Ubiquitous in the games industry unfortunately, for at least the art side but often code as well.

Last place I was at called them build “masters” for this reason.

There’s a nuke underwater somewhere off Tybee Island, GA.

Thank you for the encouragement. I’ve been thinking about it.

At AAA studios you can pour your heart and craft into creating something beautiful along with hundreds of other wonderful colleagues, for years, only to have it ruined by management who literally doesn’t give af. Not only do they not play games, or even like games, they are proud of this fact in a sort of, “sell me this pen” type of way. These people always existed but the “financialization” of the industry means they are everywhere now. Even one of these people in the wrong place can be poison, and they are everywhere. This mutated organelle has made the entire studio system too neoplastic to perform its primary function.

It’s like training for years as a chef, slaving away in a hot kitchen for the big opening, then having the owner (who hasn’t cooked in decades) insist you serve your food in the toilet because “hey it’s porcelain, it’s the same as fine china”. Then when the restaurant bombs you get fired and he gets a huge bonus because he’s a genius cost cutter and you couldn’t sell his vision. Nobody cares that you made the best bisque of your life when its served in a toilet. How many times can that happen before you say, “fuck it”?

Well for me it was ten years. Not laid off, but just couldn’t take it anymore. I could probably get another job with my resume, but I just can’t bring myself to apply again. Through a little planning and extremely good luck I’m not really under any pressure. Makes me feel like a fool because a lot of people work worse jobs, but then I remember how sad and angry I was all the time. When I look at job postings those feelings return. The problem is I still like it and want to do it. I feel forced out because I care about making good stuff instead of just “line go up”. I would take a huge pay cut to work on a team that had the “magic” again.

Heh, you can buy it online, no need to even leave the house!

One of the reasons so many people are dying from it is American dealers buy it raw and then cut their products with it using the Magic Bullet Blender. But it turns out blenders are really bad at mixing dry powders, contrary to the old wives’ tales that drug dealers tell each other. So you get one pill with nothing and another pill with a fatal dose.

It’s been awhile since I read the book (maybe I should re-read) but from what I remember, while domestic production is possible (and probably still happens to a small degree), it mostly dried up because it’s soooo easy to import it to Mexico and truck it up. Or, in the case of the OP link, import the precursors, put it together in Mexico, and truck it up. Like, as a drug trafficker, you’d be a fool not to from a risk and financial perspective. It’s literally not illegal in China.

Whether this is an “opium war” is another question. We never would have had an opiate crisis in the first place if not for the Sackler’s aggressively pushing prescription opiates. Or if we had, you know, the social will and character to actually treat chronic pain and drug addiction.

You’re welcome, that book is actually the second in a series, the first being “Dreamland”. They were both great reads (and popular enough that I had no problem getting them at the library).

Wikipedia has an overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl#Synthesis

It’s not new. It was developed decades ago as a medical opiate by a renowned scientist. New, easier methods of synthesis have come around since, and abuse is exacerbated by the general opioid crisis in the USA, thanks essentially to the Sackler family.

From what I got reading The Least of Us the chemicals involved in the Gupta method are used in industry and essentially impossible to ban. There was some sort of breakthrough a few years ago that made this (relatively easy) method the standard way street fentanyl is made, although I don’t remember the details. Also until fairly recently it was straight-up legal to export fentanyl from China and from there import it into Mexico or have it drop shipped to basically anyone in the USA. Direct import into the USA was illegal but easy to do.

Media and Entertainment side sucks too. No hate on the actual devs, I know a few of the Maya devs personally and they are competent and want to help, but M+E is like 4% of Autodesk revenue so management doesn’t really give a fuck. At least there’s still Houdini and Blender is getting better as the time as well.

Repair forum version:

• Here are the exact bolts you need to loosen: <dead photobucket link>
• After that make sure you note this gasket: <another dead photobucket link>
• The replacement part is very hard to find but they carry it here: <404>
• You’ll find the torque spec here: <domain sold to online casino advertiser>

Bonus points if the only schematic you can find is a 256 resolution jpg on pinterest that leads to a wordpress site were a bot only posts random schematics to farm pinterest engagement.

This is true. Some things are completely outsourced to vendor companies with their own employees. You rarely interact with these people at all, or even know their names. All communication goes through a telephone game. Then the primary studio itself will have contract employees and also “permanent staff”.

Management likes to go on and on about how staff are “family”, but then treat them like shit and lay them off anyway. They also like to be subtly shitty to contract workers whenever possible, like free donuts in the break room! ~(for staff only)~

Really, management is just shitty to everyone. Having been in both positions I honestly prefer contract. At least then I’m not expected to participate in their “corporate culture”.

Wasn’t it the railroads at the end of the 19th century? Yeah… they would kick our asses.

Speaking as someone who’s worked inside a couple “AAA” studios, sympathy to a union has definitely increased in the past decade. It’s no coincidence that bonuses and profit sharing (a major part of compensation) have plummeted over that same time. As much as fans hate unambitious and venal design choices in recent games I assure them that devs hate them just as much or even more, since they ruin years of work. We have steadily decreasing feedback into these choices and are expected more and more to stick to our corner pushing pixels and writing code. Morale is probably the lowest I’ve ever experienced and mandatory RTO adds insult to injury.

The various QA Union success stories have lots of support on the dev side. However many people believe it’s impossible somehow, or that they personally would get laid off or have their job outsourced if there is even a hint of organizing. Especially the past 12 months, the bloodbath has workers terrified. Everyone is trying to keep their heads down as much as possible. I unfortunately don’t see this ending well unless funding loosens up and people can start small studios again. There was a wave of this during Covid but those studios are all dying now. It’s seriously depressing. I’m a refugee from the VFX world and I feel like I’m watching the sequel.