What's Up With Video Games? (March 2022)

 Hi everyone!

It's been a pretty overwhelming few days since our investigation into indie games leadership went live on Friday afternoon. To be completely honest with you, much of our weekend has been spent reading YouTube comments, tweets, emails, DMs, news articles and Reddit threads, as we've tried our best to keep up with the conversation that followed our video being published.

But now, with the dust having settled just a little, I think it's about time I catch up with some Patreon responsibilities that have steadily stacked up, starting with this month's newsletter.

By the way, I'm still not sure about the name we've gone with here. If you have a better suggestion, I'd love to hear it. 'What's Up With Video Games?' feels a bit off to me, I think.

Ukraine

Just under a month ago, Russian troops invaded Ukraine on multiple fronts and under false pretences, leading to one of the worst humanitarian crises in Europe since the Second World War. It's absolutely horrific. I don't even know what to say about it here, other than that. What can you say? Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and I hope this brutal, unnecessary conflict is brought to an end as quickly as possible.

We've collected a few stories here that show how the games industry has reacted to — or been affected by — what's happening in Ukraine right now, from local developers fleeing the country, to monetary aid.

[Read in 12 mins] What it's like for game developers in Ukraine, working and living under the shadow of war 

"I spoke with one former 4A Games developer [Creators of the Metro series], barely audible over the sound of the air raid sirens ringing throughout the streets of Kyiv, who told GamesRadar+ they were going to take shelter with their family in one of Ukraine's underground Metro stations – a twisted example of art reflecting reality."

[Read in 3 mins] Two Massive Charity Game Bundles Have Now Raised Over $12 Million For Ukraine 

This figure is more like $15 million now, as both itch.io and Humble Bundle launched charity fundraisers, offering hundreds of games to players in exchange for money that can help those in need. The Humble Bundle one is still active, if you'd like to take a look!

[Read in 3 mins] Ukraine calls on PlayStation, Xbox to stop supporting Russian markets 

Here's one of Ukraine's Deputy Prime Ministers publicly asking PlayStation, Xbox and "all game development companies" to pull their support from Russia while the invasion is ongoing, in order to motivate Russian citizens to take a stance against the war.

Both PlayStation and Xbox have suspended console and software sales in the country in the days following this statement.

[Read in 1 min] Fortnite has already raised $36 million for Ukraine relief 

Epic Games committed to donating two weeks' worth of Fortnite's earnings to support humanitarian relief in Ukraine. Just one day later, the company revealed it had already raised $36 million, thanks to this having been timed alongside the start of a new season. Woah.

[Read in 2 mins] Wargaming fires World of Tanks' creative director following pro-Russia statements 

"Wargaming, the studio behind World of Tanks, has fired creator director Sergey Burkatovskiy after he publicly supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where hundreds of its team are based in the country's capital, Kyiv."

Other bits and pieces

[Read in 50 mins] Despite its beautiful Ori games, Moon Studios is called an ‘oppressive’ place to work 

Unbelievably, on the very same day we published our report on Mountains, Fullbright and Funomena, Venturebeat shared its own investigation into another beloved indie studio with its own abusive work culture, including casual racism, sexism, and bullying. Specifically, it details the problems created by Moon Studios' founders Thomas Mahler and Gennadiy Korol.

We had no idea this was coming, as we also prepared our own story to go live on the same day, but there's certainly a lot of similar themes to be found.

[Read in 10 mins] Be Wary of Liar: The Weird History Behind Elden Ring’s ‘Illusory Walls’ 

If you've been following Elden Ring this month, you might have heard about one of the game's illusory walls requiring 50(!) hits in order to disappear and reveal its hidden path. It's likely unintended, although FromSoftware's reputation for making games unlike anybody else has got some people absolutely convinced it's intentional.

Anyway, given that illusory walls have now become such an expected staple of this developer's games, Waypoint's Patrick Klepek delves into their history and tries to get to the bottom of where our obsession with wall-based deception stems from. I just made his article sound really boring, but it's not!

[Watch in 130 minutes] Black Mesa: The 16 Year Project to Remake Half-Life | Noclip Documentary 

The Noclip team finds another reason to luxuriate in the design and development of Half-Life, this time via the fan-made remake Black Mesa, which was finally completed in 2020. I don't know what Danny and his crew need to do in order to get some official access to Valve, but between this and their other brilliant Half-Life doc, surely they've earned it?!

[Read in 8 mins] Where Was Kotaku Last Week? 

You might have seen their pro-union articles in relation to the wider games industry, but this month saw Kotaku and their sister sites at G/O Media go on strike themselves in order to fight for better contracts at work. Following a successful campaign, that's exactly what they got too. Absolutely love this for them.

[Read in 3 mins] Ubisoft Employees Push Back Hard on Blockchain Initiative 

Okay, let's end on a funny one. You might remember that last month we shared a few stories highlighting the growing backlash to ill-advised blockchain and NFT projects across the games industry.

Thanks to Bloomberg, we've got another little glimpse here into how Ubisoft employees have been reacting, internally, to the company's own blockchain plans.

There are a few great comments highlighted towards the end of the article, but here's one to give you a sense of the tone: “Are we competing with EA for the ‘Most hated Game Studio by the public’ title? Because this is how you do it.” Yikes.

What have we been playing?

Quinns - Spire (Tabletop)

I'm delighted to say that Chris, Anni and I are now six sessions deep in a tabletop roleplaying game that we're playing together. I'm GMing a campaign of Spire, by Rowan, Rook and Decard.

I might end up writing more about Spire on Shut Up & Sit Down, but the short version is that it's a roleplaying game where the players are part of an underground elf resistance (!) and I'm having a great time. Spire is a game of contradictions- the city where the game is set is vast and packed full of elves, but the stories you tell are small and human. The world is absurd and silly, but also... tragic. And the characters you play get ludicrously powerful very quickly, but the very act of playing them will see you launching them towards an inevitable and unexpected death.

So if you're wondering what Chris, Anni and myself are up to on a Tuesday night, here's a mental image for you- we're all pretending to be elves together.

Anni - Outer Wilds (PC, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch)

What a wild ride! For my first launch I didn’t travel too far from home and once I’d wrapped my head around the scale of the solar system, I managed to clumsily land on a new bluish/grey planet. This all seemed like pretty standard space travel so far. I found myself quietly bouncing around its barren surface hoping to find some clues and document my travels using my scout.

However, just as I was adjusting to jumping with much less gravity, the ground beneath me crumbled away, leaving me falling towards the planet’s core. My desolate surroundings were suddenly replaced as I tumbled past what looked like a glittering city that was suspended underneath the surface. I caught the briefest glimpse of something beautiful and complex, crystalline structures and unfamiliar technology. But quickly, that sense of awe turned to dread. I was falling into a black hole.

Thoughts rushed through my mind as fast as I fell: What happens in a black hole? What is a black hole? It's so pretty here, why can’t I stay here? I hope this place isn’t lost forever and I can find it again? I was moments away from finding out if I was about to die whilst experiencing stunning kaleidoscopic visuals, as the force from the black hole was distorting the world around me. A world I’d only known for seconds!

I didn’t die. But I was now somewhere else entirely. I had no ship and was drifting, untethered, as a blinding white light both engulfed me and repelled me further out into space.

It was as my oxygen slowly ran out and I had no idea what had happened, or what was going to happen, I realised… I quite like this game.

Chris - Total War: Warhammer III (PC)

I've played maybe a dozen hours of Total War: Warhammer III and you know what? I'm still not sure what I make of it. Oh my gosh, I'm glad I don't review big strategy games anymore.

In so many important ways, you can feel the lessons Creative Assembly has learnt here from six years of Warhammer and the many, many additions that have been stitched into those last two games since they first released. I'm sure this third and final game is going to end up being another incredible foundation for what's to come over the next couple of years.

But right now? I'm just not quite vibing with the campaign as it currently stands. Playing as Grand Cathay — Warhammer's newly fleshed out faction, based on a sort of fantastical version of Imperial China — I find myself a little exhausted by the whole experience.

In a campaign that centres around periodic Chaos invasions, Grand Cathay is also responsible for defending a gigantic, empire-protecting wall called the Great Bastion. Which means, in between those intermittent Chaos invasions I've just mentioned, I'm also meant to be repelling a whole other set of separate Chaos invasions too.

I never thought I'd say this, but there may be such a thing as too many world-ending Chaos invasions to repel in just a single Total War campaign.

But I don't know. Do I think that?! I haven't quite decided. Even having typed all of this, I know I'm going to be playing this game the moment I next get a chance. Maybe I'll have to return to Total War in next month's newsletter and see if I've figured out where I land. Is it too much? Or have I just had a very stressful month?