domain:freddiedeboer.substack.com?page=2
urquan
3hr ago
HR having a "Cluster hiring" policy literally gives them a party cadre within a few hiring cycles, and then you're fucked.
Wow... you weren't kidding. I looked up the term "cluster hiring" and was greeted by this helpful description (in an academic context):
Cluster hiring, a recruitment practice known to increase diversity and promote interdisciplinary collaboration, is becoming increasingly popular among colleges and universities looking to diversify faculty and advance research related to social justice.
That's almost, but not quite, the most on-the-nose self-aware description of the long march through the institutions I've ever seen. I also enjoyed the one HR blog that described it as "an approach that aims to aggressively onboard diverse candidates", which sounds rather, um, unnecessarily violent. (Perhaps it's just a microaggression.)
The most self-aware description of the long march I've ever seen was from a book by a progressive theologian, described in an academic article I read like this:
"I do think the church is well placed to bring about some significant change in the world. And change in the world is desperately needed." The church’s "new mission" will be to “develop spiritual awareness in individuals and communities around the world”. Because the church – at least in North America – is so widely distributed throughout the community it is well placed to effect widespread consciousnessraising about such issues as AIDS, Global Warming, equitable access to technology etc. "The church has ground level access to millions of people. And millions of aware, reflective, conscious people is exactly what this world needs."
(Students of history may be reminded of suicide-cult-leader Jim Jones, who -- before drinking the Kool-aid -- attempted to convince the people of Indiana to "put real socialism into practice" through the guise of Methodism and then Pentecostalism. Sometimes a wolf comes as a wolf.)
I do appreciate all the evidence we're gathering on how progressives are wearing all our institutions as a skinsuit, but one wishes they might try to be more subtle.
Fruck
Lacks all conviction
4hr ago
Who are these people who need to touch grass, the implication being that they are so opposed to the woke they make this (and @WhiningCoil) look tame in comparison -
it is just really exhausting to be constantly reminded that these are the most marginalized and oppressed people ever and the slightest hint of impatience or annoyance with them is a genocidal wish for them not to exist, and meanwhile we have to celebrate them everywhere every day, in films, in games, in books, nothing can be published without Representation and god fucking forbid any work feature all gender-conforming straight white people (or any two out of those three) because that's a hate crime.
I want to "just show basic human decency." I do show basic human decency. I do not hate anyone and I do not want LGBTQ people harmed, harassed, or shoved into a closet. And that's not enough. Because I have hateful, bigoted, genocidal beliefs (like maybe trans women shouldn't compete in women's sports, and it's just possible that some sex offenders with penises who want to be sent to women's prison are not sincere about their gender identity, and also they are like 0.5% of the population so maybe everything doesn't have to be about them!).
Because it looks to me like that there is precisely what the vast majority of the anti-woke - particularly on the motte - have been screaming exasperatedly for the past decade and it is the same gaslighting that you point out here - which has only started dying down recently (since the election made it clear the progressives weren't ordained by God is how it looks to me) and was previously much much more ubiquitous - that has made them apoplectic.
edmund-nelson
Filthy Anime Memester
4hr ago
Yes. I think it's selection bias on the kinds of people who make games compared to other types of programming.
magic9mushroom
If you're going to downvote me, and nobody's already voiced your objection, please reply and tell me
4hr ago
And a group of people pulled along by the same force differ from a monolith how?
My point is, there are actually-heterodox thinkers on the right.
The predictions for which I give probabilities are the predictions.... The long elaborate descriptions of scenarios to be prepared for NECESSARILY CANNOT BE, because everytime you describe something additional happening the overall likelihood of all of it happening lowers.
It's a little confusing to say that it's not a prediction when you say that sometimes is going to happen. It did not seem to me that this part of the essay was hedged as one possibility, rather, you seemed fairly confident that it would happen.
I described about 20 different possible dynamics and scenarios in that piece as preparedness exercise.
Indeed, but there were two plausible scenarios listed for the outcome of the election based on who won, so I think it's fair to evaluate one conditional now that we know the outcome. After all, one of the two cases should have come true, if they are so confidently stated.
Specifically the mass rioting if Trump won, I expect that would have 100% happened if he had won the electoral college but lost the popular vote
I don't believe this was hedged like this in the original article, although I may have missed it. If not, this seems like post-hoc cope to me.
atelier
Jimmys: unrustled
5hr ago
Nice! My favorite so far is 1Q84. I loved it's surrealness. I read A Windup Bird Chronicle first on a blind recommendation and thought it was very strange. But I've gotten a lot more appreciation for his style since then. I think Infinite Jest is my favorite novel but 1Q84 is close!
atelier
Jimmys: unrustled
5hr ago
Yes! I really enjoyed it! That's why I got Dance Dance Dance.
Amadan
I will be here longer than you
5hr ago
I'm far less aggro and boiling with resentment than @WhiningCoil, to say nothing of some of our other posters. But I recently posted this about my own exhaustion with the eternal celebration of rainbow folx, and got a response from @HaroldWilson that was much like yours: "Why does this bother you? It's not intrusive, no one is making you do anything, it's just basic decency!"
And yeah, I'm not exactly being forced to wear a pronoun badge (yet), but it is just really exhausting to be constantly reminded that these are the most marginalized and oppressed people ever and the slightest hint of impatience or annoyance with them is a genocidal wish for them not to exist, and meanwhile we have to celebrate them everywhere every day, in films, in games, in books, nothing can be published without Representation and god fucking forbid any work feature all gender-conforming straight white people (or any two out of those three) because that's a hate crime.
I want to "just show basic human decency." I do show basic human decency. I do not hate anyone and I do not want LGBTQ people harmed, harassed, or shoved into a closet. And that's not enough. Because I have hateful, bigoted, genocidal beliefs (like maybe trans women shouldn't compete in women's sports, and it's just possible that some sex offenders with penises who want to be sent to women's prison are not sincere about their gender identity, and also they are like 0.5% of the population so maybe everything doesn't have to be about them!). Like, I can say this (and I do), but I know I am picking a fight when I do, so I have to decide if it's worth it, and which people I am going to alienate.
What is "basic human decency" to you?
Are there some righties looking for opportunities to flip out every time they see "woke"? Yes. Just like there are lefties looking for excuses to call anyone who doesn't hate JK Rowling and Trump enough a Nazi. I try very hard not to let myself get sucked into that hate-and-seethe rabbit hole (i.e., every day on Twitter, and most days here on the Motte - seriously, some of you people do need to touch grass). But, you know, it's pretty tiresome when you can't find good faith on either side.
edmund-nelson
Filthy Anime Memester
5hr ago
There are lots of non-woke games literally so many
It's just that you focus on some weird niche of american games, but the Japanese and korean studios make plenty of interesting ones. There are also american indie titles which... are actually pretty woke (I'm a member of many indie game publishers private discords and the politics channel is like Bluesky)
jeroboam
5hr ago
Fair enough. If you’re a wage slave they can get you. If you’re a person or brand with a real audience they are powerless.
The situation can be fixed by firing DEI departments and it’s happening right now.
Sometimes the good guys win.
edmund-nelson
Filthy Anime Memester
6hr ago
Mega crit is An american group (of 2 guys) Anthony Giovannetti and Casey Yano, who live in Seattle.
The_Nybbler
Does not have a yacht
6hr ago
At some point, people need to realize that woke scolds have no power.
They do, though. They can have you fired. They can have other companies break contracts or refuse to do business with your company. Including companies like Mastercard and Visa.
Credentialism + nepotism is also a major factor on the creative side. A lot of the industry jobs are going to people because "I met they/them at calarts and followed their Tumblr askblog about superheroines with vitiligo, that's definitely the sort of person we need for Concord's character design team." I'm not kidding, that's literally the life story of all but two people I know doing art for games and cartoons, and those two are old guys.
Same with translation/"localization." It's a tiny industry with cliques of professional bullies getting away with hiring all their discord buddies, because there's literally no oversight.
It works without pushback because there's still no counter to the superweapons they developed. HR having a "Cluster hiring" policy literally gives them a party cadre within a few hiring cycles, and then you're fucked. And what do the old guard do except shake their heads and say "well I'd never hire or reject a candidate for political reasons."
Yeah, we used to hear that a lot from Google guys in 2012 who are no longer Google guys.
TL;DR: as nybbler likes to say, you can't pick up $20 off the sidewalk when there's a troll with a club making sure nobody touches it.
jeroboam
6hr ago
Jason Schreier.
With respect, no one gives a rat's ass about this creature, whoever he may be.
At some point, people need to realize that woke scolds have no power. Don't apologize, don't cuck, and things will be fine. In fact, they will be better than fine if you mine their outrage for engagement.
Hard agree. And imagine the influence Elon could buy for just a couple billion invested in video game studios.
Somehow we allowed far left activists to dominate video games. It's bizarre. Video game players lean conservative. Why is there no conservative content being made for them? It's as if Mormons in Utah were forced to watch gay furry porn on TV because that's the only thing available. Sure, they'll watch it, but that's only because nothing better exists.
Once anti-woke video game studios appear, they will quickly displace the incumbents.
Take a look at CNN's ratings and see the future of current game devs who refuse to pivot.
WhiningCoil
6hr ago
I disagree. Games journalist have proven themselves quite able to collect scalps in the industry even fairly recently. And while a good game often overcomes their smears, sometimes they don't, and I can sympathize with an executive not willing to bet the company on pissing off Jason Schreier.
FirmWeird
Randomly Generated Reddit Username
6hr ago
I'll take the opposite bet. Elon will make money on Twitter.
Elon would have made a massive profit if Twitter went completely bankrupt today and charged him another ten billion dollars for nothing on the way out.
He used it to buy himself a seat in the halls of power, not just embedding himself in a brand new government but doing so with an explicit mandate to fire the people who were in charge of regulating his various companies. I'm honestly not sure you could put the value of that trade into dollar terms.
jeroboam
6hr ago
"Anti-woke" as criteria is the trouble.
Sure. But the same should apply to woke games. Why are (apparently) some huge percentage of games pushing a failed, corrupt ideology on consumers?
If the games matched the consumer they would be like this:
- 10% woke
- 80% non-woke
- 10% anti-woke
Instead, it's apparently more like this:
- 50% woke
- 45% non-woke
- 5% anti-woke
Seems like an obvious fix right?
WhiningCoil
6hr ago
Yeah, I mentioned this before, but it seems like the best we ever get are games that are accidentally "based". As in, they might have a conventionally attractive woman with a pleasant personality. Or they depict a happy, cis heteronormative family. They might not even be mixed! Maybe they depict men as capable protectors and providers, or wise sovereigns, without some fucking girlboss with zero flaws who's just obviously better than them in every way because woman.
Basically totally ubiquitous shit from before 2012, which is now so atypical and rare people push them up on pedestals as "based" or "anti-woke" just for normal. Meanwhile game journos are praising a game where you get butt fucked by a bear as game of the year.
jeroboam
6hr ago
You saw a lot of video game journalist organizing on mailing list and at conferences to bully developers into pushing their views.
Surely video game journalists don't matter. These clowns can safely be ignored or, even better, mined for exposure as their performative tears serve to drive engagement.
I don't follow video games, but this seem incredibly obvious.
No one cares what these people think.
clo
6hr ago
The video game industry became "woke" because of a combination of factors.
First, the whole tech industry is woke and video games are technology. Input/output, California, etc. Austin is a video game development hub, the blue-ing of it followed. Hell, look at AI.
Second, video games were considered an endless growth industry, "recession-proof" and with infinite potential for monetization and expansion. They made more money than Hollywood a while ago and the trend has continued ever since. The more money you get, the more investors salivate at the thought of unloading their capital cannons at something and flakking it to death. You also tend to attract vultures who see opportunities for easy grift or coasting. A diversity consultant at a video game company doesn't do much in the way of actual work but can get a good salary when times are good and potentially infinite growth means lots of opportunities for free money.
(Creative industries awash with cash don't tend to make very good use of this cash; this is not unique to video games either.)
Third, it's known that DEI/ESG investing makes it easier to get loans. Triple-A video game development is lengthy and very expensive. Why fund your own development when you can get a low-interest loan to do it for you as long as you DEI a bit? Better yet, you can use it to hedge against your failure, because you, personally, didn't lose money. Blackrock did! Roll hard left and die, or die and roll hard left etc.
Finally, there's something that Steve Jobs famously identified; as companies grown, product guys get sidelined in favor of marketing guys. Marketing guys end up running the company, and marketing guys are very sensitive to how their companies are perceived. Everyone swallowed the meme about how consumers don't like supporting companies or brands that don't share their values, and the loudest people that end up giving marketing guys the most input on the internet with the most social reach tend to be very loud about social justice in particular.
Video game development is very, very hard. The modern SDLC can occasionally write functional software or simple CRUD apps to spec, but very rarely will it make a genuinely fun game. The fun in a game requires near-autistic levels of dedication to design, interaction with players, and a wealth of technical knowledge to even implement, let alone test. Hand-adjusting animations frame by frame for simple actions or interactions, hours spent manually adjusting the lighting for areas, design documents written in arcane notes over napkins, walls and coffee tables, playing and iterating again and again.
It's pretty apocryphal that during Blizzard's golden age they knew what they were onto winners when their own employees would put off working on the game to play the game they were making some more.
WhiningCoil
6hr ago
I donno man. I think a lot of things were going on at once.
The centralization of the video game journalist profession in San Francisco when Ziff Davis bought everyone and consolidated their offices there didn't help. You saw a lot of video game journalist organizing on mailing list and at conferences to bully developers into pushing their views.
There is a certain type of terminally online, always offended psychopath that always seems to work their way up the ranks from forum bully, to jannie, to "Community Manager", to holding a gun to a company's head threatening to run to their game journalist buddies if they don't get what they want. Sometimes the company calls their bluff, I think the developer behind Guild Wars did that.
Sometimes the call really is coming from inside the house, and employees feel emboldened to bully their coworkers into conforming with progressive dogma. Although given all the leaks you see Grummz getting, it's obvious some dissidents are keeping their heads down and cashing paychecks.
There are all the theories about ESG loans and other financing options only being available if games pay protection money to DEI consultants. I'm not sure how much concrete proof has ever come out about that. I've never seen a contract with it spelled out, but it wouldn't shock me.
I know the indie scene is incredibly cliquey and woke. BPD chicks who've practically never made a game somehow hold court and decide who is or isn't allowed to network and make connections, and who get's slandered by the woke games journalist. Sometimes they even drive their targets to commit suicide, and then their own family throws them under the bus and refuses to tell the dead man's side of the story because of some word salad about privilege and lived experience.
And then there is the fact that the pay and the hours suck. I make way more fucking money plying my trade literally anywhere but the video games industry, despite loving games and desperately wanting to make them my entire life. In the early 00's when I was choosing a career path, The EA Spouse scared me away from even considering it. Now I wouldn't want to subject myself to how utterly toxic the entire industry appears from the outside. And I wouldn't trust anyone who tries to sell me that it's not that bad. I don't know how you tolerate the work culture unless you are already mostly on board with progressive dogma.
That's what he said?
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