed.

Every purchase is an ethical vote--from media to fruit and everything in between.

That's a lot of free time you have on your hands.

[alexlitel]

Originally Posted by MattKeil

Yes, how dare SEGA publish the best hack and slash game in half a decade. They should be ashamed.

Quality is irrelevant when it is a saliently sexist product; if you want your money to encourage sexism, feel free, but I don't.

Originally Posted by MattKeil

That's a lot of free time you have on your hands.

It's not that time-consuming, but people are generally just lazy.

[Desslock]

Wow, that complaint letter is just unreadable. Incoherency and illiteracy are not your advocacy pals.

[RepoMan]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

the flippant--possibly bordering on sexist--attitude in this thread

Excuse me? Please point at the specific sexism your bizarre little mind perceives in this thread prior to your post. SPECIFIC, mind.

Could it be that you're assuming that anyone who criticizes the writing of the Rockstar wives is being sexist? But, but then what about

Originally Posted by alexlitel

the godawful writing (write like a human being, not a fake lawyer) in that post

???????????

Originally Posted by alexlitel

Quality is irrelevant when it is a saliently sexist product; if you want your money to encourage sexism, feel free, but I don't.

What in the world does "saliently sexist" mean? And can you please elucidate the difference between sexiness and sexism in your world? No, I don't know quite why I'm asking, except that I enjoy salient weirdthink.

Desslock, I don't think the author is illiterate. Nor even that incoherent. What they do have, though, is severe -- and largely ignorant -- pretensions to lawyerhood. There's real content in there, it's just buried under an amazingly consistent morass of turgid passivity.

[Angie Gallant]

A character can be sexualized without being sexist. I haven't played Bayonetta, but I would put money on it being able to pass the Bechdel test. Plus, the sexy is cool and weird.

The conditions you find in the industry right now vary hugely depending on which company you work for and what department you are in. Even the best companies can still be pretty shit to their QA, though not all of them are. And when you have satellite branches, things can vary within the company too. If you want to know what quality of life is like somewhere, your best best is to ask people who worked on the last product a company shipped what working there was like. Unless they've had huge layoffs, that can change the face of things for either good or bad.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Originally Posted by RepoMan

What in the world does "saliently sexist" mean? And can you please elucidate the difference between sexiness and sexism in your world? No, I don't know quite why I'm asking, except that I enjoy salient weirdthink.

I bet he can't really answer that (because he's gay).

[Quaro]

Seems like a non-native English speaker, rather than a bad writer.

[Dravalen]

Used to know a lead programmer at rock star san diego back in 2003 or so, he was talking about a union back then.

Sadly this is pretty norm for the game industry. At my last gig before I left the industry all together I got into a extended shouting match with one of my coworkers for leaving "early" at 10pm after working a 14 hour day during a 9 month death march.

Fuck that shit.

Seriously it's not worth it, I make 60% more now and work half the hours I did in the game industry. I don't see anything changing any time soon, there's always a fresh supply of new blood to burn out.

[Jenn]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

Why, yes, I do not buy sweatshop clothing; I also don't buy Tecmo games because of the smut they publish. And probably no Sega games after they choose to publish Bayonetta. Every purchase is an ethical vote--from media to fruit and everything in between.

Ethically, then, should I buy two copies of Bayonetta? One to support the great action and the other solely for the crazy hair. Voting with dollars is the best way to get a message across these days and I certainly support it far more than raising a stink with the press and trying to get censors involved to parent everyone's children. Angie has already stated that being sexy does not make something sexist. I had a much longer rant to add in here but I didn't want to derail the thread any further than it's been pushed already. The game is rated M. Those of us (all of us here?) able to purchase this in stores are likely well aware that librarians don't go around shooting up angels with guns in their boots and use that as a model to judge society by. Otherwise I really picked the wrong line of schooling and need to get in on that, woo. The one thing that never fails to crack me up when it comes to 'sexy/sexist' video game discussions, not that you brought this into your post, is how it often comes back to the jiggle. Guess what? I have years of experience with this as a female high performance athlete so you are going to have to take my word here when I say that boobs bounce, deal with it. I do. I also own two copies of DoA Xtreme 2. It's the best WaveRace game since, well, WaveRace64!

To end somewhat on topic here: omgwow. Did they let anyone read that before posting? I started to long for the first year English and Computer Science essays I used to mark as a TA. Could anyone with MS Word just copy and paste that to see how much their spell and grammar check picks up?

[alexlitel]

Originally Posted by RepoMan

Excuse me? Please point at the specific sexism your bizarre little mind perceives in this thread prior to your post. SPECIFIC, mind.

Could it be that you're assuming that anyone who criticizes the writing of the Rockstar wives is being sexist? But, but then what about

???????????

I take the issue seriously, you guys don't; if it was written by a man, the reaction would be different.

Originally Posted by RepoMan

What in the world does "saliently sexist" mean? And can you please elucidate the difference between sexiness and sexism in your world? No, I don't know quite why I'm asking, except that I enjoy salient weirdthink.

Bayonetta isn't sexy; she's a wish fulfillment of a perennial thirteen-year-old boy who masturbates to the Underworld films. There's a difference, but that difference ceases to exist when we are talking about a game from chauvinists in a nation where women are essentially second-class citizens.

[Ed Solomon]

Originally Posted by ShivaX

I got this far:


Then I stopped and prayed for the death of the person who wrote it.

You stopped just before the good stuff!

...as employees are manipulated by certain hands that wield the reigns of power in Rockstar San Diego.

[ShivaX]

Originally Posted by alexlitel

I take the issue seriously, you guys don't; if it was written by a man, the reaction would be different.

Er... no. Stupid is stupid. It knows no sex, gender, race or creed. That writing made my mind bleed.

Bayonetta isn't sexy; she's a wish fulfillment of a perennial thirteen-year-old boy who masturbates to the Underworld films. There's a difference, but that difference ceases to exist when we are talking about a game from chauvinists in a nation where women are essentially second-class citizens.

Uh, huh. So now everyone is a chauvinist.

Whats the weather like on your planet anyway?