Laura Fryer gives a fairly scathing review of HR’s encroachment and obvious power grab to be less “day to day” and more to (verbatim) be “at the same level or above the CEO”.
Video goes into how HR makes toxic work environments that demonize ever speaking out or questioning anything, and the toxic positivity that holds games back.
From HR -> “People and Culture” -> “Chief Disruptors”
I can basically guarantee you that “HR” had nothing to do with these decisions as you’ve presented them.
You think some random employee that works in resource management has the final say on creative decision-making?
These directives come from C suites that fear controversy and risk. These decisions are made for financial reasons, to eliminate every possible wrinkle that might upset someone and plant a seed of bad publicity and threaten the return on investment in the product being shipped.
The problem isn’t HR, it’s that games are products being sold by corporations that need to show growth next quarter at any cost
For real, Bethferny in HR isn’t killing your games. This person’s whole yt channel is a farce. Of course the exec is gonna say anything but that the exec is at fault. Literally ceo brained take from Fryer, and the gamer gaters eat it up.
The complaint boils down to whining about having to sit in meetings being told they should treat their coworkers with respect. Blaming HR for why games suck now is reminiscent of DEI being blamed for government corruption. Of course gamer gate types are going to gobble this up hook, line, and sinker.
Christ do you need some Bengay for that overreach?
The reason the game makers need to sit in those meetings about safe spaces is because of the incredibly toxic work environments that these companies were fostering.
Production quality is the death of high-choice RPGs. When a game has two artists pumping out dozens of assets a day and every choice just changes some text and objects around, you can afford to give the player a ton of choice. Even the early DA games were on the tail end of that, with all the dialogue voiced, requiring recording and implementation cost for every line.
These days, big games are expected to have not just voiced dialogue but to have choreographed cutscenes. Making your animators spend a week on a cutscene 5% of players will see is viewed as a waste of money, so you cut the decision branch that leads to it.
There was a period in the late 90s to early 2000s where you could make an RPG that was top-5 in every way. That will never happen again.
Ok