Talented Workers Leaving Top Level Companies for Foreign Markets Due to Pay Discrepancy

Looks like the video game and entertainment world is going through another big battle this time over money and the competitive job market for top level talent. 

Once again Blizzard is leading the pack with bad news as reports have come  in that it pays its employees 1/4 of the national average salaries for each position in its company while it pays the management millions of dollars with the CEO making $40 million which makes him among the top 5 highest paid CEOs in the world. 

Now most of you are thinking if you were in these employees shoes then why not just go to another company since your so talented. You are correct most the top level talent is leaving Blizzard and EA for companies like riot games bc the pay is better. That’s why we got crappy games like Mass Effect 3 and Anthem.

Then the really talented developers are going the indie game route and starting their own companies instead of letting some greedy management leech their production and own the rights to all their creations for a below fair paying wage. When you think about it they pay these developers $16 an hour or less for products that earn the company billions.

It’s a power play from leaders with control issues and superiority complexes. One developer said he demanded fair pay and was told he was welcome to take his talent somewhere else and blacklisted in the entertainment industry. That not right to use people then when you can’t exploit them you give them the boot and deny them opportunities else where with slander or threats.  

As a consumer I want great games again like Zelda, Final Fantasy, Madden in its prime. I hate to see top talent get treated like crap then have to accept poor quality products bc some CEO wants to a new private jet off the hard work of its underpaid workers.  All I can say is karma catches up and the consumers will stop buying bad games as a result of not paying talented developers fairly for their hard work and creativity. 

'Fable' Will Be Open-World RPG, Not MMO, Confirms Insider

There's been some confusion surrounding the new Fable since its announcement last week. The incredibly brief teaser at the Xbox Series X game event confirmed two things: That the game is called Fable - not Fable 4 - and that it's being developed by UK-based Forza studio Playground Games.

There may be online elements like co-op functionality or limited, optional shared spaces," the publication notes. "But nothing to the extent that would justify classifying the game as an MMO."

This should come as a relief to those of us who were a little hesitant about the idea of missing out on a single-player Fable adventure. This also tracks with some of the earliest job listings for Fable, which were first shared by Playground Games way back in 2018. 

Red Dead Redemption Clown Protest

For months the Red Dead Redemption online community have been dressing up as clowns in protest Rockstar not providing any new content or communication to the community for nearly a year despite consumers paying for the service.

It’s been over a year since Rockstar has meaningfully update the open world MMO which has people feeling exasperated by content drought. Rather than complain about the situation the Cowboys of Red Dead Redemption stayed a protest. Dressing up like clowns was a creative way to protest. You don’t see any other gaming community that are very angry about the lack of content or the lack of communication and issues with the over all experience like Fallout and Anthem.  It’s better than others who hack Rockstar employees social media accounts or send them horrific and disturbing messages.

What does the clown protest mean?
It means players are calling themselves clowns for continuing to support this live service.

Months Later the Protest Are Paying Off
Rockstar went to their news wire to announce their next update. They acknowledge protest by players and said updates are coming for both GTA and Red Dead Redemption. For Red Dead Redemption specifically a large update is coming July 28, 2020 featuring the frontier pursuit that will introduce players to secrets about naturalism as part of an all new role plus a new outlaw pass plus tons of more features and bug fixes.

To be honest this cycle of protest and content drought will Not be over.  I hope for a compromise with a mix of single player dlc to expand on the story of other players in the gang and occasionally updates to the online side of things.  This will never happen bc its all about the money. Online multiplayer is cheaper to produce and a lot more profitable. Many gaming companies have given up on single player dlc or games with that feature as the focus like gears or war, halo or call of duty that give a few hours of single player content but push for the online multiplayer as the focus of the game.

All well think consumers got to stop living the past of good single player games and continue to let companies to dig in our pockets whenever they feel like it to
Get the most money from us for the least amount of
Effort or return.

Ubisoft Joins the List of Tech Companies Fostering Discrimination Culture

Well the tea has been spilled about Ubisoft discrimination practices against women and minorities for years with a total of over 150+ claims and equal employment opportunity violation cases to HR not being addressed and ignored despite the company taking money from investors and the government that enforces EEO. Not only have Ubisoft come under investigation for EEO violation with the threat of losing funding but the company has also been exposed for sexism/racist culture that has put a limit on development of games featuring women and minorities as leads bc the upper management and marketing do not believe either sales games.

Public reports revealed Ubisoft knew about bad behavior in the company for years and took little action until recently when the investigations went public bc that’s how these big corporations operate.  Big corporations do not care about the oppression or discrimination cases until the public finds out and then it’s panic mode to save their funding.

A whistleblower revealed Ubisoft mistreated women at the company and Ubisoft creative executives believed women don’t sell games due to market research. These guys didn’t make female focus games bc of who they are what they think.

Reports said Serge Hascott is leading the way to push content that did with less linear narratives and cutscenes. This push was systematic discrimination that impacted the development of three Assassin Creed games. 

1. Assassin Creed Syndicate 

Jacob and Evie Frye were suppose to have equal time in the story, but executives made Jacob the focus of the story and its marketing.

Assassins Creed Origins

The original plan was to kill Bayek off early in the game then his wife Aya would take over the story. In the end, that plan didn’t happen. After marketing and upper management direction, Aya‘s role was significantly reduced. This was very disappointing and bc Aya was a cool character with a compelling  character and potential. Aya was sidestepped so Bayek story came shine. 

Assassins Creed Odyssey 

This game is what really caused the community and whistleblowers and ethics committees to go into action. Kassandra was suppose to be the only lead of this game but the upper management and marketing team used their influence again. The idea to have Kassandra as the lead was rejected and the option of sibling choice made its way into the final game. The reasoning behind this choice is a troupe that male leads make more sales.  It’s easier to believe this when it’s more games out there that  have male leads. Even if you buy into all that conjecture, it doesn’t take into account games like Tomb Raider, Horizon Zero Dawn or Metroid Prime that have female leads and earned a lot of money for their companies.  

This only showed Ubisoft distant itself from the progressive elements they claim to have they didn’t have much faith in their creative teams. The last assassin creed games could have broke the trend of no female leads games, but they were literally not allowed to by upper management marketing which is awful.  This Only shows Ubisoft is another fake progressive company that lies about its diversity and progressive elements. How did they get away with this?

During a recent conference call Ubisoft executives with their investors, the CEO of Ubisoft was asked about how he is addressing the over 150+ Open discrimination cases. The CEO dodged the questions which lead me to believe 2 reactions to his dodge. 

1. Ubisoft CEO is an incompetent Leader 

2. Ubisoft CEO does not pay attention or care about his business. 

There are 100s of HR claims that are ignored with testimony so horrible the public needed to know.  

7 Days to Die Announcement: Fun Pimps, Pimped Console Gamers

After a long legal battle and financial ruin of TellTale Games, the Fun Pimps have all the Console and PC rights again for 7 Days to Die.  As a console gamer I was eager to learn what the Fun Pimps were going to do with the game since it hasn’t been updated in a while. Well nothing good came from the podcast last night.

Fun Pimps said during the legal battle they stopped working on the PlayStation and Xbox console version of the game and went all it with the PC version. The Pimps really Pimped console gamers. They got our money and said screw the console version bc Alpha 19 or the Gold Version they’re working on is too advanced to run on the current console systems.

The Fun Pimps went on to say that they may do something with console 3 years from now, but not really focused on the 7 Days to Die project primarily. The Pimps said they have another game in development with the same unreal engine that is going to get more priorities moving forward.  The Pimps said they may double back to 7 days to die with the next gen consoles, PS5 and Xbox, then have it where you can play on the promised cross system capability where Xbox, PC and PlayStation Platforms.

So basically if you have the game now on Xbox One or PS4, the Current version Is the last version they’re doing for console until the next systems are out. What a big disappointment this news is to be honest. I paid a lot for a game that never got updates and was setup to fail soon as it got brought by a company that didn’t know what to do with it.

How Eccentric Workers are One Man’s “Trash” is Another Man’s Treasure

Like 5.9 million other people in the world, I tuned into “The Last Dance,” the long-anticipated Chicago Bulls/Michael Jordan documentary that aired on April 26, 2020, on ESPN.  As a basketball junkie, I can’t get enough of MJ footage, but if you really dive into the material, the 10-part series tells us so much about more than just basketball. Four episodes in and we have already learned a ton about running a business, especially how to hire and team building. As someone who has spent their entire career in sales, recruiting, or a combination of both, I could not help but draw parallels.

One man’s “trash” is another man’s treasure

In the basketball sense, I am referring to Dennis Rodman, who was spotlighted in the third episode as the eccentric but talented player who had trouble fitting in with his previous teams. Although he had issues off the court, he rejuvenated his career in Chicago, playing alongside Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. The tutelage of Phil Jackson certainly helped, as well, as they collectively let “Dennis be Dennis,” giving him the freedom that he needed mentally, all while trusting he would still produce at a high level.

What happened?…

Well, I don’t want to spoil anything here… but the Bulls won the title! For the third year in a row, nonetheless. They let Rodman go on a 48-hour vacation to Vegas, only to see him come back and outwork everyone else in practice, and which led to him helping the team win the last of their six championships all in Michael Jordan’s career.

What does this teach us about hiring/building sales teams?

I’m sure anyone who’s managed teams for long enough can think of someone they can relate this to: A talented but eccentric team member who might have a different way of doing things, but ultimately performs well and contributes greatly to the team as a whole. 

While many of you might be thinking, “It’s not worth the hassle,”that might be the case in some circumstances. For those of you who don’t know,  Rodman was almost black listed from the league due to some of his antics on the San Antonio Spurs right before his debut start with the Chicago Bulls. But where most General Managers in the NBA saw Rodman as “too much trouble,” Jerry Krause (we’ll get to him in a bit) saw him as an inexpensive asset. Krause trusted that the Bulls’ culture and winning-ways would keep Rodman on the right track.

While it was a risk for Krause to take on Rodman,  it was a calculated gamble that he ended up winning big on. We often find that when some of our clients are looking for top talent, they can be scared away by hints at eccentricities. If an interviewee comes off that they might be “difficult to manage,” or shows signs of not getting along with previous direct reports or peers, they often times get written off and rejected. Now most of the time, that might be the right decision. But sales leaders and hiring managers in general should always keep an eye out for the folks who show promise and might just need a change of scenery to maximize their talents. Maybe in their last job their boss was a jerk who only had their own best interest at heart. Perhaps when they joined their last company, they were told one thing when they were hired and presented with a whole different set of job responsibilities. Or maybe the culture was toxic and bred a lot of negativity and selfish behavior. There are a million different reasons why people don’t stay with their last employer.

Sometimes the question “Well, if they were such a strong performer, then why did he/she get let go or leave on their own?” can be very misleading.

If you believe in your leadership team and the overall foundation of your company’s cultural,  don’t look past these candidates. They might be the missing “winning” piece you’ve been looking for. Just ask Michael Jordan if he would take Dennis Rodman as a teammate again. And at the end of the day, don’t we all want to be “like Mike?”?

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Full List of Voice Actors

Here is full list of voice actors for all the characters you’ve heard in our trailers so far, and where you might have seen or heard them in the past:

• Cloud Strife: Cody Christian (All American, Teen Wolf)
• Barret Wallace: John Eric Bentley (Hart of Dixie, Lab Rats, Fear of the Walking Dead)
• Aerith Gainsborough: Briana White (Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Occupants)
• Tifa Lockhart: Britt Baron (GLOW, The Thing About Harry, My Valentine)
• Red XIII: Max Mittelman (Persona 5, One-Punch Man)
• Jessie: Erica Lindbeck (Spider-Man PS4, Mortal Kombat 11)
• Biggs: Gideon Emery (Dash & Lily, Teen Wolf, Dragon Age II)
• Wedge: Matt Jones (Bob Hearts Abishola, Breaking Bad)
• Sephiroth: Tyler Hoechlin
• Reno: Arnie Pantoja (Konosuba, Trolls, Sydney White)
• Rude: William Christopher Stephens (The Avengers, Spies in Disguise, Mortal Kombat 11)
• Tseng: Vic Chao (Seis Manos, Mortal Kombat X, Ben 10)
• President Shinra: James Horan (Metal Gear Solid V, Fallout: New Vegas, Love, Death & Robots)
• Heidegger: John DiMaggio (Futurama, Adventure Time)
• Scarlet: Erin Cottrell (Love’s Long Journey, The Identical)
• Palmer: William Salyers (Regular Show, Spider-Man PS4, Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders)
• Reeve: Jon Root (Call of Duty: Ghosts, Fallout 76)
• Professor Hojo: James Sie (Jackie Chan Adventures, Uncharted)
• Marlene Wallace: Brielle Milla (The Ellen Show, T.O.T.S.)
• Roche: Austin Lee Matthews (Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon, Trails of Cold Steel III)
• Don Corneo: Fred Tatasciore (Overwatch, Fortnite, Gears of War)

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Producer Hints a Parasite Eve Remake

Omega then asked Kitase if he would like to see more Parasite Eve in the future. "The characters are very deep and rich, especially Aya Brea," Kitase said. "I don't know of any plans right now, but it would be a waste to not use those characters."

Clearly angling for a remake or another original game in the Parasite Eve series, Omega responded saying that, "horror games are very popular right now, and Parasite Eve had some RPG elements to it. It was very original and unique, so I think now is a good time… Parasite Eve has a very unique game style. There are no games like it right now."

Parasite Eve started out life as a novel written by Hideaki Sena. Square made a video game released in 1998 that acted as a sequel to the novel, while at the same time, two Parasite Eve mangas and a film adaptation were released.

The game follow a New York police officer called Aya Brea who has to fight a powerful entity called Eve and the horrific creatures she controls as she tries to take over Earth. The first game was particularly unusual, especially for a survival horror game, as it has some RPG elements.

Why Did Aunt Viv Suddenly Change In The 'Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air'?

I remember this change for the actress that played Aunt Viv on the Fresh Prince of Bel Air as a child, but I never knew why it happened. Decades later the record was finally straightened why the change happened.

According to Carlton, the original Aunt Viv was crazy.  This was due to a three season long feud between Will and Aunt Viv. In real life Janet Hubert-Whitten, the original Aunt Viv, became pregnant which was also written into the storyline for the show. During that time Janet had issues with the star of the Will Smith.

 Will Smith claimed that long before Janet's pregnancy they struggled to get along, and it was her attitude that lead her out of the door.

"I can say straight up that Janet Hubert wanted the show to be 'The Aunt Viv of Bel Air Show' because I know she is going to dog me in the press," Will Smith stated this in 1993 for an Atlanta Radio Station,

Will Smith said “she has basically gone from a quarter of a million dollars a year to nothing. She's mad now but she's been mad all along. She said once, 'I've been in the business for 10 years and this snotty-nosed punk comes along and gets a show.' No matter what, to her I'm just the Antichrist."

For years this was the excuse used to end Janet’s career. She was reduced to bit roles and short term parts.  Many years later Will Smith came out to right a wrong he did as a 23 year old kid.  Will Smith said Janet was right and he was wrong. Will had maturity issues and Janet was a professional that took her job too seriously. Janet’s stubbornness clashed with Will Smith’s ego.  Ultimately bc Will Smith was a huge Movie and Television stardom in 1994, the show decided to dismantle the relationship with Janet Hubbard and replaced her with Daphne Maxwell Reid, who played Will's auntie in the fourth, fifth and sixth seasons of the show.

So to make a long story short, Will Smith got Janet fired and ended her acting career as well.  This was a Hollywood secret that was forgotten but few knew.

RimWorld is getting an add-on for its Royalty DLC

Along with hotfixes, the next thing on the agenda is a content add-on for Royalty. The goal is to make it play nicely with mods and not break saves, but as for everything else, it's still up in the air. Nothing is decided, but the add-on could include new combat psycasts, tweaks to mech clusters and extra quests. 

The mech clusters are one of Royalty's big new additions. They're tricky mech bases made up of connected buildings with special elements like alarms, turrets, shields, factories that spawn more mechs. They're affected by extreme world conditions, too, filling the air with poison or blotting out the sun. They require players to go on the offensive, but the tweak being considered would make leaving them dormant for a long time worthwhile.

"The dramatic tension of having a mech cluster present on the map, but not yet fighting it, seems valuable," writes designer Tynan Sylvester. "So, if we can find more ways to have players intentionally keep clusters around it could add a lot of interest to play stories." 

Further away, a 1.2 update is also on the cards—though Ludeon Studios' plans for that will probably be a mystery for a good while yet. In the meantime, players will be able to check out updates before they're live by hitting up the unstable development branch on Steam.

How to Change Acceptance of Discrimination in the Workplace

The show Next Fashion on Netflix is the first show I’ve seen address the hard conversation of discrimination.  The judges scored two contestants low for no one reason and one judge stood up and said this isn’t fair and made him uncomfortable. The two contestants with low scores technical skills were better than the other contestants, worked with the Big Three clients in the industry, and had successful projects for top revenue generating brands. 

The judges said they were not happy with being the ones that keep discrimination alive. The judges said they know this important to the contestants bc they have been in their shoes and don’t want their career journey to end bc of discrimination. The judges also knew if they got attached to discrimination practices with their professional reputation on the line it would hurt their brands. 

One judge said give me a reason why you are trying to eliminate these two contestants and give negative strikes on their reputation when they are the best in this competition based on the qualifications that were set for the competition. 

The other judges had to admit they discriminated on the two contestants based on how they look without judging based on their qualifications and what they can do for business or have done. They redid the competition and evaluation until a wrong had been made right #blackhistorymonth