The Video Game Industry

I'd argue that, while not wholely unrelated, the relative merits of economic systems probably falls slightly outside the scope of this thread.

If you're specifically talking about how something is waterlogged, the fact that you're underwater may have some relevance on why that is, and that's absolutely relevant.

Capitalism is the reason for many of the worst excesses in the gaming industry, and pretending it isn't, or insisting no one talk about it, is asking the conversation to sidestep a fundamental contributing cause of the issues we're discussing.

As I mentioned before, I don't think the problem would be ANY better on another economic system, since the problem here lies on corruption and a lack of government will on apply the respective laws, and even under a communist or socialist system wouldn't prevent that.

The videogame industry wouldn't have the same problems under a communist system.

Because there wouldn't be a videogame industry under a communist system.

Still, I agree that it's not really relevant.

Edited by M84 on May 18th 2022 at 11:12:24 PM

China, Vietnam and the former Soviet Union are or were Communist countries, and they had a videogame industry.

Tetris was made in the Soviet Union

I wouldn't exactly put China as an example given that it is also beginning to stamp out its videogame industry.

Edited by raziel365 on May 18th 2022 at 8:34:51 AM

Also, mainland China has a capitalistic economic system, despite having a Communist political system

Look up the history of Tetris sometime.

Wikipedia: Tetris

While Tetris was created in the Soviet Union, actually getting out of it to become a successful game was way more complicated. It's actually a pretty interesting story.

If you don't feel like reading, Video Game Historian also did a comprehensive video on the subject.

Edited by Karxrida on May 18th 2022 at 8:41:47 AM

Let's try again.

The problems of communism are not relevant except as a hypothetical for what they would mean to a video game industry in a realized communist country. We can't say for sure about that and therefore it's irrelevant.

The problems of capitalism directly influence and impact the bad behavior of the video game industry, much as they influence and impact all industries under the capitalistic system we live in. Saying that capitalism encourages immoral behavior on a corporate level is objectively true, and is not an invitation to whatabout communism.

This is not a capitalism versus communism problem. This is an observation that the nature of the soil you grow something in has an influence on the fruit it produces. One is a hypothetical; the other is ongoing reality, and we have to recognize the factors that influence and exacerbate the problems if we want to address them in a meaningful way.

Edited by RedSavant on May 18th 2022 at 8:42:51 AM

I'll be honest and say this entire detour feels like Red Scare straight outta the Cold War. The original poster mentioned this being a capitalistic problem. There was never a proposal of communism worked in there (they could prefer Anarchism for all you know).

There it is.

Edited by Gaon on May 18th 2022 at 8:42:39 AM

Seriously though, who would thought there would be so much drama surrounding a game with falling blocks?

Technically, it is relevant, because one may think that many of the problems are unique to capitalism, when other systems are equal or worse in this regard in these kinds of circumstances, especially if the legal framework is corrupt or inoperative to prevent the worst excesses of a corporation, like the one involving the videogame industry.

And I haven't seen anyone discuss an alternative system to capitalism, instead of just complaining about its problems. And even if there were one, the situation would not be much better in that case.

Edited by luisedgarf on May 18th 2022 at 10:53:49 AM

Repeating "But what about communism?" does not make the problems with capitalism go away, nor is any attempt to mitigate those problems communism. Unless you are a lolbertarian.

Yes, other systems are not necessarily better in the end, but there is a point in saying these specific problems and these specific manifestations of such problems are because of capitalism in its current form.

Edited by minseok42 on May 19th 2022 at 1:01:40 AM

Speaking as someone who has a hateboner for communism, I will say that one should not take every criticism of capitalism to be an endorsement of communism...or even necessarily as a strict condemnation of capitalism as a system.

Look luis, I'm not exactly a fan of communism, but I think it would be disingenous to pretend that capitalism has nothing to do with the problems of the videogame industry given how microtransactions have wormed their way in a lot of games or how, say, Acti-Bliz laid off so much staff in 2019 just to keep its bottom line going up.

Edit: Forget it, I think Protagonist 506's opinion boils down what I'm trying to say.

Edited by luisedgarf on May 18th 2022 at 11:01:13 AM

As I just said, a criticism of capitalism is not automatically an endorsement of socialism or communism.

Self-thumped

Edited by minseok42 on May 19th 2022 at 1:00:59 AM

Correct, because discussing alternative economic systems is not the point of the thread. The point is discussing the video game industry, an industry founded along the principles of capitalism that follows said principles, and which has several problems that are directly caused by said principles of capitalism.

The bee in your bonnet about "but what about communism, that's bad too!" is not helpful when discussing what motivates companies to underpay contractors and force employees to crunch, or put in predatory microtransactions or gacha mechanics, or what causes people to pull a runner with Kickstarter funds. If you can't grasp that sometimes the environment in which something happens is an inherent part of why that thing happens, all you're contributing is noise.

Edited by RedSavant on May 18th 2022 at 9:02:37 AM

Edit:

Nevermind, moving on.

Edited by raziel365 on May 18th 2022 at 9:02:40 AM

While this is true, im going to said there wasn't a analysis of capitalism and is effect on video game industry, just a dig on capitalism which I get why it feel kinda.....pointless.

Granted Luis probably just phrase better but anyway, just my two cent.

A former Game Stop employee is suing them under New York's labor laws.

The reasonings:

• New York Labor Laws require manual laborers to be payed on a weekly basis and Gamestop only pays them biweekly.
• The plaintiff alleges the amount of physical work they do qualifies them as manual laborers under New York labor laws (which is manual labor for 25% or more of the day).

That comes across as a rather silly law to me, but in Australia fortnightly pay cycles are the norm. (Also, the US needs to learn to use fortnight and its derivatives).