This news hit the mainstream pretty hard and fast. The wild thing is, however, that the mainstream is trying to spin this particular news in a dishonest way. Shocking, I know.
NetEase laid off a dev team that was based out of Seattle that worked on the R&D portion of the game, such as levels, maps and the foundational mechanics of the game. As it is understood at the moment, it’s pretty standard for the R&D team to be let go once they complete their contractual obligations, which they had.
This is an unfortunate reality in the gaming industry. The mainstream media, however, seems to be attempting to twist the narrative to make it appear that layoffs are occurring despite the game’s success. This is a factual statement, BUT the team’s obligations had been accomplished, and once one finishes a contract, does that not mean the position closes?
Further, the dev team was only a team of six, and the director of the team was absolutely not the studio director of NetEase, like was implied.
This just goes to show that the mainstream game’s media have an absolute contempt for gamers and the industry for some reason that I fail to understand more and more every year. Once upon a time, Game’s Journalism was an industry FOR gamers, and BY gamers. Nowadays, it seems to just be a stepping stone into political journalism. Even the journalism industry has been quoted claiming that there are only 24 games journalists working in the industry anymore. I say good, let them go under. The gamers don’t need journalists, and neither does the gaming industry. The industry can still hear our voices without them in this era. They need only look to social media and YouTube to see what we think of their work. With a bit more time, I think they’re going to listen harder; after all, they should start listening more when we close our wallets.
Other Topics Discussed on This Live…
- WARGAMING STEELS OUR ATTENTION
- BACK TO THE FUTURE: BOB GALE ANNOUNCES A NEW GAME (AND SOME WE DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT)
- LAGGIN OUT THINK BREAK: WHAT WAS YOUR WORST GAMING MISTAKE?
- DOCTOR WHO (IS CANCELLED?)
- BUFFY IS BACK BUT JOSS IS STILL WE-DONE?
- THE LAGGIN’ OUT MINUTE: HARRY POTTER CASTING
- SONY’S STATE OF PLAY: GAME DEVS OF THE EAST
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