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Laura Fryer - Deleted Dev Post Reveals Huge Highguard Red Flags

Is it my impression, or she from time to time uses the 'As former Xbox executive producer on Gears of War' title as a validator? Like , 'that's why my opinion matters more than others...' ?
It's a mixture of appeal to authority fallacy and marketing. Helps to highlight she's really experienced and reached top positions before DEI was a thing, so knows what she's talking about. So yes, her opinion is more valid that the one from a random forum user who doesn't know anything about game development.

Which doesn't implies she is right, but in this case she is right: echo chambers and toxic positivity are really bad for game development. Which is a common thing with DEI and wokism, criticism against certain people/designs or topics is forbidden and avoided, and some people is afraid to mention it because would get fired for doing so.
 
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She has the experience. She was there and did those things. This gives her a perspective that laypeople who didn't have that experience won't have. This is relevant context to anyone watching her videos. I'd argue that whatever she's currently doing, or not doing, does nothing to change that.
 
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Let's be real - it's somewhat necessary for her to do that because this is a male space of Man children that would throw her opinion down the tube with comments like "gomake me a sandwich. "
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I'm responding to the person I quoted or are you having difficulty reading?

Biggest misuse of that GIF ever but go off king.
You literally just made up a scenario in your head of someone using the super popular 2005 phrase, "shut up and make me a sandwich", no actually, what the fuck are you talking about.
 
So it really was the Concord development situation like most of us thought. A toxic echo chamber where a bunch of devs stood around smelling the giant shit they left on the floor, agreeing it actually smells pretty good because their shit couldn't possibly stink, and even brought their moms in to tell them how special they are for shitting like that.
 
Some of you in here might as well save us the trouble of speculating and just post your Bluesky account name.

5 people in the whole of the internet, "Oh my god, women need to get out of games and just go back to the kitchen"

people like ReyBrujo ReyBrujo ,"oH mY gOd! wHy Are GaMeRs So MySoGyNiStIc!"
 
It's almost like western AAA devs feel entitled to success, praise, and devotion from the consumers no matter what they say or what they put out. Why? Cause they worked real hard and did their bestest.

And their only recourse to being rejected in the market is to blame the consumer and call it toxicity. It's a childish mentality.

Many, many, many things failed that were made by people better than you and me. Accept it, dust yourself off, and move on. Learn from failute to set yourself up for a better chance at success next time.

I believe it is generational; the practices of participation trophies and show-up awards is now paying dividends in the adulthood of that generation of kids who are now grown up. They were showered in false and excessive positivity and this is the result. The world checks them on their bullshit but they don't understand because they are SPECIAL and UNIQUE and EVERYTHING THEY SAY AND DO MATTERS! That insular environment failed to train and prepare them for the realities of reality, and now here we are. Just like enshittification is famously the term for what modern corpos have done to industry and consuming, I now use pussification of generations for exactly this type of thing. Bring back grit and resolve and toughness.
 
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The fact that you are acting like her protector is VERY telling about the necessity to be a white knight wanna be 🙃

How does asking you what triggered you result in me being a "white knight wanna be"? Calling out unnecessary negativity isn't white knighting.

And i AGREE with her, echo chamber is the worst aspect of any corporate environment, a corporate becomes BLIND of any criticism.

But you dont need to shove your credentials (or in this case, former credentials) every now and them to make your (her) opinion have more value :) It makes it (the opinion) fells less valuable and created a group of users, like wecan see here that belives her opinion must not be questioned... in other words...like almost an... echo chamber :-D

How is saying, "I have this experience, which makes me feel like I'm qualified to provide my input on this topic," a bad thing? If a random person comes across her video they could think, "Why should I care what she has to say?" Her pointing out her achievements in this space answers that question.

If I come across a video where someone is tearing down a product/service/whatever, and I don't know who this person is, I'm going to take it with a grain of salt. But if in that same video the person says, "I worked for two decades at X in this same industry," then I'm more likely to give some credence to what they have to say on the topic.

It would be a different thing entirely if the video was about climate change and she's throwing in her Gears of War credentials. That doesn't make sense. But it absolutely makes sense to bring up credentials in a related field/subject, especially since there is a not-insubstantial number of people who won't listen if they don't think someone is "qualified" to speak on a subject.
 
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How does asking you what triggered you result in me being a "white knight wanna be"? Calling out unnecessary negativity isn't white knighting.



How is saying, "I have this experience, which makes me feel like I'm qualified to provide my input on this topic," a bad thing? If a random person comes across her video they could think, "Why should I care what she has to say?" Her pointing out her achievements in this space answers that question.

If I come across a video where someone is tearing down a product/service/whatever, and I don't know who this person is, I'm going to take it with a grain of salt. But if in that same video the person says, "I worked for two decades at X in this same industry," then I'm more likely to give some credence to what they have to say on the topic.

It would be a different thing entirely if the video was about climate change and she's throwing in her Gears of War credentials. That doesn't make sense. But it absolutely makes sense to bring up credentials in a related field/subject, especially since there is a not-insubstantial number of people who won't listen if they don't think someone is "qualified" to speak on a subject.
It is very telling that you circling around and ignoring the core of my critic (the repetition of 'i had these credentials so my opinion is more valid') :-D
 
That due to less women in STEM because they'd rather pursue useless degrees in Liberal Arts and the like.

We have Cannon and Perry to thank that for.

Some of you in here might as well save us the trouble of speculating and just post your Bluesky account name.

5 people in the whole of the internet, "Oh my god, women need to get out of games and just go back to the kitchen"

people like ReyBrujo ReyBrujo ,"oH mY gOd! wHy Are GaMeRs So MySoGyNiStIc!"

No, I don't have one, that's a lame social network for pussies.
 
The problem is basically the influencer/activist segment of the internet has decreed that this sort of game just fucking sucks.

Its like the end of Disco!

It has been decided its just "not cool", and the presentation needs to be switched up. Or else!

No need to think of it as being any deeper than that.
 
We have Cannon and Perry to thank that for.



No, I don't have one, that's a lame social network for pussies.
Then why are you parroting out all their talking points and making broad statement about an entire group of people with no proof except by cherry picking statements made by a handful bad actors on the internet.......something that they do all the time.
 
You literally just made up a scenario in your head of someone using the super popular 2005 phrase, "shut up and make me a sandwich", no actually, what the fuck are you talking about.
Since reading and basic knowledge eludes you:
-Men on internet mean towards women
-Person posts she keeps posting her credentials and find it odd
-I state she's doing it to preemptively shut down the usual trolls who would discredit her for simply being female

Let's not pretend like this isn't a likely scenario.
 
Since reading and basic knowledge eludes you:
-Men on internet mean towards women
-Person posts she keeps posting her credentials and find it odd
-I state she's doing it to preemptively shut down the usual trolls who would discredit her for simply being female

Let's not pretend like this isn't a likely scenario.
I understand reading and basic knowledge just fine, I'm just not a retard like you that pulls "facts" out of their ass and applies it to a whole group of people, she posts her credentials to prove she has the experience to know what she's talking about, you've just made it up in your idiot brain it has anything to do with "muh internet misogyny". I'm done talking to you, you have nothing to bring to the table but whining about internet offenses you can't prove beyond, "trust me bro it's happening somewhere!".
 
I understand reading and basic knowledge just fine, I'm just not a retard like you that pulls "facts" out of their ass and applies it to a whole group of people, she posts her credentials to prove she has the experience to know what she's talking about, you've just made it up in your idiot brain it has anything to do with "muh internet misogyny". I'm done talking to you, you have nothing to bring to the table but whining about internet offenses you can't prove beyond, "trust me bro it's happening somewhere!".
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Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Anything that supports this one, which contradicts the overrepresentation of female staff in studios?
None. The local male feminist here is trying his damnedest to protect the poor oppressed "whamen from the meanie gamers on Neogaf" schtick. Ignoring the fact that Fryer is probably just enjoying retirement at this point after an illustrious and respectable career. He wouldn't be doing this pathetic defense mode if we were all collectively shitting on David Jaffe or Asmongold, or any other male figure.

Anyways, yeah, females are grossly over represented in gaming at this point. Anita Sarkeesian completed her mission. Get a bunch of incompetent and ideologically bent feminists to join the industry and make it worse than it was. Horizon, 1348: Ex Voto, The Last of Us 2 (Neil literally cited her a source of inspiration), Ghost of Yotei, and all these other cringy "GRL PWR" games are a result of the cultural shift to kiss women's asses just for existing, even if they suck at their jobs and have no interest in gaming.
 
I don't think Laura Fryer has posted anything that wasn't rational. I like her videos, not because I always agree with her, but because I find her insightful. RIP Highguard.
 
It is very telling that you circling around and ignoring the core of my critic (the repetition of 'i had these credentials so my opinion is more valid') :-D

It seems like people are interpreting her listing her credentials in different ways. I don't see it the way you do. She doesn't come across as egotistical and simply provides context for her opinions on varying topics. As well, we know her history in gaming but there may be first time viewers that don't.
 
I'm often finding interesting comments on her videos:

I've shipped about 20 titles. Many were huge hits. After so long working on each individual game I practically hated each one and only saw the flaws. There are some I feel proud of, and some the gaming community loved where I think they were crazy, and some where I think the game was a lot better than it got credit for. But, all of this happens WAY later.

That's the job. This is the work you have left to do. The features that aren't in yet. The content that is still broken, either severely, or works but not like you want it to.

I can't imagine completing a game and feeling like it was a slam dunk.

I also think back to the Baldur's Gate 3 devs (not one of my projects) who spoke openly hoping their game would get 6/10 ratings … and it was game of the year and basically universally adored.

Genuinely, I can't imagine working on a game and feeling like it was perfect. Every meeting you have is about how to fix it, what thing is newly broken, or what may need to be cut to save time to focus on other content because launch is approaching and time is short.

The insight into the process for normal devs vs. the ones infected by toxic positivity is very eye-opening.
 
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Positivity is good, but taken to extreme creates eco chambers and in eco chambers, hard truths don't land. Letting small issues grow into big issues, before anyone notices.

Surreal how this game was hated since day 1 for no reason, the devs were constantly attacked on social media and its release suffered reviewbombing yet apparently it's the company's fault for commiting the crime of making the game.

In the future aliens will study this.
 
The insight into the process for normal devs vs. the one infected by toxic positivity is very eye-opening.
This is pretty accurate to my experience in the industry. Sometimes you can tell, and sometimes you can't. It's worth noting that a lot of games feel bad in some way for like 90% of their dev time, and the special sauce ends up only happening at the very end. This makes it hard to tell what's what during development.

It's also worth noting that often, different people on the team, or even different entities like the developer vs. the publisher, have their own ideas of what matters. I've been on several projects where the team actually making the game wanted things one way, and the publisher wanted them another, and overrode what the team wanted. That always sucks.
 
Let's be real - it's somewhat necessary for her to do that because this is a male space of Man children that would throw her opinion down the tube with comments like "gomake me a sandwich. "
well, in that case she should accept reality and make her statements WHILE making sandwiches. Quite frankly, the novelty would probably triple her reach.
 
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