All right, after hearing the story behind why telltale games closed down and what really goes on behind it, I’m gonna clamp down and give you all a long-standing irritation and burden that doesn’t just plague the video game industry--hell, any field of art in general. Strap in and fucking listen, because this is important. There’s a reason I sometimes get really, really put off by people who will say something is utter trash and looked like the people working behind it weren’t even trying anymore to make it look good. I just wanna sit these people down and scream at them the facts that go behind into making a video game, a cartoon, a movie--any of the things you enjoy now. Because surprise surprise, a lot of the people working on those projects are manipulated and strongarmed into working shit hours and come out of it compensated by fuck all. This isn’t a new story; it’s in every big studio you can think of, video game or not. Trust me, there’s so much more than the stuff I linked to, and these sort of stories will continue to thrive for as long as big companies and their executives think it’s okay to push out a product as soon as they can at the expense of their employees. And to be honest? A lot of this stems from the way we get our content now. We get it almost instantaneously. The rise of streaming services and other online platforms allow people to get a movie or a video game or an entire series with a few clicks. That’s all well and good, but don’t pretend that it also leads people in power to believe that because things can be done in an instant means that they can pressure those who make said content into working unreasonable hours and insane overtimes just to push it out as soon as they could. That’s the curse of the “at-your-fingertips” convenience--you enjoy it at the expense of those who make it. And what I find funny is that people who like to say “X is shit; why does this look like it was produced on a budget?” or--even worse, people who like to take apart something frame by frame to point out the most minuscule of animation or technical errors, but they will never, EVER know the burden that comes with having to get a project out done and why sometimes said errors show up in the final product. Guess what, if you somehow have done that at some point, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM. Miss me with your “but there’s no excuse to be making mistakes like that” when you really don’t have the people who are literally mentally and physically exhausted just to make that stuff that you like to shit on. On a personal note, I’ve been in those sort of projects. Animation’s not easy, and at some point those who work on it no longer give a shit that people are pointing out those technical errors because hey, we’ve got a deadline that’s being forced on us so we can’t exactly squeeze in more time for quality check. And if we need to squeeze in more time, well, who needs sleep? Some people stay up 24 hours straight just to make everything’s perfect. Not just that, but 48 hours or more. Do you understand why there’s such a thing as death by overwork now? All I’m saying is that this is the reality behind the stuff that you enjoy. And I’d beg you to not overlook this. Don’t you dare ignore this, because you, the consumer, get to enjoy the video games or the movies or the series that you like, and the wellbeing of those who make them should also be an issue to you. There are real fucking people behind the studios who makes these things. Don’t ignore them.
