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Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

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Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#131

Post by bigyabai »

worldfoodgood wrote: post #67
umvi wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm happier to pay Valve's 30% than Apple's. With Valve you could always switch to Itch or something if you didn't want to pay, but with Apple you have no alternative. Valve gives you access to a huge player base and lots of useful marketing tools and such.

Ok! Happier is a fine place to be. They are both still too high. Not everything has to be binary -- I can think Valve is offering some utility and also think that Valve is charging too much for that utility. The fact that Gabe has a billion dollars worth of yachts probably suggests that maybe, just maaaaaybe, that 30% could be lower and Steam could still provide you the same level of marketing support and player base…

> They are both still too high.

You don't get to decide that. Apple's price is not set by free market competition, Valve's is.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#132

Post by lotsofpulp »

t-writescode wrote: post #126
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because no amount of profit is ever enough for the stock market, everything must perpetually grow.

And yet Costco still does just fine.

Costco might not be your intended example. It has amazing revenue growth:

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/revenu...

While simultaneously growing profit margin:

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/COST/costco/profit...

Hence growing annual net income from $2.3B to $8B in the last 10 years.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#133

Post by Something1234 »

jsheard wrote: post #119
PetitPrince wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HL3 kinda happened though, but it was called Half-Life Alyx. And while it wasn't a conventional FPS like HL1 and 2, there's absolutely no trace of GaaS in it.

Alyx is a bit of an edge case because they needed a VR showcase, and it's unlikely that a PC VR game (even a Valve one) could have sustained a healthy multiplayer population. Regardless of the reasons why it happened, it's the one and only singleplayer title they've released in the last 14 years, which neatly aligns with them discovering the joy of lootboxes 15 years ago.

What about Aperture Labs Desk Job as a demo for the deck? Full self contained single player story.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#134

Post by Forgeties79 »

worldfoodgood wrote: post #38
elephanlemon wrote: post #8

As a kid I always lamented that every studio seemed to sell out as soon as they had the chance. Valve is basically the only one that didn’t… clearly it’s paid off very well for Gabe and the employees. Wish more people would resist the payday and keep what’s theirs.

Valve makes a significant amount of their money from the gambling they've attached to their games, and profits immensely from the culture of farming loot boxes to gamble on for skins and such. They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want. (Selling on Steam? Valve takes 30% and forces you to moderate the forums on your listing page that you cannot opt out of.)…

10% if it’s a Linux copy ;)

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#135

Post by vablings »

jsheard wrote: post #119
PetitPrince wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HL3 kinda happened though, but it was called Half-Life Alyx. And while it wasn't a conventional FPS like HL1 and 2, there's absolutely no trace of GaaS in it.

Alyx is a bit of an edge case because they needed a VR showcase, and it's unlikely that a PC VR game (even a Valve one) could have sustained a healthy multiplayer population. Regardless of the reasons why it happened, it's the one and only singleplayer title they've released in the last 14 years, which neatly aligns with them discovering the joy of lootboxes 15 years ago.

To say Alyx was just an "VR demo" is pretty sad and reductive. Even today it's the one of the best VR games to be released in both fidelity and performance and as VR tech continues to improve its truly aged like fine wine

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#136

Post by gruez »

mjr00 wrote: post #89
gruez wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of the examples you gave, the challengers had some revolutionary idea/improvement on top. Tiktok had its recommendation algorithm and short videos. Google had pagerank. That's also the reason why whatsapp hasn't been supplanted. There's no room for innovation (or nobody bothered trying). The same is true for digital distribution. Every steam competitor is basically "steam but [publisher]" or in epic's case, "stea…

That's what the person who started this comment chain said, though. Every Steam competitor has been "does the same thing as Steam, but worse" so why would anyone switch over?

That's not the same as "terrible" though? Signal is basically "whatsapp but not facebook", but you wouldn't say it's "terrible". Same with lyft (which came after uber), or ubereats (which came after many food delivery startups).

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#137

Post by m463 »

pixelpoet wrote: post #29

Very brave of them to speak out, but TBH I'm not sure I'd do it if I were worried about anonymity - their written English is flawless, which is very uncommon. Unless they took considerable care to imitate a different writing style, it's probably trivial to identify who wrote it. In any case, a longtime friend of mine was senior graphics programmer on GTA5, and I was very close to interviewing with Rockstar in Edinbur…

> I've never been burnt out since

Why can't this style of management just take hold at a game company?

I suspect that hollywood has a pretty similar release cycle, and I've never heard of the dysfunctional management in that industry. (maybe it is normalized? maybe people don't expect a job after a movie is done?)

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#138

Post by gruez »

bossyTeacher wrote: post #123
gruez wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>11 percent. That is the charge back rate in gaming. The "overall" stat for all transactions is something like 3 percent. 1. source? 2. How does that justify a 30% rate, when presumably it's clawed back from developers? >Card processing isnt free. There are fees, and supporting card processing still has more humans in the loop than one needs. Never mind all the technology that comes with running the dam platform. Aga…

I wonder then how you expect valve to operate profitably. Paying for the maintenance and upgrade of equipment, the developers to build the features and SRE to monitor the systems, designers, marketers, HR and lawyers. For some reason, people in tech live under the illusion that everything nontangible should be literally free

>For some reason, people in tech live under the illusion that everything nontangible should be literally free

Strawman.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#139

Post by tyg13 »

xinayder wrote: post #95
worldfoodgood wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve makes a significant amount of their money from the gambling they've attached to their games, and profits immensely from the culture of farming loot boxes to gamble on for skins and such. They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want. (Selling on Steam? Valve takes 30% and forces you to moderate the forums on your listing page that you cannot opt out of.)…

> They also have an internal culture that's been fairly regularly criticized as being pretty uncomfortable for women and minorities. Source?

No, that's the game engine.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#140

Post by cj »

pixelpoet wrote: post #58
flumpcakes wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their written English is flawless, which is very uncommon. Unless they took considerable care to imitate a different writing style, it's probably trivial to identify who wrote it. Rockstar North is based in Edinburgh as you say, why wouldn't English be at a high level?

I'm going to get downvoted into a massive smoking hole in the ground for daring to state this opinion, but, as a lifelong enjoyer of the English language: native speakers butcher it the most.

This is true of many skills you grow up learning.

E.g. someone who grew up playing piano might be able to play at an incredibly advanced level, while also being terrible at reading or writing sheet music.

The science around skills acquired during childhood/adolescence vs. learned skills is interesting. For example, I would not be surprised if non-native speakers, on average, have a better handle of the difference between effect/affect, there/their, etc.

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