Investigating Three Indie Superstars Accused of Emotional Abuse

March 18, 2022 3:51 PM

People Make Games investigates reports of workplace toxicity [YouTube] at Mountains, Fullbright, and Funomena. [TW: workplace toxicity/abuse]

You may remember People Make Games from the last time they showed up on the blue for their investigative reporting on Roblox and child labour practices.

posted by forbiddencabinet (15 comments total)

This comes back to something I said back when discussing the ongoing dumpster fire that is ABK - these problems are fundamentally cultural, and as such aren't just limited to a very dysfunctional corporation - they're part of the air we breathe as gamers. And as such we can't just try to pin it on those corporations, because the indies are immersed in all this as well - at the very end of that thread, Fullbright's toxicity had come to light.

The culture is sick, is poisonous, is harmful. We need to change it.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:05 PM on March 18, 2022 [8 favorites]

Is there an article or something somewhere detailing this investigation for people who don't have time to watch a 40 minute video?
posted by fight or flight at 4:21 PM on March 18, 2022 [8 favorites]

As far as I know, PMG does not publish a transcript of their video reports.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 4:39 PM on March 18, 2022

At least on mobile, YouTube provides a transcript.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:40 PM on March 18, 2022 [4 favorites]

I had no idea that feature existed, NoxAeternum. Fight, I checked the regular browser version of YouTube and the transcript works there as well. You can pause the video and then load the transcript on the right. To do so you have to click the three dots and then click show transcript. It took a few seconds to load to the right of the video.
posted by forbiddencabinet at 4:53 PM on March 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

It looks like someone on Twitter has put together a transcript of the video.

(As a side note, it's disappointing when creators rely solely on autogenerated subtitles and transcripts for their videos. It's not great for accessibility, since YouTube's autogeneration algorithm is often not fit for purpose.)

Anyway, to get back to the subject of the post, I agree with NoxAeternum that this isn't all that surprising. Startups and gamer cuture both lend themselves to this sort of toxicity, so when you combine the two it can be a real shitshow. I know there have been rumours about Fullbright being a nasty workplace for a while around the co-founder stepping down last year. It's a real shame, but whenever these issues come to light everyone I know who works in the industry just nods and sighs.

Will this inspire change? For those companies, probably, if only so they can avoid more bad press. But in general, it feels like something bigger and more fundamental needs to change to stop these companies imploding.
posted by fight or flight at 4:56 PM on March 18, 2022 [5 favorites]

Despite its beautiful Ori games, Moon Studios is called an ‘oppressive’ place to work from Venture Beat today (all text)
posted by one for the books at 5:37 PM on March 18, 2022

Startups and gamer cuture both lend themselves to this sort of toxicity

there's a reason why these cultures are toxic and it has everything to do with who owns the capital, who this capital is lent to, and how so very often it's toxic, power-hungry narcissistic men whose company culture are just extensions of their ego

I seriously doubt pitch meetings seriously incorporate a 'how are you going to intentionally be wary of your power within your company' or 'how to not let investors influence how you treat your employees' talk - if you value $$ over humanity, this is what you end up with
posted by paimapi at 8:50 PM on March 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

there's a reason why these cultures are toxic and it has everything to do with who owns the capital, who this capital is lent to, and how so very often it's toxic, power-hungry narcissistic men whose company culture are just extensions of their ego

Except that we see this same exact behavior over and over throughout open source as well - the argument of we need "strong personalities" used to defend the head of Mountains is very similar to an argument that was used to defend the misogynistic zealotry of Richard Stallman, for one example. So no, I don't buy that it's driven by capital - I think it's more that we live in a culture where abuse by leaders is somehow normalized as an aspect of leadership. As for why this is, I think there are a number of reasons for it, which is why this is such a flustercluck, because it's a shifting pattern.
posted by NoxAeternum at 9:14 PM on March 18, 2022 [15 favorites]

I'd previously thought well of Robin Hunicke; it's disappointing that she would treat people in such manipulative ways.

I think when one person is considered indispensable, that person becomes unaccountable. The responsible design of organizations needs to take that into account.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:04 PM on March 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

The other conclusion we should take from this sad story is that making wholesome games does not make you a good person or a good manager.

We want to believe that a game demonstrating kindness and diversity means its creator must also be kind, but the truth is that it’s easier to make a kind game than run a kind company.
posted by adrianhon at 1:34 AM on March 19, 2022 [4 favorites]

Hunicke's colleagues in academia have also chimed in since the video came out [1] [2]
posted by juv3nal at 1:41 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

Worst part is, there isn't even a mechanism for blacklisting people from holding positions of authority and power. Nothing will change, they'll just move on to the next place.
posted by Dysk at 5:28 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]

In my parallel work world (also design) reading these reminds me of early advice I got- that ownership structures determine office culture. Sole proprietorships are extensions of the owner’s personality. Partnerships are driven by the relationship between partners. And corporate structures where capital enforces their return through top-down control tend to be rigid, hierarchical, and monolithic. Which game companies are employee owned? Are they faring better? Not that lead-by-concensus doesn’t have its own pitfalls…
posted by q*ben at 8:08 AM on March 19, 2022 [8 favorites]

Hunicke's colleagues in academia have also chimed in since the video came out

One of her former students commented this on youtube:

Can also verify as she was a faculty in my capstone. Told us we didn't deserve to be game devs because we didn't want to add a feature that she wanted in our capstone game. Then proceeded to sob and attempt to manipulate other faculty members that we deserved to fail.

Have some other situations that involved people losing internships because she felt like they weren't good enough, but overall it feels weird to see a video making a topic about it for sure.

The way one person is the face of the project and talks to the people with money and the rest of the team is a bunch of early career grad students or game industry workers seems to be a real problem regardless of whether it enables a toxic academic or a toxic superstar indie games developer.

Steve Gaynor being an abusive boss to his female employees really sucks. I listened to his podcast for years and I guess you can't know someone from their podcast.
posted by zymil at 6:15 PM on March 19, 2022