It's never fun to have to write about things like this but it needs to be highlighted. Lab Zero Games, developer on titles like Skullgirls and Indivisible seem to be a sinking ship.
A bunch of their developers have now quit together, from what I've seen this appears to be more than half their staff. Why? The theme here appears to be Lab Zero Games owner, Mike Zaimont, who appears to create an unsafe working environment and does not treat staff fairly.
The issue runs deep it appears, as Zaimont was previously accused (Kotaku) of various inappropriate comments, these included gross sexual messages to people and racist jokes (for which he did apologise). This led to an apparent agreement that Zaimont would leave but it appears Zaimont is sticking around and generally making things terrible for staff so it's led to this. Back in July, the official Lab Zero account on Twitter even mentioned they were aware of "allegations" made about Zaimont, with a full statement mentioned to come soon—which didn't happen.
People that have left include Jonathan Kim the now former senior animator, who mentioned the ongoing problems including bullying from Zaimont. Additionally Mariel Kinuko Cartwright, the now former Creative Director on Indivisible and Lead Animator on Skullgirls has also left with a statement to back it up and the list of people continues on and on. More has come out of this, with Brandon Sheffield who was the lead writer on Indivisible for Lab Zero, posting on Twitter that they cut ties with them "almost two months ago" as a result of Zaimont's behaviour.
The Linux and macOS versions of their games may also have issues going forwards now (if any of them are updated again after this, that is), as the volunteer developer responsible for maintaining these versions of Skillgirls and Indivisible, Renaud 'cybik' Lepage has also disengaged from Lab Zero.
On top of that a statement was released from Hidden Variable and Autumn Games, mentioning that they will be cutting ties with Lab Zero Games and Mike Zaimont. Autumn Games are actually the IP holders for Skullgirls, so hopefully a fresh development team can be sorted to continue the PC version. In their statement they did mention they hoped to work with the staff leaving.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I think it has something to do with civilization and thinking in terms of the rule of law that you don't simply condemn people and publicly pillory them without having at least heard the arguments of both sides.
To carry on the accusations of people "because it will be true" without even hearing the accused I feel very uncivilized.
I will certainly not agree with either side here, but I find it deeply questionable that this is apparently done by a majority.
The mere spreading of accusations that cannot be verified by oneself is a cause for concern to me, if this happens in a way that gives the impression that it is the truth.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Quoting: einherjarIt gives the impression that the pillory is coming back in the form of social media.Fortunately some his bad behavior is publicly documented because he tweeted his bullshit. Additionally an entire group of his workers quit their jobs at his company, not on hearsay, but in direct response to his continued unrepentent toxic behavior. And pilloried? He's not locked anywhere for all to see or take physical abuse from. There is no fines or governmental punishment involved which is what pillory was. He's paraded himself naked around town so to speak, in keeping with your metaphor.
I think it has something to do with civilization and thinking in terms of the rule of law that you don't simply condemn people and publicly pillory them without having at least heard the arguments of both sides.
To carry on the accusations of people "because it will be true" without even hearing the accused I feel very uncivilized.
I will certainly not agree with either side here, but I find it deeply questionable that this is apparently done by a majority.
The mere spreading of accusations that cannot be verified by oneself is a cause for concern to me, if this happens in a way that gives the impression that it is the truth.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Last edited by randyl on 27 August 2020 at 9:07 am UTC
Quoting: einherjarIt gives the impression that the pillory is coming back in the form of social media.In this particular case, I'm sure if the guy had made an argument Liam would have linked to it. He has the same public platforms available to him, and as a business owner probably other platforms that the departed employees don't. If he's said nothing, we can't do much about that. We've heard all the arguments currently available. If he says something, if he has friends who also say something, I'll do my best to re-evaluate, although I have some doubts his claims will be very credible.
I think it has something to do with civilization and thinking in terms of the rule of law that you don't simply condemn people and publicly pillory them without having at least heard the arguments of both sides.
I would also like to emphasize once again that the whole "rule of law" argument is silly. The rule of law is about government, about things like making sure individuals governing us do not have arbitrary power to punish us, cannot themselves go unpunished if they break the rules or ensure lack of punishment for their cronies. Incidentally, we have very real, serious problems with the actual rule of law not just in the US (where there is frankly little left) but in Canada and most of the Anglosphere. Now, cyberbullying is a bad thing, but it is not a thing that relates to the rule of law, and putting it in that frame is a blunt and misapplied instrument. Nobody involved here has massive power analogous to that of the state, nobody is putting anybody in jail.
And publicly calling people out for bad conduct is not even basically a bad thing. It is society working out what counts as acceptable social behaviour. It can become bad if the allegations are false or distorted, sure, but that's something that has to be judged case by case. And it can't be judged case by case if, for instance, any and all complaints with components of racism, sexism etc. are defined as automatically frivolous by putting them in the very politicized category of "cancel culture".
So in this particular case, if we use the more neutral term "cyberbullying", I don't think it would have occurred to anyone that a group of people who all quit their jobs and say it's because of years of abusive behaviour by their boss constituted a case of such. But as soon people are using the ideological lens of "cancel culture", they think "made a racist joke" --> "complaint involves racism" --> must be "cancel culture" --> complaint must be spurious --> abusive boss is actually being victimized by some hypothetical swarm of SJWs. It makes the actual case invisible.
(Don't get me wrong, I am not against the concept of ideology. I'm against its misapplication.)
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 27 August 2020 at 5:13 pm UTC
Quoting: GuestEach state has it's own laws about this. In Oregon it's we're called a "Right to Work" state. It has advantages and disadvantages for workers. In a very hostile unregulated capitalist society "right to work" can be both a blessing and a curse. My boss can fire me today for no reason, but I can also quit with no warning and no requirement to give notice.Quoting: Purple Library Guy...My friend, you really really need to organize something really big to change that situation. Bosses firing people with no reason is unacceptable.
You can't start anything without basic rights. Sorry for being ignorant about that, but USA seems like hell to me right now.
In some state there are NDA and non-compete "contracts" or rules that don't allow workers to just quit without notice. From my perspective these rules may sound good but are generally more worker hostile and company sympathetic. For example, in that state I may not be able to quit without notice even if a better job offer comes along. I may also not be allowed to work in my same industry doing my job for 6 months to a couple years due to "non-compete". This is what Bethesda tried to pull with Carmack and his Oculus technology. In some states companies own what you create even on your own time. If you leave the job early or break contract with them then you may be sued for compensation. There are other draconian laws that limit what fields people can work in without approved certifications and training, even if someone has been trained or certified in another state. All of these rules are designed to serve businesses over workers.
I'm not a lawyer and am just providing a generalized summary from my experience. Since there are 50 states that means there are 50 different sets of rules for everyone so I could be missing a lot and there is some nuance to it all.
In short, US employment rules are heavily pro-capitalist and corporate business over workers.
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