#that’s a you issue and not that of ‘the popular blogs’

[honeybleed]

ARCHIVED.

I’ve had a lot of thought about this but I figured it’s time. I joined Tumblr not as somebody new because I’ve been on this app before. But as a writing blog inspired by amazing black authors who wrote for anime that I loved. I’ve given those girls their flowers and there was a real sense of community.

But I’d say the first two months of 2024 on Tumblr was the roughest. I can take accountability, I know I have not handled things the greatest. I have a pattern of fall outs and I have an abrasive personality. I have opinions that differ and I’m stubborn. That being said, the way I was treated by a lot of authors on here in the name of “kinks” and “dark content” when I merely said minors shouldn’t be involved with adult fantasies on here is and was unacceptable.

A lot of the people I disagreed with regarding that issue following Ezra and Tee either blocked me completely and probably sent around my user to their friends so I’m blocked by a LOT of authors on here because they think I’m a purist who hates dark content and it’s not a nice feeling. There’s really no point of me even being here if I’m treated like some social pariah and people want nothing to do with me. Actively attempting to alienate and push me out because I care about children welfare (yes, even fictional ones)

Lack of engagements which I know everybody experiences on here especially now fuels this too. I’m bitter, I know I write well but I notice I’m always the one trying to encourage other authors.

I don’t feel happy on here. Writing has always been my hobby but the fact I can’t even put anons on because I get a slew of slurs is not okay. What I answered differed greatly from what was truly in my inbox. I had a lot, and the humiliation of people tormenting my mutuals about me was just…yeah. Nobody can say my writing is bad or my blog is ugly. Nobody debates or argues with me. It’s straight to dehumanisation by calling me slurs. Like I’ve said before, as a child I experienced extreme racism in England so I guess slurs shouldn’t bother me.

But I guess what gets me is that everybody on here pretends to be all “uwu baby soft me and my blorbo” with the kaomojis and pastel pink but I know it’s mostly likely them. There was even a subpost regarding a post from Monica talking about the racial abuse we suffered and a majority of popular authors were laughing in the comments.

This is not about dark content. This is not about aging up because frankly i don’t care. i filtered out certain characters names n just went about my day, I spoke my peace about how I choose not to do that so do not use me as some soap box about that cos I’m not fighting battles cos people can’t do that themselves.

It’s not all negative. I love every friend I’ve made! I’m grateful for all the people who liked my work and made works I love. I’m happy I met so many people, I’ve laughed with them. In all the fall outs I’ve been in, I still have a certain degree of love for people I no longer talk to. If you want my disc just dm, I’ll still be around to read!

Deuces! I had fun!

pinned

[chrollohearttags]

anyways, I’m so glad I actually have talent and the ability to make fics that make me happy so I don’t have to go around throwing shade at others’ writing because I have the creativity of a piece of fucking lint. So happy I have self esteem and a personality instead getting mine from the internet. Some of you obviously can’t relate.

#lemme just focus on my stories #anybody else can eat a fucking dick atp #idc idc #somebody lied to some of you bitches and told you that bc you write for unpopular characters/fandoms it makes you better #and y’all are sadly mistaken #I know y’all are note hungry but please don’t get mad at me bc you can construct a proper sentence #that’s a you issue and not that of ‘the popular blogs’ #I’m just a bitch on here writing whatever comes to mind m #I don’t be giving a damn abt who likes it or not #it’s not my business #cherry chats 🍒 #but y’all got it #y’all got it fr #and please don’t get me started on how y’all plagiarize from said blogs and then have the fucking nerve to say #‘idk who this came from’ bitch if u saw the hc/names #then you can see the person you stole it from dpmtfo #but if you get called out ur being bullied lmaoo be so fucking fr #and this isn’t a call out #whoever feels hit #holler bitch idc #if it don’t apply then let it fly

[firein-thesky]

i can litcherally connect every issue people complain about within fandom in recent years to late stage capitalism

#i fr need to finish my essay on capitalism within fandom #i’m telling you. every single complaint. from lack of interaction to only short fics/blurbs being far more popular #to people being soooo scared to create dark content or create dark content that actually explores the horrible repercussions and trauma #that comes w said dark content #like all of it #give me a complaint/issue and i can pull the mask off of it and it will still be capitalism #i just think ppl misdiagnose the reason for these things a lot!!! and don’t realize when capitalism creeps into their own thought process! #not condemning just saying this is why it’s important to be diligent with yourself #and analytical with your own thought processes and who you’re pointing fingers at #or why #it doesn’t fix anything either #just furthers to individualize you in a place that requires community #pointing your fingers at bigger ‘clique’ blogs or even readers who don’t interact…..isn’t going to get you far #bc the issue is still capitalism #and until we can all acknowledge that……….🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️ #cielo rambles!

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

Thanks to this post on Reddit, I realized when one (1) unreliable narrator Jason Peter Todd was born. Is it any surprise that it was when he died :)))))))))

Your whole life??? I can count on one hand the number of times you got angry. Right now you’re hoping Sheila will make it to Heaven after she got you killed,

And you still consider her your mom. You lived and died an angel.

You had no clue what was going to happen. You were a child who never should have been left alone by his parent.

You and me both, Boston.

Deadman: Dead Again issue #2

#I can see now this blog is just documenting my descent into madness #by issue 5 Jason Hal and the others are set free and it’s confirmed later in green arrow v3 issue 7 that Jason made it to Heaven #as far as I know Jason and Deadman only have a total of 3 interactions (2 technically since Gotham county line was Bruce’s hallucination) #but they absolutely should have more #jason todd #robin jason #boston brand #deadman #dc #comic panels #my post #there’s that popular theory that the clothes you die in become your ghost outfit #but in my mind Jason’s ghost is dressed as robin because it gave him magic and it truly made him so happy to be able to help/save people #because I like being miserable and going insane #it also fits with what he was doing in green arrow (just a tiny baby boy happily swinging around Heaven going ‘wahoo!’) #the world didn’t deserve Jason Todd but he came back anyway #in regards to the last few posts abt batkids and anger #this here is also why I think comparing anyone to Jason is holding the other to an impossible standard

[send-me-a-puffalope]

hey nat :)) how r u doing and do you have any good vanessa songs for me…

via i think you said my sleeper agent words because mention vanessa and songs in my vicinity and i will lock onto you with my big ol shit orbs.

god idk what songs you’ve listened to already since i know i post way too much about Vanessa songs but i’ll just post the songs i think are The Vanessa Songs™️ and leave a link to my playlist :333

Okay so I was writing a blurb for each of these songs for their meanings but spotify just deleted all of it so I’m going a little bit insane so. I’m not gonna rewrite it all 😭😭😭

And here is the full playlist because Tumblr is being a little shit and won’t let me yap about my songs:

#vanessa afton #vanessa shelly #fnaf vanessa #fnaf movie #five nights at freddy's #HELP i had a whole list copy and pasted in here and tumblr erased it all 😭😭😭 #OKAY I FOUND THE ISSUE #tumblr doesn’t post/save your post if you have over a certain amount of links #so i took off all the more popular songs ig #ask!!! #viarayy01-blog #via!!!

[tarnussy]

the blog turned 6 months old yesterday, and one thing hasn't changed in my head in this 6 months: I still think there is no point in it, like genuinely tumblr is not a place for a blog if you like G0dr!ck / are a creator for him

#not a place in general if you like anyone besides the popular characters but especially him #even some fellow g enjoyers would rather die than acknowledge that this blog exists regadless how many kinds of posts i do about him #that's kinda sad bc i was excited to connect with some creators who also like him #not to even mention the constant shit stirring behind the scenes which i hear is especially common for s0ul$ fandoms #but where else can you go if you like to create fandom content? bc IG is impossible now with this new filter update #so is twitter #i went on 2 bigger breaks recently but still i feel the same #i wish my fucking brain didn't hyperfixate on things so hard that the only outlet is wanting to share it with others #i also wish my friends cared enough that i could have just streamed ER to them just one fucking time. JUST FUCKING O N C E #i feel a lot of sadness and anger and the sillygoofy posts i make just make it worse #also the fact that people with terrible and harmful behavior are supported by so many others just baffles me #and if you don't want anything to do with that behavior you are the issue apparently #cw negative

[spite-and-waffles]

"But it's not like that in canon at all!" ok but have you considered I. Don't. Care

#it's necessary to have people who can check things against canon and to call out flanderized and one-dimensional fanon portrayals #but sometimes fanon interpretations are more fun for people and their quality entirely subjective #also it's COMICS. It's all fanfiction! Just licensed to a company who pay some mediocre white men to write it #people who haven't picked up a back issue about the character they're writing even if they're literally paid to do it #Sometimes this accidentally ends up making the story and character multi-faceted. Other times it's just a constant butchering #We all have the same right to do whatever we want with our characters #there's no 'right way' to portray anyone. There's just good storytelling and bad storytelling #canon matters when you're doing META #That's where fanon is annoying as all fuck because you need to show your work #And even then bad faith readings exist. Which is different from simply interpreting things differently #meta discourse is supposed to be fun too #Not a game of one-upping each other and behaving like this is a PhD program #where you don't get to have an opinion if you haven't read everything ever #that one popular fandom blog got in my teeth so much because she was not just checking fanon against canon #but imposing her interpretation on everyone like it was fact too #I really think too much canon just makes you lose perspective about yourself #We aren't all here for the same things and that's quite alright #Also those with white queer brainrot seem to think that stanning the correct blorbo is activism #anyway if your main aim in reading comics is to dunk on other people's headcanons I suggest you get a life #It's high-key hilarious if antis reblog this. Absolutely no sense of irony in that lot #DCU #DC comics #Batfamily #Bat meta #DC meta #canon #fanon #fandom discourse #spite waffle

[danzafila]

i guess my tags were just a long winded way to say

it really feels like some fans are upset the female options dared to be popular within the fandom and take that popularity as an attack on the male characters

#bc marketing isn't the issue. they don't actually receive more marketing. it's fandom response they (mb) receive more attention in #but popularity w/in fandom isn't mutually exclusive! it shouldn't be seen as a contest!! #others liking and producing content for a ch (or ship) you don't like isn't an attack on you/your fave ch (or ship) #characters or ships or whatever in fandom being more popular than your faves is just a fact you have to deal with sometimes #the FE fandom seems particularly bad about recognizing this and not attacking anyone who likes popular thing they don't tho #(& doing so in the most immature way possible--moralizing & trying to paint every ch/ship they dislike as problematiqué/Wrong/conservative) #(it's okay to just dislike a thing! you don't have to try and make others feel bad for liking the thing you don't jc!!) #ok hopefully i'm done bitching #sto parlando #feh blogging or smth ig #general fe blogging tag

[muzzlemouths]

you're a celebrity to me

🥺🥺🥺

WWWAAAAAAAGHH TY TY TY TY

#*poses cutely* teehee #tbh i've always wondered what y'all think my follower count is #i might talk big just to drive away the Crushing Self Esteem issues (fake it till you make it mentality babeyyy) #but I can guarantee you I am no celebrity #not that there's anything wrong with that. have you SEEN what popular blogs go through on the daily? LMAO

[butchghostbird]

it's a nightmare being on this dumbass website right now honestly

between bi lesbian discourse (are we not already over that cmonnnn) and then people choose to focus on stupid online discourse instead of the real world racism that needs to be talked about???

idk if you're a bi lesbian pleaaaase fucking block me because I will be blocking you, but while we're at it if you think bi lesbians are the biggest issue that's come out if this also block me because you're a dumbass and I will be absolutely blocking you

#like god it is exhausting as a lesbian who is masc to see people either say oh a bi lesbian is attracted to masculinity #which is already dumb #but then the more popular take a lesbian attracted to men?? #and then its oh no just romantically #no!! you are not a lesbian if you are genuinely attracted to a man #and you can just be a lesbian attracted to masculine lesbians being attracted to butches does not mean #youre attracted to men #its exhausting and as mad as i am what makes this worse is people will lose their shit at dykes talking about this #and go youre all mean nasty dykes who want to beat up uwu poor catgirl bi lesbian instead of focus on the real issue of the no flight list #but you go to their blog and all theyre posting about is how mean dykes are lol #MEANWHILE EVERY LESBIAN IVE SEEN TALK ABOUT IT IS TALKING ABOUT THE FLIGHT LISTS AND THE BLATANT LESBOPHOBIA #goddddd #just say youre a peice of shit and gooo #anyways I will be blocking people and o actively encourage people to block me because i dont want to see you assholes around anymore #may even uninstall the app for a few days because this website doesn't have the soul to care about an issue oonger than a few days #truthfully didnt realize how pissed i am #at this site as a whole til writing this

[slackerlich]

im beginning to think some of you are weird about real people

#when gerard way said that everybody is looking for a rockstar to kill #it's right but it speaks to a larger issue of people seeing celebrities as people they can project their literal headcanons on #i am begging you to look at your blogs and look at the way you talk about celebrities #who contrary to popular belief are actual people with lives you have no business speculating into #and think. am i being normal about this. am i treating this person as I'd treat the person i work with or the person i see on the bus #because hm. probably not #txt

[bumbleblurr]

oh no I'm out of b1urr posts to spam rb and torment my followers on main with

#well Actually maybe if i looked through some old blogs i could find stuff but i. dont want to #the psychic damage i get whenever i have to look through them and see shit tier b1urr content including #1) b1urr being characterized as ''feminine'' so that he fits in the role as the ''girl'' #(often done specifically for sh0ckb1urr but ive seen it for other ships too) #2) b1urr literally being abused and this is treated as cute or romantic #3) b1urr being extra flirtatious and/or mean as a way to overcompensate #for the popular depiction of sh0ckb1urr that caused the previous problem listed #4) general misunderstanding of his character (making him a social butterfly and stuff like that) #5) general objectifying of b1urr (this tiea heavily with the first issue #and i dont even want to unpack the Mess that is in terms of how feminity is presented as well as gay ppl in weird gay fandom shipping bs #bc this is NOT an exclusive problem to fanon b1urr content but he's unfortunately a great example of it) #and its like. Oh Boy is it Hard to find b1urr content that doesnt fall into any of those descriptions #its just. pounding my head against the wall #this is why i dont look through the tags as much these days 💔 #i just get met with disappointment bc this is #to my detriment #the standard depiction of b1urr in this fandom :////// #anyway this was just sparked by seeing b1urr buttcheeks for the thousandth time. it broke me #maybe this might inspire me to make blurr content again. spite and desperation #🐝 could you repeat the last part? 🟦

[getvalentined]

An open letter to @staff

I already submitted this to Support under "Feedback," but I'm sharing it here too as I don't expect it to get a response, and I feel like putting in out in public may be more effective than sending it off into the void.

The recent post on the Staff blog about changing tumblr to an algorithmic feed features a large amount of misinformation that I feel staff needs to address, openly and honestly, with information on where this data was sourced at the very least.

Claim 1: Algorithms help small creators.

This is false, as algorithms are designed to push content that gets engagement in order to get it more engagement, thereby assuring that the popular remain popular and the small remain small except in instances of extreme luck.

This can already be seen on the tumblr radar, which is a combination of staff picks (usually the same half-dozen fandoms or niche special interests like Lego photography) which already have a ton of engagement, or posts that are getting enough engagement to hit the radar organically. Tumblr has an algorithm that runs like every other socmed algorithm on the planet, and it will decimate the reach of small creators just like every other platform before it.

Claim 2: Only a small portion of users utilize the chronological feed.

You can find a poll by user @darkwood-sleddog here that at the time of writing this, sits at over 40 THOUSAND responses showing that over 96 percent of them use the chronological feed*. Claiming otherwise isn't just a misstatement, it's a lie. You are lying to your core userbase and expecting them to accept it as fact. It's not just unethical, it's insulting to people who have been supporting your platform for over a decade.

Claim 3: Tumblr is not easy to use.

This is also 100% false and you ABSOLUTELY know it. Tumblr is EXTREMELY easy to use, the issue is that the documentation, the explanations of features, and often even the stability of the service is subpar. All of this would be very easy for staff to fix, if they would invest in the creation of walkthroughs and clear explanations of how various site features work, as well as finally fixing the search function. Your inability to explain how your service works should not result in completely ignoring the needs and wants of your core long-term userbase. The fact that you're more willing to invest in the very systems that have made every other form of social media so horrifically toxic than in trying to make it easier for people to use the service AS IT WORKS NOW and fixing the parts that don't work as well speaks volumes toward what tumblr staff actually cares about.

You will not get a paycheck if your platform becomes defunct, and the thing that makes it special right now is that it is the ONLY large-scale socmed platform on THE ENTIRE INTERNET with a true chronological feed and no aggressive algorithmic content serving. The recent post from staff indicates that you are going to kill that, and are insisting that it's what we want. It is not. I'd hazard to guess that most of the dev team knows it isn't what we want, but I assume the money people don't care. The user base isn't relevant, just how much money they can bring in.

The CEO stated he wanted this to remain as sort of the last bastion of the Old Internet, and yet here we are, watching you declare you intend to burn it to the ground.

You can do so much better than this.

Response to the Update

Under the cut for readability, because everything said above still applies.

I already said this in a reblog on the post itself, but I'm adding it to this one for easy access: people read it that way because that's what you said.

Staff considers the main feed as it exists to be "outdated," to the point that you literally used that word to describe it, and the main goals expressed in this announcement is to figure out what makes "high-quality content" and serve that to users moving forward.

People read it that way because that is what you said.

*The final results of the poll, after 24 hours:

136,635 votes breaks down thusly:

An algorithm based feed where I get "the best of tumblr." @ 1.3% (roughly 1,776 votes)

Chronological feed that only features blogs I follow. @ 95.2% (roughly 130,077 votes)

This doesn't affect me personally. @ 3.5% (roughly 4,782 votes)

#tumblr dot com #tumblr staff

[shadowfoxsilver]

Some tips and tricks on how to spot scam accounts in general. This isn’t a detailed explanation as I have more info on my other blog but here is some general things to go by and what to look out for overall.

The pinned post is only a few days old or even a few hours old. The text may occasionally be multicolored for the link.

The ask they sent you seems catered to a specific issue or event and looks very odd if you read it throughly. Text might seem out of place or make no sense at all by a health standpoint.

They sent you an ask after following you and have no prior interactions and isn’t someone you’ve met before. This is usually prompted when interacting with a trending post or sharing a post related to certain topics.

The blog doesn’t have very many posts. It’s usually limited to a few posts from a trending tag, a popular topic, or catered to pass at a simple glance if you don’t scroll far enough down. Most posts are made the same time as the pinned and shared seconds apart.

Even if your bio says no aid asks, the account will send you one anyway because they don’t read or don’t care they just want your money and will keep spamming asks until you share the post or block them.

Sometimes the same ask is sent from multiple accounts all using the same story and setting as the account that sent it to you at a different time. Any errors in the text don’t get fixed and it’s usually a quick way it’s a scam.

The accounts usually base their blogs overall theme around whatever is going on at that moment more often then anything else.

Sometimes the ask is about sharing their pet aid post. Any images used may be stolen off somewhere else so it’s advised to ask them questions back and see what they can tell you and if it matches.

On occasion they’ll say to answer privately because they don’t want anyone else to see the ask.

In general, most strangers asking you for money in your inbox found you from searching tags and you need to check and ensure their being honest as scammers unfortunately exist. Not everyone asking for money is a scammer! Just do your research.

#mod talks #scam #how to spot a scam blog #long post is long

[treasure-mimic]

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