https://x.com/Grummz/status/1801445278861639709
https://x.com/Grummz/status/1801445456918233450
https://x.com/Grummz/status/1801445512719307162
https://nitter.poast.org/Grummz/status/1801445278861639709
Leak: Activision Blizzard is too far gone and infested with DEI. They recently circulated a 3 year plan for even more woke in games:
"DE&I (DEI) are woven into the fabric of all our efforts, serving as the cornerstone of our planning process."
Presents a 3 year Roadmap 2024-2026 "The Inclusion Strategy Map."
"Every element of the game development cycle and pipeline touches DE&I (DEI) in some way."
AI voice chat moderation to enforce DEI compliance with players.
The Inclusive Game Design Council staffed with external experts (you can guess) and academia to "empower" teams to be inclusive.
"Embed exposure to DE&I "programming" from Day 1 for all new employees.
Building safe spaces inside the company for every group under the sun.
Plans to diversify representation in characters and stories.
Integrate the inclusive creative process into all games, with focus groups lead by Marketing and DEI teams.
Uses DEI goal setting to foster accountability. (this is probably related to the DEI score on review that I mentioned before).
Hosts an internal live video series "Press Pause" that trains employees on Diversity Storytelling and Culture of Support.
Hosts Cultural Events continuously internally.
Quotes debunked research that "diverse teams outperform"
Thinks celebrating hip-hop in Call of Duty creates inclusiveness.
Backs and attends numerous DEI panels.
Is conducting research into removing the "bias" from their AI efforts (i.e. uncomfortable truths).
Thinks having taco vendors and coffee carts counts as "diversifying supplier chain."
Tracks an "inclusion score" for every employee.
Uses advanced tech tools in hiring to look for inclusive language and diverse people and implement "inclusive hiring processes." (i.e. quotas).
Creates manager incentives and "succession plans that mitigate bias".
Ensure marketing is culturally sensitive.
Inclusive Game Design: Introducing more characters like Catbat, first non-binary character voiced by gender-fluid actor who "uses all pronouns" in Crash Team Rumble.
There is a lot here. It's a juggernaut. Hi-rez photos attached in this post and the next 2 replies.
I think it's hard to get good programmers that write reliable code to work in the industry, so I don't know what they get. Probably people who just go-go-go. It's somewhat reasonable for a video game, where the cost of a failure (crash in video game terms) is so low. They do hire programmers. They work them really hard, and they don't pay them that much. But it's a cool job for some young men. So you get what you get.
If you imagine the whole software industry as a bigger system, you don't want your best programmers -- at least not the same kind of best that work on your spacecraft -- working on games. Where people work is mediated by the market, but the market is pretty good at squeezing out efficiency, so I think people end up more or less where they belong. In aggregate not individually.
Just look at people who have made indy games, and you can see some pretty crazy strategies for going from "I know how to script" to "game."
So the same reason why all the competent translators work in law and business where mistakes can't be tolerated while shitty translators just call themselves "localisers" to cope for their inability to properly translate.
Yeah +/- the whole "young man" thing. For the most part, it's a young man's game to be able to spend all his time at work for generally less money than he could make doing something else. Programmers ought to get better with age.