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Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj (Netflix) S4 is up, and first episode focuses on Videogame industry's labor practices

  • Thread starter Deleted member 8257
  • Start date

Deleted member 8257

Oct 26, 2017
24,586
If you have Netflix, make sure you watch it!



As someone who was completely unaware of how Telltale treated it's employees, this was eye opening.

The burnouts and crunch times are absolutely unacceptable.

Keasar said:
Episode is up on Youtube:
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Deleted member 3294

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
1,973
TheDutchSlayer said:
Any details? and if you have to can be in spoiler tags.
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I can give an overview of what's talked about:
It starts off talking about how big the video game industry is and that despite its success, that companies lay off workers very often. It then goes into labor conditions/crunch, with a focus on Epic Games. Then it goes into sexism in the industry, particularly at Riot. And then it goes into that workers are unionizing. It has interviews with former Telltale employee Emily Grace Buck and Kotaku writer Cecilia D'Anastio.
 
JCHandsom

JCHandsom

Avenger
Nov 3, 2017
4,218
trashtabby said:
I can give an overview of what's talked about:
It starts off talking about how big the video game industry is and that despite its success, that companies lay off workers very often. It then goes into labor conditions/crunch, with a focus on Epic Games. Then it goes into sexism in the industry, particularly at Riot. And then it goes into that workers are unionizing. It has interviews with former Telltale employee Emily Grace Buck and Kotaku writer Cecilia D'Anastio.
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Sounds like it hits every nail on the head, glad to hear dev unions are still a part of this discussion
 
Captain of Outer Space

Captain of Outer Space

Come Sale Away With Me
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,352
It's weird that he brought up Apex Legends as an exploitative game when the developers specifically said they were not rushing out content to avoid crunch.

Otherwise, it's a great episode, as usual.
 
Keasar

Keasar

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,724
Umeå, Sweden
Yeah, that was a great episode taking up a lot of the shit going on in the industry.

So glad I decided to bail out of it entirely when realizing what my future would probably be. Happy though that things might change for the people who remain.
 
TheDutchSlayer

TheDutchSlayer

Did you find it? Cuez I didn't!
Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,007
The Hauge, The Netherlands
trashtabby said:
I can give an overview of what's talked about:
It starts off talking about how big the video game industry is and that despite its success, that companies lay off workers very often. It then goes into labor conditions/crunch, with a focus on Epic Games. Then it goes into sexism in the industry, particularly at Riot. And then it goes into that workers are unionizing. It has interviews with former Telltale employee Emily Grace Buck and Kotaku writer Cecilia D'Anastio.
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Thanks for this appreciated it a lot!
Captain of Outer Space said:
It's weird that he brought up Apex Legends as an exploitative game when the developers specifically said they were not rushing out content to avoid crunch.

Otherwise, it's a great episode, as usual.
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Maybe they did research on the subject before that bit of information was out there.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 8257

Oct 26, 2017
24,586
Edit: whoops
 
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ZugZug123

ZugZug123

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,412
RustyNails said:
ext


This is Riot Games COO who was farting in people's faces
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Has this guy be fired yet ot not? Man, what a sleazebag...
 
Captain of Outer Space

Captain of Outer Space

Come Sale Away With Me
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,352
TheDutchSlayer said:
Thanks for this appreciated it a lot!

Maybe they did research on the subject before that bit of information was out there.
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The Epic crunch story was out two days before the Apex Legends story about them not rushing content to avoid crunch:

Epic Crunch - 4/23:
www.polygon.com

How Fortnite’s success led to months of intense crunch at Epic Games

Sources reveal long hours and intense pressure while working on hit game
www.polygon.com www.polygon.com

Apex Legends - 4/25:

They featured the Fortnite champion story at the beginning that happened in the past week or so, which suggests that they'd be agile enough to cut mentions of games/teams that don't fit the narrative.
 
TheDutchSlayer

TheDutchSlayer

Did you find it? Cuez I didn't!
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Oct 26, 2017
7,007
The Hauge, The Netherlands
Captain of Outer Space said:
The Epic crunch story was out two days before the Apex Legends story about them not rushing content to avoid crunch:

Epic Crunch - 4/23:
www.polygon.com

How Fortnite’s success led to months of intense crunch at Epic Games

Sources reveal long hours and intense pressure while working on hit game
www.polygon.com www.polygon.com

Apex Legends - 4/25:

They featured the Fortnite champion story at the beginning that happened in the past week or so, which suggests that they'd be agile enough to cut mentions of games/teams that don't fit the narrative.
Click to expand...
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Right thanks for that, could not remember how far apart those stories were, yeah that suggest that is was not well researched at the time sadly.
 
Wallace Wells

Wallace Wells

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May 24, 2019
4,843
Great episode, had no idea about the stuff that was happening at Riot Games. That was horrific.

Even worse that the COO only got 2 months unpaid leave after what he did
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,110
I was waiting for the YouTube link before making a topic, but yeah, this is a good episode as always and has some insights I didn't know yet. The farting part, just... Why and how?!
 
Bear Patrol

Bear Patrol

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,043
RustyNails said:
ext


This is Riot Games COO who was farting in people's faces
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Please don't spread actual false news. The COO in question is Scott Gelb.

The picture you posted is of Greg Street who is not the COO of Riot and never has been.

Here's Greg answering questions from Wired about League stuff


Do better than just using Google image search, jfc

You need to fix this RustyNails
 
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OP
OP

Deleted member 8257

Oct 26, 2017
24,586
Bear Patrol said:
Please don't spread actual false news. The COO in question is Scott Gelb.

The picture you posted is of Greg Street who is not the COO of Riot and never has been.

Here's Greg answering questions from Wired about League stuff


Do better than just using Google image search, jfc

You need to fix this RustyNails
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Edited, sorry. I hotlinked to LinkedIn page.
 
TyrantGuardian

TyrantGuardian

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,293
Just watched it. Thought it was a great episode that really hit on the big points that have been talked about these part few years.
 
Rndom Grenadez

Rndom Grenadez

Prophet of Truth
Member
Dec 7, 2017
5,640
Great episode. It's hard to cover everything in 26 minutes but he did touch on a lot of important topics.
 
Dandy

Dandy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,462
Great video! He covered a lot of ground in a short time.

The segment on Tim Sweeney made me cringe.
 
TheGummyBear

TheGummyBear

Member
Jan 6, 2018
8,793
United Kingdom
It's interesting that, after pointing out how Fortnite's exploitative business model works at the start, the end of the segment is a staged sketch recorded using in-game footage, with everyone using premium skins rather than the default character models.

Considering it doesn't really contribute anything to the overall point, it just strikes me as odd to directly contribute towards a business model and company that you're criticising in the very same segment.
 
RadicalDreamer

RadicalDreamer

Member
Jan 20, 2019
260
Oh, awesome! Hasan and Netflix are putting in some decent work to make sure we stay WOKE.

I will certainly be watching this after work later.
 
Dimple

Dimple

Member
Jan 10, 2018
8,567
Captain of Outer Space said:
It's weird that he brought up Apex Legends as an exploitative game when the developers specifically said they were not rushing out content to avoid crunch.

Otherwise, it's a great episode, as usual.
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Yeah that was the only nitpick I had with the episode, would have been cool if he had come back to that and used it as a way to Segway into more studios publicly vowing to avoid crunch.
 
Plinkerton

Plinkerton

Member
Nov 4, 2017
6,061
This has secretly been the best show on Netflix for like a year now and this was one of the strongest episodes yet. The way he breaks these things down into bits people can understand is great and the balance in tone between comedy and being serious when it's needed is spot on.

Anyway I don't think there was anything new in this episode if you've been following the industry closely but hopefully it brings new eyes to the issue at the very least.
 
Dahbomb

Dahbomb

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Oct 25, 2017
13,624
That's really good. Right up there with his IPL episode.

More mainstream media attention on these issues is great.
 
Splader

Splader

Member
Feb 12, 2018
5,063
Great episode. Pushed it off for a while and finally watched it. It definitely needed to be longer then 25 minutes, but he hit most of the points required. More people, especially gamers, need to know about this. Sure most won't care, but many will.
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
saci said:
Riot is such a shitshow, fucking hell
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The full report they were referring to is even more disgusting.
kotaku.com

Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Games

Throughout her three years at Riot Games, the company behind League of Legends, Lacy made it her mission to hire a woman into a leadership role. Lacy had heard plenty of excuses for why her female job candidates weren’t Riot material. Some were “ladder climbers.” Others had “too much ego.” Most...
kotaku.com kotaku.com
 
Kaelan

Kaelan

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,641
Maryland
Plinkerton said:
This has secretly been the best show on Netflix for like a year now and this was one of the strongest episodes yet. The way he breaks these things down into bits people can understand is great and the balance in tone between comedy and being serious when it's needed is spot on.

Anyway I don't think there was anything new in this episode if you've been following the industry closely but hopefully it brings new eyes to the issue at the very least.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Agreed, this show is the best piece of content Netflix has acquired. His comedy special homecoming is also perfect: hilarious but also has its sad/heart wrenching moments.

I hope he does an episode on climate change and white supremacy, don't let me down Hasan!
 
mxbison

mxbison

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Jan 14, 2019
2,148
isn't it more of an american government problem? scumbags exploiting people can't be video game industry exclusive and if it's legal it's clearly the governments fault.
 
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