Nicholas Armstrong

Test from Studs Terkel's book, Working: "It is this specter that most haunts working men and women: the planned obsolescence of people that is of a piece with the planned obsolescence of the things they make... the fear of no longer being needed in a world of needless things."

If America interests you, if the working class interests you, if people in all of their states of cognitive and emotional dissonance interest you - read Working by Studs Terkel. Read how things have changed, and how they stay the same.

This is the most important comic ever made.

Deus ex video game text on plutocracy "Don't believe me. It's in the numbers. For a hundred years, there's been a conspiracy of plutocrats against ordinary people. Number one: In 1945 corporations paid 50 percent of federal taxes. Now they pay about 5 percent. Number two: in 1900, 90 percent of Americans were self-employed; now it's about two percent. It's called consolidation. Strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals. With taxes, this can be done imperceptibly over time.

In the wildly dystopian world of Deus Ex, set in 2052, wealthy elites and corporations pay just 5% of federal taxes.

In the wildly dystopian reality of 2025 USA, corporations pay about 8%.

So much of the game industry today runs like a well-oiled machine:

An unfeeling production line that will mangle any human who gets too close.

Sometimes I'm really happy the internet exists

Art speaks to our soul. Most people have a hard time explaining why certain games hit so hard, but its the same with any art.

I hate how much that has been commodified by hedge fund managers.

If you want to connect with me on any platform, or in person, and I find out you have anything to do with AI, we will not connect. I will not like you.

This is non-negotiable.

I blame FF7 for my deep abiding love of mythologies and steam punk and my fervent hatred for capitalism.

I worked on a project where I spent almost an entire day basically trying to make a copy and paste code work, then a programmer came in and solved it in 20 minutes, and I was like, oh, right. I'm bad at this.

Might help some people, but if SOMETHING is happening in the world that makes you want to die inside a little, its okay and healthy to disengage.

Sink your head in a game or book. The world will be there when you get back.

I always say everyone has a good idea, maybe even a great one. The executing is the hard part. Any good creative knows that

Wayfinder in game art

I have loved everything Airship Syndicate has ever done. Sense of adventure, atmosphere, art, narrative.

Digging Wayfinder a lot, especially after the turnaround their team was able to do with all that publisher fiasco stuff. Mad respect for that entire studio.

If you think AI is going to magically make game dev faster, or the writing better, boy do I have a newsflash.

It's still approved by the same people.

All that AI tech is going to be used to create political bots to try and control a narrative.

Welcome to dystopia.

This is going to be one of those issues that has to he fought for. Protests, strikes, all of that.

It's a fundamental fight over what creativity is, because one side believes it is just another tool to make money.

Art should take risks. It should be bold. Thats why we connect with it, because it takes dangerous leaps to places we didn't know we would go.

I'm pretty sure no one wants to play a game that has all the intrigue and appeal of a pile of mayonnaise.

I once read 4 out of every 5 failures in business, at every level, is communication, which to me also means mismanagement. Leadership not hearing their team, a team unable to communicate their frustration.

People not listening and understanding the problems.

Path of Exile 2 players are calling foul on Elon Musk's high-level hardcore character after he streams his struggles with core game mechanics Could've been stream jitters, I suppose.

This reminds me of being in elementary school and pretending I had beaten games whenever my friend's mentioned them.

I was ten.

www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/pa...

Ya know, I've taken a lot of risks in my career--leaving jobs, moving for new ones--but I've never once looked back and wished I hadn't, no matter the outcome.

If anything, I only wish I'd ever taken those risks sooner.

You would think after all this time I could go to bed at a reasonable time on a workday. And yet here we are again.

I just can't quit you, lack of sleep.

On the flip side, you get to enjoy stuff you thought sucked because you were a dumb teenager when it came out.

Also I've convinced at least two teenagers to play bioshock 1, and they agreed with me their current games also mostly suck.

YouTube video by Stuart Semple David Bowie on why you should never play to the gallery

youtu.be/cNbnef_eXBM

David Bowie on creativity, "Never play to the gallery."

You create because it wakes something up inside of you and makes you want to be alive. If you are working anywhere that kills that--that even quells it--look for something else.

Careers

#GameDevPaidMe

California has transparency laws for posting jobs, so look up any CA based company and you can see what they pay. These are two of the best to look at (because they have so many positions).

www.riotgames.com/en/work-with...

careers.blizzard.com/global/en

Filter by CA locations

I have a take on the ending and theme, but I may need a short book to expound properly. Maybe I'll stand on a street corner somewhere, screaming at the masses.

At least normal bullies have the wherewithal not to hide their thuggery behind altruism.

Just because I routinely keep so many tabs open in my browser for so long that the crushing strain on my RAM causes my entire computer to freeze like I'm trying to run multiple editors and games at once doesn't mean I have a problem.

Technology just needs to catch up to me.

Ah! This is the argument I've been trying to make for so long. Now I have wisdom to steal

Right. Blanket statements like that also discount the massive success of linear stories like GTA or Red Dead Redemption. There is an appetite for many things

Nothing I hated, but I disagree that the future of games is in absolute agency. BG3 offered lots of agency but within confines--people loved the NPCs, they loved the world.

True agency eradicates this, takes away the power of the storyteller to work with the player to make a gestalt.

On the one hand, being educated is a hugely important aspect of society and life. You'll learn things you never knew, connect with people in ways you couldn't have imagined, grow exponentially as a person.

On the other, holy shit though, have you seen how happy ignorant people are?

...to which windows you can climb.