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dredshirtroberts · 2 years

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no you know what actually I do have shit to say about de-radicalization and how people on the whole (and i do include myself here, i am a people as well) need to be more compassionate towards those deconstructing their worldview and pulling away from radical/harmful ideology.

Cause y'all I don't talk about it much and so you might not know but like...

that was me.

My family is *ultra conservative* and maybe i've said that before, maybe i understood on some level how far down the rabbit hole they've become - but i didn't realize until relatively recently how fucking long it's been like this.

And how close I personally was to being just like them.

The EIB network - y'all might not know of them, but the radio network that hosted Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck? (do people even remember who Glenn Beck even is? he was everywhere when I was younger but i'm starting to realize that some of the people I grew up listening to were not big names outside of their fringe belief groups) - was the sound of summertime as a child. It was so prevalent that when my mother began homeschooling my sister and I, I would hear it and immediately think it was summertime - even in the dead of winter with snow on the ground. For years. To this day I can hear it in my head.

We mainly watched Fox News back in the day - we watched CNN and NBC for a while too. But ultimately it was Fox News where we got the majority of our information about the world at large.

I don't know much about Bill Clinton's presidency other than the Sexy Scandal because we didn't like him and no one talked about him except to say he was terrible (with no information as to why other than that he was a Democrat and all Democrats were the devil and going to steal our rights). We thought George W. Bush was going to save america.

I thought Sarah Palin was a feminist icon - though obviously we didn't need feminism because girls and boys were super equal. Racism ended in the 60s. The Civil War wasn't fought because of Slavery it was for property ownership, *obviously*. You know, like land. Because property meant land. Not *people.*

The government was terrible and should be kept out of everyone's business and if you couldn't shake it on your own, you weren't trying hard enough and the government didn't need to bail you out. Black people were lazy for not doing enough to change their station and everyone who thought racism was still a thing just hadn't listened properly when Martin Luther King Jr talked about dreams. but also that speech wasn't necessary even back then because Racism wasn't real - or if it was real it wasn't bad because stereotypes exist for a reason, you know.

My dad and mom proudly talked about their racial profiling of "'Sp*c Cars." But we never said the N-word (even though if the black people say it they shouldn't expect no one else to be able to say it).

The hardcore christian element didn't super settle in until the homeschooling years. My parents didn't own a gun until a few years ago. But we supported gun rights. The right to bear arms was integral to the constitution, the constitution was correct when the Founding Fathers wrote it and didn't need *changes*.

Trans people were just Ultra Gays and the gays didn't need rights because they were sinners and going to hell because God might love them but we didn't. Men in dresses were a joke and obviously no trans person could *really* become the gender they "claimed" to be.

Unions were useless and we definitely didn't need them anymore because they were never necessary in the first place. If you don't like your job, just leave it, you know? And don't get fussy if your boss fires you out of nowhere for an "injustice" because that just means you're looking for excuses for your bad job performance.

Women were meant to bear children and run the household and I guess you could be a business lady if you *wanted* to but like only if you also planned to have children - or had already had and raised your children. And why on earth would a man do any of the child rearing unless there was a boychild involved?

I met Newt Gingrich and got to shake his hand and that was a *bragging right*.

and all of that has been incredibly difficult to un-learn. You spend 18 years surrounded by that rhetoric, thinking that's the way the world is meant to be. You cannot just drop it and immediately switch to the "correct" way of thinking (there is no "unproblematic" political ideology in today's world right now. but that's a different rant).

I have to work extra hard sometimes to fight through those filters of bias and hatred. Because I thought my parents were *reasonable*. I didn't think they were radical my *whole* life until like...a few months ago. I thought they'd *become* radical. But...no.

No they've always been like this and I sounded like a moron trying to convince other family members that they hadn't always been that bad.

Deconstruction, de-radicalization, re-learning is *hard.* And it's *lonely*. Because when you start pulling at the threads, those who shared the blanket no longer want to talk to you, and those under the other blanket are blinded in their own hatred of your previous beliefs to help you learn.

So you have to make your own blanket by listening to how others' blankets are constructed. And you learn. And you challenge and you *fight* and it's hard.

But I'll share my blanket with you. It's cold and lonely on this journey - but it doesn't have to be. We can un-learn together. We can deconstruct our past belief systems together. We can expand our horizons and become allies with other communities as a community ourselves.

We can grow. Because where you're from might be helpful to know in battling prejudices ingrained in your since childhood, but it's not all you are. You are more than your roots and the dirt you grew up in. You're not alone. You're not the only one going through this journey.

And I'll help you if you need a blanket to rest under for the night. We're in this together. I've got your hand. Come on. <3

#this is for all my cult-leavers and former republicans and ex-christians and dumbass white people (myself included)#i've got you #come on let's go get you some resources and perspective #and also if you're following me and you refuse to be kind to those trying to change because of where they came from?#i'm not talking nice you ain't gotta be nice to no one #but we could try kindness #and if you're not willing to be kind i don't want you here #if you want to bring up bad actors and similar types this is not the place for that #this is not talking about people who aren't actually trying #this is for those who recognize something about the way they grew up was inherently harmful and wrong #and are trying to figure out what it was and why #so they can change and grow #especially if it seems like it might be too late and they're lost #especially if it's early in their journey #it is never too late to realize you fucked up and it's never too late to try and keep it from happening again #it's gonna take some work #but we're in this together

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treasure-mimic · 8 months

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So, let me try and put everything together here, because I really do think it needs to be talked about.

Today, Unity announced that it intends to apply a fee to use its software. Then it got worse.

For those not in the know, Unity is the most popular free to use video game development tool, offering a basic version for individuals who want to learn how to create games or create independently alongside paid versions for corporations or people who want more features. It's decent enough at this job, has issues but for the price point I can't complain, and is the idea entry point into creating in this medium, it's a very important piece of software.

But speaking of tools, the CEO is a massive one. When he was the COO of EA, he advocated for using, what out and out sounds like emotional manipulation to coerce players into microtransactions.

"A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10, 20, 30, 50 hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in it. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high."

He also called game developers who don't discuss monetization early in the planning stages of development, quote, "fucking idiots".

So that sets the stage for what might be one of the most bald-faced greediest moves I've seen from a corporation in a minute. Most at least have the sense of self-preservation to hide it.

A few hours ago, Unity posted this announcement on the official blog.

Effective January 1, 2024, we will introduce a new Unity Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs. We will also add cloud-based asset storage, Unity DevOps tools, and AI at runtime at no extra cost to Unity subscription plans this November. We are introducing a Unity Runtime Fee that is based upon each time a qualifying game is downloaded by an end user. We chose this because each time a game is downloaded, the Unity Runtime is also installed. Also we believe that an initial install-based fee allows creators to keep the ongoing financial gains from player engagement, unlike a revenue share.

Now there are a few red flags to note in this pitch immediately.

Unity is planning on charging a fee on all games which use its engine.

This is a flat fee per number of installs.

They are using an always online runtime function to determine whether a game is downloaded.

There is just so many things wrong with this that it's hard to know where to start, not helped by this FAQ which doubled down on a lot of the major issues people had.

I guess let's start with what people noticed first. Because it's using a system baked into the software itself, Unity would not be differentiating between a "purchase" and a "download". If someone uninstalls and reinstalls a game, that's two downloads. If someone gets a new computer or a new console and downloads a game already purchased from their account, that's two download. If someone pirates the game, the studio will be asked to pay for that download.

Q: How are you going to collect installs? A: We leverage our own proprietary data model. We believe it gives an accurate determination of the number of times the runtime is distributed for a given project. Q: Is software made in unity going to be calling home to unity whenever it's ran, even for enterprice licenses? A: We use a composite model for counting runtime installs that collects data from numerous sources. The Unity Runtime Fee will use data in compliance with GDPR and CCPA. The data being requested is aggregated and is being used for billing purposes. Q: If a user reinstalls/redownloads a game / changes their hardware, will that count as multiple installs? A: Yes. The creator will need to pay for all future installs. The reason is that Unity doesn’t receive end-player information, just aggregate data. Q: What's going to stop us being charged for pirated copies of our games? A: We do already have fraud detection practices in our Ads technology which is solving a similar problem, so we will leverage that know-how as a starting point. We recognize that users will have concerns about this and we will make available a process for them to submit their concerns to our fraud compliance team.

This is potentially related to a new system that will require Unity Personal developers to go online at least once every three days.

Starting in November, Unity Personal users will get a new sign-in and online user experience. Users will need to be signed into the Hub with their Unity ID and connect to the internet to use Unity. If the internet connection is lost, users can continue using Unity for up to 3 days while offline. More details to come, when this change takes effect.

It's unclear whether this requirement will be attached to any and all Unity games, though it would explain how they're theoretically able to track "the number of installs", and why the methodology for tracking these installs is so shit, as we'll discuss later.

Unity claims that it will only leverage this fee to games which surpass a certain threshold of downloads and yearly revenue.

Only games that meet the following thresholds qualify for the Unity Runtime Fee: Unity Personal and Unity Plus: Those that have made $200,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 200,000 lifetime game installs. Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise: Those that have made $1,000,000 USD or more in the last 12 months AND have at least 1,000,000 lifetime game installs.

They don't say how they're going to collect information on a game's revenue, likely this is just to say that they're only interested in squeezing larger products (games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, Fate Grand Order, Among Us, and Fall Guys) and not every 2 dollar puzzle platformer that drops on Steam. But also, these larger products have the easiest time porting off of Unity and the most incentives to, meaning realistically those heaviest impacted are going to be the ones who just barely meet this threshold, most of them indie developers.

Aggro Crab Games, one of the first to properly break this story, points out that systems like the Xbox Game Pass, which is already pretty predatory towards smaller developers, will quickly inflate their "lifetime game installs" meaning even skimming the threshold of that 200k revenue, will be asked to pay a fee per install, not a percentage on said revenue.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Hey Gamers!

Today, Unity (the engine we use to make our games) announced that they'll soon be taking a fee from developers for every copy of the game installed over a certain threshold - regardless of how that copy was obtained.

Guess who has a somewhat highly anticipated game coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2024? That's right, it's us and a lot of other developers.

That means Another Crab's Treasure will be free to install for the 25 million Game Pass subscribers. If a fraction of those users download our game, Unity could take a fee that puts an enormous dent in our income and threatens the sustainability of our business.

And that's before we even think about sales on other platforms, or pirated installs of our game, or even multiple installs by the same user!!!

This decision puts us and countless other studios in a position where we might not be able to justify using Unity for our future titles. If these changes aren't rolled back, we'll be heavily considering abandoning our wealth of Unity expertise we've accumulated over the years and starting from scratch in a new engine. Which is really something we'd rather not do.

On behalf of the dev community, we're calling on Unity to reverse the latest in a string of shortsighted decisions that seem to prioritize shareholders over their product's actual users.

I fucking hate it here.

-Aggro Crab - END DESCRIPTION]

That fee, by the way, is a flat fee. Not a percentage, not a royalty. This means that any games made in Unity expecting any kind of success are heavily incentivized to cost as much as possible.

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A table listing the various fees by number of Installs over the Install Threshold vs. version of Unity used, ranging from $0.01 to $0.20 per install. END DESCRIPTION]

Basic elementary school math tells us that if a game comes out for $1.99, they will be paying, at maximum, 10% of their revenue to Unity, whereas jacking the price up to $59.99 lowers that percentage to something closer to 0.3%. Obviously any company, especially any company in financial desperation, which a sudden anchor on all your revenue is going to create, is going to choose the latter.

Furthermore, and following the trend of "fuck anyone who doesn't ask for money", Unity helpfully defines what an install is on their main site.

While I'm looking at this page as it exists now, it currently says

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

However, I saw a screenshot saying something different, and utilizing the Wayback Machine we can see that this phrasing was changed at some point in the few hours since this announcement went up. Instead, it reads:

The installation and initialization of a game or app on an end user’s device as well as distribution via streaming or web browser is considered an “install.” Games or apps with substantially similar content may be counted as one project, with installs then aggregated to calculate the Unity Runtime Fee.

Screenshot for posterity:

That would mean web browser games made in Unity would count towards this install threshold. You could legitimately drive the count up simply by continuously refreshing the page. The FAQ, again, doubles down.

Q: Does this affect WebGL and streamed games? A: Games on all platforms are eligible for the fee but will only incur costs if both the install and revenue thresholds are crossed. Installs - which involves initialization of the runtime on a client device - are counted on all platforms the same way (WebGL and streaming included).

And, what I personally consider to be the most suspect claim in this entire debacle, they claim that "lifetime installs" includes installs prior to this change going into effect.

Will this fee apply to games using Unity Runtime that are already on the market on January 1, 2024? Yes, the fee applies to eligible games currently in market that continue to distribute the runtime. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

Again, again, doubled down in the FAQ.

Q: Are these fees going to apply to games which have been out for years already? If you met the threshold 2 years ago, you'll start owing for any installs monthly from January, no? (in theory). It says they'll use previous installs to determine threshold eligibility & then you'll start owing them for the new ones. A: Yes, assuming the game is eligible and distributing the Unity Runtime then runtime fees will apply. We look at a game's lifetime installs to determine eligibility for the runtime fee. Then we bill the runtime fee based on all new installs that occur after January 1, 2024.

That would involve billing companies for using their software before telling them of the existence of a bill. Holding their actions to a contract that they performed before the contract existed!

Okay. I think that's everything. So far.

There is one thing that I want to mention before ending this post, unfortunately it's a little conspiratorial, but it's so hard to believe that anyone genuinely thought this was a good idea that it's stuck in my brain as a significant possibility.

A few days ago it was reported that Unity's CEO sold 2,000 shares of his own company.

On September 6, 2023, John Riccitiello, President and CEO of Unity Software Inc (NYSE:U), sold 2,000 shares of the company. This move is part of a larger trend for the insider, who over the past year has sold a total of 50,610 shares and purchased none.

I would not be surprised if this decision gets reversed tomorrow, that it was literally only made for the CEO to short his own goddamn company, because I would sooner believe that this whole thing is some idiotic attempt at committing fraud than a real monetization strategy, even knowing how unfathomably greedy these people can be.

So, with all that said, what do we do now?

Well, in all likelihood you won't need to do anything. As I said, some of the biggest names in the industry would be directly affected by this change, and you can bet your bottom dollar that they're not just going to take it lying down. After all, the only way to stop a greedy CEO is with a greedier CEO, right?

(I fucking hate it here.)

And that's not mentioning the indie devs who are already talking about abandoning the engine.

[Links display tweets from the lead developer of Among Us saying it'd be less costly to hire people to move the game off of Unity and Cult of the Lamb's official twitter saying the game won't be available after January 1st in response to the news.]

That being said, I'm still shaken by all this. The fact that Unity is openly willing to go back and punish its developers for ever having used the engine in the past makes me question my relationship to it.

The news has given rise to the visibility of free, open source alternative Godot, which, if you're interested, is likely a better option than Unity at this point. Mostly, though, I just hope we can get out of this whole, fucking, environment where creatives are treated as an endless mill of free profits that's going to be continuously ratcheted up and up to drive unsustainable infinite corporate growth that our entire economy is based on for some fuckin reason.

Anyways, that's that, I find having these big posts that break everything down to be helpful.

#Unity #Unity3D #Video Games #Game Development #Game Developers #fuckshit #I don't know what to tag news like this

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