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The tragic end of Telltale Games

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Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#131
post #50
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well then you have to choose between turning down the job for the chance you'll need unemployment insurance or taking the job because you need a job. The rational choice is to take the job regardless.

Depends on your options. The game industry seems pretty terrible to their workers. Either way the employees had to know.

This kind of 'be a contractor or gtfo' thing is not in any way limited to the games industry.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#132

Don't work in the games industry. This is the par story for game companies. Every little detail of this story I saw repeating on loop in a decade of working in games. The artists grabbing assets to stuff into their portfolios before two years of professional work disappears into a black hole, the ppl moving families across country to be laid off months later, the crunch, the over promising, it is all text book. The g…

I can't even play anymore. I've seen firsthand how the industry treats developers, and I cannot bring myself to send money into the pockets of the fratboy shitheels that run it.

Consider getting involved with the unionization effort, if you can: https://www.gameworkersunite.org/get-involved

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#133
post #117
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is also a thing in europe, with similar consequences.

Depends on the country. In NL, the legal requirements for independent contractors are quite strict. As an independent contractor, you must: - have multiple sources of income/contracts (at least 3, and no single contract may be worth more than 70% of your total income) - have complete control over how to do your job (i.e. the hiring party can only tell you what to do, not how or when to do it) - actively promote your…

Is this still true? Didn't that "model contract" mess replace all of this by, well, nothing really?

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#134
post #15

Sometimes you simply got to let the data speak for themselves: https://imgur.com/a/2tR4WVX It's so strange how the prestige around the brand was not correlated to the sells numbers. It so strange how their demise was so unexpected by the press and gaming communities when the writing was on the wall long ago.

Worth noting that this data is from steamspy ( http://steamspy.com/about ) so only covers Steam, and is also not fully accurate. How representative it is of the overall picture I can't say. I would imagine that Telltale's style of games sell more on phones/tablets and on consoles, but of course the sales on those platforms may well show the same trends over time.

Indications seem to be that Minecraft: Story Mode was the studio's next most profitable after TWD S1 (and why the Netflix Minecraft: Story Mode project is the last project in the black-ish and the last project they seem required to try to finish), which is definitely not visible in the steamspy statistics, and definitely an indicator of the importance to non-Steam sales.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#135
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battle royale games were done better decades ago? I can't even think of a battle royale game from the 90s.

quake, unreal tournament, tribes, battlefield, planetside.. Deathmatch with many players. Same thing pretty much, but with more action.

> Same thing pretty much, but with more action.

That's exactly why we play BR games.

These days I play mostly PUBG. Before that, Day of Infamy. Before that, Insurgency. Notice a trend? Each one of those games has a lot at stake (relatively speaking) when you get into an engagement. If you die, you sit out for a while. They're about communication and coordination between players on the same team.

PUBG (and Fortnite, though that's not my preference) take it to a whole other level. It's not uncommon for me to play a game of PUBG where the first 10-15 minutes is spent either not encountering anyone or spotting them before they spot me and purposefully avoiding them. It's about tactics - either coordination with your squad, or maneuvering into a better position for the next phase of the game, or waiting until someone you're stalking has engaged someone else before engaging them.

Because the preparation is longer, there's more at risk when you actually engage, and the anticipation builds to a crescendo. So, yeah - there may only be seconds of "action" in a PUBG match, but that's the whole point.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#136

Don't work in the games industry. This is the par story for game companies. Every little detail of this story I saw repeating on loop in a decade of working in games. The artists grabbing assets to stuff into their portfolios before two years of professional work disappears into a black hole, the ppl moving families across country to be laid off months later, the crunch, the over promising, it is all text book. The g…

Just as a counterpoint - I've worked for 4 years now as a programmer at one of the biggest publishers in the industry, and honestly, the work life balance is great, the pay is ok for the region(plus I get decent amount of shares every year), the work is varied, interesting and I like both what I do and people I work with. I think the last time I did overtime was 2 years ago, and even then it was only for a week aroun…

Wanted to add my agreement to this; I've been in the industry since 2008. My first experience was really bad...then I moved to the EU. We do still do overtime, not mandated but when you have to ship it happens. Other than that the benefits, paid time off, work/life balance, union representation, etc have been very good in my experience.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#137
post #15

Sometimes you simply got to let the data speak for themselves: https://imgur.com/a/2tR4WVX It's so strange how the prestige around the brand was not correlated to the sells numbers. It so strange how their demise was so unexpected by the press and gaming communities when the writing was on the wall long ago.

TWDS1 was free many times, and has been included in Humble Bundles for years, so these numbers don't reflect actual sales or desire to purchase the game at full price or even on sale, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

quake, unreal tournament, tribes, battlefield, planetside.. Deathmatch with many players. Same thing pretty much, but with more action.

> Same thing pretty much, but with more action. That's exactly why we play BR games. These days I play mostly PUBG. Before that, Day of Infamy. Before that, Insurgency. Notice a trend? Each one of those games has a lot at stake (relatively speaking) when you get into an engagement. If you die, you sit out for a while. They're about communication and coordination between players on the same team. PUBG (and Fortnite, t…

Ok then, thats been done many times ages ago in the likes of ARMA, rainbow 6, Operation flashpoint.. etc.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#139

I feel sorry for the employees and apologize in advance if what I'm going to say sounds too negative or blunt, but anyway here is one opinion. Telltale games wasn't a very innovative company. It shouldn't surprise anyone when a company goes bankrupt that primarily produces bad game adoptions of blockbuster movies as a franchise. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm only a gamer and not an industry expert, but it seems to me…

> Telltale games wasn't a very innovative company.

based on the article, it seems like most of the telltale developers agreed with you. they cited previous management's unwillingness to deviate from previous successes as the largest source of creative stagnation. the article implies that the newer CEO was making big, positive changes in this area but that it was too little too late for the company.

Re: The tragic end of Telltale Games

#140
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like those Sierra games. Those hacks.

Yup. LucasArts too obviously. It doesn't really matter if the gameplay is identical and the puzzles similar and formulaic if the story is interesting and the game is fun. Perhaps there's just no appetite for the adventure genre anymore?

Classic adventure games thrived on the originality of their settings and characters.
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