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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   26876 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 15, 2024

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I’m placing my bets on incompetence. Is this really different than Oblivion’s potato faces? I understanding is that was an outsourcing problem. Something about FaceGen.

Really, this comes down to whether you think Niantic could culture-war their way out of a paper bag.

If what you say about locked accessories is true, this was probably seen as the cheapest way to double the number of custom options available to each player.

I would take the other side of that bet. What makes it different than Oblivion's potato faces is that they already had good art, and replaced it with bad art. The difference is not subtle, so a lot of people knew in advance that the new art was bad, which would obviously undermine any plausible benefits to the change. Nor is there any serious technical challenge to hide behind; these are low-fi models and textures implementing what is probably the single best-understood and simplest-to-implement 3d art style there is. There's a DEI entity being paid by the company to propose CW changes to the game, and this matches quite well to a DEI change. Having been involved in the sausage-making for DEI-mandated changes to video game art in the past, that's what this looks like to me.

If what you say about locked accessories is true, this was probably seen as the cheapest way to double the number of custom options available to each player.

I'm sure that's roughly accurate to how they sold it to management. From experience, my guess would be that the artists got their marching-orders from management, decided it wasn't worth fighting, and did exactly what they were told with full knowledge that they were making trash, given that the alternative would involve a direct threat to their employment for a ~zero-percent chance of achieving anything. Your boss paid money for the bad advice because it's the bad advice he wanted. Having paid for the bad advice, he's not interested in you telling him that it's bad. Shut up and push the buttons, art monkey.

Having been involved in the sausage-making for DEI-mandated changes to video game art in the past

I would love to see an effortpost on that sometime, if you're up for it.

This thread might be of interest to you. I'd be happy to elaborate if you have further questions.

Hey! Morrowind’s faces were…uh…they were definitely the best part of the character models.

Point taken. I agree that it’s plausible, I’m more like 70-30 against. Maybe 60-40, at this point.

yeah, I'd be about the inverse. It's entirely possible that it's just sheer incompetence. Stranger things have happened.

Pro-trans advisors have been proven to collaborate with Niantic. Erasing the gender binary raises increases the perception of inclusivity of the game in the eyes of such consultants.

Niantic could culture-war their way out of a paper bag.

Niantic isn't apolitically standing on the sidelines.

It’s possible. The elements are present, and I can’t say I’ll be surprised if there turns out to be a press release condemning the transphobic userbase, or whatever.

I find it more likely that this is a lazy solution to technical debt or to giving players “more” by reusing assets. That’s the kind of mundane blunder that happens all the time, San Fran or not.

I work for a defense contractor halfway across the country. We’ve got a DEI statement or three on our website! But if we ended up in the news for making ugly software, let alone an ugly plane, there would be a dozen reasons I’d suspect before asking if it was done to promote idpol. There’s just…so many other considerations.

That Twitter account says Niantic hired a DEI training company, and also that they’re in San Francisco. Neither of those things is enough to explain screwing up your flagship product! Perhaps there’s a simpler explanation?

But he’s also making it his job to piss people off. If there’s a reasonable explanation, you’re not going to hear it from him.

But if we ended up in the news for making ugly software, let alone an ugly plane, there would be a dozen reasons I’d suspect before asking if it was done to promote idpol.

idpol has an issue with human bodies that it doesn't have with planes.

cue NCD aeromorph fans raging autistically

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