Q&A: January 27th, 2020

Dominik Jaworski Asks
With things like permacrunch, bad working conditions and unstable employment, a lot of people have talked about game dev unionizing. Do you believe this will solve the problem or make things worse?

Unions aren't going to be a silver bullet that erases the industries problems like it's occasionally being advertised. There's definitely companies were such a structure would be suitable, mainly the heavy hitters like Ubisoft, EA, Activision, etc, where they've had too much power with far too many people for too long.

However, the problem with game development at smaller companies is they have to go all hands on deck one game at a time, with maybe a splinter group prototyping rough concepts for the future, and it's here where it's much more difficult to keep a steady stream of workers (lets use programmers for example) in active projects at all times.

Brandon Asks
Thoughts on the genre known as "JRPG" and are you a closet weeb? 

I'd say I'm not a weeb, but that's a weeb thing to say, so I'll just let you judge my love of Black Lagoon and Ghost in the Shell. As for JRPGs, I'm not a fan of turn-based games so I've always had a hesitation to play them, but even FF7R caught my attention, so perhaps that'll change in the coming years, we'll have to wait and see.

NephyrisX Asks
Speaking of JRPGs, what are your thoughts on gacha JRPGs and their offshoots (Arknights, Granblue Fantasy, Fate/Grand Order, etc) and the dedicated communities that surround them?

Honestly, I know absolutely nothing of "Gacha" games, so that's a bridge I'll cross later.

Patchhes Asks
Would you like to see NFS games return to the MW/Carbon days of cheesy acting and street racing, or like earlier NFS of supercar showcases in exotic locales?

I enjoy both styles, but in-terms of NFS, I thought Heat was actually pretty damn satisfying, so a continuation of that game's strengths with perhaps an actual end-game (something new for Need for Speed) would be great.

Kyle Dieleman Asks
I know you're a big fan of racing games. Recently I picked up this game I used to play a lot as a kid. Have you heard or played this game called Re-Volt? And thoughts on it?

I haven't actually. Back in 1999, my entire world was Gran Turismo 2, little else existed. Jet Moto was about as far as I got away from Polyphony Digital, so other types of racing games didn't show up until I got a PS2.

Sponge Dungeon Asks
Do you think 'Beef Creep' is a better wrestling name, or a porn star name?

Ah, my real field of expertise. I'm leaning to Wrestling, but perhaps I'm just not up to date on the latest kinks.

Submit your questions in the comments below, for future Patreon Q&A's.