Midrange Weekly Dec 14
You’re Weekly Round Up Of What’s Got The Midrange Team’s Attention
We Are All Pete The Cat
Midrange Staff @midrangeyvr
Welcome to Midrange Weekly, where our team takes turns discussing events of the last week and affixing hopefully some kind of coherent opinion to them. No guarantees on that last part. As Trump has lost the election for approximately the 134th time in the last 3 weeks, it seems a bit redundant (but still hilarious) to probe his electoral woes. So none of that this week. Luckily the world has been generous enough to provide us with plenty more things to be outranged by. Or failing that, proverbial shinny objects in which to distract us. Let’s get on with it.
Let’s Talk About Crunch Culture In Video Games
After 8 years of production and a year of multiple delays, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally out in the wild. As the last major release of the year, indeed the last major release of this console generation, an enormous amount of hype has coalesced around the game for better or worse. Even before the official release Cyberpunk has already seen a number of controversies ranging from gratuitous over sexualization and problematic- or at least incoherent- representations of the LBGTQ+ community. Among these controversies, the game has garnered a fair bit of notoriety for the same reason a number of the largest scale games of this generation have: developer crunch. It’s a big problem, and it appears to be getting worse.
Crunch, as an industry parlance, is specific to the world of video games but could be a term easily supplanted into many fields. However the uniquely unpredictable and problematic nature of video game release schedules ensures that it is especially pernicious here. Crunch is the term used for extended periods of severe over time by a development team in order to hit a release date. Crunch can include 16 plus hour days and 6 day work weeks. In enough documented cases to supersede being merely anecdotal it’s even worse than that. Depending on if those working on a project are contracted workers, hourly employees or on salary determines to what questionable extent they are fairly compensated, although the obvious conclusion is it doesn’t matter; they aren’t. In some development studios crunch is mandatory as a release date for a major game nears. In other teams it isn’t forced but its utter necessity is strongly implied by project managers and company owners. In other cases crunch is codified and patronized by tiered rewards structures.
None of this is okay. It is endemic of the sprawling scope, ambition, and expectations of each subsequent generation of consoles and analogous PC rigs to create games that are more and more massive. With each enormous open world game, experience with millions of permutations in customization options, or narratives to rival Hollywood, all of them trying to one up the last, it’s becoming a prodigiously taxing process to make these things. The conditions laid upon the teams responsible for delivering are thusly becoming more and more unsustainable.
Kotaku has been investigating and shining a light on the problematic culture of crunch in the video game industry for several years. Few other publications approach the world, culture, and industry of video games with the nuance and candour that the team at Kotaku possesses. While their approach to video game journalism can be at times insufferably pretentious and oddly hostile to games they don’t like, their work in exposing crunch for the pervasive issue it is has been singular and invaluable in their medium. It’s worth examining some of their efforts in this matter.
One of the largest and downright overwhelming releases of the last generation, Red Dead Redemption was brutal for the extreme levels of crunch as reported in one of their exposés. Working 60 plus hour weeks at developer Rockstar, sometimes without proper compensation forces us to wonder if these awesome and transfixing video game experiences are worth it. The Last Of Us Part 2, while only released this year but already considered one of the crowning achievements of this generation, is just as problematic in this regard. When Developer Naughty Dog originally delayed the game for months, some assumed it was to go easier on the team and prevent forcing them into a situation of intense crunch. Instead, it was reported that this just lead to even more sustained and egregious crunch stretches. Months of debilitating over time, staring in front of a computer screen will no doubt have lasting physical and mental impacts on anyone forced into that situation. With Cyberpunk 2077 at long last out, one may hope that whatever brutal stretches the team at CD Projekt Red went through would be behind them, but even that’s not the case. As the game is reportedly looking rough as hell on Xbox One and PS4 vs Xbox Series X, PS5 and PC, the team is likely still in crunch mode working on mitigating patches. Situations like this show how pervasive in all directions crunch culture is.
The Last Of Us Part 2, in addition to many other awards, recently took the prize for best game direction at the Video Game Awards (think the Oscars but for games). Kotaku has an interesting editorial arguing that games that subject their teams to crunch don’t deserve an award for best direction. It’s a compelling point but there may be more to it than Kotaku would care to observe. We traditionally view the best director award- be it in film or games which in this context can be seen as analogous- as the culmination and realization of the vision of the person at the helm of the project. Kotaku is arguing that we look at the honour, and the concept of the role more as project manager responsible for bringing the task to completion with the requisite efficiency, competency, and appropriate conduct of care as mandatory in any other kind of business. But that’s not the optics through which we observe the idea. Directors like Welles and Kubrick were notorious for being brutal to work for, but it’s their finished products that are celebrated, not their process. Maybe that truly is problematic, but that requires acknowledging a different lens in which to make that assessment.
Another way to look at this is from the perspective of a restaurant. Indeed this is useful to me having spent many years working nearly every position in the FOH. When restaurant awards are dolled out, when judges dine at an establishment, what do they look for? Traditionally it’s atmosphere, service, and food & drink. It’s not likely the holistic health of the work place culture nor the mental and economic stability of the employees will be factored into consideration by these food critics. Again, there is a strong point to be made that maybe they should be. The issue with Kotaku’s article is they are pretending The Last Of US Part 2 is underserving of the accolade under the current paradigm, whereas what they are really doing is arguing for a full on paradigm shift. This is a really good point they are making, but in cutting corners to get there it comes off as intellectually dishonest.
Counterpoints aside, the central thesis of their reporting over the last several years is unavoidable. The culture needs to change. Unionization of workers in development teams is slowly spreading through the industry. Official mission statements denouncing crunch culture in all forms are getting more common. Ultimately it is up to the consumer to curb this behaviour. As long as we demand these increasingly and outrageously grand experiences, the culture will supply it. The answer needs to be a market shift towards smaller, simpler games. Indeed this argument holds a growing currency among industry veterans. If the idea of being indoors all day playing the same game seems a little obnoxious, imagine how it feels to be making it for that long, nearly every day for a year. -Tristan
Capitalism And Long-term Care Homes: Shockingly, They Don’t Mix
Photo via CBC
I have a lot to say on this subject, so bear with me.
First, don’t act shocked that long-term care homes are awful and run poorly. In what world has any child ever thought it was a great idea to ship mom and dad to a long-term care facility thinking they were going to receive the best care imaginable? Long-term care facilities have never been about long-term care, they’re about accountability and a lack of responsibility.
Let’s face it, we don’t take care of ourselves. The vast majority of us are in terrible shape. We drink too much. We’re addicted to opioids and we neglect our mental health. In doing so, by the time we’re advanced in age, it’s no wonder we start to fall apart. And instead of the old adage that our kids will take us in once we begin our precipitous decline, they ship us out to one of these long-term care facilities to die. Out of sight, out of mind.
Has anyone ever stopped themselves and wondered that part of the human ideal is to be in a world where we’re loved and cared for? Please explain to me how living with other old people, far away from your loved one’s is in some way good for anyone? Here I’ll answer that for you.
It isn’t. It never has or will be.
You’re telling me that public corporations, two of which were indicted in the news this week for receiving $157 million in COVID-19 aid give two shits about how their staff treat older Canadians? Many of whom, as this video clearly depicts, cannot defend themselves. We’re really surprised by this?
When have corporations ever done the public good right by them? Have none of us ever taken Econ 101 or looked into Mark Zuckerberg’s eyes? Corporations care about one thing, they’re bottom line and shareholder value.
That’s it.
One of the long-term care companies exposed in CBC’s Big Spend this week is called Extendicare. They’re based out of Markham, Ontario. They operate over 100 care facilities with an employee base of 23,000.
During a pandemic, the company paid out $30.5 million in dividends to its shareholders. They paid out money!
You pay out money when times are good. Not when you’ve had 151 employees and residents die from the coronavirus while also taking $104.9 million from the Canadian government. The optics of this act are shameful, yet, the company still proceeded. Again, even during a pandemic, shareholders still are number one.
“Long-term care should be diverse, focusing on the importance of a home and community with multi-generational possibilities, with built environments designed for older people, and access to flexible and high-quality care, reflecting the many and unique ways that people age. The care workforce must be valued and receive better training, better pay, and a structured career path that reflects their important and highly skilled roles. Traditional care homes should be a last resort. The dehumanising way that COVID-19 has been managed in people in care homes makes a mockery of the purpose of medicine to extend life and allow people to live life in the fullest sense. The long-term care system in many countries is broken and must be reimagined.” — The Lancet
- Jamie
Hayden Christensen is Reprising His Role As Darth Vader… This Is Actually Good
via Marvel Comics
Last week Disney had a public investors conference where they announced approximately one million new Star Wars and Marvel shows. Seriously, everything from She Hulk To Fantastic 4 to Asohka Tano was covered. Depending on your loyalty or interest in these brands will determine how much excitement can be derived from such announcements. To me the most interesting thing they announced was an update to the forthcoming Obi Wan Kenonbi series. Namely that Hayden Christensen will return as Anikan Skywalker/Darth Vader.
To be A Star Wars fan is difficult in the post prequel era. To be a loyalist is a near impossible exercise in rhetorical and ideological gymnastics. The original trilogy is still ubiquitously praised as something of a holy trinity. I maintain that Darth Vader is the best character in cinematic history with the most satisfying character arc ever committed to film. The prequels on the other hand have spent a generation being historically maligned due to George Lucas’ iron grip and draconian approaches to film making. That and he was never a very good director. Now that the dust as settled on the sequels, fans find themselves arguing along fractious fault lines scattered across visionary aesthetics, cowardly narrative contrivances, racism and misogyny behind the scenes, and the pernicious role of an overly zealous and entitled fandom. Throw in a new generation of fans that actually like the meandering and gratuitous mundanities of the Clone Wars show so much that merely through association they have taken it upon themselves to rehab the wretched prequels, and things get messy.
Hayden Christensen is of course the subject of much derision and opprobrium for his depiction of Anikan Skywalker in the prequels. What should have been the tortured and complex precursor to the most intimidating villain in film history was instead a petulant brat who really didn’t like sand. Closing the book on his evolvement in the franchise was wildly considered a merciful respite once it was over. So it’s with some surprise to myself that I’m actually excited to have him back. Perhaps it’s some kind of pop cultural Stockholm Syndrome setting in but I think there’s more to it than that.
Firstly, Christensen’s tepid and insolent rendition as the senior Skywalker is not wholly his fault- not by a long shot. Nearly every actor in the prequel trilogy, include thespians of historic talent like Ewan McGregor and Natalie Portman were reduced to stiff and awkward caricatures due to the baser instincts of Lucas’s juvenile and obtuse direction. Whatever subtlety and nuance these actors attempted to distill into their characters were hammered out by Lucas’ insesant and singular focus on everything being faster and more intense. That Christensen as an actor was much less of a known quanity versus the other more established actors resulted in his similarly stilted performances being attributed to his own incompetence. But Christensen is actually a pretty good actor. In the post prequel era he has cultivated a modest but respected catalogue of roles in films such as Shattered Glass and New York, I Love You.
The circumtances and context of his return also inspire intrigue and optimism. First announced over a year ago, the Obi Wan series (with McGregor also reprising his role as the old Jedi) takes place 10 years after Revenge of The Sith, as in the height of the Empire’s and Darth Vader’s power. Vader is essentially a galactic terror at this point in the chronology and it will be exciting to see his depiction in that regard separate from the family drama of the Skywalker saga. It also implies that perhaps Obi Wan will be up to more than merely living a hermetic life in the Tatooine desert as the murky nebulae of that part of the canon mostly implies. In involving Vader in the mix one would hope this would steer the direction of the show away from the excessive banality of the Clone Wars era and point it in more exciting directions akin to the roguish nature of the original trilogy.
Finally, and this is mere hopeful correlating on my part, but for all the ups and downs of Star Wars in the Disney era, perhaps the only aspect of the franchise to remain completely unscathed is Darth Vader. Every depiction of him in the new canon remains deeply compelling and mollifying in the enormity of his ability to inspire fear and terror. One of the few scenes in the new era of films that all of us along the bifurcated schisms of the fandom can agree was amazing was when Darth Vader essentially turns the last moments of Rogue One into a horror film. His brief cameo in the PS4/Xbox One game Jedi Fallen Order is a potent illustration of his visage as terror incarnate and the sheer destructive force he can summon. The official Darth Vader comics made by Marvel provide deep and fascinating insights into various points in Vader’s life as the chief enforcer of The Empire, including the earliest days of getting use to his new body, and going on a galactic tear to hunt down the rebel pilot who destroyed his Death Star. The scene in The Empire Strikes Back in which Darth Vader reveals the nature of his relationship to Luke Skywalker is perhaps the most famous scene in cinema. The pages in the comics where it’s Vader himself who learns he has a long lost son for the first time are similarly impressive. As with anything in the Disney era, we will have to wait and see how it goes, but if anything can recreate the magic of the and awe of the original trilogy, it’s Darth Vader. -Tristan
FLUX FIVE
This week:
Priscilla Ermel “Meditacao” 2020 Origins De Luz
Daniel Knox “White Oaks Mall” 2015 Daniel Knox
Cymande “One More” 1972 Cymande
Loscil “Steam” 2006 Plum
kraftwerk “morgenspaziergang” 1974 Autobahn
Enjoy! - Mick
Things From The Internet We Liked
Applying For Membership To The Galactic Federation Of Planets
You’ve no doubt heard by now of the supposed existence of a galactic federation of planets the earth has supposedly been in contact with. The internet predictably has had a lot fun with this one. The best of the bunch is comedian Vinny Thomas illustrating what we can only imagine is exactly how it would go should earth ever apply to join the club. Someone put Kushner in a jar already!
The Galactic Federation interviews Earth for membership pic.twitter.com/okgC7L0IuH
— Vinny Thomas (With Eggnog!) (@vinn_ayy) December 8, 2020
An Explainer On Why Poland Is Having Huge Protests
Vox has delivered another terrific explainer (we shared one last week about the Armenian and Azerbaijan war) this week detailing the civil unrest in Poland. As we’ve come to learn with the populist movements these past few years in the US, Brazil and Turkey, democratic values are no longer a given. Sadly, a women’s right to choose is essentially being wiped up in one of the more conservative countries in the EU. The ripple effects of this could be devastating for all Polish women. Let’s hope their protests don’t go on deaf ears.
Pitchfork’s Year End Lists
Via Pitchfork
Mickey and Tristan love to debate the efficacy or demerits of Ptichfork’s reviews (more often than not one of them get’s really mad), but there is no denying the breadth of their curation even if you don’t like how they score things. Like everyone else (including us!) they have their year end round up lists including their top 100 songs and top 50 albums of the year. While their number 1 song pick gave Tristan a mild brain aneurysm, they have undoubtedly the most comprehensive and thorough taxonomy of the year in music of any publication. For that alone it’s worth checking out and getting a peak at their as usual excellent writing.
An Excellent Explainer From Bill Simmons On James Harden And Trading NBA Superstars
Sadly Bill Simmons no longer writes for ESPN; but he does have one of the best podcasts around. He recently sold his company The Ringer to Spotify for 200 million dollars. Whoa!
Anyways…this 30 minute feature on the James Harden saga (he wants to be traded to Brooklyn) is fantastic. He goes through all the superstar trades of the past, starting with Wilt Chamberlain in the 1960s. Wilt was a ninny so who cares. As he progresses through the decades it’s startling to see just how awful some of the trades were. The Vince Carter debacle was brutal for Toronto. If you love hoops, check this.