• avater@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    324
    arrow-down
    20
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    okay the pricing changes were stupid as fuck and should be discussed and criticised, but death threats are on a completely other level and not acceptable. So calm the fuck down whoever is posting them and I really hope those dipshits will get caught and be dealt with in a proper way…

    • stevestevesteve@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      145
      arrow-down
      17
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m not one of the maniacs making threats of any kind, but honestly it really seems like death threats are the only thing that gets any attention anymore, so I can understand why it’s done…

      Is “eat the rich” not a death threat in its own right?

      • dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        124
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        It is, and here’s the thing: All of society, laws, and legal recourses ultimately just boil down to “might makes right, but with extra steps.” We all love to act like this isn’t the case in a civilized society, but it is. That might usually rests with the police, the military, some governmental organization, or some megacorporation. Violence both literal and metaphorical is inflicted on the common person continually by those at the top. Who are the police after all? Just guys with guns. Who are judges and politicians? Just guys with access to the police. Who are megacorporations? Just guys with access to judges and politicians, and so on down the line. So when someone says they have the law on their side, and you don’t, what they’re really implying is that they can call the guys with guns, who if you don’t do what they say (no matter how ridiculous) can literally kill you. And we treat this as normal and proper and reasonable, because we’re stupid.

        These motherfuckers want to act like their only their violence or threat of violence is justified, and that’s it’s a one way street.

        Well, it ain’t. Nobody’s invulnerable.

        Maybe it’s “just” video games. (Or “just” a cell phone app, or “just” a predatory subscription, or “just” an apartment with exorbitant rent, or whatever.) But big corporations are fucking with people’s livelihoods, here. There’s a reason we colloquially call such a thing “a living.” These are assholes taking food off of someone’s table, just for greed, just because they can, because they think they’ve above reproach. Because the whole teetering facade is lopsided. It doesn’t matter who the fuck they are at that point.

        • Korkki@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          49
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, this is basically why I’m not buying these arguments against a struggle of any kind, just because methods of it are illegal.

          Illegality =/= your cause or methods are wrong

        • agitatedpotato@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          20
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Call me whatever you want but Im happy the people who make these bad decisions from their insulated lots in life have to face at least some kind of consequences now, because the law is explicitly set up so that they typically never have to. Sucks that it comes to this but its behavior analysis 101, if you dont introduce consequences for undesirable behaviors, you’d be an idiot to expect change.

          I don’t love that it’s probably caught up a lot of people who have nothing or little to do with it though, but the guys at the top need consequences or nothing will change, and beggars cant be choosers.

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        18
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, it’s not like voicing disagreement and concerns amicably is listened to. It’s not like these executives negotiate with the users before making decisions that can ruin their livelihoods. As the avenues for civilized protest close, as people are left powerless towards the decisions of the wealthy, what else can they be expected to do?

        It might seem much when it comes to games, but it’s also a matter of worker’s rights. Sometimes it seems like people today are a bit too passive and overly concerned with civility as their rights are undermined. Comes to mind the other news about the Australian CEO saying that he thinks more people should be unemployed and feel pain to be reminded who they work for. What is the appropriate response to that?

      • Steeve@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        1 year ago

        Well here I thought it was a metaphor, but if you’re down for literally eating the rich I guess us steves gotta stick together

      • zaph@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        Is “eat the rich” not a death threat in its own right?

        Maybe it is but I always took it as “let’s take their money and redistribute the wealth.”

        • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Frankly that doesn’t sound honest. Especially when picture of guillotines are sent by the same crowd. Even more considering that wealthy people are not going to volunteer their wealth through reasonable debate.

            • theneverfox@pawb.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Apparently this might have been created recently, even though the phrase goes back at least a few hundred years. Here’s a transcription of the one I was talking about though:

              “We are starving. There is no more bread, and we have nothing to eat.”

              The rich man said,

              “Not my problem you don’t work for your bread,”

              as if he did not snatch away the grain by his own greedy hands and create filling bread for his own overflowing mouth.

              The poor cried,

              “We are dying. There is no more medicine, and we’re all ill.”

              The rich man said,

              “Not my problem you don’t take care of yourselves,”

              as if he did not buy all the medicine and raise prices so high

              the gods themselves would not

              be able to reach.

              The poor people

              stopped crying,

              and the rich man was satisfied…

              Until they came knocking at his door one night;

              their faces were sunken,

              their flesh decaying,

              their eyes sightless.

              They were monsters

              of the rich man’s

              own making.

              As they devoured his flesh,

              the rich man cried,

              “Please, spare me!”

              The ravenous zombies said,

              “Not our fault

              you fattened yourself

              for slaughter.”

        • MarigoldPuppyFlavors@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          There is no meaningful difference between a threat and a warning. I’ve never understood why we see that retort so often when someone asks “is that a threat?!”. It’s the same damn thing.

          • sadreality@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            1 year ago

            Threat in criminal sense requires that subject of the threat is identifiable…

            Who is the rich in that “threat” above?

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      64
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Death threats are not OK, but this can destroy years of work for people, and it can threaten their livelihood. I’m guessing this has pushed some people into a sense of desperation. And these threats are acts of desperation, not threats that have a huge chance of being carried out.

      John Riccitiello needs to be fired, if he isn’t Unity deserves bankruptcy for this move.

      • Letstakealook@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’d be willing to bet it wasn’t developers sending death threats but “gamers.”

        • Buffalox@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Why would they do that? They are not directly impacted by this. Developers losing years of work have much more reason to be super angry.

          • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            22
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Ever been in a game forum where the players pretty much worship the developers as if they were gods? It’s way too common. Those people can get crazy protective when they make it part of their identity.

            • Buffalox@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Nope, but I can imagine that to some degree.

              Despite that, I doubt gamers are very involved in payment methods of game engines, or even know which game engine their games are running on.

              So unless some VERY popular game developers have been out saying expansions for their favorite games will not be released because of this, I don’t see the mechanics for what you claim working at this point.

              • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                1 year ago

                Actually, they are talking about canceling silk song, and expansion for hollow Knight that has been in development for ages now, simply because they are looking at the possibility that the game will have to be delisted in order to avoid bankrupting the developer

          • Apathy Tree@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            16
            ·
            1 year ago

            Depending how it’s implemented, gamers are absolutely impacted by it.

            Some of the chatter is that even already-released games would be subject to this change, meaning a lot of devs might pull their backlog to avoid going broke on a game they put out years ago and is now free (or heavily reduced). Or games that have always been free, now the dev has to choose if they want to charge for a historically free game or pull it completely.

            This is dev hostile, but it’s also consumer hostile.

            • Buffalox@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              1 year ago

              This is dev hostile, but it’s also consumer hostile.

              I 100% agree on this, I’ve even made a post about it, where I mention for instance that this will cause a need for more DRM where we need less.

              I’m not saying it isn’t gamers, but unlike you, I find it unlikely. You may be right IDK.

                • Buffalox@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  I wrote DIRECTLY, of course they are impacted, but 99% don’t know that, of the remaining 1% 99% don’t care.

                  While for developers 100% both know and care.

            • uranibaba@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              1 year ago

              Maybe you know, but what happens if a dev pulls a game and someone still has the installer and installs the game? Are they going to charge for that still? It makes not sense to me.

              • Ender of Games@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                Unity clearly didn’t think this part through- probably because they never intended it to do anything but rake in money as the company dies. They never had a real way of precisely tracking downloads, but they want all the info so they can decide how much to charge. So would they charge on a local installer? Almost certainly if they could find out it was used.

          • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            There already Indie devs that are talking about delisting their games in order to avoid paying Unity fees they can’t afford.

            This contract changes criminal, especially since it punishes the developer for no fault of its own. Sometimes I have to reinstall a game multiple times in order to figure out why it suddenly doesn’t work. I’m not the only one, that’s going to rack up fast.

            And if you think review bombing is bad now? I imagine people buying the game not to leave a negative review, but you run a script that continuously reinstalls and uninstall the game.

            They could bankrupt any developer they wanted to. Hell, it might not even be the gamers, if a company with a game on Unity doesn’t want to make it epic exclusive, Tim Sweeney has the choice to just continuously reinstall that game in order to sink any company that doesn’t play ball

          • moody@lemmings.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            The same way people who aren’t directly affected by people being queer threaten to bomb places that host drag events.

            Some people are just assholes.

        • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          See my other comments, it was neither. It was a single employee at their company. Not sure how long that’ll stay true though, especially when it comes out that he made it seem like there were death threats being sent to him when it was a single employee making threats. Probably just so he could close the office.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Oh I’m willing to bet that Disney and Nintendo are getting their most expensive lawyers. Keep in mind, there are a lot of Marvel and Star Wars games out there, the mouse doesn’t like to share his cheese.

        • Ender of Games@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          There aren’t a lot of Unity Disney games out their, I would struggle to name any. And there definitely aren’t any Nintendo ones.

          • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            Actually some of the newer Pokemon games are in Unity, and Disney has a lot of Marvel phone games in Unity

          • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Unity is actually quite a popular engine for a lot of games both 3D and 2D and on multiple different platforms. It’s very popular among indie developers, though there are actually quite a few games from Big publishers that are released under unity as well.

    • CriticalMiss@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      26
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      it’s just edgy teens saying that they’re gonna go murder them, it’s not really going to happen but they have to take safety precautions

      • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Not even, it was a single employee (probably for reasons not even related to this change) and CEO used that as an excuse to close for the day and probably to make people feel pity for him and therefore more likely to give him a pass for these awful decisions.

      • avater@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        still stupid and those people should end up in jail for some time.

        • sadreality@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          10
          arrow-down
          6
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Yeah, these people would need to be real for the jail haha

          People making up false crime deff should go to jail

    • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Which is why he probably used it as an excuse to close the office, when the only known death threat to occur was from one of his employees.

      I don’t know who that employee is and I don’t really care point is he’s using that basically to get pity from other people and distract from the bad things that his company is doing right now.

  • StarServal@kbin.social
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    158
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    Shitty Executive: “Oh shit, our terrible idea turned out to be wildly unpopular and we’re getting massive negative feedback! Quick, play the death threats card to make us look like the victim!”

    • CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      55
      ·
      1 year ago

      Perhaps they could pay a small fee to not receive them.

      Or purchase the Happy Customer Times Season Pass, where for 12 months they only receive feedback telling them how awesome they’re doing. Only $39.99 per employee!

      *fees are liable to change at any time without notice, new prices may be applied retroactively

      • ezures@lemmy.wtf
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        1 year ago

        20 cents for every death threat not sent? Sure! Whos counting? Dont worry, our propiertary system counts every unsent message, you only need to pay up ^(works every previously unsent message, but only if you got more than 200 000 the past year, we got you)

        Bit seriously, why do some people always so eager to send death threats? It almost never achieves anything, gets you on the moral low ground and doesn’t even get to the right persons the first place.

    • Bye@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’m sure there’s a PR playbook somewhere with a flowchart that says, did you screw up really badly and you look like the villain? - yes - There’s public outrage? - yes - say there’s death threats

  • Robaque@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    143
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Unsurprisingly, it’s likely that this “death threats” situation was made up by the ceo: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/16j21jg/the_truth_behind_the_unity_death_threats/

    It’s a reddit link, ik… here’s a copy of the post:

    The truth behind the Unity “Death Threats”

    Unity has temporarily closed its offices in San Francisco and Austin, Texas and canceled a town hall meeting after receiving death threats, according to Bloomberg.

    Multiple news outlets are reporting on this story, yet Polygon seems to be the only one that actually bothered to investigate the claims.

    Checking with both Police and FBI, they have only acknowledged 1 single threat, from a Unity employee, to their boss over social media. Despite this their CEO decided to use it as an excuse to close edit:all 2 of their offices and cancel planned town hall meetings. Here is the article update from Polygon:

    Update: San Francisco police told Polygon that officers responded to Unity’s San Francisco office “regarding a threats incident.” A “reporting party” told police that “an employee made a threat towards his employer using social media.” The employee that made the threat works in an office outside of California, according to the police statement.

    https://www.polygon.com/23873727/unity-credible-death-threat-offices-closed-pricing-change

    Polygon also contacted Police in the other cities and also the FBI, this was the only reported death threat against Unity that anyone knew of.

    This is increasingly looking like the CEO is throwing a pity party and he’s trying to trick us all into coming.

      • Medatrix@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah if I were the CEO I would be avoiding a town hall like the plague.

        He essentially just called a bomb threat on his highschool before a final he was going to fail. Then came home to his family crying about how scary it all was.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yep, a lot of companies will make shit up to make people feel bad for them, and to try to make themselves seem like the victims in all of this while hiding the real victims when they are the abusers.

      It’s honestly fucking disgusting behaviour, it makes me sick.

    • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yep it doesn’t surprise me, I’ve seen many people claim “death threats” to get out of responsibility for doing or saying something that was not respectable, or that was flat out evil.

      They do this because it works very well, death threats are so serious and so scary that if somebody said they got them you would immediately give that person a pass (unless they’re a Nazi then they deserve it, you don’t give Nazis a pass for anything) no proof required, though it also would be incredibly easy to forge proof of such an event for anyone skeptical and it would be enough for 99% of people, the remaining 1% of dissent would then be written off as crazy people.

      I’m willing to bet that this will continue to happen and people will continue to go along with it because there are enough cases of people making real death threats to innocence cover up the false ones and make them seem more real than they actually are.

    • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      I imagine this policy will quietly be pulled with a statement about how due to “not expecting how unpopular the decision was”

      As soon as they get a subpoena from… every AAA developer.

      This would include Warner bros, as they own a video game Studio, in fact I believe Mortal Kombat 1 uses unity, and it’s supposed to be what gets their Christmas bonus this year. They would be fools to not already have their people on the case.

  • Chaotic Entropy@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    84
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    This shouldn’t be a distraction from the core issue, but obviously people should cut this shit out.

    You can’t sneeze online without some sociopathic child threatening to slit your throat.

    Edit: Annnd it was an employee of Unity that made the threats…

  • HRDS_654@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    80
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    Talk about blowing shit out of proportion. People need to realize that making death threats is a good way to make the bad guys look like the good guys.

    • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Which is probably why the CEO made it up using the single death threat from an employee as an excuse to close the company for the day and probably also get pity from people for it (see here for more details).

      I bet it probably won’t stay that way though, he’ll probably realize people are onto his lies and make some death threats from sock-puppet accounts and claim “No 4 reAl pEopLe arE sENdiNg m3 deAth tHreAts” I wouldn’t put it past him if people don’t keep falling for the current one, and if people keep the heat on him for his current bad decisions.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    85
    arrow-down
    14
    ·
    1 year ago

    So, the leadership of Unity is a complete piece of shit, but death threats (or really, any other threat of violence) are just straight up idiotic. It’s a game engine company. There are much more fun and interesting (and, you know, legal) ways to kill the company in a commercial sense.

    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      39
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      I feel bad for the regular workers there who can’t choose the direction of the company and need that job to live.

      But frankly if they were all directed just to the CEO, I couldn’t be less bothered. Wealthy assholes don’t have empathy, don’t listen to reasons, aren’t bound by rules. Even lawsuits today are decided more by who has the most money than who is in the right. Maybe it’s not so bad if folks put some fear in him, specifically.

      Sure, there are more worthy causes to direct that sort of outrage to. Then again there’s the livelihood of a large number of smaller creators to consider. This isn’t just about a fictional thing not being the way someone wanted.

    • Uniquitous@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well, they are idiotic, yes. In the sense that if you mean to kill someone, telling them beforehand is wildly counter-productive.

    • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      Wild. Murica lol.

      The one guy working on a PS2 emulator also quit because death threats.

      Why not make sustainable laws to prevent shitty companies from doing things like this instead of “social justice”

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Because the most successful senior citizen daycare facility is the US Senate. A lot of these people still think of computers as being Commodore 64s.

  • sugarfree@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    76
    arrow-down
    12
    ·
    1 year ago

    The overreaction to online death threats is so stupid. An anonymous 0 follower Twitter account allows organizations and people to instantly turn the PR situation around and become the victims and act like they are personally being hunted down by Mossad.

  • londos@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    59
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    Hey! Don’t threaten people! Don’t hurt anyone! Just move to Godot. That’s it. Abandon ship, peacefully. These people care more about money than employee lives anyway.

    • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      30
      ·
      1 year ago

      I find this and other comments like this hilarious because you’re 100% correct and yet at the same time lemmy is a cesspool of people on every post about an owner, or landlord, or millionaire/billionaire about killing them, or beating them, or bringing out the guillotine, or eating them, etc etc.

      Again, you’re right. It’s amazing how tone deaf people are here though to not be aware their behavior reeks of the same extremism.

      It’s why I’m very much on the fence about continuing here outside of the memes. The people here are disgustingly naive and not healthy quite frankly.

      • stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Rich choking and killing the planet knowingly with no regard for human or any other life = unity devs

        500 IQ

      • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        Pretty amazing how a small group on Lemmy can make Reddit look almost sane.

      • tsz@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        19
        ·
        1 year ago

        Idk why the downvotes. It’s seriously off putting to be surrounded by people that clearly have no idea how the world works. It was funny before Trump. Now I take these meme waves with a grain of salt. Idiots in large numbers are dangerous. At least reddit was easy enough to use that the cesspool was diluted with less intense morons.

  • Danny M@lemmy.escapebigtech.info
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    54
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    I hate humanity sometimes, why would they send death threats? Just don’t use their engine; this is the way you actually make a change – switch to something else, threatening people does not help you prove your point. I hate their new pricing changes too, but death threats are never warranted

    • greenskye@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      1 year ago

      Im some cases I could see how this could destroy someone’s livelihood and people have killed over that sort of thing before. But my guess is that the people sending the death threats probably aren’t even developers.

    • CryptidBestiary@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      While I’m not defending those who sent these death threats or justifying these actions, I’m sure a lot work and progress will be lost for many companies because of these outrageous changes. It should be no surprise that many if not all of their clients are gonna be angry. Switching to another engine isn’t like switching from reddit to the fediverse.

    • hornedfiend@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      What’s more curious to me is what kind of people are those that resort to such lows?

      I mean they might have mental issues,yes,but it’s scary to see that people seemingly intelligent and able to create games (asset flipping not included) can have such low morals and problem solving capabilities.

    • MJBrune@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      I absolutely agree. I’d want to say those threats are people outside of the industry. People in the industry have received death threats themselves so they understand that it’s real shitty, right? I hope so.

  • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    One of the issue here, and I am in absolutely no way defending Unity, is that legally an executive team works for the shareholders. They must ensure shareholder return no matter what as they are in the hook for it.

    Unity’s biggest issue is that they like many successful companies stopped innovating and have moved from a company run by technical people to one run by sales and marketing. Sales and marketing only know how to extract more out of the product they already have and not how to improve the product to make more in honest ways. I would (have) gladly given Unity more money if they offered tools that truly helped me get to market faster as then my win would be their win. Instead their product has become stagnant, slower not faster since 2019 and more expensive. I am getting less for more and it is unacceptable. Unity is a horrible business partner. But I can see why as they are a sales and marketing company now. Steve Jobs says it best in this 2 minute video. He got it. Why are so many other not getting this?

    https://youtu.be/tGKsbt5wii0?si=km7LTxsY6gwD-mvo

    • malloc@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      is that legally an executive team works for the shareholders. They must ensure shareholder return no matter what as they are in the hook for it.

      Not an excuse for just blatantly fucking over the customers. By implementing this hostile pricing model, company is alienating their customers. Big game studios may or may not cough up the money (or just delay that payments and take Unity to court if threatened). Small companies will just not pay up and either kill their projects or redesign from the ground up using a diff engine. Indie devs will likely just use another engine all together.

      It’s a clear money grab that will backfire on them (losing trust of an already small community, and thus money will slowly stop rolling in). Fucked by the loss of sales. Fucking over the shareholders and creating new bag holders. Only winners here are the insiders that dumped their shares before announcement.

      C-level execs at Unity smoking crack.

      • Immersive_Matthew@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I agree. I think the issue is though that Unity (like many successful companies) have become their own worse enemies. Steve Jobs in this 2 mins video really explains it well. It will resonate what is going on at Unity and why they pulled such a stupid move. Wrong people are in charge and they have no means to make money honestly. Intellectually and creatively bankrupt. https://youtu.be/tGKsbt5wii0?si=v8_A2jW5uLewhbVS

    • 小莱卡
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      You could swap unity with any company really and it would be the same. once a business goes for an IPO, whatever mission/vision it had turns into making shareholders happy and fast. Profits go directly to shareholders by stock buybacks instead of R&D/salaries, so they have to squeeze consumers more and more with the same products to keep it up. it’s tragically comic that you mention Steve Jobs kinda talking about it when Apple turned into the GOAT of this stuff.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    1 year ago

    I am usually against such and still am, you should never send anyone deaf that’s, that is a felonious offense.

    That said I don’t feel sorry for the victim. You can’t blackmail every game developer in the world simultaneously and expect nothing to happen.

    • InternetTubes@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      34
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      I do feel sorry for them. Death threats are not ok in this scenario, boycotts and protests are. Death threats makes them a victim, and this shifts away the discussion from the victims they’ve created. The people making death threats as well as those who do not condemn them are helping support Unity indirectly.

      • Squizzy@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        22
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’m torn, they’re people I don’t want workers harmed but I think more harm needs to come to C suites that just get greedy

        • just_change_it@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          When you call for violent threats you give ammo to the very groups that you wish to inflict harm upon for the masses to side with them

          Accountability for CEO actions needs to be done financially. It needs to first and foremost affect shareholders - because that’s the only point for a public company to exist - and then after that it needs to personally penalize CEOs.

          If you just target the figurehead of a company the owners won’t really be affected. You need to get them where it REALLY hurts - in the wallet. Only then will the dynamic change.

          • pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            12
            arrow-down
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            We can see clearly that that’s not happening. No one has any actual sympathy for Unity and even the most highly upvoted comments in this thread are of people justifying it.

            No one in the masses sides with them. People are not that stupid.

            • SCB@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              6
              ·
              1 year ago

              I have a fuckload of sympathy for this company after people call in death threats.

              You people are acting insane. The proper response here is for devs to stop using unity not to fucking threaten to kill people dude.

              • pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                4
                ·
                1 year ago

                You only have a fuckload of sympathy for them because you either have a political agenda or they’re lining your pocketbook. Either way, your opinion is irrelevant.

                You’re acting insane. And vile, and despicable. The proper response to people saying #EatTheRich is to leave them the hell alone. If people agree with the dumb death threats and stupidity, that’s their right. Not everyone has to think like you to be good or valid people. You’re deeply problematic for thinking otherwise.

                • SCB@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  5
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  You’re right. I’m being paid by unity and not just appalled at the insane gamer moment going on here

                  That’s the only explanation.

                  And no I won’t leave alone someone who is a piece of shit.

  • PostmodernPythia@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    This, like cancel culture, is a direct result of a justice system that pretty much never delivers justice to the victims of the rich and the powerful. Fixing that is the only thing that can stop this escalating cultural phenomenon.

    • SCB@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Prosecute the shit out of the people making death threats because I don’t want to live in a society that’s cool with that either.

      • PostmodernPythia@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        They already do that in most jurisdictions. Solve the root problem, and the surface problem will be fixed. Only fix the surface, and…well, it’s like weeding dandelions.

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Somehow I get the feeling that this may not just be some unhinged internet troll throwing out online drivel from his mom’s basement. Unity’s pricing changes are posing an existential threat to smaller studios that meet the minimum income threshold and are placing the livelihoods of countless thousands of smaller game studio workers at stake. This is one of those changes that is going to impact whether you can continue to put food on the table.

    John Riccitello has pissed off a lot of people with his disgusting levels of corporate greed, to the point where even the fourth circle of Hell may not be enough to punish his avarice once he pops his clogs. This move may even be worse than the crap Martin Shkreli pulled as a big pharma executive.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s bad, but it’s not “denying medical treatment to millions of sick people because they can’t pay” bad.

    • Draconic NEO@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      You are correct but in the opposite way, it seems it was a single employee at their company instead which the boss took and decided to say we’re getting death threats we’re going to close for the day, basically so he could go home early and people would feel bad for him and maybe not give him the flak that he deserves for such an awful decision that’s going to ruin the lives of smaller legitimate game developers who use unity.

        • Wogi@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Video game development is some of the worst paid tech sector jobs. Most developers will be able to move on to other work with relatively little interruption. It’s not ideal by any stretch but it’s not nearly on the same level as price gouging life saving pharmaceuticals

          • Ender of Games@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I don’t think devs that work for corporations really care about this change, if their group used Unity for some reason, they will just move on to their next job (and they’re the ones who are worst paid). Every indie dev or otherwise small dev company that has used Unity ever in it’s last ten years are now open to serious bad actors. A single person running a script can cost a dev hundreds of thousands of dollars on their own, whether a troll, just same guy pissed off for some reason or another, or even a competing dev. Hell, the one idiot living in his mother’s basement who sent death threats to Unity could also do it.

            There is no “relatively little interruption”, as not only have people lost a lot of work on something they already paid for, they also have to remove all previous work they’ve made or published with the engine. It’s all susceptible to attack.

            I agree it’s not on the same level as pharma scum, but saying “it’s just a video games” is much too far off the other end of the spectrum. At least Shkreli never managed to bankrupt people who had purchased anything (from him) in the past, or made them ‘regurgitate’ any benefits they had seen. Though I’m sure he’d have loved to.