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.
pmg's videos have pissed me off more times than I can count and even before the za/um shitshow, their roblox one really fuckin' rubbed me the wrong way. like people called the disco elysium one liberal propaganda but hooooooooooo fuckin' boy their roblox one was just as bad for a bunch of reasons. like that entire video talks about "yeah so roblox is a game that targets children and it doesn't even pay them" and treats that as more important than the fundamental question they never ask, which is "should children even be allowed to engage with this sort of system at all?"
like a huge part of the thesis of their video was the underpaying part! it was treated as more important than literally the fact that the game only exists at fucking all because of child labour
I swear to god I thought I was losing my mind when I watched people praise that video
