The Business Side of Video (Space) Games EXCLUSIVELY ON IDLE THUMBS

[Justin Leego]

Why not "Obtain"?

[osmosisch]

"Loot" would be best.

[tegan]

"Pay respects."

[SiN]

Kinda wish they were most distinct with this, where actual free games were still marked "Free" and games with in-app purchases were marked "Get".

[Henroid]

Are paid-for games also labeled with a "Get" button? That will tell us everything we need to know about the intent of this change.

[Henroid]

Just some quick beats here, sorry for the lack of links but I've gotta make this quick for IRL stuffs.

 

- Double Fine lost a contract for a game, due to the publisher pulling it unexpectedly, so they had to lay off 12 employees. All the currently-known games are unaffected.

- Valve is trying to tighten up its Early Access guidelines due to the (unfair) scrutiny from fans, but also to prevent or better deal with abandoned projects (an actual problem).

- Gamestop posted a .7% drop in earnings year over year, resulting in an 11% drop in stock price, demonstrating that the stock market is fucking dumb.

[elmuerte]

I'm a bit disappointed that DoubleFine did not announce this themselves, but only via press statements.

[SuperBiasedMan]

Wouldn't that be partly out of courtesy to the publisher? Not wanting to outright say "they pulled the plug on us" while at the same time not wanting to say the game is cancelled without explanation and take the heat directly.

[elmuerte]

I was more thinking along the line of "We had to say goodbye to 12 colleagues because an unannounced project fell through". No jabs made at any party. But also, why would you not name the party that pulled out? You don't have to name the party, just staying that the publisher pulled support is enough. That stuff can happen for any reason. Maybe the published did not have a lot of faith in Spacestation DF10 after recent events.

[syntheticgerbil]

I hate the comments on mainstream sites for any bad news on Double Fine. Why are there so many people intent on demonizing them for failure? Why do some people think Tim Schafer is a crook?

[Twig]

I hate the comments on mainstream sites for any bad news on Double Fine. Why are there so many people intent on demonizing them for failure? Why do some people think Tim Schafer is a crook?

Because Broken Age and now Spacebase. Also I guess history of poor financial management re: Psychonauts and Brutal Legend.

[syntheticgerbil]

It's like they need to be punished for being so transparent?

I guess the Spacebase thing is more legit, but still, I don't think anyone at that company is coming from a place of trying to sucker anyone, which is weird to me that people think that.

[Twig]

I mean I completely agree with you. People feel entitled for no good reason. It's butt.

[syntheticgerbil]

Yeah, I know, just makes me sad.

 

I got into sort of a big and awkward argument with one of my good friends where he claims Tim Schafer admitted much the Massive Chalice Kickstarter funds went to Broken Age.

 

He never said anything of the sort and I don't like Tim Schafer being painted as a shiester. Maybe Tim Shafer's work means too much to me on a personal level though, pretty much throughout my whole life at this point, so backlash truly saddens me.

[elmuerte]

During one of the DFA episodes Tim, or maybe Justin, said that an other project got shut down, but they managed to keep the people on board. This was of course a different project. I really doubt this was an easy decision for DF to lay the people off. It's not like with those publisher studios where they just lay off the whole team after the game was shipped to increase the profit margin.

[Bjorn]

The vitriol against DF really seemed to ramp up after the Broken Age Kickstarter.  Something about a successful Kickstarter just seems to piss certain people off. 

 

Tim is also someone who is personally willing to directly call out shit like misogyny and criticize gamergate, so more recently there are people who are going to use any opportunity to try and paint him as a piece of shit out of some misguided payback for him not agreeing with their bullshit war. 

[Henroid]

It's definitely tied to the Kickstarter. A lot of video game enthusiasts (called "gamers" now I guess) are conservative, so when new shit like crowd-funding or Early Access happen, they flip their shit.

[syntheticgerbil]

Tim is also someone who is personally willing to directly call out shit like misogyny and criticize gamergate, so more recently there are people who are going to use any opportunity to try and paint him as a piece of shit out of some misguided payback for him not agreeing with their bullshit war. 

Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that aspect. Gah.

[Ben X]

JP was one of the employees laid off

 

https://twitter.com/vectorpoem/status/536933544472240128

[Bjorn]

Oh man, that blows. Well, obviously it blows that twelve people got laid off, but especially being LeBreton.

[Dewar]

That's disappointing, but not particularly surprising since his project ended fairly recently.

[elmuerte]

Oh man, that blows. Well, obviously it blows that twelve people got laid off, but especially being LeBreton.

 

It sucks for all of them. Just because we don't know them doesn't make them less worthy. Yeah I know you did not mean that.

 

Anyway, JP said he was plotting independence for quite some while. Maybe this will push him into success.

All I know is that if he's planning for a "tourism" game I will back him instantly.

[Bjorn]

So Steam Streaming is now officially a thing.

[SecretAsianMan]

So Steam Streaming is now officially a thing.

 

I quite like the idea really.  The ability to have only those on your friends list watch the game sounds like a good idea to me.  It's part of the reason I never felt comfortable streaming on Twitch.  Even though in my head I knew that random people wouldn't jump into my stream and start harassing me, the idea that someone could was enough to make me not want to do it.  I'm really tempted to try this out tonight with some Spelunky.

[Twig]

Hah, I'd honestly feel MORE comfortable if lots of people were watching me. The fact that only a few people are, and they're people I know, is what makes it hard. Am I weird.

 

Anyway this is cool though.