Marc

Yeah valid point, even for something like the Empire LARP event it'd be rad if all the documentation and behind the scenes comms was preserved.

Oh for sure, you get a load more! For me it's just interesting I've not seen this discussion arise around interactive live performances, LARP, improv, etc.

I do think we should strive for preservation, even for live service games, but I'm curious where the root of the argument comes from.

For sure, it's instinctually and gutturally sad in a sort of universally human way. It especially feels like all the work and art has been "wasted", more so in cases like this where the apparent potential in that work was never realised.

I'm also a fan of the concept of ephemerality - like it's sometimes OK for things to be fleeting. We patch and change games all the time, should we "preserve" DOTA 2 patch 6?

Art is weird and funky and sometimes the beauty's in the moment in time rather than the cogs and screws that created it.

I'm pro preservation in a lot of ways but it's interesting to me that I don't think much other media has been concerned about preserving a live performance vs. just a recording of it, and boy have we got tons of footage of people playing this - do we need the game itself?

For those on here unaware of the way Bluesky is just another twitter waiting to happen

kevinak.se/blog/be-wary...

Like a stat I've seen is that UK police kill the same in 24 years that US police do in 24 hours. It's absurd.

Yeah for sure! Policing has real issues regardless of the format it takes, and we certainly still have abuses of power, but I'm not quite aware of the same culture in the UK of police fear, because fundamentally they don't cause the same violence.

ROCKSTAR UPDATE:

Keir Starmer was just asked about the Rockstar firings in Parliament today where he described the situation as "deeply concerning" and promised it would be looked into by government ministers.

Not that a Starmer promise is worth much, mind.

I attended the protest outside of Rockstar North in Edinburgh this evening to stand in solidarity with the more than 30 workers across the UK, including a number of my constituents who have been sacked.

Video game giant Rockstar has sacked more than 30 workers across the UK, including my constituents working at their Edinburgh office. I urged Ministers to support workers who have lost their jobs, and stop this from happening again.

Over 200 Rockstar staff write to management in support of unfairly fired union members - IWGB Game Workers 220 letters signed by staff members at Rockstar, the studio behind the Grand Theft Auto series, were delivered to management at the company last week, demanding that the 31 employees fired are immedia...

Over 200 Rockstar staff have written to management in support of unfairly fired union members.

We have published more details on our website, although we have not yet released the exact contents of the letter: www.gameworkers.co.uk/rockstar-ope...

This is the most ruthless act of union busting in the history of the UK games industry. Yesterday, @rockstargames.com unfairly fired over 30 employees for union activity.

We won't back down, and we're not scared - we will fight for every member to be reinstated.

🙌The first recognised union for game devs in the UK! 🙌

Workers at ZAUM now have a say on their pay and conditions at work with the support of the @iwgbunion.bsky.social

Work in games in the UK? Join our union today: iwgb.org.uk/en/join/game...

You want to know how to get some job security in this volatile industry? This is how. This right here. When you're in a union, if you get laid off, your layoff is NEGOTIATED, not just dropped on you as a traumatic event you have zero control over.

JOIN IWGB GAME WORKERS

Game Worker Solidarity Preserving and analysing the history of game worker solidarity

If you didn't know, the unionization effort in the games industry is very much an international effort.

Over at @gameworkersolidarity.com, we track everything we can find, and I'm sure we're missing a lot, too! www.gameworkersolidarity.com

"Rotten" is what I use, stolen from the Something Rotten podcast.

Like good games, but absolutely not Wholesome

Googled 7th Guest.

Yup. Hi.

Old Skies launches TOMORROW!!

This game took five years to make. It's been a frigging roller coaster. I don't think I've written a game more personal than this.

If this isn't a time for kisses and fireworks, what is?

Wishlist here: store.steampowered.com/app/1346360/...

#oldskiescountdown

There's permanent upgrades for sure, and game knowledge about how the rng selects rooms does help, but yup - I was stunned not many reviews mentioned how deeply broken the game is from a UX perspective at times. Just wastes your time for no reason at random :(

Yeah I've played about 5 hours now and the game has finally granted me enough modifiers to make the random generation of brick walls less likely.

Your comic is exactly how I felt for so long, and I almost uninstalled the game because of it.

Gotta be real, Blue Prince is one of the most frustrating games I've played in a long, long time. I don't think I get it? I'm interested in the story, but I can't even name a gameplay element I'm enjoying, and the randomness is constantly geting in the way of any meaningful progress.

I didn't […]

Somebody uploaded custom audio of AI generated Zuckerberg to a bunch of crosswalk buttons in Palo Alto and Redwood City and it's hilarious

At the meeting, I talk about Good Boss/Bad Boss/Sad Boss as the kind of menu of tactics the company will draw from. I said some version of a thing I have now said thousands of times in meetings and house calls: Good Boss is when they buy off or try to buy off workers, with favors and fixes or even pay raises, to quell the anger that drives the organizing, to make it seem as though workers don't need a union after all. Bad Boss is when they terrify or try to terrify workers through threats, like plant closure and rumors like "Wherever the union goes, Immigration follows," so that fear overpowers the driving anger. Sad Boss is when they play the strange game of pretending to suffer a deep, personal heartbreak as the result of workers deciding to organize, in hopes that the workers' anger will be confused or blunted by empathy for the boss.

I find the Good Boss/Bad Boss/Sad Boss construct to be so useful when workers take action. I've seen this first-hand multiple times.

From On The Line: Two Women's Epic Fight to Build a Union by Daisy Pitkin.

Game Workers Branch Organiser x 2 The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is looking for an Organiser to support the Game Workers Branch in building power and winning changes.

My union in the UK, the IWGB Game Workers, is hiring TWO branch organizers to help us organize the games industry here.

We're already over 1,500 members and growing. So the staff we're hiring will work with members to continue that trend. iwgb.org.uk/en/post/bran...

SwearSky Bluesky profanity, as it happens

Ever wanted to know the amount of profanity flowing through Bluesky at any one moment? Me neither, but I still ended up making this: SwearSky, a flow of foul language uttered by Bluesky users.
⚠️ NSFW ⚠️ as it literally yells swear words at you.

Hey everyone! @gameworkersolidarity.com is now on Bluesky!

Follow it for all the latest news on unions and hear about some cool anniversaries of stuff that happened in the past like hunger strikes or factory occupations (yes, seriously, those happened).

I do not Fucking recall them asking the blue sky elders permission to open registration to commoners .