#Jason Schreier

[carriagelamp]

Summer really is just a time to read and read and read as much as absolutely possible. We’ve had some rainy weather as well, so it’s been very nice to have a cut to the heat and be able to sit by an open window, with tea and a book, and listen to a summer rain!

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels

Subheader: “The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made” which about sums it up. This is a nonfiction book that looks into the rough development cycle of some big name games, including Dragon Age Inquisition, Stardew Valley, The Witcher 3, Shovelknight… and plenty others besides! It was fascinating to hear about the highs and lows, what worked and what didn’t… especially for some of the games that I’ve actually played! It was just narrative enough to keep me interested, never felt overly dry, and was accessible to someone like me who is only like… a periphery gamer at best. A really enjoyable read. 

The Brave Little Toaster

I never knew this was originally a book, I only knew of it as a movie! It’s written to be a “modern fairytale” about appliances who have been seemingly abandoned in a summer cabin. When their “master” doesn’t return over several years, a few of the remaining, functional appliances decide to set off into the woods in an effort to find him again. It’s a harrowing adventure with many obstacles for them to overcome, and some honestly rather unsettling scenes — those weren’t only reserved for the movie! Ultimately the movie and book have some significant differences, but if you liked one it would be worth trying the other. A very neat kids novel.

The Brides of High Hill (Singing Hills Cycle)

I’m completely enraptured with this series and I don’t know how I’m going to wait for the next novella ;^; it doesn’t even have a release date yet to my knowledge! Augh! You can see my reviews of the early books in the series for more detail, but the general premise is that it follows a cleric from a monastery which is specifically tasked to collect and record stories (both historical accounts and fictional tales) to bring back to be recorded in the archives. With this as a framing device, Chih travels all over an intriguing fantasy world with their magical bird companion, getting into strange adventures, meeting interesting characters, and hearing stories within stories. In this one, Chih finds themself accompanying a young lady who is travelling to marry an older man of questionable character…

The End of the Line

A youth novel that takes place in Holland during the Nazi occupation. Brothers Lars and Hans run a street tram, and are shocked one day when they witness the Nazis find and arrest a Jewish woman on their very tram. What leaves them even more shocked, is what the woman is able to stealthily leave behind: her young daughter. Scared, overwhelmed, but unable to bear abandoning the child completely, the brothers end up sneaking her through the city and back to their own home, to try to figure out what they can possibly do with a Jewish child during the Holocaust.

Finna

An interesting little novella. It takes place in a fictional “Ikea” called LitenVärld. However, this company is known to experience strange occurrences from time to time… wormholes will occasionally open in their stores, linking to other LitenVärld in countless other universes. At one time they had entire teams trained specifically in dealing with these wormholes and ensuring customer safety, but overtime there’s been budget cuts and layoffs and no nothing exists but old tech and dated instructional videos. When a customer’s grandmother disappears in one of these wormholes, a pair of employees get strong armed into “volunteering” to take on the task of entering the wormhole and finding her once again. It’s a fairly creative scifi adventure that offers some decent (though not subtle) criticism of modern life and capitalism. 

…Not a bad read, I enjoyed it, but honestly if you want “Weird Upsetting Ikea Story That Mocks Retail Life” then you should really go read Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix instead which, imo, was a much tighter version of this sort of story, with a much more effectively delivered message. Seriously, just go read Horrorstör, one of my favourite reads from this year so far.

Heaven Official's Blessing v7 (TGCF )

Heaven Official’s Blessing just gets better and better! We’re in boss fight territory and it’s getting so intense! This series has way more Gundam battles than I expected but honestly I am here for it! And I’m such a sucker for any story where all the friends (?) you made along the way begin to amass to help in the big final confrontation! Ahhh. So good, so good.

If you haven't heard of this one: it's the story of Xie Lian, a prince who ascended as a god... only to be banished. And then ascend again. And then get banished again. The series starts off after his third ascension (to the exasperation of everyone in Heaven) and is a gradual series of adventures and mysteries that tie together events of the past and building tensions in the present. It's lots of fun, with a ton of humour and heart built into it to cut the tragedy

Night Witches

More WWII, this time not a youth novel! Night Witches takes place in Russia, beginning during the Battle of Stalingrad. It follows a teenage girl whose father is already gone to fight, and who is forced to watch as both her mother and grandmother die to German bombing. After losing her mother, her only goal is to find the elusive Night Witches — an entirely female and very infamous branch of the Russian air force. Having grown up flying with her father, she’s determined that there she can do the most good, and fights her way across a war-torn city in her effort to join the forces to repel the Nazis. Night Witches (the actual, historical Night Witches, which are cool in and of themselves and very worth looking up if you’ve never heard of them before) were known for flying a special type of light-weight plane which could go much quieter and much slower than other planes, allowing them a shocking amount of stealth and maneuverability on bombing missions.

The writing of this one wasn’t my favourite, but the subject matter was interesting enough to buoy me through it, especially in how it portrayed some of the absolute horror that goes along with urban warfare and trying to fight with scant resources, under the Soviet regime, during a Russian winter. Lots of tragedy.

More About Paddington / Paddington Goes To Town / Paddington On Top /Love From Paddington / Paddington’s Finest Hour

Travelling to the UK in July got me on a Paddington Bear kick! I got to see his statue in Paddington station and honestly it was too delightful not to drag me back into the books. I’d only ever read a couple as a kid, so this was both a reread and a chance to read some of the stories I’ve never heard before, these were especially nice as audiobooks to listen to as I was falling asleep. For some reason my Libby is missing quite a few so I mostly listened to later ones in the series. I particularly enjoyed Love From Paddington which was a different format from the rest of the series and kind of a need deviation.

If you’ve somehow never heard of Paddington, these books are about a young bear “from Darkest Peru” who immigrates to England when his grandmother enters the Home For Retired Bears and can no longer care for him. He’s adopted by the Brown family, and the books are a recount of the everyday mishaps and misadventures he gets up to around London. They’re sweet and charming and funny! 

Pinocchio

I’ve never read the original story of Pinocchio and I found it a very interesting contrast to the Disney version. It’s very much a coming of age story, in which Pinocchio, a wooden puppet — who can serve as a stand-in for any child — is constantly confronted with a need to balance what sounds enjoyable in the moment versus what is a morally upright choice that often requires more effort. He’s constantly being tricked, fooled, or lured off the moral path, but is never portrayed as irredeemable. He’s a child who is “trying to become a real boy” and is always given chances to fix his problems and return to his loving father. It’s a sweet story with a satisfyingly harrowing adventure and lots of fun naughtiness!

I specifically got this version because of Gris Grimly's art, because he helped out with Guillermo Del Toro's film, and man it was worth it. The art was so cool and creepy!

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System v1

Now that I’ve reached the end of Heaven Official’s Blessing and have previously finished Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation I inevitably have to start MXTX’s first series, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System. This was the one I was most leary about since, as a rule, I don’t really enjoy isekai stories, but I enjoyed her other two series so much that I figured it was worth giving the first book a chance. And boy! Am I glad I did! The first book started off like a gunshot, it pulls you right into the action and it really doesn’t slow down! Shen Yuan, upon dying while furiously reading the worst webnovel he’s ever seen, finds himself transported into the story… specifically into the villain who is destined to be torn apart by the protagonist during a revenge plot! From there, Shen Yuan — now Shen Qingqiu — begins to desperately scheme how he can change his character enough without becoming OOC (which the mysterious “System” that governs this world won’t allow) while still giving him a chance to avoid a horrible death.

This book is hilariously satirical without ever feeling dull or jaded, which is an impressive mix. Shen Qingqiu may scoff at the ridiculous tropes of this world or the author’s poor world-building, but he’s just as swept up in it all as anyone else. He’s a cunning, calculating character, while also managing to run around like a chicken with its head chopped off, rife with misunderstandings and humour and adventure. I’m very very excited to continue!

Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

I wasn’t sure about this book at first, I almost quit part way in, but in the end I’m really glad I kept with it! It ended up being much more charming and delightful than I anticipated! This is a youth novel about a girl whose family has just moved to their late great uncle’s farm. While trying to get her feet under her, she comes across a catalogue advertising “unusual chicken for the exceptional poultry farmer”. Though her parents don’t seem keen on having animals on the farm, she decides to write to the company. To her surprise though, she doesn’t need to wait for an order of “usual chickens” because it would appear her great uncle already had some… and she’s found one. And “unusual” really doesn’t even begin to cover it. Things only get stranger as the woman from the catalogue writes her back, and when the first attempt is made to steal this strange new chicken.

Winner Takes All (Doctor Who)

This is a standard fare Doctor Who novel. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good. It was an enjoyable little thing to read just for the sake of reading something relaxing and Doctor Who related. This one follows the Ninth Doctor and Rose who have returned back to Earth so that Rose can visit her mom, and along the way they get to learn all about a strange new give-away that’s being promoted in the local shops. There’s lottery tickets and free vacations and a new video game and all sorts of curious things… including some unexpected disappearances. 

If you like Doctor Who and feel like reading an extra story about Nine and Rose, this one is as fine as any, especially considering that there are some real stinkers out there. The story is compelling enough with some decent stakes, Nine and Rose is a dynamic I always really enjoy and want more of, and the characters they introduce for this story are reasonably enjoyable. A very comfortable middle of the road read.

[cassiefisherdrake]

[Sigh.]

[zenosanalytic]

Good Thoughts u_u

I've been percolating this since the first time I saw it and I think this might be one of those "Impossible to get someone to understand something when their wealth depends on NOT understanding it" situations?

like: under Capitalism cutting corners and dumping funds into "capital investments" like graphics-engines is ALWAYS going to be preferenced because the one "lowers costs/raises profits" and the other can be amortized as both investment and security-for-investment. Nintendo doesn't do that for Weird Contingent Historical reasons we don't need to get into, but the upshot of it all is that Nintendo still cares about providing a decent product, whereas their USian AAA competitors straight-up cannot because over here 'Capital' crushes that impulse whenever it pops up, as soon as it can(see the recent Instapot Bankruptcy or what Discovery's doing to HBO and its subsidiaries like TCM). So, while USian indie devs like Supergiant are capable of making similarly great games that dont require a super-computer to play, people like Ubisoft and EA are legit INCAPABLE, as institutions, of learning these lessons or making games like this.

[shapedforfighting]

Reading Press Reset by Jason Schreier and...I thought the book publishing industry was bad, but it turns out the video games publishing industry is fucked up beyond belief

[tneql]

Sony were once the bastions of video game creativity.

Willing to expand behind the youthful simplicity of Nintendo and the edgy tryhardness of Sega, they focused on building immersive worlds, unique characters and actual developed storytelling.

That Sony is dead.

It's been dead for half a decade.

Games like Sly Cooper would never happen in 2024 Sony, and Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has confirmed as much.

“No truth to this one, sorry to say. Sucker Punch is a one-project studio. The reason Ghost of Tsushima 2 isn’t out yet is because AAA video games now take 5-7 years to make. (Also, Sucker Punch is smaller than most other AAA game developers)"

[thejaymo]

Milestones Past | Weeknotes

I’ve been quietly putting the video version of Permanently Moved up on Youtube since 2021. As I’ve said multiple times, it’s not that much extra work to produce a video version than it is to make an audio version. I’ve been treating my YT channel more like a repository or video hosting site than a social network, or ladder to climb. A few months ago I started making shorts and in the main none…

[thatothergamer]

Jason Schreier of Bloomberg investigated the happenings within Arkane during its development of Redfall,to get some answers for the game's abysmal launch state. Here's the link to the no paywall article which Mr.Schreier himself generously shared with the public.

[pharawee]

Loved your comment on col. Cast is lovely everything is perfect but the asshat director and some bts people. Amazing show!

Now imagine how much more amazing this show could have been if the director's unprofessionalism didn't turn the set into an extremely toxic work environment that apparently was so bad that his lead actors considered quitting acting altogether.

I still really like the show (and To Sir with Love and Laws of Attraction which were also directed by director Wo Worawit and apparently suffered from some of the same problems, albeit not to that extent) but it's kind of all I could think about while watching today's ep. :/

It's a testament to everyone else involved in the making of this show (well, except for those horrible make-up people who were hopefully fired) that it's as amazing and entertaining as it is.

[miyku]

[fruitcd]

pete parsons might be the stupidest man alive

[edgepunk]

from watching multiple gameplay videos and posts on reddit, sm2 feels a little undercooked compared to the first game? I'm not saying it's bad, but some things seem to be missing and some gameplays were bugged as hell with character models disappearing and some missions being unplayable

now, I think it could be chalked up to the fact that during the development of this game Insomniac worked on Ratchet & Clank, Miles Morales and Wolverine. I feel like they have a lot on their plate rn and it's starting rear its ugly head

[girlbob-boypants]

Keeping up with the D4 drama has been fascinating

The devs openly said on a livestream that the patch they released was terrible and ruined the game right before the new season. However they refused to revert the changes, went "oh well we're monitoring feedback at all times as we work to improve the game" whenever anyone asked *why* something was nerfed, and said they won't be fixing anything for at least 2 weeks.

Something fucked up is happening in ActiBlizz studios rn man

[drunk-on-starlight]

I can believe 343 management interfered in Infinite's development but I'm gonna be honest, an anonymous source in a YouTube video is not gonna convince me of it.

[felassan]

Jeff Grubb on KindaFunnyGames: "Dragon Age, I was teasing this one, Dragon Age, I joke that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf won't be there and will be there. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf probably won't be there. Dragon Age will be there." [source]

Edit - Update re: above comment: Jeff clarified the above comment in chat and said "It's not a Dragon Age 1 Remake. It's just not Dreadwolf." [source]

Jason Schreier on Reset Era: "The rumor he's alluding to is a name change for DA4, not a different game." [source]

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has a new name?? [rumor]

[renaultmograine]

Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime left Blizzard because he was reportedly tired of fighting with former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, according to those who worked closely with him, the two leaders having butted heads for years regarding the future of Blizzard.

New details about Morhaime's 2018 departure and Blizzard's contentious relationship with Activision come via an excerpt from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier's upcoming book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment , which releases on October 8 (the same day Blizzard's first expansion for Diablo 4, Vessel of Hatred, launches).

For years, Morhaime attempted to keep Activision, which acquired Blizzard in 2007, at bay. That goal of keeping Blizzard insulated from outside Activision pressure became harder in 2013 when Blizzard canceled project Titan, an FPS MMO that had been intended to be the next World of Warcraft, according to Schreier.

After the project's cancellation, which cost Blizzard around $80 million, Kotick and Activision began to assert more control over Blizzard, including pushing Blizzard to hire a chief financial officer, Armin Zerza, to keep costs in check. Zerza just "kept talking about how to make as much money as possible," according to one former employee, and at one point suggested axing Blizzard's annual BlizzCon fan convention, confused as to why a project with such low profit margins was allowed to exist, according to Schreier's sources. Blizzard announced this year there would not be a BlizzCon 2024.

Morhaime continued to battle Kotick in the following years, defending Blizzard's need for customer service employees and the studio's cinematics team. Following a meeting of Activision, Blizzard, and King leaders focused around the theme of "One ABK," Morhaime feared Blizzard was losing its independence, according to Schreier. He wrote a lengthy email to Kotick in response, stating he believed "preserving Blizzard's culture and magic" was a necessity in order to attract and retain "the best creative talent in the world." He additionally said that it had been "increasingly hard for me to provide Blizzard leadership and staff confidence that Blizzard has a stable future."

In 2017, Morhaime submitted a resignation letter, but was persuaded at the time by Kotick and others to take it back. Following the One ABK meeting in the spring of 2018, Morhaime formally announced his departure that October, saying it was time for someone else to lead.

Blizzard's story would of course continue, but without the man that Schreier said many Blizzard staff worshiped. Morhaime went on in 2020 to found a new game studio and publisher, Dreamhaven. Blizzard, meanwhile, in 2021 found itself embroiled in controversy following an explosive state of California lawsuit that accused Activision Blizzard of systemic sexual misconduct and discrimination, eventually settling with the state in 2023 to the tune of $54 million. Morhaime said in a statement addressing the lawsuit that he was "ashamed."

"To the Blizzard women who experienced any of these things, I am extremely sorry that I failed you," Morhaime said.

In the wake of the lawsuit, Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, with Kotick stepping down as Activision Blizzard CEO in December 2023.

[thefirstknife]

New article with more details (from Jason Schreier who first broke the story). If you can't see it, I'll copy the whole text under read more.

About 100 employees were laid off in total (8%) and one of the main reasons listed is "underperformance," "sharp drop in popularity" and "poor reception of Lightfall."

So you know when for the last year and a half content creators have been shitting and pissing on the game as a full-time job and the amount of negativity and ragebait content became the only thing to make content about for them? Well they certainly won't take the blame, but I will let it be known. These people either don't understand the influence they have or they do and they're doing it on purpose, and I don't know which of these two options is worse, but I am 100% confident that their campaign of rage and hate contributed to this.

You don't base your entire community around constantly hating everything about the only game you play (despite clearly not enjoying it anymore) and somehow avoid galvanising thousands and thousands of people into perceiving the game negatively. Imagine being employees who have barely worked there for 2 years and the only community reception they've seen is 24/7 hate train for their work and then they get fired because of "poor reception" and "drop in popularity." How can they not take that personally? I am absolutely devastated for these people who delievered a banger product and who were met with an unrelenting barrage of toxic gamer children which ended up having more sway over their boss than them.

Which brings me to the next bit and that's FUCK THE CEO. He is now my mortal enemy #1. I am projecting psychic blasts directly into his brain. What an absolute spineless coward who is more willing to bow down to fucking gamers than to protect his own employees. This is absolutely rage inducing because this has happened before. From the article from 2021 about the toxic culture at Bungie:

Reading this shit from the new article absolutely fucking sent me into blind rage because I immediately remembered this. Another instance of employees suffering because of comments on reddit. And because of toxic players. And proof that leadership is not protecting employees and is instead siding with players.

Match made in heaven. Asshole gamer content creators and asshole CEOs, all of whom sit at home on piles of money made from someone else's labour. I hope they all explode. None of the people that worked on this game deserve this.

Another article with an infuriating comment from the CEO:

In an internal town hall meeting addressing a Monday round of layoffs that impacted multiple departments, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons allegedly told remaining employees that the company had kept “the right people” to continue work on Destiny 2.

"Kept the right people." Really. Veteran composers weren't the right people? Die!

Bloomberg article in full:

Bungie’s decision to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its staff of about 1,200 followed dire management warnings earlier this month of a sharp drop in the popularity of its flagship video game Destiny 2. Just two weeks ago, executives at the Sony-owned game developer told employees that revenue was running 45% below projections for the year, according to people who attended the meeting. Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons pinned the big miss on weak player retention for Destiny 2, which has faced a poor reception since the release of its latest expansion, Lightfall. The next expansion, The Final Shape, was getting good — not great feedback — and management told those present that they planned to push back the release to June 2024 from February, according the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The additional time would give developers a chance to improve the product. In the meantime, Parsons told staff Bungie would be cutting costs, such as for travel, as well as implementing salary and hiring freezes, the people said. Everyone would have to work together to weather the storm, he said, leaving employees feeling determined to do whatever was needed to get revenue back up. But on Monday morning the news got worse: Dozens of staffers woke up to mysterious 15-minute meetings that had been placed on their calendars, which they soon learned were part of a mass layoff. Bungie laid off around 8% of its employees, according to documentation reviewed by Bloomberg. Bungie didn’t respond to requests for comment. Employees who were let go will receive at least three months of severance and three months of Bungie-paid COBRA health insurance, although other benefits, such as expense reimbursements, ended Monday, sending some staff racing to submit their receipts. Laid-off staffers will also receive prorated bonuses, although those who were on a vesting schedule following Sony Group Corp.’s acquisition of Bungie in January 2022 will lose any shares that weren’t vested as of next month. The layoffs are part of a larger money-saving initiative at Sony’s PlayStation unit, which has also cut employees at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and its San Mateo office. TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a report Monday that “events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring.” PlayStation president Jim Ryan announced last month that he plans to resign. Many of the layoffs at Bungie affected the company’s support departments, such as community management and publishing. Remaining Bungie staff were informed that some of those areas will be outsourced moving forward.