Stellaris is a game about Paradox.
How did we get here? This cul-de-sac of commerce where gaming is rushing around a caustic marketplace serving anything and everything just to get it through the pass like a game of real-life Overcooked.
Early access is a synonym for releasing an unfinished game. DLC (downloadable content) is a synonym for releasing as a full release that promises to be finished later. Lootboxes are a synonym for gambling. "Optimising our structure." is a synonym for Merry Christmas.
It's all bad for the public, it's a struggle for c-level, but its absolute torture for the grunts. Hobbes wasn't fucking around when he described certain lives as "Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Sounds like the average working day for any member of a games dev team, cept the short part.
It goes like this, let me pick on a member of the Art team for example. Say for example you are in charge of the team making player skins in an online FPS. The game is launched and doing really well, your team worked their asses off to get to launch and were just hoping and praying that the game sold well enough to survive the year.
It went well. Really well. The powers that be are over the moon, you are over the moon, the players are over the moon. Got a lot of cool characters in the game all with a distinct look, got a lot of content in the game all with a distinct look, got a workload that includes a new character every few months. Great, get to keep the job as long as that is the case.
But nah, that's not enough. The game did one holiday themed event and the fans loved it, they want more. The event made money hand over fist, the suits want more. Why not Arbor Day? Why not Bastille Day? Why not Valentines? Sprints are created because no one spoke up. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and all.
So now you got the new characters on your plate, plus new themed events. Nah, that's not enough. Marketing and partnerships just inked a deal with the Susan B Bro-Man foundation for some themed Syphillis skins. Art department responds "That's cool and all but did you get my email about headcount?" You got more workload than you got people to do it now, or, people to do it well that is.
But that's not enough. Growth, remember? Gotta remember we are an esport as well and thanks to all the distinctive characters running around on the virtual battlefield that look identical we are going to need each team to stand out in some way. So Art department, hang out for a while we go back and forth with the fans and each team to figure out how we are going to move forward with this and then we are gonna get you on it.
By this time Art is underwater, programming is not on speaking terms with c-suite, and design is trolling glassdoor during lunch wondering why they didn't listen to these posts, but knowing in the back of their heads that they were prestige blinded by the organization and would probably do it all again if they had the chance.
So Art ends up fighting every day to keep up with the pace of the sprint and just like anything that expands too quickly all the sudden things contract, then boom. An email comes in saying multiple people have been let go from the organization to maintain profitability but everyone needs to keep their head in the game because, growth.
And you sit there in your cubicle and take a deep breath before you head out to console your friends that just lost their jobs, mostly in QA and Marketing, understanding you survived because your skills are necessary, not your frustration, not your mental stability, not your passion for the industry. This is a service industry, and you provide a service. Once you don't....
I feel bad for Daybreak but the thing is it just happened before in April as it does every year and I literally was in that exact chair ten years ago when it happened to me, just as it had been happening eight years before that. You can only cry for Bill Murray in Groundhogs day so many resets before you accept it as part of his journey.
Anyway, Stellaris is a fun game. The song ain't about you. Shouts to information as always, I'm sure the annual Studio Diner trip is gonna be fun. One game of the year, one baby, one lost in space, one layoff. Such is life. Also JErbz.
The Protoculture Mixtape : Issue : People : Leviathan
