Edit: made this post several months ago in the unity forum and made a backup here, figured i'd go ahead and publish it as it's still relevant

How are we still so bad at making video games? We are a community of some of the hardest working, smartest, neckbeard mama jamma's out there, and look how much we're floundering to keep this industry afloat. 

We're fakin' it till we make it, crabs in a bucket, and most every community has turned toxic drowning worthwhile conversation in hostile tribalism. 

We're gate kept by the lowest common denominator, slaves to our base natures. Our ambitions stunted, our Unity  gone.

Where did the magic go?

These are dark times, and no one wears their heart on their sleeve unless they're cutting someone down. There's this giant elephant in the room, it's on fire and we're standing around with their mouths sewn shut awaiting the walls caving in. From the publishers to the developers to the players we are distraught over these dog days of gaming.

I realize we all live our own truth, not everyone will agree with anything I'm saying. I invite others to speak their mind and present their own resources and opinions if they so choose. I hope we can converse in a somewhat civil manner over this topic. But this is a pressing matter, it's an important matter, and it's a subject worthy of weathering the storm over and even have heated discussions. 

There IS a problem. 

What is it? How do we solve it? 

It was recently revealed IBM and their subsidiary Red Hat have been aggressively persuing DEI hiring practices and it's having a negative effect on much of their workforce as people are being let go and hired based on the color of their skin. This has caused a great deal of stress among many of their workers. There are those who feel slighted for doing hard work and not being valued based on the quality of their work or the quality of their character. 

Workers are being reduced to a gender and an ethnicity while their terminations are being monetized. Ideological tribalism has poisoned studios to the point that it is now often more important to think a certain way, than it is to do your job. 

Hiring practices are only a  fraction of the overarching tribal war raging throughout this industry. The allies you make, the promotion opportunities you have, whether you get this or that break often revolves around ideological alliances, more than any time in the past.

What makes this especially relevant to us users of Unity, is Red Hat brags that former management were let go who were not willing to cut staff in order to fill racial quotas. 

If you'll remember, Unity's new CEO is formerly of IBM and Red Hat. One can only guess as to what side of the coin current leadership of Unity has and what the future holds, but they have spoken to a need to getting back to core features and focusing on creating working tools. But will this ideological war still rage? Will we still be wondering if the bulk of resources will go towards social engineering, or the  product we use? Will creators be judged based on their diversity? Will Unity discriminate in how they hire and which projects they promote based on tertiary factors outside of the control of employees and creators? 

I'd like to think I'm not trying to start some sort of flame war, or to push politics with this post, but I do realize that will be how it is perceived, heck maybe it is these things. We're all subject to our own biases and cognitive dissonances that shape how we perceive the world. How we view our own and others' intentions. We all have the inclination to view things through the lense of "Is this person on my team? Do I have to try to cut this person down?" these days.  

I want to make stress that I'm not advocating for any prejudice to replace the current dominant ideology. I'm advocating for an end to tribalism, for an end of these ideological purity tests so that ANYONE who wants to work hard and make cool games can do so.

This company culture that puts tribalism before product has pervaded most all of tech, all of this gaming industry, and most certainly Unity. You can see it in every venture they take. It's like there's this huge monetary machine that decided "teams will be this, here's the money to do it, and you'd better do it, because we say so" without any care for how to properly support complex technical products. 

I know this is a sensitive topic, and I don't want to lay the blame at the workers here, they worked hard in their fields and studied hard and got a good job. It's not their fault that their skillset does not fit a large gaming company or contribute to the technical worth of most of their products. It's like all these studios started playing house all of a sudden, started pretending to make good games, hired people who liked the idea of making games, not people who had learned the hard lessons to actually be able to do so.

If the silence on this subject says anything, it's that common sense says to not make these posts and rock the boat. This industry LOVES silence, it squelches any sort of public discourse, it is so hell bent on keeping everything out of the open. But I don't know what else to do, our industry is burning NO ONE IS DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT. The reason everything has gone to crap for so long is because no one talks about the darned problems! 

Making games for many of us is life or death, it is the future of everyone who depends on us, our loved ones, our children. Cat food isn't free darn it. This is bigger than all of us. But how do we fix anything when we can't even have a discussion without offending one another? How do we get back to making awesome games and celebrating one anothers unique contributions and work? 

Do we have any impact at all? Or control of our own destiny? Or are all the tools and practices we've slaved to master over the decades just cast to the wind because we couldn't be bothered to stand up and fight for what we know to be just and right?

Want to know the real reason this industry sucks? Because we don't do anything to make it better. WE suck.

Where did all the adults in the room go? Where did the company go that gave a damn about making a good product and cared if its users could make a living?  Who's going to save all the lost souls bound and gagged in this burning building?

There was a time we were grown enough to not care if you believed x, y, or z. Only if you made good games, had talent and could share the burden of making cool stuff. And that's DAMNED important, because the technical endeavors we take on ARE NOT EASY. And the moment you start allotting time and energy and start hiring people and building your company culture around things that aren't key to the main endeavor, things fall apart FAST. 

When did we start to believe you don't have to work hard to make the world a better place? That you can simply think a certain way, and cut other people down and you're making things better? It's so terribly sad knowing there are those who think this industry is better without you in it, people who don't even know you. We've dehumanized each other to points on a social scoreboard.

I kept second guessing making this post. Is this stupid? Probably, oh well. 

I hit refresh on this forum hoping for an inkling of good news, or at least to see what the heck is going on, I've wasted more time than I care to admit building a project in this engine that's ongoing and I have a tremendous interest in the future of this company. I know i'm not alone here and it's harrowing riding in this bus as it cruises towards the cliff.

Who's at the wheel? Where are we going? Are things going to get better? Are we going to get back to making cool sh*t? When is the U turn? 

It's just that same cold wasteland we've seen for years  on end tracking through the window. More uneasiness, a bigger and bigger elephant in the room, more decline, more uncertainty. Bracing for more bad news, more bickering, more financial uncertainty, more storefront uncertainty. What's  going to get worse next? Everything always gets worse...

I hope this post didn't offended anyone too much, I'm trying to tone things down, I'm trying to hold back a lot of anger and bitterness about how things have been allowed to crumble and waste away in silence and darkness while no one took on an responsibility or ownership. 

I don't know if anyone left at Unity gives a damn about this industry any longer, or if it's all about collecting a paycheck and not offending anyone at this point and just brow nosing and making excuses per usual.

What a sh*tty state Unity has fallen into, gamedev has fallen into. So much animus and gatekeeping, when did we get so childish? We're all standing around with knives at each others throats and it's no way to live. We're making video games FFS! There's supposed to be SOME level of levity here darn it! 

Gamedev is supposed to be a team effort, this endeavor DEMANDS a team effort. 

Does working hard have any value any more? Does talent have any value any more? Does giving a damn about the product have any home in this industry? Or is it just a target on your back? Do we just clap  like seals and sing kumbaya as the ship crashes into the iceberg? Feels like we're  more keen to insulate ourselves from harm than to save our own industry.

I know a great many of us are going through rough times in our own ways and I hope this post doesn't come off as reading like I want some people to suffer and others not to.  In a perfect world, we could all have a seat at the table and put our best foot forward and bolster this industry with our unique talents, instead of everything wasting away. Our energy put towards making cool things and not into cutting each other down.

I'm tired of sitting around watching everything burn. At the very least maybe others will see this awkward post and know they're not alone in this madness and that others see it and that there is a want to fix this rot for everyone.

Apologies for neckbearding out and getting high and mightily pretentious. I try to refrain from unloading too much mental flotsam in these parts, I hit refresh hoping to see some meaningful discussion about this insanity from other devs, Unity employees, SOMEONE, but there's nothing. Just this big void. Does anyone care about the driving force of gamedev? Is this not the place or time for this discussion? Where is it appropriate to have a talk or vent about these issues? 

Nothing makes any sense any more, figured i'd send some thoughts into the void.