#helen hindpere

[thekoldun]

No one's saying this so I'll say it. The new People Make Games video is there to do nothing but manufacture consent for the company being taken away from its founders.

I'm sorry but for one moment set all of the interpersonal conflicts aside and look at the situation very simply. The video's message is that the executives taking away the products of Kurvitz, Rostov and Hindpere's labor from them is somehow rendered morally grey by Kurvitz being hard to work with. You cannot possibly fall for this shit.

People are hard to work with sometimes. They're flaky or rude or just incompatible. But you cannot in any way use that to somehow call the situation grey. It's not a give and take situation. People's labor was stolen from them. The world they conjured for themselves for twenty years was stolen from them. What kind of people they were should literally be the last thing on anyone's mind.

Really as soon as the narrative becomes "the poor beleaguered employees were saved by the brave intervention of the executive firing their fellow employees and seizing the IP for themselves" you have to be more than a little bit skeptical.

Hindpere herself says it. Every single aside from the ownership dispute and the fact of the IP theft is just that. An aside.

The founders of ZA/UM, Kurvitz and Hindpere and Rostov and co, were passionate and eclectic and genuine and what they made was taken from them.

It is not complicated. You're either with the executives or you're against the people without whom the game you love wouldn't exist.

[turianhumanclient]

What I know about the situation at Zaum Studio OÜ, developers of Disco Elysium

Perhaps you've heard of the deplorable situation of Disco Elysium's fired leads, of the oust by majority shareholder and CEO, of the lawsuits and rest of the cultural association and 'old guard' still at work there, quiet and held quiet by corporate policy and perhaps embittered by the 'auteur' theory holding parasocial public.

What I am going to share with you is information that is publicly available through Estonian and United Kingdom company registers. I haven't seen any news outlet feature this information yet.

WHAT IS NEW HERE?

Ilmar Kompus, the current CEO who was installed in 2020, had actually been a shareholder all along since Zaum Studio's founding in Estonia.

Kaur Kender, the author in his own right and producer at Zaum, has founded a lot of game development companies in Estonia and United Kingdom, while Zaum worked, published and updated Disco Elysium. These apparently went nowhere, some of them are now defunct. All of them had Ilmar Kompus or some ZAUM subsidiary as shareholders, and some also shared correspondence addresses with ZAUM's UK subsidiaries.

The 'game pitch' that cost Zaum 4,8 million euros and funded Kompus' acquisition of majority share from Linnamäe, the so called Pioneer One, has been previously reported by one gaming news outlet to have come via Anu Reiman's YESSIRNOSIR Limited. I have discovered that Kaur Kender held a game company in UK called Pioneer One Ltd that was active between years 2018-2022, and it had an Estonian artist Kristiina Ago as its secretary. I cannot prove that it was this entity that sold it instead, but it is a glaring coincidence nevertheless.

Kaur Kender and later Ilmar Kompus have founded a succession of ZAUM studios (Zaum London, Zaum UK, Disco Elysium UK and now Zaum Studio Limited) which have held the main development operations in UK. Kurvits and Rostov/Taal hold minority shares in Zaum UK. The later ones are all Ilmar Kompus-held in shares. I suspect this is a method of his to sever the fired leads' means of control to the company's branches in UK.

Both the 'main line' of Zaum's UK companies and Zaum Studio OÜ back in Estonia have loaned money to the tune of millions to Newelysium and Revachol in UK (Note, Revachol OÜ in Estonia is held by ZAUM cultural association members and is not a game studio)

What does it all mean then? I am not certain. I have not practical experience in game dev industry to say whether constantly making side companies or shells is a sign of a healthy leadership.

However looking at all the shell companies made near annually, and how the successive ‘main studios’ have consolidated into Kompus’ hands, I am going to speculate a bit. This has been a long con. Whether there was going to be a product that sold well or not, Kompus, Haavel and Kender were going be the ones collecting the jackpot. There were shell companies being established even as the game was floundering after the estonians’ walkout. All the ‘artists’ had to do was just do the work and not get in the way of money.

But then ZA/UM made an award-winning darling game of the year. TV show adaptation deals. Lead developers like Kurvits and Hindpere standing at the Game Awards Show spotlight. Audience eating up all that and latching onto whatever crumb and morsel might come next.

A clean exit sale out of a modest studio became impossible. Now there were developers in the studio who knew they were worth A LOT and with shareholders’ power both in Zaum Studio OÜ and Zaum UK Ltd to hamper any sale to Tencent, Amazon or Microsoft. Now we reach the part of “toxic misogynist auteurs trying to steal the IP for themselves.” who had to be let go.

Kender's lawsuit around the turn of 2022-2023 and divestiture of his Zaum Studio OÜ shares as result muddles the water for this speculated theory even more as he still holds directorship in a number of shell companies with Kompus back in UK. There is also Dark Maths Studios that he founded this April in UK, so it remains to be seen what he'll do and if its with Kompus and Haavel or alone.

[stushixstushi]

Nobody asked for this, but I just had to get my thoughts out there on People Make Games' recent video about Disco Elysium.

I hope it's clear I'm coming at this in good faith, and that I was able to put into this video properly what I saw so many people express. TL;DW, you never gotta hand it to the capitalist.

[mortispoxi]

I was full on weeping after reading Helen Hindpere’s musing on Substack about all the terrible nonsense she’s been put through these past few years. I hope this woman finds peace someday because my god no human being should ever have to experience the level of violent harassment she’s been subjected to.

[thatothergamer]

A youtube channel named People Make Games did a two and a half hour documentary,covering the issue surrounding Disco Elysium. The journos went over to Estonia to get the story from both sides. Link to the video below|

[godspeedmajortom]

I love that Harry can find the purple leopard print leotard and say, "This is the kind of animal I want to be." I love that it takes +8 electrochemistry to do this, that Harry has to be so in touch with what brings pleasure to his physical form to even notice the fabric in the river, to not just dismiss it as another piece of trash amidst the milieu of Martinaise malaise. I love that putting on the bodysuit requires him to reject fear and embrace his queerness (and let it embrace him), and that once he does, he will never let it go. I love that Harry will strip naked in the middle of a sleet storm in front of Kim to don this salty, weathered thing because he has finally, absurdly, found something so perfect for him.

Half Light protests, Physical Instrument mocks, Composure warns, but E-Chem knows. "Don't you *want* to feel different?" Of course. Of course you do, Harry. Of course you want to become someone who you actually want to be.

It's so beautiful that Harry can actually discover a meaning for himself, some small solution for the depressive horror of his pre-bender life. Thank you, leopard-patterned bodysuit. And thank you, Helen Hindpere, for adding this to the game.

(Fayde Reference)

[drinking-tea-at-parties]

I saw some really bad posts about Helen Hindpere in the disco Elysium tag and decided to do some digging. The account is run by a guy who has been aggressively harrassing her online for months while posting sexual and disgusting art of her under accounts that use her full name. It should be obvious but none of the shit that account says is true. She has tried to get his account taken down on twitter for harrassment but it's still up. It also seems to be run by someone she knows personally so just block and report the account and don't do anything that could provoke him.

Here is a post by Helen where she talks about the situation:

[revacholianpizzaagenda]

Helen Hindpere braver than any US marine making her questline do a hard swerve to give us the in-universe term for bear. Ma'am.

[palms-upturned]

[image description: a “girls when” meme showing drawings of stick figures in moments of violent passion surrounding this quote from disco elysium:

STEBAN, THE STUDENT COMMUNIST — “‘In dark times, should the stars also go out?’”

End description]

girls when

[renmorris]

KimHarry nation owes so much to Helen Hindpere. She even gave us gender euphoria furry Harry. 🫡

[estherax]

Fuck ZA/UM.

Yes, this is about Collage Mode. This company doesn't know anything about Disco Elysium and has no way of creating a meaningful franchise out of this incredible world. So what do they resort to? Fucking fanservice.

How pathetic. I'm genuinely livid.

Robert Kurvitz, Aleksander Rostov, Helen Hindpere and Martin Luiga have created something truly special with Disco Elysium. They put five years of gruelling work into making this game, and spent twice as much time creating Elysium as a world. And now they have been robbed of their life's work and have to watch it publicly be dismantled for every last coin ZA/UM can earn.

This game means everything to me, so witnessing this is incredibly heartbreaking.

[turianhumanclient]

ZAUM vs Telomer part 2

New court hearing scheduled for September. Kurvits didn’t take the judge’s deal then.

[rebloggingistheenemy]

Also apparently you should pirate it because the creators were creating a toxic work environment and treating their female colleagues poorly

Hey so it's come to my attention that the Creators of Disco Elysium want you to share the game and not give the company who took over and fired them (illegally)?) any profits off of their ideas and work, and I originally joined tumblr 2 weeks ago when that post was going around about the Steam sale and how you should [Skull and Crossbones flag] it instead.

So.

in light of that.

Check the replies/notes of this post :)

I was informed that posts containing links in them aren't findable in the search so i'll just.... drop a link in a seperate reboot :)

first things first though, copy this key:

q4-EJ9G2DV7MYYI-Vs0KdQ

[mortispoxi]

Of course I’d only realize a week after I made a post about my takeaway from the People Make Games video that covers the ongoing fight between the disgraced devs vs Studio ZA/UM that I spelled the man who’s at the epicenter of it all name wrong 8+ times before I hit post

[karaokulta]

🚀✨ Prepárate para una experiencia sin precedentes en #Devcom2023, donde la creatividad y la innovación se encuentran en un espectáculo de conocimiento insuperable. 💡🎮 🎤 ¡La escena está puesta, y mi predicción no podría ser más elocuente! Se avecina una verdadera revolución creativa en el mundo del desarrollo de juegos, sembrada por los prestigiosos ponentes y las 200 sesiones que se avecinan. La conferencia arranca el 19 de agosto en el deslumbrante Confex Conference Center, un espacio que se convertirá en el epicentro de las últimas tendencias y visiones del gaming. 🌟🕹 🔮 Mi pronóstico: - Con Jason Latino mostrando el camino, ¿veremos una era dorada en la dirección cinematográfica de juegos? - No se sorprendan si Mihir Sheth nos quita el aliento con innovaciones que transformen la dirección de juegos en algo que nunca antes habíamos imaginado. - Y, en un giro realmente apasionante, ¿qué sabromas de Stéphane Roy llevará ante nosotros sobre el presente y futuro de WB Games Montreal? 🏰 Lo que está claro es que el enfoque colaborativo y la diversidad temática en los paneles presagian un giro hacia historias más profundas y personajes más ricos. ¿Nos encontramos en el amanecer de una era donde las complejidades románticas serán tan fundamentales como la jugabilidad? 💞🎲 - Una mesa redonda liderada por expertos como Adrienne Law y Helen Hindpere promete redefinir lo que entendemos por relaciones en el universo de los juegos. - Mientras que visionarios como Meghna Jayanth destilarán su magia narrativa para inspirarnos sobre cómo las relaciones pueden moldearse en nuevos mundos digitales. Prepárate para sumergirte en las conversaciones que definirán la próxima generación de juegos. ¡La cuenta regresiva ha comenzado! Es hora de entusiasmarse, conectar y participar: 👾 ¿Qué es lo que más esperas de #Devcom2023? 👁‍🗨 Cuéntanos cuál speaker te emociona más y por qué. 📣 Etiqueta a tus amigos devs y gamers que no se pueden perder este encuentro épico. ¡Nos vemos en la Conferencia! Si aún no has leído más sobre este evento increíble, [echa un vistazo aquí](https://www.gamesindustry.biz/devcom-developer-conference-announces-new-speakers). #Gaming #DesarrolloDeVideojuegos #Conferencias #InnovaciónGaming #NarrativaDigital

[renmorris]

Something kind of similar happened after Jamais Vu update, where a few prominent tumblr fans started blogging about how Harry was an irredeemable abusive monster ruining Kim's life because they were mad that the update existed and…didn’t realize that it was all written by Helen Hindpere.

I suspect something similar is happening here, maybe op felt riled up by the fandom, by the studio announcements etc. it just seems like whenever this happens fans go the bizarre route of taking it out on Harry The Fictional Character, really taking off their mask to show a lack of reading comprehension and disturbing ableism.

The fact that "Harry doesnt feel bad about his actions and being a cop" post got so popular is the proof how many people either

1) didn't play the game

2) just reblog something thats sounds vaguely smart and condescending to the fandom without actually reading the full post

Like this is really funny. People will claim how much their they love the game for its nuanced writing and how many fans are media illiterate and dont understand it....but than then they also ignore this exact nuance, just in the difference direction

Like I have issues with a fanbase too, believe me, but at the very least you can try not to contradict something that stated in the game *explicitly* and ignore of the core aspects of the main character