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why do people have no fucking Empathy anymore? (hexbear.net)
submitted 20 hours ago by to c/games@hexbear.net
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I'Im not going to pretend BioWare, 343 or Ninja Theory were perfect and If you didn't like Veilguard, Halo Infinite, DmC or Hellblade, that's fine. Nobody owes a company unconditional loyalty, and developers aren't immune to criticism, But why the fuck are people celebrating hundreds of people potentially losing their livelihoods over this? The people who worked at BioWare, 343 and Ninja Theory aren't a hivemind. They're writers, programmers, artists, animators, level designers, QA testers, and countless other workers. Not everyone had a say in the writing, marketing, or creative direction of these games., These are real people with rent to pay, families to support, bills to cover, and careers they've spent years building. They don't magically stop deserving empathy because they worked on a game you disliked. Yet the moment layoffs happen, parts of the gaming community immediately turn it into a victory lap.

"The activists got what they deserved."

"They should've listened to the fans."

"that's what they get for hiring people who hate Halo"

"Woke killed BioWare."

like, We're seriously reducing years of corporate decisions, expensive development cycles, failed business strategies, and management problems to a culture-war narrative about progressive developers supposedly destroying everything or a divisive reboot from 13 years ago?

What bothers me most is how empathy seems to disappear the moment someone decides another person is on the wrong side of a culture war. Suddenly, acknowledging someone's hardship is treated as defending everything they've ever done. Compassion becomes a weakness, and someone else's suffering becomes an opportunity to score points against people you dislike. So, genuinely, why are we treating hundreds of people losing their livelihoods as a win? What exactly are we celebrating here? The fact that people whose work we disliked are now gone? cuz I don't see how that's something to be proud of.

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[–] 13 points 13 hours ago* (6 children)

I see this discussion mostly going on how other communities/people's are engaging with the layoffs. It's weird to talk about it as something only the chuds do then you look at the other thread here and it's still largely people talking about how they didn't like the recent games. It's whatever but I struggle with the dissonance between calling out the chuds for their lack of empathy and looking at our own threads.

I had some less than kind words myself when it came to id software. Mostly because I was annoyed of them still being celebrated as that legendary studio for it's earliest work. But also some of the founders being raging reactionaries and the whole Microsoft/BDS situation.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (3 children)

    The thread here I think was mostly reacting to the post as an appeal to nostalgia, which I think it was. Bioware as an entity is what that post was talking about, and if you were to go through and chase posters down for their feelings on people who lost their jobs I think you'd get a different response.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

    I'm not that interested in what people are willing to agree to when pressed. And it's not what we are judging the empathy of the chuds on.

    I'm perhaps overanalyzing it, I'm not always that strict with people around me or myself. Just unpacking some things.

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  • [–] 4 points 9 hours ago (1 child)

    It gives me very Romney "corporations are people" vibes and just like there is being used to reframe a discussion but apparently without allowing people to respond.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 hours ago*

    It's difficult to actually have empathy with the people when you don't know any of them, maybe scrolled past their names in the credits or something. Alienation does that.

    I think you are right that people are more attached to BioWare than to the faith of any of the people working there.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 hours ago (1 child)

    I agree this whole discussion is odd and feels like a virtue signal.

    If Raytheon went out of business tomorrow, well it’d be great if they stopped doing the work they do, but since most people are slaves to capital, a lot of former employees would be worried about making rent, buying food, etc. That’s an extreme example to be sure, but I think one can be empathetic towards the factory worker working at the major factory of their small town while still being vehemently against the actions of their employers.

    Not to mention, any form of tribalism/sports teamification of corporate entities is so pointless. IMO we should be celebrating the workers who brought us great ideas and great art rather than whatever logo got slapped on it.

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