Querdcast

If it seems like this was the plan all along, that's because it is

There are times when I see things on the “news” and think, ‘The only way out of this is anarchy and a Civil War.’ and then I calm down and think, ‘Yep. That’s it.’

While I am super grateful for Allie’s stepping up to make changes to transphobic industries, I am still sitting here thinking “why do none of y’all elevate or listen to trans women themselves?”

Today, IGN Entertainment announced that it would be laying off eight members of the IGN Creators Guild. This is 12% of our bargaining unit, and comes just days after our sister union, the Ziff Davis Creators Guild, underwent similar layoffs impacting 15% of their members. It also comes just months after our multibillion-dollar parent company, Ziff Davis, instituted a company-wide buyout that shrunk our unit numbers, with the express intent of avoiding future layoffs. And it comes just a little over one year after three of our members were laid off almost immediately after our union went public. The company has told us that the reason for this layoff stems from a Ziff Davis-mandate to cut costs despite several quarters in a row of year-over-year revenue increases, to which IGN Entertainment responded by coming for our members' jobs. This is perplexing to us, as we are told again and again that IGN Entertainment has had a tremendously successful year thus far thanks to their hard work. In just the last few months, our members have been absolutely essential to major events and livestreams, including San Diego ComicCon, Summer of Gaming, and IGN Live. Every single person impacted today was involved in and critical to the success of those events. Meanwhile, IGN Entertainment continues to spend money on costly acquisitions, only to turn around and gut those companies in the same way it is cutting away at IGN itself. For instance, last year, it acquired Gamer Network, and almost immediately laid off a number of staff critical to making those sites successful. The company has not responded to the union's questions about whether its budget for future acquisitions is being reconsidered as a cost-saving measure alongside these other apparently necessary personnel cuts. At a time when it is more necessary than ever to support its creators, IGN Entertainment is choosing to eliminate the individuals who ensure IGN remains competitive as generative AI

threatens our reach. We have been told that expert opinion pieces, original interviews, and work that leverages our staff's deep knowledge of gaming, tech, and entertainment are all essential to combating AI summarization and regurgitation of our work. Management has responded by cutting several individuals who do that exact work, as well as others whose job it is to ensure that these written and video pieces are published in a speedy manner — another component of combating AI we're told is critical. This continued cycle of repeated, aggressive cuts to our staff and being asked to do more with less, only for management to continue to spend on new business it isn't interested in sustaining cannot continue. We will enforce our interim agreement that guarantees better severance and other protections to laid off members, as well as demand additional support for those impacted. We will continue to bargain over our first contract with the aim of enshrining even better protections against further layoffs, working conditions continuously degraded by understaffing, and the encroachment of generative AI. And we won't stop fighting to ensure IGN remains the best destination for trustworthy, original, exciting, and creative work covering video games, entertainment, and tech. While IGN Entertainment management may not value us, we value one another and the incredible work we can do together. Behind the articles, videos, social posts, playlists, and maps of IGN are human beings, not just numbers on a spreadsheet to be pushed around when some number at the top isn't big enough. Without us, there is no IGN.

Today, IGN laid off eight extremely valuable members of our union and workforce via directive from our parent company, Ziff Davis. This, after two incredibly successful live events IGN Live and SDCC, and yet another corporate acquisition.

Please take a moment to read and share our full statement:

Alternatives to CGE Czech Games Edition titles | BGG Based on the events covered here Thought it might be useful to put together a list of alternatives (in theme or mechanics) for their most popular titles for anyone that no longer wants to support th...

Awesome list of game alternatives to CGE products:

boardgamegeek.com/thread/35506...

Something to be aware of. HBO has that Potter show coming, so you are going to see a *lot* more partner deals like Drop and CGE. They are going to market the HELL out of this. They are going to do their best to sell this no matter what Rowling says or does.

CGE still has not posted any type of follow up to this post.

Their credibility on actually caring about this issue is rapidly dwindling.

I have been a big fan of their work, and Vlaada is one of greatest designers of all time - making this all the more painful.

The Boy Genius Who Killed 14 Million Poor People What is the moral weight of responsibility for the men who carried out DOGE’s work?

i think i disagree with the idea that the ferritor should have been allowed to follow his own path during his schooling, neglecting assignments and being coddled for his apparent genius. i think, in fact, that this was the problem. www.thebulwark.com/p/the-boy-ge...

13 expansions on day 1 and no finalized rulebook on delivery?

Unfortunately one of those externals is HP, even though a Chinese company, they shouldn’t get a pass on that one.

Exactly. Their numbers are crazy . Especially for the collectibles/toy market. Plus there emphasis on growing internal IP in parallel with licensed is super interesting too

Billiards? Chess? Darts? Quiz shows? Physical advantage?! Cis people especially these transphobic liberals need to sit on a pool cue

Popmart literally has all its reports & white papers freely available on its generic commercial site & they are absolutely fascinating. Like the swagger of it but also how explosive the growth & numbers. The monsters (labubu) growth in just one goods type was 720+% and that isn’t even their biggest

Oh huh just like trans people have been saying for a decade

Trans people are now banned from UPenn, Harvard, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, intntnl track & field, the Olympics, chess, darts, most federal jobs, the US military & intelligence services, federal facilities, public bathrooms in most states, & many local sports. Seems bad! Let me know what I missed!

Having to rely on cis people in order to survive is like relying on a wild fire to mow your lawn

Where? What mythical sport? You are just a diet nazi

When are you playing against Venus Williams in tennis like every other dumbass misogynist. You are not just transphobic , you are an arrogant pig.

Apropos of everything

Called out

A meme for like 4 of my friends.

David Byrne came to my band’s show at a gay bar in Bed-Stuy and sang This Must Be The Place with us and I still haven’t processed it

All I keep hearing is your lives don’t matter but give us money

2 zines near a water refill station at a hotel.

These are my last 2 #BlacklistCGE zines!!! 🎲✂️

Over the course of 5 days I distributed 1000 zines (with help of course!)

There’s too many people to thank—and to honor their anonymity, I’ll just say a gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who has been involved! 🌟

If only they did the same while we have been fighting this shit for over a decade

Protect the bricks

Mr miyagi didn’t jack Daniel into AI to teach him karate. He trained him in the fundamentals of movement to be able to adapt to the asshole coming at him.

Find a painting and write 800 words on what you think is happening in it. Not about the painter or how it was made necessarily, but what you think is going on. Same for art. Find a paragraph of a book you love and draw a structure that evokes that paragraph.

Better and more efficiently in the future. That’s why AI is garbage. It shortcuts the learning process. It not only cheats the end client-it cheats you the creator out of a fundamental new way of experiencing things. Here’s a simple 101 from one of my classes.