We asked how the studio culture changed at ZA/UM after the departure of most of the original writing team and the airing of the People Make Games documentary looking into the legal battle that ensued afterward. “It’s like transitioning from the Soviet Union to the fascist Russian Federation,” Tuulik said. “Wearing the dead cultural movement like a skin costume, roleplaying communism, lying for dollars and yen. PMG doc changed lots of things in the studio. Personal dynamics. None for the better.”
— Last Disco Elysium writer laid off by ZA/UM speaks out
besides their video about ZA/UM, i'm not familiar with People Make Games. they might do good reporting on other subjects, i wouldn't know.
PMG puts a lot of work into their productions and their stuff is generally pretty good but yeah, the ZA/UM one was such a wreck, ESPECIALLY their obnoxious "this ain't it" finger wagging at the end when the former lead writer imo correctly pointed out that holding him up as a toxic meany is such an obvious distraction from the criminal shuffling of millions of dollars happening.
I have feelings about the PMG guys too frequently centering themselves in a way that feels inappropriate to the subject matter, and it's more tolerable when they're reporting on cool Chinese games or whatever, but in a few instances, and the majority of the ZA/UM video, it's unprofessional and careless.
One day I'll write my essay about the one section of the PMG Valve corporate structure video titled "Does Steam have a greater responsibility to society?" wherein Chris cherrypicks an unpopular porn game, likens it to a game featuring racist caricatures of black people, and leverages this comparison to make a smirking oblique argument about Gabe opening the platform up to porn was Bad. Changed my relationship to their work pretty profoundly over the course of a 7-minute segment!
