51–60 of 197 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also notable that buying health insurance on your own, versus through your employer is typically 2 to 4x the cost.
You can purchase your old benefit through FMLA for up to 36 months in an involuntary departure, but you pay 104% of the cost that previously was split between you and the employer.
Employers usually pay at least half, so this doesn't change my 2x-4x range.
I wonder how much the closure was financial mismanagement vs their business model simply catching up to them. TTG shtick was essentially “emotional abuse simulators” all their games had one trick get you attached to characters and see them die with very little actual player control over it. They were one trick pony and the novelty wore off rather quickly. Their games also were based on expensive franchises and they o…
> TTG shtick was essentially “emotional abuse simulators” all their games had one trick get you attached to characters and see them die with very little actual player control over it. Some of their games were like this, but others were not. The Tales from the Borderlands series and Guardians of the Galaxy series were primarily vehicles for comedy, and did not rely on the trope you're mentioning.
GoT was essentially the same as TWD.
However the gameplay was essentially identical across all of them a semi interactive cut scene that is broken by QTEs which don’t have a major impact on the overall story arc they at best just shift a few characters around the events still unfold as they are.
Expensive licenses and a repetitive “point and click” gameplay with dwindling sales just doesnt work and I don’t think it was a surprise to the upper management or the board. And I’m actually surprised it came as a surprise to employees who should’ve been aware of poor sales and high costs.
People are blaming mismanagement, bad licensing terms etc., and while that all may be true, it is also worth noting that Telltale has not released anything really worth playing since The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. No studio will survive after releasing ~12 bad to average games in a row over 4 years.
Sad for some of the employees I guess, but I think the company deserves this outcome.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just another among 10s of reasons why healthcare shouldn't be left to the market. Lining up capitalist incentives with public health is incredibly hard -- the people who need more expensive treatment more badly are almost always the people who are less capable of affording it, for evident reasons: being invalid made them unable to work, being in poor conditions in the first place led to their health conditions, it's…
Interesting to note though, employer provided health insurance is a direct outcome of govt policy: Most insurance in the first half of the 20th century was bought privately, but few people wanted it. In 1942, with so many eligible workers diverted to military service, the nation was facing a severe labor shortage. Economists feared that businesses would keep raising salaries to compete for workers, and that inflation…
The answer in 1942 would have been, "don't subsidize employer-based health insurance." The answer in 1962 would be have been, "remove the subsidies and let God sort it out." The answer is 2018 is...well, kind of like replacing the engine mid-flight. An entire tumor-like system has grown around various market incentives and it can't just be 'removed' without putting the host at serious risk.
It's kind of a shame it turned out this way because it's given insurance a bad name, unfairly IMO. Insurance is actually something that the market handles reasonably well and it's a product worth buying depending on the situation. Catastrophic insurance can be (and, to some degree, is) fairly priced.
There are many health-related services that make no sense to be covered by insurance, though. Doctor visits, routine procedures, pregnancy - it doesn't make sense to insure oneself against any of those events. Rather, they should either be paid for out of pocket or a single payer system if you like.
I wonder how much the closure was financial mismanagement vs their business model simply catching up to them. TTG shtick was essentially “emotional abuse simulators” all their games had one trick get you attached to characters and see them die with very little actual player control over it. They were one trick pony and the novelty wore off rather quickly. Their games also were based on expensive franchises and they o…
Their games steeply declined in sales after the first Walking Dead. From selling many millions to the last few selling only a few hundred thousand in spite of high profile licenses like Batman.
Game of Thrones and the marvel and DC licensed games couldn’t have been cheap to license and they “upped” their game with getting bigger and bigger voice actors and for GoT they licensed the likeness of quite a few of the main cast of GoT so HBO and the actors had kept most of the revenue I presume.
Also as their biggest games weren’t something you would let children play i wonder how many parents assumed that shit I’m not letting my kid play this and the adults weren’t really interested in the franchise.
Most licensed games are a pretty big flop only the really good ones make it because they are a good game and not because of the license. Comic book and movie games have always had a horrible stigma with being poor games and in all honest the staleness of the TTG formula didn’t really help at that point.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just another among 10s of reasons why healthcare shouldn't be left to the market. Lining up capitalist incentives with public health is incredibly hard -- the people who need more expensive treatment more badly are almost always the people who are less capable of affording it, for evident reasons: being invalid made them unable to work, being in poor conditions in the first place led to their health conditions, it's…
Interesting to note though, employer provided health insurance is a direct outcome of govt policy: Most insurance in the first half of the 20th century was bought privately, but few people wanted it. In 1942, with so many eligible workers diverted to military service, the nation was facing a severe labor shortage. Economists feared that businesses would keep raising salaries to compete for workers, and that inflation…
The worst part for many of these people is that our country still links health insurance with your employer. It is bad enough to suddenly lose your job and primary source of income, but that type of thing is often unavoidable when a company goes belly up. However only getting a week's notice before all your health insurance benefits disappear is the type of thing that just shouldn't happen in this country.
What happens in the US if you leave your employer when in a degraded health state (let's say cancer)?
Of course, you now how have the problem of paying more than double in premiums alone without an income.
If you think about employment as a business transaction, then you should insist on "Cash Up Front", e.g. signing bonus, higher salary, or immediate stock ownership to offset your personal risk. Joining a company is more of a risk to you as an employee than it is to them in hiring you. Basically it comes down to asking for "Cash Up Front". Expecting a cash settlement on the backend of a failed business transaction is…
> "Cash Up Front" ... or immediate stock ownership to offset your personal risk
so a grant with no vesting schedule? please enlighten us as to what employers are actually giving out such favorable deals.
If you think about employment as a business transaction, then you should insist on "Cash Up Front", e.g. signing bonus, higher salary, or immediate stock ownership to offset your personal risk. Joining a company is more of a risk to you as an employee than it is to them in hiring you. Basically it comes down to asking for "Cash Up Front". Expecting a cash settlement on the backend of a failed business transaction is…
game industry workers don't have the same bargaining power that people in other industries have. > "Cash Up Front" ... or immediate stock ownership to offset your personal risk so a grant with no vesting schedule? please enlighten us as to what employers are actually giving out such favorable deals.
EDIT: I stand corrected.
If you think about employment as a business transaction, then you should insist on "Cash Up Front", e.g. signing bonus, higher salary, or immediate stock ownership to offset your personal risk. Joining a company is more of a risk to you as an employee than it is to them in hiring you. Basically it comes down to asking for "Cash Up Front". Expecting a cash settlement on the backend of a failed business transaction is…
In an ideal world this would be feasible. Few people have the pricing power for their labor to do this. I'd classify what you call a failed business transaction as a failure of government to enact necessary labor laws.
In the event of a bankruptcy leaving you with unpaid wages, you file an application with the same office that handles unemployment benefits, and they will recompensate you. C-level managers are exempt.